Some Tory MP on politics live has just blamed the Last Labour Government for the coming hate budget.
You think Labour are blameless from this budget and potential housing and stock exchange crashes next year (or even next week)?
They are not.
Labour had two parliaments printing the fake money to get the country in this mess.
It’s not all Labours fault, but they share the blame.
Yep but the Tories have had 12 years to fix things and they really haven't.
The idea that a Tory will be able to blame Labour for the mess they find themselves explaining when they stand for election in 2024 is just not going to work.
As a matter of interest, who on Labour's front bench today was in Gordon Brown's government?
Some Tory MP on politics live has just blamed the Last Labour Government for the coming hate budget.
You think Labour are blameless from this budget and potential housing and stock exchange crashes next year (or even next week)?
They are not.
Labour had two parliaments printing the fake money to get the country in this mess.
It’s not all Labours fault, but they share the blame.
Yep but the Tories have had 12 years to fix things and they really haven't.
The idea that a Tory will be able to blame Labour for the mess they find themselves explaining when they stand for election in 2024 is just not going to work.
As a matter of interest, who on Labour's front bench today was in Gordon Brown's government?
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
Remember that the food price crisis is partly from rising commodity and production prices, and partly from interest rates buggering the venture capital deals that have broken Asda and Morrisons. They literally can't afford to invest into price because they are in very deep shit. And with them leaving prices high the market price is established for Tesco and Sainsburys to follow.
Meanwhile, smart shoppers flock to Aldi and Lidl. Both of whom are also buncing profit margins by being able to set prices lower than the higher market price of the big boys. Hence the whopping profit just announced by Lidl.
There’s a reasonable chance energy suppliers will start offering fixed deals below the new £3k cap, I recon.
Why would they? Easy money to stick it at £3k and make huge profits.
They still need to compete for market share.
Not really, companies have realised that they don't really need to if they all just do nothing. The cost and barriers of setting up a competitor are too high so energy companies can sit on their hands. It is a fundamentally broken market.
Some Tory MP on politics live has just blamed the Last Labour Government for the coming hate budget.
You think Labour are blameless from this budget and potential housing and stock exchange crashes next year (or even next week)?
They are not.
Labour had two parliaments printing the fake money to get the country in this mess.
It’s not all Labours fault, but they share the blame.
Yep but the Tories have had 12 years to fix things and they really haven't.
The idea that a Tory will be able to blame Labour for the mess they find themselves explaining when they stand for election in 2024 is just not going to work.
As a matter of interest, who on Labour's front bench today was in Gordon Brown's government?
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
I wholeheartedly disagree with your purblind post.
The poorest are struggling with food inflation and milk and eggs. Food banks are struggling. There needs to be an intervention on milk and eggs for the very poorest.
Your laissez faire post paints you as the villain from a Dicken’s novel - The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Let the markets decide.
The next six months the government will subsidise the heating of private swimming pools whilst the poor struggle for milk and eggs.
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
Remember that the food price crisis is partly from rising commodity and production prices, and partly from interest rates buggering the venture capital deals that have broken Asda and Morrisons. They literally can't afford to invest into price because they are in very deep shit. And with them leaving prices high the market price is established for Tesco and Sainsburys to follow.
Meanwhile, smart shoppers flock to Aldi and Lidl. Both of whom are also buncing profit margins by being able to set prices lower than the higher market price of the big boys. Hence the whopping profit just announced by Lidl.
As I said previously, one or both of Morrisons and Asda will fall early next year. The lenders will take over and float the businesses once they stabilise them.
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
3% in cushy, cosseted academia
(to be fair, up to 9% for the very lowest paid and no doubt double figures for some VCs)
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal constituencies…
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
Remember that the food price crisis is partly from rising commodity and production prices, and partly from interest rates buggering the venture capital deals that have broken Asda and Morrisons. They literally can't afford to invest into price because they are in very deep shit. And with them leaving prices high the market price is established for Tesco and Sainsburys to follow.
Meanwhile, smart shoppers flock to Aldi and Lidl. Both of whom are also buncing profit margins by being able to set prices lower than the higher market price of the big boys. Hence the whopping profit just announced by Lidl.
As I said previously, one or both of Morrisons and Asda will fall early next year. The lenders will take over and float the businesses once they stabilise them.
Isn't (newish) Morrisons private equity owners play already really about the value in the real estate rather than really caring about winning in the incredibly difficult supermarket sector?
I am always interested in what the Issas brothers / TDR Capital play in buying up some much retail recently.
There’s no way anyone is going to cancel HS2. Last Sunday when out with my older daughter in Bucks I drove under a completed section of the track with cranes building more
It is ABSOLUTELY BLOODY ENORMOUS
Both me and the kiddo said “omg what’s that”?
It was so big, looming out of the autumn mist, it looked otherworldly. A vast alien structure landing on earth
It’s too far gone to cancel
Agreed. Anyone who says now to cancel doesn't live nearby. We live about 5 miles from the HS2 route in Bucks. If you go and stand on top of Coombe Hill in Bucks, right next to Chequers, you can see the line of building works scythe through the land. I think it was the wrong thing to do for a number of reasons but there is no point stopping it now.
SUNK COST FALLACY KLAXON
Use the resources being burnt up by HS2 to do Northern Powerhouse or more Nuke plants or whatever.
If you sell a 2nd home or investment property what matters is the CGT rate. Whether 3k or 12k is tax free is peanuts.
I'm sure Labour will immediately equalise CGT and IT rates.
Agree for 2nd homes, but matters when selling shares and will cause a hell of a lot of admin for small sales.
But that's why Labour will keep a small CGT threshold - no point in generating admin on small transactions.
Probably more lucrative and less hassle for them to keep the current thresholds and unwrap isas etc, if they really want/need to raise revenue.
There's like 15m people with ISAs. Any government that fucks with them will be out of power for a generation.
The ISA allowance is ridiculous. I'm on a pretty good salary and cannot save anywhere near that per year. Deeply regressive.
You don't need to shaft people retrospectively - just limit it to £10k or even £5k if you are a homeowner.
