UK Labour party passes oil windfall tax

Brown defends tax raid on Britain’s oil industry

why not, 'explains windfall profits tax'?

By Chris Giles and James Blitz
Published: December 5 2005 21:32 | Last updated: December 6 2005 10:11

Gordon Brown on Tuesday defended his decision to make a raid on Britain’s North Sea oil and gas operators in Monday’s Pre-Budget Report, saying that it was vital to “strike a balance” between consumers and producers.

‘‘The fact of the matter is that over the last two years, the oil price has moved from an average of $25 to $55. That has meant that the oil producers have had a huge increase in the profits that are available to them,” Mr Brown told BBC radio.

‘‘In striking that balance, I think I have done it in a fair way, so we can freeze fuel prices this year, we can give pensioners a winter fuel allowance each year of the coming parliament, we can bring in new incentives for energy efficiency and for environmentally efficient fuel,” he added.

The chancellor on Monday imposed a £3bn-a-year tax increase on oil company profits from North Sea oil fields and other corporate tax measures to shore up the public finances in what he described as “this, the toughest and most challenging year for the economy”.

Delivering his ninth pre-Budget report, Mr Brown was forced to concede that the economy would fall far short of his previous growth forecasts for 2005 and 2006 and that public borrowing would again be higher than he had hoped.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e0d943f6-65d3-11da-8f40-0000779e2340.html

Nice to know some countries are still ran by godly, compassionate, humans. And not the minions of the antichrist.

As soon as they've extricated themselves from the debacle in Afganistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran ...

In hopes this story will get some traction here behind the Plastic Curtain.