So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
By the Second World War are you referring to, say, Dad's Army and Allo, Allo?
I think, for example, that there would be a difference between a sitcom set in the British Home Front/Occupied France and a sitcom set in Auschwitz. So it's a bit hard to compare WWII with the Irish Famine in this context.
Not that I think the petition is a good idea, but I don't think your argument against it is sound.
How about Blackadder Goes Forth, which was set in the trenches of the First World War, where hundreds of thousands of young men got mowed down by machine guns, including in the final scene of the sitcom?
As for the comparison between people being deliberately exterminated in ovens, versus people dying of hunger due to a crop failure... well, that's just absurd.
I am not completely up on the Famine, but weren't the vast majority if the deaths entirely preventable? Food could have been provided to the hungry, but it wasn't.
The deaths from going over the top in the First World War could have been preventable also. Think of the Somme! But failing to prevent deaths is hardly the same as deliberately exterminating people!
Sure, but neither was the Famine the Somme. There was no war. The British government could have alleviated the effects of crop failure, but chose not to knowing full well what the consequences would be. Providing food to the starving would not have compromised national security or aided a hostile power. But it would have cost some money. That was deemed more important than saving lives.
I don't think not throwing men over the top at the Battle of the Somme would have compromised national security either. Also, aid was provided to the starving during the Famine - it's just the efforts were considered by an inept ruling elite to be sustaining the famine, rather than alleviating it. I'm sure that inept ruling elite will be skewered in a sitcom about the famine in the same way that they were in Blackadder.
@Roger "Sports Direct are declining to comment on the Northumbria police and crime commissioner, Vera Baird, asking Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley to drop his firm's sponsorship of Oldham Athletic if they sign Ched Evans."
Another mean spirited Labour hack comments on stopping Evans finding work. Is this how rehabilitation works according to Labour rules? Baird is also a lawyer, and was kicked out in Redcar IRC on a huge swing against her.
If Labour follow Conservative cuts as Balls has said they will do
Balls has explicitly said they will not do that. Or at least their fiscal objectives are a good deal looser than the Tory's. Added to that is the expectation that Labour will do more consolidation through tax increases. So we know Labour will cut less than the Tories. But not that much less.
As Socrates points out, framing things in terms of the average is the giveaway. It's agenda driven research, not disintetested research.
I've had a look at the Oxford Economic report and the link on their website to their clients page. Nothing there to suggest they aren't "agenda driven" as well. Maybe one day we'll find out how Scotland would do as an independent country, but we might have to put the fossil-fuel based economy behind us first...
Which will be the first supermarket to dare to go for it: 99p a litre?
With my 20p a litre discount from Tescos I expect to be paying substantially less than £1 a litre when I fill up today.
I agree with you about the effectiveness of the "tax bombshell" in 1992. The wisdom of the time was that John Smith had made a major error in having a plan which did make it clear that higher taxes were in store to increase public spending. There is little doubt that folk memory of that experience is driving the lack of a plan at the moment. Will this work better for Labour or does it just give the tories more room to use their imaginations? Only time will tell.
But I didn't see anything yesterday that came close to the posters you linked to. 40 odd page documents are really not going to do it.
Agreed. The Tories need to be bolder and totally unscrupulous by talking about how Labour will tax everyone's house. Scare people by talking not about the "mansion tax" but about Labour's "home tax".
I'm well aware that this is not Labour's policy but it plays into fears that (a) this is what the mansion tax will turn into; (b) it will be charged on much lower value properties; and (c) at a much higher rate than Labour are now saying. Even if Labour deny that this is the case it turns the attention onto a Labour tax on homes and, secondly, on the fact that - according to reports (and I have not checked their accuracy) - the tax at the rates mentioned by Balls will not raise the sums claimed.
Currently, as another poster said below, a lot of rich people moaning about paying more sends exactly the sort of message Labour wants people to hear.
And it's a message I'm sympathetic too - even though I'm not affected by the mansion tax and think it a silly way to proceed (higher council tax bands would be better IMO).
