Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
Even the most die-hard Reform-Tory anti Labourite skinhead Thatcherite?
It’s quite astonishing how astonishingly shit they have been at absolutely everything, from day 1, and without any let-up, and it gets even worse from week to week
I have to admit they've taken me by surprise, and I was fairly sure they'd be a disaster.
They've made a dog's breakfast of a budget - anti-jobs, anti-growth, and shed loads of extra unsustainable borrowing.
Right now they're systematically wrecking the academy parts of the school system, at the behest of their union paymasters.
Everything they touch they seem intent on turning to dust.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
Incentive matter. 20,000 millionaires have left since COVID.
Some people say if they want to go let them. But then who pays the taxes they pay ?
That's the issue.
This is not new either. You cannot blame Reeves for this although arguably she has made it worse.
She has made it a WHOLE lot worse
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
It’s said that the fire department budget was cut, and that they didn’t have the resources to carry out preventive works in the areas now on fire.
The latest fires are in Hollywood Hills, an area of mostly large houses and a lot of trees. Not somewhere you’d usually build given the fire risk, but this is some of the most expensive property in the city.
Also stories of insurance companies cancelling fire cover because of the lack of action from the city to stop the fires every year. The suggestion is that they were prevented from raising prices sufficiently to cover the risk, so they stopped fire cover completely.
I think that the proposed budget cuts to the fire department didn't go ahead, they were negotiated away.
It would help if rich Libertarian landlords actually paid their property taxes to fund the fire department of course. There's always a tweet:
Doesn’t LA have some of the highest property and income takes in the whole country?
The least you’d expect is a municipality and fire service that can manage the forest, given that there’s going to be fires there every year. The suggestion is that they’ve not been clearing the scrub from the forest floor, not maintaining fire breaks (although they may be of limited use in the high winds) and not maintaining water reservoirs for fire hydrants.
I suspect that there will be quite the political fallout once the immediate emergency has been dealt with, with various elected officials trying to deflect the blame onto each other. I suspect that a lot of those living in Hollywood Hills especially, are people with a public profile who can make a lot of noise. It’s a popular area with entertainment types as one might expect.
Which all costs money.If you don't pay enough tax, you don't get the services.
The problems in LA aren’t from a lack of money, the City, County, and State governments all have plenty of money.
The problems are the politicians and the allocation of that money, funding pet projects and woke/DEI stuff and not the basics that the residents expect, like a fire service and forestry management.
Apparently they've been cutting everything else while directing all the funding to the LAPD. Hardly the wokeist policy in the world.
Mad how literally anything can be blamed on DEI now, including wildfires.
I read in the FT that Muskybaby has a team of advisors working on ways to remove Starmer…
Morning all.
Welcome to the script of Goldfinger, except with the villain as a child-man 1990's Wayne,'s World character.
Lex Luther. Narcisisst mad scientist genius turned power obsessed CEO turned super villain.
Shouldn't that be Lex Loser?
Yes, because whenever I look at the richest man in the world and possibly the most powerful private citizen on the planet and one the greatest engineers and inventors of this or any time, I always think “loser”, which is very different to how I feel when I look at semi retired provincial quacks from Leicester
Indeed, it would be weak-minded and infantile to put people like Musk and Putin on a pedestal. BTW, have you come out for the AfD yet, like your heroes?
Such fun
Nobody in Germany wants to deal with the heirs to Hitler but everyone is good on deals with the heirs to Stalin
Who murdered more people
As far as I see it Merz and Scholz would rather deal with each other than the AfD or heirs to Stalin
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
You are accusing people you have never met and know nothing about of being selfish. I’m not surprised. These people are not selfish, they are all people who donate to arts, charities, help out. They worked hard to build companies but reached a point where they felt that they weren’t appreciated and would be the scapegoats and cash cows for a society that has been told that they are a problem.
They have children, will have grandchildren and don’t want to be constantly abused on one hand then expected to shell out more and more by the abusers.
Much easier however to throw mud at them than actually think about how the situation has come to be.
Envy is probably the worst British vice and the country always suffers for it.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
Not the point I am making. I have no idea if it is true or not, but just pointing out @leon's impeccable source of data and his often claimed fame for being infallible.
This time it is X, that great source of accurate information. Last time (for exactly the same claim) it was survey, quoted somewhere in the media, that was so riddled with holes a blue whale could pass through it. It was possibly the worst example of duff statistics I think that More or Less have run for awhile. yet there was Leon running with it. Yet he claims to be never wrong.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
I read in the FT that Muskybaby has a team of advisors working on ways to remove Starmer…
Morning all.
Welcome to the script of Goldfinger, except with the villain as a child-man 1990's Wayne,'s World character.
Lex Luther. Narcisisst mad scientist genius turned power obsessed CEO turned super villain.
Shouldn't that be Lex Loser?
Yes, because whenever I look at the richest man in the world and possibly the most powerful private citizen on the planet and one the greatest engineers and inventors of this or any time, I always think “loser”, which is very different to how I feel when I look at semi retired provincial quacks from Leicester
Indeed, it would be weak-minded and infantile to put people like Musk and Putin on a pedestal. BTW, have you come out for the AfD yet, like your heroes?
Such fun
Nobody in Germany wants to deal with the heirs to Hitler but everyone is good on deals with the heirs to Stalin
Who murdered more people
As far as I see it Merz and Scholz would rather deal with each other than the AfD or heirs to Stalin
It’s said that the fire department budget was cut, and that they didn’t have the resources to carry out preventive works in the areas now on fire.
The latest fires are in Hollywood Hills, an area of mostly large houses and a lot of trees. Not somewhere you’d usually build given the fire risk, but this is some of the most expensive property in the city.
Also stories of insurance companies cancelling fire cover because of the lack of action from the city to stop the fires every year. The suggestion is that they were prevented from raising prices sufficiently to cover the risk, so they stopped fire cover completely.
I think that the proposed budget cuts to the fire department didn't go ahead, they were negotiated away.
It would help if rich Libertarian landlords actually paid their property taxes to fund the fire department of course. There's always a tweet:
Doesn’t LA have some of the highest property and income takes in the whole country?
The least you’d expect is a municipality and fire service that can manage the forest, given that there’s going to be fires there every year. The suggestion is that they’ve not been clearing the scrub from the forest floor, not maintaining fire breaks (although they may be of limited use in the high winds) and not maintaining water reservoirs for fire hydrants.
I suspect that there will be quite the political fallout once the immediate emergency has been dealt with, with various elected officials trying to deflect the blame onto each other. I suspect that a lot of those living in Hollywood Hills especially, are people with a public profile who can make a lot of noise. It’s a popular area with entertainment types as one might expect.
Which all costs money.If you don't pay enough tax, you don't get the services.
The problems in LA aren’t from a lack of money, the City, County, and State governments all have plenty of money.
The problems are the politicians and the allocation of that money, funding pet projects and woke/DEI stuff and not the basics that the residents expect, like a fire service and forestry management.
Apparently they've been cutting everything else while directing all the funding to the LAPD. Hardly the wokeist policy in the world.
Mad how literally anything can be blamed on DEI now, including wildfires.
On a slight tangent, but a lot can depend on individuals. I know a fireman in the USA whose much-loathed boss has finally left. They have the budget for better equipment and have for ages, so they're rapidly replacing decades old gear for stuff they could've easily afforded before but the (to use an Americanism) 'douchenozzle' was blocking that for some reason.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
It's interesting that some people like the half the idea of Global Britain - easy to come here and work. But the corollary to that is that people find it easier to leave.
Take one bloke in my team. Indian, first generation immigrant. Got wife and baby, no school as yet. Been in the country about 6 years. Why shouldn't he move to Berlin, or wherever?
He looks at what he is paying in taxes and what he gets for it. And is not impressed. Transactional, maybe. But why should he think differently?
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
Sorry. What? People who decide to live somewhere else with lower taxes are “utterly selfish”? Perhaps they feel countries with lower taxes will also be more welcoming to free enterprise and innovation? And - more importantly - it’s their money and they can do what they like
You often make painfully moronic remarks but this one is pretty up there
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
Except for the next 4 years that is Labour's problem
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
I agree with that, what I don't understand is why a government whose entire prospectus is predicated on achieving above trend economic growth could not understand that sentiment matters a great deal when it comes to investment. Investing is as much an emotional decision as it is an intellectual one. How people feel has a great bearing on whether an economy will grow or not, so months of saying everything is awful can be both true and entirely counterproductive.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
Except for the next 4 years that is Labour's problem
I am not sure what your point is. You can validly criticise Labour for this but if the party you support wouldn’t do anything differently it just comes across as ridiculous.
It’s said that the fire department budget was cut, and that they didn’t have the resources to carry out preventive works in the areas now on fire.
The latest fires are in Hollywood Hills, an area of mostly large houses and a lot of trees. Not somewhere you’d usually build given the fire risk, but this is some of the most expensive property in the city.
Also stories of insurance companies cancelling fire cover because of the lack of action from the city to stop the fires every year. The suggestion is that they were prevented from raising prices sufficiently to cover the risk, so they stopped fire cover completely.
