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Let’s talk about sextet – politicalbetting.com

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  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407
    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.
  • Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407

    HYUFD said:

    nico679 said:

    Until we have cross party agreement on social care and the acceptance of the need for higher taxes to pay for it then nothing will change .

    Labour has just introduced its own dementia tax by scrapping the social care costs cap, that will hit 45-65 year olds with home owning parents in London and the Home Counties particularly
    Her priority is clear, and it's raising public sector pay:

    NHS workers and teachers will get a 5.5% pay rise
    Armed forces personnel will get a 6% increase
    Prison service worker will see a rise of 5%
    The police will get a pay increase of 4.75%

    And she's absolutely right to do so.

    Says a Labour football-team supporter.

    (save the "I voted LD" stuff, just because you voted tactically to eject the Tory MP)
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,214

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,814

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,652
    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners

    I am not sure huge numbers of police officers and prison guards are natural Labour voters.

  • KnightOutKnightOut Posts: 142

    ydoethur said:

    Labour have just unintentionally bankrupted every local authority in England.

    Where a child is funded to be in an independent school because their needs can not be met in the state sector, the local authority will have those costs refunded.

    They don't have the money, duh.

    How do they manage the gap between paying it out and getting it back very slowly from the Treasury?

    It was always a stupid idea, but this could get *realy* unpleasant.

    Lot of middle class money being spent on SEN diagnoses from educational psychologists presumably
    I was called a monster for pointing out that this sort of thing was going on.
    If you bother to talk to some actual teachers, the number of children with undiagnosed, untreated SEND issues is rather large.

    The “over diagnosis” thing is a pile of shit.

    It's possible for both things to be true.

    The healthcare, education and benefits systems (among others) regularly see people who are gaming the system *and* those who are missing out. Seen a lot of it in the charity sector.

    Twas always thus, and is a product of the range of human personality types as much as anything.
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,652

    HYUFD said:

    nico679 said:

    Until we have cross party agreement on social care and the acceptance of the need for higher taxes to pay for it then nothing will change .

    Labour has just introduced its own dementia tax by scrapping the social care costs cap, that will hit 45-65 year olds with home owning parents in London and the Home Counties particularly
    Her priority is clear, and it's raising public sector pay:

    NHS workers and teachers will get a 5.5% pay rise
    Armed forces personnel will get a 6% increase
    Prison service worker will see a rise of 5%
    The police will get a pay increase of 4.75%

    And she's absolutely right to do so.

    Says a Labour football-team supporter.

    (save the "I voted LD" stuff, just because you voted tactically to eject the Tory MP)

    What a silly comment. I am afraid I just the world differently to you. I believe you need to pay wages and offer conditions that will attract and retain the staff needed to teach our kids, run our health service, guard our prisons, patrol our streets and so on. One day you may be grown-up enough to understand that.

  • KnightOut said:

    HYUFD said:

    Cookie said:

    According to the charge sheet, Mr Edwards is accused of having six category A images, 12 category B pictures and 19 category C photographs on WhatsApp.

    The offences are contrary to sections 1(1)(a) and 6 of the Protection of Children Act 1978. If found guilty, he could receive a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

    Hm. I'm no expert, but it strikes me that if someone whatsapps you a picture, it is there on your phone. It's not your choice. There was an issue recently at a local school in which some year 7 loose cannon sent images which would presumably contravene this act around the whole year group. Surely that doesn't criminalise the whole year?
    If they opened them and they are illegal images they are all criminals potentially

    The issue is that you don't need to 'open' anything to be technically guilty.

    Simply scrolling through a social media feed results in the automatic download of images over which you have no control. Well, OK, you could enable some sort of content filter, or make sure you connect via an ISP that does this at the Server-side level, but neither is entirely foolproof, and the first option might not even save you if it does the filtering after the download has occurred and the image is already cached.

    Traditionally British Law was quite good - comparatively, at least - at taking into account individual agency, responsibility and intention. The digital age has muddied these waters because it has created unambiguous 'offences' (with reliable data trails as evidence) in a legal space where ambiguity and nuance is imperative.

    There is still a massive lack of understanding about how technology works, even from those who are super-savvy at using it purely from the user side. Even today I had to explain to an intelligent, clued-up, not especially old person that anything and everything that appears on her device has had to be downloaded in order for her to see/hear it. She was insistent she hadn't downloaded the material in question (which wasn't dodgy!), and she may not have chosen to do so, but it had nevertheless been downloaded from the internet to her device and that's how things work. Even live streaming works by continuously downloading small packets of data and putting them together correctly at the other end.

    'I saw something online'. No you didn't. Your software downloaded it from 'online' onto your own hardware and that's where you actually saw it. Maybe 'making cat videos' should be a crime?...
    Must be manna from heaven for spooks who want to take out someone without having to go to the bother of throwing them out of a top floor window.

    From what I can make out, first thing that happens if you have a run in with knacker is confication of phone and fishing expedition and lot of detective work these days amounts to little more than searching through browser and search history.

    Now sir would you care to explain about your correspondent Leon's sock abuse....
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,576

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively is surely inviting a judicial review?
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407
    Carnyx said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
    To any fees paid in advance for next school year.
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,517

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
    LOL. The only way people are getting private sector pay rises of any size is if they are on minimum wage and the employer has been forced into it by the Government (which I don't object to by the way). How much is that warping the private sector pay rise figures?

    No one I know in the private sector is getting pay rises. Not staff, not contractors. Across a very wide range of industries/businesses.
  • TweedledeeTweedledee Posts: 1,405
    Sandpit said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively is surely inviting a judicial review?
    You can't JR primary legislation
  • MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
    LOL. The only way people are getting private sector pay rises of any size is if they are on minimum wage and the employer has been forced into it by the Government (which I don't object to by the way). How much is that warping the private sector pay rise figures?

    No one I know in the private sector is getting pay rises. Not staff, not contractors. Across a very wide range of industries/businesses.
    They will just be getting tax rises to pay for the public sector pay rises.
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,652

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?

    Apparently saving lives and teaching children is not productive. It's a strange way to see the world.

  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,027
    Carnyx said:

    The full new State Pension is £221.20. Pensioners credit tops up income to a max of £ 218.15 so the difference is about £160.

    Therefore someone living on the New State Pension (only) is going to be about £140 worse off than someone on Pensioners Credit when they lose the £300 winter fuel payment. This is without all the other benefits that those on Pensioners Credit receive.

    Also means that immigrants turning up in later life will get more than someone paying a lifetimes National Insurance.

    Not 300 - only for the real oldies etc. Some get/got £250.

    https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/how-much-youll-get
    My wife and I are real oldies but not bothered by loss of winter fuel allowance but many will be
  • .

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners

    I am not sure huge numbers of police officers and prison guards are natural Labour voters.

    PB Tories want public services, but don't want to "pay" for it.They'd be fine if Serco was running the Police or Fire Service, or the Army were turned into PMCs and they paid for it that way. Same as Private Education. It's clearly crap unless you're paying a private company for it!
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407

    HYUFD said:

    nico679 said:

    Until we have cross party agreement on social care and the acceptance of the need for higher taxes to pay for it then nothing will change .

    Labour has just introduced its own dementia tax by scrapping the social care costs cap, that will hit 45-65 year olds with home owning parents in London and the Home Counties particularly
    Her priority is clear, and it's raising public sector pay:

    NHS workers and teachers will get a 5.5% pay rise
    Armed forces personnel will get a 6% increase
    Prison service worker will see a rise of 5%
    The police will get a pay increase of 4.75%

    And she's absolutely right to do so.

    Says a Labour football-team supporter.

