(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.
*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.
From one calculus, you're right. Of course you are.
From another, getting the innocent out, even at a horrible cost, is the whole reason that decadent Western civilization is better. It creates problems, but I know which sort of government I would rather live under.
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.
If said demonstrations had been dealt with more robustly then others would not have scented weakness (and been able to successfully exploit a truncheons and riot shields response to their thuggery as an example of unfairness and discrimination that proves their point).
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.
Before mass social media, we could live in the belief that most people in the world were decent people who liked us. Now that illusion has been stripped away. Whatever the plusses or minuses of social media, I don't think it's made us happy.
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.
So that’s why they killed Navalny. Not sure I’d have made his name public if I were Sullivan.
Also a missed opportunity for Biden to get Edward Snowden back.
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%.
The difference is that can elect a council that dosent do that.
You would have to cap it at a level that keeps revenue the same as council tax + CPI, at least for the first few years.
Great picture of the contrasting styles at the Olympics. The Turkish guy won silver oozing cool.
Nah, he's a professional. Gendarmerie apparently. That's not cool, he's a trained killer. I would guess the hand in the back pocket is for stance and balance, not casualness
Lol. Nope, it's casualness. "trained killer"? FFS!! You total plonker!
Unlike many other areas, there is a huge element in shooting sports that is down to natural ability. He clearly has it. It is a wonderful contrast to countries like China, Russia, North Korea that intensively train people in a range of disciplines in the mindless pursuit of medals and nothing else. Well done him. Celebrate natural greatness and the Olympic spirit.
It is absolutely shocking that people feel scared to be visibly part of a minority - muslims, jews, what have you.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
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.
So that’s why they killed Navalny. Not sure I’d have made his name public if I were Sullivan.
Also a missed opportunity for Biden to get Edward Snowden back.
Snowden isn't a prisoner. To get him back they just have to pardon him.
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.
During the '80s, one thing that was proposed (and rejected) was cutting off various benefits for those convicted of terrorism.
IIRC 90% of active PIRA members were in receipt of benefits as a major source of income.
*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.
From one calculus, you're right. Of course you are.
From another, getting the innocent out, even at a horrible cost, is the whole reason that decadent Western civilization is better. It creates problems, but I know which sort of government I would rather live under.
Half of me agrees, while the other half of me thinks that such swaps give the enemy more reason to kidnap civilians.
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?
Lol it won't be monthly!
I said this a few days ago - it's a simple way of getting council tax updated and lays the ground for ditching stamp duty (which all agree is poorly designed) for an annual charge.
Tactically I'm not sure if it's wise to try to increase revenue raised vs council tax from the start or to wait a bit. The change is pretty irreversible I would think, surely no future govt would go back to 1991 bands...
Hmmm. On Council Tax based on property market value, we need smoothing too.
What happens if we get a GFC as 2010, or another Loopy Lizzy who goes full fruitcake with economic policy?
Revaluations every 4 years?
One interesting one is the impact of a more rational system reducing house prices in some areas over time. London House Prices down by 5% over 2 years, so the Mayor has less money.
It is absolutely shocking that people feel scared to be visibly part of a minority - muslims, jews, what have you.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
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.
Sounds a bit too much like you are pleased about it. Once again, shame on you.
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
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.
But even in 1991, houses in Newcastle cost a lot less than in London. You shouldn't compare bands, but similar houses. It would be interesting to see what the charge is on a typical 30s semi would be. Where I live, that's Band D. I bet it isn't in Newcastle.
I don't have time to look into it right now, but may later.
Also, a 0.5% property tax on my Band C in suburban London would be either the same or slightly less than my current Council Tax.
(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.
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.
I'm sure MrBed knows this he's just in full 'talk Britain down now there is a Labour government' mode.
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.
So that’s why they killed Navalny. Not sure I’d have made his name public if I were Sullivan.
Also a missed opportunity for Biden to get Edward Snowden back.
Would he want to come back? If he wasn't an FSB/GRU asset when he legged it to Russia, he certainly is now.
(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.
That’s a workstation class CPU with maxed out RAM & storage, which Apple charges through the nose for.
As others have said, if you really need that much storage then an external thunderbolt SSD enclosure will give much the same performance for a fraction of what Apple will charge you.
The point remains under whatever fund raising system you have different parts of the country will raise different amounts of revenue (and that includes business rates as well).
Even the amounts raised locally and the proportion of that to the amounts funded centrally vary substantially - one of the drivers for councils looking at property investment in the early 2010s was to get off the hook of dependency on central Government largesse which seemed to favour councils based more on their political control than their actual need.
If we could take the funding out of the hands of politicians and create a wholly independent non-partisan system of funding councils it would be a help.
Even then, the richer areas would subsidise the poorer but we're all one country so does that matter very much? The other side of it is local accountability - we live in a democracy (apparently) and if the people in an area vote in a high spending local council who are we to gainsay them? It's a dilemma because as we know politicans will say anything to get elected but delivering once elected becomes harder if the resources to do that aren't there.
