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Understanding the rise of Kamala Harris – politicalbetting.com

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  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 56,928
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    1 sec video = 1MB? So nearly 300hrs of birthday parties?
    You are assuming she only uses one camera.
  • FishingFishing Posts: 4,947
    edited August 2
    Sandpit said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outragen though

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.


    Believe it when I see it. That would be very "brave".
    To be fair it would also be more just, however you would need transitional relief for several years to avoid bankrupting a lot of people in ordinary houses in London that have increased in value extraordinarily.

    The biggest flaw though seems to be that it would be national, so councils would get what they are given from a government pot with few fund raising powers of their own.
    I was somewhat alone on here the other day, when suggesting that any reform of property taxes needs to be kept local, with councils deciding how much they need to raise and setting rates appropriately.

    Anything based on a national scale of property prices is going to be completely unworkable, and make it pretty much impossible for millions of key workers to live anywhere near London and the home counties.
    The proposed reform would be yet another tax on aspiration and the south east, which already pay far too much to the lazy and entitled welfare-dependent ghettos of the north. It isn't even politically wise. Local taxes are a third rail - any reform will screw over tens of millions of people for no net gain, so much better to leave it alone. The present system just about works, so reform isn't obviously necessary.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,703
    edited August 2
    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    I'd see this as unwinding some of that distortion over time. 0.5% of an average house in London is £3k, which is not exactly excessive. A band D house in Ashfield is currently around £2k.

    If it is too high then perhaps that £630k house in London could over 10 years become a £500k or £550k house (at today's prices), which is a useful part unwind of a distorted market.

    If they also do the "abolish Stamp Duty" as proposed in the Proportional Property Tax proposals, then it is a net positive for a large majority of people, everywhere - according to the modelling for the PPT.

    Interestingly when I've debated this over on Buildhub, self-builders in Scotland - who tend to have higher value house, push back because they see the existing system as tilted against them in Scotland compared to England. The Stamp Duty taper is somewhat more aggressive with property value comapred to England or Wales.
    https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/stamp-duty/

    It's certainly a game of chess for Rachel Reeves.

  • DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    Sure it can work.

    Central government collects the money, then central government distributes the money based on what it has obliged councils to do such as care/SEN etc
    But to take what I thought was your point, why on earth should a care worker in London pay 6x what the care worker in Newcastle pays? Where's the justice in that?
    Because that's the property price.

    Why should a care worker pay 6x the rent that a care worker in Newcastle pays? Where's the justice in that?

    Currently only those renting/purchasing get hurt when property prices shoot up. Currently those care workers etc are already getting hurt by the obscene property prices.

    Those who have already purchased and paid off their home, the Fred and Mabel's referenced before, have a perverse incentive currently to see property prices go up. They don't get hurt by property prices going up, in fact it inflates their unearned asset values going up, so they have an incentive to object to construction and hurt the care workers who want somewhere to live.

    A property tax on value equalises the incentive more. It means that if Fred and Mabel see their property value go up, they see their taxes go up proportionately. So reducing the incentive to artificially constrain supply in order to make that happen.

    And if house prices go down, then rather than screaming blue murder about negative equity, that means that taxes go down. Win/win.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,123
    edited August 2
    Pulpstar said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    0.5% would be about a £900 reduction for me.
    I reckon I'd save a few hundred a year. My sister round the corner would be paying a few hundred a year more.

    (EDIT: I overestimated what hers is worth!).
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,894
    MattW said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    I'd see this as unwinding some of that distortion over time. 0.5% of an average house in London is £3k, which is not exactly excessive. A band D house in Ashfield is currently around £2k.

    If it is too high then perhaps that £630k house in London could over 10 years become a £500k or £550k house (at today's prices), which is a useful part unwind of a distorted market.

    If they also do the "abolish Stamp Duty" as proposed in the Proportional Property Tax proposals, then it is a net positive for a large majority of people, everywhere - according to the modelling for the PPT.

    It's certainly a game of chess, though.

    If you look at US house values, they are - so far as I can tell - much lower than ours for the relatively higher wages particularly compared to our property hotspots. Part of the reason is they tax property over there way more than we do here, so I think it would definitely have an effect on cooling that there London housing market.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,460
    edited August 2
    Frank Skinner: Labour’s rhetoric on inheritance tax ‘made me feel guilty’

    “When I hear Labour talking about people who earn this [much] ... I think, but I had nothing, I worked really hard,” he told the BBC’s The Today Podcast.

    “I thought you’d like me. I thought I’d be a poster boy … [showing] working class people can actually get on and compete and can do well, but now you’re lumping me with all those people who inherited a load of money.”

    Skinner added: “I just think when it’s things like inheritance tax and stuff like that, you should be in a special section if you crawled up from nothing. I shouldn’t be in the same section as the Rees-Mogg children.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/01/frank-skinner-labour-inheritance-tax-threats-rachel-reeves/

    Its always fine if its somebody else paying....Also didn't Rees Mogg make most of his own money before politics, his Dad was editor of the Times, so not that different from Frank current position in the media.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,359
    edited August 2
    Is this 0.5% based on gross value - or would it be net after the mortgage on the property is taken off?
  • Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Foxy said:

    Great picture of the contrasting styles at the Olympics. The Turkish guy won silver oozing cool.



    He only took up shooting recently, and because he was in the middle of a nasty divorce. His wife told him he'd never amount to anything.

    I'm not joking.
    He has the look of one of those bank managers who, in 1941, managed to reinvent himself as a competent and successful commando.
    hmm


  • Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outragen though

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.


    Believe it when I see it. That would be very "brave".
    To be fair it would also be more just, however you would need transitional relief for several years to avoid bankrupting a lot of people in ordinary houses in London that have increased in value extraordinarily.

    The biggest flaw though seems to be that it would be national, so councils would get what they are given from a government pot with few fund raising powers of their own.
    Given almost all Council expenditure goes on centrally-dictated obligations, such as care or SEN etc, I have no objections to that.

    Local fundraising should fund local choices, of which there seem to be very few nowadays anyway, so what difference does it make?
    It isn't really the case that "almost all" Council spending is on centrally dictated obligations.

    Firstly, there is a load of purely discretionary spending such as regeneration and public realm improvements beyond basic safety.

    Secondly, the fact a service needs to be provided does not mean there is no discretion on spending. For example, councils can't choose not to provide waste collection for residents but some do it weekly and others fortnightly. Councils are also obliged to provide a, "comprehensive and efficient library service" - but that covers a vast range of actual provision and cost. That's true across a huge range of services.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    1 sec video = 1MB? So nearly 300hrs of birthday parties?
    You are assuming she only uses one camera.
    Also, why hasn't @TheScreamingEagles upgraded his mother to a 32K camera?
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,753

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    1 sec video = 1MB? So nearly 300hrs of birthday parties?
    One minute of 4K at 60 fps is 400 MB. So you’re looking at 24 GB for one hour of recording.
    Just please tell me that you set some time aside each week/month/year to watch the damn things.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    edited August 2

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    You know that two grand buys you a 56TB personal network attached storage? You can even guard against a disk failure by setting up as a RAID-1 (ask your IT guys at work) for 28TB.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-56TB-Cloud-PR4100-4-bay/dp/B0843912W5/

    It even works as a personal cloud, so you can get to your documents from anywhere, and unlike a laptop it’s not ever going to be pulled by its cable off the table by a stray kid or pet.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,894

    Is this 0.5% based on gross value - or would it be net after the mortgage on the property taken off?

    It'd surely have to be gross or there'd be (More in the BTL market...) perverse incentives to basically remortgage up to your eyeballs every cycle. The state wouldn't have the bandwidth to keep up with it all if mortgages were factored and the tax take would be extremely reduced.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,359
    edited August 2
    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...
  • Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    I cannot think for the life of me why either Biden or Trump want to waste the last years of their life in a high profile, high pressure, political job.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,069

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outragen though

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.


