Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
What's wrong with paying taxes? Services don't come for free you know.
Pay for the services then.
Taxes should be kept low, but too many services that ought to be privately paid for, are paid for out of taxes instead.
Oh, like hospitals? Fire stations?, schools? ICBMs? Why don't you talk some sense sometimes.
You might want to have a look at what proportion of taxes actually goes on ICBMs, schools, fire stations or the NHS and what proportion of taxes goes on stuff I'd quite happily oppose it going on.
Our taxes could be much, much lower, if our spending was lower.
We've discussed this before - it's a niche product great for generating heat not really suitable as a source of electricity...
In places where heating is provided from a centralised location it's an efficient solution but we don't have many places like that so it's probably better elsewhere than the UK..
The people behind it reckon it would also be useful for providing heat for industrial processes. So might be a few sites where it would be used.
Oh it definitely has uses - it's not really a domestic solution though... as it is very much heat storage and not energy storage.
Yes, and it would need to be relatively large-scale to store the heat efficiently. But still, it's a positive sign that there will be a lot of different storage technologies available to help us with intermittent renewable supply.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
What's wrong with paying taxes? Services don't come for free you know.
Pay for the services then.
Taxes should be kept low, but too many services that ought to be privately paid for, are paid for out of taxes instead.
And this is Badenochite libertarianism: privatise the roads, privatise the police, privatise the courts, privatise unemployment benefit, privatise the NHS, privatise pensions...
Sounds like progress for much of that, yes.
Roads we massively overpay for, we discuss this regularly.
The courts should be the state, but they're hardly providing a service at present.
We have next to no welfare going towards the unemployed presently. I think the average annual tax bill to pay benefits to the unemployed is at present £17 per person per year.
Pensioners absolutely are the root of most of the problems in society. A generation that never saved for its own retirement but now wants to vote itself decades of taxation per annum. It is a burden that the boomers never paid for themselves when they were working, and we need an Atlas Shrugged moment for the working people of today, but I can't see it happening.
The problem is that they were sold this 60 years ago. The blame lies with the entire premise of NI.
It would have been far better to have had an individually owned pension for everyone, even if the state had to top up the contributions.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
What's wrong with paying taxes? Services don't come for free you know.
Pay for the services then.
Taxes should be kept low, but too many services that ought to be privately paid for, are paid for out of taxes instead.
And this is Badenochite libertarianism: privatise the roads, privatise the police, privatise the courts, privatise unemployment benefit, privatise the NHS, privatise pensions...
Sounds like progress for much of that, yes.
Roads we massively overpay for, we discuss this regularly.
The courts should be the state, but they're hardly providing a service at present.
We have next to no welfare going towards the unemployed presently. I think the average annual tax bill to pay benefits to the unemployed is at present £17 per person per year.
Pensioners absolutely are the root of most of the problems in society. A generation that never saved for its own retirement but now wants to vote itself decades of taxation per annum. It is a burden that the boomers never paid for themselves when they were working, and we need an Atlas Shrugged moment for the working people of today, but I can't see it happening.
"Atlas Shrugged" maybe inspired a couple of good lyrics for Rush songs, but has otherwise been hugely detrimental to society. We do not need an "Atlas Shrugged" moment.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
Tell my about it - spent £34 for 2 drinks on Friday night.
Then on Sunday 1 pint, 1 orange juice and a packet of crisps £11.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
Because she said she was on the minimum wage? It's not a big lie, and maybe not a deliberate lie at all, but I was hoping that after Johnson we might see a return to honesty, accuracy and integrity in public life, rather than people just saying whatever is convenient.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
To give her the benefit of the doubt, "minimum wage" job is a fair shorthand for the work she was doing, even if it was just before the official minimum wage came in.
However, it is unlikely she paid much, if any tax, and suggesting that her low tax politics were formed because she was being taxed so highly is frankly bullshit.
Cue speculation that it's because Gove has them ready to jump ship to Sunak after he's used Kemi to take out the Truss.
Why? Sunak is going to top the MPs section anyway.
Because Sunak loses to Truss with the members, and has a good chance against Mordaunt.
Even if you are right, and polls differ on that question, why would Gove need Kemi supporters to switch to Sunak. That is the part I was questioning. As a conspiracy theory, it seems unnecessarily complex. Vote Kemi to beat Truss, fine, but there is no need to switch to Rishi afterwards because he is going to win anyway.
Because they want to vote for Sunak anyway? Once Truss goes, they need to switch to Sunak because the Right aligns behind Kemi, and she might top the poll outright, especially if Mordaunt is clearly fading by then. Sunak wants as big a victory in the last round as he can get, because he is not that popular with the members so needs to be seen as the clear choice by MPs.
Is there also a calculation for Sunak concerning who he would prefer to lose to in membership vote?
If polling is showing that he would lose to all contenders in the membership vote then it’s in his interests (based on what he thinks could be best for country/party) to ensure that he is up against someone he can stomach as PM.
So he can still hope he wins after a campaign against final opponent but keep an eye on ensuring that the alternative is palatable.
Therefore he can try and game things to ensure Truss doesn’t get that far and lend votes to Mordaunt or Badenoch.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
Why does it matter that politicians tell the truth... well, let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a young boy called Alexander Johnson...
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
What's wrong with paying taxes? Services don't come for free you know.
Pay for the services then.
Taxes should be kept low, but too many services that ought to be privately paid for, are paid for out of taxes instead.
Doesn't really leave the just about managing better off though, does it? Pay less tax but pay more for specific services. Whatever else it does, the NHS is good at cost control.
Cue speculation that it's because Gove has them ready to jump ship to Sunak after he's used Kemi to take out the Truss.
Why? Sunak is going to top the MPs section anyway.
Because Sunak loses to Truss with the members, and has a good chance against Mordaunt.
Even if you are right, and polls differ on that question, why would Gove need Kemi supporters to switch to Sunak. That is the part I was questioning. As a conspiracy theory, it seems unnecessarily complex. Vote Kemi to beat Truss, fine, but there is no need to switch to Rishi afterwards because he is going to win anyway.
But once Kemi gets ahead of Liz, Kemi beats Penny.
It's a political scissors, paper, stone.
What japes.
Scissors - Truss, wants to cut everything Paper - Sunak, on paper favourite Stone - Penny, sinking like a rock
Not sure then which of Kemi and Tom are Lizard and Spock respectively.
So that’s it. The record has gone. The UK’s hottest day ever (recorded)
On to 40C
I’d say the chances of this are much greater with this intense heat already in situ. 80% chance it will go, somewhere in the east, north east, which stays free of cloud
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
What's wrong with paying taxes? Services don't come for free you know.
Pay for the services then.
Taxes should be kept low, but too many services that ought to be privately paid for, are paid for out of taxes instead.
Oh, like hospitals? Fire stations?, schools? ICBMs? Why don't you talk some sense sometimes.
You might want to have a look at what proportion of taxes actually goes on ICBMs, schools, fire stations or the NHS and what proportion of taxes goes on stuff I'd quite happily oppose it going on.
