Is Simon Cowell right to be worried about the threat from ‘The Voice’?

I think he is; ‘Britain's Got Talent’ is tired and out-dated.

The BBC has not only captured The Voice, it’s captured the nation’s voice or, more importantly, its mood. As I watched last weekend’s showings of The Voice I was struck not only of course by the huge talent of everyone competing but - and competing is the key word - they were competing together; the contestants had to share the floor and work with each other to be their best, proving that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Similarly the judges had to share the glory and the pain. Turning over to Britain’s Got Talent, the contrast was clear. Simon had done his best to keep up and wisely ensured that a great young talent would be the first act the channel-hopping audience saw. However, it wasn’t long before a counterpoint appeared and I was faced with the usual embarrassment of watching TV that is simply cruel and voyeuristic. The Voice is reflective a new collaborative culture; Britain’s Got Talent is the equivalent of the worst of the last decade of ruthless “every man for himself” and “laugh at the losers” style of commercial exploitation. I turned over again and found The 1970s: How did the mood of that decade compare? Who can remember?

Over 650 of the UK’s leading tax professionals packed the Hilton ballroom on Thursday evening to celebrate a successful year for the tax profession. Josh Bottomley, the Managing Director of organisers Lexis Nexis, began the Taxation Awards 2010 evening by delivering a positive key-note opening speech.

BLT hosted a great table, with guests from the Big 4 accountancy firms and leading commercial businesses.

As in previous years, we were proud to sponsor 2 of the awards and we offered our heartiest congratulations to all of the winners.

The award for the Best VAT team went to Ernst & Young’s health indirect tax team. The award was collected by E&Y partner and team leader Audrey Fearing. Winner in the best tax team in a large firm category went to the Mazars employment tax services team. Both of these winners are long standing clients of BLT and we are delighted to celebrate their success.

Law firm McGrigors were on the shortlist for the best VAT team award and although they were sorry not to win, the team was delighted to have been shortlisted for such a prestigious award. It was also great to see the public sector once again on the shortlist in the form of the Lancashire County Council VAT team.

For the first time this year there was an award for Taxation’s rising star. This was won by Caroline Villar from Legal and General and we congratulate her on her achievements so far and look forward to seeing more of her in the future.

The tax personality of the decade award went to Alison Lovejoy, the retiring editor of Tax Journal magazine. Alison is much loved by the tax fraternity and won a standing ovation from her peers.

Comedian Hugh Dennis was an excellent presenter and delivered a hilarious set that was clearly enjoyed by all. After the awards and the cabaret, the guests enjoyed celebrating in the casino and on the dance floor.

Many congratulations to all the winners and those shortlisted and we look forward to celebrating another year of tax success in 2011.

Liz Watt, Guy Barrand, Emma Wade and Sheila Mandal will be hosting a table of key clients at the Taxation Awards 2010 tonight.

The Tax awards, which take place at London’s Park Lane Hilton, are the ‘Oscars’ of the tax world and around 500 of the great and the good in the tax world will be there to celebrate the previous year’s achievements.

Some of the most respected figures in the tax industry sat on the judging panel and they had the unenviable task of trying to pick the best from a very high-quality field.

For the 10th successive year, BLT is proud to sponsor 2 of the awards at the prestigious glitzy black tie gala event. This year we are again sponsoring the Best VAT team and Best Tax team in a large firm.

Liz and Sheila will be presenting the awards, whilst Guy and Emma will be entertaining the clients at our table.

Apart from finding out the winners of the awards, one of the most hotly sought after pieces of information is which comedian will be doing the cabaret! LexisNexis have set a high standard in this regard – last year it was Michael McIntyre and in previous years they have had Rory Bremner, Jasper Carrot, Marcus Brigstocke and Bob Monkhouse.

We congratulate all those who made it through to the final shortlist in what was a truly challenging year for everybody and we are looking forward to seeing all the finalists and chatting to our clients this evening!

We invited some of our BLT juniors (and dog) into the office on Christmas Eve to demonstrate their potential for recruitment.

Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays has been all over the press in the last few weeks.

If you haven’t heard about this new book by Wharton Professor Joel Waldfogel, catch him talking at a recent entertaining LSE event about how we waste over £50bn on presents.

“When we buy for ourselves, every pound we spend produces at least a pound in satisfaction, we shop carefully and purchase items that are worth more than they cost. Gift giving is different. We make less-informed choices, max out on credit to buy gifts worth less than the money spent, and leave recipients less than satisfied.” The Professor suggests some alternatives.

If you haven’t ventured out into the High Street yet for the Christmas presents… read this first.