Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
Can’t get over the amount of ignoring of a certain poster going on this morning.
Gin is one of the longest standing and nicest posters on PB.
Ishmael is the most acerbic. When it comes to debunking mean spirited right wing crackpots no one does it better. Just a pity his aim is sometimes so woeful and in Charles and Gin he's got it badly wrong
I think some leeway has to be given to someone fulfilling the role of PB's chief curmudgeon. I have some ambitions in that area myself but have to accept that Ishy and Malc are nonpareil.
Malc needs a return to form - at his best, his swear blogging is a poetic stream-of-consciousness. Merely shouting “Feck”, “Arse” etc from an armchair is beneath his talent.
I am a man more sinned against than sinning. I have never been remotely rude to anyone in this subthread and can't imagine circumstances in which I would be. I regret having offended Charles, who was never rude to me or anyone else, but his relentless bragging was wearying. Those taking up the cudgels on his behalf are in the main nebbishes to whom a well known saying about heat and kitchens applies.
I was on USENET before HTTP was a thing.
In all that time, linking people online to their real world selves against their will always leads to failure.
It doesn’t matter how justified you think you are. You always lose.
Why?
“Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
I was on usenet when you could read it during your lunch hour.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
The 2.5% levy could be deducted from the value of the estate on death.
2.5% is a massive share of the imputed rental yield of a house which is 4-8%, after paying tax on the purchase price to boot. 10k annually on a 400k house would shift people toward other kinds of spending that are taxed at closer to 20% instead of 40-50%.
House prices are only so high and rental yields so low because of the cheap cost of money and the limited other options for investing.
I doubt rental yields would be so low if interest rates hasn’t been kept at zero for 10+ years - that’s not to say the returns would be higher, more that purchase prices would be lower.
That's right. Property competes for investment money with other asset classes. So if yields there are higher, so must be those on property. Via lower prices and/or higher rents. Probably, as you say, more the former.
Hence a 30y exemption to the annual surcharge and 28% CGT for selling within that period. The money will exit existing property investment and go towards building new property. That's the end game here.
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
Yep and unattended consequences will result in even more people working less rather than more.
40% pension contribution relief is surely kite-flying? It’s been on every Chancellor’s hit list for at least a couple of decades, but is potlitical dynamite to actually introduce it. Behavioural changes (as highlighted by @eek and @MaxPB), especially alongside fiscal drag at a time of inflation, would undo a lot of the benefits while retaining all the political negatives.
Not sure it's political dynamite. If the public understood (they don't) that high earners are being given an uplift of 40p on every £1 gross/60p net contributed (an instant boost of 66.7%) there would be considerable outrage in the other direction.
I got it when I set up my SIPP many years ago. A lump sum payment to me from HMRC. All of a year's tax back inc the higher rate element. It struck me then as absurdly generous and I feel that even more now. Limiting relief/refund to the basic rate is an absolute no-brainer imo if they're looking for savings. In fact I'd support it anyway, even if times were good.
The problem with this stance is that it is ok as long as you also support pensioners being taxed more and paying something like NI. Otherwise it is unfair. IE I have to pay more, but those who saved in to SIPPS at preferential rates for years get to enjoy their low tax retirement, whilst they clog up the doctors surgeries and hospitals, demanding more and better public services etc.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Osborne's £1m IHT break for homeowners was astonishing. I always said so. It pretty much came out of the blue didn't it?
Can’t get over the amount of ignoring of a certain poster going on this morning.
Gin is one of the longest standing and nicest posters on PB.
Ishmael is the most acerbic. When it comes to debunking mean spirited right wing crackpots no one does it better. Just a pity his aim is sometimes so woeful and in Charles and Gin he's got it badly wrong
I think some leeway has to be given to someone fulfilling the role of PB's chief curmudgeon. I have some ambitions in that area myself but have to accept that Ishy and Malc are nonpareil.
Malc needs a return to form - at his best, his swear blogging is a poetic stream-of-consciousness. Merely shouting “Feck”, “Arse” etc from an armchair is beneath his talent.
I am a man more sinned against than sinning. I have never been remotely rude to anyone in this subthread and can't imagine circumstances in which I would be. I regret having offended Charles, who was never rude to me or anyone else, but his relentless bragging was wearying. Those taking up the cudgels on his behalf are in the main nebbishes to whom a well known saying about heat and kitchens applies.
I was on USENET before HTTP was a thing.
In all that time, linking people online to their real world selves against their will always leads to failure.
It doesn’t matter how justified you think you are. You always lose.
Why?
“Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
God it is boring explaining this. Charles made no secret of who he was. I never doxxed him, I just clumsily tried to make the point that many PBers inhabit much the same world as he does and are seriously embarrassed by the constant showing off.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
TCO of a 2m house you stay put in for 20 years, 3m. This would turn houses into onerous assets, crash the markets and crash the banks. Max's proposals need to be read in light of his imminent move to Switzerland.
S'okay. Just seen clarification that it's on investment props.
Okay, but a total 80%+ tax rate would abolish renting. Good for the inherited incumbent wealth crowd whose parents can copay, bad for anyone else who wants to move around for work, study, family reasons.
Well we need a private rented sector but I'd like to see it made smaller by the expansion of both home ownership and council housing. Also BTL shouldn't be a popular road to wealth accretion. It's not healthy if it is.
Has anyone ever explored making house builders build rental properties as part of new developments - either managed by them, or by the local council?
It seems one way of solving a large number of potential problems.
Build to rent is a big industry in London (and elsewhere) but it serves the higher end of the market, ie those paying £1.5-£2k per month in rent. House builders sometimes have to provide subsidised housing, which can be below market rent, as part of their affordable housing requirements.
Can’t get over the amount of ignoring of a certain poster going on this morning.
Gin is one of the longest standing and nicest posters on PB.
Ishmael is the most acerbic. When it comes to debunking mean spirited right wing crackpots no one does it better. Just a pity his aim is sometimes so woeful and in Charles and Gin he's got it badly wrong
I think some leeway has to be given to someone fulfilling the role of PB's chief curmudgeon. I have some ambitions in that area myself but have to accept that Ishy and Malc are nonpareil.
