No, not me, Rose George:
Rose George: A devious plan painting domestic violence as solely a women’s issue
Rose George
There it is, just behind my toilet, in a discreet washbag. The means for women who are being brutalised, raped, assaulted by men (in 2011-2012, according to the CPS, 94% of defendants in violence against women cases were men) to be protected, by a small piece of cotton that I stick up my vagina to deal with an unavoidable biological event.That a tampon should be taxed is baffling and infuriating enough. But that George Osborne has chosen to divert the £15m raised by the “tampon tax” (actually VAT on what is ridiculously called “feminine hygiene”) towards funding women’s shelters and refuges is even more so.
It’s brilliant really, because how can I be against women’s services getting funding, when their money has been slashed, when the amazing Eaves and their Poppy project have had to close? Refuge’s funding has dropped 80% in four years. How churlish it would be to object to them getting money, even though it’s money they should have been getting in the first place; even though it’s money that is coming from a woman-only tax.
Women will now fund services that protect them from violence perpetrated almost entirely by men. Hey, men, not only do you not have to pay for violence that you inflict on women, but when we get raped, abused or brutalised, we won’t cost the state anything either! What message is that sending other than violence against women is some kind of “women’s issue”? It’s not. It’s largely a male issue.
So, Gideon, don’t stop at the tampon tax. Get £15m from a tax on Gillette Mach 3 or that Friday pint or on the wages of Premier League footballers, who could lavishly fund women’s services and not notice. But that won’t happen, and Osborne has made it almost impossible to object to his apparently generous announcement. And that is just bloody devious.
So, it’s EU rules that mean that tampons are taxed at 5%. We’ve given away that power to lower that tax rate. And look at the bonkersness of the actual complaint.
And then think about the level of knowledge of the tax system you would need….sorry, ignorance of it…..to complain about a 5% tax on tampons when razors pay 20%, beer more like 60% and Premiership footballers some 53 or 54%.
Anyone would think she’d lost her rag or something.
“…an unavoidable biological event.”
Perfectly avoidable. Get a surgeon to whip it out. God knows, we don’t want the likes of you breeding.
JuliaM wins the Internet 🙂
Of course it’s mad. Feminism is insanity with an ideology. (Not surprisingly, doyenne Kate Millett, who was as mad as a box of frogs, followed her feminist career with a career promoting rights for the mad, because madness isn’t real, it’s an imposition by society, apparently.
The problem though is that people are too cowed to say so. When the nuts come up with an “issue” like the tax on tampons, people are too scared to ignore it, so we get this kind of pandering- hypothecating a tax to fund the promotion of their crazed beliefs via Feminist organisations. And then they moan about it anyway.
If people would just tell them to fuck off, and indeed the rest of these mad Proggies, we could be rid of them in short order. But they don’t.
“Hey, men, not only do you not have to pay for violence that you inflict on women,…”
Oh really. Take me back to time I was violent towards women I’ll agree to share thay collective guilt
In the meantime I’m too busy working out how I’m going to pay for 18th Century British slavers – or at least the 1/8th of me of long-term English descent is. Or perhaps how I’m going to pay reparations for the 11th Century harrying of the North – cos my name has Norman origins. Or perhaps how long I should serve in jail for the revenge porn that girl posted of her former partner – cos I’m a “person” like she is. Or perhaps YOU should serve time for that Rose.
I bet she spends more on hairdressing (VAT 20%) than tampons. So do I, as it happens. Yet I hear no complaints that bald men are enjoying an unreasonable tax break.
What’s mad about it is the f**kwits continue to complain when it is pointed out to them Osborne *cannot* do anything about the VAT and he does something he can do.
Correct answer to leftie feminists : “I tried to help, but following your pathetic stupid whining I cannot be bothered. I am therefore withdrawing the grant to your groups. If you don’t like it I don’t give a stuff”.
Anyway, what happened to “paying tax is a social privilege of citizenship in a modern social democracy”, that kind of thing?
Ian B
The problem is telling them to Fuck off (or indeed even making a joke or attempting to make light of their grievances) causes a firestorm of abuse and indeed in many cases could lead to loss of employment for a person posting such a comment on social media – they have the bit between their teeth quite literally and have a fierce intolerance of disagreement or debate – I agree that’s a cop out (all that is necessary and all that) but it takes extreme courage and no small amount of financial resource to stand up to this lobby whose power and influence is out of all proportion to its numbers – of course they will be the first to be used as sex slaves under ISIS rule but believe me that will not be much consolation…..
