OK, MrPants, I'll try to explain where i'm coming from. Although you saying you 'despise Socialism in all its forms' is a little unhelpful as a conversation opener; much like hullygully's rude names for Tories, it doesn't really get the 'discussion' off on the right foot.
Anyway, atttempting to ignore that... Like you, I work hard. I run my own business - I also work in the public sector AND in the private sector - part time in all of them - so find this 'us v them' attitude to the public sector rather unhelpful. (For what it's worth, my public sector work pays me by far the poorest wage.)
Sometimes your remarks come across as a little like trolling - I'll take your word for it that they are not and that your views spring from a heartfelt position, as mine do.
OK. The point at which we massively diverge (- I should add, just to clear up any confusion that I am no drumbeater for New Labour either -some of the points you made above about removal of civil liberties under New Labour I have no particular beef with, and please don't attempt to attack my post by claiming New Labour were no better - no, they had many serious flaws too, and I didn't vote for them either) was this quote above:
"Please, just as a thought experiment, instead of asking what would happen if the government spent ever more lumps of your money, try thinking what would happen if the government spent less - much, much less - and let you keep the difference to spend as you saw fit."
The reason I objected to that was because I don't need some interesting hypothetical stretch of the imagination to figure out what the world would be like if the government spent less - much less - on things that really matter to me, because that is exactly what this government ARE doing. I watch the NHS being destroyed and sold piece by piece to profiteers, and I worry for my health and my family's health. I watch as universities and future students are starved of funds and worry about how my kids will be able to afford to go to university, and if they do, whether there will be anything left to make it a worthwhile experience, even if fees were reduced at some theoretical future point - a decade or more of brain drain and under-funding will have very sad consequences for our universities, and our country, that go far beyond the immediate effects on my kids. I look at the money being cut from essential local services - school transport is one that is personally going to make my life a bloody nightmare. But then I've got off lightly compared to all those relying on social care or respite care, say, that is being cut. Or the libraries, children's centres etc etc facing cuts - maybe non-essentials, but that all lay a large part in our communal well-being and quality of life.
What you appear to forget, MrPants, is that your business, that you appear to think earns a profit to support you entirely on your own, without anyone else to help you, is nothing of the kind. You rely, as we all do, on countless services provided by the state and paid for via our taxes. Without it, not only could your business not function, but your quality of life would be zilch. (I'm assuming from your description above that you are not one of the 1% ie one of the small class of multi-millionaires or billionares who really can afford your own army of mercenaries, to protect your wealth as society descends into anarchy.) Where do I start? Police, the legal system, courts, judges, juries - your business wouldn't get far without these. Infrastructure - roads, public transport, rubbish collection - again, without these, you'd find it rather hard to run a business. Trading standards to ensure you're not ripped off by suppliers. As an engineer, presumably you attended school and some kind of post-school training/education - again, probably paid by the state to a greater or lesser degree (even private schools rely on teachers largely trained in the state system, at state-run universities, and also receive hefty tax breaks). Etc etc etc ad nauseam. Are you really suggesting that next time you want to expand your business to a different part of the country, you club together with some like-minded individuals and build your own roads??
It's easy to complain about taxes but try to remember that the happiest and most economically successful countries are those like Scandinavia and Germany, which actually pay relatively high taxes and have correspondingly relatively equal societies and strong benefits. They are also highly unionised.
I do understand the appeal of paying less tax - who wouldn't like a bigger pay packet at the end of the month? But I'd challenge you to find anywhere in history or geography where a no-taxation model has actually worked. You get closer to it in Victorian Britain, for example - but you'd have to be really astonishingly self-centred to suggest that a society where children worked up chimneys was a 'better' one as you weren't paying taxes to pay for other people's children. All research has shown that the more equal society is ie the more proressive its taxation policies, the happier its people are.
Looking forward to your response.