The more you can raise locally the more "freedom" you have and the greater the accountability. If central Government can arbitrarily cut your grant from one year to the next they are the ones calling the shots not the local voters. All the council gets to decide is what gets cut first.
It is absolutely shocking that people feel scared to be visibly part of a minority - muslims, jews, what have you.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
Im afraid ir probably is. If we're importing people at 750+k per annum and have nowhere to put them then that's going to create tensions, We need slower, controlled immigration, more time to allow communities to integrate, more housing and infrastructure and a kick up the arse to the 9 million people who think they dont have to work and who should be filling the labour shortage which makes us import people.
It is absolutely shocking that people feel scared to be visibly part of a minority - muslims, jews, what have you.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
Im afraid ir probably is. If we're importing people at 750+k per annum and have nowhere to put them then that's going to create tensions, We need slower, controlled immigration, more time to allow communities to integrate, more housing and infrastructure and a kick up the arse to the 9 million people who think they dont have to work and who should be filling the labour shortage which makes us import people.
Does that 9M include people who are retired and those that have the time to sit on blogs all day?
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.
But even in 1991, houses in Newcastle cost a lot less than in London. You shouldn't compare bands, but similar houses. It would be interesting to see what the charge is on a typical 30s semi would be. Where I live, that's Band D. I bet it isn't in Newcastle.
I don't have time to look into it right now, but may later.
Also, a 0.5% property tax on my Band C in suburban London would be either the same or slightly less than my current Council Tax.
It's not intended as an instrument for nationwide social justice though, it's meant to be an equitable way of divvying up local expenses between local people. So the relevant variable is the cost of dustbinmen in Newcastle vs London, not the cost of houses.
It is absolutely shocking that people feel scared to be visibly part of a minority - muslims, jews, what have you.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
Im afraid ir probably is. If we're importing people at 750+k per annum and have nowhere to put them then that's going to create tensions, We need slower, controlled immigration, more time to allow communities to integrate, more housing and infrastructure and a kick up the arse to the 9 million people who think they dont have to work and who should be filling the labour shortage which makes us import people.
Does that 9M include people who are retired and those that have the time to sit on blogs all day?
Yes it does. But since Im currently in employment I can sit that out, What abou you ?
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.
On the other hand, people mortgaging up to the eyeballs would mean a lot more money sloshing around in the economy. Might even look like growth in the economy...for a PM seeking growth in the economy.
It is absolutely shocking that people feel scared to be visibly part of a minority - muslims, jews, what have you.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
We're in a 'wouldn't have started from here' position, aren't we?
There is an argument for less immigration, but it is about ending the ponzi scheme we have gotten ourselves into and driving up wages, rather than the more immediate issue of stopping the riots. I would argue that the solution to stopping the riots is more resources for the police, and to enforce the laws on everyone equally, whether they be a two-man riot at Manchester Airport, a Roma and associated allies mob in Leeds, an anti-Israel mob, a BLM mob in Manchester, the far right mobs in Southport or London, or whatever was going on in Southend.
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.
So that’s why they killed Navalny. Not sure I’d have made his name public if I were Sullivan.
Also a missed opportunity for Biden to get Edward Snowden back.
Checking in a mid-morning, and every major stock market index in Europe is down on Friday.
Germany’s Dax is down 1.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB is down 1.2%.
The FTSE 100 is faring somewhat better, down by only 0.3%. That is likely in part down to the Bank of England’s decision on Thursday to cut interest rates.
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
*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.
It always will, unless you execute spies on discovery. And then it makes it much more difficult to recruit our own spies, if there is no chance of them being swapped out if caught.
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
Ive just had a look at his last 3 days post and Musk is tweeting about Transgender, Venezuala where he seems to have challenged the president to a duel and various techhie things. No Yaxley-Lennon though.
The biggest movement to Harris amongst black and young voters, Independents and suburban voters not so much and pensioners barely at all. The latter also have the highest turnout of course.
She will certainly need high black turnout in big cities in swing states like Philadelphia and Atlanta and Detroit
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?
It is absolutely shocking that people feel scared to be visibly part of a minority - muslims, jews, what have you.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
Im afraid ir probably is. If we're importing people at 750+k per annum and have nowhere to put them then that's going to create tensions, We need slower, controlled immigration, more time to allow communities to integrate, more housing and infrastructure and a kick up the arse to the 9 million people who think they dont have to work and who should be filling the labour shortage which makes us import people.
I think there is a perception, exacerbated by recent events, that the country is "full". I'm not sure it is although for sure we need more houses (as every govt has admitted for decades). Problem is, once that perception takes hold then people are motivated to act and blame people when their own lives don't improve.
