Missing from the header: any mention of why the change was made.
But I guess it's too important that opposition politicians should be able to demand ministers' resignations for the most trivial of perceived transgressions.
It has worked well for quite a long time, until this clown came into office. I have to congratulate you though, you must have a super thick skin and very flexible morals to be such an unapologetic apologist for Boris Johnson
When a politician is in a no-win situation, it's only fair to point that out.
He's done plenty of bad things. Implementing a recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life is not one of them.
What if it is a dumb recommendation? Someone with a modicum of decency might say, "hey that's not going to look good". But not your idol
I stopped reading there.
I understand. Boris Johnson apologists generally have difficulty with paying attention beyond a few seconds.
Scholz apologists, on the other hand..
I am not an apologist for him. The German nation has moved form being a militaristic nation to a pacifist one. You are clearly too dim to realise this and make sweeping generalisations and judgements based on childish anti-German prejudice.
Ok Nigelforgermanappeasementpolicies.
Oh dear. Playground stuff. If you want to debate with the grownups you ought to wait until you have graduated to senior school.
Can anyone sane tell me whether to worry about omicron variants??
I’m having a hoot doing an odyssey around the world. I don’t want covid FUCKING IT UP AGAIN
I know it's not leading to an uptick in hospital/deaths - but a very high % of the people I know who've had it in the past few weeks have been proper f*cked (bedridden/fever for over a week). So still something to try and not catch I'd say (tricky/impossible though that may be). But maybe without the worry that you're going to end up with a tube down your neck wishing you'd put your affairs in order.
No idea if it's just been atypical bad luck, new sub-variants, whatever - but not fun at all.
I think re-infections are heading for 10% even for people who had 'original' omicron. It's going to be an absolute pisser if we end up all getting re-infected and downed for a week every three months due to immune escape.
:: party hat emoji etc etc ::
I’ve had Covid at least once, quite possibly twice, maybe thrice
I don’t care any more. If I have to get a flu-like illness every 6 months, so be it. It is still worth resuming normal life, it’s just a shitty new thing. Life is full of shitty new things, anyone over the age of 40 has experienced ageing. That’s consistently shitty, yet we cope
We simply have to accept that life now comes with a significant new element of risk and shitiness. But these might be solved with new vaccines, we can but pray
Never again must we lockdown
I'm absolutely in agreement about lockdown. This is something we need to deal with, account for and live with (with luck). If it _is_ an 'old sprain injury' kinda thing it does get quite wearing though.
I've got a friend who has recurring joint pain from arthritis and I keep remembering the things they've had to cancel due to flare ups, how it wears them down and saps little moments from them like a vampire.
Missing from the header: any mention of why the change was made.
But I guess it's too important that opposition politicians should be able to demand ministers' resignations for the most trivial of perceived transgressions.
It has worked well for quite a long time, until this clown came into office. I have to congratulate you though, you must have a super thick skin and very flexible morals to be such an unapologetic apologist for Boris Johnson
When a politician is in a no-win situation, it's only fair to point that out.
He's done plenty of bad things. Implementing a recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life is not one of them.
What if it is a dumb recommendation? Someone with a modicum of decency might say, "hey that's not going to look good". But not your idol
I stopped reading there.
I understand. Boris Johnson apologists generally have difficulty with paying attention beyond a few seconds.
Scholz apologists, on the other hand..
I am not an apologist for him. The German nation has moved form being a militaristic nation to a pacifist one. You are clearly too dim to realise this and make sweeping generalisations and judgements based on childish anti-German prejudice.
Ok Nigelforgermanappeasementpolicies.
Oh dear. Playground stuff. If you want to debate with the grownups you ought to wait until you have graduated to senior school.
Can anyone sane tell me whether to worry about omicron variants??
I’m having a hoot doing an odyssey around the world. I don’t want covid FUCKING IT UP AGAIN
I know it's not leading to an uptick in hospital/deaths - but a very high % of the people I know who've had it in the past few weeks have been proper f*cked (bedridden/fever for over a week). So still something to try and not catch I'd say (tricky/impossible though that may be). But maybe without the worry that you're going to end up with a tube down your neck wishing you'd put your affairs in order.
No idea if it's just been atypical bad luck, new sub-variants, whatever - but not fun at all.
I think re-infections are heading for 10% even for people who had 'original' omicron. It's going to be an absolute pisser if we end up all getting re-infected and downed for a week every three months due to immune escape.
:: party hat emoji etc etc ::
I’ve had Covid at least once, quite possibly twice, maybe thrice
I don’t care any more. If I have to get a flu-like illness every 6 months, so be it. It is still worth resuming normal life, it’s just a shitty new thing. Life is full of shitty new things, anyone over the age of 40 has experienced ageing. That’s consistently shitty, yet we cope
We simply have to accept that life now comes with a significant new element of risk and shitiness. But these might be solved with new vaccines, we can but pray
Never again must we lockdown
Lockdowns and similar measures are only a way of buying time until vaccines, pharmaceuticals and hospital capacity can control in other ways. The first two are now here (a friend with lymphoma caught it and had the antivirals, giving less illness than ther family) the third depends on redeployment and cancelling routine work.
I don't think further lockdowns will be needed, but we need petmanant infrastructure to ensure that.
What do you make of paxlovid causing COVID rebound?
Unlike the Johnson govt which is cutting the new Health Security Agency by 40% of jobs... Biden is investing massively in pandemic preparedness. Some incredible ambition being shown - $82bn over next 5 years.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Missing from the header: any mention of why the change was made.
But I guess it's too important that opposition politicians should be able to demand ministers' resignations for the most trivial of perceived transgressions.
It has worked well for quite a long time, until this clown came into office. I have to congratulate you though, you must have a super thick skin and very flexible morals to be such an unapologetic apologist for Boris Johnson
When a politician is in a no-win situation, it's only fair to point that out.
He's done plenty of bad things. Implementing a recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life is not one of them.
What if it is a dumb recommendation? Someone with a modicum of decency might say, "hey that's not going to look good". But not your idol
I stopped reading there.
I understand. Boris Johnson apologists generally have difficulty with paying attention beyond a few seconds.
Scholz apologists, on the other hand..
I am not an apologist for him. The German nation has moved form being a militaristic nation to a pacifist one. You are clearly too dim to realise this and make sweeping generalisations and judgements based on childish anti-German prejudice.
Ok Nigelforgermanappeasementpolicies.
Oh dear. Playground stuff. If you want to debate with the grownups you ought to wait until you have graduated to senior school.
Can anyone sane tell me whether to worry about omicron variants??
I’m having a hoot doing an odyssey around the world. I don’t want covid FUCKING IT UP AGAIN
I know it's not leading to an uptick in hospital/deaths - but a very high % of the people I know who've had it in the past few weeks have been proper f*cked (bedridden/fever for over a week). So still something to try and not catch I'd say (tricky/impossible though that may be). But maybe without the worry that you're going to end up with a tube down your neck wishing you'd put your affairs in order.
No idea if it's just been atypical bad luck, new sub-variants, whatever - but not fun at all.
I think re-infections are heading for 10% even for people who had 'original' omicron. It's going to be an absolute pisser if we end up all getting re-infected and downed for a week every three months due to immune escape.
:: party hat emoji etc etc ::
I’ve had Covid at least once, quite possibly twice, maybe thrice
I don’t care any more. If I have to get a flu-like illness every 6 months, so be it. It is still worth resuming normal life, it’s just a shitty new thing. Life is full of shitty new things, anyone over the age of 40 has experienced ageing. That’s consistently shitty, yet we cope
We simply have to accept that life now comes with a significant new element of risk and shitiness. But these might be solved with new vaccines, we can but pray
Never again must we lockdown
Lockdowns and similar measures are only a way of buying time until vaccines, pharmaceuticals and hospital capacity can control in other ways. The first two are now here (a friend with lymphoma caught it and had the antivirals, giving less illness than ther family) the third depends on redeployment and cancelling routine work.
I don't think further lockdowns will be needed, but we need petmanant infrastructure to ensure that.
Agreed. And probably permanent new ways of avoiding infection. We probably need to return to a world pre-antibiotics but post Florence Nightingale, when basic sanitation and cleanliness was (slowly) elevated
Anything but lockdowns
I do have great sympathy with that. But a PM who can't wear a mask or stop shaking hands in a hospital? Ms Nightingalew would not have been impressed. We need a new administration and a new mentality.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Unlike some European cities gentrification has passed it by. I love the edginess.
Hire a bike on a weekend and cycle around the city: wonderful.
My dad was a Cockney, born and brought up in West Ham. I can understand why he liked it. There are other great cities (eg Krakow) but I feel comfortable in Berlin.
I agree, Berlin is a lovely city, one of the best city breaks in Europe.
Missing from the header: any mention of why the change was made.
But I guess it's too important that opposition politicians should be able to demand ministers' resignations for the most trivial of perceived transgressions.
It has worked well for quite a long time, until this clown came into office. I have to congratulate you though, you must have a super thick skin and very flexible morals to be such an unapologetic apologist for Boris Johnson
When a politician is in a no-win situation, it's only fair to point that out.
He's done plenty of bad things. Implementing a recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life is not one of them.
What if it is a dumb recommendation? Someone with a modicum of decency might say, "hey that's not going to look good". But not your idol
I stopped reading there.
I understand. Boris Johnson apologists generally have difficulty with paying attention beyond a few seconds.
Scholz apologists, on the other hand..
I am not an apologist for him. The German nation has moved form being a militaristic nation to a pacifist one. You are clearly too dim to realise this and make sweeping generalisations and judgements based on childish anti-German prejudice.
Ok Nigelforgermanappeasementpolicies.
Oh dear. Playground stuff. If you want to debate with the grownups you ought to wait until you have graduated to senior school.
Can anyone sane tell me whether to worry about omicron variants??
I’m having a hoot doing an odyssey around the world. I don’t want covid FUCKING IT UP AGAIN
I know it's not leading to an uptick in hospital/deaths - but a very high % of the people I know who've had it in the past few weeks have been proper f*cked (bedridden/fever for over a week). So still something to try and not catch I'd say (tricky/impossible though that may be). But maybe without the worry that you're going to end up with a tube down your neck wishing you'd put your affairs in order.
No idea if it's just been atypical bad luck, new sub-variants, whatever - but not fun at all.
I think re-infections are heading for 10% even for people who had 'original' omicron. It's going to be an absolute pisser if we end up all getting re-infected and downed for a week every three months due to immune escape.
:: party hat emoji etc etc ::
I’ve had Covid at least once, quite possibly twice, maybe thrice
I don’t care any more. If I have to get a flu-like illness every 6 months, so be it. It is still worth resuming normal life, it’s just a shitty new thing. Life is full of shitty new things, anyone over the age of 40 has experienced ageing. That’s consistently shitty, yet we cope
We simply have to accept that life now comes with a significant new element of risk and shitiness. But these might be solved with new vaccines, we can but pray
Never again must we lockdown
I'm absolutely in agreement about lockdown. This is something we need to deal with, account for and live with (with luck). If it _is_ an 'old sprain injury' kinda thing it does get quite wearing though.
I've got a friend who has recurring joint pain from arthritis and I keep remembering the things they've had to cancel due to flare ups, how it wears them down and saps little moments from them like a vampire.
But humans being humans, we'll adjust.
Of course it will be wearing. It will be hideously tedious (unless vaccines save us)
But we will learn to live with it as our forebears lived with smallpox (and, God willing, it won’t be 2% as bad as that)
Anything is preferable to closing down society. That is literally unsustainable. A path to madness, for us all
I know it's not leading to an uptick in hospital/deaths - but a very high % of the people I know who've had it in the past few weeks have been proper f*cked (bedridden/fever for over a week).
Yes same here. Was chatting to my hairdresser the other day who said she and her boyfriend had it pretty badly and they're young.
It's definitely something I still want to avoid as I'm vulnerable.
It remains a nasty virus.
None of which means I disagree with Leon's point about future lockdowns.