Malc needs a return to form - at his best, his swear blogging is a poetic stream-of-consciousness. Merely shouting “Feck”, “Arse” etc from an armchair is beneath his talent.
I am a man more sinned against than sinning. I have never been remotely rude to anyone in this subthread and can't imagine circumstances in which I would be. I regret having offended Charles, who was never rude to me or anyone else, but his relentless bragging was wearying. Those taking up the cudgels on his behalf are in the main nebbishes to whom a well known saying about heat and kitchens applies.
I was on USENET before HTTP was a thing.
In all that time, linking people online to their real world selves against their will always leads to failure.
It doesn’t matter how justified you think you are. You always lose.
Why?
“Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
I've used my main online moniker (not Josias Jessop) online since 1988. I was 15 when I first got it. I also remember seeing the Mosaic browser for the first time - it must have been about 1992 or 1993.
I also have a memory that no-one's been able to verify (so am I misremembering?) About that time, a uni friend got a thick yellow-pages -style directory that had all the best Internet/telnet and web sites on it, along with other information. A time before search engines.
I'd love to get a copy, just to see which sites are still up and running ...
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
that'll help with the nasty party tag
Yes quite. This is how it will be reported. I'd much rather money go the the exchequer rather than to the charity sector (which I've become disillusioned with as so many, esp the large ones, are vehicles to protect the income and positions of those who work within it rather that the causes they are supposed to aid).
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Osborne's £1m IHT break for homeowners was astonishing. I always said so. It pretty much came out of the blue didn't it?
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
Yep and unattended consequences will result in even more people working less rather than more.
Not sure. If you were earning £100k and was enjoying shielding the top part of that from tax by using pensions would you work less if that break were reduced?
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
that'll help with the nasty party tag
Yes quite. This is how it will be reported. I'd much rather money go the the exchequer rather than to the charity sector (which I've become disillusioned with as so many, esp the large ones, are vehicles to protect the income and positions of those who work within it rather that the causes they are supposed to aid).
I think it's quite odd to assume the exchequer is better at choosing how best to give money to causes you think are worthy of supporting, but each to their own.
Can’t get over the amount of ignoring of a certain poster going on this morning.
Gin is one of the longest standing and nicest posters on PB.
Ishmael is the most acerbic. When it comes to debunking mean spirited right wing crackpots no one does it better. Just a pity his aim is sometimes so woeful and in Charles and Gin he's got it badly wrong
I think some leeway has to be given to someone fulfilling the role of PB's chief curmudgeon. I have some ambitions in that area myself but have to accept that Ishy and Malc are nonpareil.
Malc needs a return to form - at his best, his swear blogging is a poetic stream-of-consciousness. Merely shouting “Feck”, “Arse” etc from an armchair is beneath his talent.
I am a man more sinned against than sinning. I have never been remotely rude to anyone in this subthread and can't imagine circumstances in which I would be. I regret having offended Charles, who was never rude to me or anyone else, but his relentless bragging was wearying. Those taking up the cudgels on his behalf are in the main nebbishes to whom a well known saying about heat and kitchens applies.
I was on USENET before HTTP was a thing.
In all that time, linking people online to their real world selves against their will always leads to failure.
It doesn’t matter how justified you think you are. You always lose.
Why?
“Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
I've used my main online moniker (not Josias Jessop) online since 1988. I was 15 when I first got it. I also remember seeing the Mosaic browser for the first time - it must have been about 1992 or 1993.
I also have a memory that no-one's been able to verify (so am I misremembering?) About that time, a uni friend got a thick yellow-pages -style directory that had all the best Internet/telnet and web sites on it, along with other information. A time before search engines.
I'd love to get a copy, just to see which sites are still up and running ...
I think it was all the websites, not all the best ones. Then came human-curated search engines...
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
Yep and unattended consequences will result in even more people working less rather than more.
Not sure. If you were earning £100k and was enjoying shielding the top part of that from tax by using pensions would you work less if that break were reduced?
Do I need the cash - clearly I don’t so I may cut back a bit further.
The issue here is unintended consequences when many people may prefer to take things slightly easier.
Now many people have zero choice but to work all hours because they need the money - but for those with skills and a bit of cash other options are available.
Any change and suddenly working 40 hours a week may not seem so worthwhile.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Osborne's £1m IHT break for homeowners was astonishing. I always said so. It pretty much came out of the blue didn't it?
Most political Chancellor ever.
I think he is competing for that title with Gordon Brown. The reality was that Osborne had to fix Brown's profligacy and he did a pretty good job of it. The coalition government of that era was one of the best and most efficient in my lifetime. Those that have come post 2016 the worst.
What's going on ? Yesterday it was primary resisences, today pension pots. Every day seems to be a "tax going up" story on the Web.
Preparing people for bad news, and so if some do not happen it might not seem as bad as it will feel.
Won't save them, even if it is felt necessary.
Instead of this soft soaping nonsense what should actually happen is the chancellor, chief sec to the treasury should sit down with the BOE before the rate decision so fiscal and monetary policy can work together. They shouldnt have a vote but there ought to be heavy input
AIUI, the idea behind the verification changes is two-fold. One is to generate income from people who spend their whole lives on Twitter, making the company less reliant on fickle advertisers; the other is to make it more difficult to run tens of thousands of bots, something which his investigation of the company flagged as a genuine problem.
I don't understand the bot angle. Most bots aren't verified, and still won't be. The exception is if someone is prepared to spend a lot of money on impersonation, in which case they buy or hack a verified account. But this won't change, because you'll still be able to buy or hack a verified account, and as described you'll also just be able to simply pay for one.
I think the angle is that non-verified accounts will become pretty much invisible. If you’re not verified, you’ll be a *consumer* of information on Twitter, rather than someone contributing.
If the only content on Twitter is from those who will pay for verification, then 80% of the good stuff there will have gone. Then the consumers will go too.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Osborne's £1m IHT break for homeowners was astonishing. I always said so. It pretty much came out of the blue didn't it?
