There I was on election day 6, worrying that tax was about to become very much simpler, throwing all our future employment prospects into doubt, when the Conservatives came up with a reassuringly complicated married (and civil partners) couple’s allowance.

I just had time to breathe a sigh of relief when what’s this popping into my Outlook inbox, an e-mail saying that, if elected, the Conservatives will ‘undertake a fundamental review of small business taxation matters, including IR35’.

Sounds straightforward, but this will carried out by a new ‘Office of Tax Simplification’.

Yikes!

Let’s just hope they don’t tell the office about the married couple's allowance.

By the by, maths has been on my mind since my admission that I am not a mathematician.

I spent (or should that be wasted) an hour of my life watching Flash Forward last night (the first time after the first one or two at which point I gave up).

I noticed that the main character is a Mark Benford, and last night’s episode had an interwoven plot concerning codes, chess, and numbers.

Benford’s law I thought to myself, a favourite subject of mine since I wrote about it and its use in tax investigations when editing Tolley’s Practical Tax Newsletter many moons ago.

Frank Benford died in Schenectady, New York, in 1948 and as far as I can see Schenectady has absolutely no connection with Flash Forward.

But there is a set of Flash Forward CD ROM-based language flash cards, available for sale on Amazon and one person has reviewed this product.

OK, it would be too much of a coincidence for his name to have also been Benford wouldn’t it, but I bet I don’t need to tell you where the reviewer lives do I?

• Blog