A Total Lack of Respect

A Total Lack of Respect

Ribbit!! La, la, la, Ribbit!! La, la, la, Ribbit!! Rib... Ooops! Oh dear, how very embarrassing! This time, you've managed to catch me on the hop, and right when I'm in the middle of taking my bath, too. Yes! Even frogs like me have to take a bath once in a while. Anyway, with a bath the size of mine, it's actually the garden pond, but hey, who cares? I bet that you're all wild with jealousy! Go on admit it? Healthwise, I need to take care of my fine delicate skin, so I use the pond, 'cos it gives me plenty of room to slosh about in. Just give me a couple of minutes while I make myself respectable...

(Leaps around the garden like a demented toad, this is to wind-dry my sleek and powerful body. Admires self in reflection in the pond. Hiya handsome?) That's better! Ribbit!!!

You know what? I spent some quality time admiring the daffodils earlier on today. They are now just beginning to show their bright blooms around the edge of the pond. My, how really peaceful they make me feel. Bob should be proud of his work, and since spring is nearly here once more, he deserves to be able to enjoy the fruits of his labours. You only get out of anything what you put into it. That's what gardening is all about, you see? But don't forget... there's no need to break your back with all that unnecessary digging! Croak!!!

Well, it's time for me to get up on my soapbox again, 'cos if I don't complain on your behaviour as human beings, who will? Besides, I'm here to speak about your wonderful inoffensive Senior Citizens, and all because they are once again being treated with so much disrespect. They don't deserve it!!

Bob tells me that you humans, or rather what he calls householders(?), all have to pay yet another tax that's known as, the 'Council Tax'. (Boooo!!!) Apparently, when those nasty Tories were in power in your government some years ago, (not long enough where Bob is concerned!) a nasty female of your species, (formerly known as the maggot!) unleashed a truly unpopular tax upon you all. This was known as the dreaded 'Poll Tax'. This was something that everyone was supposed to contribute to, so little wonder that it was something that was so disliked. People even went to prison then rather than pay it. Anyway, in keeping with opposition governments of the period, they swore (don't they always?) that if they got into power, remember, this was the labour party, they would remove this abomination of a tax altogether. A similar promise was made when changes were brought in, whereupon it was axed and replaced by another tax known as, the 'Council Tax'. Now, how's that for a bold-faced human lie?!

Not only have they kept this tax in place during the last ten years, but they've steadily increased the rate that is paid by householders, many times over as the ruling government. Bob says that the latest news concerns your senior citizens, who are apparently simply refusing to pay it, and for extremely good reason. The miserable pensions these people receive, simply cannot bear the terrible burden this tax puts on it, nor can these pensioners!

Have you humans absolutely no shame at all? Do you not think that once a person retires after a lifetime of work, they are not entitled to enjoy what little money your government allows them to have, without taking it back in the form of ever spiralling taxes? Have these people not paid enough tax already during their working lives?

After all, Bob says that even though he is retired himself, he understands this situation only too well. Just like every other pensioner, he not only pays his Council Tax, but he still continues to pay other taxes, like those directly through the vast majority of purchases he makes, and here I include energy, water rates, electrical goods, transport, household goods and countless services that include, plumbers, electricians, repairs technicians and so on. This should be enough, but oh bloody hell no!

Know this, the people you humans voted into power, and remember they get thousands of pounds a week to live on, don't have to live under the same harsh regime they inflict upon Senior Citizens! Not by a very long way they don't!

To your government's shame, they would rather put non council tax paying pensioners in prison, because according to them, you humans must pay your taxes.... What a load of horse crap! Croak!!! Have you any idea what it costs to sent someone to prison? And they have the gall to moan about non payment of taxes for this delicate sector of the society. I'm going to take another bath when I've finished talking to you lot. I feel so dirty! Croak!!!

Isn't it odd, you humans unflinchingly accept that one sector of your society allows another to openly evade paying taxes. Yes! Evade paying their taxes! Why? Because they can get away with something humans call, clever accounting, or tax avoidance. I call it, tax evasion! And you lot should do too... And yet it seems to me, a simple garden frog, that you'd rather send your Senior Citizens to your already overcrowded prisons, than come up with some other way to pay for this tax, thereby releasing pensioners from this incredible and totally unfair burden. A pensioner does not have the same spending power as someone who works for a living! Leaping toads! They aren't even given the respect of being given an income that comes anywhere near the minimum wage! Ask yourselves this: Do these pensioners deserve to be sent to prison? SHAME ON YOU ALL if you think they do! Croak!!!

Of course, you're probably one of those who thinks that they should go to prison for non payment. But then you're probably one of those greedy, selfish b******s anyway! I wonder, will you change your attitude once you become a pensioner yourself? Somehow, I very much doubt it.

Bob says that the government has started carping on about the fact that people are living too long. So, suddenly it's a damned crime to want to live! And there you were, hoping to have an enjoyable retirement after all those years of hard labour. Don't even think about it! Well, mister Blair, I've got news for you: With the pittance you pay to British pensioners, it's the same as condemning them to death anyway, so sooner or later, you'll achieve your apparent zero tolerance for senior citizens! Of course, when your kind retires, you'll have all that money you got as a PM to spend, won't you?

Well, it's time I went and had my second bath in the pond, and if I don't mind saying so, that water looks so inviting after all that talking...

Stay safe and take care, and do drop by again soon...

Froggy