Shockingly, the UK political establishment looks poised to loosen further what already looks like a very lax fiscal regime, at a time not only of straitened public finances and austerity (and a high burden of personal
taxation), but also of extraordinarily high petroleum prices (2011 was the first
year in history when the international price of crude averaged over 100 dollars per barrel, 2012 was the
second, 2013 the third, and 2014 looks dead set to be the fourth).