Unless you are saying (I'm sure you are not) that being on a council house waiting list sends you out on the streets to have bricks twat off your head. Because then we are back to Nigel's NHS ads where everyone being seen is an immigrant.
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.
Giving councils the power to raise extra tax like this sounds like a bad idea, certainly beyond a tiny amount. 1% would be far too much.
Better to ship some of the wealth from empty flats owned by Russian billionaires in Chelsea to places in the North that need it.
Over time it will have the effect of levelling out house prices a bit across the country, which is probably a good thing, as (like stamp duty) it will become a factor in sales prices - however that probably doesn't do anything to help affordability -only more houses or less people wanting them really alters the overall "total cost of housing" supply demand curve.
As for the different rates for houses vs flats, garden size etc - no need. That data is already reflected in house prices - a detached house in a sizable garden will set you back a lot more than a flat with the same square footage of floorspace.
Where this policy might be a bit tricky is social housing, as there's potentially no sales data to inform pricing.
I quite like the system in I think France where property values can be self declared - however the council if the council thinks your declared value is taking the mick, they can buy it off you for something like 10% over your declared value, which incentives people to be broadly honest. This still doesn't solve the problem of valuing social housing mind you.
Full disclosure - I'm a substantial winner from this proposal in my current house (band B, probably worth £160k) but am very likely to be buying a property (typically band C or D worth £400-500k) where this would make me a significant loser in the next year or so.
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
Ive just had a look at his last 3 days post and Musk is tweeting about Transgender, Venezuala where he seems to have challenged the president to a duel and various techhie things. No Yaxley-Lennon though.
If Trump loses then I give it a year before Musk follows in Henry Ford’s footsteps & sets up his own weird quasi-fascist political party that will crash & burn to the great amusement of everyone else.
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%.
No, as with university courses government could by law cap the amount regions outside London could increase council tax by
*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.
With the basketballer being the queen?
Though being serious, that's the difference between the West and Russia. We value our pawns, while Russia thows theirs to the meat grinder.
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.
My 3-bed semi in a nice area of Newcastle is Band B I think.
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.
But even in 1991, houses in Newcastle cost a lot less than in London. You shouldn't compare bands, but similar houses. It would be interesting to see what the charge is on a typical 30s semi would be. Where I live, that's Band D. I bet it isn't in Newcastle.
I don't have time to look into it right now, but may later.
Also, a 0.5% property tax on my Band C in suburban London would be either the same or slightly less than my current Council Tax.
If I understand it correctly, Band D is defined as the "average", ie median, level, and the differential tax between Band A is 6/9 of D, and Band H is 18/9 of D. H in Wales is 21/9 of D. H in Scotland is 49/20 of D.
So it will be affected by significant differences in Housing Mix eg flats in big cities.
I'm not sure what distribution model they use; it's fractions in 8 (9 in Wales) segments approximating a one-sided distribution, with the details set I am sure by politics.
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?
SF were anti EEC originally
And, of course, the Conservatives here were strongly pro.
Ps you’ll pay the best part of 3/4 of a million quid for a flat in trendy parts of Newcastle so I am not sure Newcastle is a good comparison for this purpose
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.
My 3-bed semi in a nice area of Newcastle is Band B I think.
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
Ive just had a look at his last 3 days post and Musk is tweeting about Transgender, Venezuala where he seems to have challenged the president to a duel and various techhie things. No Yaxley-Lennon though.
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?
If you are taxing the value of the land, you are not taxing the property that is built on it. Unless you want to tax both, of course - which I suspect Labour would want to do.
One very real advantage of taxing just the value of the land is that you do not have to value it on a site by site basis. I am sure the value of my land (where the house is built and the garden) is exactly the same as the land next door, per square yard.
It is absolutely shocking that people feel scared to be visibly part of a minority - muslims, jews, what have you.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
Im afraid ir probably is. If we're importing people at 750+k per annum and have nowhere to put them then that's going to create tensions, We need slower, controlled immigration, more time to allow communities to integrate, more housing and infrastructure and a kick up the arse to the 9 million people who think they dont have to work and who should be filling the labour shortage which makes us import people.
I think there is a perception, exacerbated by recent events, that the country is "full". I'm not sure it is although for sure we need more houses (as every govt has admitted for decades). Problem is, once that perception takes hold then people are motivated to act and blame people when their own lives don't improve.
Unless you are saying (I'm sure you are not) that being on a council house waiting list sends you out on the streets to have bricks twat off your head. Because then we are back to Nigel's NHS ads where everyone being seen is an immigrant.
I think part of the problem is the lack of political engagement with the bottom 30% or so of the population by wealth. Previously they would have been represented by trade union types who would have made their case. Labour has fled the turf in pursuit of better off grads and as a result there is a vacuum. They have been told they are racists, thickos unemployable and their concerns largely ignored., but these are the communities that are bearing the brunt mass immigration and unsurprisingly have the impression that the government cares more about migrants than their own voters.