"in the tax year 2019 to 2020, 3.76% of UK deaths resulted in an Inheritance Tax (IHT) charge, increasing slightly by 0.02 percentage points since the previous tax year, 2018 to 2019." Is the most extraordinary thing about it. Even saying that for every death there are say 5 on average potential inheritors, it's a small minority.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
Can’t get over the amount of ignoring of a certain poster going on this morning.
Gin is one of the longest standing and nicest posters on PB.
Ishmael is the most acerbic. When it comes to debunking mean spirited right wing crackpots no one does it better. Just a pity his aim is sometimes so woeful and in Charles and Gin he's got it badly wrong
I think some leeway has to be given to someone fulfilling the role of PB's chief curmudgeon. I have some ambitions in that area myself but have to accept that Ishy and Malc are nonpareil.
Malc needs a return to form - at his best, his swear blogging is a poetic stream-of-consciousness. Merely shouting “Feck”, “Arse” etc from an armchair is beneath his talent.
I am a man more sinned against than sinning. I have never been remotely rude to anyone in this subthread and can't imagine circumstances in which I would be. I regret having offended Charles, who was never rude to me or anyone else, but his relentless bragging was wearying. Those taking up the cudgels on his behalf are in the main nebbishes to whom a well known saying about heat and kitchens applies.
I was on USENET before HTTP was a thing.
In all that time, linking people online to their real world selves against their will always leads to failure.
It doesn’t matter how justified you think you are. You always lose.
Why?
“Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
God it is boring explaining this. Charles made no secret of who he was. I never doxxed him, I just clumsily tried to make the point that many PBers inhabit much the same world as he does and are seriously embarrassed by the constant showing off.
t’s not about fair or accurate. Just is, bit like the wetness of water.
What's going on ? Yesterday it was primary resisences, today pension pots. Every day seems to be a "tax going up" story on the Web.
Preparing people for bad news, and so if some do not happen it might not seem as bad as it will feel.
Won't save them, even if it is felt necessary.
Instead of this soft soaping nonsense what should actually happen is the chancellor, chief sec to the treasury should sit down with the BOE before the rate decision so fiscal and monetary policy can work together. They shouldnt have a vote but there ought to be heavy input
That only reflects interest rates and all available information the BoE needed was available to them because a lot of people have called out 3 of the recent interest rate rises as too low for subsequent evidence to show we were correct.
And todays discussion isn’t interest rates (of which we are probably 1,25% below where we should be because we sit at 3% with the fed at 4% and that makes zero sense) but on taxes where we are seeing balloons being tested without thought as to the consequences.
Meanwhile the saner people on here already have better plans with more consequences thought about than the Treasury seem to have done.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Osborne's £1m IHT break for homeowners was astonishing. I always said so. It pretty much came out of the blue didn't it?
Most political Chancellor ever.
Well, until Kwarteng.
It's just that Kwarteng was utterly shite at politics.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
It is distributed open-source, and I have no idea what that means but it seems you get to post on it via your choice of 3rd party server. Therefore no overall policing of access, so you can say what you like.
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
that'll help with the nasty party tag
Yes quite. This is how it will be reported. I'd much rather money go the the exchequer rather than to the charity sector (which I've become disillusioned with as so many, esp the large ones, are vehicles to protect the income and positions of those who work within it rather that the causes they are supposed to aid).
Politically this won’t work until the charitable sector gets the treatment that MPs expenses got.
The reason why removing charitable status from private schools gets kicked back repeatedly might begin that…
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
Leon has worked out there is a niche on Mastodon to be funny, salty and offensive. If somebody were to pay them to poke a stick in the hornet's nest.
What's going on ? Yesterday it was primary resisences, today pension pots. Every day seems to be a "tax going up" story on the Web.
The government cannot get the numbers to add up and the OBR are not willing to sign up to an easy ride. The government must be regretting the commitment to have debt falling as a share of GDP made by Hunt in his initial statements. It calmed the market but it has the horrendous consequence that the government would have to be running a surplus in the event that GDP is actually falling, as appears all too likely.
The consequence is that taxes have to increase enough to pay the absurd across the board subsidy of gas prices (it should, of course, have been limited to those with the lowest incomes) and the cancellation of the NI increases which were chunky.
This forthcoming budget is going to be eyewatering. At the time of his initial statement Hunt claimed it would be as bad as Osborne's cuts in 2010. That was true: they will be worse, both on the tax increases side and the cuts in spending.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Would hit a lot of Tory voters in West London and Bluewall seats in Home Counties like Surrey
What's going on ? Yesterday it was primary resisences, today pension pots. Every day seems to be a "tax going up" story on the Web.
Preparing people for bad news, and so if some do not happen it might not seem as bad as it will feel.
Won't save them, even if it is felt necessary.
The Sunday Rawnsley makes the point that if someone threatens to push you out of the 10th floor window, you won't be grateful if it's only from the 8th.
The real political question is will wealthy pensioners be asked to pay any more for anything. I think we all know the answer to this.
They pay the same as wealthy non pensioners, why the envy and desperation to steal money from people who have worked hard all their lives. Maybe work a bit harder yourself and get yourself in the same position. Young people have cushy numbers and much better salaries than today's pensioners ever had
Just some old bloke, caught up in someone else's war. He's going to be warmish, dry, fed, safe - in a better place than the tens of thousands of his fellow cannon-fodder.
Until he's returned to Russia as part of a prisoner swap. Probably won't receive a warm welcome then.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
It is distributed open-source, and I have no idea what that means but it seems you get to post on it via your choice of 3rd party server. Therefore no overall policing of access, so you can say what you like.
The outrage about Twitter is about removal (presumed) of existing censorship.
Without centralised censorship, you have a choice between a Xchan dumpster fire or a series of siloed, locally censored newsgroups. The later is pretty much Reddit - they have some central censorship but not a great deal. Everyone picks the silos that are their comfort food.