Yes, similar anecdotes. I know of two people who had mild versions (2=3 days) and three who had nasty ones (2-3 weeks).
I notice masks popping up in shops again, but still a small minority - they disappeared for a while.
This must be the end of several careers (Guardian liveblog)
“The head of the Texas department of public safety has said “there’s no excuse” for officers not trying to break into the elementary school classroom as the gunman fired away.”
Not that it helps any of the poor bereaved people. Tho it might assist America in sorting out its ludicrously fucked police/guns/crime dysfunction
Might as well defund the police if they are just going to stand around cleaning their guns while the slaughter takes place.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Missing from the header: any mention of why the change was made.
But I guess it's too important that opposition politicians should be able to demand ministers' resignations for the most trivial of perceived transgressions.
It has worked well for quite a long time, until this clown came into office. I have to congratulate you though, you must have a super thick skin and very flexible morals to be such an unapologetic apologist for Boris Johnson
When a politician is in a no-win situation, it's only fair to point that out.
He's done plenty of bad things. Implementing a recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life is not one of them.
What if it is a dumb recommendation? Someone with a modicum of decency might say, "hey that's not going to look good". But not your idol
I stopped reading there.
I understand. Boris Johnson apologists
There he goes again.
Oh, only one second.
I would love to do a little psychological study on those that are susceptible to siding with or believing Boris Johnson and those in Russia that believe that Russia is carrying out a "special military operation" and "denazifying" Ukraine. Psychological profiling and surveying could be done to discover how much is actually down to just being genuinely gullible and how much is down to living in a state with restricted media. It would be quite fascinating.
Or, NOT fascinating. As the case may be
Well, each to their own. If I were carrying out the survey I would need to put caveats for unconscious bias of my own, which in anything to do with Johnson would need to be considerable.
Those caveats could form the basis of a more interesting study into the real phenomenon of Boris Derangement Syndrome.
Use of the expression {Foo} Derangement Syndrome is by a country mile the biggest wankerdom indicator on the internet.
And the rewriting of the code is the least interesting thing about this story.
'In his introduction to the previous edition of the ministerial code, the Prime Minister said ministers must "uphold the very highest standards of propriety" - words that have been removed from the revamped edition.
The new introduction says the code should "guide my ministers on how they should act and arrange their affairs".
And the foreword no longer explicitly mentions the seven Nolan principles of public life - integrity, objectivity, accountability, transparency, honesty and leadership in the public interest.'
“Derangement Syndrome” definitely exists. It is generally on the Left (for now, in the West) but can definitely also be found on the Right. It is one of the most peculiar new evolutions of our time; it is surely driven by social media
eg Trump Derangement Syndrome is totally a thing. It got so bad people banned debate of the mere idea that covid might have come from a chinese lab - even though this is highly plausible if not probable - just because Trump expressed it. It was banned FOR A YEAR. Mad. Deranged
Brexit Derangement Syndrome (AKA Stockholm Syndrome) can be found on the right and on the left
Boris Derangement Syndrome can be very much found on PB
After my encounter with Plastic Bag on Head Lady today, on a Greek bus, I wonder if there is a Covid Derangement Syndrome. People driven to crazy expressions of medical self defence - probably by their consumption of self-curated and terrifying information - and disinformation - on the net. And social media
It is a thing
Yeah except no. We could just as easily talk about Marxist derangement syndrome. You know, how teaching children that colonial history wasn't heroic.. MARXISM! and how wanting to prevent runaway climate change.. MARXISM! and allowing not to be the unwilling vessels for a child they don't want.. MARXISM!
The right is just as mad as the left.
Remember how Ed Miliband was described as "Stalinist" by the Daily Mail?
Indeed. Only yesterday the Telegraph was hyperventilating about a Hard Left Alliance. Containing, er, Ed Davey's Lib Dems. As for Ed M. The Tories have implemented his policies and then some.
We might smile but Trump Republican's and Johnsonian Tories have both grasped that what people believe is far more important than the truth. Hence Trump's "Truth" social media project. Sadly, they are not wrong which is why both groups now poll far better amongst the less educated than has been the case during my lifetime.
I don't smile about it, as I think it is true what people believe is far more important than truth (or facts) and that is worrisome. But are we not slightly at risk of suggesting the views of the less educated are not worth as much? And would that mean when the less educated supported other groups that should have been a problem too?
I understand your point regarding education and I certainly don't believe that the views of those with less education are any less valid than one elses.
The point I was clumsily making was that, compared to the past, the current Tory Party and GOP are cynically targeting their message to those groups that are more susceptible to uncritically believe misinformation. Where does it leave us or the USA when a majority of voters come to believe QAnon conspiracy theories or believe that the last election was "stolen"? I guess at that point democracy in that country disappears up its own backside. It's not as though it hasn't happened before.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
This must be the end of several careers (Guardian liveblog)
“The head of the Texas department of public safety has said “there’s no excuse” for officers not trying to break into the elementary school classroom as the gunman fired away.”
Not that it helps any of the poor bereaved people. Tho it might assist America in sorting out its ludicrously fucked police/guns/crime dysfunction
Might as well defund the police if they are just going to stand around cleaning their guns while the slaughter takes place.
The gunman was in the end shot by the police
No he wasn't
The Department of Homeland Security would also be defunded by defund the policers. It is still law enforcement
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
A minor party candidate in the Wakefield by-election writes...
Just seen Peter Bone in Wakefield.
If CCHQ keep sending MPs campaigning, and if they're hearing from voters what I'm hearing, there might well be 54 letters in before we even get to polling day.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
“The Kremlin is considering a second assault on Kyiv despite failing to capture the Ukrainian capital at the outset of the war, according to the independent news website, Meduza.
Sources close to the Kremlin and inside the Putin administration said confidence has spread to the leadership of United Russia, the country’s ruling political party, that a full-scale victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year.
One source said:
We’ll grind them [the Ukrainians] down in the end. The whole thing will probably be over by the fall.
Russia’s leadership has “minimum” and “maximum” thresholds for declaring a successful and completed “special military operation” in Ukraine, sources said.
The bare minimum needed to declare victory is the complete capture of the Donbas region, according to sources, while the maximum goal would be the capture of Kyiv.
The editor of the English-language edition of Meduza, Kevin Rothrock, said the report suggests that Ukraine is losing the “information war” for the first time since the invasion.
Many ways to interpret this: (1) the mood inside the Kremlin shifts faster than a temperamental teen’s, (2) Kyiv’s alarm-signaling is largely about expediting/sustaining Western aid, (3) Western fatigue is real (the energy crisis & U.S. midterms mean a whole new ballgame soon)”
I reckon this means WW3
Most likely it will end up a prolonged war of attrition in the Donbas. It won't be WW3 unless Russia invades a NATO state
I agree. My impression (but what do I know?) is that Russia will get to the edge of Donbas in a month or two, but the flow of Western arms will then encourage the Ukrainians to counter-attack. I suspect we'll then see a war of attirition, as HYUFD says, and eventually there will be an uneasy cease-fire.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Johnson's new ministerial code removes all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. The opposition attacks just write themselves don't they?
This has already been discussed, and it is not true.
The fat crook took all references to those things out of the foreword so it is true in substance.
Do you not mind any of this? Do you think the natural order of things is that us peasants get lied to and laughed at by phat poshbois?
"Wrote an entirely new foreword (which isn't part of the Code)" makes the lie "deleted all references from the Code" "true in substance"??
You're being laughed at by Labour politicians for swallowing their transparent lie.
Defending such nonsense makes him more safe. Focus on the real reasons that he needs to go.
It matters not a jot. Johnson has form and by a large margin is thought a liar and a rogue. Why would anyone waste their energy on the minutiae when the cap is such a perfect fit
Missing from the header: any mention of why the change was made.
But I guess it's too important that opposition politicians should be able to demand ministers' resignations for the most trivial of perceived transgressions.
It has worked well for quite a long time, until this clown came into office. I have to congratulate you though, you must have a super thick skin and very flexible morals to be such an unapologetic apologist for Boris Johnson
When a politician is in a no-win situation, it's only fair to point that out.
He's done plenty of bad things. Implementing a recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life is not one of them.
What if it is a dumb recommendation? Someone with a modicum of decency might say, "hey that's not going to look good". But not your idol
I stopped reading there.
I understand. Boris Johnson apologists generally have difficulty with paying attention beyond a few seconds.
Scholz apologists, on the other hand..
I am not an apologist for him. The German nation has moved form being a militaristic nation to a pacifist one. You are clearly too dim to realise this and make sweeping generalisations and judgements based on childish anti-German prejudice.
Ok Nigelforgermanappeasementpolicies.
Oh dear. Playground stuff. If you want to debate with the grownups you ought to wait until you have graduated to senior school.
Can anyone sane tell me whether to worry about omicron variants??
I’m having a hoot doing an odyssey around the world. I don’t want covid FUCKING IT UP AGAIN
I know it's not leading to an uptick in hospital/deaths - but a very high % of the people I know who've had it in the past few weeks have been proper f*cked (bedridden/fever for over a week). So still something to try and not catch I'd say (tricky/impossible though that may be). But maybe without the worry that you're going to end up with a tube down your neck wishing you'd put your affairs in order.
No idea if it's just been atypical bad luck, new sub-variants, whatever - but not fun at all.
I think re-infections are heading for 10% even for people who had 'original' omicron. It's going to be an absolute pisser if we end up all getting re-infected and downed for a week every three months due to immune escape.
:: party hat emoji etc etc ::
I’ve had Covid at least once, quite possibly twice, maybe thrice
I don’t care any more. If I have to get a flu-like illness every 6 months, so be it. It is still worth resuming normal life, it’s just a shitty new thing. Life is full of shitty new things, anyone over the age of 40 has experienced ageing. That’s consistently shitty, yet we cope
We simply have to accept that life now comes with a significant new element of risk and shitiness. But these might be solved with new vaccines, we can but pray
Never again must we lockdown
Lockdowns and similar measures are only a way of buying time until vaccines, pharmaceuticals and hospital capacity can control in other ways. The first two are now here (a friend with lymphoma caught it and had the antivirals, giving less illness than ther family) the third depends on redeployment and cancelling routine work.
I don't think further lockdowns will be needed, but we need petmanant infrastructure to ensure that.
What do you make of paxlovid causing COVID rebound?
Unlike the Johnson govt which is cutting the new Health Security Agency by 40% of jobs... Biden is investing massively in pandemic preparedness. Some incredible ambition being shown - $82bn over next 5 years.
“The Kremlin is considering a second assault on Kyiv despite failing to capture the Ukrainian capital at the outset of the war, according to the independent news website, Meduza.
Sources close to the Kremlin and inside the Putin administration said confidence has spread to the leadership of United Russia, the country’s ruling political party, that a full-scale victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year.
One source said:
We’ll grind them [the Ukrainians] down in the end. The whole thing will probably be over by the fall.
Russia’s leadership has “minimum” and “maximum” thresholds for declaring a successful and completed “special military operation” in Ukraine, sources said.
The bare minimum needed to declare victory is the complete capture of the Donbas region, according to sources, while the maximum goal would be the capture of Kyiv.
The editor of the English-language edition of Meduza, Kevin Rothrock, said the report suggests that Ukraine is losing the “information war” for the first time since the invasion.
Many ways to interpret this: (1) the mood inside the Kremlin shifts faster than a temperamental teen’s, (2) Kyiv’s alarm-signaling is largely about expediting/sustaining Western aid, (3) Western fatigue is real (the energy crisis & U.S. midterms mean a whole new ballgame soon)”
I reckon this means WW3
Most likely it will end up a prolonged war of attrition in the Donbas. It won't be WW3 unless Russia invades a NATO state
I agree. My impression (but what do I know?) is that Russia will get to the edge of Donbas in a month or two, but the flow of Western arms will then encourage the Ukrainians to counter-attack. I suspect we'll then see a war of attirition, as HYUFD says, and eventually there will be an uneasy cease-fire.
WW3? Nah.