Our taxes could be much, much lower, if our spending was lower.
Strategically, the problem is we spend an awful lot to keep over 65s in clover during the last 20 years of their lives. Both on the NHS, benefits and pensions (spend) and in removing NI and protecting house prices (tax).
That's where a rebalance is needed. It should more into education, science, R&D, infrastructure, defence and crime & justice.
Older citizens need to work more for longer (flexibly, of course) and use their own resources more.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
To give her the benefit of the doubt, "minimum wage" job is a fair shorthand for the work she was doing, even if it was just before the official minimum wage came in.
However, it is unlikely she paid much, if any tax, and suggesting that her low tax politics were formed because she was being taxed so highly is frankly bullshit.
Because she said she was on the minimum wage? It's not a big lie, and maybe not a deliberate lie at all, but I was hoping that after Johnson we might see a return to honesty, accuracy and integrity in public life, rather than people just saying whatever is convenient.
She didn't say that she was on the minimum wage. She said she knows what it's like to be on the minimum wage. Seems fair enough to me.
Cue speculation that it's because Gove has them ready to jump ship to Sunak after he's used Kemi to take out the Truss.
Why? Sunak is going to top the MPs section anyway.
Because Sunak loses to Truss with the members, and has a good chance against Mordaunt.
Even if you are right, and polls differ on that question, why would Gove need Kemi supporters to switch to Sunak. That is the part I was questioning. As a conspiracy theory, it seems unnecessarily complex. Vote Kemi to beat Truss, fine, but there is no need to switch to Rishi afterwards because he is going to win anyway.
Because they want to vote for Sunak anyway? Once Truss goes, they need to switch to Sunak because the Right aligns behind Kemi, and she might top the poll outright, especially if Mordaunt is clearly fading by then. Sunak wants as big a victory in the last round as he can get, because he is not that popular with the members so needs to be seen as the clear choice by MPs.
The logical thing for Sunak to do is to lend votes to Liz to block Kemi.
Whether he has or not, I don't know.
Other way round, surely?
Truss beats Sunak easily in a head-to-head.
Kemi might not, as she's that much less experienced and has lower name recognition.
I actually think his best bet is against Mordaunt, but I don't think he has enough votes to lend to ensure he faces her, as once Truss/Kemi goes out, the other probably inherits almost all their votes.
PS Early draft of this said Kemi was young, and then I checked - turn out Sunak is four months younger than her.
This is so far looking like an easy win for southern England after all – Charlwood has already provisionally broken the record. I suppose the chance for the likes of lowland Notts/south Yorks comes from them holding on to hottest air longer into the day.
LHR on track to take the record. There is no official station north of the Trent currently showing 35c+ yet, so it looks like the SE will retain the record after all.
But, we shall see.
Too early to say imo. WOW seems to be down, which is frustrating.
The SE is basically racing against time against the cold front. It might be somewhere to the north-east of London that sets the record as it had just that little bit longer before the 'cold' front arrives. LHR is to the west of London and so the front will get there earlier...
Bedford/Cambridge possibly the hotspot?
Still no sign of the cold front here in North Dorset.
Well, tbf there are high pre-frontal clouds I can see in the distance to the west but no effect on temperature yet, which is still slowly climbing (33.2°C here atm).
So that’s it. The record has gone. The UK’s hottest day ever (recorded)
On to 40C
I’d say the chances of this are much greater with this intense heat already in situ. 80% chance it will go, somewhere in the east, north east, which stays free of cloud
Yes, it's only 1100GMT (i.e. the time by the sun) – so amazingly we are still an hour shy of solar noon... lots more heating to come today...
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
“Sea & Land
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
Because she said she was on the minimum wage? It's not a big lie, and maybe not a deliberate lie at all, but I was hoping that after Johnson we might see a return to honesty, accuracy and integrity in public life, rather than people just saying whatever is convenient.
Three opposing positions on net zero over the past few days is rather a more serious example of that than what she was paid as a teenager to my eyes.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
Because she said she was on the minimum wage? It's not a big lie, and maybe not a deliberate lie at all, but I was hoping that after Johnson we might see a return to honesty, accuracy and integrity in public life, rather than people just saying whatever is convenient.
How do you know it wasn't the minimum wage at the time?
Just because there wasn't a national official minimum wage doesn't mean she didn't experience it, and that experience is still valid.
Honestly, this is splitting hairs. I can't remember all the terms of my contract from my first job in the late 1990s either and how that related exactly to the first years of the Blair governmeny.
Just been in a zoom meeting where somebody from the west country, West Devon I think, reported that it was now raining where he was! Someone else from North Devon reported in enormous clap of thunder halfway through the meeting.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
Because she said she was on the minimum wage? It's not a big lie, and maybe not a deliberate lie at all, but I was hoping that after Johnson we might see a return to honesty, accuracy and integrity in public life, rather than people just saying whatever is convenient.
Three opposing positions on net zero over the past few days is rather a more serious example of that than what she was paid as a teenager to my eyes.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
“Sea & Land
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
Who mixes an 18-year-old whisky, with anything but a single ice cube?
Just been in a zoom meeting where somebody from the west country, West Devon I think, reported that it was now raining where he was! Someone else from North Devon reported in enormous clap of thunder halfway through the meeting.
Band of thunderstorms from Brittany through Devon/Cornwall up to Derry at present.
LHR on track to take the record. There is no official station north of the Trent currently showing 35c+ yet, so it looks like the SE will retain the record after all.
But, we shall see.
Too early to say imo. WOW seems to be down, which is frustrating.
The SE is basically racing against time against the cold front. It might be somewhere to the north-east of London that sets the record as it had just that little bit longer before the 'cold' front arrives. LHR is to the west of London and so the front will get there earlier...
Bedford/Cambridge possibly the hotspot?
Still no sign of the cold front here in North Dorset.
Well, tbf there are high pre-frontal clouds I can see in the distance to the west but no effect on temperature yet, which is still slowly climbing (33.2°C here atm).
On its way! The front is over Devon at the moment. The rainfall you can see on the radar is just ahead of the front.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
“Sea & Land
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
Who mixes an 18-year-old whisky, with anything but a single ice cube?
Someone who has worked out how to transform a £20 single shot into a £45 cocktail by spending another £1 on ingredients.
Cue speculation that it's because Gove has them ready to jump ship to Sunak after he's used Kemi to take out the Truss.
Why? Sunak is going to top the MPs section anyway.
Because Sunak loses to Truss with the members, and has a good chance against Mordaunt.
Even if you are right, and polls differ on that question, why would Gove need Kemi supporters to switch to Sunak. That is the part I was questioning. As a conspiracy theory, it seems unnecessarily complex. Vote Kemi to beat Truss, fine, but there is no need to switch to Rishi afterwards because he is going to win anyway.
But once Kemi gets ahead of Liz, Kemi beats Penny.
It's a political scissors, paper, stone.