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
Yep and unattended consequences will result in even more people working less rather than more.
Not sure. If you were earning £100k and was enjoying shielding the top part of that from tax by using pensions would you work less if that break were reduced?
Do I need the cash - clearly I don’t so I may cut back a bit further.
The issue here is unintended consequences when many people may prefer to take things slightly easier.
Now many people have zero choice but to work all hours because they need the money - but for those with skills and a bit of cash other options are available.
Any change and suddenly working 40 hours a week may not seem so worthwhile.
I am working about 50 hours a week but it is a choice. Tried doing 24 hours a week (which is the most tax efficient way) but found that having all the free time drove me mad.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
Was there only one poll this weekend? (The outlier from Opinium that showed Labour increasing its lead)
There was Opinium and a Survation which was also essentially unchanged (50 27 from 51 27) omnisis is the most recent (28 lead down to 24) but was actually released on Friday
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Would hit a lot of Tory voters in West London and Bluewall seats in Home Counties like Surrey
What's going on ? Yesterday it was primary resisences, today pension pots. Every day seems to be a "tax going up" story on the Web.
The government cannot get the numbers to add up and the OBR are not willing to sign up to an easy ride. The government must be regretting the commitment to have debt falling as a share of GDP made by Hunt in his initial statements. It calmed the market but it has the horrendous consequence that the government would have to be running a surplus in the event that GDP is actually falling, as appears all too likely.
The consequence is that taxes have to increase enough to pay the absurd across the board subsidy of gas prices (it should, of course, have been limited to those with the lowest incomes) and the cancellation of the NI increases which were chunky.
This forthcoming budget is going to be eyewatering. At the time of his initial statement Hunt claimed it would be as bad as Osborne's cuts in 2010. That was true: they will be worse, both on the tax increases side and the cuts in spending.
Created a rod for their own back, they really are stupid , £66 a month for 6 months is peanuts for people on higher incomes and will not even be noticeable.
Both exercise regularly and appear to be in good condition though, like me, they often have to add that qualifier: "for their age".
During his four decades in the Senate, Grassley has chaired the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Narcotics Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Aging Committee.
Isn't that just the Senate?
(I know, I know, there are some very young senators)
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
The Pilgrim Tweeters, seeking new ground upon which to cancel
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
It is distributed open-source, and I have no idea what that means but it seems you get to post on it via your choice of 3rd party server. Therefore no overall policing of access, so you can say what you like.
The outrage about Twitter is about removal (presumed) of existing censorship.
Without centralised censorship, you have a choice between a Xchan dumpster fire or a series of siloed, locally censored newsgroups. The later is pretty much Reddit - they have some central censorship but not a great deal. Everyone picks the silos that are their comfort food.
Reddit housekeeping is hilarious, I am on a couple of groups about psilocybin and DMT and stuff and occasionally a questionnaire from reddit hq pops up saying Does r DMT ever discuss illegal drugs and we all say Good heavens no, No siree, never seen anything like that on here.
AIUI, the idea behind the verification changes is two-fold. One is to generate income from people who spend their whole lives on Twitter, making the company less reliant on fickle advertisers; the other is to make it more difficult to run tens of thousands of bots, something which his investigation of the company flagged as a genuine problem.
I don't understand the bot angle. Most bots aren't verified, and still won't be. The exception is if someone is prepared to spend a lot of money on impersonation, in which case they buy or hack a verified account. But this won't change, because you'll still be able to buy or hack a verified account, and as described you'll also just be able to simply pay for one.
New market opportunity, fake news bot farms can get 1000 bots verified for $8000/m and suddenly fake news becomes real news. There's definitely countries with intelligence budgets to pay trivial sums like that to get approval for fake news bots.
It wouldn’t just be countries - $8,000 is a tiny marketing budget even on Twitter..
Maintaining 8,000 credit card accounts, on the other hand, is a lot more tricky.
No it isn't. For a start, hostile states might own banks and credit card companies. And even in the decadent West, there are many large companies running tens of thousands of Amex cards for employees, and other card companies are available.
Of course, which is why it’s being rolled out to a handful of Western countries initially. Hostile states want to have plausible deniability for their Western disinformation projects.
Getting 10k Twitter accounts used to be a morning’s work. That task just got exponentially more difficult.
What's going on ? Yesterday it was primary resisences, today pension pots. Every day seems to be a "tax going up" story on the Web.
The government cannot get the numbers to add up and the OBR are not willing to sign up to an easy ride. The government must be regretting the commitment to have debt falling as a share of GDP made by Hunt in his initial statements. It calmed the market but it has the horrendous consequence that the government would have to be running a surplus in the event that GDP is actually falling, as appears all too likely.
The consequence is that taxes have to increase enough to pay the absurd across the board subsidy of gas prices (it should, of course, have been limited to those with the lowest incomes) and the cancellation of the NI increases which were chunky.
This forthcoming budget is going to be eyewatering. At the time of his initial statement Hunt claimed it would be as bad as Osborne's cuts in 2010. That was true: they will be worse, both on the tax increases side and the cuts in spending.
Created a rod for their own back, they really are stupid , £66 a month for 6 months is peanuts for people on higher incomes and will not even be noticeable.
At least Hunt cut this nonsense back from 2 years to 6 months. If the gas price remains reasonably low it won't be that bad but the uncertainty of it will be causing chaos with other budgets.
Can’t get over the amount of ignoring of a certain poster going on this morning.
Gin is one of the longest standing and nicest posters on PB.
Ishmael is the most acerbic. When it comes to debunking mean spirited right wing crackpots no one does it better. Just a pity his aim is sometimes so woeful and in Charles and Gin he's got it badly wrong
I think some leeway has to be given to someone fulfilling the role of PB's chief curmudgeon. I have some ambitions in that area myself but have to accept that Ishy and Malc are nonpareil.
Malc needs a return to form - at his best, his swear blogging is a poetic stream-of-consciousness. Merely shouting “Feck”, “Arse” etc from an armchair is beneath his talent.
