Get Shirty with Brown
The Daily Telegraph; London (UK); Dec 5, 2002

Last month we reported that the German singer Elmar Brandt was top of the charts with Der Steuersong (The Tax Song), which attacked the tax rises imposed by Gerhard Schroder. We suggested a similar theme would go down well here, and were delighted when Kenney Jones, former drummer of The Who, announced that he would release Mr Brown, You're Robbing Me.

Now the Germans have had another good idea. A web designer, Christian Stein, has suggested that his fellow countrymen should send the Chancellor, literally, "the shirts off our backs" in protest at the level of tax. The campaign has been so successful that 1,000 old shirts a day have been flooding into the chancellery in Berlin.

Tony Blair is, of course, Mr Schroder's opposite number here. But Gordon Brown has the title of Chancellor. And it is Mr Brown who has been responsible for putting up our taxes. If you think you are paying too much, send him the shirt off your back at 11 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AB.