Peter Rhodes on crooked councils, the ultimate stealth tax and a nation riddled with cancer
It's that time of year again when bills arrive and hapless citizens realise that all the tax perks promised by the Chancellor have been wiped out at a stroke by a whopping rise in the ultimate stealth tax – council tax.
This year the bills arrive a few days after the Guardian published research into the shocking scale of council corruption. In the past decade, almost 10 per cent of councils in the UK have been subject to a corruption investigation. In 36 councils, staff and councillors have been accused of financial crime, with dozens arrested and convicted.
So what's to be done? Unleash the watchdogs? Send in the fraud-busters? Not so easy.