Very short sighted to just focus on salaries - if you get say a £100k windfall from an inheritance, it would take you 10 or 20 years to get it into the wrappers, rather than 5.
Anyway, all tax free savings incentives are going to be regressive, more or less by definition. It's like saying that any random changes to the tax and benefits system will harm the poorest the most: it's so obviously true that pointing it out doesn't make you clever.
I now await apologies from the “it was a missile” mob and the “it was a boat” brigade
I still have no idea why they were all so fucking desperate for it not to be a truck.
Me neither. It became some religion dispute. Quite bizarre!
The simplest, easiest, most obvious explanation was: a truck. It’s not exactly amazing it turned out to be: a truck
Why all the fuss?
You were the one who posted up links to evidence which you said was persuasive that it was done by a guided missile, and you also said that if it was a boat operation that would be impressive. As usual you have all the bases covered and would appear to be arguing with yourself!
Nothing about Berlin's constitutional court ordering a rerun of the elections to the Berlin state parliament because of screwups? Should give hope to the Kari Lake supporters
At first glance, no major howlers in the budget, which is an improvement on recent performance, but feels a lot like a crisis wasted.
For all the rhetoric of placing the burden on those with the broadest shoulders there was very little to raise money from those who have done best since the GFC - asset owners and wealthy pensioners.
Announcing the extension of the freeze on tax allowances to 2028 has an air of unreality about it. That's the pre-re-election period for the next Labour government. Bit of a fantasy to be using policy then to close a deficit that exists now.
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
Remember that the food price crisis is partly from rising commodity and production prices, and partly from interest rates buggering the venture capital deals that have broken Asda and Morrisons. They literally can't afford to invest into price because they are in very deep shit. And with them leaving prices high the market price is established for Tesco and Sainsburys to follow.
Meanwhile, smart shoppers flock to Aldi and Lidl. Both of whom are also buncing profit margins by being able to set prices lower than the higher market price of the big boys. Hence the whopping profit just announced by Lidl.
As I said previously, one or both of Morrisons and Asda will fall early next year. The lenders will take over and float the businesses once they stabilise them.
Both are utterly and truly fucked. Trading with them is entertaining. An example from a former member of my team who had an online meeting with her Morrisons buyer on Tuesday.
He was physically summoned from the online meeting he was in and disappeared. Following day: "Sorry. Something big happened internally. We were all pulled into a meeting for the rest of the day and not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the building". And "are there any jobs going with you"
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal constituencies…
If you sell a 2nd home or investment property what matters is the CGT rate. Whether 3k or 12k is tax free is peanuts.
I'm sure Labour will immediately equalise CGT and IT rates.
Agree for 2nd homes, but matters when selling shares and will cause a hell of a lot of admin for small sales.
But that's why Labour will keep a small CGT threshold - no point in generating admin on small transactions.
Probably more lucrative and less hassle for them to keep the current thresholds and unwrap isas etc, if they really want/need to raise revenue.
There's like 15m people with ISAs. Any government that fucks with them will be out of power for a generation.
The ISA allowance is ridiculous. I'm on a pretty good salary and cannot save anywhere near that per year. Deeply regressive.
You don't need to shaft people retrospectively - just limit it to £10k or even £5k if you are a homeowner.
Very short sighted to just focus on salaries - if you get say a £100k windfall from an inheritance, it would take you 10 or 20 years to get it into the wrappers, rather than 5.
Anyway, all tax free savings incentives are going to be regressive, more or less by definition. It's like saying that any random changes to the tax and benefits system will harm the poorest the most: it's so obviously true that pointing it out doesn't make you clever.
I didn't claim to be clever
If you get £100k from inheritance I'm not going to be terribly upset if you get taxed a bit on it.
You'll know from my comment history that I think there should be a huge pivot to reducing taxes on working people (particularly with children) and increasing them on wealth.
I now await apologies from the “it was a missile” mob and the “it was a boat” brigade
I still have no idea why they were all so fucking desperate for it not to be a truck.
Me neither. It became some religion dispute. Quite bizarre!
The simplest, easiest, most obvious explanation was: a truck. It’s not exactly amazing it turned out to be: a truck
Why all the fuss?
You were the one who posted up links to evidence which you said was persuasive that it was done by a guided missile, and you also said that if it was a boat operation that would be impressive. As usual you have all the bases covered and would appear to be arguing with yourself!
No I didn’t. I said it was a truck
I might have explored other possibilities - as one should - but I never wavered from thinking a truck was most likely. Because it is. Occam’s razor
This is such a bizarre argument. I can’t even remember why some PBers were so religiously attached to alternative explanations. It’s not like it changes anything
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal
constituencies…
I reckon you could get journey times from Newcastle (at one end) to Liverpool (at the other end) down to under two hours, even if you stopped at Sheffield which would of course be a detour.
Anything interesting? I've been in meetings all morning.
Triple lock kept.
In short you and I are going to pay more taxes for pensioners to live in luxury.
Luxury?
Really??
Most pensioners survive on less than your annual shoe budget.
Trouble is there is pensioners and then there is pensioners. My folks don't really need the extra cash, just as they don't need the winter fuel allowance. They still get it though.
Regardless of the content of the budget, any sensible Tory must be surely thinking "why the f**k haven't we had Hunt as PM for the last 5 years?" Smooth, unruffled, serious, heavyweight. Compare with Johnson, Truss and yes, even Sunak and he's way, way better.
So as expected tough decisions by Hunt to deal with the deficit.
Freeze in income tax threshold, reduction in additional rate threshold and an reduction in energy bills support a major contrast to Kwarteng's mini budget.
However state pensioners and those on benefits and with tax credits will still see a rise in line with inflation.
Little doubt too a future Labour government would face similar tough choices
BBC are all about the energy support ending in April - where the **** have they been - this was announced and taken as done WEEKS AGO. In the meantime Starmer says it’s the right decision it ends in April - leaving Martin Lewis out on his own.