    Believe it when I see it. That would be very "brave".
    To be fair it would also be more just, however you would need transitional relief for several years to avoid bankrupting a lot of people in ordinary houses in London that have increased in value extraordinarily.

    The biggest flaw though seems to be that it would be national, so councils would get what they are given from a government pot with few fund raising powers of their own.
    Given almost all Council expenditure goes on centrally-dictated obligations, such as care or SEN etc, I have no objections to that.

    Local fundraising should fund local choices, of which there seem to be very few nowadays anyway, so what difference does it make?
    It isn't really the case that "almost all" Council spending is on centrally dictated obligations.

    Firstly, there is a load of purely discretionary spending such as regeneration and public realm improvements beyond basic safety.

    Secondly, the fact a service needs to be provided does not mean there is no discretion on spending. For example, councils can't choose not to provide waste collection for residents but some do it weekly and others fortnightly. Councils are also obliged to provide a, "comprehensive and efficient library service" - but that covers a vast range of actual provision and cost. That's true across a huge range of services.
    That used to be the case. But top tier councils are now spending 70 percent or so of their budget on social care, which is purely demand-led and where they have pretty minimal ability to haggle on price. It's why you are now getting well-run councils blowing up, not just ones that did something stupid.

    (Yet another UXB the outgoing government left that is ticking very loudly.)

    Everything else is being squeezed to "the minimum we can get away with."
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,460
    edited August 2

    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    The problem is with these things, who have the US given up. When they got the basketball player out (and in her case, she was at fault for the situation she got herself in), they gave up the Merchant of Death, a man responsible for arming terrorists with serious weaponery. On the face of it, an absolutely terrible one sided deal.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,691

    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    I cannot think for the life of me why either Biden or Trump want to waste the last years of their life in a high profile, high pressure, political job.
    I imagine because there's a risk that the alternative is a high profile, high pressure, and high security job in a Laundry.
  • Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    I cannot think for the life of me why either Biden or Trump want to waste the last years of their life in a high profile, high pressure, political job.
    Trump: Because he's a preening narcissist who adores the attention and would hate to be what he really is, which is a has-been loser.

    Biden: Because he's spent his entire life doing that and he has a sense of duty and thinks he can do the job well.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,302
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    1 sec video = 1MB? So nearly 300hrs of birthday parties?
    One minute of 4K at 60 fps is 400 MB. So you’re looking at 24 GB for one hour of recording.
    Just please tell me that you set some time aside each week/month/year to watch the damn things.
    She does. At least daily on her part.
  • FossFoss Posts: 992

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,302
    Sandpit said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    You know that two grand buys you a 56TB personal network attached storage? You can even guard against a disk failure by setting up as a RAID-1 (ask your IT guys at work) for 28TB.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-56TB-Cloud-PR4100-4-bay/dp/B0843912W5/

    It even works as a personal cloud, so you can get to your documents from anywhere, and unlike a laptop it’s not ever going to be pulled by its cable off the table by a stray kid or pet.
    Apple have never let me down, I feel reassured with the Apple.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586
    edited August 2

    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Foxy said:

    Great picture of the contrasting styles at the Olympics. The Turkish guy won silver oozing cool.



    He only took up shooting recently, and because he was in the middle of a nasty divorce. His wife told him he'd never amount to anything.

    I'm not joking.
    He has the look of one of those bank managers who, in 1941, managed to reinvent himself as a competent and successful commando.
    hmm


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Henry_Cain was a very ordinary middle manager at Shell.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,703
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    Sure it can work.

    Central government collects the money, then central government distributes the money based on what it has obliged councils to do such as care/SEN etc
    But to take what I thought was your point, why on earth should a care worker in London pay 6x what the care worker in Newcastle pays? Where's the justice in that?
    I think that's perhaps rather exaggerated.

    At present that is the other way round - the same worker in London is more likely to be paying a little more than half what the worker in Newcastle pays on Council Tax for an 'average' house.

    Currently a Band D in Wandsworth pays around 60% of the amount paid by a Band D in Newcastle - £1300 vs £2300.

    Where's the justice in *that*?

    I don't think we can remove distortions, but there's 30 years of differential property price fluctuations to leapfrog.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,460

    Sandpit said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    You know that two grand buys you a 56TB personal network attached storage? You can even guard against a disk failure by setting up as a RAID-1 (ask your IT guys at work) for 28TB.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-56TB-Cloud-PR4100-4-bay/dp/B0843912W5/

    It even works as a personal cloud, so you can get to your documents from anywhere, and unlike a laptop it’s not ever going to be pulled by its cable off the table by a stray kid or pet.
    Apple have never let me down, I feel reassured with the Apple.
    Aren't all the hard drives in Apple just Samsung chips?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586
    a
    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
    But this has been sustained over years - they have walked away from discrete GPU and high efficiency CPU architecture (ARM).

    To change direction would take more years and billions.
  • a

    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
    But this has been sustained over years - they have walked away from discrete GPU and high efficiency CPU architecture (ARM).

    To change direction would take more years and billions.
    Billions they have.

    Its the years that may be more of a problem.
  • Pulpstar said:

    Is this 0.5% based on gross value - or would it be net after the mortgage on the property taken off?

    It'd surely have to be gross or there'd be (More in the BTL market...) perverse incentives to basically remortgage up to your eyeballs every cycle. The state wouldn't have the bandwidth to keep up with it all if mortgages were factored and the tax take would be extremely reduced.
    Another option would be for a fixed 0.3% levy set by the government with councils able to increase it by up to 1% locally.

    So London councils would probably only an another 0.05% while Hartlepool would maybe add 0.7%

    That would avoid central government having to administer a cectral pot.

    I think you would also need to include a curtilage element, based on square meters, as well as a property value element, to make it fair so that flats don't get charged the same as houses with large gardens.

    You could also charge a slightly higher rate for houses rather than flats and a slightly higher rate again for detached houses.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    MattW said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    Sure it can work.

    Central government collects the money, then central government distributes the money based on what it has obliged councils to do such as care/SEN etc
    But to take what I thought was your point, why on earth should a care worker in London pay 6x what the care worker in Newcastle pays? Where's the justice in that?
    I think that's perhaps rather exaggerated.

    At present that is the other way round - the same worker in London is more likely to be paying a little more than half what the worker in Newcastle pays on Council Tax for an 'average' house.

    Currently a Band D in Wandsworth pays around 60% of the amount paid by a Band D in Newcastle - £1300 vs £2300.

    Where's the justice in *that*?

    I don't think we can remove distortions, but there's 30 years of differential property price fluctuations to leapfrog.
    Because the “Band D” in Wandsworth is a two-bed flat, and the “Band D” in Newcastle is a four-bed house with a nice garden.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,894
    I still think it's a shame* that Biden didn't go for a second term. Of course the breakneck news cycle and his obvious frailties in the end prevented it but I'm not sure either Harris or Trump would have negotiated this hostage release.
    Biden's been round the block a hundred times when it comes to the big things US Gov't needs to do, he's as wise an old owl as Netanyahu (Of course a far far better person) - hopefully he will provide sage wisdom to the Harris administration even if he's not in the big chair.


    * Probably talking my book
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,585

    a

    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
    But this has been sustained over years - they have walked away from discrete GPU and high efficiency CPU architecture (ARM).

    To change direction would take more years and billions.
    Going back to the original premise - which was the first thing I saw in the news today - that we were going to see a massive sell off today: the FTSE is now down, er. 0.27%. Had I not seen the news I wouldn't have noticed anything at all amiss.
  • Pulpstar said:

    Is this 0.5% based on gross value - or would it be net after the mortgage on the property taken off?

    It'd surely have to be gross or there'd be (More in the BTL market...) perverse incentives to basically remortgage up to your eyeballs every cycle. The state wouldn't have the bandwidth to keep up with it all if mortgages were factored and the tax take would be extremely reduced.
    Another option would be for a fixed 0.3% levy set by the government with councils able to increase it by up to 1% locally.

