Vitamin B Complex for Coeliacs
I mentioned in this post some research, which investigated the “effect of B vitamin supplementation on plasma homocysteine levels in celiac disease”. These were stated that they might lead to strokes.
I have since contacted the lead researcher, Muhammed Hadithi, and he said the following :-
Your option to take vitamin B complex supplement is in my opinion very justified and wise.
Our findings were also confirmed but probably not published by group of Joseph Murray in Mayo clinic. Coeliac is risk for hyperhomocysteinemia and secondary blood vessel disease that can be well compensated by taking vitamin B complex. These vitamins can not do us any harm anyway and the benefits outweigh their costs.
If this simple pill might have a positive and as there is unlikely to be harm, I have now started taking them.
A Tax on Coeliacs
Darling has put the tax on cider up significantly.
It may be alright for those who can drink beer! But I can’t!
Booking for the South of France
On Friday, I’m going away for a few days to the South of France. My late wife always threatened me with the legendary Pierre Gruneberg at the Grand Hotel du Cap-Ferrat to get me to swim.
So I’m going!
My doctor says that I shouldn’t fly and although I sometimes disagree with medics, I’ll take the advice, so that I can go on the train. My late wife and I always said we’d take the train one way and fly the other. Now, I’m going to take it all the way from Cambridge via St. Pancras and Paris to Nice. And all the way back, but that trip means changing at Lille instead of Paris.
The cost is £510 for the round trip, but that is a fully-flexible first class. I’d pay half-that to just get to Manchester from Euston on Virgin Trains, so I think it is good value! Interestingly in the 1980s, you used to pay £300 return to fly London to Nice in Economy.
It will be the longest trip, that I’ve ever done on a train.
Nuclear Waste
I have been over several nuclear power stations and on the whole they weren’t a chilling experience, where you felt that any minute, you’d be engulfed in some radiation-related explosion. At only one did I feel a bit uneasy and that was because the site was untidy and cramped. It just didn’t have the aura of being well-run that I got from say Sizewell A or AEP Cook. But I visited this plant twenty years ago and it has operated safely since.
But when I saw an article entitled, Areva plans new reactors that make nuclear waste disappear, in The Times on Monday, I was initially sceptical.
But it does look that it may be the solution to the problem of nuclear waste. I hope so!
What puzzles me about the story is that the technology was first proposed in the 1950s. If it is that good, why hasn’t it been developed earlier.
A New Tax on Death
I’ve just found out that the cost of extra Death Certificates not ordered when you report a death, is going up from £3.50 or £7 from April 5th.
What was it they said about two things you can’t avoid; death and taxes? It is certainly and and not and/or.
The Budget
Today we have the budget.
It is very much a waste of time, as the election is not even around the corner, but here in a few weeks.
But I have a more fundamental problem with budgets. If you run a business, you take financial decisions on a day-to-day basis and not at one fixed point in the year.
So is the system we have rather outdated in a modern world were a crisis can hit you overnight?
I don’t think we want to have budgets every month, but we need to have a system that on the one hand is more responsive to events and on the other takes the variations out of such things as fuel prices.
What would I do?
- I’d tax all energy heavily and use the money saved to take millions out of the tax system. It couldn’t be done overnight, but increased yearly it would have profound and positive effect on everybody’s lives.
- I’d also abolish Vehicle Excise Duty and replace it with a car transfer tax of say £30 or so to make sure all vehicles were very traceable.
- I’d also tax aircraft fuel. It is ridiculous that it is tax-free.
- I’d have a top tax rate of 50%, but anybody you employ for whatever purpose would be allowable against that tax. So if you have an idea, you could perhaps employ a student to do the leg work on it for say six months and then claim that against your tax. Childcare, gardening and all those other things would also be allowed.
- I’d abolish Inheritance Tax. I’ve had letters published in the Financial Times on that one. Two pence on Income Tax would raise the same and rich never pay Inheritance Tax anyway.
- I’d increase the tax on tobacco. Although, I doubt it would raise much money.
- I’d subsidise patents and IPR. The costs at present strangle innovation by individuals.
- But the biggest savings will come from getting rid of projects that no-one actually wants, like aircraft carriers, Joint Strike Fighter, Trident replacement, identity cards, bureacracy, extravagant pensions for civil servants etc. It is a long list!
I’ll add to this as the day goes on.
The aim though is to be tax neutral and perhaps even raise a bit more.
If you take high energy taxes, then this would raise more tax than you think, as there are large numbers of people who don’t pay tax and always seem to have large 4x4s. We’d be taxing the Black Economy which is a lot bigger than anybody thinks.
We should aim to have taxes that you can’t avoid or taxes that by avoiding them you create jobs and commercial activity.
Banning Smoking in Cars
Yes!
I remember my father who used to fill his pipe whilst driving. He used to steer with his knees. It was downright dangerous and I still regularly see people driving and rolling a fag at the same time.
I can’t understand why anybody smokes in the first place. But then I can’t understand why people take drugs either!
Life is difficult enough in the first place, without ruining your health.
Death of my Son
My youngest son died yesterday from pancreatic cancer, at just 37. He passed away peacefully at home with friends and family.
I shall always remember how he bore his illness very bravely and always thought of others, despite the fact he only had days to live. The support from the local surgery, district nurses and Macmillan was impeccable and meant he was at least as comfortable as possible.
Nothing I can say will really make any difference.
Pancreatic cancer is an awful disease for which there appears to little chance of any progress towards a cure. I do have hope though and it is my wife’s and my old University of Liverpool, that is one of the leaders in this fight.
Read more about their work here.
The Anonymous Widower 