What japes.
Scissors - Truss, wants to cut everything Paper - Sunak, on paper favourite Stone - Penny, sinking like a rock
Not sure then which of Kemi and Tom are Lizard and Spock respectively.
Tom has Jewish heritage, so is clearly in league with Lizard People, and Kemi is supported by the Common Sense Group, so - logically - must be Spock.
This is so far looking like an easy win for southern England after all – Charlwood has already provisionally broken the record. I suppose the chance for the likes of lowland Notts/south Yorks comes from them holding on to hottest air longer into the day.
Friends and Fam in SW reporting storms, cloud and rain
Question is if and when it gets to the east. Probs not fast enough to prevent 40C
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
“Sea & Land
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
Who mixes an 18-year-old whisky, with anything but a single ice cube?
Depends. Is the 18-year-old whisky paying income tax on a minimum wage job while doing their A Levels?
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
To give her the benefit of the doubt, "minimum wage" job is a fair shorthand for the work she was doing, even if it was just before the official minimum wage came in.
However, it is unlikely she paid much, if any tax, and suggesting that her low tax politics were formed because she was being taxed so highly is frankly bullshit.
Is it though? The income tax threshold was £4k in 1997 and the lower NI threshold about £3.2k.
So she'd have been paying both if she'd done it for more than a few months.
LHR on track to take the record. There is no official station north of the Trent currently showing 35c+ yet, so it looks like the SE will retain the record after all.
But, we shall see.
Too early to say imo. WOW seems to be down, which is frustrating.
The SE is basically racing against time against the cold front. It might be somewhere to the north-east of London that sets the record as it had just that little bit longer before the 'cold' front arrives. LHR is to the west of London and so the front will get there earlier...
Bedford/Cambridge possibly the hotspot?
Still no sign of the cold front here in North Dorset.
Well, tbf there are high pre-frontal clouds I can see in the distance to the west but no effect on temperature yet, which is still slowly climbing (33.2°C here atm).
On its way! The front is over Devon at the moment. The rainfall you can see on the radar is just ahead of the front.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
“Sea & Land
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
Who mixes an 18-year-old whisky, with anything but a single ice cube?
We need to embrace multicultural whisky-based drinks.
Cue speculation that it's because Gove has them ready to jump ship to Sunak after he's used Kemi to take out the Truss.
Why? Sunak is going to top the MPs section anyway.
Because Sunak loses to Truss with the members, and has a good chance against Mordaunt.
Even if you are right, and polls differ on that question, why would Gove need Kemi supporters to switch to Sunak. That is the part I was questioning. As a conspiracy theory, it seems unnecessarily complex. Vote Kemi to beat Truss, fine, but there is no need to switch to Rishi afterwards because he is going to win anyway.
Because they want to vote for Sunak anyway? Once Truss goes, they need to switch to Sunak because the Right aligns behind Kemi, and she might top the poll outright, especially if Mordaunt is clearly fading by then. Sunak wants as big a victory in the last round as he can get, because he is not that popular with the members so needs to be seen as the clear choice by MPs.
The logical thing for Sunak to do is to lend votes to Liz to block Kemi.
Whether he has or not, I don't know.
Other way round, surely?
Truss beats Sunak easily in a head-to-head.
Kemi might not, as she's that much less experienced and has lower name recognition.
I actually think his best bet is against Mordaunt, but I don't think he has enough votes to lend to ensure he faces her, as once Truss/Kemi goes out, the other probably inherits almost all their votes.
PS Early draft of this said Kemi was young, and then I checked - turn out Sunak is four months younger than her.
I don’t think Sunak is the one who plays around with the votes today. Not sure the upside is worth it.
If anyone is going to, it’s going to be the floating MPs who just want a chance of winning a GE and see Liz as the least likely to do it. Whether the strength of feeling is there to do it, I cannot say.
This is so far looking like an easy win for southern England after all – Charlwood has already provisionally broken the record. I suppose the chance for the likes of lowland Notts/south Yorks comes from them holding on to hottest air longer into the day.
Friends and Fam in SW reporting storms, cloud and rain
Question is if and when it gets to the east. Probs not fast enough to prevent 40C
This is so far looking like an easy win for southern England after all – Charlwood has already provisionally broken the record. I suppose the chance for the likes of lowland Notts/south Yorks comes from them holding on to hottest air longer into the day.
Friends and Fam in SW reporting storms, cloud and rain
Question is if and when it gets to the east. Probs not fast enough to prevent 40C
Agreed. I expect Charlwood to get to 40c by 1300 or perhaps 1400. The front won't quite get there by then.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
“Sea & Land
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
Who mixes an 18-year-old whisky, with anything but a single ice cube?
Someone who has worked out how to transform a £20 single shot into a £45 cocktail by spending another £1 on ingredients.
Doesn't even say if it is single malt or blended (the former, AFAIK). But the person who would put an ice cube in HP 18yo single malt is evidently too beyond the realms of decency to know better, never mind the one with the intellect of a halved flatworm who buys a cocktail like that.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
To give her the benefit of the doubt, "minimum wage" job is a fair shorthand for the work she was doing, even if it was just before the official minimum wage came in.
However, it is unlikely she paid much, if any tax, and suggesting that her low tax politics were formed because she was being taxed so highly is frankly bullshit.
Is it though? The income tax threshold was £4k in 1997 and the lower NI threshold about £3.2k.
So she'd have been paying both if she'd done it for more than a few months.
UK support has been vital for Ukraine’s defense all the way through Russian aggression. I am deeply grateful to the government of the UK and especially my counterpart @trussliz. Her mettle, inner steel, and clarity of purpose have been indispensable in crafting crucial decisions. https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1549345853051133952
I'd take that as a sign of fear in the Truss camp. For the Ukrainian MFA to make such a statement on this day in particular - and knowing its possible ramifications - suggests there is desperation.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
“Sea & Land
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
Who mixes an 18-year-old whisky, with anything but a single ice cube?
We need to embrace multicultural whisky-based drinks.
LHR on track to take the record. There is no official station north of the Trent currently showing 35c+ yet, so it looks like the SE will retain the record after all.
But, we shall see.
Too early to say imo. WOW seems to be down, which is frustrating.
The SE is basically racing against time against the cold front. It might be somewhere to the north-east of London that sets the record as it had just that little bit longer before the 'cold' front arrives. LHR is to the west of London and so the front will get there earlier...
Bedford/Cambridge possibly the hotspot?
Still no sign of the cold front here in North Dorset.
Well, tbf there are high pre-frontal clouds I can see in the distance to the west but no effect on temperature yet, which is still slowly climbing (33.2°C here atm).
On its way! The front is over Devon at the moment. The rainfall you can see on the radar is just ahead of the front.
I'll be happy to see it!
Oh yes, me too – sadly I live in far north London, so have a bloody long wait!!
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
“Sea & Land
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
When you go there, the trick is avoiding the menu. Which seems to be written by some weird people. Talk to the bar tenders and they will build you some nice cocktails.