    So London councils would probably only an another 0.05% while Hartlepool would maybe add 0.7%

    That would avoid central government having to administer a cectral pot.

    I think you would also need to include a curtilage element, based on square meters, as well as a property value element, to make it fair so that flats don't get charged the same as houses with large gardens.

    You could also charge a slightly higher rate for houses rather than flats and a slightly higher rate again for detached houses.
    Just charge it based on unbuilt land.

    If you want that land to be an empty land bank, you pay one rate.

    If you want that land to be a detached home, you pay the same rate.

    If you want that land to be two semi-detached homes, each pays half the rate.

    If you want that land to be ten apartments, each pays 1/10th the rate.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,513
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    But in a world where the demand for advanced fabs exceeds supply, are they perhaps a medium term recovery play ?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,703
    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    If you were to reform council tax, the logical thing to do would be to abandon rateable value and have a flat rate of so much per square metre, set by the council.

    That would be simple, quick, fairly cheap to administer and although there would inevitably be grumbling it's difficult to imagine many people would get seriously worked up over it.

    Trying to do it on market value when there are so many variables and indeed variations is a bad idea.

    No it wouldn't - the EPC figures for size are hopelessly inaccurate.

    As I've pointed out before the only figure that is easily accessible is price sold - so we should be using that.
    The Land Registry at least should have the correct figures for size.
    They won't have it - it's not on the deeds, and they don't hold that sort of information.

    There is no requirement to inform them of a building project under full Planning Permission, never mind the "pre approved planning permission" of Permitted Development.

    The only place a recorded figure exists is on the EPC record, and those are done for pin money.

    If it's an extra £100 or £300 a year every barrack-room lawyer in the country will have a fit.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,894

    Pulpstar said:

    Is this 0.5% based on gross value - or would it be net after the mortgage on the property taken off?

    It'd surely have to be gross or there'd be (More in the BTL market...) perverse incentives to basically remortgage up to your eyeballs every cycle. The state wouldn't have the bandwidth to keep up with it all if mortgages were factored and the tax take would be extremely reduced.
    Another option would be for a fixed 0.3% levy set by the government with councils able to increase it by up to 1% locally.

    So London councils would probably only an another 0.05% while Hartlepool would maybe add 0.7%

    That would avoid central government having to administer a cectral pot.

    I think you would also need to include a curtilage element, based on square meters, as well as a property value element, to make it fair so that flats don't get charged the same as houses with large gardens.

    You could also charge a slightly higher rate for houses rather than flats and a slightly higher rate again for detached houses.
    You're falling into HYUFD's university trap.

    Every council would raise it to 1% I think. Certainly every council outside London.

    1.3% tax/yr would be a very very different proposition for most of the country compared to 0.5%.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,874
    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    Cue Prof. Peston wibbling on about how Council Tax bands are 5 times higher in the North of England than they are in London.
  • BromptonBrompton Posts: 20
    Nigelb said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    But in a world where the demand for advanced fabs exceeds supply, are they perhaps a medium term recovery play ?
    It might turn out to be demand for tulip bulbs, if chips are wanted for AI and AI becomes a busted flush.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,851
    edited August 2
    Fishing said:

    Sandpit said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outragen though

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.


    Believe it when I see it. That would be very "brave".
    To be fair it would also be more just, however you would need transitional relief for several years to avoid bankrupting a lot of people in ordinary houses in London that have increased in value extraordinarily.

    The biggest flaw though seems to be that it would be national, so councils would get what they are given from a government pot with few fund raising powers of their own.
    I was somewhat alone on here the other day, when suggesting that any reform of property taxes needs to be kept local, with councils deciding how much they need to raise and setting rates appropriately.

    Anything based on a national scale of property prices is going to be completely unworkable, and make it pretty much impossible for millions of key workers to live anywhere near London and the home counties.
    The proposed reform would be yet another tax on aspiration and the south east, which already pay far too much to the lazy and entitled welfare-dependent ghettos of the north. It isn't even politically wise. Local taxes are a third rail - any reform will screw over tens of millions of people for no net gain, so much better to leave it alone. The present system just about works, so reform isn't obviously necessary.
    Wow! At least my Hartlepool stuff is tongue-in-cheek
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,302
    Sandpit said:

    MattW said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    Sure it can work.

    Central government collects the money, then central government distributes the money based on what it has obliged councils to do such as care/SEN etc
    But to take what I thought was your point, why on earth should a care worker in London pay 6x what the care worker in Newcastle pays? Where's the justice in that?
    I think that's perhaps rather exaggerated.

    At present that is the other way round - the same worker in London is more likely to be paying a little more than half what the worker in Newcastle pays on Council Tax for an 'average' house.

    Currently a Band D in Wandsworth pays around 60% of the amount paid by a Band D in Newcastle - £1300 vs £2300.

    Where's the justice in *that*?

    I don't think we can remove distortions, but there's 30 years of differential property price fluctuations to leapfrog.
    Because the “Band D” in Wandsworth is a two-bed flat, and the “Band D” in Newcastle is a four-bed house with a nice garden.
    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.
  • Sandpit said:

    MattW said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    Sure it can work.

    Central government collects the money, then central government distributes the money based on what it has obliged councils to do such as care/SEN etc
    But to take what I thought was your point, why on earth should a care worker in London pay 6x what the care worker in Newcastle pays? Where's the justice in that?
    I think that's perhaps rather exaggerated.

    At present that is the other way round - the same worker in London is more likely to be paying a little more than half what the worker in Newcastle pays on Council Tax for an 'average' house.

    Currently a Band D in Wandsworth pays around 60% of the amount paid by a Band D in Newcastle - £1300 vs £2300.

    Where's the justice in *that*?

    I don't think we can remove distortions, but there's 30 years of differential property price fluctuations to leapfrog.
    Because the “Band D” in Wandsworth is a two-bed flat, and the “Band D” in Newcastle is a four-bed house with a nice garden.
    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.
    Not even nice when a certain PBer won election to Parliament in Newcastle previously?

    [Different Newcastle I know!]
  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 4,465
    eek said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    A fantastically good idea to have property tax be a percentage of value and not arbitrary bands which are decades out of date and vary inconsistently across the country.

    As is done in many countries including America.

    But 0.5% is a big tax increase. I believe 0.3% would suffice to replace Council Tax.

    It should replace Stamp Duty too. Abolish SDLT and Council Tax and put both taxes into an annual tax.

    It should also ideally be on land value and not property value - those who are sitting on land that could be built on but has not been should pay the same tax as those whose land has been built on. It would also mean taxes for eg apartments are miniscule, which is not a self-interested objective I hate apartments and live in a house, but those in apartments are taking a miniscule proportion of land so fair's fair.
    That's a very complex task - while uprated sold house price is the easiest thing in the world to administer - because disputes are virtually impossible - the house is taxed at the value of £x because that's what you bought it for.
    I am generally a fan of Land Value Taxation, but still have a few questions.
    For example, if you have a shop on the ground floor, with a flat on the first floor, should the shop and the flat pay equal tax?
  • RattersRatters Posts: 1,058
    The real win of this housing tax proposal (% market value) is if it is used to replace Stamp Duty as well as Council Tax.

    Stamp Duty is a horrible tax that discourages labour force mobility and efficient use of housing stock (e.g. downsizing).
  • MisterBedfordshireMisterBedfordshire Posts: 2,252
    edited August 2
    Cookie said:

    a

    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
    But this has been sustained over years - they have walked away from discrete GPU and high efficiency CPU architecture (ARM).