The number of Labour voters with a favourable opinion of Keir Starmer has fallen 8pts since the general election - meanwhile his popularity has increased 7pts among Tory voters
One very real advantage of taxing just the value of the land is that you do not have to value it on a site by site basis. I am sure the value of my land (where the house is built and the garden) is exactly the same as the land next door, per square yard.
That may be true at the micro level, but is demonstrably not true at the macro level
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
Ive just had a look at his last 3 days post and Musk is tweeting about Transgender, Venezuala where he seems to have challenged the president to a duel and various techhie things. No Yaxley-Lennon though.
If Trump loses then I give it a year before Musk follows in Henry Ford’s footsteps & sets up his own weird quasi-fascist political party that will crash & burn to the great amusement of everyone else.
At the risk of diverting the conversation into something serious
"It will also consider how we can deploy facial recognition technology, which is already used by some forces, more widely across the country. This will mean criminals can be targeted, found and brought to justice quickly."
There are serious concerns about using such technology - especially in relation to minority groups.
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
Ive just had a look at his last 3 days post and Musk is tweeting about Transgender, Venezuala where he seems to have challenged the president to a duel and various techhie things. No Yaxley-Lennon though.
If Trump loses then I give it a year before Musk follows in Henry Ford’s footsteps & sets up his own weird quasi-fascist political party that will crash & burn to the great amusement of everyone else.
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
Ive just had a look at his last 3 days post and Musk is tweeting about Transgender, Venezuala where he seems to have challenged the president to a duel and various techhie things. No Yaxley-Lennon though.
If Trump loses then I give it a year before Musk follows in Henry Ford’s footsteps & sets up his own weird quasi-fascist political party that will crash & burn to the great amusement of everyone else.
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
Ive just had a look at his last 3 days post and Musk is tweeting about Transgender, Venezuala where he seems to have challenged the president to a duel and various techhie things. No Yaxley-Lennon though.
If Trump loses then I give it a year before Musk follows in Henry Ford’s footsteps & sets up his own weird quasi-fascist political party that will crash & burn to the great amusement of everyone else.
At the risk of diverting the conversation into something serious
"It will also consider how we can deploy facial recognition technology, which is already used by some forces, more widely across the country. This will mean criminals can be targeted, found and brought to justice quickly."
There are serious concerns about using such technology - especially in relation to minority groups.
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
Ever since I can remember, the Far Right has been trying to dupe people into following their agenda.
When I was at uni (ha!) we had to deal with persistent attempts to set up societies and organisations that turned out to be fronts for the fascists.
Incidentally, why is it that extremists seem to have a body odour issue? The fascists, the tankies and the snackbarists all seemed to have it. Presumably the Thousand Year Reich is the time between showers?
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.
You are underselling this bit of the story.
StrongARM development was lead by Dan Dobberpuhl. Dobberpuhl and many of his colleagues ended up a SiByte where they built the first CMP (chip multi-processor) the SB-1.
When SiByte was aquired by Broadcom many of the engineers went to P.A. Semi, who built the PWRficient PowerPC chips that they pitched to Apple. Now Apple decided to switch to x86 at that time, but they did buy P.A. Semi and they formed the nucleus of the highly successful Apple Silicon team which led to Apple binning x86 and its replacement with all the great Ax and Mx chips.
In turn veterans of P.A. Semi and that Apple Silicon team founded companies like Nuvia (Qualcomm's Oryon CPU), Rivos, Tenstorrent, and the Google Silicon team.
In terms of letting top talent slip through your hands Intel really screwed up.
The number of Labour voters with a favourable opinion of Keir Starmer has fallen 8pts since the general election - meanwhile his popularity has increased 7pts among Tory voters
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
Ive just had a look at his last 3 days post and Musk is tweeting about Transgender, Venezuala where he seems to have challenged the president to a duel and various techhie things. No Yaxley-Lennon though.
If Trump loses then I give it a year before Musk follows in Henry Ford’s footsteps & sets up his own weird quasi-fascist political party that will crash & burn to the great amusement of everyone else.
At the risk of diverting the conversation into something serious
"It will also consider how we can deploy facial recognition technology, which is already used by some forces, more widely across the country. This will mean criminals can be targeted, found and brought to justice quickly."
There are serious concerns about using such technology - especially in relation to minority groups.
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.
Before mass social media, we could live in the belief that most people in the world were decent people who liked us. Now that illusion has been stripped away. Whatever the plusses or minuses of social media, I don't think it's made us happy.
Negatives: undermines democracy. Positives: quite good memes sometimes.
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
Ever since I can remember, the Far Right has been trying to dupe people into following their agenda.
When I was at uni (ha!) we had to deal with persistent attempts to set up societies and organisations that turned out to be fronts for the fascists.
Incidentally, why is it that extremists seem to have a body odour issue? The fascists, the tankies and the snackbarists all seemed to have it. Presumably the Thousand Year Reich is the time between showers?