I think that the proposed budget cuts to the fire department didn't go ahead, they were negotiated away.
It would help if rich Libertarian landlords actually paid their property taxes to fund the fire department of course. There's always a tweet:
Doesn’t LA have some of the highest property and income takes in the whole country?
The least you’d expect is a municipality and fire service that can manage the forest, given that there’s going to be fires there every year. The suggestion is that they’ve not been clearing the scrub from the forest floor, not maintaining fire breaks (although they may be of limited use in the high winds) and not maintaining water reservoirs for fire hydrants.
I suspect that there will be quite the political fallout once the immediate emergency has been dealt with, with various elected officials trying to deflect the blame onto each other. I suspect that a lot of those living in Hollywood Hills especially, are people with a public profile who can make a lot of noise. It’s a popular area with entertainment types as one might expect.
Which all costs money.If you don't pay enough tax, you don't get the services.
The problems in LA aren’t from a lack of money, the City, County, and State governments all have plenty of money.
The problems are the politicians and the allocation of that money, funding pet projects and woke/DEI stuff and not the basics that the residents expect, like a fire service and forestry management.
Apparently they've been cutting everything else while directing all the funding to the LAPD. Hardly the wokeist policy in the world.
Mad how literally anything can be blamed on DEI now, including wildfires.
What I'm not getting from this discussion is who owns the woodlands/scrublands?
It’s said that the fire department budget was cut, and that they didn’t have the resources to carry out preventive works in the areas now on fire.
The latest fires are in Hollywood Hills, an area of mostly large houses and a lot of trees. Not somewhere you’d usually build given the fire risk, but this is some of the most expensive property in the city.
Also stories of insurance companies cancelling fire cover because of the lack of action from the city to stop the fires every year. The suggestion is that they were prevented from raising prices sufficiently to cover the risk, so they stopped fire cover completely.
I think that the proposed budget cuts to the fire department didn't go ahead, they were negotiated away.
It would help if rich Libertarian landlords actually paid their property taxes to fund the fire department of course. There's always a tweet:
Doesn’t LA have some of the highest property and income takes in the whole country?
The least you’d expect is a municipality and fire service that can manage the forest, given that there’s going to be fires there every year. The suggestion is that they’ve not been clearing the scrub from the forest floor, not maintaining fire breaks (although they may be of limited use in the high winds) and not maintaining water reservoirs for fire hydrants.
I suspect that there will be quite the political fallout once the immediate emergency has been dealt with, with various elected officials trying to deflect the blame onto each other. I suspect that a lot of those living in Hollywood Hills especially, are people with a public profile who can make a lot of noise. It’s a popular area with entertainment types as one might expect.
Which all costs money.If you don't pay enough tax, you don't get the services.
The problems in LA aren’t from a lack of money, the City, County, and State governments all have plenty of money.
The problems are the politicians and the allocation of that money, funding pet projects and woke/DEI stuff and not the basics that the residents expect, like a fire service and forestry management.
Apparently they've been cutting everything else while directing all the funding to the LAPD. Hardly the wokeist policy in the world.
Mad how literally anything can be blamed on DEI now, including wildfires.
On a slight tangent, but a lot can depend on individuals. I know a fireman in the USA whose much-loathed boss has finally left. They have the budget for better equipment and have for ages, so they're rapidly replacing decades old gear for stuff they could've easily afforded before but the (to use an Americanism) 'douchenozzle' was blocking that for some reason.
I would suspect that the douchnozzle had a stake in the maintenance of the old equipment.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
Would they have been trying to force money down the throat of the Mauritius gov't though ? Yes, a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things but to misquote my gran "Look after the million and the billions look after themself"
Labour needs to accept it'll be a 1 term gov't and make more hard choices like WASPI, WFA and quite honestly dumping the triple lock.
Reeves is as inept at communications as Starmer, but the fundamental problem remains. The national finances have been running on empty for years. It's either tax rises or massive austerity.
It shows how useless Badenoch is that she didn't go with this as PMQs, rather than her self defeating bandwagon six questions.
The thing that is most likely to save Labour's bacon at the next GE is how useless the alternatives are. Rupert Lowe's comments in Parliament yesterday were even more disgraceful.
If she'd have asked about the economy at PMQs you would have called her useless for not asking questions about the big news story of the day.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
Except for the next 4 years that is Labour's problem
I am not sure what your point is. You can validly criticise Labour for this but if the party you support wouldn’t do anything differently it just comes across as ridiculous.
The conservatives would not have talked down the economy for months nor would they have produced a jobs and growth destroying budget
Fun fact: only two chancellors were sacked between 1967 and 2016 - and just one if you exclude being reshuffled to an alternative great office of state.
Every other one either left office when their party lost a general election on the resignation of the government as a whole (Barber, Healey, Clarke, Darling), or was promoted to PM (Major, Brown), or died in office (Macleod), or resigned over political differences (Lawson).
The only two exceptions were Howe, who later brought down Thatcher, and Lamont, who was discredited but still caused Major a load of trouble.
The turbulence and turnover in chancellors since then has done nothing to suggest that sacking chancellors has become any less dangerous for the PMs involved, just that they've become more reckless or desperate in their actions.
Reeves is as inept at communications as Starmer, but the fundamental problem remains. The national finances have been running on empty for years. It's either tax rises or massive austerity.
It shows how useless Badenoch is that she didn't go with this as PMQs, rather than her self defeating bandwagon six questions.
The thing that is most likely to save Labour's bacon at the next GE is how useless the alternatives are. Rupert Lowe's comments in Parliament yesterday were even more disgraceful.
If she'd have asked about the economy at PMQs you would have called her useless for not asking questions about the big news story of the day.
The problem is this government meant is fking so many thing sat once we need a PMQ every day to cover them,
It’s said that the fire department budget was cut, and that they didn’t have the resources to carry out preventive works in the areas now on fire.
The latest fires are in Hollywood Hills, an area of mostly large houses and a lot of trees. Not somewhere you’d usually build given the fire risk, but this is some of the most expensive property in the city.
Also stories of insurance companies cancelling fire cover because of the lack of action from the city to stop the fires every year. The suggestion is that they were prevented from raising prices sufficiently to cover the risk, so they stopped fire cover completely.
I think that the proposed budget cuts to the fire department didn't go ahead, they were negotiated away.
It would help if rich Libertarian landlords actually paid their property taxes to fund the fire department of course. There's always a tweet:
Doesn’t LA have some of the highest property and income takes in the whole country?
The least you’d expect is a municipality and fire service that can manage the forest, given that there’s going to be fires there every year. The suggestion is that they’ve not been clearing the scrub from the forest floor, not maintaining fire breaks (although they may be of limited use in the high winds) and not maintaining water reservoirs for fire hydrants.
I suspect that there will be quite the political fallout once the immediate emergency has been dealt with, with various elected officials trying to deflect the blame onto each other. I suspect that a lot of those living in Hollywood Hills especially, are people with a public profile who can make a lot of noise. It’s a popular area with entertainment types as one might expect.
Which all costs money.If you don't pay enough tax, you don't get the services.
The problems in LA aren’t from a lack of money, the City, County, and State governments all have plenty of money.
The problems are the politicians and the allocation of that money, funding pet projects and woke/DEI stuff and not the basics that the residents expect, like a fire service and forestry management.
Now the great and the good, the luvies, millionaires and the property developers have suffered what the little people have to regularly suffer, I'm sure they'll be clamouring for change. I expect the Oscars will hold a fundraiser to help rebuild Anthony Hopkins' second holiday home.
Boris was way too loyal and that caused him all sorts of issues.
Starmer does not share that problem. He has no loyalty, only self preservation - a claim all the credit, share the blame, sort of guy. As long as Reeves serves a purpose, she will survive.
I don't see her serving a purpose, so she will be gone, quite probably this year, as this shitshow can't continue. 10 year gilts nearing the 5% mark.
It will wound him and ruin any attempt at displaying incompetence.
Thoughts with those on here who tried to mock those pointing out the inevitable consequences of the budget. Looking at 'Abonojizza' etc.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
Would they have been trying to force money down the throat of the Mauritius gov't though ? Yes, a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things but to misquote my gran "Look after the million and the billions look after themself"
Labour needs to accept it'll be a 1 term gov't and make more hard choices like WASPI, WFA and quite honestly dumping the triple lock.
Agreed - they probably would have continued to ladle free money to rich Tory-voting pensioners instead
When is Reeves leaving? I’ve not seen a government so woefully inept, and I was super critical of the Tories.
She will go about three days before Starmer. Experience shows that critical times are generally the third week in September. Don't know why, but that is when crises tend to come to a head, maybe people are back from the summer break.
The truth is from 2010 to 2024 the Conservatives showed that governing wisely is never easy. Since 4 July Starmer has shown on a daily basis that governing unwisely is a piece of piss.
When is Reeves leaving? I’ve not seen a government so woefully inept, and I was super critical of the Tories.