    To change direction would take more years and billions.
    Going back to the original premise - which was the first thing I saw in the news today - that we were going to see a massive sell off today: the FTSE is now down, er. 0.27%. Had I not seen the news I wouldn't have noticed anything at all amiss.
    The FTSE has been stagnant for the thick end of 30 years. It was a sliver under 7,000 in year 2000 at the height of the tech boom, and is now 8,200.

    In contrast Nasdaq reached about 4,500 at the height of the tech boom and breached 20,000 in the last month.

    Also with the BoE cutting interest rates and the US not, the pound is lower and, as most FTSE companies have their activities abroad, their value in £ increases.

    In contrast the FTSE 250 which is much more domestically focused and widely focufsed, is down over 1%. FTSE 250 gains since 2000 are more comparable with NASDAQ.

    Ndsdaq futures prices are bigly down (given that, in my observation, the out of hours futures generally dont move that much compared with the real thing.

    https://www.google.com/finance/quote/NQW00:CME_EMINIS?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPqt6x99WHAxWOWkEAHUhUPSkQ3ecFegQIIRAb
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,895

    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.

    Gosforth, Jesmond, very nice
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    Interestingly, when Intel took over part of DEC in 1997 (as part of a lawsuit settlement...) they inherited what was, at the time, by far the fastest ARM chip - the StrongARM. Whilst not competitive with the best x86 chips in the market, it apparently had a clear future development roadmap and, especially with the use of Intel's improving fab processes. They started down this road with the new XScale chip, but rapidly lost interest.

    They could have developed it beyond XScale, and gained a foothold in the burgeoning high-performance, low-power market. Instead, they dropped it. From what i heard at the time, it was very much not-invented-here syndrome.

    Incidentally, when it was released in 1987, the original ARM 2 chip (*) was one of the fastest chips on the market. When I was working at Acorn a few years later, ARM chips were becoming important in the market, but at the low-power, low-performance end, and they were uncompetitive in the desktop market. We plebian engineers were told that there were architectural reasons why ARM chips would never be as powerful as Intel's. Now we have Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm disproving this.

    (*) I have held an ARM1 chip in my hands! There are not many of them about.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,424

    Sandpit said:

    MattW said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    Sure it can work.

    Central government collects the money, then central government distributes the money based on what it has obliged councils to do such as care/SEN etc
    But to take what I thought was your point, why on earth should a care worker in London pay 6x what the care worker in Newcastle pays? Where's the justice in that?
    I think that's perhaps rather exaggerated.

    At present that is the other way round - the same worker in London is more likely to be paying a little more than half what the worker in Newcastle pays on Council Tax for an 'average' house.

    Currently a Band D in Wandsworth pays around 60% of the amount paid by a Band D in Newcastle - £1300 vs £2300.

    Where's the justice in *that*?

    I don't think we can remove distortions, but there's 30 years of differential property price fluctuations to leapfrog.
    Because the “Band D” in Wandsworth is a two-bed flat, and the “Band D” in Newcastle is a four-bed house with a nice garden.
    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.
    Hey, Newcastle has the makings of one of England's finest cities. It should be a levelling up showpiece.
  • Re Harris, one thing is that the recent news on her potential VP picks smack potentially more of caution.

    First, Roy Cooper of NC has pulled out of contention for being a VP pick. That could be for personal reasons but it could also be because NC is no longer seen as a viable pick-up opportunity.

    Second, the WSJ had an article highlighting how Tim Walz of Minnesota is increasingly in the frame for the role. True, that probably helps Wisconsin and maybe Michigan but it may also suggest nervousness over Minnesota.
  • Cookie said:

    a

    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
    But this has been sustained over years - they have walked away from discrete GPU and high efficiency CPU architecture (ARM).

    To change direction would take more years and billions.
    Going back to the original premise - which was the first thing I saw in the news today - that we were going to see a massive sell off today: the FTSE is now down, er. 0.27%. Had I not seen the news I wouldn't have noticed anything at all amiss.
    The FTSE has been stagnant for the thick end of 30 years. It was a sliver under 7,000 in year 2000 at the height of the tech boom, and is now 8,200.

    In contrast Nasdaq reached about 4,500 at the height of the tech boom and breached 20,000 in the last month.

    Also with the BoE cutting interest rates and the US not, the pound is lower and, as most FTSE companies have their activities abroad, their value in £ increases.

    In contrast the FTSE 250 which is much more domestically focused and widely focufsed, is down over 1%. FTSE 250 gains since 2000 are more comparable with NASDAQ.
    Somewhat misleading, as FTSE dividends aren't taken into account there.

    An investment in FTSE 100 in 2000, with dividends reinvested, would now be worth well over double what the original investment was.

    Which doesn't match NASDAQ remotely, and barely keeps up with CPI inflation (and doesn't keep up with property inflation) but isn't quite as stagnant as it appears.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    edited August 2

    Sandpit said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    You know that two grand buys you a 56TB personal network attached storage? You can even guard against a disk failure by setting up as a RAID-1 (ask your IT guys at work) for 28TB.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-56TB-Cloud-PR4100-4-bay/dp/B0843912W5/

    It even works as a personal cloud, so you can get to your documents from anywhere, and unlike a laptop it’s not ever going to be pulled by its cable off the table by a stray kid or pet.
    Apple have never let me down, I feel reassured with the Apple.
    I have the 24TB version of that NAS myself, for backing up all my data. It’s pretty good, even works with Time Machine as I’m a Mac guy too. Automatically backs up the whole laptop every hour, and can also do the same with Windows boxes.

    Using a laptop for storage is a really bad idea. Network storage is how the professionals do it.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,460
    National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Alexei Navalny, the longtime Russian opposition leader and critic of Vladimir Putin, was initially included in negotiations for today's prisoner exchange.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,895
    @paulhutcheon

    Meghan Gallacher confirms bid for Scottish Tory leadership as MSPs look to unite behind a "stop Russell Findlay" candidate.

    https://x.com/paulhutcheon/status/1819293883013947711
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,302
    Scott_xP said:

    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.

    Gosforth, Jesmond, very nice
    That’s different, a bit like Hexham or Alnwick.
  • eristdooferistdoof Posts: 5,060
    Pulpstar said:

    I still think it's a shame* that Biden didn't go for a second term. Of course the breakneck news cycle and his obvious frailties in the end prevented it but I'm not sure either Harris or Trump would have negotiated this hostage release.
    Biden's been round the block a hundred times when it comes to the big things US Gov't needs to do, he's as wise an old owl as Netanyahu (Of course a far far better person) - hopefully he will provide sage wisdom to the Harris administration even if he's not in the big chair.


    * Probably talking my book

    This is true for June-August 2024 but the presidential election is for 2025-2029.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,894

    National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Alexei Navalny, the longtime Russian opposition leader and critic of Vladimir Putin, was initially included in negotiations for today's prisoner exchange.

    Which hitmen has Putin got back in return ?
  • stodgestodge Posts: 13,800
    Morning all :)

    On the issue of funding local Government, I'd offer two basic thoughts:

    First, stop looking for a "fair" method of funding because there isn't one. Whatever system you come up will have anomalies, "winners" and "losers" and the latter will shout, whinge and moan just as much as those who are "enjoying" the first month of Labour Government.

    Second, accept the country isn't homogenous. If all areas were the same economically and socially it would be easy but they aren't. Newham isn't Cornwall - Surrey isn't Liverpool. Some areas need more help than others so the truth is the richer areas will support the poorer. If you want to brand it redistributive and evil, be my guest but it's always been the case the funds raised in the wealthier areas are moved to the poorer.

    I would like the redistribution process taken out of the hands of politicians and given to a non-partisan body who would dispassionately look at the needs of each area but I can't imagine politicians voluntarily relinquishing power - they tend not to.

    Your choices then become tax the people or the property. The "community charge" went for the former and wasn't entirely without merit but the taxing of property (including land) is probably the better approach as property (and especially land) isn't easy to hide. If we're going to tax land and property what are the options? Land Value Taxation is probably the most obvious and could be used as a mechanism to free/release unused land for other uses. If you tax property whether you call it rates or council tax you can tax simply on value.