I think Martin Lewis is pretty rubbish. If he cared about the vulnerable why doesn’t he now get behind these struggling people targeting policy points instead 1 moratorium on court action to collect energy debts 2 a winter ban on energy companies forcibly switching customers to prepayment meters including smart prepay. 3 Support for low income households which takes into account their actual energy bills due to their family size and need, regardless of receipt of means tested benefits. 4 Increase Local Housing Allowance. 5 An obviously up-rate benefits to reflect the inflation rate, but food inflation is 16% where low income households struggle across essentials. can government look at subsidies and interventions to help poorer families have better access to milk and eggs this winter? those key items food banks are now struggling to provide?
I know PB laughs at “for everyone a free owl” but “for everyone a free egg” would be amazing right now. That’s my policy position.
Similarly, universal free school meals. The benefit/cost ratio of that would be very high.
Universal FSM is a subsidy of rich families by poor families.
I can see a case for extending it to all families on UC, but not beyond that.
No, it isn't, since the cost would be borne from taxation.
I now await apologies from the “it was a missile” mob and the “it was a boat” brigade
I still have no idea why they were all so fucking desperate for it not to be a truck.
Me neither. It became some religion dispute. Quite bizarre!
The simplest, easiest, most obvious explanation was: a truck. It’s not exactly amazing it turned out to be: a truck
Why all the fuss?
You were the one who posted up links to evidence which you said was persuasive that it was done by a guided missile, and you also said that if it was a boat operation that would be impressive. As usual you have all the bases covered and would appear to be arguing with yourself!
No I didn’t. I said it was a truck
I might have explored other possibilities - as one should - but I never wavered from thinking a truck was most likely. Because it is. Occam’s razor
This is such a bizarre argument. I can’t even remember why some PBers were so religiously attached to alternative explanations. It’s not like it changes anything
I think it might be the issue of it being a potential suicide bombing which is the issue. After all its nasty islamic terrorists who do suicide bombs, not nice, cuddly freedom fighting Ukranians.
A fairly uncontroversial budget in the circumstances.
The biggest error is the triple lock. Expect strikes to continue across the public sector as nurses etc have real term pay cuts versus protecting pensioners (including wealthy ones).
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal
constituencies…
I reckon you could get journey times from Newcastle (at one end) to Liverpool (at the other end) down to under two hours, even if you stopped at Sheffield which would of course be a detour.
Biggest issue is getting cross Manchester - but I saw interesting plans on that earlier this week.
Oh Dear. Chief Secretary now on Politics Live. Claims the reason for the black hole is because of Covid and Russia. They then play a clip of Sunak in August saying how he will cut taxes. Faisal Islam asks what might have happened between August and now....
If you sell a 2nd home or investment property what matters is the CGT rate. Whether 3k or 12k is tax free is peanuts.
I'm sure Labour will immediately equalise CGT and IT rates.
Agree for 2nd homes, but matters when selling shares and will cause a hell of a lot of admin for small sales.
As I said, most typical middle class investors have their investments in tax shelters. Those with large portfolios outside of an ISA or SIPP are the minority and can presumably afford it.
I wasn't thinking of the tax take, I was thinking of the admin. For the vast majority of people with small shareholdings they have had since privatisation CGT has been irrelevant. Most won't even do tax returns. It is madness to start bringing small shareholdings into CGT. It brings in next to nothing and causes masses of admin.
Just to provide some examples of this:
a) I have umpteen modest shareholdings that I have had for donkey's years. Since buying them there have been rights issues, capital consolidations, etc and I have no idea what I paid for them now.
b) My wife purchased shares via her payroll every month since 2007 and got matching shares and all in Swiss Francs. So a total of over 150 separate purchases at a price in Swiss francs at the exchange rate at an unknown date around her pay date.
When the limit moves down to £3000 how the hell do we calculate the CGT? There is a reason for ignoring small shareholdings and that is it is not worth collecting for the effort involved.
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal constituencies…
This is just Northern Powerhouse Rail mate. Discussed at length on here in the past (particularly links to HS2 and going over to Hull, I think).
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
Remember that the food price crisis is partly from rising commodity and production prices, and partly from interest rates buggering the venture capital deals that have broken Asda and Morrisons. They literally can't afford to invest into price because they are in very deep shit. And with them leaving prices high the market price is established for Tesco and Sainsburys to follow.
Meanwhile, smart shoppers flock to Aldi and Lidl. Both of whom are also buncing profit margins by being able to set prices lower than the higher market price of the big boys. Hence the whopping profit just announced by Lidl.
As I said previously, one or both of Morrisons and Asda will fall early next year. The lenders will take over and float the businesses once they stabilise them.
Both are utterly and truly fucked. Trading with them is entertaining. An example from a former member of my team who had an online meeting with her Morrisons buyer on Tuesday.
He was physically summoned from the online meeting he was in and disappeared. Following day: "Sorry. Something big happened internally. We were all pulled into a meeting for the rest of the day and not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the building". And "are there any jobs going with you"
Got to say Morrisons is dire - to the extent that I now go to Sainsburys instead (and I hate the layout of the local Sainsburys). And if Morrisons are getting rid of their buyers things aren't going to improve.
I now await apologies from the “it was a missile” mob and the “it was a boat” brigade
I still have no idea why they were all so fucking desperate for it not to be a truck.
Me neither. It became some religion dispute. Quite bizarre!
The simplest, easiest, most obvious explanation was: a truck. It’s not exactly amazing it turned out to be: a truck
Why all the fuss?
You were the one who posted up links to evidence which you said was persuasive that it was done by a guided missile, and you also said that if it was a boat operation that would be impressive. As usual you have all the bases covered and would appear to be arguing with yourself!
No I didn’t. I said it was a truck
I might have explored other possibilities - as one should - but I never wavered from thinking a truck was most likely. Because it is. Occam’s razor
This is such a bizarre argument. I can’t even remember why some PBers were so religiously attached to alternative explanations. It’s not like it changes anything
I think it might be the issue of it being a potential suicide bombing which is the issue. After all its nasty islamic terrorists who do suicide bombs, not nice, cuddly freedom fighting Ukranians.
