President Lech Kaczynski tries his best to look enthusiastic about the start of the World Cup in Germany. Poland play Ecuador tonight.
Or maybe he is looking glum because he has heard the rumours that finance minister, Zyta Gilowska, has handed in her resignation.
That's the second finance minister the government has lost in seven months.
More soon...
Update: Well, she didn't resign. The spat was about balancing the government's books and some weird row about artist's paint brushes being tax deductable.
She has threatened to resign several times...this was yet another. All will be revealed Monday.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Go White and Reds!
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8 comments:
He is unhappy because his march was cancelled.
And Poland lost...
Gilowska wants to phase out a tax free allowance of 50% for teachers, artists and journalists (also known in PiS circles as "lze elity"). The threat of her walking was prompted by the president's giving to understand that he would oppose such a move (possibly by using his veto). It's good to see the ruling parties are so well-coordinated. Gilowska, by the way, was a university lecturer before her - ahem - elevation to the Sejm. She must not have liked her colleagues...
Yeah, I love this filli g up the tax loophole for artist's brushes and the like. Artists are a soft target...can't see them marching down Maszalkowska brandishing their canvases in a viollent manner in protest.
But filling a loophole won't fill the hole in the budget.
It's not even really a loophole though -- more a conscious decision by someone to recognise that creative work involves expenses for the author (paint, canvases, books etc.) that other workers do not incur. (University lecturers fit the bill because their lectures are regarded in law as creative works (they can be copywritten)).
Whether you agree with it or not is another matter. Ireland has had tax exemption for creative artists for years -- again, a conscious policy decision, which is possibly why U2 still live there, and not in LA.
Good points. I love the fact that lecturers can copyright their lectures! maybe they could release an album of their greatest hits!
There is already a lively trade among students in lecturer's notes.
At the risk of seeming shallow with respect to *every* photo posted here, but this particular one is classic -- he really looks the part of confused circus volunteer.
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