Today is the 235th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, one of the earliest and most famous blows for taxpayers' rights in the face of unjust and excessive taxation. The protestors, and the Revolution they went on to inspire, were driven by a fundamental objection to unfair and unjust taxes, derived from unrepresentative, over-bearing government. Instead of sitting by and accepting that treatment as inevitable, they got up and did something about it.
Today, with huge swathes of Government not only out of control but even out of the scrutiny of the people, powers to levy direct charges and taxes increasingly handed to unelected officials and vast amounts of our rules and regulations now controlled by an unelected, unaccountable and secretive executive in Brussels, it looks like aother Tea Party could be necessary - and rather closer to home than Boston.
Now where did I put my feathery head-dress and mocassins...