#HELP_SYRIA_TAX_ME

The image of that little boy broke so many – Politicians and regular folk all over the world reflected long and hard after viewing that damning video – a 30 second clip of a still 3 year old boy woke the otherwise silent voice in many. I dedicate this post to Aylan Kurdi - your life little man was not in vein. You made the world wake up.

The UK government is the second largest bilateral donor of aid to the Syrian conflict and to date has contributed over 1 billion GBP. However when you see a homeless person on the street, it takes a lot more empathy to open your door, invite him in and welcome him to sit on the table – we need to open our homes to these struggling people and not just provide them with a warm meal while they remain stranded in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Lebanon, a nation with a population of 4 million has taken above 1 million refugees – the UK can do better than the 7000 we have accepted.

With empathy we can and will do more. I am asking people to demand that the government implements a one off 1% tax increase - an extraordinary humanitarian tax hike – if you fundamentally disagree or can not afford it you can opt out.

Total net income tax receipts in the UK in 2014-2015 was around GBP163 billion – 1% of this would equate to 1.63billion – and if we assume that 50% of the nation would opt out – we would be left with a ring fenced contribution of GBP815 million – lets do it for Aylan Kurdi – let us use this money and invite families like Aylans' into our homes instead of brag about how we fed them despite leaving them in the cold– if you ike this post, please share it…