Lol. I don’t actually think we will come to WW3
But we will come uncomfortably close in the next year or two
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
“The Kremlin is considering a second assault on Kyiv despite failing to capture the Ukrainian capital at the outset of the war, according to the independent news website, Meduza.
Sources close to the Kremlin and inside the Putin administration said confidence has spread to the leadership of United Russia, the country’s ruling political party, that a full-scale victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year.
One source said:
We’ll grind them [the Ukrainians] down in the end. The whole thing will probably be over by the fall.
Russia’s leadership has “minimum” and “maximum” thresholds for declaring a successful and completed “special military operation” in Ukraine, sources said.
The bare minimum needed to declare victory is the complete capture of the Donbas region, according to sources, while the maximum goal would be the capture of Kyiv.
The editor of the English-language edition of Meduza, Kevin Rothrock, said the report suggests that Ukraine is losing the “information war” for the first time since the invasion.
Many ways to interpret this: (1) the mood inside the Kremlin shifts faster than a temperamental teen’s, (2) Kyiv’s alarm-signaling is largely about expediting/sustaining Western aid, (3) Western fatigue is real (the energy crisis & U.S. midterms mean a whole new ballgame soon)”
I reckon this means WW3
Most likely it will end up a prolonged war of attrition in the Donbas. It won't be WW3 unless Russia invades a NATO state
I agree. My impression (but what do I know?) is that Russia will get to the edge of Donbas in a month or two, but the flow of Western arms will then encourage the Ukrainians to counter-attack. I suspect we'll then see a war of attirition, as HYUFD says, and eventually there will be an uneasy cease-fire.
Prevalence of COVID is currently at the same level as it was at the start of December. I think this is around the lowest background level we are going to have to contend with for the forseeable future.
Johnson's new ministerial code removes all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. The opposition attacks just write themselves don't they?
This has already been discussed, and it is not true.
The fat crook took all references to those things out of the foreword so it is true in substance.
Do you not mind any of this? Do you think the natural order of things is that us peasants get lied to and laughed at by phat poshbois?
"Wrote an entirely new foreword (which isn't part of the Code)" makes the lie "deleted all references from the Code" "true in substance"??
You're being laughed at by Labour politicians for swallowing their transparent lie.
Defending such nonsense makes him more safe. Focus on the real reasons that he needs to go.
It matters not a jot. Johnson has form and by a large margin is thought a liar and a rogue. Why would anyone waste their energy on the minutiae when the cap is such a perfect fit
@Applicant likes to be shat on by toffs. La vice anglaise.
“The Kremlin is considering a second assault on Kyiv despite failing to capture the Ukrainian capital at the outset of the war, according to the independent news website, Meduza.
Sources close to the Kremlin and inside the Putin administration said confidence has spread to the leadership of United Russia, the country’s ruling political party, that a full-scale victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year.
One source said:
We’ll grind them [the Ukrainians] down in the end. The whole thing will probably be over by the fall.
Russia’s leadership has “minimum” and “maximum” thresholds for declaring a successful and completed “special military operation” in Ukraine, sources said.
The bare minimum needed to declare victory is the complete capture of the Donbas region, according to sources, while the maximum goal would be the capture of Kyiv.
The editor of the English-language edition of Meduza, Kevin Rothrock, said the report suggests that Ukraine is losing the “information war” for the first time since the invasion.
Many ways to interpret this: (1) the mood inside the Kremlin shifts faster than a temperamental teen’s, (2) Kyiv’s alarm-signaling is largely about expediting/sustaining Western aid, (3) Western fatigue is real (the energy crisis & U.S. midterms mean a whole new ballgame soon)”
I reckon this means WW3
Most likely it will end up a prolonged war of attrition in the Donbas. It won't be WW3 unless Russia invades a NATO state
I agree. My impression (but what do I know?) is that Russia will get to the edge of Donbas in a month or two, but the flow of Western arms will then encourage the Ukrainians to counter-attack. I suspect we'll then see a war of attirition, as HYUFD says, and eventually there will be an uneasy cease-fire.
WW3? Nah.
The Kashmir scenario: a de facto partition that neither side recognises de jure. The 80-90% of Ukraine that remains unoccupied can then gravitate decisively to the West.
That's when the really big challenge begins: trying to dissuade the likes of Germany, Italy and France from using the ceasefire as an excuse to going back to "business as usual" with Russia.
“The Kremlin is considering a second assault on Kyiv despite failing to capture the Ukrainian capital at the outset of the war, according to the independent news website, Meduza.
Sources close to the Kremlin and inside the Putin administration said confidence has spread to the leadership of United Russia, the country’s ruling political party, that a full-scale victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year.
One source said:
We’ll grind them [the Ukrainians] down in the end. The whole thing will probably be over by the fall.
Russia’s leadership has “minimum” and “maximum” thresholds for declaring a successful and completed “special military operation” in Ukraine, sources said.
The bare minimum needed to declare victory is the complete capture of the Donbas region, according to sources, while the maximum goal would be the capture of Kyiv.
The editor of the English-language edition of Meduza, Kevin Rothrock, said the report suggests that Ukraine is losing the “information war” for the first time since the invasion.
Many ways to interpret this: (1) the mood inside the Kremlin shifts faster than a temperamental teen’s, (2) Kyiv’s alarm-signaling is largely about expediting/sustaining Western aid, (3) Western fatigue is real (the energy crisis & U.S. midterms mean a whole new ballgame soon)”
I reckon this means WW3
Most likely it will end up a prolonged war of attrition in the Donbas. It won't be WW3 unless Russia invades a NATO state
I agree. My impression (but what do I know?) is that Russia will get to the edge of Donbas in a month or two, but the flow of Western arms will then encourage the Ukrainians to counter-attack. I suspect we'll then see a war of attirition, as HYUFD says, and eventually there will be an uneasy cease-fire.
WW3? Nah.
The South is the really problematic bit. While Russia holds that coastal strip it’s going to be hard for trade to get back to normal. And will the West allow Russia to maintain a coastal blockade of half the Black Sea indefinitely?
Johnson's new ministerial code removes all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. The opposition attacks just write themselves don't they?
This has already been discussed, and it is not true.
The fat crook took all references to those things out of the foreword so it is true in substance.
Do you not mind any of this? Do you think the natural order of things is that us peasants get lied to and laughed at by phat poshbois?
"Wrote an entirely new foreword (which isn't part of the Code)" makes the lie "deleted all references from the Code" "true in substance"??
You're being laughed at by Labour politicians for swallowing their transparent lie.
Defending such nonsense makes him more safe. Focus on the real reasons that he needs to go.
It matters not a jot. Johnson has form and by a large margin is thought a liar and a rogue. Why would anyone waste their energy on the minutiae when the cap is such a perfect fit
@Applicant likes to be shat on by toffs. La vice anglaise.
That REALLY isn’t “La Vice Anglaise”. You are clearly not a toff, nor a kinkster
I wonder how much Sweet Caroline is now making in performance rights every year? Can we have a special windfall tax on it to pay for people's leccy bills?
Johnson's new ministerial code removes all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. The opposition attacks just write themselves don't they?
This has already been discussed, and it is not true.
The fat crook took all references to those things out of the foreword so it is true in substance.
Do you not mind any of this? Do you think the natural order of things is that us peasants get lied to and laughed at by phat poshbois?
"Wrote an entirely new foreword (which isn't part of the Code)" makes the lie "deleted all references from the Code" "true in substance"??
You're being laughed at by Labour politicians for swallowing their transparent lie.
Defending such nonsense makes him more safe. Focus on the real reasons that he needs to go.
It matters not a jot. Johnson has form and by a large margin is thought a liar and a rogue. Why would anyone waste their energy on the minutiae when the cap is such a perfect fit
@Applicant likes to be shat on by toffs. La vice anglaise.
Love the off topicing, you must feel like a real man.
Not a good start to the long weekend when hotel has two distinct queue systems for check-in & "issue resolution".
Spoke with the stressed receptionist and he says they half the staff they usually have for a Highland summer season. And he's just been offered a new job building mountain bikes...
GF and I have 5 issues for resolution so far.
My point: hospitality is a huge chunk of the economy and they've had a grim few years.
What happens next? The sector collapses? People stop going out in the UK with prices through the roof?
People go out less often, fewer restaurants required.
Going out to a fancy restaurant in London means people who go to fancy restaurants twice a week sitting in a dining room with people who eat in fancy restaurants once a year. Plenty of scope for behaviour change in both directions.
Johnson's new ministerial code removes all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. The opposition attacks just write themselves don't they?
This has already been discussed, and it is not true.
The fat crook took all references to those things out of the foreword so it is true in substance.
Do you not mind any of this? Do you think the natural order of things is that us peasants get lied to and laughed at by phat poshbois?
"Wrote an entirely new foreword (which isn't part of the Code)" makes the lie "deleted all references from the Code" "true in substance"??
You're being laughed at by Labour politicians for swallowing their transparent lie.
Defending such nonsense makes him more safe. Focus on the real reasons that he needs to go.
It matters not a jot. Johnson has form and by a large margin is thought a liar and a rogue. Why would anyone waste their energy on the minutiae when the cap is such a perfect fit
@Applicant likes to be shat on by toffs. La vice anglaise.
That REALLY isn’t “La Vice Anglaise”. You are clearly not a toff, nor a kinkster
No, but I can still dream that Boris was my fag at pop in oppidans.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
“The Kremlin is considering a second assault on Kyiv despite failing to capture the Ukrainian capital at the outset of the war, according to the independent news website, Meduza.
Sources close to the Kremlin and inside the Putin administration said confidence has spread to the leadership of United Russia, the country’s ruling political party, that a full-scale victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year.
One source said:
We’ll grind them [the Ukrainians] down in the end. The whole thing will probably be over by the fall.
Russia’s leadership has “minimum” and “maximum” thresholds for declaring a successful and completed “special military operation” in Ukraine, sources said.
The bare minimum needed to declare victory is the complete capture of the Donbas region, according to sources, while the maximum goal would be the capture of Kyiv.
The editor of the English-language edition of Meduza, Kevin Rothrock, said the report suggests that Ukraine is losing the “information war” for the first time since the invasion.
Many ways to interpret this: (1) the mood inside the Kremlin shifts faster than a temperamental teen’s, (2) Kyiv’s alarm-signaling is largely about expediting/sustaining Western aid, (3) Western fatigue is real (the energy crisis & U.S. midterms mean a whole new ballgame soon)”
I reckon this means WW3
Most likely it will end up a prolonged war of attrition in the Donbas. It won't be WW3 unless Russia invades a NATO state
I agree. My impression (but what do I know?) is that Russia will get to the edge of Donbas in a month or two, but the flow of Western arms will then encourage the Ukrainians to counter-attack. I suspect we'll then see a war of attirition, as HYUFD says, and eventually there will be an uneasy cease-fire.
WW3? Nah.
The Kashmir scenario: a de facto partition that neither side recognises de jure. The 80-90% of Ukraine that remains unoccupied can then gravitate decisively to the West.
That's when the really big challenge begins: trying to dissuade the likes of Germany, Italy and France from using the ceasefire as an excuse to going back to "business as usual" with Russia.
Actually, on this general subject, it's going to be interesting to see what happens if (or, more likely, when) some of the EU states that are happy to lick Putin's arse in exchange for cheap oil and gas try to start unpicking all the collective sanctions that they've previously agreed to - a process liable to be vetoed by, at the very minimum, the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Balts until Ukraine gets all its land back (i.e. forever.) There are no shortage of politicians in countries located a very long way from Moscow who care far more about energy costs at home than wars in far away places of which their dim voters know little and care less.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
In my experience "woke" is very much more determined by age rather than class or location.
“The Kremlin is considering a second assault on Kyiv despite failing to capture the Ukrainian capital at the outset of the war, according to the independent news website, Meduza.
Sources close to the Kremlin and inside the Putin administration said confidence has spread to the leadership of United Russia, the country’s ruling political party, that a full-scale victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year.
One source said:
We’ll grind them [the Ukrainians] down in the end. The whole thing will probably be over by the fall.
