Best Of

Absolutely fascinating long read RUSI article which has major implication for UK defence procurement.

Apart from the enormously expanded role of all kinds of drones (which will be essential on any conceivable battlefield), the use and utility of armour has been greatly reduced.

And the new systems which the UK is procuring are particularly unsuited to the new warfare.
Speed and manoeuvrability (and recoverability, repairability and ease of maintenance), are now far more important than better armour or increased firepower.

IOW, Challenger 3 and Ajax should probably be curtailed as soon as possible, and the funding put into more effective systems.

Emergent Approaches to Combined Arms Manoeuvre in Ukraine
https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/insights-papers/emergent-approaches-combined-arms-manoeuvre-ukraine

It will also mean completely retraining our army.

Oh God... ramping up defence spending on obsolete technology sounds just about right for our political system.

We shouldn't buy anything for ourselves until the Ukraine war is over. The technology turnover is too high! Buy stuff and give it to the Ukrainians to test.

Prepare to wield the the POWER of compulsory ID

Keir Starmer
@Keir_Starmer
·
4m
Digital ID will be a huge help in tackling illegal immigration.

But it’s so much more than that.

It will empower people every single day by giving you a new way to prove who you are.

Saving time and money when you apply for a mortgage by cutting down unnecessary paperwork.

Proving your right to rent in one click.

Personalised public services like helping parents claim eligibility for free childcare and nursery places.

It is time to put power back in people’s hands and bring the UK into the modern age.

https://x.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1981405376458142013

Will it give us the power to check and amend our data and monitor who has been accessing it?

If not, it does not empower us. Quite the contrary.

'The Green Party's proposal for a wealth tax on 1% of assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn comes top of our list of tax reforms that Britons would support, with 75% giving it their backing.

93% of Green voters and 87% of Labour voters and 80% of LD voters back a wealth tax on the richest. Even 70% of Tory and 61% of Reform voters in favour

https://x.com/YouGov/status/1981319728174928268
https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/YouGov_-_Tax_reforms.pdf

How much would it raise in the first year? I assume tax evasion/avoidance/put the Stubbs in the lorry would kick in from year 2 onwards.

Yes, plenty of the rich affected would base themselves in Monaco, Switzerland, Dubai, Florida, the Bahamas, Singapore etc if such a tax came in

They can’t take their Knightsbridge townhouses with them

And so the wealth tax argument reaches it natural conclusion - the only part of wealth that can be easily taxed is land and property.

And we simply don’t tax property efficiently or enough

And it’s going to apply to far more people than just the so called super rich with ‘wealth’ in excess of £10 million.

The super rich may not be able to take their townhouses with them but they can sell them off. They don’t need to own an asset that may be a liability.

They also take their spending on food and drink both in shops and bars/restaurants, they stop employing their cleaner, driver, security, accountant, solicitors. They stop buying their clothes, watches and jewellery, art, furniture in London too so the shops that were selling these things need fewer staff or close. Those staff have to find jobs in possibly lower paid roles elsewhere and so cut down their spending.

So great, the people have stuck it to those rich bastards by raising their taxes. Unfortunately those rich bastards aren’t going to be paying those taxes in the UK anyway now, you’ve sucked spending out of the country. You’ve affected balance of payments because a lot of those people were making their money overseas and bringing it in to the UK as they were living there.

They were also keeping maybe an office in the UK, don’t need that now. They might be about to be setting up a spin-off of one of their businesses and liked the idea of having it based in the UK as they can gets hands on.

Now they are in Zurich, Dubai, wherever they might as well do it there and employ people there.

If they care about the arts or a particularl medical condition then they aren’t going to be donating to UK based charities and entities, won’t be supporting fundraisers in the UK, they will support where they are living.

Ultimately the country is poorer and some people might feel so much better for having kicked the rich but they are still rich, just not benefiting the UK.

Despite what you say true patriots would, of course, just take the hit and stay in the greatest country on earth.

After all, it's not as if these millionaires and billionaires would be short of a bob or two if they had to pay 1% or 2% extra tax on their wealth.

Indeed, they'd still be absolutely rolling in it in a way that the vast majority of us can barely imagine. Unless they're just greedy.

You are assuming that they are mostly or even partly British.

On a smaller scale - why should my Indian or Chinese colleagues not move to another country where the bank we work for has offices? One that offers them a better tax/services/ environment?

People undersell the UK on this topic. It would still be a fabulous place to live with a wealth tax and whilst some would leave, the vast, vast majority won't.

Ah yes - “they won’t alter their behaviour” strategy on tax.

Always works.

Some will as I said. Moving to another country is towards the extreme side of changing behaviour for a tax that makes less difference to their wealth than a typical weeks of volatility in global share prices.

And yet people are bemoaning that Brexit has denied people the opportunity to move and live and work around Europe to improve their lives.

If we consider the apparent millions who have had their plans ruined by Brexit stopping them from moving as rational then it’s surely no different than the wealthy moving country for their best options - is keeping more of your own money not as valid as wanting a different culture, different career options, different weather and lifestyle.

I doubt there were millions of Brits looking to move abroad who have been stopped due to Brexit, low hundreds of thousands over several years perhaps. Unless we are including youngsters who would spend a summer or two there.

Hi None.

It was something Mrs PtP and I were looking at back then, but Brexit ruled it out. To be fair, we may not have gone anyway, and we could probably find workarounds if we really wanted to go now, but the bottom line is that it effectively closed a door for us.

Individual anecdotal examples prove nothing of course, but I should think there are quite a few others similarly affected.

I have no plans to retire to the continent but my grandparents retired to Spain, thanks to the EU, so I am very aware of how Brexit has shrunk our opportunities.

I tell you what I do miss. The free and easy travel through Europe.

A few years before Brexit I drove to Nice for a holiday and on a whim decided to return through Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. It was a delight, and I don't think I showed my passport once.