Abundance Manchester

"Abundance Manchester is a project which picks surplus or unwanted fruit from gardens and public trees around South Manchester and distributes it to local groups and communities. We also collect and distribute surplus vegetables from allotments and we have started our own Abundance allotment to grow our own food to donate to groups who can make good use of it."

I saw this group featured on the local news last night. This is the sort of local, voluntary initiative that libertarians tend to be quite keen on promoting. It seems that the generally good weather this year has led to a bumper crop of fruit and veg, so it seems a good idea to help to distribute some of the surplus to those who can make use of it. And it's the kind of thing that has to be done by private citizens independently of the state - if someone had gone to Manchester City Council with a proposal for scheme like this, I'm pretty sure they would have spent weeks - or even months - debating what to do, while the fruit and veg rotted. Instead, these guys have used their initiative to set up a potentially useful service. Their politics seem to be coming from a "green" angle, but they are giving food to outfits like the Salvation Army, so who cares? Good luck to them. If you want to know more about them, click on this link to visit their blog. There also seem to be "Abundance" groups set up in a few other cities round the country, maybe it's an idea that will catch on.

Yet Another Local Tax

Yesterday I got home to find a letter from Lancaster City Council. It was informing me that I had to pay £45 for 'Second Hand Goods Registration', the tax in the title.

The reason the council are trying to rob me of even more cash is that I have a stall at Morecambe Antiques and Collectables. This is an indoor market where you pay rent, leave your goods on your stall and there is one payment desk where people pay for the goods. It's a great concept enabling people to develop a little sideline or even develop it as part of a bigger venture, but the key is you don't need to be there to sell your stuff. My stall has secondhand books on it and in six months plus, has barely broken even. Things are just picking up a little but it has been more a hobby than anything.

Lancaster City Council recently sent a member of their licensing stasi to snoop there, hence the letter demanding money with menace that I have recived. The menace being that if I don't cough up they will prosecute me. It seems that the Licensing Regulatory Committee agreed this form of theft on 25 March 2004.

As a consequence I have decided there is no point continuing my little venture. OK £45 wouldn't break the bank, but when I'm making no money from it anyway it is a point of principle.

Fair enough it's hardly on the scale of Woolworth's closing down. But it is my very own, very small experience of how the bureaucrats screw up business. And the few people who wanted to pay £1 for one of my quality secondhand books will now be deprived of that opportunity. I shall be taking my stock to a local charity shop.

I've been told that in Lancashire anybody who does two or more car boot sales in a week also has to pay this legalised theft.The licensing stasi tour the car boot sales clocking car registrations. And I thought traffic wardens/police were scum.

Northern Rock used to boost lending.

Predictable eh?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4273891/Government-will-use-Northern-Rock-to-boost-lending.html

If the government has "recapitalised" private banks to the hilt and those banks insist on acting like businesses rather than charities (imagine that!) then it was only a matter of time before the now publically-owned Northern Rock was used in a desperate attempt to re-inflate the credit bubble.

Laugh or cry? Its your call.