Mr. Carnyx, quite. The Scots will be well aware of that and think Scottish Labour are peddling piss and calling it whisky, and the English will see Scottish Labour wanting to tax England to pay for Scottish nurses. It makes one wonder just how high up the SNP mole in Scottish Labour is.
Is Jim Murphy one of yours?
That had not occurred to me - but perhaps I don't want to get too paranoid/tinfoily.
Anyway, the SNP are the latest folk pointing out that the Labour sums don't add up, especially with the Barnett consequential added in:
I think that [edit: Labour] statement is absolutely insane. And disgracefully divisive.
Unless they are trying to hug the SNP at the same time as committing party suicide. And even then it doesn't make sense. There is also a question whether Ms Dugdale has agreed this statement (below) with Mr M, never mind most of the rest of SLAB for whom being polite to the SNP is going to be as welcome as a tin of baked beans in Pythagoras's Academy. MInd, it could be a ploy to say 'you might as well vote SLAB as SNP'. Or is she already making a bid for the SLAB head honchoship?
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
By the Second World War are you referring to, say, Dad's Army and Allo, Allo?
Not that I think the petition is a good idea, but I don't think your argument against it is sound.
How about Blackadder Goes Forth, which was set in the trenches of the First World War, where hundreds of thousands of young men got mowed down by machine guns, including in the final scene of the sitcom?
As for the comparison between people being deliberately exterminated in ovens, versus people dying of hunger due to a crop failure... well, that's just absurd.
I am not completely up on the Famine, but weren't the vast majority if the deaths entirely preventable? Food could have been provided to the hungry, but it wasn't.
The deaths from going over the top in the First World War could have been preventable also. Think of the Somme! But failing to prevent deaths is hardly the same as deliberately exterminating people!
Sure, but neither was the Famine the Somme. There was no war. The British government could have alleviated the effects of crop failure, but chose not to knowing full well what the consequences would be. Providing food to the starving would not have compromised national security or aided a hostile power. But it would have cost some money. That was deemed more important than saving lives.
I don't think not throwing men over the top at the Battle of the Somme would have compromised national security either. Also, aid was provided to the starving during the Famine - it's just the efforts were considered by an inept ruling elite to be sustaining the famine, rather than alleviating it. I'm sure that inept ruling elite will be skewered in a sitcom about the famine in the same way that they were in Blackadder.
Sir Robert Peel's government organised famine relief pretty successfully, in 1845-46. Lord John Russell's, which took over in 1846, didn't regard famine relief as being any of the business of the government, but rather the job of charities. So, hundreds of thousands died, despite the charities' best efforts.
As you say, I doubt if the Irish landlords will be treated very kindly in a sitcom.
BTW FTT is not a tax on bankers. It's a tax on transactions i.e. every time someone buys or sells stocks they would get charged a tax (on top of stamp duty). The people who buy and sell stocks are, by and large, pension funds and asset managers. But they don't do it for themselves but for their customers.
If Labour follow Conservative cuts as Balls has said they will do
Balls has explicitly said they will not do that. Or at least their fiscal objectives are a good deal looser than the Tory's. Added to that is the expectation that Labour will do more consolidation through tax increases. So we know Labour will cut less than the Tories. But not that much less.
Labour would not reverse billions of pounds of spending cuts to the police, hospitals, armed forces and local councils, Ed Balls has confirmed.
Just today. Infact it will be worse, because he won't be able to help himself pissing money away, and all his proposed tax rises are clearly going to raise less than he thinks, so the cuts will end up being worse eventually - or he will be on the phone to the IMF.
The real vulnerability for Labour on the "mansion tax" isn't the people who are worried it will hit them. It's the people in London and the home counties who feel that revenue raised almost entirely on their localities being unhappy that it's sent out of the area to pay for electoral bribes elsewhere. It's not like income tax where the South East pays a bit more than elsewhere - this is 95% a tax on the South East, and housing taxes are supposed to go to local authorities. With London having a poverty rate higher than Scotland, a lot of people will be angry that the money isn't being spent here. Especially given that the NHS in London is under a lot more pressure the NHS in Scotland.
The killer for Labour is when their opponents conflate the two - fears that Labour will HAVE to tax much lower priced houses in order to meet their obligations to Scotland (to try and save their electoral arses).
