Still freezing. I was up with the light at seven fifteen and got rained on walking into town. Thawed out at Jempsons Coffee House reading the newspapers over a cup of coffee before going across to PC Hut to sign up for five hours of computer time.
The Isle of Man is seeking to attract entrepreneurs with new rules that would mean no resident would have to pay more than £100 000 in income tax. As the highest rate on income tax is 18% this will be attractive to anyone earning more than half a million pounds a year. The island already offers a zero corporate tax rate for businesses involved in e-commerce, space technology and insurance. From 5th April 2006 this will apply to all other industries except financial servces which will continue to pay a ten percent corporate rate. No wonder that Brussels wants to harmonise tax regimes across Europe.
The policy I have always wanted to see on income tax is the one that ignores the tax rate but sticks with Isle of Man style percentages. If I was King of England I would wield my Royal Prerogative to force the government of the day to remove 90% of the working population from the income tax net within the life of a single parliament. Income tax was supposed to be a temporary tax when first introduced by Lloyd George to finance his trench warfare with the Kaiser.
I suggested to the owner of PC Hut that he should ask someone who wanted to use his computers to look after the shop so he could get away. I wondered whether to offer my services but decided not to. Tony Paynes second tenant had been booted out making two bad experiences in six months. So the apartment above PC Hut is vacant. I offered to rent it for March and April money up front. He said he would talk to his wife Alex and come back to me. But unbeknown to me my relationship was not the only one on the rocks. Tony was ordered out of the family home and needs the apartment for himself. When not mending computers Tony draws under the pencil name of Tony Coven.
I changed my e-mail signature on leaving Llangolman from 2-3 days response to 1-2 weeks. I am now at the outside limit so I checked through my five hundred e-mails deleting at speed and hoping that I didn't delete anything important. There were a few needing a response...Helen Dew in New Zealand for instance who was wondering whether I was still expecting her to send me the back files from Fourth World Review to post onto the website. I was.
I spent an hour or so with my friend John Pierce at his house on South Undercliff and then returned to the boat, lit the fire and put in some time on the Gilbert & Sullivan. Sunday and Tuesday had told me the places where I was exposed to the full glare of the audience...and the places where I could lurk in the shadows at the back of the stage. Very helpful. This tells you which words you really must learn...and which parts you can get away with by offering up standard Gilbert & Sullivan harmonies.
The final run-through of Iolanthe at the Rye Community Centre in the evening went well. A warm hall in sharp contrast to Sunday. Just the final practice of the musical and choral details in the Methodist Hall...our normal choir practice location...tomorrow evening and then we are live for the first of our two performances on Friday evening.
