Life goes on.
"contractors just need to man up and pay the same tax as everyone else."
Typical green-eyed permie nonsense.
Contractors typically raise twice as much revenue for HMRC as a permie doing the same role. A £45K PA permie will be paying about £20K tax plus another 5K from his employer.
A contractor doing the same role will charge about £100K, will raise £20K in VAT, will pay about £20K in corporation tax, will pay (admittedly small amounts of IC and NI) but will pay another £20K+ tax on his dividends - as well as having to pay an accountant (required by law) more money indirectly to HMRC.
So from the contractor, HMRC will be collecting close to £50K tax - more than the permie earns gross! The hiring company gets a no-strings worker without personnel overheads and future pension liabilities. The contractor gets more take-home pay - EVERYONE WINS - why are the so-called Tories pursuing Labour's spiteful green-eyed IR35 tax? This will destroy what's left of UK IT jobs and put many (usually Tory) contractors on the dole.