that wonderful point in the year when the average taxpayer has finally earned enough to cover all their taxes and at last can start earning for themselves.

It may come as a shock that the average UK resident has spent the last 155 days working solely to support government expenditures, but that is the reality of it. More than two-fifths of an average earner’s wages is taken from them in taxes.

Medieval serfs were forced to work sometimes up to 40 days in the fields for their baronial tyrants. Progress means that taxpayers now work for 155 days to pay tribute to the state. It amazes Guido that slaves of yore effectively consented to their chains, when they so greatly out-numbered their slave masters or that millions of Indians accepted imperial rule by a few thousand British soldiers. How many tax bureaucrats are there?