    (save the "I voted LD" stuff, just because you voted tactically to eject the Tory MP)

    What a silly comment. I am afraid I just the world differently to you. I believe you need to pay wages and offer conditions that will attract and retain the staff needed to teach our kids, run our health service, guard our prisons, patrol our streets and so on. One day you may be grown-up enough to understand that.

    Ah, I see you're using the "I'm more enlightened than you" argument. A classic.

    Whilst you're busy seeing the world differently, some of us are actually looking at the numbers and finding sustainable solutions.

    Let us know when you're ready to join the adults at the big table.
  • FeersumEnjineeyaFeersumEnjineeya Posts: 4,408

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    It's exactly that kind of thinking - failure to recognise that productivity can't always be measured in monetary terms - that has left the country in the state it is now in. One does get the feeling that the grown-ups are back in charge now. Fingers crossed they don't screw it up.
  • Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,814
    edited July 29

    Carnyx said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
    To any fees paid in advance for next school year.
    Obvious tax evasion - would be challenged in the courts by HMRC if it weren't already being dealt with. The way interest rates are, nobody in their right mind would park large sums of money with a company outside the FSCS for any other reason.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,700


    David Brindle
    @DavidJ_Brindle
    ·
    1h
    In memoriam Dilnot reforms b 12 July 2011 d 29 July 2024 following a long illness #socialcare
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,652

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.

    Doctors, who all pay tax, of course, get other taxpayers back to work.

  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
    To any fees paid in advance for next school year.
    Obvious tax evasion - would be challenged in the courts if it weren't already being dealt with. The way interest rates are, nobody in their right mind would park large sums of money with a company outside the FSCS for any other reason.
    No, the government could have said it'd take effect from 1st January 2025 to any and all fees paid subsequently from that point.

    They chose not to do so.

    My wife and I now have some difficult choices to make.
  • G

    Carnyx said:

    The full new State Pension is £221.20. Pensioners credit tops up income to a max of £ 218.15 so the difference is about £160.

    Therefore someone living on the New State Pension (only) is going to be about £140 worse off than someone on Pensioners Credit when they lose the £300 winter fuel payment. This is without all the other benefits that those on Pensioners Credit receive.

    Also means that immigrants turning up in later life will get more than someone paying a lifetimes National Insurance.

    Not 300 - only for the real oldies etc. Some get/got £250.

    https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/how-much-youll-get
    My wife and I are real oldies but not bothered by loss of winter fuel allowance but many will be
    You aon't be as you have a large post employment pension. Those already just over the pension credit cliff edge so not getting council tax and rent rebates will suffer real hardship as a result of this.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.

    Doctors, who all pay tax, of course, get other taxpayers back to work.

    How many of those on waiting lists are working taxpayers?
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,652

    HYUFD said:

    nico679 said:

    Until we have cross party agreement on social care and the acceptance of the need for higher taxes to pay for it then nothing will change .

    Labour has just introduced its own dementia tax by scrapping the social care costs cap, that will hit 45-65 year olds with home owning parents in London and the Home Counties particularly
    Her priority is clear, and it's raising public sector pay:

    NHS workers and teachers will get a 5.5% pay rise
    Armed forces personnel will get a 6% increase
    Prison service worker will see a rise of 5%
    The police will get a pay increase of 4.75%

    And she's absolutely right to do so.

    Says a Labour football-team supporter.

    (save the "I voted LD" stuff, just because you voted tactically to eject the Tory MP)

    What a silly comment. I am afraid I just the world differently to you. I believe you need to pay wages and offer conditions that will attract and retain the staff needed to teach our kids, run our health service, guard our prisons, patrol our streets and so on. One day you may be grown-up enough to understand that.

    Ah, I see you're using the "I'm more enlightened than you" argument. A classic.

    Whilst you're busy seeing the world differently, some of us are actually looking at the numbers and finding sustainable solutions.

    Let us know when you're ready to join the adults at the big table.

    Loving the "us". You're just throwing insults at people whose views and solutions you do not like.

  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
    LOL. The only way people are getting private sector pay rises of any size is if they are on minimum wage and the employer has been forced into it by the Government (which I don't object to by the way). How much is that warping the private sector pay rise figures?

    No one I know in the private sector is getting pay rises. Not staff, not contractors. Across a very wide range of industries/businesses.
    Labour just want to feather different nests.

    If they'd be in power the last few years getting inflation under control would have been much much harder.

    We'd all like to be paid a bit more, but public sector pay restraint is one thing Sunak/Hunt got right.
  • Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.

    Doctors, who all pay tax, of course, get other taxpayers back to work.

    They don't pay any net tax, they just receive money net of the "tax" amount from the treasury.

    Without the private sector actually putting money into the treasury in the first place, there isn't any money to pay doctors.
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,652

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.

    Doctors, who all pay tax, of course, get other taxpayers back to work.

    How many of those on waiting lists are working taxpayers?

    How many would be if they were not on waiting lists?

  • kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 4,938

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
    To any fees paid in advance for next school year.
    Obvious tax evasion - would be challenged in the courts if it weren't already being dealt with. The way interest rates are, nobody in their right mind would park large sums of money with a company outside the FSCS for any other reason.
    No, the government could have said it'd take effect from 1st January 2025 to any and all fees paid subsequently from that point.

    They chose not to do so.

    My wife and I now have some difficult choices to make.
    For the same reason I'm not expecting to make any capital disposals before the October budget and the predicted CGT hike.

    While I don't reckon they'll make the hike retrospective, they've proven they're bonkers enough to do it.

    Better to see what my position is under the new regime and adjust my financial plans / tax residency accordingly in the new year.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,027

    G

    Carnyx said:

    The full new State Pension is £221.20. Pensioners credit tops up income to a max of £ 218.15 so the difference is about £160.

    Therefore someone living on the New State Pension (only) is going to be about £140 worse off than someone on Pensioners Credit when they lose the £300 winter fuel payment. This is without all the other benefits that those on Pensioners Credit receive.

    Also means that immigrants turning up in later life will get more than someone paying a lifetimes National Insurance.

    Not 300 - only for the real oldies etc. Some get/got £250.

    https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/how-much-youll-get
    My wife and I are real oldies but not bothered by loss of winter fuel allowance but many will be
    You aon't be as you have a large post employment pension. Those already just over the pension credit cliff edge so not getting council tax and rent rebates will suffer real hardship as a result of this.
    How do you know I have a large private pension?

    Actually it is very modest but my state pension benefits by staying in serps

    Mind you my wife's pension is just £4,900 pa
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,214
    edited July 29

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
    LOL. The only way people are getting private sector pay rises of any size is if they are on minimum wage and the employer has been forced into it by the Government (which I don't object to by the way). How much is that warping the private sector pay rise figures?

    No one I know in the private sector is getting pay rises. Not staff, not contractors. Across a very wide range of industries/businesses.
    Here we go:

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/earningsandemploymentfrompayasyouearnrealtimeinformationuk/latest#median-monthly-pay

    Median (so presumably less affected by minimum wage changes) pay rising about six percent a year from Sept 2023 to May 2024. Big drop implied by the early data for June 2024 to 3.6 percent, but that number subject to revision.
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,652

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.

    Doctors, who all pay tax, of course, get other taxpayers back to work.

    They don't pay any net tax, they just receive money net of the "tax" amount from the treasury.

    Without the private sector actually putting money into the treasury in the first place, there isn't any money to pay doctors.

    And without doctors there probably isn't much of a private sector. Ditto teachers and police officers, not to mention armed forces personnel. The private sector is as dependent on the public sector as vice versa. We're all in it together.

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,213
    KnightOut said:

    ydoethur said:

    Labour have just unintentionally bankrupted every local authority in England.

    Where a child is funded to be in an independent school because their needs can not be met in the state sector, the local authority will have those costs refunded.

    They don't have the money, duh.

    How do they manage the gap between paying it out and getting it back very slowly from the Treasury?