I am a man more sinned against than sinning. I have never been remotely rude to anyone in this subthread and can't imagine circumstances in which I would be. I regret having offended Charles, who was never rude to me or anyone else, but his relentless bragging was wearying. Those taking up the cudgels on his behalf are in the main nebbishes to whom a well known saying about heat and kitchens applies.
I was on USENET before HTTP was a thing.
In all that time, linking people online to their real world selves against their will always leads to failure.
It doesn’t matter how justified you think you are. You always lose.
Why?
“Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
I was on usenet when you could read it during your lunch hour.
This may show my age…
I was on usenet before there was DNS, and you asked MIT (probably) to email you the worldwide hosts file.
AIUI, the idea behind the verification changes is two-fold. One is to generate income from people who spend their whole lives on Twitter, making the company less reliant on fickle advertisers; the other is to make it more difficult to run tens of thousands of bots, something which his investigation of the company flagged as a genuine problem.
I don't understand the bot angle. Most bots aren't verified, and still won't be. The exception is if someone is prepared to spend a lot of money on impersonation, in which case they buy or hack a verified account. But this won't change, because you'll still be able to buy or hack a verified account, and as described you'll also just be able to simply pay for one.
I think the angle is that non-verified accounts will become pretty much invisible. If you’re not verified, you’ll be a *consumer* of information on Twitter, rather than someone contributing.
Per that description my entire feed will become pretty much invisible.
People who actively follow you will still see what you have to say, but the chance of your Tweet going ‘viral’ is much diminished. The idea is to get contributions from unverified accounts, out of the mainstream political and media conversation. That, and raise a load of money.
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
Yep and unattended consequences will result in even more people working less rather than more.
Not sure. If you were earning £100k and was enjoying shielding the top part of that from tax by using pensions would you work less if that break were reduced?
Do I need the cash - clearly I don’t so I may cut back a bit further.
The issue here is unintended consequences when many people may prefer to take things slightly easier.
Now many people have zero choice but to work all hours because they need the money - but for those with skills and a bit of cash other options are available.
Any change and suddenly working 40 hours a week may not seem so worthwhile.
I am working about 50 hours a week but it is a choice. Tried doing 24 hours a week (which is the most tax efficient way) but found that having all the free time drove me mad.
Each to their own - I would probably spend a day or so a week training people in my skill set of writing software for some toy or other - my current play project is a tool to compare prices across Amazon’s European sites - it generates some decent discounts if you know what you want.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
As someone said earlier it's a mistake to view this through a political lense. The question is, where will Ronaldo, Rihanna and other celebrities go, if anywhere?
Where they go, so the numbers of people will follow, and so will anyone who wants to have an audience, and then so will everyone else have to go if they want to follow anyone who has something interesting to say.
I don't see celebrities moving to Mastodon at the moment. Too complicated. But they could be driven away from twitter and then they'll want to go somewhere.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Would hit a lot of Tory voters in West London and Bluewall seats in Home Counties like Surrey
Myself included. 🤷♂️
Indeed but those wealthy seats are no longer safe Tory as they were even in 1997 (it is strong Leave seats in areas of Kent, Essex and Lincolnshire etc that are now the safest for the Tories).
Kensington and Chelsea and Fulham and Cities of London and Westminster are Labour target seats and Tory seats in Surrey are being targeted by the LDs.
The Tories cannot afford for their core vote there to stay home, go RefUK or even the whole hog and Labour or LD.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
The Pilgrim Tweeters, seeking new ground upon which to cancel
Hah yes
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will likely become one of those weird new bleak imposed capital cities, created by autocrats. Where no one wants to go unless ordered. Like Naypyidaw in Myanmar. Nusantara in Indonesia. Washington DC
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
As someone said earlier it's a mistake to view this through a political lense. The question is, where will Ronaldo, Rihanna and other celebrities go, if anywhere?
Where they go, so the numbers of people will follow, and so will anyone who wants to have an audience, and then so will everyone else have to go if they want to follow anyone who has something interesting to say.
I don't see celebrities moving to Mastodon at the moment. Too complicated. But they could be driven away from twitter and then they'll want to go somewhere.
Tumblr may see a resurgence - that at least seems to be where some authors are heading off to following Neil Gaiman’s suggestion.
Plus tumblr now has adult content again which will help it out.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
I don't think any social media platform has ever displaced its predecessor by replicating exactly the same experience. It has to offer something new and more compelling to generate the network effects. Just being 'Twitter for people like us' won't do it.
Just some old bloke, caught up in someone else's war. He's going to be warmish, dry, fed, safe - in a better place than the tens of thousands of his fellow cannon-fodder.
Irrespective of the authenticity of that particular video, there’s plenty of credible reports that the Ukranians have gone out of their way when it comes to the treatment of POWs. Their commanding officers and political leaders understand that a big scandal would threaten international support. It requires some serious level of self-control from the defenders.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
As someone said earlier it's a mistake to view this through a political lense. The question is, where will Ronaldo, Rihanna and other celebrities go, if anywhere?
Where they go, so the numbers of people will follow, and so will anyone who wants to have an audience, and then so will everyone else have to go if they want to follow anyone who has something interesting to say.
I don't see celebrities moving to Mastodon at the moment. Too complicated. But they could be driven away from twitter and then they'll want to go somewhere.
The celebrities are surely already on Instagram? Ronaldo has nearly 500m instagram followers, and I assume that his posts on twitter are pretty much copied from there.
Twitter is more important for people who deal in words. Writers, journalists, comedians, along some ex-footballers who like arguments, are probably the 'celebrities'.
Stephen King is posting himself on twitter, Ronaldo probably doesn't even see half the things he is supposed to post.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
The Pilgrim Tweeters, seeking new ground upon which to cancel
Hah yes
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will likely become one of those weird new bleak imposed capital cities, created by autocrats. Where no one wants to go unless ordered. Like Naypyidaw in Myanmar. Nusantara in Indonesia. Washington DC
Mastodon is lame as fuck. The server I created an id with last night is no longer listed, and I note there's a whole category of servers for the furry community. Avoid.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Osborne's £1m IHT break for homeowners was astonishing. I always said so. It pretty much came out of the blue didn't it?
