Si and others, I thought this might be of interest. The first link is A diagram showING where all the money goes. Although it is out of date in terms of numbers, the proportions are still the same. The second one gives you the 2012/13 numbers - £700bn!!
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-file...c.spending.pdf
http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/
Try and go through that and decide what you wouldn't pay any more. Factor in the dole for the thousands you wouldn't employ in those Governmant departments any more, and that for every penny you want off income tax, you need to cut spending by about £10bn. One rule; you cannot cut anything in these three areas (those we as citizens cannot do locally or alone) which are the essence of what Government is for - defend the Realm, defend the currency, maintain Law and Order. Almost everything else we could, as citizens, sort out or pay for ourselves.
Look also at the amounts spent on housing the pregnant teenage mother as against the amount spent on pensions, or on Scotland. As it shows, the traditional targets for abuse are actually those taking the least amount of our money!
I hope that letting a few facts get in the way of a good story might be useful!!
PS - here's how the proportion of the Government's income is made up - has anyone ever heard of an Aggregates Levy?!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxatio...United_Kingdom