Best Of

It has been suggested Burnham will introduce a 10% IHT care levy on all estates

Seems a sensible suggestion but the entitled children of estates may kick and scream

Taxes on death are famously popular with voters.

A universal 10% inheritance tax would raise many billions more pounds than the current 40% inheritance tax, that most people with actual money do an awful lot to avoid.

Arthur Laffer was right.

You’re describing tax avoidance, not the Laffer effect. Common mistake.

Unless you’re suggesting rich people aren’t dying as a result of IHT?

Can you not use pejorative terms like 'tax avoidance' and use the neutral term 'tax minimisation strategies.'

You have to hope Burnham manages to file his Election Expenses within the statutory 35 days. All this money which we are led to believe is sloshing around on the right. Surely for someone who can give Nigel £5M or someone else some equally extravagant packet of small change it would be worth a few £10ks to go to the High Court and ask for a writ of undue election, just for the sheer hell of it.

Was the BBC Question Time lawful or not ? Did every candidate get exactly the same airtime - well clearly not as half of them weren't even invited ! Seems to me Fiona Bruce was not a fair arbitress.

I do think the peerage for the MP who stood aside would be very challengable. Seems to me he was offered an inducement to seek an office of profit under the Crown, not sure which one he took, but that would seem to be contrary to some very early eighteenth century legislation about malfeasance.

Your sour grapes would be better if your last paragraph had any merit. Josh Simons doesn't have a peerage.

Be funny if Starmer gave him one as part of his resignation honours.

For services to costing me my job!!

As some wag noted, if Simons got a peerage for resigning to help Burnham, it would give a new meaning to The Road to Wigan Peer.

You have to hope Burnham manages to file his Election Expenses within the statutory 35 days. All this money which we are led to believe is sloshing around on the right. Surely for someone who can give Nigel £5M or someone else some equally extravagant packet of small change it would be worth a few £10ks to go to the High Court and ask for a writ of undue election, just for the sheer hell of it.

Was the BBC Question Time lawful or not ? Did every candidate get exactly the same airtime - well clearly not as half of them weren't even invited ! Seems to me Fiona Bruce was not a fair arbitress.

I do think the peerage for the MP who stood aside would be very challengable. Seems to me he was offered an inducement to seek an office of profit under the Crown, not sure which one he took, but that would seem to be contrary to some very early eighteenth century legislation about malfeasance.

Your sour grapes would be better if your last paragraph had any merit. Josh Simons doesn't have a peerage.

Be funny if Starmer gave him one as part of his resignation honours.

For services to costing me my job!!

You have to hope Burnham manages to file his Election Expenses within the statutory 35 days. All this money which we are led to believe is sloshing around on the right. Surely for someone who can give Nigel £5M or someone else some equally extravagant packet of small change it would be worth a few £10ks to go to the High Court and ask for a writ of undue election, just for the sheer hell of it.

Was the BBC Question Time lawful or not ? Did every candidate get exactly the same airtime - well clearly not as half of them weren't even invited ! Seems to me Fiona Bruce was not a fair arbitress.

I do think the peerage for the MP who stood aside would be very challengable. Seems to me he was offered an inducement to seek an office of profit under the Crown, not sure which one he took, but that would seem to be contrary to some very early eighteenth century legislation about malfeasance.

Your sour grapes would be better if your last paragraph had any merit. Josh Simons doesn't have a peerage.

It has been suggested Burnham will introduce a 10% IHT care levy on all estates

Seems a sensible suggestion but the entitled children of estates may kick and scream

Why is it more selfish to make money in order to provide for your family than to simply make money to spend on yourself? That seems more selfish to me.

IHT - Why would Burnham waste his political capital on this? It’s politically explosive, economically distortive and raises a relatively small share of total revenue.

Red meat for the left while he quietly kills a lot of other sacred cows?

I'd like to apply to be a professional Northerner. What's the salary?

All the black pudding you can eat. And a whippet.

My three year old son loves black pudding, although disturbingly he calls it black willy.

Tell him what it is made out of. He'll never touch it again.

He's just starting to ask where meat comes from. Loves his animals. Also loves chicken and pork...

My kids were quite happy with the description of where bacon comes from. It was only when we got on to chicken and my second asked, "how can they even live if you cut that much off?", that the penny slowly dropped. In their minds, harvesting meat was a bit like shearing a sheep!

They're still meat eaters though. Heartless little sods.