Russia’s leadership has “minimum” and “maximum” thresholds for declaring a successful and completed “special military operation” in Ukraine, sources said.
The bare minimum needed to declare victory is the complete capture of the Donbas region, according to sources, while the maximum goal would be the capture of Kyiv.
The editor of the English-language edition of Meduza, Kevin Rothrock, said the report suggests that Ukraine is losing the “information war” for the first time since the invasion.
Many ways to interpret this: (1) the mood inside the Kremlin shifts faster than a temperamental teen’s, (2) Kyiv’s alarm-signaling is largely about expediting/sustaining Western aid, (3) Western fatigue is real (the energy crisis & U.S. midterms mean a whole new ballgame soon)”
I reckon this means WW3
The only thing Russia is grinding down is its own military, hence their deployment of older and older equipment.
Think of things as Russia and Ukraine both walking up escalators - Ukraine have a longer walk but they're walking up an up escalator whereas Russia is walking up a down escalator, which is steadily getting faster.
Assuming this New York Post story is reasonably accurate, Jacob Albarado knew what to do -- and did it:
An off-duty US Customs and Border Protection agent fearlessly rushed into Robb Elementary School with his barber’s shotgun and rescued dozens of children and his daughter after his wife texted him that there was an active shooter.
Jacob Albarado had just sat down for a haircut when he received the horrifying message from his wife, Trisha, a fourth-grade teacher at the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, he told the New York Times.
(It is quite common in that part of Texas for Border Patrol officers to be Mexican-American by descent, though that fact may not have reached the Guardian. Farther west, some officers come from the many Indian tribes in the area. As well as enforcing immigration laws, the Border Patrol rescues many illegals every year: https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/cbp-makes-lifesaving-rescues?language_content_entity=en )
Ben Grant, 30, the son of Helen Grant, Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald, is among a platoon of foreign fighters supporting Ukraine’s efforts in the war against Russia.
i has verified footage that shows the squad of Western volunteers, made up of former special forces, preparing to mount their attack on a BTR – Russian armoured vehicle – from a forest in the Kharkhiv region in north eastern Ukraine.
It was filmed during a 15-hour operation on Thursday in which i understands that around eight Russian soldiers were killed, with a further 30 Russian troops killed in a firefight when the team of 13 US and British fighters later linked up with Ukrainian fighters to storm a Russian trench.
During the daring mission, a fighter emerges from the woodland and aims the shoulder-held Matador missile at the vehicle, which is seen in a clearing about 100 metres away.
Mr Grant, who spent more than five years as a commando in the Royal Marines, is heard shouting “shoot it now” and “mind the back blast”, before the missile is launched.
(It is quite common in that part of Texas for Border Patrol officers to be Mexican-American by descent, though that fact may not have reached the Guardian. Farther west, some officers come from the many Indian tribes in the area. As well as enforcing immigration laws, the Border Patrol rescues many illegals every year: https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/cbp-makes-lifesaving-rescues?language_content_entity=en )
US Republicans can sneer at the Grauniad when you stop selling assault weapons used to kill innocent kids. Thanks
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
In my experience "woke" is very much more determined by age rather than class or location.
You were distracted by the invocation of "woke" in addition to Brexit, which I guess was the point of including it, to muddy the waters. Now yes in some parts race and ethnicity determine voting, and in a few towns higher education institutes swing the vote, but mostly Brexit still does not determine how people vote, and woke surely hasn't made any constituency change its vote at all.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
As far as I'm concerned, residential properties are places for people to reside. So, yes, you will have cases such as undergraduate student accommodation where they are bound to lie empty for a while, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect them to be occupied for at least the bulk of the year. Under-occupied homes that are left lying empty for eight or nine months of every year constitute a form of parasitism upon the communities in which they are located. It seems reasonable that their owners ought at least to be made to compensate those communities accordingly.
I don't think that's necessarily true. There are places - like ski resorts or much of the Hamptons - that have massive seasonal population differences. And that's fine.
The problem comes when an existing community sees an ever greater proportion of properties becoming second homes or occasional holiday lets. In that situation, the town can be starved of the residents it needs year round to maintain services.
Johnson's new ministerial code removes all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. The opposition attacks just write themselves don't they?
This has already been discussed, and it is not true.
The fat crook took all references to those things out of the foreword so it is true in substance.
Do you not mind any of this? Do you think the natural order of things is that us peasants get lied to and laughed at by phat poshbois?
"Wrote an entirely new foreword (which isn't part of the Code)" makes the lie "deleted all references from the Code" "true in substance"??
You're being laughed at by Labour politicians for swallowing their transparent lie.
Defending such nonsense makes him more safe. Focus on the real reasons that he needs to go.
It matters not a jot. Johnson has form and by a large margin is thought a liar and a rogue. Why would anyone waste their energy on the minutiae when the cap is such a perfect fit
@Applicant likes to be shat on by toffs. La vice anglaise.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
You don't need to be partisan to moan at the Welsh government. They're so useless and out of date that if they were trying ferry procurement they'd end up trying to convert narrow gauge steam engines into amphibious vehicles.
However, Big G is right in this case. The tourism industry in Wales is extremely seasonal - it effectively only runs from May to September and not every week in that time is busy. If this policy goes ahead it will whether intentionally or not shut down all the self-catering outside Cardiff itself. That will have an extremely nasty knock-on effect on tourism as a whole.
It's not a lot of use making houses more affordable if there are no jobs in the area anyway.
Missing from the header: any mention of why the change was made.
But I guess it's too important that opposition politicians should be able to demand ministers' resignations for the most trivial of perceived transgressions.
It has worked well for quite a long time, until this clown came into office. I have to congratulate you though, you must have a super thick skin and very flexible morals to be such an unapologetic apologist for Boris Johnson
When a politician is in a no-win situation, it's only fair to point that out.
He's done plenty of bad things. Implementing a recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life is not one of them.
What if it is a dumb recommendation? Someone with a modicum of decency might say, "hey that's not going to look good". But not your idol
I stopped reading there.
I understand. Boris Johnson apologists generally have difficulty with paying attention beyond a few seconds.
Scholz apologists, on the other hand..
I am not an apologist for him. The German nation has moved form being a militaristic nation to a pacifist one. You are clearly too dim to realise this and make sweeping generalisations and judgements based on childish anti-German prejudice.
Ok Nigelforgermanappeasementpolicies.
Oh dear. Playground stuff. If you want to debate with the grownups you ought to wait until you have graduated to senior school.
It'll take some more effort to convince me that you're a grown up. You resort to crude expletive laden abuse at such a low threshold; you remind me of the stupidest children at school.
I have always enjoyed a good expletive. A prudish disdain for it only shows your lack of class and style that fits well with your low intellect excuses for xenophobia.
I swore at you in German in reply on the last thread. And I'll do it again; Schwanzlutscher.
Your crass rants are really low powered. As I said, you remind me of the stupid children from when I was at school.
If I am one of those stupid children you must have had the pointy hat on with a D on it because I don't think any impartial observer would think you are winning this exchange
The one which started with you throwing a "fuck yourself" hissy fit on the last thread because I called you Nigelforgermany?
You winner.
I would happily be for Germany. It's a country with a complicated history, particularly in the field of armed conflict, to put it mildly. It has pursued, misguidedly for decades, a policy of Ostpolitik. I think there is a complicated national psychology, in that the Soviet Union played a key role (arguably the key role) in ending Nazism and not just in the East. It's by no meaning a feeling of gratitude but there is a something towards Russia that surprised me when I lived there. It wasn't a fear either, but a sense they were so powerful as demanding attention. Secondly, because of the aforementioned history, Germany became intensely pacifist. For decades they have had both a tolerance towards Russia and an aversion to armed conflict. I once spoke to a friend over a few beers and he, very educated young man, believed there was something innately evil at the heart of Germany. I think there is a determination to minimise suffering by whatever means, after all a humane war is a quick war.
I believe both those things are misguided, but I also don't expect them to go away over night. Of all the triggers in the German psyche, armed conflict and Russia must top the list. Armed conflict with Russia, however remote a prospect is apocalyptic. As it was the last time.
Time will march on, Germany will eventually act like the Great Power it is and understanding that its wealth gives it obligations. It will take time, and I wish they'd hurry up but it is a lot of history to get over.
One of the key parties to defeating Nazism was... Germany. Stay with me now, this is a sensible point. We've seen in the past how military defeat can sometimes lead to more virulent militarism. So yes, the Soviets and the Americans beat Germany in the war, but that didn't mean the automatic defeat of fascism. Germans of the postwar era deserve a lot of credit for overcoming their past.
It didn't happen straight away. To begin there was a culture of silence, and memorials to the victims of the the holocaust tended to be vague or even absent. But in later decades, I think from the late 60s if memory serves, a more serious self-reckoning came about, especially in the younger generations. The silence was dropped and the world became a markedly better place for it.
An emasculated Germany (in foreign policy and defence) was also the NATO aim during the Cold War.
It also greatly suited France, which saw (and arguably still sees) the purpose of the EU in its original incarnation as a pedestal from which German economic heft could be used to project French power (not how it ultimately ended up, but Macron may yet get his way!).
The political culture in Germany is not purely internally cultivated, it was actively encouraged from abroad.
Why didn’t we also discourage them from funding murderous dictators..
I much prefer your travel contributions. They are as sharp and as observant as your German ones are bland prejudiced and ignorant.
They unfortunately still do war guilt big time, which they should get over because the youngest person that was in the war is 93.
I'm in Saxony and Berlin next month, will wear Ukrainian colours and see what rx I get.
Worth noting that Russian soldiers are doing to Ukrayinki exactly what they did to Berlinerinnen in '45.
I’m in Berlin just now, quite a few Ukraine flags flying from windows and buildings, though I guess folk may give someone dressed as a flag a wide berth (I would).
Sadly, I saw a convoy of vehicles in Los Angeles (well, technically Orange County) with Russian flags.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
Except it isn't, there are now Tory MPs in Burnley and Stoke and Walsall and Dudley. LD MPs in Richmond Park and Chesham and Amersham and Westminster has a Labour Council and on current polls will have a Labour MP in 2024 as Esher and Walton will have a LD MP. 2 of the wealthiest constituencies without a Conservative MP.
As recent elections in Australia, France and the US prove the current divide is not on economics and wealth anymore so much as age and education level
As far as I'm concerned, residential properties are places for people to reside. So, yes, you will have cases such as undergraduate student accommodation where they are bound to lie empty for a while, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect them to be occupied for at least the bulk of the year. Under-occupied homes that are left lying empty for eight or nine months of every year constitute a form of parasitism upon the communities in which they are located. It seems reasonable that their owners ought at least to be made to compensate those communities accordingly.
I don't think that's necessarily true. There are places - like ski resorts or much of the Hamptons - that have massive seasonal population differences. And that's fine.
The problem comes when an existing community sees an ever greater proportion of properties becoming second homes or occasional holiday lets. In that situation, the town can be starved of the residents it needs year round to maintain services.
Some would suggest that the answer is to get rid of the locals and replace them with migrants who will live ten to a caravan.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
Also. The Lake District has had problems recruiting folk to work in its restaurants and hotels. You can't afford to live there on minimum wage. And it's a bloody long commute from anywhere else with virtually no public transport. So. The idea that people's jobs depend on it is valid only up to a point. It's true if you already own a house there. Or live with your parents.
Ben Grant, 30, the son of Helen Grant, Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald, is among a platoon of foreign fighters supporting Ukraine’s efforts in the war against Russia.
i has verified footage that shows the squad of Western volunteers, made up of former special forces, preparing to mount their attack on a BTR – Russian armoured vehicle – from a forest in the Kharkhiv region in north eastern Ukraine.
It was filmed during a 15-hour operation on Thursday in which i understands that around eight Russian soldiers were killed, with a further 30 Russian troops killed in a firefight when the team of 13 US and British fighters later linked up with Ukrainian fighters to storm a Russian trench.
