Mimi Harker

How Dare Darling Tax Car Owners Retrospectively?!!!!

Its outrageous! It is really outrageous! This totally demonstrates the desperation to grab as much cash as possible from wherever it can be sucked out from. It is disgraceful that the poor old motorist is being penalised yet again for the Governments mismanagement of the public purse.

I must confess to a vested interest here as I drive a Toyota Colorado, When I bought this car several years ago, not that I have to justify myself, it was used to ferry loads of kids around and also as a back up vehicle for the company when they needed the space for transporting anything to our customers. I feel safe in it. It is a great car and I absolutely love it but Labour is making it virtually impossible for me and people like me to keep our beloved cars.

Yesterday it cost me £78 to fill her up and that used to cost £56 only a few short months ago. The retrospective tax means that I am hit yet again - why? Surely it makes sense to tax new car buyers, having given them the full knowledge that they are liable for paying towards their production of carbon emissions by buying a car with a big engine. Thats another story!

So the poor old mum who has bought an mpv, which she drives about 3000 miles per annum will be penalised for ferrying her children around and the salesman, who drives 50,000 miles with his job will be charged the same if he has a car with a similar size engine. is this fair? Is it sensible? Mind you, we are talking Labour - nothing makes sense with them.

Their policy of put your hand in the hat and pull out a ticket and see what policy we are implementing today is highly dangerous and has had the most appalling effect on the country - not just our economy but also our morale.

Now going back to carbon emissions, encouraging us to downsize vehicles is all very well in theory but what if you cannot afford to do it? I will take my car as an example yet again. If I were to sell this, I would not get more than £5k for it. Now what on this planet could that buy me that would also ferry the children around, take the luggage for us when we go on holiday, store my shopping from the supermarket, all my campaigning material, and carry the family when we are out and about? Nothing. Nothing sensible and suitable. And if this Government feels it has a right to tell me that I should be cramming my lot into a tiny little Ka or equivalent, well then how dare they? What has happened to choice in this country? What has happened to freedom of speech? What has happened to choice of lifestyle? What has happened to freedom full stop?!!!!!

This Government has eroded away all of those things and first blamed everything that went wrong on the last Conservative Government, and now of course, 11 years on when that just doesnt wash any more, they are blaming the rest of the World. It is all down to the Global economy that they failed to tax prudently, spend wisely and act responsibly. Bring on the next election! Mind you, what appalling accounts will we inherit?

Latest Closures for Post Office Limited

With the latest closures being announced over the next few weeks, apart from all the usual campaigning that people are going to do, you need to bear in mind that all the facts and figures have been taken from the 2001 Census and will be pretty out of date with the amount of building etc that this Government has forced us to put through.  Please make sure that you use up to date information as part of your case.  You can get this information from your local council.  Good Luck!

Last Words for a While…

I have been very fortunate to be shortlisted for interview for three fantastic seats and I am over the moon about this!  I have decided that I won’t write until the process is over because I need to keep all my thoughts for the selection process.  I hope you will understand and I look forward to writing again with aplomb when this is all over and to feed you those little tidbits I know you love!   We’ll be talking again soon!  best wishes and thank you for your support.  Mimi

Favourite Places to Eat and Not So Favourites to Eat & Drink!

Last week, some girlfriends and I decided to go out for the evening to the local pub the Boot and Slipper. It has been a nice venue before now, it’s in my ward and we could have all walked home from there. It was a gorgeous, sunny evening, warm with a light breeze and we ordered sparkling rose at £16 per bottle! There is a reason for mentioning this which will become apparent.

The Boot, as it is known locally, has just been taken over by new management and usually that means an improved service. However, when we ordered a second bottle of this sparkling delight to quench our thirst on this delightful evening, it arrived, was opened and was warm. We complained. The new manager went away came back with some more bottles that actually had condensation on them, asked us to feel ans said did we think those were cold. We said yes and his reponse to that was well you’ve just had absolutely the same thing. Hmmm….

I was not too happy with that and neither were my friends not at £16 per bottle anyway. It was quite obvious that the new manager didn’t give a damn about customer service about how to talk to people and about whether we ever came back there again - which we won’t - at least not until there is new management in place that’s for sure.

Gordon Brown on Cluster Bombs

Watching our Gordon on tonight’s news bulletins, talking on the subject of cluster bombs,  I was struck by the sad fact that this was a man who was trying desperately hard to look important on the World stage.  It was embarassing.  It was really embarassing.

CONGRATULATIONS EDWARD & MRS TIMPSON

What a superb, super astounding, super fantastic result!  Congratulations Edwards and also to Julia - what a marker in history!  Enjoy, and just the very very best of wishes to you and congratulations again!

