Categories
How to make politics better, more lawyers getting involved – politicalbetting.com
How to make politics better, more lawyers getting involved – politicalbetting.com
Liz Truss has sent a cease and desist letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, demanding that he stop saying she "crashed the economy" during her short tenure. In the letter, she says Starmer's claim is "false and defamatory." pic.twitter.com/Xg1N2AsWIu
0
Comments
Only more so
Hadn't seen him for a while.
Asked if we need austerity to calm the markets he says "We are already in a period of austerity."
I shudder to think what you'd see as difficult.
Net Zero is arbitrary, certainly affordable and probably unachievable. And would not make even a rounding error of difference to the world's climate. It should be scrapped, or at least delayed to 2350 or something to make it harmless.
All of this was fixed when Hunt took office with Sunak and rewrote the cheque so it was somewhat more limited (if not enough) and returned our income to its previous levels. To suggest this "crashed our economy" is a massive overstatement but there is no question that the whole sorry episode made crystal clear that Truss should not be trusted with the proverbial whelk stall.
On-topic: surely we need more chemists?
At one time, something like that would have been merely part of the normal rough & tumble of politics. Nowadays, however, if it's resulted in hurt feelings .....
It’s defamation.
She hired Hunt to rip up her entire programme because she hadn’t crashed the economy
She let Hunt announce emergency reversals to stabilise the markets and avoid disaster because she hadn’t crashed the economy
She lost control of her government and her agenda and then her party because she definitely didn’t do anything to crash the economy.
Anyone who remembers otherwise, or is looking at the vast documented evidence is a victim of Blob thinking.
Far too much time was focussed on the funeral which took time away from planning the mini budget.
This is the intended result if having a higher rate with big reliefs/incentives to bring that rate down. You simply can't compare the UK to Ireland, Ireland works on the basis of 0.25-0.75% sweetheart rates for multinationals in exchange for a few thousand jobs. In small countries this might just about make sense because there's a low number of people and a few thousand jobs is enough to keep everyone employed and the state funded without any proper CT receipts. In the UK exchanging CT receipts for a few thousand jobs isn't viable our population is 10x larger. The multiplier that we get from those extra jobs is absolutely tiny compared to what we'd get with proper CT rates. You simply lack the understanding on this subject and by continually raising Ireland as a valid point of comparison and suggesting that a drop in CT receipts with full expensing is a bad outcome you show it time and again.
From my perspective what the previous government achieved with the new CT policy was getting money out of dividends and into capital growth and if the trend proves correct then out of government hands into capital growth too. Money has gone from two very low multiplier categories to the single highest multiplier category, I don't see how this is the huge negative you think it is?
1) feelings hurt (tick)
2) deliberately done (tick)
3) but it’s true (irrelevant to the law)
“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is an ass – an idiot”.
"Today was the best Conservative budget since 1986" was his response.
The fantasists who believe all that is needed to trigger a burst of growth is tax cuts or additional capital spending funded by additional borrowing are those that refuse to learn that rather simple, clear and obvious lesson.
Completely off topic I’m very bemused by the Beeb crowning Chapel Roan as the “Voice of 2025” when she’s been played endlessly most of 2024 on the radio, had several huge hits, on every tv talk show around the world and most festivals.
Just waiting for the BBC to hear about the Beatles.
No, Weidel won't be the next Chancellor of Germany (she is easily the most unpopular of the well-known politicians in Germany).
Yes, CDU/CSU plus SPD will (almost certainly) between them have a majority of seats after the next election, so another Grand Coalition will be possible - indeed it is easily the most likely outcome.
No, none of the AfD, the BSW or die Linke will form part of the next federal government.
Right, I'm off, busy day. Seeya.
If we don't run a balanced budget and responsible national finances then we can't have nice things, whether tanks or hospitals.
I thought what the world needs now was love, sweet love, no, not just for fun but for everyone.
Dreadful scenes from Los Angeles once again on the New Zealand evening news followed by confirmation 2024 was Earth’s warmest year. Sometimes the impact of climate change doesn’t become real until it becomes personal - a bit like immigration.
Personal experience informs or distorts - it drives perceptions which often count more than statistics or facts. The truth becomes your truth based on your interpretation of your experiences.
All of this matters to politicians of all types - creating perceptions is often far more important than creating policy.
I am not sure that stuffing train drivers or doctors mouths with yet more gold will have the same effect.
He lost his home in the LA fires - his was in Malibu. Whoooof! All gone. Quite terrifying
His loss is somewhat mitigated by the fact he has two other homes in LA (they’d just vacated the Malibu one to rent it out) and he’s worth roughly £1bn
But still. He was quite choked. Just shows that even obscene wealth does not shield you
Almost the precise opposite of what is going to happen in 2025.
Perhaps Scottish Lawyers need a payrise too 😉
However, for me that's the only objective, and I have no sociocultural, economic or political ones on top, and we should do so via the most effective, efficient and market led mechanisms possible.
All other nations should do the same. And they should damn well get on with it.
Obviously the answer to whether Liz Truss crashed the economy or not is far more nuanced than either side will allow. And it's largely a matter of definitions.
If we take "crash" as meaning a significant reduction in output, as happened in 2007-9 or again during the pandemic, no she clearly did not. That's obviously her argument.
But it's difficult to reduce economic output significantly in a month. Large economies with huge public sectors are complicated beasts, with inherent stability. Without some massive catastrophe like a war or a huge natural disaster, it is extremely difficult to crash them in barely a month, and tax cuts of 1.5% of GDP certainly won't do it. Even Mitterrand in France in 1981-3, the clearest example of destroying a modern economy, took two years to do it. People will turn up to work tomorrow and do what they did, creating about as much economic output as they did yesterday, and it takes a while to change that.