During the daring mission, a fighter emerges from the woodland and aims the shoulder-held Matador missile at the vehicle, which is seen in a clearing about 100 metres away.
Mr Grant, who spent more than five years as a commando in the Royal Marines, is heard shouting “shoot it now” and “mind the back blast”, before the missile is launched.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
You don't need to be partisan to moan at the Welsh government. They're so useless and out of date that if they were trying ferry procurement they'd end up trying to convert narrow gauge steam engines into amphibious vehicles.
However, Big G is right in this case. The tourism industry in Wales is extremely seasonal - it effectively only runs from May to September and not every week in that time is busy. If this policy goes ahead it will whether intentionally or not shut down all the self-catering outside Cardiff itself. That will have an extremely nasty knock-on effect on tourism as a whole.
It's not a lot of use making houses more affordable if there are no jobs in the area anyway.
Did you miss the figures I linked to earlier showing occupancy rates in Wales averaging along at about 55% for this type of accommodation? And North Wales occupancy rates are the highest in Wales? That doesn't really fit at all with what you're saying.
Also, if you have legitimate gripes with the Welsh government, fine and dandy. But as soon as you scratch the surface of the scare piece that G posted, you can see that it's just silly. That's why this is partisan moaning, not sensible criticism. The numbers simply do not support the idea that this would be have "extremely nasty" effects. This is a good policy.
Johnson's new ministerial code removes all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. The opposition attacks just write themselves don't they?
This has already been discussed, and it is not true.
The fat crook took all references to those things out of the foreword so it is true in substance.
Do you not mind any of this? Do you think the natural order of things is that us peasants get lied to and laughed at by phat poshbois?
"Wrote an entirely new foreword (which isn't part of the Code)" makes the lie "deleted all references from the Code" "true in substance"??
You're being laughed at by Labour politicians for swallowing their transparent lie.
Defending such nonsense makes him more safe. Focus on the real reasons that he needs to go.
It matters not a jot. Johnson has form and by a large margin is thought a liar and a rogue. Why would anyone waste their energy on the minutiae when the cap is such a perfect fit
@Applicant likes to be shat on by toffs. La vice anglaise.
That REALLY isn’t “La Vice Anglaise”. You are clearly not a toff, nor a kinkster
No, but I can still dream that Boris was my fag at pop in oppidans.
You are far too bright to have been at Eton in those days however the “having Boris as your fag/sweat” and all the possibilities is like “if I had taken out Hitler when he was younger” scenarios.
Could you have stopped an egotistical madman who is obsessed with power who had a dodgy taste in women and his idea of a Party was distasteful and likewise could you have stopped Hitler.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
You don't need to be partisan to moan at the Welsh government. They're so useless and out of date that if they were trying ferry procurement they'd end up trying to convert narrow gauge steam engines into amphibious vehicles.
However, Big G is right in this case. The tourism industry in Wales is extremely seasonal - it effectively only runs from May to September and not every week in that time is busy. If this policy goes ahead it will whether intentionally or not shut down all the self-catering outside Cardiff itself. That will have an extremely nasty knock-on effect on tourism as a whole.
It's not a lot of use making houses more affordable if there are no jobs in the area anyway.
Did you miss the figures I linked to earlier showing occupancy rates in Wales averaging along at about 55% for this type of accommodation? And North Wales occupancy rates are the highest in Wales? That doesn't really fit at all with what you're saying.
Also, if you have legitimate gripes with the Welsh government, fine and dandy. But as soon as you scratch the surface of the scare piece that G posted, you can see that it's just silly. That's why this is partisan moaning, not sensible criticism. The numbers simply do not support the idea that this would be have "extremely nasty" effects. This is a good policy.
I had not seen them. I have to say having lived in Wales for many years and knowing several people working in tourism there I find those figures surprising and somewhat implausible. Do you still have the link? If it's a Welsh government website, harsh though it may sound I would say don't trust it. I loathe Boris Johnson, but he runs a tighter ship (and not in an alcoholic sense) than Drakeford.
About the only thing to say in favour of Plaid Llafur is that they're not Y Ceidwadwyr Cymru.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
Except it isn't, there are now Tory MPs in Burnley and Stoke and Walsall and Dudley. LD MPs in Richmond Park and Chesham and Amersham and Westminster has a Labour Council and on current polls will have a Labour MP in 2024 as Esher and Walton will have a LD MP. 2 of the wealthiest constituencies without a Conservative MP.
As recent elections in Australia, France and the US prove the current divide is not on economics and wealth anymore so much as age and education level
Are you celebrating being on the side of the old and thick then? I'll choose young and smart every day. I am deadly serious. This is a long-term issue. Labour suffered for decades of being seen as the Party of the uneducated. The Tories were the Party of the clever. A significant proportion of the working class loved to be associated with them to be thought better than their neighbours. My maternal grandparents were two of them.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
Except it isn't, there are now Tory MPs in Burnley and Stoke and Walsall and Dudley. LD MPs in Richmond Park and Chesham and Amersham and Westminster has a Labour Council and on current polls will have a Labour MP in 2024 as Esher and Walton will have a LD MP. 2 of the wealthiest constituencies without a Conservative MP.
As recent elections in Australia, France and the US prove the current divide is not on economics and wealth anymore so much as age and education level
Are you celebrating being on the side of the old and thick then?
Missing from the header: any mention of why the change was made.
But I guess it's too important that opposition politicians should be able to demand ministers' resignations for the most trivial of perceived transgressions.
It has worked well for quite a long time, until this clown came into office. I have to congratulate you though, you must have a super thick skin and very flexible morals to be such an unapologetic apologist for Boris Johnson
When a politician is in a no-win situation, it's only fair to point that out.
He's done plenty of bad things. Implementing a recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life is not one of them.
What if it is a dumb recommendation? Someone with a modicum of decency might say, "hey that's not going to look good". But not your idol
I stopped reading there.
I understand. Boris Johnson apologists generally have difficulty with paying attention beyond a few seconds.
Scholz apologists, on the other hand..
I am not an apologist for him. The German nation has moved form being a militaristic nation to a pacifist one. You are clearly too dim to realise this and make sweeping generalisations and judgements based on childish anti-German prejudice.
Ok Nigelforgermanappeasementpolicies.
Oh dear. Playground stuff. If you want to debate with the grownups you ought to wait until you have graduated to senior school.
Can anyone sane tell me whether to worry about omicron variants??
I’m having a hoot doing an odyssey around the world. I don’t want covid FUCKING IT UP AGAIN
I know it's not leading to an uptick in hospital/deaths - but a very high % of the people I know who've had it in the past few weeks have been proper f*cked (bedridden/fever for over a week). So still something to try and not catch I'd say (tricky/impossible though that may be). But maybe without the worry that you're going to end up with a tube down your neck wishing you'd put your affairs in order.
No idea if it's just been atypical bad luck, new sub-variants, whatever - but not fun at all.
I think re-infections are heading for 10% even for people who had 'original' omicron. It's going to be an absolute pisser if we end up all getting re-infected and downed for a week every three months due to immune escape.
:: party hat emoji etc etc ::
I’ve had Covid at least once, quite possibly twice, maybe thrice
I don’t care any more. If I have to get a flu-like illness every 6 months, so be it. It is still worth resuming normal life, it’s just a shitty new thing. Life is full of shitty new things, anyone over the age of 40 has experienced ageing. That’s consistently shitty, yet we cope
We simply have to accept that life now comes with a significant new element of risk and shitiness. But these might be solved with new vaccines, we can but pray
Never again must we lockdown
Lockdowns and similar measures are only a way of buying time until vaccines, pharmaceuticals and hospital capacity can control in other ways. The first two are now here (a friend with lymphoma caught it and had the antivirals, giving less illness than ther family) the third depends on redeployment and cancelling routine work.
I don't think further lockdowns will be needed, but we need petmanant infrastructure to ensure that.
Pfizer is ramping Plaxlovid production massively at the moment. In the US, if you're vulnerable (which includes anyone 50 and up), you can basically go from a positive test to the pharmacy and get it.
And Plaxlovid is a game changer - as well as reducing hospitalisations 90%, it dramatically shortens disease time for most people.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
You don't need to be partisan to moan at the Welsh government. They're so useless and out of date that if they were trying ferry procurement they'd end up trying to convert narrow gauge steam engines into amphibious vehicles.
However, Big G is right in this case. The tourism industry in Wales is extremely seasonal - it effectively only runs from May to September and not every week in that time is busy. If this policy goes ahead it will whether intentionally or not shut down all the self-catering outside Cardiff itself. That will have an extremely nasty knock-on effect on tourism as a whole.
It's not a lot of use making houses more affordable if there are no jobs in the area anyway.
Did you miss the figures I linked to earlier showing occupancy rates in Wales averaging along at about 55% for this type of accommodation? And North Wales occupancy rates are the highest in Wales? That doesn't really fit at all with what you're saying.
Also, if you have legitimate gripes with the Welsh government, fine and dandy. But as soon as you scratch the surface of the scare piece that G posted, you can see that it's just silly. That's why this is partisan moaning, not sensible criticism. The numbers simply do not support the idea that this would be have "extremely nasty" effects. This is a good policy.
I had not seen them. I have to say having lived in Wales for many years and knowing several people working in tourism there I find those figures surprising and somewhat implausible. Do you still have the link? If it's a Welsh government website, harsh though it may sound I would say don't trust it. I loathe Boris Johnson, but he runs a tighter ship (and not in an alcoholic sense) than Drakeford.
About the only thing to say in favour of Plaid Llafur is that they're not Y Ceidwadwyr Cymru.
I don't really know what to say about you not trusting government publications. I don't want to pooh pooh that out of hand because scepticism is healthy, but it's an extraordinary claim that would require extraordinary evidence.
Unlike some European cities gentrification has passed it by. I love the edginess.
Hire a bike on a weekend and cycle around the city: wonderful.
Berlin is gentrifying: have you seen what rents are doing?
I found the assertion bizarre. At the most basic level, just 35 years ago, East Berlin had no access to "hipster" products for the time like disposable cameras. They moved an entire federal government apparatus there, full of conservative German bureaucrats, and it seems that what little English-speaking tech/VC exists in old Europe is concentrated there. So overall it has gentrified massively. Mitte and Kreuzberg are on an entirely "hip" continuum. In the West the heroin problem has mostly been cleaned up or hushed up, and you'd never know Zoo station was once notorious, in fact Frankfurt Hbf feels far edgier than it.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
North Wales is depopulating.
The growth of holiday accommodation/second homes is caused by economic policy.
If there are no jobs, then there is rural depopulation. The consequent growth in holiday accommodation is caused by the depopulation -- not the other way round. There are empty houses that can be bought cheaply and turned into holiday lets. If they were not holiday lets, they'd fall into disrepair.
There are plenty of falling down, sad, derelict houses in almost all areas of North Wales. People used to live in those houses. They don't now because of depopulation.
As for your ideas in holiday lets in Wales in the winter -- they are bonkers.
Most tourist attractions in North Wales are shut in low season. Most restaurants are shut then (or have very limited hours).
No one is going to go and spend a few extra days in the middle of winter at Talsarnau, when there is nothing to do, nothing is open and the weather is wet, just because of Drakeford's idiotic policy.
I don't think Drakeford's plan makes much sense, apart from in some of the coastal resorts where second homes are a real problem (e.g. Aberdyfi, Tenby, Abersoch, Gwyr). In the rest of the country @Big_G_NorthWales is right -- they will destroy businesses and value.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
North Wales is depopulating.
The growth of holiday accommodation/second homes is caused by economic policy.
If there are no jobs, then there is rural depopulation. The consequent growth in holiday accommodation is caused by the depopulation -- not the other way round. There are empty houses that can be bought cheaply and turned into holiday lets. If they were not holiday lets, they'd fall into disrepair.
There are plenty of falling down, sad, derelict houses in almost all areas of North Wales. People used to live in those houses. They don't now because of depopulation.
As for your ideas in holiday lets in Wales in the winter -- they are bonkers.
