Has anybody out in the real world actually spotted the three-card trick that the CITB is pulling on the industry that is taxed by government to pay its staff wages?

We all pay a building-industry-only tax. The only two sure things in life are death and taxes, and since in the construction industry we have to pay the levy to the CITB it must either be death or a tax 鈥� the choice is yours!

But when the grant aid for qualifying your workforce with their first level two qualification went down from 拢750 on 31 July to 拢540 on 1 August 鈥� a reduction of 28% 鈥� the tax (levy) stayed the same.

So why is nobody resigning from the CITB, like Mark Haysom of the Learning and Skills Council did when he screwed up?

This is a scandal of equal proportion to MPs' expenses, but goes unreported and unashamed. Could it be that it suits the construction industry grandees who support the CITB to rape levy from sectors that they then fail to support (like plastering) only to pay it to other people who know more about manipulating the CITB grant scheme than fixing a skirting plumb and level?

Like the choice between death and taxes, I leave the answer up to you: but it is a no-brainer!

Terry Wright is the managing director of architectural mouldings specialist Troika