Yes. I’ve actually found my comment which kicked off this mad debate
“They’ve lost the moral high ground tho
There are Ukrainian govt officials on Twitter complaining about “Russian terror attacks on civilians”
Er, what was the Kerch bridge?! Civilians died. It was probably a truck bomb, possibly by suicide. It was a terror attack on Russia by that definition”
I say time and again “probably a truck, possibly suicide” and people get angry and say I’m “shilling for Putin”. So that’s why the debate took a weird turn
On that same thread I also say “this quite likely ends in nukes”. Let’s hope that I was WRONG about that. As things stand I think I will be wrong about that. Putin has either lost his nuclear nerve or his army is refusing to press the red button
At first sight this looks to be a good and well-balanced budget, given the starting position.
I completely agree, given what is happening this is about as rational a response as you could hope for, though I still think the triple lock has to go when circumstances improve.
Yes. The triple lock is a daft policy in the long term, because of its ratchet effect. It should be abandoned as soon as politically possible (which may be never, unfortunately).
However (and there's huge confusion about this), the fact that the triple lock is a bad idea in the long term doesn't at all mean that state pensions shouldn't increase, along with working-age benefits, in line with inflation in the short term. The two are completely separate points. Anyone dependent on the state pension is by definition on a low or very low income, and therefore in present circumstances exceedingly vulnerable to inflation - especially since inflation at the moment is especially high for energy and food, which are not only non-discretionary but also form a disproportionately large part of the spending of the low-paid.
So Hunt is right to up both state pensions and benefits by inflation in this budget.
Of course, pensioners as a whole are not getting anything like an inflation-linked increase in their incomes. Those with defined-contribution pensions will typically have bought a fixed annuity, and get no increase at all in that part of their income. Even those on defined benefit schemes will typically not get the full 10.1% - many schemes are capped at 5%.
Just as Silicon Valley looks set to go ex-growth. The premise of investment into high growth high new technology is a good one, though. As always, it's whether government can intervene effectively or not.
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
Remember that the food price crisis is partly from rising commodity and production prices, and partly from interest rates buggering the venture capital deals that have broken Asda and Morrisons. They literally can't afford to invest into price because they are in very deep shit. And with them leaving prices high the market price is established for Tesco and Sainsburys to follow.
Meanwhile, smart shoppers flock to Aldi and Lidl. Both of whom are also buncing profit margins by being able to set prices lower than the higher market price of the big boys. Hence the whopping profit just announced by Lidl.
As I said previously, one or both of Morrisons and Asda will fall early next year. The lenders will take over and float the businesses once they stabilise them.
Both are utterly and truly fucked. Trading with them is entertaining. An example from a former member of my team who had an online meeting with her Morrisons buyer on Tuesday.
He was physically summoned from the online meeting he was in and disappeared. Following day: "Sorry. Something big happened internally. We were all pulled into a meeting for the rest of the day and not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the building". And "are there any jobs going with you"
Got to say Morrisons is dire - to the extent that I now go to Sainsburys instead (and I hate the layout of the local Sainsburys). And if Morrisons are getting rid of their buyers things aren't going to improve.
The Private Equity owners didn't buy Morrisons to make it a stellar supermarket. Morrisons aren't the same company they were under their tight Yorkshire founder.
They are already playing out their plan...
Morrisons plans to sell-off some of its supermarkets in an effort to raise cash.
The grocer‘s owner CD&R is seeking to sell and lease back five Morrisons supermarkets for £150 million in what will be the first such deal to be sanctioned in its 123-year history. Morrisons owns 86% of its 497 supermarkets – a higher proportion than any of its major grocery rivals.
Its the classic asset stripping model, sell the real estate, lease it back, pay yourself out, f##k the actual business.
At first sight this looks to be a good and well-balanced budget, given the starting position.
I completely agree, given what is happening this is about as rational a response as you could hope for, though I still think the triple lock has to go when circumstances improve.
Yes. The triple lock is a daft policy in the long term, because of its ratchet effect. It should be abandoned as soon as politically possible (which may be never, unfortunately).
However (and there's huge confusion about this), the fact that the triple lock is a bad idea in the long term doesn't at all mean that state pensions shouldn't increase, along with working-age benefits, in line with inflation in the short term. The two are completely separate points. Anyone dependent on the state pension is by definition on a low or very low income, and therefore in present circumstances exceedingly vulnerable to inflation - especially since inflation at the moment is especially high for energy and food, which are not only non-discretionary but also form a disproportionately large part of the spending of the low-paid.
So Hunt is right to up both state pensions and benefits by inflation in this budget.
Of course, pensioners as a whole are not getting anything like an inflation-linked increase in their incomes. Those with defined-contribution pensions will typically have bought a fixed annuity, and get no increase at all in that part of their income. Even those on defined benefit schemes will typically not get the full 10.1% - many schemes are capped at 5%.
The state pension is a benefit like any other and should be treated as such. Increase by inflation - but means test it
There’s no way anyone is going to cancel HS2. Last Sunday when out with my older daughter in Bucks I drove under a completed section of the track with cranes building more
It is ABSOLUTELY BLOODY ENORMOUS
Both me and the kiddo said “omg what’s that”?
It was so big, looming out of the autumn mist, it looked otherworldly. A vast alien structure landing on earth
It’s too far gone to cancel
Agreed. Anyone who says now to cancel doesn't live nearby. We live about 5 miles from the HS2 route in Bucks. If you go and stand on top of Coombe Hill in Bucks, right next to Chequers, you can see the line of building works scythe through the land. I think it was the wrong thing to do for a number of reasons but there is no point stopping it now.
SUNK COST FALLACY KLAXON
Use the resources being burnt up by HS2 to do Northern Powerhouse or more Nuke plants or whatever.
Would take our governments about a decade and a half just to do the cost benefit analysis of any such move...
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal
constituencies…
I reckon you could get journey times from Newcastle (at one end) to Liverpool (at the other end) down to under two hours, even if you stopped at Sheffield which would of course be a detour.
Biggest issue is getting cross Manchester - but I saw interesting plans on that earlier this week.