Most tourist attractions in North Wales are shut in low season. Most restaurants are shut then (or have very limited hours).
No one is going to go and spend a few extra days in the middle of winter at Talsarnau, when there is nothing to do, nothing is open and the weather is wet, just because of Drakeford's idiotic policy.
I don't think Drakeford's plan makes much sense, apart from in some of the coastal resorts where second homes are a real problem (e.g. Aberdyfi, Tenby, Abersoch, Gwyr). In the rest of the country @Big_G_NorthWales is right -- they will destroy businesses and value.
Unlike some European cities gentrification has passed it by. I love the edginess.
Hire a bike on a weekend and cycle around the city: wonderful.
Berlin is gentrifying: have you seen what rents are doing?
I found the assertion bizarre. At the most basic level, just 35 years ago, East Berlin had no access to "hipster" products for the time like disposable cameras. They moved an entire federal government apparatus there, full of conservative German bureaucrats, and it seems that what little English-speaking tech/VC exists in old Europe is concentrated there. So overall it has gentrified massively. Mitte and Kreuzberg are on an entirely "hip" continuum. In the West the heroin problem has mostly been cleaned up or hushed up, and you'd never know Zoo station was once notorious, in fact Frankfurt Hbf feels far edgier than it.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
Except it isn't, there are now Tory MPs in Burnley and Stoke and Walsall and Dudley. LD MPs in Richmond Park and Chesham and Amersham and Westminster has a Labour Council and on current polls will have a Labour MP in 2024 as Esher and Walton will have a LD MP. 2 of the wealthiest constituencies without a Conservative MP.
As recent elections in Australia, France and the US prove the current divide is not on economics and wealth anymore so much as age and education level
Are you celebrating being on the side of the old and thick then? I'll choose young and smart every day. I am deadly serious. This is a long-term issue. Labour suffered for decades of being seen as the Party of the uneducated. The Tories were the Party of the clever. A significant proportion of the working class loved to be associated with them to be thought better than their neighbours. My maternal grandparents were two of them.
No, the party of those who hold traditional Conservative values will generally have older voters.
It is not necessarily the old and thick either, for example the Conservatives won graduates over 55 at the last general election and Labour won under 35s with no qualifications.
There is no longer any real difference between how middle class ABC1s vote and working class C2DEs vote, is the main point. In the 1970s by contrast there was huge difference, ABC1s voted Tory or Liberal overwhelmingly and C2DEs voted Labour overwhelmingly.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
North Wales is depopulating.
The growth of holiday accommodation/second homes is caused by economic policy.
If there are no jobs, then there is rural depopulation. The consequent growth in holiday accommodation is caused by the depopulation -- not the other way round. There are empty houses that can be bought cheaply and turned into holiday lets. If they were not holiday lets, they'd fall into disrepair.
There are plenty of falling down, sad, derelict houses in almost all areas of North Wales. People used to live in those houses. They don't now because of depopulation.
As for your ideas in holiday lets in Wales in the winter -- they are bonkers.
Most tourist attractions in North Wales are shut in low season. Most restaurants are shut then (or have very limited hours).
No one is going to go and spend a few extra days in the middle of winter at Talsarnau, when there is nothing to do, nothing is open and the weather is wet, just because of Drakeford's idiotic policy.
I don't think Drakeford's plan makes much sense, apart from in some of the coastal resorts where second homes are a real problem (e.g. Aberdyfi, Tenby, Abersoch, Gwyr). In the rest of the country @Big_G_NorthWales is right -- they will destroy businesses and value.
I would respectively suggest to those who clearly do not know or experience our holiday industry, that I trust those in the industry here who are issuing warnings to Cardiff of the economic damage their policies including the ridiculous tourist tax are going to inflict on the whole North Wales area
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
You don't need to be partisan to moan at the Welsh government. They're so useless and out of date that if they were trying ferry procurement they'd end up trying to convert narrow gauge steam engines into amphibious vehicles.
However, Big G is right in this case. The tourism industry in Wales is extremely seasonal - it effectively only runs from May to September and not every week in that time is busy. If this policy goes ahead it will whether intentionally or not shut down all the self-catering outside Cardiff itself. That will have an extremely nasty knock-on effect on tourism as a whole.
It's not a lot of use making houses more affordable if there are no jobs in the area anyway.
Did you miss the figures I linked to earlier showing occupancy rates in Wales averaging along at about 55% for this type of accommodation? And North Wales occupancy rates are the highest in Wales? That doesn't really fit at all with what you're saying.
Also, if you have legitimate gripes with the Welsh government, fine and dandy. But as soon as you scratch the surface of the scare piece that G posted, you can see that it's just silly. That's why this is partisan moaning, not sensible criticism. The numbers simply do not support the idea that this would be have "extremely nasty" effects. This is a good policy.
I had not seen them. I have to say having lived in Wales for many years and knowing several people working in tourism there I find those figures surprising and somewhat implausible. Do you still have the link? If it's a Welsh government website, harsh though it may sound I would say don't trust it. I loathe Boris Johnson, but he runs a tighter ship (and not in an alcoholic sense) than Drakeford.
About the only thing to say in favour of Plaid Llafur is that they're not Y Ceidwadwyr Cymru.
I don't really know what to say about you not trusting government publications. I don't want to pooh pooh that out of hand because scepticism is healthy, but it's an extraordinary claim that would require extraordinary evidence.
Well, I can't give you evidence, because it grows out of my observations at close quarters. All I can tell you is that my personal experience, having worked for them, is that I would trust Boris Johnson ahead of an official of the Welsh Government.
And I would struggle to trust Boris Johnson if he told me rain was wet.
Thank you for the link, I will check it out. But I am deeply sceptical of this idea and the value of the stats.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
North Wales is depopulating.
The growth of holiday accommodation/second homes is caused by economic policy.
If there are no jobs, then there is rural depopulation. The consequent growth in holiday accommodation is caused by the depopulation -- not the other way round. There are empty houses that can be bought cheaply and turned into holiday lets. If they were not holiday lets, they'd fall into disrepair.
There are plenty of falling down, sad, derelict houses in almost all areas of North Wales. People used to live in those houses. They don't now because of depopulation.
As for your ideas in holiday lets in Wales in the winter -- they are bonkers.
Most tourist attractions in North Wales are shut in low season. Most restaurants are shut then (or have very limited hours).
No one is going to go and spend a few extra days in the middle of winter at Talsarnau, when there is nothing to do, nothing is open and the weather is wet, just because of Drakeford's idiotic policy.
I don't think Drakeford's plan makes much sense, apart from in some of the coastal resorts where second homes are a real problem (e.g. Aberdyfi, Tenby, Abersoch, Gwyr). In the rest of the country @Big_G_NorthWales is right -- they will destroy businesses and value.
I think that is very astute analysis.
Its an interesting debate and one, as a total outsider, I think many people are making good points which may or not be relevant to the particular issues of holiday lets in Wales.
Or to put it another way a policy which may make sense in the Lakes District may not in the Peak District or North Wales.
Yet its easy to assume that similar policies would have similar effects in seemingly similar areas.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
Except it isn't, there are now Tory MPs in Burnley and Stoke and Walsall and Dudley. LD MPs in Richmond Park and Chesham and Amersham and Westminster has a Labour Council and on current polls will have a Labour MP in 2024 as Esher and Walton will have a LD MP. 2 of the wealthiest constituencies without a Conservative MP.
As recent elections in Australia, France and the US prove the current divide is not on economics and wealth anymore so much as age and education level
Are you celebrating being on the side of the old and thick then? I'll choose young and smart every day. I am deadly serious. This is a long-term issue. Labour suffered for decades of being seen as the Party of the uneducated. The Tories were the Party of the clever. A significant proportion of the working class loved to be associated with them to be thought better than their neighbours. My maternal grandparents were two of them.
No, the party of those who hold traditional Conservative values will generally have older voters.
It is not necessarily the old and thick either, for example the Conservatives won graduates over 55 at the last general election and Labour won under 35s with no qualifications.
There is no longer any real difference between how middle class ABC1s vote and working class C2DEs vote, is the main point. In the 1970s by contrast there was huge difference, ABC1s voted Tory or Liberal overwhelmingly and C2DEs voted Labour overwhelmingly.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
North Wales is depopulating.
The growth of holiday accommodation/second homes is caused by economic policy.
If there are no jobs, then there is rural depopulation. The consequent growth in holiday accommodation is caused by the depopulation -- not the other way round. There are empty houses that can be bought cheaply and turned into holiday lets. If they were not holiday lets, they'd fall into disrepair.
There are plenty of falling down, sad, derelict houses in almost all areas of North Wales. People used to live in those houses. They don't now because of depopulation.
As for your ideas in holiday lets in Wales in the winter -- they are bonkers.
Most tourist attractions in North Wales are shut in low season. Most restaurants are shut then (or have very limited hours).
No one is going to go and spend a few extra days in the middle of winter at Talsarnau, when there is nothing to do, nothing is open and the weather is wet, just because of Drakeford's idiotic policy.
I don't think Drakeford's plan makes much sense, apart from in some of the coastal resorts where second homes are a real problem (e.g. Aberdyfi, Tenby, Abersoch, Gwyr). In the rest of the country @Big_G_NorthWales is right -- they will destroy businesses and value.
I think that is very astute analysis.
Its an interesting debate and one, as a total outsider, I think many people are making good points which may or not be relevant to the particular issues of holiday lets in Wales.
Or to put it another way a policy which may make sense in the Lakes District may not in the Peak District or North Wales.
Yet its easy to assume that similar policies would have similar effects in seemingly similar areas.
Also spot on. North Wales does not have a problem with a lack of affordable housing for workers. By contrast, the Lake District does.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
Except it isn't, there are now Tory MPs in Burnley and Stoke and Walsall and Dudley. LD MPs in Richmond Park and Chesham and Amersham and Westminster has a Labour Council and on current polls will have a Labour MP in 2024 as Esher and Walton will have a LD MP. 2 of the wealthiest constituencies without a Conservative MP.
As recent elections in Australia, France and the US prove the current divide is not on economics and wealth anymore so much as age and education level
Are you celebrating being on the side of the old and thick then? I'll choose young and smart every day. I am deadly serious. This is a long-term issue. Labour suffered for decades of being seen as the Party of the uneducated. The Tories were the Party of the clever. A significant proportion of the working class loved to be associated with them to be thought better than their neighbours. My maternal grandparents were two of them.
No, the party of those who hold traditional Conservative values will generally have older voters.
It is not necessarily the old and thick either, for example the Conservatives won graduates over 55 at the last general election and Labour won under 35s with no qualifications.
There is no longer any real difference between how middle class ABC1s vote and working class C2DEs vote, is the main point. In the 1970s by contrast there was huge difference, ABC1s voted Tory or Liberal overwhelmingly and C2DEs voted Labour overwhelmingly.
Now the main difference is age not class
Yes it is. It is all about age right now. Far, far more than appreciated. Do you choose to be old or young? I choose young. And with the continual attacks on lawyers, teachers and students it's becoming do you choose to be educated or a bit dim? I choose educated. It's basic marketing. Short term it works but longer it's a disaster for your Party.
“The Kremlin is considering a second assault on Kyiv despite failing to capture the Ukrainian capital at the outset of the war, according to the independent news website, Meduza.
Sources close to the Kremlin and inside the Putin administration said confidence has spread to the leadership of United Russia, the country’s ruling political party, that a full-scale victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year.
One source said:
We’ll grind them [the Ukrainians] down in the end. The whole thing will probably be over by the fall.
Russia’s leadership has “minimum” and “maximum” thresholds for declaring a successful and completed “special military operation” in Ukraine, sources said.
The bare minimum needed to declare victory is the complete capture of the Donbas region, according to sources, while the maximum goal would be the capture of Kyiv.
The editor of the English-language edition of Meduza, Kevin Rothrock, said the report suggests that Ukraine is losing the “information war” for the first time since the invasion.