The prices are stupid, though. 69 Colebrooke Row is better and cheaper. Though it is starting to die from it's own reputation. That's what happened to Dukes...
If I were a Tory MP feeling particularly Machiavellian today I would be switching to Kemi to knock Liz Truss out of the race, particularly if I had been supporting TT.
Doubt it will happen but it would be hilarious.
I think there might well be some of that.
If it happens, then I hope Truss voters go to Kemi so we get a Sunak v Kemi run-off, which would probably be won by Kemi.
Sunak was always getting through the MPs and remains for me the Tories best hope of providing sane governance and having a shot at winning the election.
But - and its a big but - there is something intriguing about Badenoch. The idea of Sunak vs Badenoch for Tory leader is itself rather transformational, and the outcome potentially even more so.
I read various things about Kemi being on the right of the party and perhaps she is. But that she *exists* is not of the right, but points towards a more progressive modern Britain which is the antithesis of what the right of the Tory party wants.
There is that. But her social attitudes seem to be a very long way indeed from progressive. The prospect of the UK moving in the direction of a post-racial society is a very encouraging one - but it doesn't mean that right wing politics ceases.
Truss would be Labour's preferred opponent, for sure. Mordaunt probably their least preferred of the three likely to make it. I reckon the final round is something like Sunak 135, Mordaunt 116, Truss 106 with Mordaunt winning the members, although I think Sunak is the strongest candidate and he could still beat Mordaunt given the resources behind his campaign and the fact that Mordaunt is still quite untested and could blow up.
Mordaunt has done a great deal of blowing up already, it's unlikely that she will stop doing so under the pressure of hustings and further TV appearances.
Not quite as much in the Navy as we were led to believe though.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
Completely electorally suicidal, I'd guess, but something I'd like to see is the progressive shifting of the NI burden onto income tax and corporation tax under the guise of "open taxes."
Basically: "You pay this anyway, but they've done the 'stealth taxes' trick so much it's made things really complicated."
Set Income tax to 25%/45%. Corporation tax to 25%. NI down from 13.25% to 8% for employees and from 15.05% to 10% for employers.
See how that goes, with the intent of increasing the shift still further (I wouldn't be surprised if the tax take into the Treasury actually increased despite it being supposedly level under the latest ready reckoner). And then it can be really clear when taxes are increased and decreased.
It also helps with the ever-increasing problem of the IR35/self-employed trap the Treasury has been getting deeper and deeper into.
But, as I said. At the very least "courageous," if not "controversial."
At about 5pm the wind direction starts to change from southerly to westerly which will bring the hot weather to an end by tomorrow morning.
We had an unusually warm afternoon, but that has been the extent of this climate catastrophe here in south Devon. Slept like a babe on top of the duvet last night.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
What's wrong with paying taxes? Services don't come for free you know.
Pay for the services then.
Taxes should be kept low, but too many services that ought to be privately paid for, are paid for out of taxes instead.
Oh, like hospitals? Fire stations?, schools? ICBMs? Why don't you talk some sense sometimes.
You might want to have a look at what proportion of taxes actually goes on ICBMs, schools, fire stations or the NHS and what proportion of taxes goes on stuff I'd quite happily oppose it going on.
Our taxes could be much, much lower, if our spending was lower.
So what would you cut?
Transportation - People should pay for their own choice of transport. If the state pays for an element of the transportation, then taxes on that element should cover that element (eg road taxes/fuel duty - but at present they massively exceed road expenditure). I find it morally unacceptable that a burger flipper on minimum wage who gets taxed heavily to drive to their place of work is then further taxed to fund the transportation of a well off professional who takes the train to commute to work.
Pensions and pension-related expenditure - People should get what they saved for. Pensions as a percentage of GDP have now doubled what they were when today's pensioners were working, while education as a percentage of GDP has halved. Abolish the triple lock, freeze pensions whenever state expenditure is frozen and end the era or continuous goodies being used to bribe the grey vote.
Social care/housing - The taxpayer should not be in the business of paying to protect people's inheritances.
Local authority planning committees etc - Set standards and then anyone should be able to build whatever they want on their own land, so long as it meets the pre-existing legal standards. Only things that would breach standards due to eg pollution etc should require planning consent.
Expenditure tied to a percentage of GDP. We should not be committing to eg spend x% of GDP on Foreign Aid, or x% of GDP on defence, then giving away money to agencies like the UN in order to make the numbers up as we wouldn't hit the number otherwise. We should be spending on that which is necessary because its important, whether that means a bit more or a bit less, but I expect it would be less on Foreign Aid at least.
Professional charities getting money in order to then lobby for more money.
That should be enough to start with. Pandering to the grey vote alone is draining far too much of our taxes.
This is so far looking like an easy win for southern England after all – Charlwood has already provisionally broken the record. I suppose the chance for the likes of lowland Notts/south Yorks comes from them holding on to hottest air longer into the day.
Friends and Fam in SW reporting storms, cloud and rain
Question is if and when it gets to the east. Probs not fast enough to prevent 40C
This is so far looking like an easy win for southern England after all – Charlwood has already provisionally broken the record. I suppose the chance for the likes of lowland Notts/south Yorks comes from them holding on to hottest air longer into the day.
South Yorks will smash 40 and set the new record is what I'm hearing. Hotter than Bangkok has ever been. Which means way TOO hot.
I hope this is a Bob Beamon long jump type record - but I fear it won't be.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
To give her the benefit of the doubt, "minimum wage" job is a fair shorthand for the work she was doing, even if it was just before the official minimum wage came in.
However, it is unlikely she paid much, if any tax, and suggesting that her low tax politics were formed because she was being taxed so highly is frankly bullshit.
Is it though? The income tax threshold was £4k in 1997 and the lower NI threshold about £3.2k.
So she'd have been paying both if she'd done it for more than a few months.
But not full time surely?
I wonder if she's confusing in memory tax deducted at source and claimed back later (or never did the latter cos wasn't well enough informed at the time).
Completely electorally suicidal, I'd guess, but something I'd like to see is the progressive shifting of the NI burden onto income tax and corporation tax under the guise of "open taxes."
Basically: "You pay this anyway, but they've done the 'stealth taxes' trick so much it's made things really complicated."
Set Income tax to 25%/45%. Corporation tax to 25%. NI down from 13.25% to 8% for employees and from 15.05% to 10% for employers.
See how that goes, with the intent of increasing the shift still further (I wouldn't be surprised if the tax take into the Treasury actually increased despite it being supposedly level under the latest ready reckoner). And then it can be really clear when taxes are increased and decreased.
It also helps with the ever-increasing problem of the IR35/self-employed trap the Treasury has been getting deeper and deeper into.
But, as I said. At the very least "courageous," if not "controversial."
Courageous is worse than controversial. "Controversial" means "this will lose you votes", "courageous" means "this will lose you the election".
At about 5pm the wind direction starts to change from southerly to westerly which will bring the hot weather to an end by tomorrow morning.