Forgive me for not keeping up with the politics of this, but…
Isn’t the main stumbling block that we need to build a big expensive tunnel under the Pennines?
Is this bit, now, being funded?
There’s a great sim game, very old now, called “railroad tycoon 3” which had very advanced economic modelling.
On the UK map, it always ended up making long term financial sense for your railway company to borrow a huge amount of money and fork out for a tunnel under the Pennines!
Oh Dear. Chief Secretary now on Politics Live. Claims the reason for the black hole is because of Covid and Russia. They then play a clip of Sunak in August saying how he will cut taxes. Faisal Islam asks what might have happened between August and now....
A significant part of it is that the Govt has retained Truss's NI cut.
So we have other tax rises to fund the NI cut.
Of course the NI cut was only reversing the NI rise last April but it is a cut if you compare to a September baseline.
Regardless of the content of the budget, any sensible Tory must be surely thinking "why the f**k haven't we had Hunt as PM for the last 5 years?" Smooth, unruffled, serious, heavyweight. Compare with Johnson, Truss and yes, even Sunak and he's way, way better.
You Tories must be bonkers.
Not able to inhabit Brexit fantasy island. This is a life changing disability in the Conservative Party.
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal constituencies…
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal constituencies…
This is just Northern Powerhouse Rail mate. Discussed at length on here in the past (particularly links to HS2 and going over to Hull, I think).
Indeed. But I’ve only just grasped how much it makes sense
Generally I don’t get involved in PB railway infrastructure debates. Not my field
Oh Dear. Chief Secretary now on Politics Live. Claims the reason for the black hole is because of Covid and Russia. They then play a clip of Sunak in August saying how he will cut taxes. Faisal Islam asks what might have happened between August and now....
A significant part of it is that the Govt has retained Truss's NI cut.
So we have other tax rises to fund the NI cut.
Of course the NI cut was only reversing the NI rise last April but it is a cut if you compare to a September baseline.
Another significant part of it is the cost of bucking the energy markets till April.
Another significant part of it was Sunak not being honest back in August.
Anything interesting? I've been in meetings all morning.
Triple lock kept.
In short you and I are going to pay more taxes for pensioners to live in luxury.
Luxury?
Really??
Most pensioners survive on less than your annual shoe budget.
My wife's pension is £4,576 per annum
Why?
Apart from a small part time job after having brought up our 3 children she receives a pension of £4,576 pa at the age of 83
So for 23 years, in todays terms she has had £105,248 out despite paying very little in?
Not that bad really in PB Tory mindset surely.
Your daughters and Granddaughters if you have them will have a much worse deal.
She only qualified for her pension when I retired in 2009 and seems you think she should be grateful for a state pension of £4,576 pa
It is a good job that I saved into my company pension for decades
I dont think she should necessarily be grateful but I suggest she should have the self awareness that future generations have got and will continue to get a worse deal.
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal constituencies…
Well, yes. But they should have been fast tracking this for years before now. The fact that they haven’t is because their sensibilities are not in line with spending significant amounts of money in the north. They had a golden opportunity to show they were different and they fudged it.
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal constituencies…
Well, yes. But they should have been fast tracking this for years before now. The fact that they haven’t is because their sensibilities are not in line with spending significant amounts of money in the north. They had a golden opportunity to show they were different and they fudged it.
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal
constituencies…
I reckon you could get journey times from Newcastle (at one end) to Liverpool (at the other end) down to under two hours, even if you stopped at Sheffield which would of course be a detour.
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal
constituencies…
I reckon you could get journey times from Newcastle (at one end) to Liverpool (at the other end) down to under two hours, even if you stopped at Sheffield which would of course be a detour.
Biggest issue is getting cross Manchester - but I saw interesting plans on that earlier this week.
Forgive me for not keeping up with the politics of this, but…
Isn’t the main stumbling block that we need to build a big expensive tunnel under the Pennines?
Is this bit, now, being funded?
Um that's completely and utterly gone. Northern Power Rail is currently some minor signal improvements in few places and a couple of miles of additional tracks at one log jam point.
The original build a new cross Pennine route via including Bradford disappeared years ago.
Currently the biggest issue is that HS2 and NPR can't have a tunnel in Manchester and viaducts will be used instead which blocks off whole areas from sane redevelopment.
Anything interesting? I've been in meetings all morning.
Triple lock kept.
In short you and I are going to pay more taxes for pensioners to live in luxury.
Luxury?
Really??
Most pensioners survive on less than your annual shoe budget.
My wife's pension is £4,576 per annum
Why?
Apart from a small part time job after having brought up our 3 children she receives a pension of £4,576 pa at the age of 83
So for 23 years, in todays terms she has had £105,248 out despite paying very little in?
Not that bad really in PB Tory mindset surely.
Your daughters and Granddaughters if you have them will have a much worse deal.
She only qualified for her pension when I retired in 2009 and seems you think she should be grateful for a state pension of £4,576 pa
It is a good job that I saved into my company pension for decades
I dont think she should necessarily be grateful but I suggest she should have the self awareness that future generations have got and will continue to get a worse deal.
She never complains or mentions it but I made sure throughout my working lifetime I invested into my own company's pension scheme which secured our retirement
So as expected tough decisions by Hunt to deal with the deficit.
Freeze in income tax threshold, reduction in additional rate threshold and an reduction in energy bills support a major contrast to Kwarteng's mini budget.
However state pensioners and those on benefits and with tax credits will still see a rise in line with inflation.
Little doubt too a future Labour government would face similar tough choices
Etc. But I fear the "high wage high skill economy" remains the remotest of prospects. It's become something you just say out of custom before moving onto the substance. A bit like "how are you?"
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
Remember that the food price crisis is partly from rising commodity and production prices, and partly from interest rates buggering the venture capital deals that have broken Asda and Morrisons. They literally can't afford to invest into price because they are in very deep shit. And with them leaving prices high the market price is established for Tesco and Sainsburys to follow.
Meanwhile, smart shoppers flock to Aldi and Lidl. Both of whom are also buncing profit margins by being able to set prices lower than the higher market price of the big boys. Hence the whopping profit just announced by Lidl.