    Applying a standard x% of value would require a comprehensive revaluation and the problem is no two houses in a street are the same. Capital improvements to property (loft extensions for example) would trigger a revaluation (as they do currently or should). We also need to recognise the greater disparity in values from £10k to £10 million for example and the regional divergences (how that would be applied I don't know).

    We know what £500k gets you in London and what it gets you in rural North Yorkshire or whatever so that needs somehow to be factored in to the equation as a kind of regional cost coefficient or weighting. Then you get into arguments about the cost of living vs the quality of life vs the availability of services. Is living in a big house in the country a good thing if there's one bus a week or would you rather have the amenity of a city and live in a much smaller property in a more crowded area?
  • Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    You know that two grand buys you a 56TB personal network attached storage? You can even guard against a disk failure by setting up as a RAID-1 (ask your IT guys at work) for 28TB.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-56TB-Cloud-PR4100-4-bay/dp/B0843912W5/

    It even works as a personal cloud, so you can get to your documents from anywhere, and unlike a laptop it’s not ever going to be pulled by its cable off the table by a stray kid or pet.
    Apple have never let me down, I feel reassured with the Apple.
    I have the 24TB version of that NAS myself, for backing up all my data. It’s pretty good, even works with Time Machine as I’m a Mac guy too. Automatically backs up the whole laptop every hour, and can also do the same with Windows boxes.

    Using a laptop for storage is a really bad idea. Network storage is how the professionals do it.
    Using any individual point of failure is a really bad idea.

    If you want a security, you need something like that RAID configuration.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,302

    Sandpit said:

    MattW said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    Sure it can work.

    Central government collects the money, then central government distributes the money based on what it has obliged councils to do such as care/SEN etc
    But to take what I thought was your point, why on earth should a care worker in London pay 6x what the care worker in Newcastle pays? Where's the justice in that?
    I think that's perhaps rather exaggerated.

    At present that is the other way round - the same worker in London is more likely to be paying a little more than half what the worker in Newcastle pays on Council Tax for an 'average' house.

    Currently a Band D in Wandsworth pays around 60% of the amount paid by a Band D in Newcastle - £1300 vs £2300.

    Where's the justice in *that*?

    I don't think we can remove distortions, but there's 30 years of differential property price fluctuations to leapfrog.
    Because the “Band D” in Wandsworth is a two-bed flat, and the “Band D” in Newcastle is a four-bed house with a nice garden.
    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.
    Not even nice when a certain PBer won election to Parliament in Newcastle previously?

    [Different Newcastle I know!]
    That place is a dump too.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,359
    Eabhal said:

    Sandpit said:

    MattW said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Eabhal said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    That would be a cut for me (though not applicable in Scotland unless there is some quirk of reserved powers).

    This was always how a land/wealth/housing tax would be introduced - via council tax. Wonder how you'd redistribute all the Kensington revenues?
    I think it would be a cut for me too which perhaps reflects the much lower property values in Scotland outside some property hot spots.

    But your last point shows the flaw in this. The distortions in values means that southern England would be paying multiples of more tax than the north or Scotland. Where is the equity in that?
    Surely your property tax would be a matter for the Scottish Government?
    Yes, but we are discussing a percentage of value as opposed to the current council tax bands. And if I lived in the north of England the problem would be the same. A national percentage cannot work in a country whose property market has become so distorted unless the percentage is fixed locally in the same way as Council tax is.

    In London the average house now costs in excess of £630k. You probably wouldn't need more than 0.1% with such values.
    Sure it can work.

    Central government collects the money, then central government distributes the money based on what it has obliged councils to do such as care/SEN etc
    But to take what I thought was your point, why on earth should a care worker in London pay 6x what the care worker in Newcastle pays? Where's the justice in that?
    I think that's perhaps rather exaggerated.

    At present that is the other way round - the same worker in London is more likely to be paying a little more than half what the worker in Newcastle pays on Council Tax for an 'average' house.

    Currently a Band D in Wandsworth pays around 60% of the amount paid by a Band D in Newcastle - £1300 vs £2300.

    Where's the justice in *that*?

    I don't think we can remove distortions, but there's 30 years of differential property price fluctuations to leapfrog.
    Because the “Band D” in Wandsworth is a two-bed flat, and the “Band D” in Newcastle is a four-bed house with a nice garden.
    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.
    Hey, Newcastle has the makings of one of England's finest cities. It should be a levelling up showpiece.
    Does that require levelling the place first?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,848

    Ugh.

    Delhi Capitals owners agree £120m deal to buy majority share in Hampshire

    Exclusive: Hampshire will become first county owned by an overseas franchise should the purchase be ratified by the ECB


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/08/01/delhi-capitals-owners-agree-deal-buy-shares-hampshire-ipl/

    Football clubs, cricket counties, water boards. Broken Britain is for sale.
    Can we sell them the lib dems, labour and tories?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,513

    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    The problem is with these things, who have the US given up. When they got the basketball player out (and in her case, she was at fault for the situation she got herself in), they gave up the Merchant of Death, a man responsible for arming terrorists with serious weaponery. On the face of it, an absolutely terrible one sided deal.
    Not really.

    Russia is hardly short of killers - and we've sent them a load of scumbags, who cost us a fortune to house securely, in exchange for decent folk.

    Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,895

    Scott_xP said:

    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.

    Gosforth, Jesmond, very nice
    That’s different, a bit like Hexham or Alnwick.
    Hexham and Alnwick are not in Newcastle

    Gosforth and Jesmond definitely are
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,359

    National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Alexei Navalny, the longtime Russian opposition leader and critic of Vladimir Putin, was initially included in negotiations for today's prisoner exchange.

    Killing him was one way of taking his name off the table.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,894
    edited August 2

    Scott_xP said:

    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.

    Gosforth, Jesmond, very nice
    That’s different, a bit like Hexham or Alnwick.
    Alnwick is an hour's drive from Newcastle !


  • Nigelb said:

    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    The problem is with these things, who have the US given up. When they got the basketball player out (and in her case, she was at fault for the situation she got herself in), they gave up the Merchant of Death, a man responsible for arming terrorists with serious weaponery. On the face of it, an absolutely terrible one sided deal.
    Not really.

    Russia is hardly short of killers - and we've sent them a load of scumbags, who cost us a fortune to house securely, in exchange for decent folk.

    Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
    For now, yes.

    The problem with hostage swaps like this is it just encourages rogue states to take more hostages in the future.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,794
    ohnotnow said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outrage though.

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August.

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.

    0.5% would be about a £900 reduction for me.
    I'd be down to almost 1/3rd of what I pay now. I'm struggling to be upset.
    Is that 0.5% tax annually or monthly?
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205
    Nigelb said:

    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    The problem is with these things, who have the US given up. When they got the basketball player out (and in her case, she was at fault for the situation she got herself in), they gave up the Merchant of Death, a man responsible for arming terrorists with serious weaponery. On the face of it, an absolutely terrible one sided deal.
    Not really.

    Russia is hardly short of killers - and we've sent them a load of scumbags, who cost us a fortune to house securely, in exchange for decent folk.

    Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
    FU has a point: in some cases, the 'scumbags' have a lot of contacts and information that might be very useful to the Kremlin. Yes, it is good to get the 'decent folk' back, but it's like swapping pawns for knights.
  • Off Topic: Nene Valley Railway.

    Had a most enjoyable trip. We parked up at Wansford which is right on the A1 and got the Nene Valley into Central Peterborough. Literally 5 mins from the City Centre.

    However the whole place had a bit of a rundown, half shut aura to it. (just four return trips on a pacer and last return departure was 3.20).

    It ought to be a really buzzing line with it linking a top Trunk Road to a city centre seven miles away, plenty of free car parking, and with no other lines in the vicinity it ought to attract many volunteers.