This campaign has the makings of a perfect storm for Labour. Good job they have such a top captain on the bridge....
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Miss Cyclefree, indeed, you're quite right on FTT (as usual). Not only that, if we impose it and others don't, we'll shaft one of our most important industries.
Mr. Eagles, not sure if you're bothered but it seems there may be a CBS series about Supergirl.
If Labour follow Conservative cuts as Balls has said they will do
Balls has explicitly said they will not do that. Or at least their fiscal objectives are a good deal looser than the Tory's. Added to that is the expectation that Labour will do more consolidation through tax increases. So we know Labour will cut less than the Tories. But not that much less.
Oh well, maybe we should wait a couple of years then...
"the historical Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland Reports (GERS) show that every year, for the last 32 years Scotland has generated more tax per head than the average for the UK. This quashes the oil volatility myth because a low oil price has never seen Scottish tax revenues, per head, go below that of the UK average."
Close examination of Business for Scotland’s declared member list shows that the group has only a tiny handful of members who employ significant numbers of Scots, and literally none with a substantial cross-border trade. In other words, it could scarcely be less representative of the industries that provide the majority of Scotland’s private-sector jobs and which, according to the No campaign, are at risk from a Yes vote.
And are Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland Reports (GERS) made up as well? Does the Telegraph (or someone else) have evidence of that? If not, what does the composition of an organisation have to do with the research it publishes?
As Socrates points out, framing things in terms of the average is the giveaway. It's agenda driven research, not disintetested research.
Ok, just comparing to England, ignoring Wales and Northern Ireland - Scotland produces more tax per head than England.
From the disaggregated accounts Scoltand produced more Tax Per Head then England in every year bar 1999-2002, but they were more than outweighed by 2006-2012 where Scotland massively outperformed England in tax per head.
Mr. Carnyx, quite. The Scots will be well aware of that and think Scottish Labour are peddling piss and calling it whisky, and the English will see Scottish Labour wanting to tax England to pay for Scottish nurses. It makes one wonder just how high up the SNP mole in Scottish Labour is.
Is Jim Murphy one of yours?
That had not occurred to me - but perhaps I don't want to get too paranoid/tinfoily.
Anyway, the SNP are the latest folk pointing out that the Labour sums don't add up, especially with the Barnett consequential added in:
I think that [edit: Labour] statement is absolutely insane. And disgracefully divisive.
Unless they are trying to hug the SNP at the same time as committing party suicide. And even then it doesn't make sense. There is also a question whether Ms Dugdale has agreed this statement (below) with Mr M, never mind most of the rest of SLAB for whom being polite to the SNP is going to be as welcome as a tin of baked beans in Pythagoras's Academy. MInd, it could be a ploy to say 'you might as well vote SLAB as SNP'. Or is she already making a bid for the SLAB head honchoship?
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
By the Second World War are you referring to, say, Dad's Army and Allo, Allo?
I think, for example, that there would be a difference between a sitcom set in the British Home Front/Occupied France and a sitcom set in Auschwitz. So it's a bit hard to compare WWII with the Irish Famine in this context.
Not that I think the petition is a good idea, but I don't think your argument against it is sound.
How about Blackadder Goes Forth, which was set in the trenches of the First World War, where hundreds of thousands of young men got mowed down by machine guns, including in the final scene of the sitcom?
As for the comparison between people being deliberately exterminated in ovens, versus people dying of hunger due to a crop failure... well, that's just absurd.
I am not completely up on the Famine, but weren't the vast majority if the deaths entirely preventable? Food could have been provided to the hungry, but it wasn't.
It has been twenty years since I studied the Famine, but from what I recall, it was entirely preventable.
But because the laws prevented Irish Catholics owning the land, the land was owned by Englishmen. There was other food sources available in Ireland, as Ireland was still a net exporter of food during the potato blight.
However rather than use that food to feed the local population, it was decided it was better to sell that food, as it would earn more money, for the owners of the land who weren't Irish Catholics.
Shameful.
Ireland is one of the few countries in Western Europe that still has a lower population now than it had before the Famine.