As I said previously, one or both of Morrisons and Asda will fall early next year. The lenders will take over and float the businesses once they stabilise them.
Both are utterly and truly fucked. Trading with them is entertaining. An example from a former member of my team who had an online meeting with her Morrisons buyer on Tuesday.
He was physically summoned from the online meeting he was in and disappeared. Following day: "Sorry. Something big happened internally. We were all pulled into a meeting for the rest of the day and not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the building". And "are there any jobs going with you"
Got to say Morrisons is dire - to the extent that I now go to Sainsburys instead (and I hate the layout of the local Sainsburys). And if Morrisons are getting rid of their buyers things aren't going to improve.
The Private Equity owners didn't buy Morrisons to make it a stellar supermarket. Morrisons aren't the same company they were under their tight Yorkshire founder.
They are already playing out their plan...
Morrisons plans to sell-off some of its supermarkets in an effort to raise cash.
The grocer‘s owner CD&R is seeking to sell and lease back five Morrisons supermarkets for £150 million in what will be the first such deal to be sanctioned in its 123-year history. Morrisons owns 86% of its 497 supermarkets – a higher proportion than any of its major grocery rivals.
Its the classic asset stripping model, sell the real estate, lease it back, pay yourself out, f##k the actual business.
£150m isn't going to make any difference to the level of debt Morrisons now has.
And unless I'm mistaken the plans to sell off food manufacturing and the other bits that made Morrisons decent have failed to find buyers stupid enough to pay the prices being asked.
Etc. But I fear the "high wage high skill economy" remains the remotest of prospects. It's become something you just say out of custom before moving onto the substance. A bit like "how are you?"
I now await apologies from the “it was a missile” mob and the “it was a boat” brigade
I still have no idea why they were all so fucking desperate for it not to be a truck.
Me neither. It became some religion dispute. Quite bizarre!
The simplest, easiest, most obvious explanation was: a truck. It’s not exactly amazing it turned out to be: a truck
Why all the fuss?
You were the one who posted up links to evidence which you said was persuasive that it was done by a guided missile, and you also said that if it was a boat operation that would be impressive. As usual you have all the bases covered and would appear to be arguing with yourself!
No I didn’t. I said it was a truck
I might have explored other possibilities - as one should - but I never wavered from thinking a truck was most likely. Because it is. Occam’s razor
This is such a bizarre argument. I can’t even remember why some PBers were so religiously attached to alternative explanations. It’s not like it changes anything
If it was a clever SBS style waterborne attack that is highly impressive. And suggests that Ukraine might have been responsible the the Nordstream explosion
Has Hunt just put non pensioners energy bills up by a further £900 PA unless they are on means tested benefits?
No £400 and cap raised from £2.5k to £3k
Shocking
Hunt cannot afford to pay everyone’s fuel bills. Nor can the tax payer. The current scheme is not sustainable so more of the costs have to be borne by households not on benefits.
The OBR are saying (I think) that real household incomes will be back to 2013 levels. The strange thing is that in 2013 we didn't all feel especially poor; children didn't live on boiled gravel; foodbanks were a fad.
Is this all being a bit overdone?
BTW, generally Tory I currently plan to vote Labour, along with a few million others. But.
It may make no difference overall, but the Labour front bench have no-one who can sound as if they know what they are talking about on fiscal, monetary, tax, spend, economic policy matters. It's their big weakness. Reeves today was just dire.
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal
constituencies…
I reckon you could get journey times from Newcastle (at one end) to Liverpool (at the other end) down to under two hours, even if you stopped at Sheffield which would of course be a detour.
Biggest issue is getting cross Manchester - but I saw interesting plans on that earlier this week.
Forgive me for not keeping up with the politics of this, but…
Isn’t the main stumbling block that we need to build a big expensive tunnel under the Pennines?
Is this bit, now, being funded?
AIUI, having not seen links to tech specs, but countless glossy brochures, is that the NPR option being pushed for goes approximately.
but could als be some ambition for new route Pic - Bradford or could fall back onto further upgraded Transpennine Route via Huddersfield if government get their way.
I'm.not sure there is a full public technical proposal, only high level options.
Food inflation hurting the poorest is 16%. There needs to be an intervention on eggs and milk.
No there doesn't. The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Wages are rising at 10% for minimum wage workers and about 6-7% for everyone else. It's time to let the market dictate prices and people be responsible for their own spending again. The state clearly can't take on the burden and if we want to get inflation under control there will need to be a level of demand destruction, impossible to do that if the state intervenes and subsidises consumers and industry.
Remember that the food price crisis is partly from rising commodity and production prices, and partly from interest rates buggering the venture capital deals that have broken Asda and Morrisons. They literally can't afford to invest into price because they are in very deep shit. And with them leaving prices high the market price is established for Tesco and Sainsburys to follow.
Meanwhile, smart shoppers flock to Aldi and Lidl. Both of whom are also buncing profit margins by being able to set prices lower than the higher market price of the big boys. Hence the whopping profit just announced by Lidl.
As I said previously, one or both of Morrisons and Asda will fall early next year. The lenders will take over and float the businesses once they stabilise them.
Both are utterly and truly fucked. Trading with them is entertaining. An example from a former member of my team who had an online meeting with her Morrisons buyer on Tuesday.
He was physically summoned from the online meeting he was in and disappeared. Following day: "Sorry. Something big happened internally. We were all pulled into a meeting for the rest of the day and not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the building". And "are there any jobs going with you"
Got to say Morrisons is dire - to the extent that I now go to Sainsburys instead (and I hate the layout of the local Sainsburys). And if Morrisons are getting rid of their buyers things aren't going to improve.
The Private Equity owners didn't buy Morrisons to make it a stellar supermarket. Morrisons aren't the same company they were under their tight Yorkshire founder.
They are already playing out their plan...
Morrisons plans to sell-off some of its supermarkets in an effort to raise cash.