    But the place was virtually deserted, rotting rolling stock all over the place and (a few gems not withstanding) a feeling of tumbleweed around the place.

    Feels like a missed opportunity.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,302
    Pulpstar said:

    Scott_xP said:

    First time I have seen nice and Newcastle in the same sentence.

    Gosforth, Jesmond, very nice
    That’s different, a bit like Hexham or Alnwick.
    Alnwick is an hour's drive from Newcastle !
    20 mins on the choo choo.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,171
    "Southport latest: Fears riots could erupt in a dozen cities tonight"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/southport-attack-latest-axel-rudakubana-riots/
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,316
    Andy_JS said:

    "Southport latest: Fears riots could erupt in a dozen cities tonight"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/southport-attack-latest-axel-rudakubana-riots/

    This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,513

    Nigelb said:

    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    The problem is with these things, who have the US given up. When they got the basketball player out (and in her case, she was at fault for the situation she got herself in), they gave up the Merchant of Death, a man responsible for arming terrorists with serious weaponery. On the face of it, an absolutely terrible one sided deal.
    Not really.

    Russia is hardly short of killers - and we've sent them a load of scumbags, who cost us a fortune to house securely, in exchange for decent folk.

    Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
    For now, yes.

    The problem with hostage swaps like this is it just encourages rogue states to take more hostages in the future.
    Russia needs no encouragement.
    While Putin is in charge it needs to be treated like N Korea - don't visit it.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,794

    Nothing I like more than trying to get a code for my phone which doesn't go through, and then being unable to file the problem as my phone number is apparently invalid. Tried just about every permutation of the phone number I can think of (international, so I know it's 44 at the start then axing the first 0).

    ....


    I fucking hate mobile telephones.

    In the telephone exchange software, your number is actually registered and supported with the 44. The 0 thing is a short cut that is mapped as an additional option. At least, that's how we used to do it, some years back.
    Don't you have to have the "+" sign as well? So "+44 20 7219 4272" instead of "020 7219 4272" (don't phone it)
  • TresTres Posts: 2,686
    My friend's grandfather has decided to skip Friday prayers at his mosque today as he doesn't feel safe. Meanwhile Elon Musk is retweeting Tommy Robinson.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,302
    edited August 2
    Tres said:

    My friend's grandfather has decided to skip Friday prayers at his mosque today as he doesn't feel safe. Meanwhile Elon Musk is retweeting Tommy Robinson.

    I’ve told my father not to go today as well but he’s still going.
  • MisterBedfordshireMisterBedfordshire Posts: 2,252
    edited August 2

    Andy_JS said:

    "Southport latest: Fears riots could erupt in a dozen cities tonight"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/southport-attack-latest-axel-rudakubana-riots/

    This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
    Northern Ireland too mentioned for possible riots

    Wonder if militant Loyalist groups there are spreading their tentacles into the mainland?

    Hope not Hate need to keep their traps shut and pass on anything they know about leafletting for demonstrations to the police rather than the press.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,460
    Nigelb said:

    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    The problem is with these things, who have the US given up. When they got the basketball player out (and in her case, she was at fault for the situation she got herself in), they gave up the Merchant of Death, a man responsible for arming terrorists with serious weaponery. On the face of it, an absolutely terrible one sided deal.
    Not really.

    Russia is hardly short of killers - and we've sent them a load of scumbags, who cost us a fortune to house securely, in exchange for decent folk.

    Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
    In the case of the Merchant of Death, he wasn't just a random scumbag killer. He was ultra well connected international arms dealer who has supplied serious weaponry to terrorist groups. He isn't the bloke they send to push people off balconies.
  • FossFoss Posts: 992
    stodge said:


    We know what £500k gets you in London and what it gets you in rural North Yorkshire or whatever so that needs somehow to be factored in to the equation as a kind of regional cost coefficient or weighting.

    Why? The teaching couple with the £500k shoebox in London have as much agency over their location as the teaching couple in a £500k house in North Yorkshire. Indeed, if you’re serious about levelling up and spreading the knowledge economy then explicitly showing professionals that life can be better outside of London is probably a plus.
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,585

    Cookie said:

    a

    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
    But this has been sustained over years - they have walked away from discrete GPU and high efficiency CPU architecture (ARM).

    To change direction would take more years and billions.
    Going back to the original premise - which was the first thing I saw in the news today - that we were going to see a massive sell off today: the FTSE is now down, er. 0.27%. Had I not seen the news I wouldn't have noticed anything at all amiss.
    The FTSE has been stagnant for the thick end of 30 years. It was a sliver under 7,000 in year 2000 at the height of the tech boom, and is now 8,200.

    In contrast Nasdaq reached about 4,500 at the height of the tech boom and breached 20,000 in the last month.

    Also with the BoE cutting interest rates and the US not, the pound is lower and, as most FTSE companies have their activities abroad, their value in £ increases.

    In contrast the FTSE 250 which is much more domestically focused and widely focufsed, is down over 1%. FTSE 250 gains since 2000 are more comparable with NASDAQ.

    Ndsdaq futures prices are bigly down (given that, in my observation, the out of hours futures generally dont move that much compared with the real thing.

    https://www.google.com/finance/quote/NQW00:CME_EMINIS?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPqt6x99WHAxWOWkEAHUhUPSkQ3ecFegQIIRAb
    I genuinely did not know that about the FTSE 250 - I'm surprised about that. Any insight about why the 250 has done so much better than the 100 over the last two decades?
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205

    Off Topic: Nene Valley Railway.

    Had a most enjoyable trip. We parked up at Wansford which is right on the A1 and got the Nene Valley into Central Peterborough. Literally 5 mins from the City Centre.

    However the whole place had a bit of a rundown, half shut aura to it. (just four return trips on a pacer and last return departure was 3.20).

    It ought to be a really buzzing line with it linking a top Trunk Road to a city centre seven miles away, plenty of free car parking, and with no other lines in the vicinity it ought to attract many volunteers.

    But the place was virtually deserted, rotting rolling stock all over the place and (a few gems not withstanding) a feeling of tumbleweed around the place.

    Feels like a missed opportunity.

    I haven't been for a couple of years, but that wasn't my impression of it. My son's been twice, and he loved it.

    Railworld in Peterborough does match your view IMO, and sadly. Could be so much more, despite the hard work of the volunteers.
  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 14,283

    Andy_JS said:

    "Southport latest: Fears riots could erupt in a dozen cities tonight"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/southport-attack-latest-axel-rudakubana-riots/

    This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
    That statement sounds like you are endorsing/excusing/apologising for right wing/fascist thuggery. Shame on you.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586
    viewcode said:

    Nothing I like more than trying to get a code for my phone which doesn't go through, and then being unable to file the problem as my phone number is apparently invalid. Tried just about every permutation of the phone number I can think of (international, so I know it's 44 at the start then axing the first 0).

    ....


    I fucking hate mobile telephones.

    In the telephone exchange software, your number is actually registered and supported with the 44. The 0 thing is a short cut that is mapped as an additional option. At least, that's how we used to do it, some years back.
    Don't you have to have the "+" sign as well? So "+44 20 7219 4272" instead of "020 7219 4272" (don't phone it)
    IIRC (it's been years), no - that is about telling the phone system that you are about to enter a "full" number.

    So the system think your number is "44 20 7219 4272"
  • Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    a

    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
    But this has been sustained over years - they have walked away from discrete GPU and high efficiency CPU architecture (ARM).

    To change direction would take more years and billions.
    Going back to the original premise - which was the first thing I saw in the news today - that we were going to see a massive sell off today: the FTSE is now down, er. 0.27%. Had I not seen the news I wouldn't have noticed anything at all amiss.
    The FTSE has been stagnant for the thick end of 30 years. It was a sliver under 7,000 in year 2000 at the height of the tech boom, and is now 8,200.