For anyone interested, the museum at Cobh - where so many Irish emigrants fled - is an eye-opening and harrowing experience.
Ireland has always been the country which has tested Britain's liberal values - and it's self-regarding "we're the best country in the world" view of itself - to destruction.
Miss Cyclefree, indeed, you're quite right on FTT (as usual). Not only that, if we impose it and others don't, we'll shaft one of our most important industries.
Mr. Eagles, not sure if you're bothered but it seems there may be a CBS series about Supergirl.
I had heard. I'm quite looking forward to it.
It is the Golden Age of comics on tv at the moment (at the cinema too)
The real vulnerability for Labour on the "mansion tax" isn't the people who are worried it will hit them. It's the people in London and the home counties who feel that revenue raised almost entirely on their localities being unhappy that it's sent out of the area to pay for electoral bribes elsewhere. It's not like income tax where the South East pays a bit more than elsewhere - this is 95% a tax on the South East, and housing taxes are supposed to go to local authorities. With London having a poverty rate higher than Scotland, a lot of people will be angry that the money isn't being spent here. Especially given that the NHS in London is under a lot more pressure the NHS in Scotland.
The killer for Labour is when their opponents conflate the two - fears that Labour will HAVE to tax much lower priced houses in order to meet their obligations to Scotland (to try and save their electoral arses).
This campaign has the makings of a perfect storm for Labour. Good job they have such a top captain on the bridge....
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Once Balls admits the numbers dont add up and reduces the threshold to £1m it will affect the nicer bits of Edinburgh. 30+ properties valued over £1m for sale in Fife on Rightmove at the moment.
The real vulnerability for Labour on the "mansion tax" isn't the people who are worried it will hit them. It's the people in London and the home counties who feel that revenue raised almost entirely on their localities being unhappy that it's sent out of the area to pay for electoral bribes elsewhere. It's not like income tax where the South East pays a bit more than elsewhere - this is 95% a tax on the South East, and housing taxes are supposed to go to local authorities. With London having a poverty rate higher than Scotland, a lot of people will be angry that the money isn't being spent here. Especially given that the NHS in London is under a lot more pressure the NHS in Scotland.
That point seems obvious to me. Higher taxes on the rich to fund the NHS? Popular.
Higher taxes on London and the South East to fund Scotland? Not so much.
Unionists showing their true colours now, want to keep all the tax revenues raised in the UK as well as all Scotland's money. Dear Dear whatever happened to the vaunted pooling and sharing.
Labour have collapsed in Scotland because they have treated the place as their own little fiefdom for far too long. Now they're doing the same in London: it's a cash cow for which wealth can be extracted to pay for campaign promises to the resentful Scots. London has higher poverty, more congested infrastructure, a greater school place shortage and longer waiting times for GP appointments. Why should they face a London & home counties specific tax for the money to go elsewhere?
The fact that Scottish Labour are openly boasting they're getting freebies off the English is even worse. It's clear at this point that Labour are simply an anti-English party: no English parliament, Scots and Welsh with one-way influence on English laws, not counted as a nation in Labour's new Senate, and special taxes for the English given to the Scots. And from a party leader who idolises a father that had sheer contempt for the "rabid nationalists" that gave him everything he had.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
There is no Scottish Labour, they are a sub office of London Labour.
Or to put it another way, Scotland, Wales, NI and all of England outside London & the SE are drains, just that Scotland is a smaller drain than the rest.
Which will be the first supermarket to dare to go for it: 99p a litre?
With my 20p a litre discount from Tescos I expect to be paying substantially less than £1 a litre when I fill up today.
I agree with you about the effectiveness of the "tax bombshell" in 1992. The wisdom of the time was that John Smith had made a major error in having a plan which did make it clear that higher taxes were in store to increase public spending. There is little doubt that folk memory of that experience is driving the lack of a plan at the moment. Will this work better for Labour or does it just give the tories more room to use their imaginations? Only time will tell.
But I didn't see anything yesterday that came close to the posters you linked to. 40 odd page documents are really not going to do it.
Agreed. The Tories need to be bolder and totally unscrupulous by talking about how Labour will tax everyone's house. Scare people by talking not about the "mansion tax" but about Labour's "home tax".
