DESPITE winning £61million on the Lottery, accountant Richard Nuttall has said he will continue working to the end of the tax year in April so he doesn’t let down his clients.
Meanwhile, another Lottery winner — Mark Gardiner who, along with his business partner Paul Maddison, won £22million in 1995 — still runs his glazing firm because he wants to “keep working”.
Compare and contrast this work ethic with the 93 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds who say they haven’t bothered to turn up for a job interview they actually applied for.
Almost nine out of ten said they hadn’t showed up for their first day at work and nearly a quarter had walked out of a job without giving notice.
It seems that working hard for a living is considered optional by many (by no means all) of today’s young people.
Which, considering they are the taxpayers of tomorrow, might partially explain why £100billion of “stealth taxes” are on the way, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
“In order to meet the financing requirements of a bigger state, revenues are set to rise sharply over the next couple of years,” it states.
And according to IFS director Paul Johnson, part of this is down to demographic change.
So guess what?
Those slogging away at the pit face of whatever full-time job they do are going to find themselves squeezed even more to pay for those who feel that hard work is overrated.
It flies in the face of the age-old adage that “hard work pays off” and sets a worrying precedent in a country famous throughout history for creativity, invention and entrepreneurship.
I live near a road that is full of bars and coffee shops, and if I walk down there on any given night they are full of twenty-somethings.
It’s the same story in most of our city centres too.
“Where do they get their money from?” I remarked to a friend.
“At their age, we went out once a week if we were lucky.
“We were saving money to buy our first car or get on the property ladder.”
But who can blame them for splashing the cash on having a good time?
After all, what chance do they have of affording to run a vehicle or buy a flat?
A couple of weeks ago I got two motoring fines in one day for driving down low traffic neighbourhoods in an area I don’t know.
Like all good drivers, I was keeping my eyes on the road and genuinely didn’t see the poor signage.
So it was no surprise to me to read yesterday that cash-strapped Lambeth Council is raking in millions since its LTNs were introduced in 2020.
Meanwhile, its roads are still full of potholes.
The fines cost me £160 which, along with the car insurance, road tax and annual permit fee of £210 for the privilege of parking my 12-year-old Mini on the street where I live, makes driving a very expensive business in our capital city.
And to buy a one-bed flat in a half-decent area will set you back around £450,000 — an impossibly high target.
So little wonder that so many of the younger generation are metaphorically throwing their hands in the air and adopting a spend-what-you-earn attitude while most likely still living with their parents.
On top of all that, they look around them and what do they see?
Those who have sacrificed so much potential “me time” to slog away at their chosen career only to be treated like a cash cow by the state.
Or once-thriving small businesses struggling to survive thanks to the local council’s “neighbourhood initiatives” driving their customers away.
A formerly busy London shopping street now has 30 vacant shops out of a potential 77 because of a controversial LTN.
So if the next generation think, “Why bother?” and simply drift between casual jobs for money to spend on just having fun, you can see why.
A heavy and overly complex tax burden, limits on pension savings, lack of affordable housing, the war on motorists and just a general feeling that the state isn’t on your side all adds up to crush aspiration and encourage indifference to hard work.
And if the Government doesn’t turn that tide by rewarding rather than penalising it, then UK PLC will eventually go under.
JENNIFER ANISTON has been criticised by fashionistas for her “signature look” of nearly always wearing black.
Er, so what?
She looks great in it.
Besides, designer Tom Ford has worn a black suit and white shirt since he emerged from the womb and the “in” crowd fall over themselves to gush about how inspirational he is.
HARDMAN actor Ray Winstone reckons he won’t be voting for any of the parties in the forthcoming general election.
“They’ve no idea what real people want. I wouldn’t vote for one of them. I will not vote,” he says, echoing perhaps the greatest issue that Sunak, Starmer et al will face at the polls . . . voter apathy.
“Politicians promise to do something, get into office and don’t do it,” continues Ray.
“We need someone who is going to be honest.”
Who better than Ray himself?
I’d pay good money to see him square up to Putin with the words: “You f***ing want some?”
ACCORDING to a Which? survey of UK customers, British Airways has been voted the worst for short flights and the second worst for long haul.
Will the words “not even Britain’s favourite airline” fit on the side of a plane?
TODAY’S young women talk a lot about feminism and how they’re equal to men – quite right too.
But a new poll has shown that one in ten of them plan to propose on this year’s Leap Day when, historically, women are “allowed” to pop the question to men.
It’s 2024, for God’s sake.
So why not the other 365 days of the year too?
SHAMIMA BEGUM has lost her appeal over the removal of her British citizenship.
She could now take her case to the Supreme Court – which, if accepted, could take the legal cost of her fight to £7.5million, funded by us.
What an expensive shambles.
Part of the problem is that 24-year-old Begum is taking us all for mugs by claiming she was forced against her will to travel to Syria and align herself with a terrorist organisation.
In the CCTV footage from Gatwick Airport in February 2015, she and her two mates look like they’re off on a hen weekend to Alicante.
No signs of any guns being held to their heads.
Yes, she was 15 at the time and no doubt influenced by whatever mythical life she’d been sold online, but if she just said, “I was a gullible fool, I was wrong, and I will happily take whatever punishment a British court dishes out,” then she might stand a chance of being allowed home.
IT’S World Book Day next week.
A woman I know (OK, me) always forgot, and a panicked and unseemly rummage through cupboards would follow in search of something that might suggest a scintilla of forward planning had taken place.
Meanwhile, the boys would claim a Premier League manager’s memoir was a favourite read and turn up in a football kit.
But word has it that several schools are now recognising the commercial tyranny of this event and have instructed parents NOT to buy a costume. Hallelujah.
But sadly too late for my youngest, who was packed off to lessons in a white shower cap for the equally stressful “Victorian Day” and claims to still bear the emotional scars.