Many ways to interpret this: (1) the mood inside the Kremlin shifts faster than a temperamental teen’s, (2) Kyiv’s alarm-signaling is largely about expediting/sustaining Western aid, (3) Western fatigue is real (the energy crisis & U.S. midterms mean a whole new ballgame soon)”
I reckon this means WW3
Most likely it will end up a prolonged war of attrition in the Donbas. It won't be WW3 unless Russia invades a NATO state
I agree. My impression (but what do I know?) is that Russia will get to the edge of Donbas in a month or two, but the flow of Western arms will then encourage the Ukrainians to counter-attack. I suspect we'll then see a war of attirition, as HYUFD says, and eventually there will be an uneasy cease-fire.
WW3? Nah.
I think it more probable that something will crack, probably the Russian war machine followed by the Russian state.
If a US politician wanted to be radical they could suggest increasing the age limit to buy a gun to 21 and reducing the age limit to buy alcohol to 18.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
North Wales is depopulating.
The growth of holiday accommodation/second homes is caused by economic policy.
If there are no jobs, then there is rural depopulation. The consequent growth in holiday accommodation is caused by the depopulation -- not the other way round. There are empty houses that can be bought cheaply and turned into holiday lets. If they were not holiday lets, they'd fall into disrepair.
There are plenty of falling down, sad, derelict houses in almost all areas of North Wales. People used to live in those houses. They don't now because of depopulation.
As for your ideas in holiday lets in Wales in the winter -- they are bonkers.
Most tourist attractions in North Wales are shut in low season. Most restaurants are shut then (or have very limited hours).
No one is going to go and spend a few extra days in the middle of winter at Talsarnau, when there is nothing to do, nothing is open and the weather is wet, just because of Drakeford's idiotic policy.
I don't think Drakeford's plan makes much sense, apart from in some of the coastal resorts where second homes are a real problem (e.g. Aberdyfi, Tenby, Abersoch, Gwyr). In the rest of the country @Big_G_NorthWales is right -- they will destroy businesses and value.
Except occupancy rates are already above the thresholds that will be affected by this! This isn't a policy that will affect the average let. It's the ones that are taking up space and not generating income. An empty guest house doesn't do anything for the local economy.
As for "tourist attractions" being shut in the winter, that really depends. Museums and galleries are often open outside high season. Natural spaces like Snowdonia, Holy Island, Alyn Waters are open all year round.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
North Wales is depopulating.
The growth of holiday accommodation/second homes is caused by economic policy.
If there are no jobs, then there is rural depopulation. The consequent growth in holiday accommodation is caused by the depopulation -- not the other way round. There are empty houses that can be bought cheaply and turned into holiday lets. If they were not holiday lets, they'd fall into disrepair.
There are plenty of falling down, sad, derelict houses in almost all areas of North Wales. People used to live in those houses. They don't now because of depopulation.
As for your ideas in holiday lets in Wales in the winter -- they are bonkers.
Most tourist attractions in North Wales are shut in low season. Most restaurants are shut then (or have very limited hours).
No one is going to go and spend a few extra days in the middle of winter at Talsarnau, when there is nothing to do, nothing is open and the weather is wet, just because of Drakeford's idiotic policy.
I don't think Drakeford's plan makes much sense, apart from in some of the coastal resorts where second homes are a real problem (e.g. Aberdyfi, Tenby, Abersoch, Gwyr). In the rest of the country @Big_G_NorthWales is right -- they will destroy businesses and value.
Except occupancy rates are already above the thresholds that will be affected by this! This isn't a policy that will affect the average let. It's the ones that are taking up space and not generating income. An empty guest house doesn't do anything for the local economy.
As for "tourist attractions" being shut in the winter, that really depends. Museums and galleries are often open outside high season. Natural spaces like Snowdonia, Holy Island, Alyn Waters are open all year round.
It is not so much they are shut as the holidaymakers come between March and October
Furthermore the prices in Colwyn Bay are hardly affected by second homes
This must be the end of several careers (Guardian liveblog)
“The head of the Texas department of public safety has said “there’s no excuse” for officers not trying to break into the elementary school classroom as the gunman fired away.”
Not that it helps any of the poor bereaved people. Tho it might assist America in sorting out its ludicrously fucked police/guns/crime dysfunction
Might as well defund the police if they are just going to stand around cleaning their guns while the slaughter takes place.
The gunman was in the end shot by the police
No he wasn't
To be fair to HYUFD, there been a lot of disinformation, and outright lying from the authorities (including the governor).
The reflexive police worship of commentators over there (“our brave first responders”, etc) has to be tuned out.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
You don't need to be partisan to moan at the Welsh government. They're so useless and out of date that if they were trying ferry procurement they'd end up trying to convert narrow gauge steam engines into amphibious vehicles.
However, Big G is right in this case. The tourism industry in Wales is extremely seasonal - it effectively only runs from May to September and not every week in that time is busy. If this policy goes ahead it will whether intentionally or not shut down all the self-catering outside Cardiff itself. That will have an extremely nasty knock-on effect on tourism as a whole.
It's not a lot of use making houses more affordable if there are no jobs in the area anyway.
Did you miss the figures I linked to earlier showing occupancy rates in Wales averaging along at about 55% for this type of accommodation? And North Wales occupancy rates are the highest in Wales? That doesn't really fit at all with what you're saying.
Also, if you have legitimate gripes with the Welsh government, fine and dandy. But as soon as you scratch the surface of the scare piece that G posted, you can see that it's just silly. That's why this is partisan moaning, not sensible criticism. The numbers simply do not support the idea that this would be have "extremely nasty" effects. This is a good policy.
I had not seen them. I have to say having lived in Wales for many years and knowing several people working in tourism there I find those figures surprising and somewhat implausible. Do you still have the link? If it's a Welsh government website, harsh though it may sound I would say don't trust it. I loathe Boris Johnson, but he runs a tighter ship (and not in an alcoholic sense) than Drakeford.
About the only thing to say in favour of Plaid Llafur is that they're not Y Ceidwadwyr Cymru.
I don't really know what to say about you not trusting government publications. I don't want to pooh pooh that out of hand because scepticism is healthy, but it's an extraordinary claim that would require extraordinary evidence.
Well, I can't give you evidence, because it grows out of my observations at close quarters. All I can tell you is that my personal experience, having worked for them, is that I would trust Boris Johnson ahead of an official of the Welsh Government.
And I would struggle to trust Boris Johnson if he told me rain was wet.
Thank you for the link, I will check it out. But I am deeply sceptical of this idea and the value of the stats.
Do that, and keep in mind what's being proposed here. Drakeford isn't carting B&B owners off to Siberia. The policy is really quite reasonable. Charging houses that are sat empty council tax instead of business rates. The article G pasted is really a total overreaction.
Drakeford's destroying North Wales holiday industry from Cardiff
Tourism leaders in Wales have reacted with horror to confirmation of new occupancy rules for second homes and holiday lets. From April 1, 2023, the Welsh Government will insist that self-catering properties are let for at least 182 days each year in a move critics say will “decimate” the Welsh tourism industry.
Holiday lettings firm Finest Retreats, which promotes 29 holiday cottages in Wales, warned the challenging occupancy target will hit rural economies the hardest by driving up prices and making the country a “less attractive place to visit”. Tom Giffard, Welsh Conservative shadow tourism minister said it was a “devastating blow”, adding: “These new letting requirements will frankly be impossible for many self-caterers to meet.”
The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents 6,000 tourism operators in Wales, believes 84% of the country's holiday lets could now be forced to close. WTA chair Suzy Davies said genuine holiday businesses will be caught up in a policy designed to clamp down on second homes. “Like dolphins accidentally caught in fishing nets, these businesses will die,” she cautioned.
On Tuesday, finance minister Rebecca Evans issued a written statement confirming Cardiff was pushing ahead with its plans despite opposition from the tourism sector. As with the Welsh Government’s new council tax policies, the approach is designed to tackle the housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities in holiday hotspots.
The minister acknowledged that the stronger criteria “may be challenging for some operators to meet”. But she said: “The purpose of the change is to help ensure property owners are making a fair contribution to local communities, for example by increasing their contribution to the local economy through greater letting activity, or by paying council tax on their properties.”
To continue paying business rates, holiday rentals must be let for 182 days from April 1, 2023. Currently, the threshold is just 70 days. If holidays fail to meet the threshold, they pay council tax instead - and from April 2023 local counties will have the power to charge a council tax premium of up to 300%, effectively quadrupling bills.
Sorry, this looks like great news. Why should properties that are empty for 294 days a year get a tax break? Let people live there instead of keeping them empty for occasional holidaymakers. Good work Welsh Labour.
You clearly do not understand just how toxic this is for Welsh labour here in the heart of the North Wales holiday industry which is about to have a tourist tax put on them from Drakeford as well
Maybe I just care about affordable housing more. Your empty-house policy leaves me as cold as a homeless person.
Destroying the holiday industry losing thousands of jobs in businesses across North Wales is madness and could only be dreamt up by a Corbynista who just does not understand the local economy and simply does not care
And scroll on a page, you'll see that North Wales's figures are actually the strongest in Wales, averaging at 64%.
Even if a number of providers decide to drop out of the market, all that will do is increase the occupancy in competitors.
No, sorry, it seems you've been taken in by a scare story. The numbers don't fit at all with the apocalyptic predictions. Welsh Labour derangement syndrome, as Leon would probably call it.
This combined with the tourist tax will hit the holiday industry and believe you me it features all the time in the local media and Welsh news as various businesses forecast a fall in visitor numbers and a loss of holiday accommodation
No, sorry, I don't believe you me.
Apart from anything you're pretending the tourist industry is solely based around the kind of self-catering accommodation being referred to. Hotels, camping & caravans are a big part of the tourist industry, and non self-catering accommodation drives people to restaurants instead of supermarkets for their evening meal. No, the more I think about this the more I think this is a good move. Prune out the holiday lets that are underoccupied and they become either better-run lets, or housing for actual people.
You are missing the point that all these businesses you quote are about to be hit with a tourist tax on top of this
If this had been proposed for Devon and Cornwall or the Lake district you would have had a torrent of anger from the holiday industry
And by the way I do not lie
Tim Farron is running for re-election on the very question of holiday lets. They aren't greatly popular in the Lakes with the locals who tend to rather priorities having somewhere to live.
Yes but they bring in the income that no doubt supports many of their jobs
There is a balance to be struck but applying a tourist tax and reducing holiday accommodation is not one of them
They don't bring in any income if they are empty. And reducing holiday accommodation is smack bang what Farron thinks will keep him his seat. He probably knows better than me what the locals think.
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
North Wales is depopulating.
The growth of holiday accommodation/second homes is caused by economic policy.
If there are no jobs, then there is rural depopulation. The consequent growth in holiday accommodation is caused by the depopulation -- not the other way round. There are empty houses that can be bought cheaply and turned into holiday lets. If they were not holiday lets, they'd fall into disrepair.
There are plenty of falling down, sad, derelict houses in almost all areas of North Wales. People used to live in those houses. They don't now because of depopulation.
As for your ideas in holiday lets in Wales in the winter -- they are bonkers.
Most tourist attractions in North Wales are shut in low season. Most restaurants are shut then (or have very limited hours).
No one is going to go and spend a few extra days in the middle of winter at Talsarnau, when there is nothing to do, nothing is open and the weather is wet, just because of Drakeford's idiotic policy.
I don't think Drakeford's plan makes much sense, apart from in some of the coastal resorts where second homes are a real problem (e.g. Aberdyfi, Tenby, Abersoch, Gwyr). In the rest of the country @Big_G_NorthWales is right -- they will destroy businesses and value.
Except occupancy rates are already above the thresholds that will be affected by this! This isn't a policy that will affect the average let. It's the ones that are taking up space and not generating income. An empty guest house doesn't do anything for the local economy.
As for "tourist attractions" being shut in the winter, that really depends. Museums and galleries are often open outside high season. Natural spaces like Snowdonia, Holy Island, Alyn Waters are open all year round.