Potty About Blair!

Tonight, on Coronation Street, blinking madly into the face of her newly found dad, to show him she really accepted his homosexuality, Gail Potter (Tilsley, Platt, whatever)  told the World: “I’m a Blairite - I voted for Tony Blair” Blink, blink, blink……

Oh dear!!!! (in the voice of donkey, please!)

The Sky is the Limit!

The sky is certainly the limit - the limit of my patience! Is anybody else going through what we are going through with the satellite provider Sky?

We were experiencing a pixellation of all our services about 6 months ago and we spoke to Sky and upgraded to Sky plus. A few days into this service, we could not view any programmes via the new box - the message just kept sayng that we had a problem and needed to contact our service provider which we did. They talked us through a ‘fix’ this time and then the next time and the next time and the next time the problems occured. Finally they sent out an engineer who said the box was broken and that is why it didnt work. The box was changed and all my programmes saved on Sky Plus went with it including my first show on QVC presenting just before Christmas.

When the new box was installed the engineer told us that it was another second hand box. What did he mean by that? Apparently, unless you pay the whole whack at £199 or whatever it is, you get a re-conditioned box. We weren’t told that. However, as exisiting customers for the last at least 10 years if not longer, should we pay that anyway? Not fair methinks! So you just get a reconditioned box and guess what? Less than five months into the new replacement re-conditioned box, we have had no less than three engineers visit us and are waiting for yet another one - and to get somebody to come along and look at the box and sort out the problem was like getting blood out of a stone!

I think it is a real shame that you simply cannot get service any more for anything. you pay through the nose for everything and then the back up, if there is a problem, is virtually non existant! I wish there was a decent alternative to Sky. They do not deserve the custom or the payment for their appalling service. Buck up your ideas Sky TV and lets see some real service for the huge premium we pay for the priviledge of having one of your useless boxes in the house!

MAYOR BORIS - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!

Boris, congratulations on your antastic success last week - we all toasted your victory in this house with lots and lots of bubbles!  So very proud of you and anythign we can do to help, just let us know - best wishes from the whole Harker family.

My son is an avid fan of yours because you wrote back to him when he responded to a newspaer article you wrote.  He was thrilled that you bothered to write to him with a response!  He’s only 12 now but will be voting for you in 6 years time!!!!!

Labour Lost - and they are wondering why?

Gordon Brown has enjoyed the most stable economic foundation that any Government could have inherited and instead of building on that success he spent the money like a skiier coming down a black run. Well he has reached the bottom. We have no reserves left, we have no gold left, we have no silver left - he has sold all the family jewels. The country is in the worst state of debt that we have seen for many many decades.

Taxes are out of control, petrol prices are disgracefully high considering we have no choice but to use cars - Labour did not improve the public transport system as they promised. Food prices are spiralling out of control and every family is feeling the pinch and proof of that? People are not embarassed to say, ‘we cannot afford that any more’. It is just a fact of life that belts will have to tighten and in the worst case scenarios, some people may lose their homes. This is what Labour has done for Britain.

They still blame the Conservatives for everything they do wrong and this will be no different. But people who initially could not see through the spin, because frankly, it was unbelievable that anybody could mislead about such important issues, and we always want to give people the benefit of the doubt, well, the fog has cleared and that horrible truth, that we have been lied to and spun to and been misled big time, has hit home and we are no longer tolerating it. We have made all the allowances that we are going to make. It is over!

We have the highest debt rates in Europe, the highest number of sickness benefit claimants in Europe, and the highest number of teenage pregnancies. Frankly, Britain is looking run-down.

What about those people who are affected by Labour taxation and Labour promises and lies? What about the uncontrollable degeneration of their lives? Of our lives? John Denham said that the Labour party had given the people of Britain a better standard of living and a better quality of life since they have come into power. That is what they would like to believe because that is indeed the case for all of those elected into Westminster - how could they not have an improved quality of life with all that they are offered - of course their lives as elected Members are better. I suppose it is like the Emperors new clothes - if they believe hard enough that they have given the people of Britain a better life, it must be true! Reality has come home to roost. I, for one, am glad we have woken up finally and that David Cameron has given the people of Britain a future of hope and something tangible to look forward to, although the mess he will have to unravel when he gets into no.10 is going to be horrendous. We will only find out the true state of the degeneration of this country’s stability and economy when we finally get the keys and go in and see the damage ourselves. But that is for another day! Today we celebrate the brighter future for Britain and all who sail in her!

Congratulations again to all the success stories across the entire country!