The Far Right have never had much of an appeal in the UK. And they are far too fractious to maintain a political organisation..
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
It's all very recognisable - the alpha leaders and their slightly less alpha followers, drinking and snorting and then getting violent: mods and rockers; punks and skins; football hooliganism etc etc.
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
It's all very recognisable - the alpha leaders and their slightly less alpha followers, drinking and snorting and then getting violent: mods and rockers; punks and skins; football hooliganism etc etc.
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
Ever since I can remember, the Far Right has been trying to dupe people into following their agenda.
When I was at uni (ha!) we had to deal with persistent attempts to set up societies and organisations that turned out to be fronts for the fascists.
Incidentally, why is it that extremists seem to have a body odour issue? The fascists, the tankies and the snackbarists all seemed to have it. Presumably the Thousand Year Reich is the time between showers?
Ditto, the IRA in NI.
However when the Catholics were horribly discriminated against frpm 1920s to 1960s - it ended up with the IRA getting widespread support as the only ones who could effectively stand up for them and protect them (the IRA also got better as intelligent and outraged people joined them not just knuckledraggers).
You will never get rid of extremists, but you can get their number down enough to have their committee meetings in phone boxes if you remove the underlying injustice that allows them to gain widespread support.
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
It's all very recognisable - the alpha leaders and their slightly less alpha followers, drinking and snorting and then getting violent: mods and rockers; punks and skins; football hooliganism etc etc.
I somehow cant see them toppling the government.
Any more than the SWP/Black Blok
But they can make life miserable for a lot of innocent people on the way.
'The new Labour government has shelved £1.3bn of funding promised by the Conservatives for tech and Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects, the BBC has learned.
It includes £800m for the creation of an exascale supercomputer at Edinburgh University and a further £500m for AI Research Resource, which funds computing power for AI.' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyx5x44vnyeo
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
It's all very recognisable - the alpha leaders and their slightly less alpha followers, drinking and snorting and then getting violent: mods and rockers; punks and skins; football hooliganism etc etc.
I somehow cant see them toppling the government.
Nope - they'll drink and fight and wreck, then it will get cooler and the football season will start. It's all very traditional and part of our indigenous culture. Seeing what is happening currently as something new done by normal people is the mistake here.
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
Ever since I can remember, the Far Right has been trying to dupe people into following their agenda.
When I was at uni (ha!) we had to deal with persistent attempts to set up societies and organisations that turned out to be fronts for the fascists.
Incidentally, why is it that extremists seem to have a body odour issue? The fascists, the tankies and the snackbarists all seemed to have it. Presumably the Thousand Year Reich is the time between showers?
The Far Right have never had much of an appeal in the UK. And they are far too fractious to maintain a political organisation..
Smartphones, the cameras they contain and the social media channels the resulting content is posted on can make things look a lot bigger and more impressive than they actually are.
'The new Labour government has shelved £1.3bn of funding promised by the Conservatives for tech and Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects, the BBC has learned.
It includes £800m for the creation of an exascale supercomputer at Edinburgh University and a further £500m for AI Research Resource, which funds computing power for AI.' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyx5x44vnyeo
It must feel like having Osborne back in Number 11.
The number of Labour voters with a favourable opinion of Keir Starmer has fallen 8pts since the general election - meanwhile his popularity has increased 7pts among Tory voters
Blair by contrast had a massively high net favourable rating in early August 1997
Blair took over from an unpopular but competent government with a decent economy. Starmer took over from an unpopular and incompetent government with a fragile at best economy. .
This rubbing the Right's nose in diversity is going well
Some pissed up, coked up thugs doing what they have been doing for decades is just a long-established aspect of indigenous British culture reasserting itself once more, surely.
There certainly is some of that, but from the TV pictures I have seen the far right types dont have the numbers that are filling the screen. They have nowhere near that many people
It's all very recognisable - the alpha leaders and their slightly less alpha followers, drinking and snorting and then getting violent: mods and rockers; punks and skins; football hooliganism etc etc.
Tommy Robinson was a leading light in the MIGS, Luton towns so-called "firm", the EDL was born from soccer hooligans.
Many people who go to these things are not bothered with politics and labels of right or left. They just like a piss up and a ruck and in having a row with Coppers they are simply reliving the time before football hooliganism died off due to everyone being loved up on Acid during the Acid house time.
'The new Labour government has shelved £1.3bn of funding promised by the Conservatives for tech and Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects, the BBC has learned.
It includes £800m for the creation of an exascale supercomputer at Edinburgh University and a further £500m for AI Research Resource, which funds computing power for AI.' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyx5x44vnyeo
It must feel like having Osborne back in Number 11.
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.
Before mass social media, we could live in the belief that most people in the world were decent people who liked us. Now that illusion has been stripped away. Whatever the plusses or minuses of social media, I don't think it's made us happy.
