What a nerve!

Did you know that in the "small print" of last month's budget was a provision giving Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (i.e. the tax man) the power to take money out of your bank account without your permission if they consider that you owe them?  I think that's diabolical.  It might just (but only just) be acceptable if you could depend on HMRC always being right in their calculations and judgement, but as (a) an ex-Civil Servant, and (b) one who has in the past had cause to question their figures, I have no confidence that they will not make (possibly quite genuine) mistakes.  It's a case of acting as both judge and jury, and indeed executioner, isn't it - and I thought that Magna Carta was supposed to have done away with that.