    It was always a stupid idea, but this could get *realy* unpleasant.

    Lot of middle class money being spent on SEN diagnoses from educational psychologists presumably
    I was called a monster for pointing out that this sort of thing was going on.
    If you bother to talk to some actual teachers, the number of children with undiagnosed, untreated SEND issues is rather large.

    The “over diagnosis” thing is a pile of shit.

    It's possible for both things to be true.

    The healthcare, education and benefits systems (among others) regularly see people who are gaming the system *and* those who are missing out. Seen a lot of it in the charity sector.

    Twas always thus, and is a product of the range of human personality types as much as anything.
    It’s more, as with my father in hospital, knowing how to get ones due. If we had sat there all nice and polite, he would have died from negligence and lack of care.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,576
    Another week, and yet another young woman prison officer in court for misconduct.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/29/wandsworth-prison-officer-sex-inmate-guilty/

    This one once appeared on a Channel 4 ‘swingers’ show, and is said to have an OnlyFans account.

    Does the prison service really do no vetting at all anymore?
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,517

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
    LOL. The only way people are getting private sector pay rises of any size is if they are on minimum wage and the employer has been forced into it by the Government (which I don't object to by the way). How much is that warping the private sector pay rise figures?

    No one I know in the private sector is getting pay rises. Not staff, not contractors. Across a very wide range of industries/businesses.
    Here we go:

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/earningsandemploymentfrompayasyouearnrealtimeinformationuk/latest#median-monthly-pay

    Median (so presumably less affected by minimum wage changes) pay rising about six percent a year from Sept 2023 to May 2024. Big drop implied by the early data for June 2024 to 3.6 percent, but that number subject to revision.
    Again I just don't believe it. The only people I know getting any sort of pay rises are either on minimum wage or are those like my wife who works for the Co-op who give pay rises above but linked to the minimum wage.
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,652

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.
    I spent 25 years being unproductive. But somebody has to make the choice to don protective gear that's been bought under a strict budget, on a fire engine that's a few years old and has a bit of a temperamental pump, gain entry to a fully involved house fire, get up the stairs, pull your kids out of bed, get downstairs and hopefully pass them on to the waiting ambulance crew.
    Now, I get that that all costs money, but you either pay the local authority or you pay Serco/Capita/G4S, but you've still got to pay it.

    You can pay Serco knowing that their primary aim is to deliver shareholder return.

    By risking your own life to save other people's, by preventing factories, offices ands shops burning down, and so on, you played a massively important role in keeping the economy functioning. Thank-you.

  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,978
    edited July 29
    Sandpit said:

    Another week, and yet another young woman prison officer in court for misconduct.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/29/wandsworth-prison-officer-sex-inmate-guilty/

    This one once appeared on a Channel 4 ‘swingers’ show, and is said to have an OnlyFans account.

    Does the prison service really do no vetting at all anymore?

    Must use the same organisation as Reform UK...

    Somebody should be losing their jobs over this, but they won't, probably get promoted.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366
    Sandpit said:

    Another week, and yet another young woman prison officer in court for misconduct.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/29/wandsworth-prison-officer-sex-inmate-guilty/

    This one once appeared on a Channel 4 ‘swingers’ show, and is said to have an OnlyFans account.

    Does the prison service really do no vetting at all anymore?

    Hey it's another industry where the public sector pay rates mean it's impossible to both keep and attract staff..
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,978
    edited July 29
    17-year-old arrested after stabbing attack at Southport children's dance class

    "We can also confirm that the incident is not currently being treated as terror-related"
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.
    I spent 25 years being unproductive. But somebody has to make the choice to don protective gear that's been bought under a strict budget, on a fire engine that's a few years old and has a bit of a temperamental pump, gain entry to a fully involved house fire, get up the stairs, pull your kids out of bed, get downstairs and hopefully pass them on to the waiting ambulance crew.
    Now, I get that that all costs money, but you either pay the local authority or you pay Serco/Capita/G4S, but you've still got to pay it.
    This is one of the ways Osbornomics was so flawed. There was no value put on civic service/duty.

    Anyway, this place has got a little bit too rabid for my tastes for the moment.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,417
    I suspect that some of these benefits will soon be graduated.

    Like Big G the loss of the winter fuel allowance doesn’t worry me. For the same reason, obvs.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,412

    Jenrick just doesn't seem like a particularly nice person.

    Cleverley, Stride or Tom Tug are my picks.

    I think Kemi could do it but currently has a target on her back, and needs to avoid all the start an argument in a phone box stuff.

    Leadership is about being a team player.

    Wow.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366
    kyf_100 said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
    To any fees paid in advance for next school year.
    Obvious tax evasion - would be challenged in the courts if it weren't already being dealt with. The way interest rates are, nobody in their right mind would park large sums of money with a company outside the FSCS for any other reason.
    No, the government could have said it'd take effect from 1st January 2025 to any and all fees paid subsequently from that point.

    They chose not to do so.

    My wife and I now have some difficult choices to make.
    For the same reason I'm not expecting to make any capital disposals before the October budget and the predicted CGT hike.

    While I don't reckon they'll make the hike retrospective, they've proven they're bonkers enough to do it.

    Better to see what my position is under the new regime and adjust my financial plans / tax residency accordingly in the new year.
    It's one thing to say that Advanced payment of school fees won't escape VAT because there is plenty of case law saying as much - be thankfully that the issue is being highlighted now before you are tricked into joining a scheme that simply does not work..

    As for tax changes it's going to be very hard to retrospectively impact Capital disposals before October - personally I would take the risk but keep some of the money to one side in case..
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,978
    edited July 29

    I suspect that some of these benefits will soon be graduated.

    Like Big G the loss of the winter fuel allowance doesn’t worry me. For the same reason, obvs.

    One of the problems is when you start to means test, there is a cost in doing so, that often doesn't mean the saving is very large if a benefit is small amounts. It is why Brown never really did so e.g. free bus pass or tv licence, and when he did, it got complex and expensive e.g. tax credits (and more recently universal credit).
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,417

    17-year-old arrested after stabbing attack at Southport children's dance class

    "We can also confirm that the incident is not currently being treated as terror-related"

    Children? In Southport?
  • DumbosaurusDumbosaurus Posts: 794

    KnightOut said:

    HYUFD said:

    Cookie said:

    According to the charge sheet, Mr Edwards is accused of having six category A images, 12 category B pictures and 19 category C photographs on WhatsApp.

    The offences are contrary to sections 1(1)(a) and 6 of the Protection of Children Act 1978. If found guilty, he could receive a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

    Hm. I'm no expert, but it strikes me that if someone whatsapps you a picture, it is there on your phone. It's not your choice. There was an issue recently at a local school in which some year 7 loose cannon sent images which would presumably contravene this act around the whole year group. Surely that doesn't criminalise the whole year?
    If they opened them and they are illegal images they are all criminals potentially

    The issue is that you don't need to 'open' anything to be technically guilty.

    Simply scrolling through a social media feed results in the automatic download of images over which you have no control. Well, OK, you could enable some sort of content filter, or make sure you connect via an ISP that does this at the Server-side level, but neither is entirely foolproof, and the first option might not even save you if it does the filtering after the download has occurred and the image is already cached.

    Traditionally British Law was quite good - comparatively, at least - at taking into account individual agency, responsibility and intention. The digital age has muddied these waters because it has created unambiguous 'offences' (with reliable data trails as evidence) in a legal space where ambiguity and nuance is imperative.

    There is still a massive lack of understanding about how technology works, even from those who are super-savvy at using it purely from the user side. Even today I had to explain to an intelligent, clued-up, not especially old person that anything and everything that appears on her device has had to be downloaded in order for her to see/hear it. She was insistent she hadn't downloaded the material in question (which wasn't dodgy!), and she may not have chosen to do so, but it had nevertheless been downloaded from the internet to her device and that's how things work. Even live streaming works by continuously downloading small packets of data and putting them together correctly at the other end.