We had an unusually warm afternoon, but that has been the extent of this climate catastrophe here in south Devon. Slept like a babe on top of the duvet last night.
I slept extremely well last night, strangely. And that was upstairs in my bedroom with the window slightly ajar.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
To give her the benefit of the doubt, "minimum wage" job is a fair shorthand for the work she was doing, even if it was just before the official minimum wage came in.
However, it is unlikely she paid much, if any tax, and suggesting that her low tax politics were formed because she was being taxed so highly is frankly bullshit.
Is it though? The income tax threshold was £4k in 1997 and the lower NI threshold about £3.2k.
So she'd have been paying both if she'd done it for more than a few months.
My wife worked stupid hours through her A levels and degrees - because she was an overseas student paying full fees all the way on everything, and had little support from the family. Because they didn't have noticeable money - in UK terms.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
You can't get a cocktail for £20 in the Beaufort bar at the Savoy - it's inconsequential.
“Sea & Land
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
On second thought, kept separate and reordered, that’s not a bad long lunch when watching ones weight:
Truss would be Labour's preferred opponent, for sure. Mordaunt probably their least preferred of the three likely to make it. I reckon the final round is something like Sunak 135, Mordaunt 116, Truss 106 with Mordaunt winning the members, although I think Sunak is the strongest candidate and he could still beat Mordaunt given the resources behind his campaign and the fact that Mordaunt is still quite untested and could blow up.
Mordaunt has done a great deal of blowing up already, it's unlikely that she will stop doing so under the pressure of hustings and further TV appearances.
Not quite as much in the Navy as we were led to believe though.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
This is so far looking like an easy win for southern England after all – Charlwood has already provisionally broken the record. I suppose the chance for the likes of lowland Notts/south Yorks comes from them holding on to hottest air longer into the day.
South Yorks will smash 40 and set the new record is what I'm hearing. Hotter than Bangkok has ever been. Which means way TOO hot.
I hope this is a Bob Beamon long jump type record - but I fear it won't be.
40.8 is the hottest ever in Bangkok apparently, which is weirdly low considering how it's eternally in the 30s there.
Truss would be Labour's preferred opponent, for sure. Mordaunt probably their least preferred of the three likely to make it. I reckon the final round is something like Sunak 135, Mordaunt 116, Truss 106 with Mordaunt winning the members, although I think Sunak is the strongest candidate and he could still beat Mordaunt given the resources behind his campaign and the fact that Mordaunt is still quite untested and could blow up.
Mordaunt has done a great deal of blowing up already, it's unlikely that she will stop doing so under the pressure of hustings and further TV appearances.
Not quite as much in the Navy as we were led to believe though.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
PM's package is PM for PM.
That's literally it.
I don't think so. Her pitch is empathy and communication.
Still pretty bearable here in London, only a fraction warmer-feeling than yesterday so far.
Starmer went to a school that became private while he was there.
As that is the only piece of being "posh" that the Tory party have on SKS it continually appears in the hope that people have never investigated the detail.
For those who have investigated the detail it's a pack of lies that confirms (again) that the Tory party are dishonest.
A bit like Kemi's claim in the Telegraph: " I know what it's like flipping burgers at 16, on minimum wage, and then watching my pay slip away to taxes..."
The minimum wage didn't exist in 1996 (and would she have been paying income tax ?).
The personal allowance was only about 4k or so then so it's entirely possible. I worked in Tescos around the same time, and remember there being some tax.
She'd have to have been working full time throughout the whole year at McDonalds, while doing her A-levels. Even then, if she's working 40 hours (which is tough during A-Levels), she'd earn maybe £120 and still take home over £100.
That's not exactly watching your pay slip away to taxes.
🤨
For someone counting every penny and earning only £120 losing £20 to taxes does indeed feel like watching it slip away.
What's wrong with paying taxes? Services don't come for free you know.
Pay for the services then.
Taxes should be kept low, but too many services that ought to be privately paid for, are paid for out of taxes instead.
Oh, like hospitals? Fire stations?, schools? ICBMs? Why don't you talk some sense sometimes.
You might want to have a look at what proportion of taxes actually goes on ICBMs, schools, fire stations or the NHS and what proportion of taxes goes on stuff I'd quite happily oppose it going on.
Our taxes could be much, much lower, if our spending was lower.
So what would you cut?
Transportation - People should pay for their own choice of transport. If the state pays for an element of the transportation, then taxes on that element should cover that element (eg road taxes/fuel duty - but at present they massively exceed road expenditure). I find it morally unacceptable that a burger flipper on minimum wage who gets taxed heavily to drive to their place of work is then further taxed to fund the transportation of a well off professional who takes the train to commute to work.
Pensions and pension-related expenditure - People should get what they saved for. Pensions as a percentage of GDP have now doubled what they were when today's pensioners were working, while education as a percentage of GDP has halved. Abolish the triple lock, freeze pensions whenever state expenditure is frozen and end the era or continuous goodies being used to bribe the grey vote.
Social care/housing - The taxpayer should not be in the business of paying to protect people's inheritances.
Local authority planning committees etc - Set standards and then anyone should be able to build whatever they want on their own land, so long as it meets the pre-existing legal standards. Only things that would breach standards due to eg pollution etc should require planning consent.
Expenditure tied to a percentage of GDP. We should not be committing to eg spend x% of GDP on Foreign Aid, or x% of GDP on defence, then giving away money to agencies like the UN in order to make the numbers up as we wouldn't hit the number otherwise. We should be spending on that which is necessary because its important, whether that means a bit more or a bit less, but I expect it would be less on Foreign Aid at least.
Professional charities getting money in order to then lobby for more money.
That should be enough to start with. Pandering to the grey vote alone is draining far too much of our taxes.
A few suggestions for you. Work harder, (maybe spend less time on here?). Set up a business. earn a load of money. This will then make you less jealous of those irritating old pensioners, many of whom have been a lot luckier than you, but quite a few who have done the things I suggest above.
At about 5pm the wind direction starts to change from southerly to westerly which will bring the hot weather to an end by tomorrow morning.
We had an unusually warm afternoon, but that has been the extent of this climate catastrophe here in south Devon. Slept like a babe on top of the duvet last night.
I slept extremely well last night, strangely. And that was upstairs in my bedroom with the window slightly ajar.
I only had a desk fan on.
Doesn't sound as comfortable as pyjamas tbh, but whatever floats your boat.
LHR on track to take the record. There is no official station north of the Trent currently showing 35c+ yet, so it looks like the SE will retain the record after all.
But, we shall see.
Too early to say imo. WOW seems to be down, which is frustrating.
The SE is basically racing against time against the cold front. It might be somewhere to the north-east of London that sets the record as it had just that little bit longer before the 'cold' front arrives. LHR is to the west of London and so the front will get there earlier...
Bedford/Cambridge possibly the hotspot?
Still no sign of the cold front here in North Dorset.