The grocer‘s owner CD&R is seeking to sell and lease back five Morrisons supermarkets for £150 million in what will be the first such deal to be sanctioned in its 123-year history. Morrisons owns 86% of its 497 supermarkets – a higher proportion than any of its major grocery rivals.
Its the classic asset stripping model, sell the real estate, lease it back, pay yourself out, f##k the actual business.
£150m isn't going to make any difference to the level of debt Morrisons now has..
No, but there are another 400 or so after that five.
Mr. Leon, you think they're building HS2 to Leeds?
Yes, that’s a different question
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
100%. Well said.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Wasn’t this one of the Truss/Kwarteng plans? Liz Line for the North?
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal
constituencies…
I reckon you could get journey times from Newcastle (at one end) to Liverpool (at the other end) down to under two hours, even if you stopped at Sheffield which would of course be a detour.
Biggest issue is getting cross Manchester - but I saw interesting plans on that earlier this week.
Forgive me for not keeping up with the politics of this, but…
Isn’t the main stumbling block that we need to build a big expensive tunnel under the Pennines?
Is this bit, now, being funded?
Perhaps.
The problem with NPR is that it can mean one of a number of things.
In its current form, the bits across the Pennines are simply using existing alignments via Hope Valley and Diggle.
There are other proposals, though. And if NPR goes to Bradford - which was once the preferred solution and now appears to be swinging back in favour - that implies, if not a massive tunnel, then some pretty expensive and non-straightforward engineering.
Worth saying though that tunnelling isn't actually that expensive. Ideally of course you'd just build a railway over a featureless plain, but once you get to the stage of having to address ownerships, demolitions, watercourses, landscape features, utilities, local pressure groups, environmental designations ... just putting it underground starts to look a lot less unattractive.
EDIT: However Hunt appears to be confirming 'core' NPR rather than 'full' NPR which I infer as Manchester-Leeds via the existing Diggle route rather than via Bradford.
Has Hunt just put non pensioners energy bills up by a further £900 PA unless they are on means tested benefits?
No £400 and cap raised from £2.5k to £3k
Shocking
Hunt cannot afford to pay everyone’s fuel bills. Nor can the tax payer. The current scheme is not sustainable so more of the costs have to be borne by households not on benefits.
Yup, there's simply no need for the government to subsidise my energy bills.
Comments
The one thing we really should do is build a trans-pennine high speed rail linking Newcastle Leeds Sheffield Manc Liverpool
I cannot think of anything that would be more transformative. An Elizabeth Line for the North
Shouldn't matter I guess, but it does.
I am amazed that Labour hasn't seen this opportunity for investment.
The trains up north that don't go to London are almost universally shite.
Meanwhile, smart shoppers flock to Aldi and Lidl. Both of whom are also buncing profit margins by being able to set prices lower than the higher market price of the big boys. Hence the whopping profit just announced by Lidl.
Really??
Most pensioners survive on less than your annual shoe budget.
The poorest are struggling with food inflation and milk and eggs. Food banks are struggling. There needs to be an intervention on milk and eggs for the very poorest.
Your laissez faire post paints you as the villain from a Dicken’s novel - The government can't step in for everything and everyone. Even this level of intervention in the energy market is too much. Let the markets decide.
The next six months the government will subsidise the heating of private swimming pools whilst the poor struggle for milk and eggs.
That’s your card marked.
You don't need to shaft people retrospectively - just limit it to £10k per annum, or even £5k if you are a homeowner.
(to be fair, up to 9% for the very lowest paid and no doubt double figures for some VCs)
Either way it is an excellent idea. If any government is serious about Levelling Up this is what they should do. Turn all the northern cities into one mighty conurbation. Seize the Economies of scale
It would also be pretty popular in some marginal constituencies…
I am always interested in what the Issas brothers / TDR Capital play in buying up some much retail recently.
Use the resources being burnt up by HS2 to do Northern Powerhouse or more Nuke plants or whatever.
Anyway, all tax free savings incentives are going to be regressive, more or less by definition. It's like saying that any random changes to the tax and benefits system will harm the poorest the most: it's so obviously true that pointing it out doesn't make you clever.
Should give hope to the Kari Lake supporters
Budget seems not as horrible as the economic situation might have warranted.
For all the rhetoric of placing the burden on those with the broadest shoulders there was very little to raise money from those who have done best since the GFC - asset owners and wealthy pensioners.
Announcing the extension of the freeze on tax allowances to 2028 has an air of unreality about it. That's the pre-re-election period for the next Labour government. Bit of a fantasy to be using policy then to close a deficit that exists now.
Much more likely the £20k annual limit gets massively reduced. How many ordinary people can chuck £20k into an ISA each year.
I'd imagine they reduce the limit to about £5k.
Couple that with CGT rates = IT rates and you have a real change.
And a change middle class Con supporters complaining about today's announcement really won't like.
He was physically summoned from the online meeting he was in and disappeared. Following day: "Sorry. Something big happened internally. We were all pulled into a meeting for the rest of the day and not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the building". And "are there any jobs going with you"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Powerhouse_Rail
Both parties nominally support it. But there's a big gap between 'support' and 'fund'.
If you get £100k from inheritance I'm not going to be terribly upset if you get taxed a bit on it.
You'll know from my comment history that I think there should be a huge pivot to reducing taxes on working people (particularly with children) and increasing them on wealth.
I might have explored other possibilities - as one should - but I never wavered from thinking a truck was most likely. Because it is. Occam’s razor
This is such a bizarre argument. I can’t even remember why some PBers were so religiously attached to alternative explanations. It’s not like it changes anything
You Tories must be bonkers.
Freeze in income tax threshold, reduction in additional rate threshold and an reduction in energy bills support a major contrast to Kwarteng's mini budget.
However state pensioners and those on benefits and with tax credits will still see a rise in line with inflation.
Little doubt too a future Labour government would face similar tough choices
The costs would not be extraordinary, and are outweighed by the benefits (more so n the universal case).
In any event, an analysis of both ideas here:
https://urbanhealth.org.uk/insights/reports/expanding-free-school-meals-a-cost-benefit-analysis
Growth forecasts as bad as feared. We can only hope that these forecasts prove pessimistic.