    In contrast Nasdaq reached about 4,500 at the height of the tech boom and breached 20,000 in the last month.

    Also with the BoE cutting interest rates and the US not, the pound is lower and, as most FTSE companies have their activities abroad, their value in £ increases.

    In contrast the FTSE 250 which is much more domestically focused and widely focufsed, is down over 1%. FTSE 250 gains since 2000 are more comparable with NASDAQ.

    Ndsdaq futures prices are bigly down (given that, in my observation, the out of hours futures generally dont move that much compared with the real thing.

    https://www.google.com/finance/quote/NQW00:CME_EMINIS?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPqt6x99WHAxWOWkEAHUhUPSkQ3ecFegQIIRAb
    I genuinely did not know that about the FTSE 250 - I'm surprised about that. Any insight about why the 250 has done so much better than the 100 over the last two decades?
    FTSE 100 companies tend to have bigger dividends, which isn't captured by the index, indeed it deflates the index.

    To make an accurate comparison you need to track any index with dividends reinvested.
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,316

    Andy_JS said:

    "Southport latest: Fears riots could erupt in a dozen cities tonight"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/southport-attack-latest-axel-rudakubana-riots/

    This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
    Northern Ireland too.

    Wonder if militant Loyalist groups there are spreading their tentacles into the mainland?

    They have relations in scotland but Scotland's not exploding. I'd be more interested in Sinn Fein who are doing a 180 degree turn as conditions in RoI are matching whats happening in GB.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 56,928
    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    a

    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
    But this has been sustained over years - they have walked away from discrete GPU and high efficiency CPU architecture (ARM).

    To change direction would take more years and billions.
    Going back to the original premise - which was the first thing I saw in the news today - that we were going to see a massive sell off today: the FTSE is now down, er. 0.27%. Had I not seen the news I wouldn't have noticed anything at all amiss.
    The FTSE has been stagnant for the thick end of 30 years. It was a sliver under 7,000 in year 2000 at the height of the tech boom, and is now 8,200.

    In contrast Nasdaq reached about 4,500 at the height of the tech boom and breached 20,000 in the last month.

    Also with the BoE cutting interest rates and the US not, the pound is lower and, as most FTSE companies have their activities abroad, their value in £ increases.

    In contrast the FTSE 250 which is much more domestically focused and widely focufsed, is down over 1%. FTSE 250 gains since 2000 are more comparable with NASDAQ.

    Ndsdaq futures prices are bigly down (given that, in my observation, the out of hours futures generally dont move that much compared with the real thing.

    https://www.google.com/finance/quote/NQW00:CME_EMINIS?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPqt6x99WHAxWOWkEAHUhUPSkQ3ecFegQIIRAb
    I genuinely did not know that about the FTSE 250 - I'm surprised about that. Any insight about why the 250 has done so much better than the 100 over the last two decades?
    Many fewer banks, insurance, oil and mining companies.
  • Tres said:

    My friend's grandfather has decided to skip Friday prayers at his mosque today as he doesn't feel safe. Meanwhile Elon Musk is retweeting Tommy Robinson.

    Jews in some parts of London have felt like that on Saturdays for months if not years without anything much being done about the "demonstrations" .
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586

    Andy_JS said:

    "Southport latest: Fears riots could erupt in a dozen cities tonight"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/southport-attack-latest-axel-rudakubana-riots/

    This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
    Northern Ireland too mentioned for possible riots

    Wonder if militant Loyalist groups there are spreading their tentacles into the mainland?

    Hope not Hate need to keep their traps shut and pass on anything they know about leafletting for demonstrations to the police rather than the press.
    No - they know that if they increase street violence, the Northern Ireland Police Service gets allowed to crack down on their drug dealing.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,513

    Nigelb said:

    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    The problem is with these things, who have the US given up. When they got the basketball player out (and in her case, she was at fault for the situation she got herself in), they gave up the Merchant of Death, a man responsible for arming terrorists with serious weaponery. On the face of it, an absolutely terrible one sided deal.
    Not really.

    Russia is hardly short of killers - and we've sent them a load of scumbags, who cost us a fortune to house securely, in exchange for decent folk.

    Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
    FU has a point: in some cases, the 'scumbags' have a lot of contacts and information that might be very useful to the Kremlin. Yes, it is good to get the 'decent folk' back, but it's like swapping pawns for knights.
    I'm unconvinced.
    Most of them are now useless spies whose cover no longer exists. Their value is primarily one of propaganda, telling other Russian illegals that they will be brought home if caught.

    In any event, here's a list.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/01/whos-who-in-the-prisoner-exchange-between-russia-and-the-west
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,794

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    Can't you replace the mother? According to Moore's Mum's Law, smaller and cheaper options are available every two years, with upgraded nagging motherly concern as standard. You can install a new one and lose the embarrassing childhood photos of you that she insists on showing to visitors.

    Entirely sensible course of action, I feel B)

  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314

    Nigelb said:

    Biden in the Oval Office with the families of the released hostages*. He's having a great time since he stopped seeking re-election.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uPpDAZOUM


    *Oh, and these were hostages, Trump - not those folk who tried to overrun Congress on January 6th and were jailed as a result...

    The problem is with these things, who have the US given up. When they got the basketball player out (and in her case, she was at fault for the situation she got herself in), they gave up the Merchant of Death, a man responsible for arming terrorists with serious weaponery. On the face of it, an absolutely terrible one sided deal.
    Not really.

    Russia is hardly short of killers - and we've sent them a load of scumbags, who cost us a fortune to house securely, in exchange for decent folk.

    Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
    FU has a point: in some cases, the 'scumbags' have a lot of contacts and information that might be very useful to the Kremlin. Yes, it is good to get the 'decent folk' back, but it's like swapping pawns for knights.
    Swapping the lady basketballer for the terrorist was like swapping a pawn for a queen.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 56,928

    Tres said:

    My friend's grandfather has decided to skip Friday prayers at his mosque today as he doesn't feel safe. Meanwhile Elon Musk is retweeting Tommy Robinson.

    Jews in some parts of London have felt like that on Saturdays for months if not years without anything much being done about the "demonstrations" .
    That's a spectacular piece of whatabouttery. Congratulations.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,794

    viewcode said:

    Nothing I like more than trying to get a code for my phone which doesn't go through, and then being unable to file the problem as my phone number is apparently invalid. Tried just about every permutation of the phone number I can think of (international, so I know it's 44 at the start then axing the first 0).

    ....


    I fucking hate mobile telephones.

    In the telephone exchange software, your number is actually registered and supported with the 44. The 0 thing is a short cut that is mapped as an additional option. At least, that's how we used to do it, some years back.
    Don't you have to have the "+" sign as well? So "+44 20 7219 4272" instead of "020 7219 4272" (don't phone it)
    IIRC (it's been years), no - that is about telling the phone system that you are about to enter a "full" number.

    So the system think your number is "44 20 7219 4272"
    Thank you
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209

    Report that Council tax bands to be replaced by 0.5% tax on property value, uprated annually to reflect value increases.

    Interestingly my own council tax would be identical, almost to the pound.

    All tbose in the blue wall who voted Libdem and Labour will be foaming with outragen though

    Original source appears to be Birmingham Mail article dated 1st August

    https://x.com/DrHoenderkamp/status/1819119306271039679.


    Believe it when I see it. That would be very "brave".
    To be fair it would also be more just, however you would need transitional relief for several years to avoid bankrupting a lot of people in ordinary houses in London that have increased in value extraordinarily.

    The biggest flaw though seems to be that it would be national, so councils would get what they are given from a government pot with few fund raising powers of their own.
    would more than half my bill so will believe it when I see it
  • TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    I hear the Arc graphics chipset is actually halfway decent. It's just several years too late.

    And PCs are going ARM too. I have a new Surface Pro with the Qualcomm Snapdragon and it's amazing. Great battery life and decent performance, even when emulating.