Well, tbf there are high pre-frontal clouds I can see in the distance to the west but no effect on temperature yet, which is still slowly climbing (33.2°C here atm).
On its way! The front is over Devon at the moment. The rainfall you can see on the radar is just ahead of the front.
I'll be happy to see it!
Front is shuffling sideways acc to Met forecasts. Not getting further than Swansea, let alone into the Lost Lands where Exeter is as far as it goes.
Thin drizzly sort-of-thinking-about-it showers bubbling up above the Southern Uplands and moving north into the central belt here though.
Truss would be Labour's preferred opponent, for sure. Mordaunt probably their least preferred of the three likely to make it. I reckon the final round is something like Sunak 135, Mordaunt 116, Truss 106 with Mordaunt winning the members, although I think Sunak is the strongest candidate and he could still beat Mordaunt given the resources behind his campaign and the fact that Mordaunt is still quite untested and could blow up.
Mordaunt has done a great deal of blowing up already, it's unlikely that she will stop doing so under the pressure of hustings and further TV appearances.
Not quite as much in the Navy as we were led to believe though.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
I agree, Mordaunt is vacuous and would be a very bad choice. The same is true of Truss but she is a more obvious fake and is exceptionally easy to dislike. Badenoch is much better than either of them, but still has a lot to learn (see the 'minimum wage' storm-in-a-teacup for a trivial illustration). She is nowhere near ready to be catapulted into No10 at a time of multiple national crises. .
That leaves one serious candidate. He's not great, but he's the only credible one left. It really is as simple as that.
If Badenoch was working in McDonalds in London in 1997-98 then she was on £4 an hour. More than 10% higher than the minimum wage introduced in 1999.
So what?
Not exactly Goldman Sachs is it.
But not "minimum wage". So she's just another lying Tory.
I think that is just silly. I believe she said she knew what it was like to work on minimum wage. This is about as dumb as the "Starmer went to a private school argument". it is disingenuous.
UK support has been vital for Ukraine’s defense all the way through Russian aggression. I am deeply grateful to the government of the UK and especially my counterpart @trussliz. Her mettle, inner steel, and clarity of purpose have been indispensable in crafting crucial decisions. https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1549345853051133952
Is this the same Liz Truss who is afraid to be interviewed by Kay Burley?
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
Because she said she was on the minimum wage? It's not a big lie, and maybe not a deliberate lie at all, but I was hoping that after Johnson we might see a return to honesty, accuracy and integrity in public life, rather than people just saying whatever is convenient.
How do you know it wasn't the minimum wage at the time?
Just because there wasn't a national official minimum wage doesn't mean she didn't experience it, and that experience is still valid.
Honestly, this is splitting hairs. I can't remember all the terms of my contract from my first job in the late 1990s either and how that related exactly to the first years of the Blair governmeny.
I do remember what it was like.
I don't think anyone has ever referred to the lowest wage offered by a specific employer as "the minimum wage" though. When I was a teenager working at a restaurant I earned £1.50 an hour which I imagine was the lowest wage offered by the restaurant but it was never referred to by anyone as "the minimum wage".
LHR on track to take the record. There is no official station north of the Trent currently showing 35c+ yet, so it looks like the SE will retain the record after all.
But, we shall see.
Too early to say imo. WOW seems to be down, which is frustrating.
The SE is basically racing against time against the cold front. It might be somewhere to the north-east of London that sets the record as it had just that little bit longer before the 'cold' front arrives. LHR is to the west of London and so the front will get there earlier...
Bedford/Cambridge possibly the hotspot?
Still no sign of the cold front here in North Dorset.
Well, tbf there are high pre-frontal clouds I can see in the distance to the west but no effect on temperature yet, which is still slowly climbing (33.2°C here atm).
On its way! The front is over Devon at the moment. The rainfall you can see on the radar is just ahead of the front.
Met office now not forecasting any rain for us so I think it's all dropping on Devon.
Truss would be Labour's preferred opponent, for sure. Mordaunt probably their least preferred of the three likely to make it. I reckon the final round is something like Sunak 135, Mordaunt 116, Truss 106 with Mordaunt winning the members, although I think Sunak is the strongest candidate and he could still beat Mordaunt given the resources behind his campaign and the fact that Mordaunt is still quite untested and could blow up.
Mordaunt has done a great deal of blowing up already, it's unlikely that she will stop doing so under the pressure of hustings and further TV appearances.
Not quite as much in the Navy as we were led to believe though.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
PM's package is PM for PM.
That's literally it.
If Sunak is an imitation of Blair stylistically, Mordaunt is his latest heir politically.
Truss would be Labour's preferred opponent, for sure. Mordaunt probably their least preferred of the three likely to make it. I reckon the final round is something like Sunak 135, Mordaunt 116, Truss 106 with Mordaunt winning the members, although I think Sunak is the strongest candidate and he could still beat Mordaunt given the resources behind his campaign and the fact that Mordaunt is still quite untested and could blow up.
Mordaunt has done a great deal of blowing up already, it's unlikely that she will stop doing so under the pressure of hustings and further TV appearances.
Not quite as much in the Navy as we were led to believe though.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
I agree, Mordaunt is vacuous and would be a very bad choice. The same is true of Truss but she is a more obvious fake and is exceptionally easy to dislike. Badenoch is much better than either of them, but still has a lot to learn (see the 'minimum wage' storm-in-a-teacup for a trivial illustration). She is nowhere near ready to be catapulted into No10 at a time of multiple national crises. .
That leaves one serious candidate. He's not great, but he's the only credible one left. It really is as simple as that.
Truss would be Labour's preferred opponent, for sure. Mordaunt probably their least preferred of the three likely to make it. I reckon the final round is something like Sunak 135, Mordaunt 116, Truss 106 with Mordaunt winning the members, although I think Sunak is the strongest candidate and he could still beat Mordaunt given the resources behind his campaign and the fact that Mordaunt is still quite untested and could blow up.
Mordaunt has done a great deal of blowing up already, it's unlikely that she will stop doing so under the pressure of hustings and further TV appearances.
Not quite as much in the Navy as we were led to believe though.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
I agree, Mordaunt is vacuous and would be a very bad choice. The same is true of Truss but she is a more obvious fake and is exceptionally easy to dislike. Badenoch is much better than either of them, but still has a lot to learn (see the 'minimum wage' storm-in-a-teacup for a trivial illustration). She is nowhere near ready to be catapulted into No10 at a time of multiple national crises. .
That leaves one serious candidate. He's not great, but he's the only credible one left. It really is as simple as that.
And it probably means a Labour victory at the next GE is nailed on. Unless he is very lucky
That said, it would be the result that most annoys Bozo and all his hopeless hangers on. Therefore what is not to like?
UK support has been vital for Ukraine’s defense all the way through Russian aggression. I am deeply grateful to the government of the UK and especially my counterpart @trussliz. Her mettle, inner steel, and clarity of purpose have been indispensable in crafting crucial decisions. https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1549345853051133952
I'd take that as a sign of fear in the Truss camp. For the Ukrainian MFA to make such a statement on this day in particular - and knowing its possible ramifications - suggests there is desperation.