The biggest error is the triple lock. Expect strikes to continue across the public sector as nurses etc have real term pay cuts versus protecting pensioners (including wealthy ones).
Not that bad really in PB Tory mindset surely.
Your daughters and Granddaughters if you have them will have a much worse deal.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63629003
That's at least the second time I've agreed with you.
And we haven’t even got to the regressive stealth taxes yet
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63660032
a) I have umpteen modest shareholdings that I have had for donkey's years. Since buying them there have been rights issues, capital consolidations, etc and I have no idea what I paid for them now.
b) My wife purchased shares via her payroll every month since 2007 and got matching shares and all in Swiss Francs. So a total of over 150 separate purchases at a price in Swiss francs at the exchange rate at an unknown date around her pay date.
When the limit moves down to £3000 how the hell do we calculate the CGT? There is a reason for ignoring small shareholdings and that is it is not worth collecting for the effort involved.
On a par with SKS
“They’ve lost the moral high ground tho
There are Ukrainian govt officials on Twitter complaining about “Russian terror attacks on civilians”
Er, what was the Kerch bridge?! Civilians died. It was probably a truck bomb, possibly by suicide. It was a terror attack on Russia by that definition”
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/10881/at-evens-lab-looks-value-for-a-commons-majority-politicalbetting-com/p4
I say time and again “probably a truck, possibly suicide” and people get angry and say I’m “shilling for Putin”. So that’s why the debate took a weird turn
On that same thread I also say “this quite likely ends in nukes”. Let’s hope that I was WRONG about that. As things stand I think I will be wrong about that. Putin has either lost his nuclear nerve or his army is refusing to press the red button
However (and there's huge confusion about this), the fact that the triple lock is a bad idea in the long term doesn't at all mean that state pensions shouldn't increase, along with working-age benefits, in line with inflation in the short term. The two are completely separate points. Anyone dependent on the state pension is by definition on a low or very low income, and therefore in present circumstances exceedingly vulnerable to inflation - especially since inflation at the moment is especially high for energy and food, which are not only non-discretionary but also form a disproportionately large part of the spending of the low-paid.
So Hunt is right to up both state pensions and benefits by inflation in this budget.
Of course, pensioners as a whole are not getting anything like an inflation-linked increase in their incomes. Those with defined-contribution pensions will typically have bought a fixed annuity, and get no increase at all in that part of their income. Even those on defined benefit schemes will typically not get the full 10.1% - many schemes are capped at 5%.
The premise of investment into high growth high new technology is a good one, though. As always, it's whether government can intervene effectively or not.
Who gave it to us ?
They are already playing out their plan...
Morrisons plans to sell-off some of its supermarkets in an effort to raise cash.
The grocer‘s owner CD&R is seeking to sell and lease back five Morrisons supermarkets for £150 million in what will be the first such deal to be sanctioned in its 123-year history. Morrisons owns 86% of its 497 supermarkets – a higher proportion than any of its major grocery rivals.
Its the classic asset stripping model, sell the real estate, lease it back, pay yourself out, f##k the actual business.
It is a good job that I saved into my company pension for decades
No £400 and cap raised from £2.5k to £3k
Shocking
Isn’t the main stumbling block that we need to build a big expensive tunnel under the Pennines?
Is this bit, now, being funded?
There’s a great sim game, very old now, called “railroad tycoon 3” which had very advanced economic modelling.
On the UK map, it always ended up making long term financial sense for your railway company to borrow a huge amount of money and fork out for a tunnel under the Pennines!
Or ask why do we already have growth problems, and then expect the worst?
What is Islam suggesting the differential is, incompetent Tory government, Brexit? The mess left by the last Labour government?
So we have other tax rises to fund the NI cut.
Of course the NI cut was only reversing the NI rise last April but it is a cut if you compare to a September baseline.
Or if Cameron had done it, rather than holding a referendum on Brexit...
Generally I don’t get involved in PB railway infrastructure debates. Not my field
Another significant part of it was Sunak not being honest back in August.
Average household energy going from £2,100 to £3,000.
Yes. A fuck up
But anyway. Get it done NOW
The original build a new cross Pennine route via including Bradford disappeared years ago.
Currently the biggest issue is that HS2 and NPR can't have a tunnel in Manchester and viaducts will be used instead which blocks off whole areas from sane redevelopment.
The RMT, RCN, CWU, UCU all need to up their pay demands.
Save you the bother of posting.
And unless I'm mistaken the plans to sell off food manufacturing and the other bits that made Morrisons decent have failed to find buyers stupid enough to pay the prices being asked.
How about you ?
Is this all being a bit overdone?
BTW, generally Tory I currently plan to vote Labour, along with a few million others. But.
It may make no difference overall, but the Labour front bench have no-one who can sound as if they know what they are talking about on fiscal, monetary, tax, spend, economic policy matters. It's their big weakness. Reeves today was just dire.
Liv - (new) - MCR Airport - Pic - (upgraded Ordsall Chord) - Vic - (upgraded Calder Valley) - Bradford - Leeds
which is not a very straight line
but could als be some ambition for new route Pic - Bradford or could fall back onto further upgraded Transpennine Route via Huddersfield if government get their way.
I'm.not sure there is a full public technical proposal, only high level options.
The problem with NPR is that it can mean one of a number of things.
In its current form, the bits across the Pennines are simply using existing alignments via Hope Valley and Diggle.
There are other proposals, though. And if NPR goes to Bradford - which was once the preferred solution and now appears to be swinging back in favour - that implies, if not a massive tunnel, then some pretty expensive and non-straightforward engineering.
Worth saying though that tunnelling isn't actually that expensive. Ideally of course you'd just build a railway over a featureless plain, but once you get to the stage of having to address ownerships, demolitions, watercourses, landscape features, utilities, local pressure groups, environmental designations ... just putting it underground starts to look a lot less unattractive.
EDIT: However Hunt appears to be confirming 'core' NPR rather than 'full' NPR which I infer as Manchester-Leeds via the existing Diggle route rather than via Bradford.