She will only leave when Mr Market pushes her. And only then, when she has hung around (because the PM is too ineffectual to do what is required) long enough to cause lasting damage.
It’s said that the fire department budget was cut, and that they didn’t have the resources to carry out preventive works in the areas now on fire.
The latest fires are in Hollywood Hills, an area of mostly large houses and a lot of trees. Not somewhere you’d usually build given the fire risk, but this is some of the most expensive property in the city.
Also stories of insurance companies cancelling fire cover because of the lack of action from the city to stop the fires every year. The suggestion is that they were prevented from raising prices sufficiently to cover the risk, so they stopped fire cover completely.
I think that the proposed budget cuts to the fire department didn't go ahead, they were negotiated away.
It would help if rich Libertarian landlords actually paid their property taxes to fund the fire department of course. There's always a tweet:
Doesn’t LA have some of the highest property and income takes in the whole country?
The least you’d expect is a municipality and fire service that can manage the forest, given that there’s going to be fires there every year. The suggestion is that they’ve not been clearing the scrub from the forest floor, not maintaining fire breaks (although they may be of limited use in the high winds) and not maintaining water reservoirs for fire hydrants.
I suspect that there will be quite the political fallout once the immediate emergency has been dealt with, with various elected officials trying to deflect the blame onto each other. I suspect that a lot of those living in Hollywood Hills especially, are people with a public profile who can make a lot of noise. It’s a popular area with entertainment types as one might expect.
Which all costs money.If you don't pay enough tax, you don't get the services.
The problems in LA aren’t from a lack of money, the City, County, and State governments all have plenty of money.
The problems are the politicians and the allocation of that money, funding pet projects and woke/DEI stuff and not the basics that the residents expect, like a fire service and forestry management.
Apparently they've been cutting everything else while directing all the funding to the LAPD. Hardly the wokeist policy in the world.
Mad how literally anything can be blamed on DEI now, including wildfires.
DEI is just a meaningless slogan for the US right now. Of universal applicability,
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
Sorry. What? People who decide to live somewhere else with lower taxes are “utterly selfish”? Perhaps they feel countries with lower taxes will also be more welcoming to free enterprise and innovation? And - more importantly - it’s their money and they can do what they like
You often make painfully moronic remarks but this one is pretty up there
A question and a serious one and not being bitchy: You are almost certainly the most mobile person on here. You are hardly in the UK and appear to have no ties to a local community and few family ties and one small, but probably desirable flat in London. Why are you still here?
I have seriously considered moving to France (and nearly done it) and have/had seriously more ties than you and only haven't because of those ties and also for being much more conservative in my risk taking than you.
Why haven't you? You wouldn't even have to give up PB.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
I shall just repeat a comment I have made before - You won't get people to call for a smaller state until they (via taxes), and not our grandchildren (via borrowing), are paying for it. Taxes are too low.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
I shall just repeat a comment I have made before - You won't get people to call for a smaller state until they (via taxes), and not our grandchildren (via borrowing), are paying for it. Taxes are too low.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
If she removes the large concession to higher rate tax payers on their pension contributions it shouldn't affect economic growth.
It is odd that higher rate tax payers get double the concession (40% instead of 20%) to encourage them to save for their pension. It's low hanging fruit.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
But the reality is that healthcare demand is fixed, criminal justice has to be fixed, and we need to strengthen our defences.
It’s an impossible puzzle to fix.
I think there's scope for big efficiency savings in some areas whilst others truly are down to the bone. The problem is those areas with plenty of fat still to cut aren't going to admit to it; so the only way it's ever going to get done is with something like the Musk/Ramaswamy/Millei approach of a vigorous external actor(s) coming in an saying we don't need this, this, this and this.
Our national budget is basically healthcare, welfare, police, schools, transport and defence. The rest is noise. And, frankly, it’s telly just health and welfare. Hard to find deep and meaningful cuts.
When you're spending well over a trillion per year its pretty easy to find deep and meaningful cuts.
The political problem is that those cuts will be on the old and poor.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
My wife has found a house she likes in Lugano, we're going to view it in early February. It may be that we leave for Switzerland by the end of 2025.
Leaving a CHF area for a € zone area. Are you sure?
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
If she removes the large concession to higher rate tax payers on their pension contributions it shouldn't affect economic growth.
It is odd that higher rate tax payers get double the concession (40% instead of 20%) to encourage them to save for their pension. It's low hanging fruit.
Do that and we'll hear the 'doctors will stop work after pension tax rise' stories.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
But the reality is that healthcare demand is fixed, criminal justice has to be fixed, and we need to strengthen our defences.
It’s an impossible puzzle to fix.
I think there's scope for big efficiency savings in some areas whilst others truly are down to the bone. The problem is those areas with plenty of fat still to cut aren't going to admit to it; so the only way it's ever going to get done is with something like the Musk/Ramaswamy/Millei approach of a vigorous external actor(s) coming in an saying we don't need this, this, this and this.
Our national budget is basically healthcare, welfare, police, schools, transport and defence. The rest is noise. And, frankly, it’s telly just health and welfare. Hard to find deep and meaningful cuts.
When you're spending well over a trillion per year its pretty easy to find deep and meaningful cuts.
The political problem is that those cuts will be on the old and poor.
Well whenever they talk about cuts the recipient of the cuts will respond by saying this means cuts to front line services to manage Public support against said cuts.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
We don't need to balance the budget. That's the naive Thatcher housewife fallacy.
The debt can continue to grow as long as it roughly keeps pace with economic growth.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
If she removes the large concession to higher rate tax payers on their pension contributions it shouldn't affect economic growth.
It is odd that higher rate tax payers get double the concession (40% instead of 20%) to encourage them to save for their pension. It's low hanging fruit.
She could even change it to 25% or 30% across the board which helps the lower paid too
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
We don't need to balance the budget. That's the naive Thatcher housewife fallacy.
The debt can continue to grow as long as it roughly keeps pace with economic growth.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
We don't need to balance the budget. That's the naive Thatcher housewife fallacy.
The debt can continue to grow as long as it roughly keeps pace with economic growth.
There is no growth
Reeves is trying to tax her way to growth. Hardly a winning strategy.
It will be "one off wealth tax on millionaires" next.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
We don't need to balance the budget. That's the naive Thatcher housewife fallacy.
The debt can continue to grow as long as it roughly keeps pace with economic growth.
Sure. But it isn't. And really, debt as a share of GDP should be falling during periods of growth so that it can rise during recessions without creating a graph that looks like a series of steps.
Of course, the problem is that there isn't any growth even though there should be, which is down mostly to structural constraints which neither this government nor the last one are doing much about. The problem is political rather than financial or economic.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
That’s the most extreme ultranationalist comment I’ve ever seen on here.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
We don't need to balance the budget. That's the naive Thatcher housewife fallacy.
The debt can continue to grow as long as it roughly keeps pace with economic growth.
There is no growth
Reeves is trying to tax her way to growth. Hardly a winning strategy.
It will be "one off wealth tax on millionaires" next.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
But the reality is that healthcare demand is fixed, criminal justice has to be fixed, and we need to strengthen our defences.
It’s an impossible puzzle to fix.
I think there's scope for big efficiency savings in some areas whilst others truly are down to the bone. The problem is those areas with plenty of fat still to cut aren't going to admit to it; so the only way it's ever going to get done is with something like the Musk/Ramaswamy/Millei approach of a vigorous external actor(s) coming in an saying we don't need this, this, this and this.
Our national budget is basically healthcare, welfare, police, schools, transport and defence. The rest is noise. And, frankly, it’s telly just health and welfare. Hard to find deep and meaningful cuts.
When you're spending well over a trillion per year its pretty easy to find deep and meaningful cuts.
The political problem is that those cuts will be on the old and poor.
No.
As I've said, many times before, what we need to do is to embed in government systemic system improvement. As continuous, ongoing thing.
You're not going to get 5% costs cut in 10 minutes. But a rolling program of process reduction and aligning processes between areas of government could, I think, deliver a 1 percent or 2 per year. Together with sensible technology upgrades (no big bangs).
Easy spending cut for Labour is £9bn to Mauritius.
But it's virtue spending as a luxury belief for them to show how wonderful they are. So I imagine it'll be sacred.
There have been more consultations/murmurings about Leeds getting a tram system. I expect this to be cancelled. Yet again (not party political, it's happened under them all, repeatedly).
Morning. I don’t see Reeves going myself. The calibre of replacements isn’t there. Yvette Cooper would be a good choice as she’s a far more experienced political player but you then have an issue of who to replace her with as well as the fact that the tabloids would probably reheat their misogynistic tendencies and suggest that she was a marionette controlled Gepetto like by her husband.
Someone up thread hit on the nub of matters when they said that we have had two recent governments with good majorities that are all at sea. I think that speaks to a deep malaise about politics, in the past governments could rely on a support system of true believers allied with a mass of benefit of the doubt supporters. The former group included those who had similarities to the latter in that they might not get all their ideological wish list implemented but would still support their side by and large, the latter group were your traditional floating voter. I think the advent of rolling news with more rapid news cycles plus the bombarding nature of social media with if not ‘fake news’ certainly highly curated news has fragmented the true believers and eradicated any kind of benefit of the doubt. Sadly I can’t see how you reestablish those conditions upon which good government really depends.