Most political Chancellor ever.
Well, until Kwarteng.
It's just that Kwarteng was utterly shite at politics.
“It's just that Kwarteng was utterly shite at politics”
Alternatively they believed they would have more time, and would prove to be right. If it was a normal political party, not so split, factions, trumpised right now, rally around leader and government and showing discipline, they would have had more time for more growth creation and budget balancing measures, they could have been regarded differently.
Instead what is truly shit is not world recession busting growth you could have had, but longest recession in history and worst growth in G7 and highest taxes for 80 years as the foundation of the next election campaign.
This Tory Party and set of MPs would for sure have sacked Lady Thatcher in 1981 if not sooner!
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
I don't think any social media platform has ever displaced its predecessor by replicating exactly the same experience. It has to offer something new and more compelling to generate the network effects. Just being 'Twitter for people like us' won't do it.
No social network has ever committed commercial suicide before so it’s possible this could be the first.
It’s easy to see why Mastodon isn’t likely to be the winner but there are a lot of tools appearing to give it a chance (allowing Twitter users to find and connect with their Twitter followers and followees on Mastodon).
So while mastodon isn’t a long term solution it’s a possible fix until a Twitter 2 appears that incorporates more of twitter’s global network effect.
Just some old bloke, caught up in someone else's war. He's going to be warmish, dry, fed, safe - in a better place than the tens of thousands of his fellow cannon-fodder.
Irrespective of the authenticity of that particular video, there’s plenty of credible reports that the Ukranians have gone out of their way when it comes to the treatment of POWs. Their commanding officers and political leaders understand that a big scandal would threaten international support. It requires some serious level of self-control from the defenders.
The same was said of the Iran-Iraq war where Iran welcomed POWs as lost brothers-in-Islam, or so the story went.
I’m still getting tomatoes from my outdoor plants in November
Same here. No frost yet.
Still getting a good crop of raspberries everyday. Loads of cooking apples as well. Mixing raspberries with stewed apples is very nice.
My medlar cheese failed to set, but is created a nice dense paste. I made a thin pasty tart case, spread some medlar paste on it and then topped with custard (so basically a custard tart with a layer of medlar). It is fantastic. The best description I can give of the taste is a strong date flavour.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
As someone said earlier it's a mistake to view this through a political lense. The question is, where will Ronaldo, Rihanna and other celebrities go, if anywhere?
Where they go, so the numbers of people will follow, and so will anyone who wants to have an audience, and then so will everyone else have to go if they want to follow anyone who has something interesting to say.
I don't see celebrities moving to Mastodon at the moment. Too complicated. But they could be driven away from twitter and then they'll want to go somewhere.
Tumblr may see a resurgence - that at least seems to be where some authors are heading off to following Neil Gaiman’s suggestion.
Plus tumblr now has adult content again which will help it out.
Tumblr?! Nope
Twitter might collapse because Elon, but it will be difficult to replace effectively. Because it really is the Town Square. It is Trafalgar Square, only more so. It is the agora
If a bunch of whining left wing people said “We hate Trafalgar Square, it’s Fascist, from now on all rallies must be held in front of Hendon Tube station” how many people would follow them to Hendon? Not a lot. The left wingers would hold their pious new rallies in north London and everyone else would ignore them
A successful replacement for Twitter will have to arise organically yet speedily. Not impossible, but tricky
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
The Pilgrim Tweeters, seeking new ground upon which to cancel
Hah yes
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will likely become one of those weird new bleak imposed capital cities, created by autocrats. Where no one wants to go unless ordered. Like Naypyidaw in Myanmar. Nusantara in Indonesia. Washington DC
Blue tick viewpoints available here! Get your authorised beliefs direct from state and silicon valley vetted commentators. And then why not stay and try out one of our circle wank groups? Exciting.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
As someone said earlier it's a mistake to view this through a political lense. The question is, where will Ronaldo, Rihanna and other celebrities go, if anywhere?
Where they go, so the numbers of people will follow, and so will anyone who wants to have an audience, and then so will everyone else have to go if they want to follow anyone who has something interesting to say.
I don't see celebrities moving to Mastodon at the moment. Too complicated. But they could be driven away from twitter and then they'll want to go somewhere.
The celebrities are surely already on Instagram? Ronaldo has nearly 500m instagram followers, and I assume that his posts on twitter are pretty much copied from there.
Twitter is more important for people who deal in words. Writers, journalists, comedians, along some ex-footballers who like arguments, are probably the 'celebrities'.
Stephen King is posting himself on twitter, Ronaldo probably doesn't even see half the things he is supposed to post.
Stephen Fry then, or people like him. The point being they won't be political activists, but there are key nodal people who might decide twitter is no longer for them.
Another point with Pension contributions is that companies can make employer contributions, get corporation tax relief. The employee can then get that money into their pot, without making additional personal tax issues.
Also, there's then the matter of salary sacrifice which will need to be considers
The balance between personal contributions and employers contributions is a tricky one.
It's more complex than it seems, and Hunt will face strong opposition from the financial lobby if he tries to tinker too much.
A further issue is that of charity contributions, which can be funded similarly to pensions via gift aid - and so deprive the treasury of much-needed coffers. If I were Hunt I would do the right thing rather than caving to the financial lobby and restrict pension tax relief to 20% and abolish charity gift aid entirely.
I’d keep the charity gift aid, but clamp down hard on the charity sector in general - expecting much lower admin costs and encourage smaller local charities over large organisations.
Mastodon won’t work because it will be completely left wing, and left wing people are boring, mean and humourless. It will be a shitescape of earnest preaching with a hidden subtext of internecine sniping
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
One, you're very silly. Two you don't seem to understand Mastodon, and what aspects of it might work.
I’m right
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
As someone said earlier it's a mistake to view this through a political lense. The question is, where will Ronaldo, Rihanna and other celebrities go, if anywhere?