    'I saw something online'. No you didn't. Your software downloaded it from 'online' onto your own hardware and that's where you actually saw it. Maybe 'making cat videos' should be a crime?...
    Must be manna from heaven for spooks who want to take out someone without having to go to the bother of throwing them out of a top floor window.

    From what I can make out, first thing that happens if you have a run in with knacker is confication of phone and fishing expedition and lot of detective work these days amounts to little more than searching through browser and search history.

    Now sir would you care to explain about your correspondent Leon's sock abuse....
    It's the extreme porn laws you have to worry about. You're unlikely to realistically end up with child abuse images on your device accidentally (unless you're an experimenting teenager, or in Huw's case allegedly experimenting with teenagers). The extreme porn laws though are so broadly drawn it's basically impossible to be in, say, a banter WhatsApp group without risking it. At least the Frosties Tiger conviction was overturned eventually...
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,837

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.
    I spent 25 years being unproductive. But somebody has to make the choice to don protective gear that's been bought under a strict budget, on a fire engine that's a few years old and has a bit of a temperamental pump, gain entry to a fully involved house fire, get up the stairs, pull your kids out of bed, get downstairs and hopefully pass them on to the waiting ambulance crew.
    Now, I get that that all costs money, but you either pay the local authority or you pay Serco/Capita/G4S, but you've still got to pay it.
    Quite, but people never like being told to pay for stuff. They, variously, dispute the figures in the bill, claim what is being paid for is useless, or insist that the bill should be someone else's responsibility.

    Any measures announced by Reeves were bound to cause a load of loud screaming and butt hurt from those losing out, though in fact she hasn't done anything that extends radically beyond what was featured in the Labour manifesto. It'll be more interesting to see what else appears in the budget. Big ticket tax rises that don't contravene the promises made on personal taxation include raising the cap on council tax hikes, the abolition of higher rate tax relief on pension contributions, and bringing CGT rates more closely into line with income tax.

    If they were feeling really bold they'd make a more concerted raid on residential property and inherited wealth, but I think this lot want to prioritise dull competence over radicalism.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,758

    G

    Carnyx said:

    The full new State Pension is £221.20. Pensioners credit tops up income to a max of £ 218.15 so the difference is about £160.

    Therefore someone living on the New State Pension (only) is going to be about £140 worse off than someone on Pensioners Credit when they lose the £300 winter fuel payment. This is without all the other benefits that those on Pensioners Credit receive.

    Also means that immigrants turning up in later life will get more than someone paying a lifetimes National Insurance.

    Not 300 - only for the real oldies etc. Some get/got £250.

    https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/how-much-youll-get
    My wife and I are real oldies but not bothered by loss of winter fuel allowance but many will be
    You aon't be as you have a large post employment pension. Those already just over the pension credit cliff edge so not getting council tax and rent rebates will suffer real hardship as a result of this.
    How do you know I have a large private pension?

    Actually it is very modest but my state pension benefits by staying in serps

    Mind you my wife's pension is just £4,900 pa
    Come along Big G - all those tanks you have along the South Wales border didn't pay for themselves.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,214

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
    LOL. The only way people are getting private sector pay rises of any size is if they are on minimum wage and the employer has been forced into it by the Government (which I don't object to by the way). How much is that warping the private sector pay rise figures?

    No one I know in the private sector is getting pay rises. Not staff, not contractors. Across a very wide range of industries/businesses.
    Here we go:

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/earningsandemploymentfrompayasyouearnrealtimeinformationuk/latest#median-monthly-pay

    Median (so presumably less affected by minimum wage changes) pay rising about six percent a year from Sept 2023 to May 2024. Big drop implied by the early data for June 2024 to 3.6 percent, but that number subject to revision.
    Again I just don't believe it. The only people I know getting any sort of pay rises are either on minimum wage or are those like my wife who works for the Co-op who give pay rises above but linked to the minimum wage.
    You may not believe it, but the numbers are the numbers, and it seems unlikely that HMRC would even be capable of fiddling them if they wanted to. (The other plausability check is the stickyness of services inflation at a bit under six percent.)

    What might be happening is that some roles and some sectors are making out like bandits while others aren't, but I wouldn't know how to explore that.
  • northern_monkeynorthern_monkey Posts: 1,639

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
    LOL. The only way people are getting private sector pay rises of any size is if they are on minimum wage and the employer has been forced into it by the Government (which I don't object to by the way). How much is that warping the private sector pay rise figures?

    No one I know in the private sector is getting pay rises. Not staff, not contractors. Across a very wide range of industries/businesses.
    Here we go:

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/earningsandemploymentfrompayasyouearnrealtimeinformationuk/latest#median-monthly-pay

    Median (so presumably less affected by minimum wage changes) pay rising about six percent a year from Sept 2023 to May 2024. Big drop implied by the early data for June 2024 to 3.6 percent, but that number subject to revision.
    Again I just don't believe it. The only people I know getting any sort of pay rises are either on minimum wage or are those like my wife who works for the Co-op who give pay rises above but linked to the minimum wage.
    But we have Brexiter posters on here - another richard is it? - telling us that thanks to leaving the EU wages are rocketing up, indeed the doughty northern working man has never had it so good, I’m told.

    So which is it?
  • VerulamiusVerulamius Posts: 1,543
    Any private school fees paid from today for terms starting from 1 January 2025 will be subject to VAT.

    So if you paid school fees in advance last week then no VAT.
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
    To any fees paid in advance for next school year.
    Obvious tax evasion - would be challenged in the courts if it weren't already being dealt with. The way interest rates are, nobody in their right mind would park large sums of money with a company outside the FSCS for any other reason.
    No, the government could have said it'd take effect from 1st January 2025 to any and all fees paid subsequently from that point.

    They chose not to do so.

    My wife and I now have some difficult choices to make.
    I enquired several months ago and my council said there are no places at all at state primaries in my catchment. Followed by, you really shouldn’t move a child’s school anyway you know.

    I’m not sure what we’ll do really. I finish each month already with nothing left of my pay cheque. It will have to be stripping of retirement savings to see through to 11+
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,311

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    At the mopment they empty our pockets and getting police or health care are next to crap, no experience re fires. We are getting a bum deal for our cash and this lot will just increase the feather bedding of those who are more than capable of being employed but get much more for lying in their beds. Hard to believe we have so many ill people compared to the rest of the world.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061
    In every conference I've attended in recent months, both civilian and military, one sentence keeps coming up: "Shoot the archer, not the arrow."

    Everyone knows what Ukraine needs to defend its skies, yet nothing is being done to make it happen.

    Maddening.

    https://x.com/FRHoffmann1/status/1817969473581994321
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,627

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.
    I spent 25 years being unproductive. But somebody has to make the choice to don protective gear that's been bought under a strict budget, on a fire engine that's a few years old and has a bit of a temperamental pump, gain entry to a fully involved house fire, get up the stairs, pull your kids out of bed, get downstairs and hopefully pass them on to the waiting ambulance crew.
    Now, I get that that all costs money, but you either pay the local authority or you pay Serco/Capita/G4S, but you've still got to pay it.
    A cautionary tale from Alabama of unpaid voluntary fire subscription:

    https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39516346
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,412

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    News from 2032

    “The second enquiry into the COVID Corruption Commission has opened today. Questions unanswered include - how did Commission spend £7.8 Billions pounds to recover £10.21? Why was a detective agency entirely composed of former Met Police officers, fired for corruption, employed?….”
    A new opportunity for Dick? Perhaps backed up by Harding?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,213

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    News from 2032

    “The second enquiry into the COVID Corruption Commission has opened today. Questions unanswered include - how did Commission spend £7.8 Billions pounds to recover £10.21? Why was a detective agency entirely composed of former Met Police officers, fired for corruption, employed?….”
    A new opportunity for Dick? Perhaps backed up by Harding?
    No, they would be in the running to head the enquiry into the enquiry.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,978
    In more positive news, has been magical monday for Team GB at the Olympics.
  • DumbosaurusDumbosaurus Posts: 794

    HYUFD said:

    PB Tories can now officially say 'THIS IS THE WORST GOVERNMENT OF MY LIFETIME'. Feels great, we haven't been able to say that since early 2010!!