What I noticed in one of the naughty drone shots was that the trees weren't actually burned - it was purely the ground vegetation and the housing. The tree tops still appeared to be green.
Perhaps building mostly wooden houses close together in a fire zone isn't a good idea.
Fingers crossed they can get it under control now the wind is dropping.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
If she removes the large concession to higher rate tax payers on their pension contributions it shouldn't affect economic growth.
It is odd that higher rate tax payers get double the concession (40% instead of 20%) to encourage them to save for their pension. It's low hanging fruit.
Do that and we'll hear the 'doctors will stop work after pension tax rise' stories.
Quite. That's what happened before her budget. She should face them down.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
Incentive matter. 20,000 millionaires have left since COVID.
Some people say if they want to go let them. But then who pays the taxes they pay ?
That's the issue.
This is not new either. You cannot blame Reeves for this although arguably she has made it worse.
She has made it a WHOLE lot worse
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
Perhaps you're too old now to appreciate London as much as you previously did ?
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
We don't need to balance the budget. That's the naive Thatcher housewife fallacy.
The debt can continue to grow as long as it roughly keeps pace with economic growth.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
If she removes the large concession to higher rate tax payers on their pension contributions it shouldn't affect economic growth.
It is odd that higher rate tax payers get double the concession (40% instead of 20%) to encourage them to save for their pension. It's low hanging fruit.
She could even change it to 25% or 30% across the board which helps the lower paid too
You'd have thought this would be the sort of thinking Reeves would have been able to do in opposition seeing as they were massively odds on to form the next Gov't, but clearly they didn't !
What I noticed in one of the naughty drone shots was that the trees weren't actually burned - it was purely the ground vegetation and the housing. The tree tops still appeared to be green.
Perhaps building mostly wooden houses close together in a fire zone isn't a good idea.
Fingers crossed they can get it under control now the wind is dropping.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
Incentive matter. 20,000 millionaires have left since COVID.
Some people say if they want to go let them. But then who pays the taxes they pay ?
That's the issue.
This is not new either. You cannot blame Reeves for this although arguably she has made it worse.
She has made it a WHOLE lot worse
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
Perhaps you're too old now to appreciate London as much as you previously did ?
Too old to remember his views as well. Within a month he will proclaim London the best city in the world again.
I have to say, much as I think the NHS is important, that devoting so much money to it at the expense of the green growth plan, was very odd politics
The idea seems to have been that NHS improvements would be the most tangible feelgood factor for voters before an election, but a lack of growth effects social and economic confidence across the board. The previous Government performed no better, though.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
But the reality is that healthcare demand is fixed, criminal justice has to be fixed, and we need to strengthen our defences.
It’s an impossible puzzle to fix.
I think there's scope for big efficiency savings in some areas whilst others truly are down to the bone. The problem is those areas with plenty of fat still to cut aren't going to admit to it; so the only way it's ever going to get done is with something like the Musk/Ramaswamy/Millei approach of a vigorous external actor(s) coming in an saying we don't need this, this, this and this.
Our national budget is basically healthcare, welfare, police, schools, transport and defence. The rest is noise. And, frankly, it’s telly just health and welfare. Hard to find deep and meaningful cuts.
I assume you're counting pensions in with healthcare there?
Labour is making the right noises about health and social care but is doing sod all about it. There are significant friction savings to be made by getting a smoother service, which will not just save money but deliver better outcomes. But it will mean restructuring processes and controls, which means upsetting some politicians, civil servants and private sector suppliers, which may be the real blocker.
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
If she removes the large concession to higher rate tax payers on their pension contributions it shouldn't affect economic growth.
It is odd that higher rate tax payers get double the concession (40% instead of 20%) to encourage them to save for their pension. It's low hanging fruit.
She could even change it to 25% or 30% across the board which helps the lower paid too
You'd have thought this would be the sort of thinking Reeves would have been able to do in opposition seeing as they were massively odds on to form the next Gov't, but clearly they didn't !
They were supposedly a govt in waiting with all of their policies and plans in place for when they came to power.
How could they be so ill prepared. It beggars belief.
I don't think it was in doubt from the Truss era they would form the next govt.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
Sorry. What? People who decide to live somewhere else with lower taxes are “utterly selfish”? Perhaps they feel countries with lower taxes will also be more welcoming to free enterprise and innovation? And - more importantly - it’s their money and they can do what they like
You often make painfully moronic remarks but this one is pretty up there
A question and a serious one and not being bitchy: You are almost certainly the most mobile person on here. You are hardly in the UK and appear to have no ties to a local community and few family ties and one small, but probably desirable flat in London. Why are you still here?
I have seriously considered moving to France (and nearly done it) and have/had seriously more ties than you and only haven't because of those ties and also for being much more conservative in my risk taking than you.
Why haven't you? You wouldn't even have to give up PB.
It's a fair question, and one I often ask!
However you possibly under-estimate my ties. I have one older daughter who - until recently - lived near me in London. I love her to bits and like her company. However she turned 18 last year and is now at Uni in Scotland so that's one major tie gone (or at least much weaker). My other daughter is in Australia but it is still a slight tie, she is also turning 18 and when she starts traveling London will be right up there on her list
On top of that I have quite a big extended family, mainly in Cornwall, and - maybe more importantly - a good number of friends in London, or - if they are not in London - when they go travelling they will nearly always pass through London - from LA, NYC, Europe, Bangkok etc. London is a good place to catch people on the go
It's a combo of all these things that have kept me from making a permanent move, plus two more things. First work and in-person meetings. They do happen and they happen in London and they are valuable. Second, one other huge thing. I travel all the time for free, it's my second job. And London is a brilliant base from which to travel. Paradoxically
However as time passes (dwindles?) I do think about slipping anchor entirely. One option on my list is to rent out my flat, or Airbnb it, and be a genuine nomad, I have friends around the world, I love moving, I can still organise travel wherever I am. I did 4 months permanent nomadism a couple of years back and loved it - I could do 3 months here, then move on, then move on again, I like the idea of being entirely untethered (others would hate it)
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
Except for the next 4 years that is Labour's problem
I am not sure what your point is. You can validly criticise Labour for this but if the party you support wouldn’t do anything differently it just comes across as ridiculous.
The conservatives would not have talked down the economy for months nor would they have produced a jobs and growth destroying budget
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
Incentive matter. 20,000 millionaires have left since COVID.
Some people say if they want to go let them. But then who pays the taxes they pay ?
That's the issue.
This is not new either. You cannot blame Reeves for this although arguably she has made it worse.
She has made it a WHOLE lot worse
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
Perhaps you're too old now to appreciate London as much as you previously did ?
I can't see any alternative Labour Chancellor doing much different so I expect her to stay. Given the need to cut borrowing that means either further higher taxes or spending cuts and the Labour Party base and unions would revolt unless it was the former
They can revolt as much as they want, but this is the reality and drastic cuts in spending and increase taxes is her only path, otherwise the IMF are waiting in the wings
More taxes are going to throttle economic growth, the reality is she needs to cut spending.
If she removes the large concession to higher rate tax payers on their pension contributions it shouldn't affect economic growth.
It is odd that higher rate tax payers get double the concession (40% instead of 20%) to encourage them to save for their pension. It's low hanging fruit.
The state should subsidise pensions up to about 500k in total, beyond that it is better that higher earners spend more now than save more.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
We don't need to balance the budget. That's the naive Thatcher housewife fallacy.
The debt can continue to grow as long as it roughly keeps pace with economic growth.
There is no growth
Reeves is trying to tax her way to growth. Hardly a winning strategy.
It will be "one off wealth tax on millionaires" next.
I'm wondering if I've chosen the right time to retire (early)...
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
Labours mistake as I’ve continually pointed out was not reversing the employee NI cuts as unaffordable
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
Incentive matter. 20,000 millionaires have left since COVID.
Some people say if they want to go let them. But then who pays the taxes they pay ?
That's the issue.
This is not new either. You cannot blame Reeves for this although arguably she has made it worse.
She has made it a WHOLE lot worse
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
Perhaps you're too old now to appreciate London as much as you previously did ?
London was full of minorities in the 1990"s too.
The demographics of London have changed substantially since 1990.
Easy spending cut for Labour is £9bn to Mauritius.
But it's virtue spending as a luxury belief for them to show how wonderful they are. So I imagine it'll be sacred.
There have been more consultations/murmurings about Leeds getting a tram system. I expect this to be cancelled. Yet again (not party political, it's happened under them all, repeatedly).
To be fair, trams are just expensive and inflexible buses, that disrupt the city for many years while the streets are dug up to put the rails in. A metro system is the way to go, particularly for the centre - it can run above ground elsewhere.
Getting it built would require changes to processes though. The majority of the cost is in regulation.