Where they go, so the numbers of people will follow, and so will anyone who wants to have an audience, and then so will everyone else have to go if they want to follow anyone who has something interesting to say.
I don't see celebrities moving to Mastodon at the moment. Too complicated. But they could be driven away from twitter and then they'll want to go somewhere.
Tumblr may see a resurgence - that at least seems to be where some authors are heading off to following Neil Gaiman’s suggestion.
Plus tumblr now has adult content again which will help it out.
Tumblr?! Nope
Twitter might collapse because Elon, but it will be difficult to replace effectively. Because it really is the Town Square. It is Trafalgar Square, only more so. It is the agora
If a bunch of whining left wing people said “We hate Trafalgar Square, it’s Fascist, from now on all rallies must be held in front of Hendon Tube station” how many people would follow them to Hendon? Not a lot. The left wingers would hold their pious new rallies in north London and everyone else would ignore them
A successful replacement for Twitter will have to arise organically yet speedily. Not impossible, but tricky
It's possible that twitter splinters. Celebs to instagram, academics to substack, other people to reddit, or telegram. Politicians back to facebook. Maybe the journalists left on twitter.
Lots of things could happen, but it's definitely an opportunity for lots of different people.
Well, the Guardian believes the mystery is solved (I don’t believe it, fwiw):
Boris Johnson would have forfeited earnings of at least £10m a year from speeches and sales of his memoirs if he had fought a leadership battle against Rishi Sunak and lost, according to informed sources in the entertainment industry, who believe financial considerations played a part in his decision to pull out.
Since he resigned in July, Johnson is known to have been in talks with entertainment and talent agencies including Endeavour, run by US businessman Ari Emanuel, and the Harry Walker Agency (HWA), one of its subsidiaries.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
They can liquidate the assets or downsize their house and the 2.5% is supposed to be high as it will drive those investors either into equities or into new build which comes with the exemptions.
Not to nitpick - since I like the thrust of it - but what about London houses? If you live in one worth (say) £2m that'll be £50k cash you have to stump up to HMRC each year every year. Bit steep maybe?
Meant to say on property investment, not primary residences so shouldn't be an issue.
So what do we do with primary residences as that is where most people’s wealth is stored.
IHT allowance lowered to £400k per person or £800k per couple.
Osborne's £1m IHT break for homeowners was astonishing. I always said so. It pretty much came out of the blue didn't it?
Most political Chancellor ever.
Well, until Kwarteng.
It's just that Kwarteng was utterly shite at politics.
“It's just that Kwarteng was utterly shite at politics”
Alternatively they believed they would have more time, and would prove to be right. If it was a normal political party, not so split, factions, trumpised right now, rally around leader and government and showing discipline, they would have had more time for more growth creation and budget balancing measures, they could have been regarded differently.
Instead what is truly shit is not world recession busting growth you could have had, but longest recession in history and worst growth in G7 and highest taxes for 80 years as the foundation of the next election campaign.
This Tory Party and set of MPs would for sure have sacked Lady Thatcher in 1981 if not sooner!
Thatcher had the backing of backbenchers. Truss didn't.
Well, the Guardian believes the mystery is solved (I don’t believe it, fwiw):
Boris Johnson would have forfeited earnings of at least £10m a year from speeches and sales of his memoirs if he had fought a leadership battle against Rishi Sunak and lost, according to informed sources in the entertainment industry, who believe financial considerations played a part in his decision to pull out.
Since he resigned in July, Johnson is known to have been in talks with entertainment and talent agencies including Endeavour, run by US businessman Ari Emanuel, and the Harry Walker Agency (HWA), one of its subsidiaries.
Ari Emanuel is, of course, the brother of Rahm Emanuel who was Obama's Chief of Staff.
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
The 2.5% levy could be deducted from the value of the estate on death.
Yay as a renter I get to pay more income tax and also my landlords 2.5% levy on land value....joy
MaxPB's alternative fiscal statement to fill a £50bn gap in the finances and get the economy moving:
Income tax up by 1p, 2p and 2p for rates of 21p, 42p and 47p
NI payable on all income types and for all ages
Eliminate dividend allowance
Raise dividend tax rates to income tax for director owned shareholdings
Reduce IHT allowance from £1m per couple to £800k per couple
CGT on residential property investments rises to income tax rates, 30y non-transferable exemption for new build which is held at 18% and 28%
Annual value based levy on residential property worth 2.5% of the property's value, 30y non-transferable exemption on new build property
Increase second property stamp duty surcharge from 3% to 10%, rent earned in the grace period offsets rebates on sale of additional property
New wealth tax at 6% of total wealth over £200k excluding primary residences payable every 10 years. Includes ISA and pension wealth and can be paid out of pension fund holdings for taxes on pension wealth (so people don't need to pay out of their income on wealth they can't necessarily access)
New unlimited UK capital investment allowance for all businesses
£5bn future energy and technology investment fund
Think that annual 2.5% levy is too high and you also need something to cover the asset rich but cash poor pensioners.
But it’s better than playing round with pensions as that will have unexpected albeit entertaining (but horrific rather than comedic) consequences.
The 2.5% levy could be deducted from the value of the estate on death.
Yay as a renter I get to pay more income tax and also my landlords 2.5% levy on land value....joy
2.5% on land value would be wildly different to 2.5% of property value
Comments
And because it won’t have any right wing people to be funny, salty and offensive, there won’t be anything to be outraged by. Twitter without Outrage is a doomed enterprise
This may show my age…
Otherwise it is unfair. IE I have to pay more, but those who saved in to SIPPS at preferential rates for years get to enjoy their low tax retirement, whilst they clog up the doctors surgeries and hospitals, demanding more and better public services etc.
Yesterday it was primary resisences, today pension pots.
Every day seems to be a "tax going up" story on the Web.
House builders sometimes have to provide subsidised housing, which can be below market rent, as part of their affordable housing requirements.
I also have a memory that no-one's been able to verify (so am I misremembering?) About that time, a uni friend got a thick yellow-pages -style directory that had all the best Internet/telnet and web sites on it, along with other information. A time before search engines.