    I did try and warn everyone this would happen a few weeks ago.

    Few wanted to listen.
    The tragedy is not just that you were right, but also that I was right that they were and are still a better option than leaving the Tories in power.

    I'm going to get stung tremendously by the inevitable CGT increases but at least I have a serious government trying to govern seriously in the interest of all.
    It's not in the interest of all ....that's clearly another ludicrous statement.
    In whose interest is a chaotic government?

    HYUFD said:

    PB Tories can now officially say 'THIS IS THE WORST GOVERNMENT OF MY LIFETIME'. Feels great, we haven't been able to say that since early 2010!!

    I did try and warn everyone this would happen a few weeks ago.

    Few wanted to listen.
    The tragedy is not just that you were right, but also that I was right that they were and are still a better option than leaving the Tories in power.

    I'm going to get stung tremendously by the inevitable CGT increases but at least I have a serious government trying to govern seriously in the interest of all.
    A serious government that's adopting exactly the same approach to long-term capital investment as the last one, and is just focused on feathering a different nest.

    You've changed the colour of your shirt. That's it.
    You can't really argue at the same time that they're both worse and more of the same (although I appreciate that that is similar to Starmer's landslide providing election strategy)
  • TweedledeeTweedledee Posts: 1,405
    kyf_100 said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
    To any fees paid in advance for next school year.
    Obvious tax evasion - would be challenged in the courts if it weren't already being dealt with. The way interest rates are, nobody in their right mind would park large sums of money with a company outside the FSCS for any other reason.
    No, the government could have said it'd take effect from 1st January 2025 to any and all fees paid subsequently from that point.

    They chose not to do so.

    My wife and I now have some difficult choices to make.
    For the same reason I'm not expecting to make any capital disposals before the October budget and the predicted CGT hike.

    While I don't reckon they'll make the hike retrospective, they've proven they're bonkers enough to do it.

    Better to see what my position is under the new regime and adjust my financial plans / tax residency accordingly in the new year.
    You just want a tax-based excuse to go and live abroad don't you? The rationale for levying VAT on school fees for summer term 2025 irrespective of when they are paid really doesn't read across to hiking the tax on a chargeable gain realised in summer 2024. I would bet serious money at 3 that CGT hikes will not be retrospective, and that they will happen. I obviously have no idea of your circumstances but say you have 1m in shares you are incurring a probable £250k hit for the luxury of "seeing what your position is." No guarantee that the rules for changing residence to escape the hit won't change at the same time as the hike, either. There's a policy paper out today https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2024-non-uk-domiciled-individuals-policy-summary/changes-to-the-taxation-of-non-uk-domiciled-individuals
    which sounds like a complete overhaul of tax residence law. If I were Rachel I would jack 5 years up to 10. Would you be happy with that?
  • Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.
    I spent 25 years being unproductive. But somebody has to make the choice to don protective gear that's been bought under a strict budget, on a fire engine that's a few years old and has a bit of a temperamental pump, gain entry to a fully involved house fire, get up the stairs, pull your kids out of bed, get downstairs and hopefully pass them on to the waiting ambulance crew.
    Now, I get that that all costs money, but you either pay the local authority or you pay Serco/Capita/G4S, but you've still got to pay it.
    Yes but you have to get it into the treasury in the first place to be able to pay it. Increase taxes too much and people work less and relocate out businesses out of the country and the whole thing implodes.

    20% pay rises for state servants when the state takes 15% of national income is one thing. When it takes getting on for 50% of national income it is another and the path to Argentina.
  • Sandpit said:

    Another week, and yet another young woman prison officer in court for misconduct.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/29/wandsworth-prison-officer-sex-inmate-guilty/

    This one once appeared on a Channel 4 ‘swingers’ show, and is said to have an OnlyFans account.

    Does the prison service really do no vetting at all anymore?

    Must use the same organisation as Reform UK...

    Somebody should be losing their jobs over this, but they won't, probably get promoted.
    With 5% pay rise at least even if they are not promoted.
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,643
    Highly recommend watching the mountain biking gold.
  • TweedledeeTweedledee Posts: 1,405

    kyf_100 said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
    To any fees paid in advance for next school year.
    Obvious tax evasion - would be challenged in the courts if it weren't already being dealt with. The way interest rates are, nobody in their right mind would park large sums of money with a company outside the FSCS for any other reason.
    No, the government could have said it'd take effect from 1st January 2025 to any and all fees paid subsequently from that point.

    They chose not to do so.

    My wife and I now have some difficult choices to make.
    For the same reason I'm not expecting to make any capital disposals before the October budget and the predicted CGT hike.

    While I don't reckon they'll make the hike retrospective, they've proven they're bonkers enough to do it.

    Better to see what my position is under the new regime and adjust my financial plans / tax residency accordingly in the new year.
    You just want a tax-based excuse to go and live abroad don't you? The rationale for levying VAT on school fees for summer term 2025 irrespective of when they are paid really doesn't read across to hiking the tax on a chargeable gain realised in summer 2024. I would bet serious money at 3 that CGT hikes will not be retrospective, and that they will happen. I obviously have no idea of your circumstances but say you have 1m in shares you are incurring a probable £250k hit for the luxury of "seeing what your position is." No guarantee that the rules for changing residence to escape the hit won't change at the same time as the hike, either. There's a policy paper out today https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2024-non-uk-domiciled-individuals-policy-summary/changes-to-the-taxation-of-non-uk-domiciled-individuals
    which sounds like a complete overhaul of tax residence law. If I were Rachel I would jack 5 years up to 10. Would you be happy with that?
    Missed edit window, should read 1m gains in shares
  • .

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.
    I spent 25 years being unproductive. But somebody has to make the choice to don protective gear that's been bought under a strict budget, on a fire engine that's a few years old and has a bit of a temperamental pump, gain entry to a fully involved house fire, get up the stairs, pull your kids out of bed, get downstairs and hopefully pass them on to the waiting ambulance crew.
    Now, I get that that all costs money, but you either pay the local authority or you pay Serco/Capita/G4S, but you've still got to pay it.
    Yes but you have to get it into the treasury in the first place to be able to pay it. Increase taxes too much and people work less and relocate out businesses out of the country and the whole thing implodes.

    20% pay rises for state servants when the state takes 15% of national income is one thing. When it takes getting on for 50% of national income it is another and the path to Argentina.
    I get it, but if you don't pay enough to keep staff retention, what then? You can't have a fire service/ police/ health service/ armed forces unless you pay enough so that the workers can live. You've got to pay it.
    Or you sub it out to Omni Consumer Products and pay their shareholders first.
    There's no other way.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368
    ...

    KnightOut said:

    HYUFD said:

    Cookie said:

    According to the charge sheet, Mr Edwards is accused of having six category A images, 12 category B pictures and 19 category C photographs on WhatsApp.

    The offences are contrary to sections 1(1)(a) and 6 of the Protection of Children Act 1978. If found guilty, he could receive a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

    Hm. I'm no expert, but it strikes me that if someone whatsapps you a picture, it is there on your phone. It's not your choice. There was an issue recently at a local school in which some year 7 loose cannon sent images which would presumably contravene this act around the whole year group. Surely that doesn't criminalise the whole year?
    If they opened them and they are illegal images they are all criminals potentially

    The issue is that you don't need to 'open' anything to be technically guilty.