What I noticed in one of the naughty drone shots was that the trees weren't actually burned - it was purely the ground vegetation and the housing. The tree tops still appeared to be green.
Perhaps building mostly wooden houses close together in a fire zone isn't a good idea.
Fingers crossed they can get it under control now the wind is dropping.
Reeves isn't going anywhere and unless you are the daughter of a duke you aren't going to enough drinks parties to meet, among all the guests, 22 couples who are about to leave the UK for tax/other reasons.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
Incentive matter. 20,000 millionaires have left since COVID.
Some people say if they want to go let them. But then who pays the taxes they pay ?
That's the issue.
This is not new either. You cannot blame Reeves for this although arguably she has made it worse.
She has made it a WHOLE lot worse
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
Perhaps you're too old now to appreciate London as much as you previously did ?
London was full of minorities in the 1990"s too.
The demographics of London have changed substantially since 1990.
They have been changing substantially for most of the last couple of hundred years. Nothing new about that.
What I noticed in one of the naughty drone shots was that the trees weren't actually burned - it was purely the ground vegetation and the housing. The tree tops still appeared to be green.
Perhaps building mostly wooden houses close together in a fire zone isn't a good idea.
Fingers crossed they can get it under control now the wind is dropping.
Isn't wood for the USA like bricks for the UK ?
I think so. I read somewhere the other day (could be here) that wood has an advantage in dangerous areas (eg tornado alley), being faster to rebuild plus less dangerous if it collapses around you.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
Incentive matter. 20,000 millionaires have left since COVID.
Some people say if they want to go let them. But then who pays the taxes they pay ?
That's the issue.
This is not new either. You cannot blame Reeves for this although arguably she has made it worse.
She has made it a WHOLE lot worse
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
Perhaps you're too old now to appreciate London as much as you previously did ?
Except that I really love big cities, all around the world. Tokyo and Osaka were magnificent last autumn. I really liked Busan and Seoul. Even Manila had an interesting edge
I loved Vancouver. I enjoyed the Olympics in Paris. OK I hated Geneva but that's a village
Right now I am in Bangkok and it's blissful, in an hour I shall go to the gym, work up a sweat, then step out into the sweet tropical air and the moist tropical stars and have a gin and tonic on soi 8 with a friend. That's my idea of heaven
So you'd have a point about cities if I now hated all big cities, but it ain't the case
What is true is that as I age my tolerance of the British climate November-March decreases year on year, and I've never exactly loved it
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
Incentive matter. 20,000 millionaires have left since COVID.
Some people say if they want to go let them. But then who pays the taxes they pay ?
That's the issue.
This is not new either. You cannot blame Reeves for this although arguably she has made it worse.
She has made it a WHOLE lot worse
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
Perhaps you're too old now to appreciate London as much as you previously did ?
London was full of minorities in the 1990"s too.
The demographics of London have changed substantially since 1990.
I know, but often in quite complex ways depending on the area. In my own particular area, there are actually now more Continental Europeans living in the streets that were mainly from people from the Subcontinent 20 years ago.
Easy spending cut for Labour is £9bn to Mauritius.
But it's virtue spending as a luxury belief for them to show how wonderful they are. So I imagine it'll be sacred.
There have been more consultations/murmurings about Leeds getting a tram system. I expect this to be cancelled. Yet again (not party political, it's happened under them all, repeatedly).
To be fair, trams are just expensive and inflexible buses, that disrupt the city for many years while the streets are dug up to put the rails in. A metro system is the way to go, particularly for the centre - it can run above ground elsewhere.
Getting it built would require changes to processes though. The majority of the cost is in regulation.
Electric buses in dedicated bus lanes can deliver much of the benefits of trams.
But "Trams are more efficient" - I hear the cry.
If trams cost a zillion a mile, require years of planning, then sorry. You can't have lots of trams. Choices.
Much like the explosion (ha) of battery storage for power. Why? Because *stopping* people parking some shipping containers on some land is very difficult. So it may not be the best storage system. But it's the one that will happen.
What I noticed in one of the naughty drone shots was that the trees weren't actually burned - it was purely the ground vegetation and the housing. The tree tops still appeared to be green.
Perhaps building mostly wooden houses close together in a fire zone isn't a good idea.
Fingers crossed they can get it under control now the wind is dropping.
California building code is pretty strict, because it’s an earthquake zone, but there’s still too many houses of wooden construction. The brick or concrete houses tend to be the larger ones, but they all have big gardens filled with trees so the fire is coming through anyway.
The correct thing to do is a lot of preventative maintenance, such as clearing scrub off the floor in the forests, clearing areas for fire breaks in the forests, controlled burns before fire season, keeping street trees smaller and not overhanging property, making sure the reservoir for the fire hydrants is full etc etc.
It doesn’t look like this has happened, to the point where insurance companies have given up on insuring fire risk in many places because they’re increasingly uncontrollable. There’s going to be quite the political fallout if it turns out a bunch of Hollywood types have had uninsured mansions burn down. It won’t be forgotten like the fires in Maui were last year.
Dire economic background at the moment. Looking at the stock market we've had three retailers (Greggs, M&S, and Tesco) announce pretty reasonable updates this morning - all down (9%, 5%, 2%). These aren't normal times.
(I don't blame Reeves for this - she's just doing her best to deliver on Labour policy. And of course their policy is hardly a mad rush left, so although wrong-headed it's only moderately so. It's much more the state the country has drifted into over many years - since 1997 really)
The country is broke, people are broke. It’s not really a surprise. And instead of focusing on how we can turn the economy around we’re focused on lies about things that have already happened and absurdity about wanting to be dictated to by a foreigner.
The country is not broke. The people are not broke. I live near Glasgow Airport and every day thousands of people are flying on foreign holidays and business trips. The A380 double decker jumbo flies daily to Dubai. The Guardian's food critic recommends £50 lunches and £100 dinners. The average house is worth £300K. This a wealthy country, but the wealth is not being shared around.
It struck me while indulging in one of my guilty pleasures, Salvage Hunters Classic Cars, that there's a whole tranche of older people who are feeling no pain at all. They'd set up an event to flog off one of their restored classics, a Fiat or a Lancia I think, in a flashy all-white upper story car park. The car made an entrance from the lift to a bunch of drooling middle agers, none under 50, a few quite a bit older; it resembled some sort of porn event. I can't recall but presumably one of them shelled out to purchase the shiny trinket afterwards.
There are a lot of older people with second or even third homes, foreign holidays several times a year, expensive hobbies, collections of toys with which they've rewarded themselves, oodles of time to post intemperately on the internet on why fings aint what they used to be. There are also loads of young people who work low pay jobs and can barely afford to rent a room, let alone even think about owning their own home. Something's gotta give.
None of you would be saying this had he backed Harris and the Dems.
Don't deny it, we won't believe you.
Musk proved himself to be an utter berk even before he started going political, remember when he got the hump with divers rejecting his submarine for that cave rescue in Thailand?
Even if Musk never said a single political thing he's made a ridiculous number of stupid comments and made claims he hasn't kept.
And yet he is the greatest engineering-capitalist of the 21st century. X is just a place for him to blow off steam tbh, unfettered by our milquetoast OSA and libel laws.
I note stocks down, bonds up, sterling down (Even against the €). Not going too well for Reeves.
Why should he be unfettered by our libel laws? X is publishing to UK readers.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
Sorry. What? People who decide to live somewhere else with lower taxes are “utterly selfish”? Perhaps they feel countries with lower taxes will also be more welcoming to free enterprise and innovation? And - more importantly - it’s their money and they can do what they like
You often make painfully moronic remarks but this one is pretty up there
A question and a serious one and not being bitchy: You are almost certainly the most mobile person on here. You are hardly in the UK and appear to have no ties to a local community and few family ties and one small, but probably desirable flat in London. Why are you still here?
I have seriously considered moving to France (and nearly done it) and have/had seriously more ties than you and only haven't because of those ties and also for being much more conservative in my risk taking than you.
Why haven't you? You wouldn't even have to give up PB.
It's a fair question, and one I often ask!
However you possibly under-estimate my ties. I have one older daughter who - until recently - lived near me in London. I love her to bits and like her company. However she turned 18 last year and is now at Uni in Scotland so that's one major tie gone (or at least much weaker). My other daughter is in Australia but it is still a slight tie, she is also turning 18 and when she starts traveling London will be right up there on her list
On top of that I have quite a big extended family, mainly in Cornwall, and - maybe more importantly - a good number of friends in London, or - if they are not in London - when they go travelling they will nearly always pass through London - from LA, NYC, Europe, Bangkok etc. London is a good place to catch people on the go
It's a combo of all these things that have kept me from making a permanent move, plus two more things. First work and in-person meetings. They do happen and they happen in London and they are valuable. Second, one other huge thing. I travel all the time for free, it's my second job. And London is a brilliant base from which to travel. Paradoxically
However as time passes (dwindles?) I do think about slipping anchor entirely. One option on my list is to rent out my flat, or Airbnb it, and be a genuine nomad, I have friends around the world, I love moving, I can still organise travel wherever I am. I did 4 months permanent nomadism a couple of years back and loved it - I could do 3 months here, then move on, then move on again, I like the idea of being entirely untethered (others would hate it)
So, who knows
Speaking as somebody who travels a lot and spends over 50% of my time away from home (although I appreciate commuting to Craptown, Bumshire doesn't have the same ring as flying to Whickerville Oligarchia), you will always need a physical place as a base, even if it's just a small flat.