I think, on a quick look at these statistics, you're taking a very generous view of 'occupancy.' Those figures are averages. Even if they're accurate, which isn't a given, it seems likely those places in the absolute hotspots, as @YBarddCwsc has identified, will be doing rather better than those outside them, and that they will be dragging the figure up. Since it's also quite close to the threshold, even in North Wales which you identified as the highest occupancy standing at just 61%, that suggests a lot of them are below the necessary occupancy rate.
Therefore, it might actually not affect housing in the hotspots where it would be useful to have a market selection, while hammering those in other areas where work is already precarious.
Ultimately, Drakeford appears to be doing a Johnson in using a blunt instrument to achieve a good headline but not thinking about the potentially disastrous consequences.
Includes this: Labour is likely to ditch @jeremycorbyn92 's 2019 pledge to hike income tax on those earning more than £80,000. Party is looking at more 'creative ways' of making the rich pay more.
===
Thoughts and prayers to Owen Jones this evening...
Wow. This outrage train was on time!!!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 29m Keir Starmer ran the most dishonest campaign for the leadership of a political party in British democratic history.
This was literally his first pledge!
Owen Jones 🌹 @OwenJones84 · 27m One of Keir Starmer's aides literally rang me in the leadership campaign to make a big song and dance about his commitment to hike income tax for everyone earning more than £80,000.
I asked if it was definitely 100% cast iron: I was told absolutely 100% cast iron.
Amazing.
Owen needs to wake up and realize that we need to be focusing taxes on wealth not income.
Mr Johnson isn't a raving leftie as well? News to me. And to Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax MP.
Johnson and Starmer are both relatively economically centrist. Neither are Thatcherites but neither are Corbynite socialists either.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
If that were true then Johnson would be winning Knowsley and Starmer would be winning Chesham. But it's still the case that economics determines the overall tilt of the country, outside areas like London which are closer to ethnicity voting.
Except it isn't, there are now Tory MPs in Burnley and Stoke and Walsall and Dudley. LD MPs in Richmond Park and Chesham and Amersham and Westminster has a Labour Council and on current polls will have a Labour MP in 2024 as Esher and Walton will have a LD MP. 2 of the wealthiest constituencies without a Conservative MP.
As recent elections in Australia, France and the US prove the current divide is not on economics and wealth anymore so much as age and education level
Mostly these "Red Wall" seats are not deprived areas but rather have either improved their service economies or commuter populations since the Thatcher era, or are areas with historical patterns of backlash votes against immigration. Regardless, the most deprived areas like Knowsley and Hull still vote Labour and the least deprived areas still vote Tory or LD. But most areas are somewhere in-between and of course other factors matter at the margin. Then you have the strong polarisation on ethnicity in majority-minority areas and nearby WWC areas.
Comments
I've got a friend who has recurring joint pain from arthritis and I keep remembering the things they've had to cancel due to flare ups, how it wears them down and saps little moments from them like a vampire.
But humans being humans, we'll adjust.
‘Sometimes you have to break cover and be controversial,’ says the MP for Walthamstow and passionate campaigner for women and mothers
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/stella-creasy-jk-rowling-wrong-woman-can-have-penis/
Unlike the Johnson govt which is cutting the new Health Security Agency by 40% of jobs... Biden is investing massively in pandemic preparedness. Some incredible ambition being shown - $82bn over next 5 years.
https://progress.institute/explaining-bidens-pandemic-preparedness-budget-aspr/
.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/23/labour-wealth-tax-economy
But we will learn to live with it as our forebears lived with smallpox (and, God willing, it won’t be 2% as bad as that)
Anything is preferable to closing down society. That is literally unsustainable. A path to madness, for us all
I notice masks popping up in shops again, but still a small minority - they disappeared for a while.
The main divide between them is on Brexit and Woke not economics
The point I was clumsily making was that, compared to the past, the current Tory Party and GOP are cynically targeting their message to those groups that are more susceptible to uncritically believe misinformation. Where does it leave us or the USA when a majority of voters come to believe QAnon conspiracy theories or believe that the last election was "stolen"? I guess at that point democracy in that country disappears up its own backside. It's not as though it hasn't happened before.
Just seen Peter Bone in Wakefield.
If CCHQ keep sending MPs campaigning, and if they're hearing from voters what I'm hearing, there might well be 54 letters in before we even get to polling day.
https://twitter.com/DavidHerdson/status/1530181936685137923
WW3? Nah.
I would recommend some pandemic preparedness though. Lockdown is what happens when we are not prepared.
But we will come uncomfortably close in the next year or two
Смерть москалям!
That's when the really big challenge begins: trying to dissuade the likes of Germany, Italy and France from using the ceasefire as an excuse to going back to "business as usual" with Russia.
PinkNews@PinkNews
"If a woman has a penis, her penis is a biologically female penis," @IndyaMoore said.
https://twitter.com/PinkNews/status/1097937648226840576
Going out to a fancy restaurant in London means people who go to fancy restaurants twice a week sitting in a dining room with people who eat in fancy restaurants once a year. Plenty of scope for behaviour change in both directions.
Think of things as Russia and Ukraine both walking up escalators - Ukraine have a longer walk but they're walking up an up escalator whereas Russia is walking up a down escalator, which is steadily getting faster.
(It is quite common in that part of Texas for Border Patrol officers to be Mexican-American by descent, though that fact may not have reached the Guardian. Farther west, some officers come from the many Indian tribes in the area. As well as enforcing immigration laws, the Border Patrol rescues many illegals every year: https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/cbp-makes-lifesaving-rescues?language_content_entity=en )
Ben Grant, 30, the son of Helen Grant, Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald, is among a platoon of foreign fighters supporting Ukraine’s efforts in the war against Russia.
i has verified footage that shows the squad of Western volunteers, made up of former special forces, preparing to mount their attack on a BTR – Russian armoured vehicle – from a forest in the Kharkhiv region in north eastern Ukraine.
It was filmed during a 15-hour operation on Thursday in which i understands that around eight Russian soldiers were killed, with a further 30 Russian troops killed in a firefight when the team of 13 US and British fighters later linked up with Ukrainian fighters to storm a Russian trench.
During the daring mission, a fighter emerges from the woodland and aims the shoulder-held Matador missile at the vehicle, which is seen in a clearing about 100 metres away.
Mr Grant, who spent more than five years as a commando in the Royal Marines, is heard shouting “shoot it now” and “mind the back blast”, before the missile is launched.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/son-of-british-mp-fighting-in-ukraine-destroys-russian-armoured-vehicle-alongside-team-of-volunteer-soldiers/ar-AAXNv9z?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=f8c288d84a774eaa895d91934f34b42d
How's it hanging, bro?
Another way in which the article is silly is that this could encourage prices DOWN. Think about it. You can offer discounts on midweek off-season stays if the guest is staying the weekend. That might encourage some people to stay an extra day or two. That brings in more money, it doesn't increase the costs associated with booking, checking in and out, or other flat rates. The local economy gets a boost and the guests get more holiday without it breaking the bank. Everyone's a winner, except people who prefer to moan at the Welsh government for partisan reasons.
The problem comes when an existing community sees an ever greater proportion of properties becoming second homes or occasional holiday lets. In that situation, the town can be starved of the residents it needs year round to maintain services.
Oh, and what you said was, too
However, Big G is right in this case. The tourism industry in Wales is extremely seasonal - it effectively only runs from May to September and not every week in that time is busy. If this policy goes ahead it will whether intentionally or not shut down all the self-catering outside Cardiff itself. That will have an extremely nasty knock-on effect on tourism as a whole.
It's not a lot of use making houses more affordable if there are no jobs in the area anyway.
As recent elections in Australia, France and the US prove the current divide is not on economics and wealth anymore so much as age and education level
Sees we're discussing chicks with dicks, again.
Logs off.
Night all. Have fun.
So. The idea that people's jobs depend on it is valid only up to a point.
It's true if you already own a house there. Or live with your parents.
https://twitter.com/Blue_Sauron/status/1530067008246751233?cxt=HHwWgoC90cv18bsqAAAA
One of the hallmarks of a cult is that its members bend reality to satisfy their fantasies.
Just. Incredible.
https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1529953776190251015
Also, if you have legitimate gripes with the Welsh government, fine and dandy. But as soon as you scratch the surface of the scare piece that G posted, you can see that it's just silly. That's why this is partisan moaning, not sensible criticism. The numbers simply do not support the idea that this would be have "extremely nasty" effects. This is a good policy.
Could you have stopped an egotistical madman who is obsessed with power who had a dodgy taste in women and his idea of a Party was distasteful and likewise could you have stopped Hitler.
About the only thing to say in favour of Plaid Llafur is that they're not Y Ceidwadwyr Cymru.
I'll choose young and smart every day.
I am deadly serious. This is a long-term issue.
Labour suffered for decades of being seen as the Party of the uneducated. The Tories were the Party of the clever.
A significant proportion of the working class loved to be associated with them to be thought better than their neighbours.
My maternal grandparents were two of them.
And Plaxlovid is a game changer - as well as reducing hospitalisations 90%, it dramatically shortens disease time for most people.
It's time to cancel Stella.
I don't really know what to say about you not trusting government publications. I don't want to pooh pooh that out of hand because scepticism is healthy, but it's an extraordinary claim that would require extraordinary evidence.
The growth of holiday accommodation/second homes is caused by economic policy.
If there are no jobs, then there is rural depopulation. The consequent growth in holiday accommodation is caused by the depopulation -- not the other way round. There are empty houses that can be bought cheaply and turned into holiday lets. If they were not holiday lets, they'd fall into disrepair.
There are plenty of falling down, sad, derelict houses in almost all areas of North Wales. People used to live in those houses. They don't now because of depopulation.
As for your ideas in holiday lets in Wales in the winter -- they are bonkers.
Most tourist attractions in North Wales are shut in low season. Most restaurants are shut then (or have very limited hours).
No one is going to go and spend a few extra days in the middle of winter at Talsarnau, when there is nothing to do, nothing is open and the weather is wet, just because of Drakeford's idiotic policy.
I don't think Drakeford's plan makes much sense, apart from in some of the coastal resorts where second homes are a real problem (e.g. Aberdyfi, Tenby, Abersoch, Gwyr). In the rest of the country @Big_G_NorthWales is right -- they will destroy businesses and value.
It is not necessarily the old and thick either, for example the Conservatives won graduates over 55 at the last general election and Labour won under 35s with no qualifications.
There is no longer any real difference between how middle class ABC1s vote and working class C2DEs vote, is the main point. In the 1970s by contrast there was huge difference, ABC1s voted Tory or Liberal overwhelmingly and C2DEs voted Labour overwhelmingly.
Now the main difference is age not class
And I would struggle to trust Boris Johnson if he told me rain was wet.
Thank you for the link, I will check it out. But I am deeply sceptical of this idea and the value of the stats.
Or to put it another way a policy which may make sense in the Lakes District may not in the Peak District or North Wales.
Yet its easy to assume that similar policies would have similar effects in seemingly similar areas.
OK...
And with the continual attacks on lawyers, teachers and students it's becoming do you choose to be educated or a bit dim?
I choose educated.
It's basic marketing. Short term it works but longer it's a disaster for your Party.
This isn't a policy that will affect the average let. It's the ones that are taking up space and not generating income. An empty guest house doesn't do anything for the local economy.
Since we're talking about empty properties, it seems to be more of a South Wales problem:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/homes-property/part-wales-highest-number-empty-21360295
As for "tourist attractions" being shut in the winter, that really depends. Museums and galleries are often open outside high season. Natural spaces like Snowdonia, Holy Island, Alyn Waters are open all year round.
Furthermore the prices in Colwyn Bay are hardly affected by second homes
https://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices.htm?location=colwyn_bay
The reflexive police worship of commentators over there (“our brave first responders”, etc) has to be tuned out.
Therefore, it might actually not affect housing in the hotspots where it would be useful to have a market selection, while hammering those in other areas where work is already precarious.
Ultimately, Drakeford appears to be doing a Johnson in using a blunt instrument to achieve a good headline but not thinking about the potentially disastrous consequences.