Only a small minority of people use social media to be rude to others.
It is absolutely shocking that people feel scared to be visibly part of a minority - muslims, jews, what have you.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
Im afraid ir probably is. If we're importing people at 750+k per annum and have nowhere to put them then that's going to create tensions, We need slower, controlled immigration, more time to allow communities to integrate, more housing and infrastructure and a kick up the arse to the 9 million people who think they dont have to work and who should be filling the labour shortage which makes us import people.
I think there is a perception, exacerbated by recent events, that the country is "full". I'm not sure it is although for sure we need more houses (as every govt has admitted for decades). Problem is, once that perception takes hold then people are motivated to act and blame people when their own lives don't improve.
Unless you are saying (I'm sure you are not) that being on a council house waiting list sends you out on the streets to have bricks twat off your head. Because then we are back to Nigel's NHS ads where everyone being seen is an immigrant.
I think part of the problem is the lack of political engagement with the bottom 30% or so of the population by wealth. Previously they would have been represented by trade union types who would have made their case. Labour has fled the turf in pursuit of better off grads and as a result there is a vacuum. They have been told they are racists, thickos unemployable and their concerns largely ignored., but these are the communities that are bearing the brunt mass immigration and unsurprisingly have the impression that the government cares more about migrants than their own voters.
Though racist shitheads nowadays are as likely to be found in a suit and tie banging on about "Patriot" this or that as being skinheads in tracksuits.
There seems to me to be two issues regarding council tax.
The first issue is about the use of valuation bands established in 1991 and therefore out of date. If a Council has been raising £x million pounds from Council Tax it is surely straightforward to rebase the bands to 2024 values, possibly adding further top bands, so that the total take in that Council area remains £x million? There will be winners and losers. The winners will be those whose property value has fallen behind others in their own area who will therefore pay a bit less.
The second issue is whether to scrap the concept of Council tax and replace it with some form of wealth tax based on property value. The tax raised would go to the Treasury and would need to be redistributed to local Councils. This is a much bigger issue and should include the financing of mandated Council services and the right of local Councils to borrow. Sorting out Council Tax bands is simple in comparison.
Tory 2024 voters are not the ones that matter: favourability among all voters *who have an opinion*: Tom Tugendhat -31 James Cleverly -48 Robert Jenrick -54 Kemi Badenoch -57 Mel Stride -61 Priti Patel -62
Tory 2024 voters are not the ones that matter: favourability among all voters *who have an opinion*: Tom Tugendhat -31 James Cleverly -48 Robert Jenrick -54 Kemi Badenoch -57 Mel Stride -61 Priti Patel -62
Most of the public doesn't want to hear from the Tories for a number of years.
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.
So that’s why they killed Navalny. Not sure I’d have made his name public if I were Sullivan.
Also a missed opportunity for Biden to get Edward Snowden back.
Snowden isn't a prisoner. To get him back they just have to pardon him.
I assumed the implication was that Snowden would be sent back in chains to the tender mercies of US justice.
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.
What is it with Musk? I'm full of admiration for his business and technological achievements, but he can be such a dick.
Huge incel vibe off him. If he wasn’t a multi billionaire with woman queueing up to be artificially inseminated with Elon juice, I could see him scoping out sloping roofs with a view to making a splash.
Comments
From another, getting the innocent out, even at a horrible cost, is the whole reason that decadent Western civilization is better. It creates problems, but I know which sort of government I would rather live under.
Also a missed opportunity for Biden to get Edward Snowden back.
You would have to cap it at a level that keeps revenue the same as council tax + CPI, at least for the first few years.
Unlike many other areas, there is a huge element in shooting sports that is down to natural ability. He clearly has it. It is a wonderful contrast to countries like China, Russia, North Korea that intensively train people in a range of disciplines in the mindless pursuit of medals and nothing else. Well done him. Celebrate natural greatness and the Olympic spirit.
Not to mention the "B" word but a factor I'm sure is that of a lot of promises were made about improving peoples' lives, none of which, obvs, have transpired and hence if it isn't the EU that people can blame, they are likely to look closer to, indeed at home for the culprits.
I am not 100% sure I know what the answer is. I don't think it is "less immigration".
IIRC 90% of active PIRA members were in receipt of benefits as a major source of income.
I said this a few days ago - it's a simple way of getting council tax updated and lays the ground for ditching stamp duty (which all agree is poorly designed) for an annual charge.
Tactically I'm not sure if it's wise to try to increase revenue raised vs council tax from the start or to wait a bit. The change is pretty irreversible I would think, surely no future govt would go back to 1991 bands...
What happens if we get a GFC as 2010, or another Loopy Lizzy who goes full fruitcake with economic policy?
Revaluations every 4 years?
One interesting one is the impact of a more rational system reducing house prices in some areas over time. London House Prices down by 5% over 2 years, so the Mayor has less money.