The majority of DV cases involve battered females cos that is the only kind that femmis–and the femmi-swayed CPS/Courts are interested in.
The DV that involves much greater numbers of women bashing kids is rarely referred to by the sisterhood. The “tampon tax” should go to pay for help for kids bashed by women.
I’m begging to wonder if this whole VAT rag(e) was started as a hoax as well.
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2015/11/10/tampon-tax-feminists-fall-for-4chan-free-bleeding-hoax/
UK government could actually do something about this… Or at least, could TRY and do something about this.. If they so wish [And Cameron has said he would like to see this tax abolished] .. Seeing as how there is an EU tax review due next year.. Indeed, the EU has said it would be perfectly reasonable to axe this tax… But that Britain had never raised for it to be removed…
No wonder the Jews used to banish menstruating women to beyond the city walls.
One of the things that really infuriates me about a lot of Twitter feminism is how disconnected from the real world it is, and in particular (as a mathematician) how disconnected from reality as understood through the lens of numbers and statistics.
There is a pernicious myth around that women and numbers are not, nay cannot be, friends. In fact, about half our undergraduate intake is female, and the girls seem to prefer statistics. And then along come Twitter’s feminists, dedicated (so it would seem) to proving that the myth, is, in fact, true, and so undermining good work, very often done by other feminists, to persuade girls that STEM subjects are for them!
@KJ: So feminists should, arguably can and no doubt some do, criticise the government for their failure to negotiate on VAT-able items, not for doing something that signals a desire not to generate VAT revenue from sanitary products.
even though it’s money that is coming from a woman-only tax.
So where does the money come from to pay for my wife’s lady-things?
You’re welcome, feminists.
Hey, men, not only do you not have to pay for violence that you inflict on women, but when we get raped, abused or brutalised, we won’t cost the state anything either!
Says the woman who is in no danger of being raped. Though some danger of being mistaken for Northern chucklemeister Paddy McGuinness.
I wonder what percentage of feminists drop dead from apoplexy?
Hey, men, not only do you not have to pay for violence that you inflict on women,
Gosh, so the Government’s abolished the Sexual Offences Acts and the various statutes that cover domestic violence? Goes to show, you really can’t trust the media: I would have thought that might have made the headlines.
but when we get raped, abused or brutalised, we won’t cost the state anything either!
In fact, it sounds like they must have entirely ceased all funding for the police and the courts. Now, this is a funny thing, because I watched the Autumn Statement and was so sure I heard the Chancer of the Exchequer saying something about not making any cuts to the police. Whom to believe: an angry Twitter feminist, or my lying ears? Tough call.
Rob – I wonder what percentage of feminists drop dead from apoplexy?
Andrea Dworkin was killed by Japanese whalers.
Of the sample £105 a person pays for tampons, surely the issue would be the £100 product component that has to be paid, not the £5 tax component. Why aren’t people up in arms complaining that tampons have to be paid for at all?
It’s astonishing (or, based on past behaviour, not) how hard some people have tried to force this issue through the usual hoops of “Tories bad, Labour good”.
Jgh-
Some of the sisterhood do think they should be provided by the State.
Various-
“I’m every woman” etc. The Feminist believes that she personifies woman as a class and identity. Which is particularly ironic considering that the whole cult is the creation of women who were characterised by their abnormality.
Rob, not a big enough percentage by half…
Some of the sisterhood do think they should be provided by the State.
I remember during Obama’s re-election campaign, one of his centrepieces was a 30 year old “student” who thought the Republicans were evil because they suggested she ought to pay for her own birth control. What’s worse is this pantomime worked.
A sad fact is that the very first thing I had to deal with in my tax career was a detailed discussion (which believe it or not took about 2 weeks) with Customs and Excise on the VAT liability of incontinence pads and close subjects therefor.
Truly are great oaks grown from small acorns.
substitutes therefor
2 weeks? That’s nothing! These discussions can run and run.
“… of women who were characterised by their abnormality.”
I’m trying to think of women I’ve known who weren’t characterised by their abnormality….and thinkin’ ….and thinkin’….nah. They’re all pretty much the same.
That said, having to make a donation to George Osborne every time… I can see how it must irk.
On the other hand, I’m doing the same every time I’m having a dump. Just seems more appropriate, somehow.