    Simply scrolling through a social media feed results in the automatic download of images over which you have no control. Well, OK, you could enable some sort of content filter, or make sure you connect via an ISP that does this at the Server-side level, but neither is entirely foolproof, and the first option might not even save you if it does the filtering after the download has occurred and the image is already cached.

    Traditionally British Law was quite good - comparatively, at least - at taking into account individual agency, responsibility and intention. The digital age has muddied these waters because it has created unambiguous 'offences' (with reliable data trails as evidence) in a legal space where ambiguity and nuance is imperative.

    There is still a massive lack of understanding about how technology works, even from those who are super-savvy at using it purely from the user side. Even today I had to explain to an intelligent, clued-up, not especially old person that anything and everything that appears on her device has had to be downloaded in order for her to see/hear it. She was insistent she hadn't downloaded the material in question (which wasn't dodgy!), and she may not have chosen to do so, but it had nevertheless been downloaded from the internet to her device and that's how things work. Even live streaming works by continuously downloading small packets of data and putting them together correctly at the other end.

    'I saw something online'. No you didn't. Your software downloaded it from 'online' onto your own hardware and that's where you actually saw it. Maybe 'making cat videos' should be a crime?...
    Must be manna from heaven for spooks who want to take out someone without having to go to the bother of throwing them out of a top floor window.

    From what I can make out, first thing that happens if you have a run in with knacker is confication of phone and fishing expedition and lot of detective work these days amounts to little more than searching through browser and search history.

    Now sir would you care to explain about your correspondent Leon's sock abuse....
    It's the extreme porn laws you have to worry about. You're unlikely to realistically end up with child abuse images on your device accidentally (unless you're an experimenting teenager, or in Huw's case allegedly experimenting with teenagers). The extreme porn laws though are so broadly drawn it's basically impossible to be in, say, a banter WhatsApp group without risking it. At least the Frosties Tiger conviction was overturned eventually...
    Bloody hell! I wasn't aware Tony the Tiger was an Operation Yewtree mark. Is that why we don't see those little bastards Snap, Crackle and Pop on the telly anymore?
  • G

    Carnyx said:

    The full new State Pension is £221.20. Pensioners credit tops up income to a max of £ 218.15 so the difference is about £160.

    Therefore someone living on the New State Pension (only) is going to be about £140 worse off than someone on Pensioners Credit when they lose the £300 winter fuel payment. This is without all the other benefits that those on Pensioners Credit receive.

    Also means that immigrants turning up in later life will get more than someone paying a lifetimes National Insurance.

    Not 300 - only for the real oldies etc. Some get/got £250.

    https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/how-much-youll-get
    My wife and I are real oldies but not bothered by loss of winter fuel allowance but many will be
    You aon't be as you have a large post employment pension. Those already just over the pension credit cliff edge so not getting council tax and rent rebates will suffer real hardship as a result of this.
    How do you know I have a large private pension?

    Actually it is very modest but my state pension benefits by staying in serps

    Mind you my wife's pension is just £4,900 pa
    I assumed so as I thought you were a retired policeman. That is a worry if you predecease her unless state*/private pension has widows pension.

    *they did if you retired before 2016
  • agingjb2agingjb2 Posts: 114
    Just draw the graph, income against tax/benefit. A line with no wobbles or traps.

    Implementation? Tax all income at some rate; make all benefits universal.

    Always pays to work.

    Far too simple of course; await outrage.

    https://www.atkwanti.co.uk/verse/tax.htm
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541

    HYUFD said:

    nico679 said:

    Until we have cross party agreement on social care and the acceptance of the need for higher taxes to pay for it then nothing will change .

    Labour has just introduced its own dementia tax by scrapping the social care costs cap, that will hit 45-65 year olds with home owning parents in London and the Home Counties particularly
    Her priority is clear, and it's raising public sector pay:

    NHS workers and teachers will get a 5.5% pay rise
    Armed forces personnel will get a 6% increase
    Prison service worker will see a rise of 5%
    The police will get a pay increase of 4.75%

    And she's absolutely right to do so.

    Says a Labour football-team supporter.

    (save the "I voted LD" stuff, just because you voted tactically to eject the Tory MP)
    Not sure you’re in a position to lecture anyone about partisanship. I may be wrong.
  • MisterBedfordshireMisterBedfordshire Posts: 2,252
    edited July 29

    .

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.
    I spent 25 years being unproductive. But somebody has to make the choice to don protective gear that's been bought under a strict budget, on a fire engine that's a few years old and has a bit of a temperamental pump, gain entry to a fully involved house fire, get up the stairs, pull your kids out of bed, get downstairs and hopefully pass them on to the waiting ambulance crew.
    Now, I get that that all costs money, but you either pay the local authority or you pay Serco/Capita/G4S, but you've still got to pay it.
    Yes but you have to get it into the treasury in the first place to be able to pay it. Increase taxes too much and people work less and relocate out businesses out of the country and the whole thing implodes.

    20% pay rises for state servants when the state takes 15% of national income is one thing. When it takes getting on for 50% of national income it is another and the path to Argentina.
    I get it, but if you don't pay enough to keep staff retention, what then? You can't have a fire service/ police/ health service/ armed forces unless you pay enough so that the workers can live. You've got to pay it.
    Or you sub it out to Omni Consumer Products and pay their shareholders first.
    There's no other way.
    The problem is that the state, like the railways before Beeching is trying to do too much, far far too much.

    It needs to do what Beeching did to the railways. Concentrate on what it does best and ditch the rest.

    Sure it will hurt. Very unfairly in some cases, and it is inevitable some big mistakes will be made. But the alternative is disorderly collapse which is far worse (eg what happened when GNR (Ireland) went bust and wholesale closures occured overnight without notice.

  • That will will keep McDonald and Dodd out of trouble for a while
  • Anywhere you can bet on which year the IMF will be called in and order savage Greek type cuts.

    (Upon which SKS/Reeves will blame the Tories for leaving them a mess and say the nasty bankers at the IMF made us do the cuts).
  • DumbosaurusDumbosaurus Posts: 794

    ...

    KnightOut said:

    HYUFD said:

    Cookie said:

    According to the charge sheet, Mr Edwards is accused of having six category A images, 12 category B pictures and 19 category C photographs on WhatsApp.

    The offences are contrary to sections 1(1)(a) and 6 of the Protection of Children Act 1978. If found guilty, he could receive a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

    Hm. I'm no expert, but it strikes me that if someone whatsapps you a picture, it is there on your phone. It's not your choice. There was an issue recently at a local school in which some year 7 loose cannon sent images which would presumably contravene this act around the whole year group. Surely that doesn't criminalise the whole year?
    If they opened them and they are illegal images they are all criminals potentially

    The issue is that you don't need to 'open' anything to be technically guilty.

    Simply scrolling through a social media feed results in the automatic download of images over which you have no control. Well, OK, you could enable some sort of content filter, or make sure you connect via an ISP that does this at the Server-side level, but neither is entirely foolproof, and the first option might not even save you if it does the filtering after the download has occurred and the image is already cached.

    Traditionally British Law was quite good - comparatively, at least - at taking into account individual agency, responsibility and intention. The digital age has muddied these waters because it has created unambiguous 'offences' (with reliable data trails as evidence) in a legal space where ambiguity and nuance is imperative.

    There is still a massive lack of understanding about how technology works, even from those who are super-savvy at using it purely from the user side. Even today I had to explain to an intelligent, clued-up, not especially old person that anything and everything that appears on her device has had to be downloaded in order for her to see/hear it. She was insistent she hadn't downloaded the material in question (which wasn't dodgy!), and she may not have chosen to do so, but it had nevertheless been downloaded from the internet to her device and that's how things work. Even live streaming works by continuously downloading small packets of data and putting them together correctly at the other end.