One of the most damaging mistakes Labour made was bad-mouthing the UK economy after the election.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
They are a bunch of managers, not leaders. That is the problem in my opinion. Maybe with the exception of Wes Streeting from what I have seen.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
Balancing the budget will require major cuts in spending. Somebody is going to have to do it and Labour are in the chair for the next 4 years.
I agree on the whole but I stand by my point that it is laughable to pretend either the Tories or Reform have any interest in doing so.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
I shall just repeat a comment I have made before - You won't get people to call for a smaller state until they (via taxes), and not our grandchildren (via borrowing), are paying for it. Taxes are too low.
For a very long time I've believed that everybody should pay income tax - even people on benefits should know that they'd be getting £X more without paying the tax. So a zero personal allowance. But no idea how one would resolve the step-change from now to then since for the very low paid it would mean employers paying more to cover the loss due to tax.
Up until the end of the Second World War, anybody who fell outside of the cultural norm — white, British and Christian — was a novelty and would have lived in the full knowledge that they did not represent the municipal mainstream. The experience of London before the Second World War resembled modern monocultural Tokyo far more than it resembled modern multicultural New York...
For the first time in history, London’s permanent population is culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse, sharing little in common with the country it governs. This change was recent, rapid and remarkable. It is strange that we acknowledge it so rarely, and it would be ludicrous to assume that it has had no bearing on life in the city. Most Londoners know, regardless of whether they admit it, that crime has risen steeply. Certain areas of the city are effectively off-limits after dark...
The sticking-plaster solution is to engineer a new founding myth through brute-force messaging: London is, always has been and always will be multicultural. Londoners have always prided themselves on their pluralism and tolerance. This was inevitable. It cannot — must not — be questioned.
Reeves isn't going anywhere and unless you are the daughter of a duke you aren't going to enough drinks parties to meet, among all the guests, 22 couples who are about to leave the UK for tax/other reasons.
Except I did. The facts are that these people are funnelled into networks and social groups where a large number will be attending the same parties - the fact I met most of them a number of times at different parties was omitted to keep things simple.
I get you think you are omniscient but there is a world outside of your experience which might not match your understanding and knowledge.
Up until the end of the Second World War, anybody who fell outside of the cultural norm — white, British and Christian — was a novelty and would have lived in the full knowledge that they did not represent the municipal mainstream. The experience of London before the Second World War resembled modern monocultural Tokyo far more than it resembled modern multicultural New York...
For the first time in history, London’s permanent population is culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse, sharing little in common with the country it governs. This change was recent, rapid and remarkable. It is strange that we acknowledge it so rarely, and it would be ludicrous to assume that it has had no bearing on life in the city. Most Londoners know, regardless of whether they admit it, that crime has risen steeply. Certain areas of the city are effectively off-limits after dark...
The sticking-plaster solution is to engineer a new founding myth through brute-force messaging: London is, always has been and always will be multicultural. Londoners have always prided themselves on their pluralism and tolerance. This was inevitable. It cannot — must not — be questioned.
London has gone from massively majority white British to actually minority white British in about 40 years, an astonishing change. Why do people lie about this? The stats are there, and they are indisputable
Easy spending cut for Labour is £9bn to Mauritius.
But it's virtue spending as a luxury belief for them to show how wonderful they are. So I imagine it'll be sacred.
There have been more consultations/murmurings about Leeds getting a tram system. I expect this to be cancelled. Yet again (not party political, it's happened under them all, repeatedly).
To be fair, trams are just expensive and inflexible buses, that disrupt the city for many years while the streets are dug up to put the rails in. A metro system is the way to go, particularly for the centre - it can run above ground elsewhere.
Getting it built would require changes to processes though. The majority of the cost is in regulation.
Electric buses in dedicated bus lanes can deliver much of the benefits of trams.
But "Trams are more efficient" - I hear the cry.
If trams cost a zillion a mile, require years of planning, then sorry. You can't have lots of trams. Choices.
Much like the explosion (ha) of battery storage for power. Why? Because *stopping* people parking some shipping containers on some land is very difficult. So it may not be the best storage system. But it's the one that will happen.
I can tell you the least effective process: 1) Spend money hold a consultation/review of trams being added to Leeds' transport infrastructure. 2) Cancel the proposal. 3) Repeat step 1 again and again.
There's been millions spent over the years and it's just waste.
Dire economic background at the moment. Looking at the stock market we've had three retailers (Greggs, M&S, and Tesco) announce pretty reasonable updates this morning - all down (9%, 5%, 2%). These aren't normal times.
(I don't blame Reeves for this - she's just doing her best to deliver on Labour policy. And of course their policy is hardly a mad rush left, so although wrong-headed it's only moderately so. It's much more the state the country has drifted into over many years - since 1997 really)
The country is broke, people are broke. It’s not really a surprise. And instead of focusing on how we can turn the economy around we’re focused on lies about things that have already happened and absurdity about wanting to be dictated to by a foreigner.
The country is not broke. The people are not broke. I live near Glasgow Airport and every day thousands of people are flying on foreign holidays and business trips. The A380 double decker jumbo flies daily to Dubai. The Guardian's food critic recommends £50 lunches and £100 dinners. The average house is worth £300K. This a wealthy country, but the wealth is not being shared around.
It struck me while indulging in one of my guilty pleasures, Salvage Hunters Classic Cars, that there's a whole tranche of older people who are feeling no pain at all. They'd set up an event to flog off one of their restored classics, a Fiat or a Lancia I think, in a flashy all-white upper story car park. The car made an entrance from the lift to a bunch of drooling middle agers, none under 50, a few quite a bit older; it resembled some sort of porn event. I can't recall but presumably one of them shelled out to purchase the shiny trinket afterwards.
There are a lot of older people with second or even third homes, foreign holidays several times a year, expensive hobbies, collections of toys with which they've rewarded themselves, oodles of time to post intemperately on the internet on why fings aint what they used to be. There are also loads of young people who work low pay jobs and can barely afford to rent a room, let alone even think about owning their own home. Something's gotta give.
And yet, consider the average age of this board. If we're saying things are crap - and our demographic is fairly cushioned - imagine the tone on here were there some young people.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
Incentive matter. 20,000 millionaires have left since COVID.
Some people say if they want to go let them. But then who pays the taxes they pay ?
That's the issue.
This is not new either. You cannot blame Reeves for this although arguably she has made it worse.
She has made it a WHOLE lot worse
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
Perhaps you're too old now to appreciate London as much as you previously did ?
Except that I really love big cities, all around the world. Tokyo and Osaka were magnificent last autumn. I really liked Busan and Seoul. Even Manila had an interesting edge
I loved Vancouver. I enjoyed the Olympics in Paris. OK I hated Geneva but that's a village
Right now I am in Bangkok and it's blissful, in an hour I shall go to the gym, work up a sweat, then step out into the sweet tropical air and the moist tropical stars and have a gin and tonic on soi 8 with a friend. That's my idea of heaven
So you'd have a point about cities if I now hated all big cities, but it ain't the case
What is true is that as I age my tolerance of the British climate November-March decreases year on year, and I've never exactly loved it
Glad you enjoyed Busan. I spent only two days there, but in that time my wife made a friend (another teacher) with whom she now chats weekly, so we'll probably revisit.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
Sorry. What? People who decide to live somewhere else with lower taxes are “utterly selfish”? Perhaps they feel countries with lower taxes will also be more welcoming to free enterprise and innovation? And - more importantly - it’s their money and they can do what they like
You often make painfully moronic remarks but this one is pretty up there
A question and a serious one and not being bitchy: You are almost certainly the most mobile person on here. You are hardly in the UK and appear to have no ties to a local community and few family ties and one small, but probably desirable flat in London. Why are you still here?
I have seriously considered moving to France (and nearly done it) and have/had seriously more ties than you and only haven't because of those ties and also for being much more conservative in my risk taking than you.
Why haven't you? You wouldn't even have to give up PB.
It's a fair question, and one I often ask!
