I am told there is a time to stop blogging, although some of you may have noticed I am not good at identifying it.
Actually, quite a lot of you because last night I got a surprise early Christmas present when this year's total reads on the blog went past what I thought to be 2013's quite exceptional total. I had not expected that given that I thought interest in tax peaked with the G8 summit in June 2013, and so say thank you to all who contributed by reading so far this year.
For the record, there have been 1,597,957 reads so far this year and topping 1.6 million is, therefore bound to happen. When the 35,000 or so a month who read via blog feeds are added in more than 2 million reads of this blog are likely during 2014. As a writer who has a message he wants to impart that does, of course, please me.
So thank you for sharing some time with me this year.
And I wish you a happy Christmas.
Without an absolute promise that I will be quiet throughout the holiday period, because that it pretty unlikely.
Thanks for reading this post.
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Merry Christmas Richard and thank you
Happy Christmas Richard.
Thank you for all your hard work and patient explaining.
Thanks
Compliments of the season to you and your family Richard and thank you
I was looking for an appropriate opportunity to wish you and your family a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year, Richard, and here it is.
Also, thanks once again (I think this is my 4th year) for your blog and for the very many topics you cover that enlighten, interest and educate me and a great many others going by the stats you provide today (and undoubtedly anger and infuriate some people). And thanks for providing a channel for me to vent my spleen and maybe make the occasional useful point or two.
Finally, I hope you don’t mind if I also send Xmas wishes to what seems to be an increasing number of regular commentor (or should that be commentators?), including Andrew Dickie, Howard Reed, Bill Kruse, Carol Wilcox, JohnM, to name but a few. They too have made a valuable contribution to my growing knowledge and understanding of many subjects I previously knew little about. And on those mornings when I sit at my desk and despair at the vileness of the policies our government visits on the majority of the population of this country it’s always good to know via your blog that there are many who feel as disgusted and dismayed as I do, and that you and many of them are seeking to do something about it.
Cheers
Ivan
Ivan
Thank you too
We should make 2015 the year to meet
Have a good Christmas
Richard
Thanks for a superb blog that continues to provide stimulating and insightful analysis throughout the year
It is absolutely fine to have a short break during the festive season.Enjoy and look forward to an even more successful 2015
Thanks
I’ll express my good wishes to you in a Quaker form: Good wishes to you and your family for the “time of year known as Christmas.” (As the Quakers referred to it in the 17th Century before Charles II and his floppy wig brigade reinstalled it)!
Many thanks for your hard work in maintaining this blog which, for many of us, is enlivening and uplifting and hopeful during worrying times.
Simon
Simon
And thanks for your commentary
Have a good holiday
Richard
Seems like a good time to say thank you, Richard, for all my morning and lunch time reading. You’ve been fully informative and entertaining. You’ve helped me to engage with tax, politics and practical economics. I started reading your blog back in late 2012. I am now as addicted to reading your contributions as you appear to be writing them. So thank you for a delightful and fulfilling year. Merry Christmas.
Me? Addicted? How dare you? 😉
Actually, it’s very often the way I work out how I think about things
Go well
R
Richard
Best wished of the season, and hoping for a fruitful 2015.
Tim
Thanks Tim
Let’s get business rolling in 2015
I’d like to add my best wishes to you and your family Richard, and thank you for the effort you put in to countering the ‘we must have austerity’ agenda with sane and productive alternatives.
Thanks!
I Hope you and your family have a happy christmas and new year Richard. Hopefully, I will be in Wells-Next-The-Sea for new year…
Wells is lovely
Enjoy!
Can I add my thanks for all your work on trying to ensure that we live in a reasonably fair society and pointing out and challenging some of the appalling statements from various vested interests. I agree that there is no political voice that gets even close to your logic and ability to condemn where it is required and to pose solutions that will make life better for everybody.
I trust that you have recovered from your recent hospital visit and that you are fighting fit so you can get stuck into the avalanche of nonsense that will come our way up to and beyond the next election. Now that Fulham have a competent manager you will have no alternative but to continue your excellent work.
Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year.
Fighting fit!
Good walk with a telescope on my back and realised how much better I feel
2015 is going to be busy
Thanks for your best wishes
Richard
Good post Richard, and the same to you!
I appreciate your blog, it is an effective weapon to further the cause of progressive politics and economics and is a great resource, too.
Right, kettle is on, where are those mince pies…
Thanks
Have a good day
A belated merry xmas and a happy, healthy new year.
Many more to you.
Thanks
And to you!
Richard
I may post this on a few threads, sorry to seem pushy, but there is a truly astonishing article in the DT from Charles Moore on Boxing Day. Starting from an unfortunate incident in which his wife & dog had both been hurt he posits the idea of a National Health Service for Animals, immediately dismisses it as absurd, & then goes on to propound on how absurd & wasteful it is to have a National Health Service at all.
Moore doesn’t, regrettably, fully follow through this idea & will, no doubt, say that this was because of space, although he had space to go into quite unnecessary detail about his wife’s efforts to free the dog & his efforts to assist her. The clear intimation, however, was that its the natural way of things with animals that, when they become injured or sick, its kinder & a whole lot cheaper, to have them put down, &, likewise, when the proletariat become injured or sick, its kinder & a whole lot cheaper, to have them put down.
I mean, I read it about 4 times & if it was meant to be ironic that passed me by! I had to laugh in sheer horror. I have a horrible feeling that Charles Moore wasn’t being remotely ironic. One can imagine him passing the port to Osborne & assuring him, “30% is absurdly high, decent people won’t need the state & indecent ones don’t deserve it!”