It's remarkable interference, frankly, though I quite see why Truss is using it. In general the Ukrainian approach of handing out praise and brickbats to individual governments and even, as, here, individual politicians, creates a serious risk of backlash - not directly but in the attitudes of others (e.g. Sunak) if they have to consider sending another £million a couple of months later.
Truss would be Labour's preferred opponent, for sure. Mordaunt probably their least preferred of the three likely to make it. I reckon the final round is something like Sunak 135, Mordaunt 116, Truss 106 with Mordaunt winning the members, although I think Sunak is the strongest candidate and he could still beat Mordaunt given the resources behind his campaign and the fact that Mordaunt is still quite untested and could blow up.
Mordaunt has done a great deal of blowing up already, it's unlikely that she will stop doing so under the pressure of hustings and further TV appearances.
Not quite as much in the Navy as we were led to believe though.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
PM's package is PM for PM.
That's literally it.
If Sunak is an imitation of Blair stylistically, Mordaunt is his latest heir politically.
On topic, never mind a tory lead.
What odds could I get on tories below 25 per cent in a recognised poll between now and Christmas? That is the direction of travel.
LHR on track to take the record. There is no official station north of the Trent currently showing 35c+ yet, so it looks like the SE will retain the record after all.
But, we shall see.
Too early to say imo. WOW seems to be down, which is frustrating.
The SE is basically racing against time against the cold front. It might be somewhere to the north-east of London that sets the record as it had just that little bit longer before the 'cold' front arrives. LHR is to the west of London and so the front will get there earlier...
Bedford/Cambridge possibly the hotspot?
Still no sign of the cold front here in North Dorset.
Well, tbf there are high pre-frontal clouds I can see in the distance to the west but no effect on temperature yet, which is still slowly climbing (33.2°C here atm).
On its way! The front is over Devon at the moment. The rainfall you can see on the radar is just ahead of the front.
Met office now not forecasting any rain for us so I think it's all dropping on Devon.
This is so far looking like an easy win for southern England after all – Charlwood has already provisionally broken the record. I suppose the chance for the likes of lowland Notts/south Yorks comes from them holding on to hottest air longer into the day.
South Yorks will smash 40 and set the new record is what I'm hearing. Hotter than Bangkok has ever been. Which means way TOO hot.
I hope this is a Bob Beamon long jump type record - but I fear it won't be.
40.8 is the hottest ever in Bangkok apparently, which is weirdly low considering how it's eternally in the 30s there.
I read the other day the record in Madrid is "only" 40.7 degrees, again lower than I would have guessed.
Truss would be Labour's preferred opponent, for sure. Mordaunt probably their least preferred of the three likely to make it. I reckon the final round is something like Sunak 135, Mordaunt 116, Truss 106 with Mordaunt winning the members, although I think Sunak is the strongest candidate and he could still beat Mordaunt given the resources behind his campaign and the fact that Mordaunt is still quite untested and could blow up.
Mordaunt has done a great deal of blowing up already, it's unlikely that she will stop doing so under the pressure of hustings and further TV appearances.
Not quite as much in the Navy as we were led to believe though.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
I agree, Mordaunt is vacuous and would be a very bad choice. The same is true of Truss but she is a more obvious fake and is exceptionally easy to dislike. Badenoch is much better than either of them, but still has a lot to learn (see the 'minimum wage' storm-in-a-teacup for a trivial illustration). She is nowhere near ready to be catapulted into No10 at a time of multiple national crises. .
That leaves one serious candidate. He's not great, but he's the only credible one left. It really is as simple as that.
Yep, its been that way since the start really. Only the Conhome polling suggested any real doubt.
Not bad, but I suspect somewhere further north or east will beat that
Bloody hell. Have they offered you a job at the Met Office? The only non scientifically trained weather forecaster since Mrs Miggins hung up her seaweed, took her clothes off and did a rain dance.
And this shows why I'm not backing Badenoch. Culture war BS is the wrong kind of right wing. Low tax economics etc is what we need, not banging on about BLM.
Re our brief conversation from yesterday - I suspect we're very similar on social issues, but different on economics, where I'm to your left.
Would be interesting to know with Badenoch how much of it is really personal opinion and how much is playing up to the (supposed) biases of the membership - and maybe some of the MPs. To get on as a black MP in the Con party, does she have to come out against BLM? (if, indeed, she has)
(not particularly tagetting the Cons here - to get on as a priviliged white male in Labour, do you need to come out as superwoke?)
Badenoch has been very anti-BLM for years. I don't think she's putting anything on. She's a hard right Tory. If you want to be more specific, she seems to be on the libertarian wing. We also know she lies (she wasn't on minimum wage because there wasn't a minimum wage). We also know she U-turns (against Net Zero, for Net Zero, against Net Zero in one day). She's Nadine Dorries with somewhat more brains.
I won't fault her for saying she was on Minimum wage before the minimum wage existed it just means she was on a low wage.
Now if she claimed that her pay rose as Major and Clark introduced the minimum then I would call that a lie
First minimum wage was £3.60, introduced in 1999. I remember this, because I got an 80% pay rise (up from £2.00) when it was introduced, at my job with the Student Union Entertainments team.
Kemi was born in 1980, she’d have been 19 when it was first introduced.
She worked at McDonald's when doing her A'levels. I presume she'd finished her A'levels by the time she was 19.
So she might have been on a minimal wage rather than an official minimum wage.
Why does this matter?
To give her the benefit of the doubt, "minimum wage" job is a fair shorthand for the work she was doing, even if it was just before the official minimum wage came in.
However, it is unlikely she paid much, if any tax, and suggesting that her low tax politics were formed because she was being taxed so highly is frankly bullshit.
Is it though? The income tax threshold was £4k in 1997 and the lower NI threshold about £3.2k.
So she'd have been paying both if she'd done it for more than a few months.
She'd have needed to work around 40 hours a week at £3 an hour for the whole year to be paying something like £20 tax on wages of £120. That's at the same time as doing A-levels, which are pretty time consuming.
Perhaps she was - I do know some people who did nothing but work/study, but even if she's really pushing it with the work hours, is tax of £20 from a £120 wage really that dramatic?
Making the point that in referring (accurately) to "decades of low growth" the leadership contenders (and esp Truss) are debunking the notion that Tory government is somehow better for the economy.
Important because if this myth can be punctured they will find it harder to win elections from now on - starting with the next one.
Just been in a zoom meeting where somebody from the west country, West Devon I think, reported that it was now raining where he was! Someone else from North Devon reported in enormous clap of thunder halfway through the meeting.
The forecast is for showers, some heavy, moving in from the south west during the afternoon
Comments
It would have been far better to have had an individually owned pension for everyone, even if the state had to top up the contributions.
Too late now.
But if that's what you want, go with Kemi.