I'd love to get a copy, just to see which sites are still up and running ...
Won't save them, even if it is felt necessary.
The issue here is unintended consequences when many people may prefer to take things slightly easier.
Now many people have zero choice but to work all hours because they need the money - but for those with skills and a bit of cash other options are available.
Any change and suddenly working 40 hours a week may not seem so worthwhile.
Tomatoes are souvenirs of when the Sun shone and a promise that it might shine again at some point.
They shouldnt have a vote but there ought to be heavy input
I think we all know the answer to this.
"in the tax year 2019 to 2020, 3.76% of UK deaths resulted in an Inheritance Tax (IHT) charge, increasing slightly by 0.02 percentage points since the previous tax year, 2018 to 2019." Is the most extraordinary thing about it. Even saying that for every death there are say 5 on average potential inheritors, it's a small minority.
Quite so. November is a drab affair. Made more depressing by the certain knowledge that January and February are on the way
And todays discussion isn’t interest rates (of which we are probably 1,25% below where we should be because we sit at 3% with the fed at 4% and that makes zero sense) but on taxes where we are seeing balloons being tested without thought as to the consequences.
Meanwhile the saner people on here already have better plans with more consequences thought about than the Treasury seem to have done.
It's just that Kwarteng was utterly shite at politics.
The reason why removing charitable status from private schools gets kicked back repeatedly might begin that…
The consequence is that taxes have to increase enough to pay the absurd across the board subsidy of gas prices (it should, of course, have been limited to those with the lowest incomes) and the cancellation of the NI increases which were chunky.
This forthcoming budget is going to be eyewatering. At the time of his initial statement Hunt claimed it would be as bad as Osborne's cuts in 2010. That was true: they will be worse, both on the tax increases side and the cuts in spending.
Young people have cushy numbers and much better salaries than today's pensioners ever had
Without centralised censorship, you have a choice between a Xchan dumpster fire or a series of siloed, locally censored newsgroups. The later is pretty much Reddit - they have some central censorship but not a great deal. Everyone picks the silos that are their comfort food.
Mastodon is already being sold as a left wing “anti Nazi” space. And all the people talking about moving there are bedwetting Twitter lefties who Hate Elon. So no right wingers will go there. So it will be a sterile echo chamber. So it won’t work
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will face this problem
So, on election day in 2028 -- first Tuesday after the first Monday in November -- he would be 85, but would turn 86 soon after the election.
By way of comparison, Iowa's senior senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, was born September 17, 1933. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Grassley
Both exercise regularly and appear to be in good condition though, like me, they often have to add that qualifier: "for their age".
During his four decades in the Senate, Grassley has chaired the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Narcotics Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Aging Committee.
Isn't that just the Senate?
(I know, I know, there are some very young senators)
Getting 10k Twitter accounts used to be a morning’s work. That task just got exponentially more difficult.
Where they go, so the numbers of people will follow, and so will anyone who wants to have an audience, and then so will everyone else have to go if they want to follow anyone who has something interesting to say.
I don't see celebrities moving to Mastodon at the moment. Too complicated. But they could be driven away from twitter and then they'll want to go somewhere.
Kensington and Chelsea and Fulham and Cities of London and Westminster are Labour target seats and Tory seats in Surrey are being targeted by the LDs.
The Tories cannot afford for their core vote there to stay home, go RefUK or even the whole hog and Labour or LD.
Hah yes
Any suggested replacement for Twitter will likely become one of those weird new bleak imposed capital cities, created by autocrats. Where no one wants to go unless ordered. Like Naypyidaw in Myanmar. Nusantara in Indonesia. Washington DC
Plus tumblr now has adult content again which will help it out.
Twitter is more important for people who deal in words. Writers, journalists, comedians, along some ex-footballers who like arguments, are probably the 'celebrities'.
Stephen King is posting himself on twitter, Ronaldo probably doesn't even see half the things he is supposed to post.
Alternatively they believed they would have more time, and would prove to be right. If it was a normal political party, not so split, factions, trumpised right now, rally around leader and government and showing discipline, they would have had more time for more growth creation and budget balancing measures, they could have been regarded differently.
Instead what is truly shit is not world recession busting growth you could have had, but longest recession in history and worst growth in G7 and highest taxes for 80 years as the foundation of the next election campaign.
This Tory Party and set of MPs would for sure have sacked Lady Thatcher in 1981 if not sooner!
It’s easy to see why Mastodon isn’t likely to be the winner but there are a lot of tools appearing to give it a chance (allowing Twitter users to find and connect with their Twitter followers and followees on Mastodon).
So while mastodon isn’t a long term solution it’s a possible fix until a Twitter 2 appears that incorporates more of twitter’s global network effect.
My medlar cheese failed to set, but is created a nice dense paste. I made a thin pasty tart case, spread some medlar paste on it and then topped with custard (so basically a custard tart with a layer of medlar). It is fantastic. The best description I can give of the taste is a strong date flavour.
Twitter might collapse because Elon, but it will be difficult to replace effectively. Because it really is the Town Square. It is Trafalgar Square, only more so. It is the agora
If a bunch of whining left wing people said “We hate Trafalgar Square, it’s Fascist, from now on all rallies must be held in front of Hendon Tube station” how many people would follow them to Hendon? Not a lot. The left wingers would hold their pious new rallies in north London and everyone else would ignore them
A successful replacement for Twitter will have to arise organically yet speedily. Not impossible, but tricky
Exciting.
new thread
Lots of things could happen, but it's definitely an opportunity for lots of different people.
Boris Johnson would have forfeited earnings of at least £10m a year from speeches and sales of his memoirs if he had fought a leadership battle against Rishi Sunak and lost, according to informed sources in the entertainment industry, who believe financial considerations played a part in his decision to pull out.
Since he resigned in July, Johnson is known to have been in talks with entertainment and talent agencies including Endeavour, run by US businessman Ari Emanuel, and the Harry Walker Agency (HWA), one of its subsidiaries.