However, I don't buy her argument entirely. It's difficult to argue that her budget didn't "crash" some of the financial markets, because bond yields jumped to a greater extent here than in other comparable countries and the currency fell sharply. While financial markets always overshoot, the adverse reaction to her policies and, I think more importantly, the way they were presented, was manifest. Would that reaction have been the same if she'd run it through the OBR in the normal way and had proper forecasts done? Or if Kwasi hadn't said that there were more tax cuts on the way? We'll never know.
The other interesting question is whether the boost in output given by her tax cuts would have offset the reduction from the increase in interest rates, if the former had ever been implemented. If the problems in the financial markets had spilled over into the real economy, there could have been a significant hit to output, though probably not on the scale of 2007 and 2020. Then it would have been valid to say that she crashed the economy. If the tax cuts had improved business confidence and the financial markets had calmed down and unwound their overshooting, then her gamble would have paid off.
Sadly we will never know that either.
https://x.com/poloandsons/status/1877344734076662236
The significance of this is picayune. Next
We then (and here I agree with what Reeves says, as opposed to what she does), need a long grinding path towards economic stability by committing to eliminating the Government deficit and starting to repay some of that debt mountain, increasing our autonomy and reducing long term interest rates.
We need to eliminate our trade deficit as well by encouraging domestic production and import substitution. This means freeing up money to entice businesses to invest here within the current spending envelope. We are getting to the point where too much of any profit generated in this country goes elsewhere because we have sold our asset base.
We also need to ensure, as a part of that package, that our education system is more focused on what business actually needs in terms of skills going forward with such useful skills being prioritised in government spend.
But all of this would be subject to the vagaries of international markets and further crises, several of which are on the horizon. All we can do is be better prepared for the next crisis and hope to do marginally better than our cohort of middle ranking economies. There is no free lunch or magic bullet.
Confused ...
You misremembered
If there is gonna be peace, someone has to talk to Putin. It might as well be the American president rather than manny macron or sir sheer wanker or indeed Elon musk because Trump can say “ok you can keep the Crimea and half of donbass but if you carry on with this I will personally order the destruction of half the Russian army in two weeks”
And that might actually work
Musk essentially threatening to take control of thr U.K. is already not batting that many eyelids. I have to be honest that I think many people are going to need to re-evaluate and reconfigure their worldview at some time soon.
It didn't stop BoZo's defenestration
What would you cut? Defence, adult social care, care for vulnerable children and by how much? Not having to pay billions in debt interest on all the borrowing of the previous Government would no doubt help but we’re stuck with that.
Perhaps we should sack half the civil service - I seem to remember someone coming up with that.
(By the way, with all this talk of us paying Mauritius £90m a year, does anyone actually have an estimate of the rent the US pay us? I mean, if it's £90m, that's a bit different from if it's £10m or £400m....)
This could quickly normalise Putin"s modus operandi in Ukraine. The uncomfortable reality is that we are now actually at risk from both the U.S. and Russia.
Tsk
https://x.com/aldc/status/1877515826477113710?s=46
LIBDEM GAIN FROM CON
NORTH DEVON DC: Instow Ward
🔶 LibDem, Becky Coombs, 197, 38%
🔵 Con, 166, 32%
➡️ Reform, 99, 17%
*️⃣ Ind, 49, 9%
🟢 Grn, 17, 4%
Hard one to read as last time there were 3 independents standing, as well as a small Labour showing, and no Reform or Lib Dem.
"We've paid to handover our island to your client state, like we said we would; now, can you please give us some extra investment?"
Its a big massive f*** off shield to have a billion quid.
https://youtu.be/wpVvgNs8tqI?feature=shared
That's why they have North Korea and all the multination impressed conscripts involved.
Putin is more reliable than Trump, as you can be absolutely certain he'll break any agreement he enters into.
Luckily Rachel will be able to reassure them she’s only broken an economy not an ancient treasure.
If, as has been suggested, the State-backed fire insurance fund has only 1% of the expected cost of these fires in its reserve, there’s going to be quite the row between the banks and the State (whether LA or California) about where the costs of rebuilding fall.
Meanwhile, at least one man has been arrested for arson in LA, seemingly caught red-handed with a blowtorch.
I’m not saying he’s the unluckiest man in history I’m saying that even untold wealth can’t stop a fire from seriously fucking your life in a way that cannot be reversed
It’s not the observation of the ages, it’s so true it’s trite
But still. Quite a fire
LA was entirely down to the governor, not climate change, apparently.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/los-angeles-wildfires-california-death-toll-kenneth-fire-la-arson-arrest-b1203990.html
https://x.com/skynews/status/1877115173443400065?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
I listened to the Leading (side project of the Bad Al and Rory the Tory podcast) interview with Sadjd Javid from last year, and it was very informative - including touching on things like his life history and issues around men's mental health (his brother killed himself).
Quite refreshing. 'I thought I could moderate Liz Truss if I was on her team. I was wrong.'
Worth a listen imo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYRcV54YIag&list=PL_6zDbB-zRef_M7eXuSLUlGnt7qk66hJq&index=8
In Pacific Palisades, the average home price is around $3.5m (and apparently the average mean income $130k).
Not a few inherited properties there, and not a few simply don't have proper home insurance as they couldn't afford it.
The City also failed to clear scrub from the forests, and the water utility failed to ensure that the reservoirs used for firefighting were full. The water utility head (on $750k per year) did an interview that was equally excruciating. She had one job to do.