That sucks bet we pay more tax then any country
The UK is not even close. A number of EU countries have a higher VAT rate, Hungary has 27%. Belgium have corporation tax at 33.99% and VAT at 21%. It also has a 55% personal tax bracket.
VAT works well when you only buy and sell to organisations as it becomes a figure on the balance books. I charge VAT on all of my invoices and I pay VAT, the difference between what I charge and what I pay goes to HMRC, it was never my money. The pain comes when you are VAT register and sell to the public as it looks painful to them to see the 20%.