However you possibly under-estimate my ties. I have one older daughter who - until recently - lived near me in London. I love her to bits and like her company. However she turned 18 last year and is now at Uni in Scotland so that's one major tie gone (or at least much weaker). My other daughter is in Australia but it is still a slight tie, she is also turning 18 and when she starts traveling London will be right up there on her list
On top of that I have quite a big extended family, mainly in Cornwall, and - maybe more importantly - a good number of friends in London, or - if they are not in London - when they go travelling they will nearly always pass through London - from LA, NYC, Europe, Bangkok etc. London is a good place to catch people on the go
It's a combo of all these things that have kept me from making a permanent move, plus two more things. First work and in-person meetings. They do happen and they happen in London and they are valuable. Second, one other huge thing. I travel all the time for free, it's my second job. And London is a brilliant base from which to travel. Paradoxically
However as time passes (dwindles?) I do think about slipping anchor entirely. One option on my list is to rent out my flat, or Airbnb it, and be a genuine nomad, I have friends around the world, I love moving, I can still organise travel wherever I am. I did 4 months permanent nomadism a couple of years back and loved it - I could do 3 months here, then move on, then move on again, I like the idea of being entirely untethered (others would hate it)
So, who knows
Speaking as somebody who travels a lot and spends over 50% of my time away from home (although I appreciate commuting to Craptown, Bumshire doesn't have the same ring as flying to Whickerville Oligarchia), you will always need a physical place as a base, even if it's just a small flat.
Yes that's maybe true - but I just don't know. I am not like normal people
However the possibility that it is true is why I would airbnb my flat, or rent it, short term, rather than selling it
Up until the end of the Second World War, anybody who fell outside of the cultural norm — white, British and Christian — was a novelty and would have lived in the full knowledge that they did not represent the municipal mainstream. The experience of London before the Second World War resembled modern monocultural Tokyo far more than it resembled modern multicultural New York...
For the first time in history, London’s permanent population is culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse, sharing little in common with the country it governs. This change was recent, rapid and remarkable. It is strange that we acknowledge it so rarely, and it would be ludicrous to assume that it has had no bearing on life in the city. Most Londoners know, regardless of whether they admit it, that crime has risen steeply. Certain areas of the city are effectively off-limits after dark...
The sticking-plaster solution is to engineer a new founding myth through brute-force messaging: London is, always has been and always will be multicultural. Londoners have always prided themselves on their pluralism and tolerance. This was inevitable. It cannot — must not — be questioned.
"In 1851, over 38 percent were born somewhere else." "by 1901 the proportion of Londoners born elsewhere had declined to just 33 percent of the total" "The 1901 census recorded 33,000 Londoners as having been born in British colonies or dependencies."
Up until the end of the Second World War, anybody who fell outside of the cultural norm — white, British and Christian — was a novelty and would have lived in the full knowledge that they did not represent the municipal mainstream. The experience of London before the Second World War resembled modern monocultural Tokyo far more than it resembled modern multicultural New York...
For the first time in history, London’s permanent population is culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse, sharing little in common with the country it governs. This change was recent, rapid and remarkable. It is strange that we acknowledge it so rarely, and it would be ludicrous to assume that it has had no bearing on life in the city. Most Londoners know, regardless of whether they admit it, that crime has risen steeply. Certain areas of the city are effectively off-limits after dark...
The sticking-plaster solution is to engineer a new founding myth through brute-force messaging: London is, always has been and always will be multicultural. Londoners have always prided themselves on their pluralism and tolerance. This was inevitable. It cannot — must not — be questioned.
This seems to be a 28-year old or early thirtysomehing Toryboy chap who writes for the Telrgraph.
I doubt he even has any memory of London before about about 2005.
Lots of talk on TwiX now about the millionaires and non Doms fleeing the UK. At a time of great impoverishment the Labour government has contrived to frighten away the most important part of our tax base, and told them btw private schools will be slowly abolished via taxes
It’s all adding up. All these allegedly small things are adding up to a looming and desperate collision with reality. Even as we allow in millions of migrants who will be a net drain on the treasury, house thousands of asylum seekers in the savoy at billions a year, and pay Tanzania forty trillion quid to take control of Cornwall
It’s coming. A crash
Brace
As always 'More or Less' is your friend. When you were spouting this awhile ago More or Less debunked it. Who to believe, some nutters on twitter or people who analyse the data properly. It appears the definition of millionaire and sample selection were, how can we put it, bollocks.
Are you seriously disputing that rich people are leaving the UK? Every metric shows they are and in number
COUTTS LONDON PRIME PROPERTY INDEX Q3 2024: PRICES DROP AND BUYERS GET BIGGER DISCOUNTS
Our latest research on luxury London property shows prices falling, average discounts close to 9% and almost 80% of sales coming in below asking price.
Nope I'm not. Just pointing out that last time you did this by quoting a survey you saw somewhere it turned out to be complete bollocks. I know you think you are always right, but you seem to have a very short memory and a very poor source of your data.
If it helps I can give you personal experience instead of surveys - over the pre Christmas drinks party rounds I met (and I noted the number for work reasons) 22 couples who have already or are in the process of moving here from the UK as an absolute direct result of Labour winning the election last year.
All of these people, all 22 couples were people who had set up successful businesses - not inherited money. They are selling or have sold their UK properties, stopped paying staff, stopped buying luxury goods and cars in the UK. Will not be setting up new business or employing people in the UK for the foreseeable future, not paying any more taxes to the UK.
This is one small place - just think how many are going to larger places such as Switzerland, Dubai etc.
I’m sure there will be people who say “good riddance” but remember the new car they bought each year covered an essential salary from the VAT. The shops they shopped in need fewer staff with fewer customers. Their gardeners and housekeepers will find fewer hours to work.
I’ve said it before - I do not rejoice in this, it’s not necessarily good for where I live but it’s worse for the UK which I love.
So ideologically sticking it to the rich will prove to be a stupid act of self harm.
It is a shame they're going. But I also fear there's very little we can do to help people who are so utterly selfish.
Sorry. What? People who decide to live somewhere else with lower taxes are “utterly selfish”? Perhaps they feel countries with lower taxes will also be more welcoming to free enterprise and innovation? And - more importantly - it’s their money and they can do what they like
You often make painfully moronic remarks but this one is pretty up there
Well it is literally a selfish, as opposed to altruistic decision. The "utterly" is a bit OTT, certainly.
Comments
Of course overall crime stats may be coming down but if your reality is you experience crime and that crime persists then so what.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/off-the-charts-lawlessness-and-sky-high-taxes-are-killing-london-warns-major-tech-investor/ar-BB1r8Kzh?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=42e3ce05398549508a0bfb2bef070938&ei=11
They've made a dog's breakfast of a budget - anti-jobs, anti-growth, and shed loads of extra unsustainable borrowing.
Right now they're systematically wrecking the academy parts of the school system, at the behest of their union paymasters.
Everything they touch they seem intent on turning to dust.
Here’s the deal on Britain and why we’re fucked. We really really rely on London to attract rich people and innovation and energy and talent. Without London we are basically screwed. I know people don’t like hearing that but it is the case
Now London has been in decline for a while. Its peak was probably about 2010? Many things have contributed to this (yes Brexit was one of them) but sadly it is true whatever the cause. This is why property prices are stagnant or, in places, falling quite fast
The stock market is in a bad place. Nightlife has cratered. It’s just not as appealing a city as it was. Mass migration has transformed huge swathes and not in ways that rich people find particularly pleasing
People don’t move to london so they can live in a rainier more expensive version of Karachi or nairobi
So the whole great machine that has been driving the British economy for decades - london - is on the blink. I can actually see this likely getting worse not better under Labour and the execrable khan which means at least another half decade of immiseration
I wish this wasn’t true. I love my country and my home city. But I can see its problems with my own eyes. And I can compare, as I travel so much
On the other hand I see similar problems all over the world. Paris is often shabby and dangerous - worse than London. American cities can be awful. Half the world is in turmoil, Covid has taken a weird sad toll everywhere, especially on urban life and main streets
However the UK is uniquely dependent on london in a way that is not true of the USA vis a vis NYC or LA or Germany Berlin or even France Paris
This leaves us in a bad spot. We desperately need a British bukele to make the uk capital safe clean optimistic and dynamic again. Or we accept london is toast and concentrate on turnip farming around Wick
Mad how literally anything can be blamed on DEI now, including wildfires.
A combination of complacency at the state of the economy combined with an assumption that any damage caused be blamed on the previous government.
I don’t buy the right-wing crying about the economy though as our borrowing costs would be going through the roof regardless of who had won the election. Let’s not pretend that the Tories or Reform have any interest in actually balancing the budget.
1. 34%, 30%, 14%, 27%
2. 22%, 18%, 6%, 15%
3. 6
4. 1
5. 2
6. 3
7. 104
8. 2.9%
9. 130
10. 1.1%
11. 2.5%
12. 0.8%
13. 135
14. f*** knows, so go with last year's 2-2; I won't be watching.
They have children, will have grandchildren and don’t want to be constantly abused on one hand then expected to shell out more and more by the abusers.
Much easier however to throw mud at them than actually think about how the situation has come to be.
Envy is probably the worst British vice and the country always suffers for it.
This time it is X, that great source of accurate information. Last time (for exactly the same claim) it was survey, quoted somewhere in the media, that was so riddled with holes a blue whale could pass through it. It was possibly the worst example of duff statistics I think that More or Less have run for awhile. yet there was Leon running with it. Yet he claims to be never wrong.
I will go further and argue that the electorate as a whole has no interest in doing so either. It will take a talented politician to be able to take the country with them on this.