    'I saw something online'. No you didn't. Your software downloaded it from 'online' onto your own hardware and that's where you actually saw it. Maybe 'making cat videos' should be a crime?...
    Must be manna from heaven for spooks who want to take out someone without having to go to the bother of throwing them out of a top floor window.

    From what I can make out, first thing that happens if you have a run in with knacker is confication of phone and fishing expedition and lot of detective work these days amounts to little more than searching through browser and search history.

    Now sir would you care to explain about your correspondent Leon's sock abuse....
    It's the extreme porn laws you have to worry about. You're unlikely to realistically end up with child abuse images on your device accidentally (unless you're an experimenting teenager, or in Huw's case allegedly experimenting with teenagers). The extreme porn laws though are so broadly drawn it's basically impossible to be in, say, a banter WhatsApp group without risking it. At least the Frosties Tiger conviction was overturned eventually...
    Bloody hell! I wasn't aware Tony the Tiger was an Operation Yewtree mark. Is that why we don't see those little bastards Snap, Crackle and Pop on the telly anymore?
    Aware this was a joke - but someone was genuinely prosecuted for "porn" of Tony the Tiger. Many similar cases. It is an insane law.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,027
    edited July 29

    G

    Carnyx said:

    The full new State Pension is £221.20. Pensioners credit tops up income to a max of £ 218.15 so the difference is about £160.

    Therefore someone living on the New State Pension (only) is going to be about £140 worse off than someone on Pensioners Credit when they lose the £300 winter fuel payment. This is without all the other benefits that those on Pensioners Credit receive.

    Also means that immigrants turning up in later life will get more than someone paying a lifetimes National Insurance.

    Not 300 - only for the real oldies etc. Some get/got £250.

    https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/how-much-youll-get
    My wife and I are real oldies but not bothered by loss of winter fuel allowance but many will be
    You aon't be as you have a large post employment pension. Those already just over the pension credit cliff edge so not getting council tax and rent rebates will suffer real hardship as a result of this.
    How do you know I have a large private pension?

    Actually it is very modest but my state pension benefits by staying in serps

    Mind you my wife's pension is just £4,900 pa
    I assumed so as I thought you were a retired policeman. That is a worry if you predecease her unless state*/private pension has widows pension.

    *they did if you retired before 2016
    I had less than 6 months in Edinburgh City Police before moving to North Wales to buy and run a family business then 7 years later went into another business for the remainder of my working life retiring in 2009

    So not a retired policeman but retired businessman

    My pension arrangements are such that my wife will be provided for in the event of me predeceasing her
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,549
    "Joe Biden wants 18-year limit for Supreme Court judges

    Proposal is part of the president’s plan to overhaul the court after a series of controversial rulings and claims of impropriety by judges" (£)

    https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/biden-wants-18-year-limit-for-supreme-court-judges-0pbts6ff3
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368

    Anywhere you can bet on which year the IMF will be called in and order savage Greek type cuts.

    (Upon which SKS/Reeves will blame the Tories for leaving them a mess and say the nasty bankers at the IMF made us do the cuts).

    I may be tempting fate but the government gilts and bonds markets haven't careered down the ravine like they did in 2022 under a - checks notes- Conservative Government, yet.
  • kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 4,938

    kyf_100 said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Ar$holes pushing ahead with VAT on school fees from 1st January, and will apply retrospectively.

    Disgusting.

    Retrospectively? 1 January is in the future.
    To any fees paid in advance for next school year.
    Obvious tax evasion - would be challenged in the courts if it weren't already being dealt with. The way interest rates are, nobody in their right mind would park large sums of money with a company outside the FSCS for any other reason.
    No, the government could have said it'd take effect from 1st January 2025 to any and all fees paid subsequently from that point.

    They chose not to do so.

    My wife and I now have some difficult choices to make.
    For the same reason I'm not expecting to make any capital disposals before the October budget and the predicted CGT hike.

    While I don't reckon they'll make the hike retrospective, they've proven they're bonkers enough to do it.

    Better to see what my position is under the new regime and adjust my financial plans / tax residency accordingly in the new year.
    You just want a tax-based excuse to go and live abroad don't you? The rationale for levying VAT on school fees for summer term 2025 irrespective of when they are paid really doesn't read across to hiking the tax on a chargeable gain realised in summer 2024. I would bet serious money at 3 that CGT hikes will not be retrospective, and that they will happen. I obviously have no idea of your circumstances but say you have 1m in shares you are incurring a probable £250k hit for the luxury of "seeing what your position is." No guarantee that the rules for changing residence to escape the hit won't change at the same time as the hike, either. There's a policy paper out today https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2024-non-uk-domiciled-individuals-policy-summary/changes-to-the-taxation-of-non-uk-domiciled-individuals
    which sounds like a complete overhaul of tax residence law. If I were Rachel I would jack 5 years up to 10. Would you be happy with that?
    HMRC's own research suggests that a 25% rise in CGT, i.e. from 20% to 25% would be revenue positive for the treasury. While a hike to 30% would be substantially revenue negative. So there's a part of me that hopes for a bit of common sense. I could eat a rise from 20% to 25%, especially if I think my portfolio is going to grow more than that over the next year or two to cover it. Also, a return of taper relief would significantly alter my position. So it's worth waiting and seeing, when the worst thing that happens is you sell your primary residence at 0% CGT and use the cash to rebase yourself somewhere else in time for next year.

    Would I be happy with leaving for ten years? Or forever? Honestly at this point, yeah.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,620
    Kemi Badenoch tried to recruit Sue Gray as her top aide but the move was blocked by Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, a new book claims.

    The shadow housing secretary, a Conservative leadership contender, reportedly wanted to hire Ms Gray, a senior civil servant, as permanent secretary to the Department of Trade in October 2022.

    But it is alleged that Mr Case did not allow her to be interviewed for the role, a move speculated to be a result of “bad blood” in the aftermath of Ms Gray’s partygate report, which contributed to Boris Johnson’s resignation as prime minister.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/29/kemi-badenoch-tried-to-recruit-sue-gray-as-top-aide/
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,549
    Salisbury and Bath are in the same general part of the country.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368

    Kemi Badenoch tried to recruit Sue Gray as her top aide but the move was blocked by Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, a new book claims.

    The shadow housing secretary, a Conservative leadership contender, reportedly wanted to hire Ms Gray, a senior civil servant, as permanent secretary to the Department of Trade in October 2022.

    But it is alleged that Mr Case did not allow her to be interviewed for the role, a move speculated to be a result of “bad blood” in the aftermath of Ms Gray’s partygate report, which contributed to Boris Johnson’s resignation as prime minister.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/29/kemi-badenoch-tried-to-recruit-sue-gray-as-top-aide/

    Has Sue Gray's revenge been served cold yet, or is it still chilling nicely?
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,027
    Merseyside police advise 2 children have died with 6 more in a critical condition plus 2 adults

    A 17 year originally from Cardiff arrested
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,620

    Kemi Badenoch tried to recruit Sue Gray as her top aide but the move was blocked by Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, a new book claims.

    The shadow housing secretary, a Conservative leadership contender, reportedly wanted to hire Ms Gray, a senior civil servant, as permanent secretary to the Department of Trade in October 2022.

    But it is alleged that Mr Case did not allow her to be interviewed for the role, a move speculated to be a result of “bad blood” in the aftermath of Ms Gray’s partygate report, which contributed to Boris Johnson’s resignation as prime minister.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/29/kemi-badenoch-tried-to-recruit-sue-gray-as-top-aide/

    Has Sue Gray's revenge been served cold yet, or is it still chilling nicely?
    The stuff I could tell you about Sue Gray.

