Tax, never a dull moment where that's concerned right? Actually something has caught many UK tax-payers attention in recent time, and quite rightly so - the abolishment of the 10p tax rate.

It's far too complicated to go into, but the deal is that when you earn up to X amount in the UK, some of your pay will be taxed such that 10% goes to the Government rather than for your personal pleasure. Above that value to a point, any surplus money gets 22% taken by the exchequer. For no earthly reason Gordon Brown et al. have decided it's a good idea to reduce the 22% to 20%...and pay for it by eliminating the 10% rate. This might all sound like inane complicated numbers, but really this is a properly unfair move that even an idiot can see hurts the poorest in society.

A certain Mr Brown, less than a decade ago, was actually a chief proponent of the introduction of the 10% rate would you believe? To quote:

The new 10p rate - the lowest starting rate of tax in Britain for more than 35 years - will make work pay and help people, especially those who are low-paid, to keep more of the money that they earn...When we make promises, we keep them.

Well let's be charitable, erm, yes, for a while maybe you keep a percentage of your promises, temporarily. To be fair to his great intellect, Brown's analysis that the 10p rate helps people who are low paid was quite right. But now, for some reason, we don't care about poor minimum-wage slaves, as long as people with an already decent wage can save a few extra pounds. See for yourself, shove your salary and other details into this tax calculator to compare what you will be taxed this financial year with the last . Note how if you're already a bit struggling, or even desperate, it's probably getting worse. If you're already a well paid rich-kid, well, you're even more rich. Thank you so much New Labour, always on the side of the disadvantaged worker.

PS: Perfect timing to wound the worst-off, what with the credit crunch, food price rises and the like as well.