    When native ARM64 binaries become commonplace, Intel is going to be in big trouble.
    The problem is ARC being half way decent is in a market place where NVidia produce face meltingly powerful stuff and AMD can already provide you one step down for very very reasonable prices.

    As for ARM, I was never a Apple / Mac fanboi, but I have an M2 laptop now and the battery level is game changing. A whole day out and about and never worry once about needing to charge and its super lightweight to carry around, so much so I sometimes worry I have lost it as can't feel it in my bag.
    I was pricing up a new MacBook with M3 Max, I think my specs came to over £7,000, on the website it said starting price £1,699.
    Do you really need the gold plated of gold plating?
    I am sure I need 128 GB of RAM and a 8 TB hard drive.
    8TB of hard drive is a lot of (no doubt sensitive) data to keep on you as you get the bus to work every morning.
    See the issue is my mother loves making videos of her family and she can record in 4K with 60 fps that takes up a lot of hard drive and yours truly has to do the editing.

    Plus whilst I also upload to the cloud I also like to have a physical copy.
    1 sec video = 1MB? So nearly 300hrs of birthday parties?
    One minute of 4K at 60 fps is 400 MB. So you’re looking at 24 GB for one hour of recording.
    Just please tell me that you set some time aside each week/month/year to watch the damn things.
    It's not meant to be viewed. It's a revenue generator. I pay Google about 30 quid a year to store content I'm never going to view, and my cloud is currently 92% full. I'll have to stump up more cash to Google to get more storage for stuff I'll never see. My wife is even worse. She must have a photo and video of every pony/cow/piglet/deer in the New Forest.
  • Andy_JS said:

    "Southport latest: Fears riots could erupt in a dozen cities tonight"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/southport-attack-latest-axel-rudakubana-riots/

    This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
    Northern Ireland too.

    Wonder if militant Loyalist groups there are spreading their tentacles into the mainland?

    They have relations in scotland but Scotland's not exploding. I'd be more interested in Sinn Fein who are doing a 180 degree turn as conditions in RoI are matching whats happening in GB.
    Have the Shinners disvovered that EU membership isn't exactly compatible with "Ourselves Alone" yet?
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,316

    Andy_JS said:

    "Southport latest: Fears riots could erupt in a dozen cities tonight"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/southport-attack-latest-axel-rudakubana-riots/

    This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
    That statement sounds like you are endorsing/excusing/apologising for right wing/fascist thuggery. Shame on you.
    No Im quite happily pointing out that Labour are reaping what theyve sown.. Mandelsons statement that "they havent anywhere else to go" is coming to bite him.

    Nigel Farage has his votes.
  • Nunu5Nunu5 Posts: 962
    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    a

    Foss said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think today is going to be a good day for the equity markets.

    CHIP GIANT INTEL HAS JUST SUSPENDED ITS DIVIDEND AND PLANS TO LAYOFF ANOTHER 19,000 EMPLOYEES IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY

    https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1819106499899412646.

    (ps - not fake news, other sources reporting the same).

    Intel is getting whooped by AMD, ARM and the like. Short Intel has been one of my core positions this year.
    They missed the boat on the new trend in low power, long lasting chips for laptops and their attempts at a dedicated graphics card to challenge Nvidia and AMD has failed miserably.
    Intel went down a disastrous technical direction. They bet on things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)

    It's an interesting and rare case of multiple companies (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple) all making bets on the direction of technology. All invested vast sums of their own money (little state aid). All the approaches had their attractions.

    But in the end Apple and NVIDIA have walked away from the rest.
    Intel has made bad decisions before (the Pentium 4 and Itanium spring to mind) and managed to pull it back.
    But this has been sustained over years - they have walked away from discrete GPU and high efficiency CPU architecture (ARM).

    To change direction would take more years and billions.
    Going back to the original premise - which was the first thing I saw in the news today - that we were going to see a massive sell off today: the FTSE is now down, er. 0.27%. Had I not seen the news I wouldn't have noticed anything at all amiss.
    The FTSE has been stagnant for the thick end of 30 years. It was a sliver under 7,000 in year 2000 at the height of the tech boom, and is now 8,200.

    In contrast Nasdaq reached about 4,500 at the height of the tech boom and breached 20,000 in the last month.

    Also with the BoE cutting interest rates and the US not, the pound is lower and, as most FTSE companies have their activities abroad, their value in £ increases.

    In contrast the FTSE 250 which is much more domestically focused and widely focufsed, is down over 1%. FTSE 250 gains since 2000 are more comparable with NASDAQ.

    Ndsdaq futures prices are bigly down (given that, in my observation, the out of hours futures generally dont move that much compared with the real thing.

    https://www.google.com/finance/quote/NQW00:CME_EMINIS?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPqt6x99WHAxWOWkEAHUhUPSkQ3ecFegQIIRAb
    I genuinely did not know that about the FTSE 250 - I'm surprised about that. Any insight about why the 250 has done so much better than the 100 over the last two decades?
    more insulated from exchange rate fluctuations?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,703
    stodge said:

    Morning all :)

    On the issue of funding local Government, I'd offer two basic thoughts:

    First, stop looking for a "fair" method of funding because there isn't one. Whatever system you come up will have anomalies, "winners" and "losers" and the latter will shout, whinge and moan just as much as those who are "enjoying" the first month of Labour Government.

    Second, accept the country isn't homogenous. If all areas were the same economically and socially it would be easy but they aren't. Newham isn't Cornwall - Surrey isn't Liverpool. Some areas need more help than others so the truth is the richer areas will support the poorer. If you want to brand it redistributive and evil, be my guest but it's always been the case the funds raised in the wealthier areas are moved to the poorer.

    I would like the redistribution process taken out of the hands of politicians and given to a non-partisan body who would dispassionately look at the needs of each area but I can't imagine politicians voluntarily relinquishing power - they tend not to.

    Your choices then become tax the people or the property. The "community charge" went for the former and wasn't entirely without merit but the taxing of property (including land) is probably the better approach as property (and especially land) isn't easy to hide. If we're going to tax land and property what are the options? Land Value Taxation is probably the most obvious and could be used as a mechanism to free/release unused land for other uses. If you tax property whether you call it rates or council tax you can tax simply on value.

    Applying a standard x% of value would require a comprehensive revaluation and the problem is no two houses in a street are the same. Capital improvements to property (loft extensions for example) would trigger a revaluation (as they do currently or should). We also need to recognise the greater disparity in values from £10k to £10 million for example and the regional divergences (how that would be applied I don't know).

    We know what £500k gets you in London and what it gets you in rural North Yorkshire or whatever so that needs somehow to be factored in to the equation as a kind of regional cost coefficient or weighting. Then you get into arguments about the cost of living vs the quality of life vs the availability of services. Is living in a big house in the country a good thing if there's one bus a week or would you rather have the amenity of a city and live in a much smaller property in a more crowded area?

    I think your first comment is correct. We are after least-worst, and there will always be distortions. Had their been consistent revaluations, then we would not be in the current mess.

    On your second one I think much of that is naturally incorporated into property market value.

    Zoopla seem to manage it to within a reasonable margin of error for perhaps 98% of properties, so I can't believe it is a huge practical problem. The difficulties are, I suggest, 80% political.
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,316

    Andy_JS said:

    "Southport latest: Fears riots could erupt in a dozen cities tonight"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/southport-attack-latest-axel-rudakubana-riots/

    This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
    Northern Ireland too.

    Wonder if militant Loyalist groups there are spreading their tentacles into the mainland?

    They have relations in scotland but Scotland's not exploding. I'd be more interested in Sinn Fein who are doing a 180 degree turn as conditions in RoI are matching whats happening in GB.
    Have the Shinners disvovered that EU membership isn't exactly compatible with "Ourselves Alone" yet?
    Yes, but they like the money.
This discussion has been closed.