    She's so hard that even the IRA were afraid of her.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,044

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
    LOL. The only way people are getting private sector pay rises of any size is if they are on minimum wage and the employer has been forced into it by the Government (which I don't object to by the way). How much is that warping the private sector pay rise figures?

    No one I know in the private sector is getting pay rises. Not staff, not contractors. Across a very wide range of industries/businesses.
    Here are the ONS figures and they publish their methodology: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/timeseries/kac6/ Maybe the ONS’s figures are more robust than a survey of people you know?
  • state_go_awaystate_go_away Posts: 5,813

    MattW said:

    An interestingly political pair of speeches.

    For me, RR reported a £22bn black hole - I am not clear whether that is per annum or one-off or a mix. But 5.5bn this year and 8bn next year looks like there is a lot still to come.

    The COVID Corruption Commission will also be interesting - how much is that supposed to recover: 10s of millions, 100s of millions, or billions?

    A big bit of slight of hand by Reeves there though. Almost half of that £22 billion is public sector pay rises - which is a political choice, not a 'black hole'.
    For some of it, perhaps. Though I can't believe that anyone would think that zero increase would fly. So some of it would have had to be spent anyway.

    And the figures don't look out of whack with current pay rises in the private sector (5-6 percent on average?), which is probably necessary to stop recruitment and retention getting worse.
    LOL. The only way people are getting private sector pay rises of any size is if they are on minimum wage and the employer has been forced into it by the Government (which I don't object to by the way). How much is that warping the private sector pay rise figures?

    No one I know in the private sector is getting pay rises. Not staff, not contractors. Across a very wide range of industries/businesses.
    Here are the ONS figures and they publish their methodology: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/timeseries/kac6/ Maybe the ONS’s figures are more robust than a survey of people you know?
    err i would not count on that
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,620
    edited July 29
    Two children murdered and nine others injured in the Southport attack.

    Edit - Merseyside police chief constable Serena Kennedy: Two children have died as a result of a stabbing, nine others injured - six of whom are in a critical condition. Two adults are also in a critical condition.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,044

    HYUFD said:

    nico679 said:

    Until we have cross party agreement on social care and the acceptance of the need for higher taxes to pay for it then nothing will change .

    Labour has just introduced its own dementia tax by scrapping the social care costs cap, that will hit 45-65 year olds with home owning parents in London and the Home Counties particularly
    Her priority is clear, and it's raising public sector pay:

    NHS workers and teachers will get a 5.5% pay rise
    Armed forces personnel will get a 6% increase
    Prison service worker will see a rise of 5%
    The police will get a pay increase of 4.75%

    And she's absolutely right to do so.

    Says a Labour football-team supporter.

    (save the "I voted LD" stuff, just because you voted tactically to eject the Tory MP)

    What a silly comment. I am afraid I just the world differently to you. I believe you need to pay wages and offer conditions that will attract and retain the staff needed to teach our kids, run our health service, guard our prisons, patrol our streets and so on. One day you may be grown-up enough to understand that.

    Ah, I see you're using the "I'm more enlightened than you" argument. A classic.

    Whilst you're busy seeing the world differently, some of us are actually looking at the numbers and finding sustainable solutions.

    Let us know when you're ready to join the adults at the big table.
    Are any of Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, Mel Stride or Tom Tugendhat at the big table?
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,044

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.

    Doctors, who all pay tax, of course, get other taxpayers back to work.

    How many of those on waiting lists are working taxpayers?
    Maybe if their health problem was dealt with, they could return to work.
  • state_go_awaystate_go_away Posts: 5,813

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.
    I spent 25 years being unproductive. But somebody has to make the choice to don protective gear that's been bought under a strict budget, on a fire engine that's a few years old and has a bit of a temperamental pump, gain entry to a fully involved house fire, get up the stairs, pull your kids out of bed, get downstairs and hopefully pass them on to the waiting ambulance crew.
    Now, I get that that all costs money, but you either pay the local authority or you pay Serco/Capita/G4S, but you've still got to pay it.

    You can pay Serco knowing that their primary aim is to deliver shareholder return.

    By risking your own life to save other people's, by preventing factories, offices ands shops burning down, and so on, you played a massively important role in keeping the economy functioning. Thank-you.

    maybe Serco should take over HMRC = at least they may answer the phone (after telling taxpayers not to contact them by email)
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,627

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.

    Doctors, who all pay tax, of course, get other taxpayers back to work.

    How many of those on waiting lists are working taxpayers?
    Maybe if their health problem was dealt with, they could return to work.
    Perhaps we can compromise and remove pensioners from all NHS waiting lists as "useless eaters".
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,814

    Kemi Badenoch tried to recruit Sue Gray as her top aide but the move was blocked by Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, a new book claims.

    The shadow housing secretary, a Conservative leadership contender, reportedly wanted to hire Ms Gray, a senior civil servant, as permanent secretary to the Department of Trade in October 2022.

    But it is alleged that Mr Case did not allow her to be interviewed for the role, a move speculated to be a result of “bad blood” in the aftermath of Ms Gray’s partygate report, which contributed to Boris Johnson’s resignation as prime minister.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/29/kemi-badenoch-tried-to-recruit-sue-gray-as-top-aide/

    Has Sue Gray's revenge been served cold yet, or is it still chilling nicely?
    At the hors d'oeuvre stage, I think.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,027
    Foxy said:

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.

    Doctors, who all pay tax, of course, get other taxpayers back to work.

    How many of those on waiting lists are working taxpayers?
    Maybe if their health problem was dealt with, they could return to work.
    Perhaps we can compromise and remove pensioners from all NHS waiting lists as "useless eaters".
    Thing is most pensioners as they age eat much less
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,814
    Foxy said:

    Taz said:

    HYUFD said:

    At least Labour are giving working people a payrise and cutting funding to rich OAPs. Fair play.

    Working public sector people get a pay rise, not working private sector people.

    Just Labour rewarding its client base of public sector workers by hitting the Tories' client base of wealthy pensioners
    They’re taking from the productive sector and rewarding the unproductive sector.
    Unproductive in what way? Granted, they're not making billions for their shareholders, but what profit do you expect public services to turn in? Maybe we should charge for putting out fires? Trip over the curb, end up in A&E, the doctor has to get your credit card out of your wallet while you're unconscious? Call the rozzers out because you've just been mugged, but you can't pay because your wallet has been nicked?
    Is that the sort of productive you're interested in?
    Like it or not a doctor working in A&E is a drain on Taxpayers. They can only be funded if enough taxpayers earn enough in the private sector to top up the treasury.

    Keep increasing public sector pay and taxing tbe private sector to pay for it and the private sector lose interest in working harder and tax take goes down, so no money to pay the doctor in A&E.

    Doctors, who all pay tax, of course, get other taxpayers back to work.

    How many of those on waiting lists are working taxpayers?
    Maybe if their health problem was dealt with, they could return to work.
    Perhaps we can compromise and remove pensioners from all NHS waiting lists as "useless eaters".
    And those Tories for whom it's against their principles to be served by a public employee, like Jehovah's Witnesses and blood transfusions (and added screening for PB posters on this matter).
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061
    Andy_JS said:

    "Joe Biden wants 18-year limit for Supreme Court judges

    Proposal is part of the president’s plan to overhaul the court after a series of controversial rulings and claims of impropriety by judges" (£)

    https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/biden-wants-18-year-limit-for-supreme-court-judges-0pbts6ff3

    Long time Court watcher Steve Vladeck is not a fan.

    President Biden's belated push for unattainable (and ineffective) reforms only drives home the opportunities he's missed to change the national conversation about the Supreme Court
    https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-90-president-bidens-scotus
This discussion has been closed.