Take one bloke in my team. Indian, first generation immigrant. Got wife and baby, no school as yet. Been in the country about 6 years. Why shouldn't he move to Berlin, or wherever?
He looks at what he is paying in taxes and what he gets for it. And is not impressed. Transactional, maybe. But why should he think differently?
You often make painfully moronic remarks but this one is pretty up there
Labour needs to accept it'll be a 1 term gov't and make more hard choices like WASPI, WFA and quite honestly dumping the triple lock.
This crisis is Labour's and they own it
Every other one either left office when their party lost a general election on the resignation of the government as a whole (Barber, Healey, Clarke, Darling), or was promoted to PM (Major, Brown), or died in office (Macleod), or resigned over political differences (Lawson).
The only two exceptions were Howe, who later brought down Thatcher, and Lamont, who was discredited but still caused Major a load of trouble.
The turbulence and turnover in chancellors since then has done nothing to suggest that sacking chancellors has become any less dangerous for the PMs involved, just that they've become more reckless or desperate in their actions.
But it will be interesting to see which way Trump jumps on this.
Starmer does not share that problem. He has no loyalty, only self preservation - a claim all the credit, share the blame, sort of guy. As long as Reeves serves a purpose, she will survive.
I don't see her serving a purpose, so she will be gone, quite probably this year, as this shitshow can't continue. 10 year gilts nearing the 5% mark.
It will wound him and ruin any attempt at displaying incompetence.
Thoughts with those on here who tried to mock those pointing out the inevitable consequences of the budget. Looking at 'Abonojizza' etc.
The truth is from 2010 to 2024 the Conservatives showed that governing wisely is never easy. Since 4 July Starmer has shown on a daily basis that governing unwisely is a piece of piss.
Of universal applicability,
I have seriously considered moving to France (and nearly done it) and have/had seriously more ties than you and only haven't because of those ties and also for being much more conservative in my risk taking than you.
Why haven't you? You wouldn't even have to give up PB.
You won't get people to call for a smaller state until they (via taxes), and not our grandchildren (via borrowing), are paying for it.
Taxes are too low.
It is odd that higher rate tax payers get double the concession (40% instead of 20%) to encourage them to save for their pension. It's low hanging fruit.
The political problem is that those cuts will be on the old and poor.
The debt can continue to grow as long as it roughly keeps pace with economic growth.
It will be "one off wealth tax on millionaires" next.
Of course, the problem is that there isn't any growth even though there should be, which is down mostly to structural constraints which neither this government nor the last one are doing much about. The problem is political rather than financial or economic.
As I've said, many times before, what we need to do is to embed in government systemic system improvement. As continuous, ongoing thing.
You're not going to get 5% costs cut in 10 minutes. But a rolling program of process reduction and aligning processes between areas of government could, I think, deliver a 1 percent or 2 per year. Together with sensible technology upgrades (no big bangs).
Continuously rebuild the Ship of State.
But it's virtue spending as a luxury belief for them to show how wonderful they are. So I imagine it'll be sacred.
There have been more consultations/murmurings about Leeds getting a tram system. I expect this to be cancelled. Yet again (not party political, it's happened under them all, repeatedly).
PART 9. WHERE ARE WE
It is 2024. The UK Government is finding it more and more difficult to exert control, and the 2010-2024 governments lost control more than once. It cannot manufacture consent to win an argument because the Internet will counter-argue whatever the cause. It cannot deliver the public services demanded by the public because private bodies will defy them. It cannot define justice externally and internally because international and national courts will override them. It cannot govern the Celtic nations because they are self-governed. It promises everything and delivers nothing.
What I noticed in one of the naughty drone shots was that the trees weren't actually burned - it was purely the ground vegetation and the housing. The tree tops still appeared to be green.
Perhaps building mostly wooden houses close together in a fire zone isn't a good idea.
Fingers crossed they can get it under control now the wind is dropping.
The idea seems to have been that NHS improvements would be the most tangible feelgood factor for voters before an election, but a lack of growth effects social and economic confidence across the board. The previous Government performed no better, though.
Labour is making the right noises about health and social care but is doing sod all about it. There are significant friction savings to be made by getting a smoother service, which will not just save money but deliver better outcomes. But it will mean restructuring processes and controls, which means upsetting some politicians, civil servants and private sector suppliers, which may be the real blocker.
How could they be so ill prepared. It beggars belief.
I don't think it was in doubt from the Truss era they would form the next govt.
However you possibly under-estimate my ties. I have one older daughter who - until recently - lived near me in London. I love her to bits and like her company. However she turned 18 last year and is now at Uni in Scotland so that's one major tie gone (or at least much weaker). My other daughter is in Australia but it is still a slight tie, she is also turning 18 and when she starts traveling London will be right up there on her list
On top of that I have quite a big extended family, mainly in Cornwall, and - maybe more importantly - a good number of friends in London, or - if they are not in London - when they go travelling they will nearly always pass through London - from LA, NYC, Europe, Bangkok etc. London is a good place to catch people on the go
It's a combo of all these things that have kept me from making a permanent move, plus two more things. First work and in-person meetings. They do happen and they happen in London and they are valuable. Second, one other huge thing. I travel all the time for free, it's my second job. And London is a brilliant base from which to travel. Paradoxically
However as time passes (dwindles?) I do think about slipping anchor entirely. One option on my list is to rent out my flat, or Airbnb it, and be a genuine nomad, I have friends around the world, I love moving, I can still organise travel wherever I am. I did 4 months permanent nomadism a couple of years back and loved it - I could do 3 months here, then move on, then move on again, I like the idea of being entirely untethered (others would hate it)
So, who knows
Getting it built would require changes to processes though. The majority of the cost is in regulation.
I loved Vancouver. I enjoyed the Olympics in Paris. OK I hated Geneva but that's a village
Right now I am in Bangkok and it's blissful, in an hour I shall go to the gym, work up a sweat, then step out into the sweet tropical air and the moist tropical stars and have a gin and tonic on soi 8 with a friend. That's my idea of heaven
So you'd have a point about cities if I now hated all big cities, but it ain't the case
What is true is that as I age my tolerance of the British climate November-March decreases year on year, and I've never exactly loved it
from people from the Subcontinent 20 years ago.
But "Trams are more efficient" - I hear the cry.
If trams cost a zillion a mile, require years of planning, then sorry. You can't have lots of trams. Choices.
Much like the explosion (ha) of battery storage for power. Why? Because *stopping* people parking some shipping containers on some land is very difficult. So it may not be the best storage system. But it's the one that will happen.
The correct thing to do is a lot of preventative maintenance, such as clearing scrub off the floor in the forests, clearing areas for fire breaks in the forests, controlled burns before fire season, keeping street trees smaller and not overhanging property, making sure the reservoir for the fire hydrants is full etc etc.
It doesn’t look like this has happened, to the point where insurance companies have given up on insuring fire risk in many places because they’re increasingly uncontrollable. There’s going to be quite the political fallout if it turns out a bunch of Hollywood types have had uninsured mansions burn down. It won’t be forgotten like the fires in Maui were last year.
There are a lot of older people with second or even third homes, foreign holidays several times a year, expensive hobbies, collections of toys with which they've rewarded themselves, oodles of time to post intemperately on the internet on why fings aint what they used to be. There are also loads of young people who work low pay jobs and can barely afford to rent a room, let alone even think about owning their own home. Something's gotta give.
Good morning, everybody.
Up until the end of the Second World War, anybody who fell outside of the cultural norm — white, British and Christian — was a novelty and would have lived in the full knowledge that they did not represent the municipal mainstream. The experience of London before the Second World War resembled modern monocultural Tokyo far more than it resembled modern multicultural New York...
For the first time in history, London’s permanent population is culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse, sharing little in common with the country it governs. This change was recent, rapid and remarkable. It is strange that we acknowledge it so rarely, and it would be ludicrous to assume that it has had no bearing on life in the city. Most Londoners know, regardless of whether they admit it, that crime has risen steeply. Certain areas of the city are effectively off-limits after dark...
The sticking-plaster solution is to engineer a new founding myth through brute-force messaging: London is, always has been and always will be multicultural. Londoners have always prided themselves on their pluralism and tolerance. This was inevitable. It cannot — must not — be questioned.
I get you think you are omniscient but there is a world outside of your experience which might not match your understanding and knowledge.
1) Spend money hold a consultation/review of trams being added to Leeds' transport infrastructure.
2) Cancel the proposal.
3) Repeat step 1 again and again.
There's been millions spent over the years and it's just waste.
I spent only two days there, but in that time my wife made a friend (another teacher) with whom she now chats weekly, so we'll probably revisit.
However the possibility that it is true is why I would airbnb my flat, or rent it, short term, rather than selling it
"In 1851, over 38 percent were born somewhere else."
"by 1901 the proportion of Londoners born elsewhere had declined to just 33 percent of the total"
"The 1901 census recorded 33,000 Londoners as having been born in British colonies or dependencies."
I doubt he even has any memory of
London before about about 2005.
The "utterly" is a bit OTT, certainly.