I don't have time to look into it right now, but may later.
Also, a 0.5% property tax on my Band C in suburban London would be either the same or slightly less than my current Council Tax.
As others have said, if you really need that much storage then an external thunderbolt SSD enclosure will give much the same performance for a fraction of what Apple will charge you.
Even the amounts raised locally and the proportion of that to the amounts funded centrally vary substantially - one of the drivers for councils looking at property investment in the early 2010s was to get off the hook of dependency on central Government largesse which seemed to favour councils based more on their political control than their actual need.
If we could take the funding out of the hands of politicians and create a wholly independent non-partisan system of funding councils it would be a help.
Even then, the richer areas would subsidise the poorer but we're all one country so does that matter very much? The other side of it is local accountability - we live in a democracy (apparently) and if the people in an area vote in a high spending local council who are we to gainsay them? It's a dilemma because as we know politicans will say anything to get elected but delivering once elected becomes harder if the resources to do that aren't there.
The more you can raise locally the more "freedom" you have and the greater the accountability. If central Government can arbitrarily cut your grant from one year to the next they are the ones calling the shots not the local voters. All the council gets to decide is what gets cut first.
There is an argument for less immigration, but it is about ending the ponzi scheme we have gotten ourselves into and driving up wages, rather than the more immediate issue of stopping the riots. I would argue that the solution to stopping the riots is more resources for the police, and to enforce the laws on everyone equally, whether they be a two-man riot at Manchester Airport, a Roma and associated allies mob in Leeds, an anti-Israel mob, a BLM mob in Manchester, the far right mobs in Southport or London, or whatever was going on in Southend.
Germany’s Dax is down 1.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB is down 1.2%.
The FTSE 100 is faring somewhat better, down by only 0.3%. That is likely in part down to the Bank of England’s decision on Thursday to cut interest rates.
Guardian business blog
So is this fake news?
She will certainly need high black turnout in big cities in swing states like Philadelphia and Atlanta and Detroit
Unless you are saying (I'm sure you are not) that being on a council house waiting list sends you out on the streets to have bricks twat off your head. Because then we are back to Nigel's NHS ads where everyone being seen is an immigrant.
Better to ship some of the wealth from empty flats owned by Russian billionaires in Chelsea to places in the North that need it.
Over time it will have the effect of levelling out house prices a bit across the country, which is probably a good thing, as (like stamp duty) it will become a factor in sales prices - however that probably doesn't do anything to help affordability -only more houses or less people wanting them really alters the overall "total cost of housing" supply demand curve.
As for the different rates for houses vs flats, garden size etc - no need. That data is already reflected in house prices - a detached house in a sizable garden will set you back a lot more than a flat with the same square footage of floorspace.
Where this policy might be a bit tricky is social housing, as there's potentially no sales data to inform pricing.
I quite like the system in I think France where property values can be self declared - however the council if the council thinks your declared value is taking the mick, they can buy it off you for something like 10% over your declared value, which incentives people to be broadly honest. This still doesn't solve the problem of valuing social housing mind you.
Full disclosure - I'm a substantial winner from this proposal in my current house (band B, probably worth £160k) but am very likely to be buying a property (typically band C or D worth £400-500k) where this would make me a significant loser in the next year or so.
If Trump loses then I give it a year before Musk follows in Henry Ford’s footsteps & sets up his own weird quasi-fascist political party that will crash & burn to the great amusement of everyone else.
Though being serious, that's the difference between the West and Russia. We value our pawns, while Russia thows theirs to the meat grinder.
So it will be affected by significant differences in Housing Mix eg flats in big cities.
I'm not sure what distribution model they use; it's fractions in 8 (9 in Wales) segments approximating a one-sided distribution, with the details set I am sure by politics.
Here are the English bands - my photo quota:
Wiki has a good and plain explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_Tax
Harris 46.2% Trump 46.7% Kennedy 3% Stein 1% West 1%
https://x.com/AmericanPulseUS/status/1818962141136703501
Talk about Meta
One very real advantage of taxing just the value of the land is that you do not have to value it on a site by site basis. I am sure the value of my land (where the house is built and the garden) is exactly the same as the land next door, per square yard.
Favourable: 40% (-4 from 17-18 Jul)
Unfavourable: 49% (+5)
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1819297161789485514
The number of Labour voters with a favourable opinion of Keir Starmer has fallen 8pts since the general election - meanwhile his popularity has increased 7pts among Tory voters
Labour voters: 79% (-8 from 5-8 Jul)
Lib Dem voters: 57% (-5)
Con voters: 18% (+7)
Reform voters: 8%
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1819297164188606805
Following her spending cuts announcements, Rachel Reeves has seen her 'unfavourable' rating increase by 12pts
Favourable: 26% (-1 from 17-18 Jul)
Unfavourable: 37% (+12)
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1819297166092808227
Blair by contrast had a massively high net favourable rating in early August 1997
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-launches-new-clamp-down-on-criminal-and-violent-disorder
"It will also consider how we can deploy facial recognition technology, which is already used by some forces, more widely across the country. This will mean criminals can be targeted, found and brought to justice quickly."
