Best Of

The Reform core vote is like the Magas .

Poor, thick and voting for people who will make their lives even worse . If you’re poor and vote for Reform then you’re a moron who needs to stop breeding .

Behold the worldview of the affluent middle class British Labour supporter

And then Labour wonders why it is polling at historic lows

I’ve never been called affluent before ! My point stands . Reform as the “ working class hero “ party is laughable!

Your views are repulsive, snobbish and idiotic

You are almost as bad as Trump.

If NATO countries cave to Trump’s bullying now they’ll be doing themselves major damage. We have known this administration long enough to understand that it sees agreement and compromise as weakness. It’ll encourage Trump to bully more. He needs to be told to take a running jump, ideally with some threats thrown in - to US continued use of basis, and to defence procurement. Maybe a little bit of Epstein too.

To be honest it’s this threat that makes me think - more than oil prices or sanctions - that Puton is behind this.

If he can reframe NATO as an aggressor rather than a purely defensive alliance (that it is) that is hugely valuable from a geopolitical perspective

There’s clearly a need for someone to “do something” about the straits, and it’s a global economic challenge. And apparently the US don't have the capability.

It’s somewhat disappointing that the big spending Saudi, Qatari and UAE governments with all their FDI and oil money haven’t been able to muster something. They are after all on the doorstep and it’s their economies that are most dramatically affected.

A deeply buried pipeline that cuts through the UAE to Oman, with another to Saudi.

The ultimate loading terminals protected with defensive means to shoot down all that is fired at them from some way out. That needs to be 100% guaranteed. The ultimate in layered defense.

And the destruction of any vessel that leaves Iranian harbours on the Gulf. 100% Reaper-type drone coverage of the coast along its entire length, 24/7.

Yes, it will be expensive. But cheaper than the weaponry the US has fired off in the past 15 days.

The expense isn’t the problem - the problem is what do you do in the years it takes to build said pipelines and the docks at the end that will be required to receive the oil and gas.

Any chance that the countries trying to export the oil and LNG will police the shipping lanes?

HIghly doubtful, that's proper Navy stuff. I doubt the UAE Navy can find the Dubai Creek using Waze.

I think SKS will find it hard to resist DJT's order. Chance of getting back in the good books and reflected glory if, by some miracle, it goes well vs. HMS Dragon on the bottom of the Iranian Gulf. At least there wouldn't be endless C-17 rotations of coffins coming into BZZ. The sea keeps those whom she takes.

Drone mine hunting might be the choice for Mr Britas - the RN has been banging on about their capability in that regard for years,

The Reform core vote is like the Magas .

Poor, thick and voting for people who will make their lives even worse . If you’re poor and vote for Reform then you’re a moron who needs to stop breeding .

Behold the worldview of the affluent middle class British Labour supporter

And then Labour wonders why it is polling at historic lows

I’ve never been called affluent before ! My point stands . Reform as the “ working class hero “ party is laughable!

OT - There are few Lab politicians markedly LESS able at communication than Ed - but Yvette Cooper is certainly one of them.

I'd be worried for the Lab Party's sanity but the story is in the Mail so its probably been planted by No 10 (assuming its not just made up whole cloth). So that's one issue sorted of the thousands upon which to question the Lab Party's sanity

Yes, Cooper is basically a UK Julia Gillard or Hillary Clinton or another Theresa May

Yvette Cooper may well be better than Starmer in the narrow sense of seeming more competent, more grounded and less eerily focus-grouped. But that is still a very low bar.

As an answer to Labour’s current malaise, she feels like thin gruel: more administrative than inspirational, more capable than compelling. A tidier manager of decline is still managing decline.

If Labour’s problem is lack of clarity, energy and purpose, replacing Starmer with Cooper feels less like renewal and more like changing accountants halfway through an audit.

Yours is a very good comment.

The Reform core vote is like the Magas .

Poor, thick and voting for people who will make their lives even worse . If you’re poor and vote for Reform then you’re a moron who needs to stop breeding .

Behold the worldview of the affluent middle class British Labour supporter

And then Labour wonders why it is polling at historic lows

The outlook of the master remains the same, whether that master is right wing or left wing. Claim to be virtuous, while condemning the lower classes for being stupid.

I don’t claim to be virtuous. But my view is shared by many . Reform couldn’t give two hoots about poorer people and are just using division to turn people against each other. And if you’re poor and think Reform are the answer then don’t come crying when they screw you.

Tice pitches that people should pay the minimum possible Tax, to cover up his own nefarious activities.

Whether they break the Law or not, Tax avoidance is as bad as Tax evasion in my eyes and always has been.

Tice may need to explain to his core vote the C and D categories who will rely more on public services than most, that by choice he will be destroying any concept of public services

That in part defines a reason why well off and wealthy do lean left and vote left. It is because we believe in equality of opportunity irrespective of what we were born in to, the polar opposite of the silver spoon brigade, but that wealth earned should be distributed via tax to the less well off, and inherited wealth should certainly be more equally distributed.

That does not allow the NEET state Boris, Truss and Sunak created however.

I will take to my grave my time spent in Sweden when Olaf Palme was in power, a high tax, world class public service system that rewarded enterprise and deliver hope and prosperity. A generation who glady contributed to the wonderful services provided by the State for the benefit of everyone.

Tax avoidance is legal.
Tax evasion is a crime.

Legal behaviour is not as bad as criminal behaviour and never has been.

If you don't want tax avoidance to happen, then change the law.

If taxes are complicated with exemptions then people will minimise tax by engaging in lawful avoidance, which is the system the politicians have created.

Flatter, simpler taxes without exemptions paid equitably by all are the way to go, but that requires simplifying our tax code.

Tax avoidance and tax evasion are plainly not the same thing. One is legal use of rules Parliament wrote, the other is breaking them. Pretending they are morally identical is just sloganeering for people who can’t be bothered with detail.

That said, “legal” is not the same as “defensible”, especially for politicians who like to wrap themselves in flag, family and ordinary taxpayer cosplay while using structures most ordinary taxpayers will never see in their lives.

So the right test is fairly simple:
if Tice acted lawfully, then it isn’t evasion;
if the structure was artificial and didn’t meet the rules, HMRC should flatten him;
and if he wants to preach about how everyone should minimise tax, he can also explain which services he’d cut for the voters he claims to represent.