Then on Sunday 1 pint, 1 orange juice and a packet of crisps £11.
London prices - ouch..
However, it is unlikely she paid much, if any tax, and suggesting that her low tax politics were formed because she was being taxed so highly is frankly bullshit.
If polling is showing that he would lose to all contenders in the membership vote then it’s in his interests (based on what he thinks could be best for country/party) to ensure that he is up against someone he can stomach as PM.
So he can still hope he wins after a campaign against final opponent but keep an eye on ensuring that the alternative is palatable.
Therefore he can try and game things to ensure Truss doesn’t get that far and lend votes to Mordaunt or Badenoch.
Paper - Sunak, on paper favourite
Stone - Penny, sinking like a rock
Not sure then which of Kemi and Tom are Lizard and Spock respectively.
On to 40C
I’d say the chances of this are much greater with this intense heat already in situ. 80% chance it will go, somewhere in the east, north east, which stays free of cloud
That's where a rebalance is needed. It should more into education, science, R&D, infrastructure, defence and crime & justice.
Older citizens need to work more for longer (flexibly, of course) and use their own resources more.
Truss beats Sunak easily in a head-to-head.
Kemi might not, as she's that much less experienced and has lower name recognition.
I actually think his best bet is against Mordaunt, but I don't think he has enough votes to lend to ensure he faces her, as once Truss/Kemi goes out, the other probably inherits almost all their votes.
PS Early draft of this said Kemi was young, and then I checked - turn out Sunak is four months younger than her.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/liz-truss-poses-the-greatest-risk-to-uk-economy/ar-AAZIhxt?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=3ae1e682bbc142ad938faff3e876f037
Well, tbf there are high pre-frontal clouds I can see in the distance to the west but no effect on temperature yet, which is still slowly climbing (33.2°C here atm).
Very possible multiple locations beat the old record.
Unprecedented- man’s fingerprints all over this!
Highland Park 18 Year Whisky, Oloroso Sherry, Apple, Coffee
£45”
Hope that’s better than it sounds. I’d bet money it’s not better than just drinking the scotch.
Just because there wasn't a national official minimum wage doesn't mean she didn't experience it, and that experience is still valid.
Honestly, this is splitting hairs. I can't remember all the terms of my contract from my first job in the late 1990s either and how that related exactly to the first years of the Blair governmeny.
I do remember what it was like.
Someone else from North Devon reported in enormous clap of thunder halfway through the meeting.
Just to let you know, I am enjoying the "heat of doom" from my seaside second home, just to get you really cross, and it is lovely.
Question is if and when it gets to the east. Probs not fast enough to prevent 40C
So she'd have been paying both if she'd done it for more than a few months.
If Badenoch was working in McDonalds in London in 1997-98 then she was on £4 an hour. More than 10% higher than the minimum wage introduced in 1999.
If anyone is going to, it’s going to be the floating MPs who just want a chance of winning a GE and see Liz as the least likely to do it. Whether the strength of feeling is there to do it, I cannot say.
https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar
Sees the racist prat Leon is back
Logs out
based on https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/pay-rises-of-up-to-8-for-mcdonald-s-burgerflippers-1291125.html
The aged single malts, not so much.
The prices are stupid, though. 69 Colebrooke Row is better and cheaper. Though it is starting to die from it's own reputation. That's what happened to Dukes...
But her social attitudes seem to be a very long way indeed from progressive.
The prospect of the UK moving in the direction of a post-racial society is a very encouraging one - but it doesn't mean that right wing politics ceases.
To me, she seriously lacks substance. I don't agree with Truss's ideas on economic policy but at least she is offering a fairly clear alternative with some degree of coherence. I genuinely don't know what PM is offering as a package. Unfunded tax cuts which she doesn't seem to know what they would cost (principally the increase in personal allowances) but nothing inflationary, no sirree.
Basically: "You pay this anyway, but they've done the 'stealth taxes' trick so much it's made things really complicated."
Set Income tax to 25%/45%. Corporation tax to 25%.
NI down from 13.25% to 8% for employees and from 15.05% to 10% for employers.
See how that goes, with the intent of increasing the shift still further (I wouldn't be surprised if the tax take into the Treasury actually increased despite it being supposedly level under the latest ready reckoner). And then it can be really clear when taxes are increased and decreased.
It also helps with the ever-increasing problem of the IR35/self-employed trap the Treasury has been getting deeper and deeper into.
But, as I said. At the very least "courageous," if not "controversial."
Pensions and pension-related expenditure - People should get what they saved for. Pensions as a percentage of GDP have now doubled what they were when today's pensioners were working, while education as a percentage of GDP has halved. Abolish the triple lock, freeze pensions whenever state expenditure is frozen and end the era or continuous goodies being used to bribe the grey vote.
Social care/housing - The taxpayer should not be in the business of paying to protect people's inheritances.
Local authority planning committees etc - Set standards and then anyone should be able to build whatever they want on their own land, so long as it meets the pre-existing legal standards. Only things that would breach standards due to eg pollution etc should require planning consent.
Expenditure tied to a percentage of GDP. We should not be committing to eg spend x% of GDP on Foreign Aid, or x% of GDP on defence, then giving away money to agencies like the UN in order to make the numbers up as we wouldn't hit the number otherwise. We should be spending on that which is necessary because its important, whether that means a bit more or a bit less, but I expect it would be less on Foreign Aid at least.
Professional charities getting money in order to then lobby for more money.
That should be enough to start with. Pandering to the grey vote alone is draining far too much of our taxes.
I hope this is a Bob Beamon long jump type record - but I fear it won't be.
I wonder if she's confusing in memory tax deducted at source and claimed back later (or never did the latter cos wasn't well enough informed at the time).
Not exactly Goldman Sachs is it.
I only had a desk fan on.
Oloroso sherry, apple, Highland Park 18, coffee.
That's literally it.
Still pretty bearable here in London, only a fraction warmer-feeling than yesterday so far.
Thin drizzly sort-of-thinking-about-it showers bubbling up above the Southern Uplands and moving north into the central belt here though.
That leaves one serious candidate. He's not great, but he's the only credible one left. It really is as simple as that.
DOGS ON THE MOON
No, wait, it was
“39.8C somewhere in London or Cambs”
Not bad, but I suspect somewhere further north or east will beat that
That said, it would be the result that most annoys Bozo and all his hopeless hangers on. Therefore what is not to like?
What odds could I get on tories below 25 per cent in a recognised poll between now and Christmas? That is the direction of travel.
(edited as the original read wrong)
Perhaps she was - I do know some people who did nothing but work/study, but even if she's really pushing it with the work hours, is tax of £20 from a £120 wage really that dramatic?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/18/leadership-tories-economyliz-truss-tom-tugendhat?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Making the point that in referring (accurately) to "decades of low growth" the leadership contenders (and esp Truss) are debunking the notion that Tory government is somehow better for the economy.
Important because if this myth can be punctured they will find it harder to win elections from now on - starting with the next one.