There are serious concerns about using such technology - especially in relation to minority groups.
Hence - https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/08/usa-nypd-black-lives-matter-protests-surveilliance/
https://aulawreview.org/blog/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
etc
But hmm.
Kim Jong Un wants Trump back, elite defector tells BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jqjwdyl1ko
When I was at uni (ha!) we had to deal with persistent attempts to set up societies and organisations that turned out to be fronts for the fascists.
Incidentally, why is it that extremists seem to have a body odour issue? The fascists, the tankies and the snackbarists all seemed to have it. Presumably the Thousand Year Reich is the time between showers?
Piccadilly Line trains are finally going to be replaced next year after being in service for 50 years.
https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-projects/piccadilly-line-upgrade
StrongARM development was lead by Dan Dobberpuhl. Dobberpuhl and many of his colleagues ended up a SiByte where they built the first CMP (chip multi-processor) the SB-1.
When SiByte was aquired by Broadcom many of the engineers went to P.A. Semi, who built the PWRficient PowerPC chips that they pitched to Apple. Now Apple decided to switch to x86 at that time, but they did buy P.A. Semi and they formed the nucleus of the highly successful Apple Silicon team which led to Apple binning x86 and its replacement with all the great Ax and Mx chips.
In turn veterans of P.A. Semi and that Apple Silicon team founded companies like Nuvia (Qualcomm's Oryon CPU), Rivos, Tenstorrent, and the Google Silicon team.
In terms of letting top talent slip through your hands Intel really screwed up.
Another technology associated with arresting the wrong black people. Chief Superintendent Savage will love it.
"The computer says it is the same person - he's guilty!"
Positives: quite good memes sometimes.
However when the Catholics were horribly discriminated against frpm 1920s to 1960s - it ended up with the IRA getting widespread support as the only ones who could effectively stand up for them and protect them (the IRA also got better as intelligent and outraged people joined them not just knuckledraggers).
You will never get rid of extremists, but you can get their number down enough to have their committee meetings in phone boxes if you remove the underlying injustice that allows them to gain widespread support.
But they can make life miserable for a lot of innocent people on the way.
It includes £800m for the creation of an exascale supercomputer at Edinburgh University and a further £500m for AI Research Resource, which funds computing power for AI.'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyx5x44vnyeo
Among 2024 Tory voters there are two stand out leadership contestants: James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat
Net favourability ratings for...
James Cleverly: +16
Tom Tugendhat: +15
Robert Jenrick: +8
Kemi Badenoch: +4
Mel Stride: -8
Priti Patel: -11
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1819299527381176628
The new fleet will be lucky to last half of that before the built in electronic obsolescence does for them.
Poor for Stride and very bad for Patel though given these were voters who still voted Tory even on 4th July
Starmer took over from an unpopular and incompetent government with a fragile at best economy. .
Many people who go to these things are not bothered with politics and labels of right or left. They just like a piss up and a ruck and in having a row with Coppers they are simply reliving the time before football hooliganism died off due to everyone being loved up on Acid during the Acid house time.
The first issue is about the use of valuation bands established in 1991 and therefore out of date. If a Council has been raising £x million pounds from Council Tax it is surely straightforward to rebase the bands to 2024 values, possibly adding further top bands, so that the total take in that Council area remains £x million? There will be winners and losers. The winners will be those whose property value has fallen behind others in their own area who will therefore pay a bit less.
The second issue is whether to scrap the concept of Council tax and replace it with some form of wealth tax based on property value. The tax raised would go to the Treasury and would need to be redistributed to local Councils. This is a much bigger issue and should include the financing of mandated Council services and the right of local Councils to borrow. Sorting out Council Tax bands is simple in comparison.
% of Britons with a favourable/unfavourable view of...
Priti Patel: ✅16% / ❌67%
James Cleverly: ✅15% / ❌41%
Tom Tugendhat: ✅13% / ❌24%
Kemi Badenoch: ✅11% / ❌37%
Robert Jenrick: ✅8% / ❌27%
Mel Stride: ✅4% / ❌18%
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1819299524847804694
Replying to
@YouGov
Tory 2024 voters are not the ones that matter: favourability among all voters *who have an opinion*:
Tom Tugendhat -31
James Cleverly -48
Robert Jenrick -54
Kemi Badenoch -57
Mel Stride -61
Priti Patel -62
Nominal GDP growth in the USA was 5.8% in the year to the end of Q2 2024.
So its bad. Debt is rising faster than GDP.
American growth has been picking up, but inflation has been falling (which is bad for this), so I doubt the pictures improved overall since.