31 March 2014
The Prime ministerDear Sir,
There is a recurrent “commercial” on radio, issued by hmrc, which features measured footsteps, a voice-over warning citizens to disclose their income and a knock on a door. The whole effect is quite sinister and others have expressed their distaste to me.
I am making a serious objection to this advert and asking for its withdrawal. Please allow me to explain my purpose. My objection goes back to the days when such sinister footsteps were real and associated with The Gestapo and Hitler’s foul rampage through Europe. One night around 1945 I was being dressed in the hall of our home by a mother trying to protect her two young children. We were in the house where we had, for five years, sheltered and on occasion cowered under the stairs while Hitler’s planes rained bombs down upon us in two massive blitzes and a multitude of minor raids. The view from our front window included ten destroyed houses. I grew up considering bomb sites to be a normal part of life – and superb playgrounds. The carpets with holes burned by incendiary bombs and a bath with a corner missing were a normal part of life.
On this particular night, as my mother was dressing me, I asked where we were going and was told to the air raid shelter. Shortly after there was a knock on the door and she said “Who is it?” A voice answered “It’s me” and she opened the door to let my father in. He had been on duty with the Air Raid Precautions. I asked her why she had asked who it was and she said “It might have been a German parachutist”.
This was late 1944 or early 1945 and there were so many Americans in the area that no German paratrooper could possibly have landed without hitting a Yank. My mother’s fear was totally irrational but she had just suffered five years of terror at the thought that one day those Gestapo thugs might operate in Britain. And nobody was ever told the truth. Nobody was ever told anything. That was the essence of total war. My mother knew no better.
I have, at several times in my life come to experience the strange thing that young children, in their total innocence, are sometimes fiercely defensive of their parents. Perhaps this is the source of my present concern. I wish to ensure that the huge and expensive suffering of my parents and all citizens of that time was not wasted and that lessons were learned and applied. They fought, and many died, to rid the world of a foul evil. The essence of that evil was force and its abrogation and misuse. I went last night to see a recently released film The Railwayman. The film is superbly told and acted but is a foul and disgusting story very much in the time and fashion of that I have told above. You should watch it.
So what has all this to do with collecting taxes in 2014? The answer is Force.
My parents, and their parents, fought two horrible wars to oppose the misuse of force. I fought the Cold War from various laboratories and weapons factories. I was lucky; I never had to fire a shot but I have made myself aware of the nature of the beast we have all faced for a very long time.The purpose and essence of Government is to protect its citizens. It has no other legitimate purpose. A legitimate government may do only what its constitution allows and only within the term of that constitution. I am well aware that the constitution of Britain exists only within a plethora of precedents, custom and departmental regulations and Acts of Parliament and the attempts of Brussels to regulate these are both unwieldy and largely unwelcome and unnecessary and confusing.
The fundamental principle of freedom is clear and well known. The initiation of force in any guise is illegal. Only a government can legitimately exercise force but it must do so only within the purpose and limitation of its constitution. We actually taught the Americans this and they are the only ones who, once, had the guts to put it clearly in writing. Unfortunately their experiment has developed severe distortions.
I submit to you that displaying an advert which threatens a citizen with an unknown danger is an abuse of the monopoly of force granted to the government by its citizens and is therefore a breach of the constitution, a breach of civilised behaviour and a violation of the human rights of each citizen. Taxation is itself an abuse of the monopoly of force and to reinforce that abuse with a psychological terror campaign is an insult to every citizen.
Hmrc is relying upon the terror of being investigated to prevent citizens from complaining to hmmc about this abusive advert. This is exactly the tactic used by Hitler’s Brownshirts to establish their terror campaign in 1933. It was unacceptable then and it is unacceptable now.
This matter, in itself, may be relatively trivial, although it is offensive and terrifying; but it sets a precedent which says that the government may use hidden and implied force to terrorise its citizens into a specific course of action. This is contrary to the principles of freedom that the people of this country have fought for, in many guises, over several hundreds of years. It is an insult to each citizen and to our ancestors, to freedom and civilisation. It is dangerous and it is wrong.
Please act to remove this offensive advert immediately.
27 March 2014
Since sending this letter to the people highlighted below I have had a sad and uninformed negative response from The Advertising Standards Authority and a deathly silence from the Ministry of Justice. This matter is not trivial and not just a rant. It concerns a vital and important principle of civilisation and the setting of a nasty precedent by government.
This letter above has had one italicised paragraph added at this date.
I would like someone to justify to me why the government considers it appropriate for hmrc to behave in this manner. I wonder if Her Majesty knows what is being done in her name?
Yours sincerely,
Colin Walker.