It's too late, the "mansion tax" framing has already stuck.
This is one of those times when coalition makes the messaging harder, because the LibDems came up with the policy first, and there was always a possibility the Tories would want to cut a deal where they enacted it themselves, so they weren't able to go after it very aggressively when people first started talking about it. By the time Labour adopted the policy and the Tories were clear that they wouldn't adopt it themselves it was too late to rebrand it.
Sir Robert Peel's government organised famine relief pretty successfully, in 1845-46. Lord John Russell's, which took over in 1846, didn't regard famine relief as being any of the business of the government, but rather the job of charities. So, hundreds of thousands died, despite the charities' best efforts.
I think most people blame Charles Trevelyan more than Lord John Russell. Amazing to think that so many years later his name is still sung with venom by tens of thousands of people on a weekly basis!
I haven't seen anything on Sky News this morning about English taxes for Scottish nurses. It's just wall to wall NHS IN CRISIS! Round one to Burnham, I think.
Labour have collapsed in Scotland because they have treated the place as their own little fiefdom for far too long. Now they're doing the same in London: it's a cash cow for which wealth can be extracted to pay for campaign promises to the resentful Scots. London has higher poverty, more congested infrastructure, a greater school place shortage and longer waiting times for GP appointments. Why should they face a London & home counties specific tax for the money to go elsewhere?
The fact that Scottish Labour are openly boasting they're getting freebies off the English is even worse. It's clear at this point that Labour are simply an anti-English party: no English parliament, Scots and Welsh with one-way influence on English laws, not counted as a nation in Labour's new Senate, and special taxes for the English given to the Scots. And from a party leader who idolises a father that had sheer contempt for the "rabid nationalists" that gave him everything he had.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
There is no Scottish Labour, they are a sub office of London Labour.
Sir Robert Peel's government organised famine relief pretty successfully, in 1845-46. Lord John Russell's, which took over in 1846, didn't regard famine relief as being any of the business of the government, but rather the job of charities. So, hundreds of thousands died, despite the charities' best efforts.
I think most people blame Charles Trevelyan more than Lord John Russell. Amazing to think that so many years later his name is still sung with venom by tens of thousands of people on a weekly basis!
I blame the Irish and the Pope.
If you lot didn't need civilising, England would never have needed to invade Ireland and the Pope would never have given his blessing.
I think many people are slightly missing the point about the SLAB politics-of-envy tweet. This was the text:
We will fund #1000Nurses using money Scotland gets from a mansion tax across UK. 95% will be levied in the South East of UK.
If it had just been the first sentence, it would have been unremarkable - just a standard Labour claim, albeit one which doesn't actually add up, but nothing more than that. Indeed from a unionist point of view, the first sentence is fair enough: Scotland allegedly benefiting from being part of the UK. So far, so good.
It's the second sentence which is the absolute killer. Has raw, naked, ugly, selfish spite-driven envy been used so brazenly even by Labour at any time since Healey's "Squeeze the rich until the pips squeak"? In fact this one is even worse, adding in anti-English, anti-South East prejudice into the mix. Not only is it profoundly offensive, it also smacks of a quite remarkable degree of desperation. Clearly Scottish Labour are in a major panic.
It also plays directly into the SNP's hands.
Ultimately, the SNP don't actually care how many MP's they win in May. It actually suits their agenda to have a tory majority government and be given a crappy devomax deal.
What they really want is this kind of resentful, sectarian campaign.
The real vulnerability for Labour on the "mansion tax" isn't the people who are worried it will hit them. It's the people in London and the home counties who feel that revenue raised almost entirely on their localities being unhappy that it's sent out of the area to pay for electoral bribes elsewhere. It's not like income tax where the South East pays a bit more than elsewhere - this is 95% a tax on the South East, and housing taxes are supposed to go to local authorities. With London having a poverty rate higher than Scotland, a lot of people will be angry that the money isn't being spent here. Especially given that the NHS in London is under a lot more pressure the NHS in Scotland.
The killer for Labour is when their opponents conflate the two - fears that Labour will HAVE to tax much lower priced houses in order to meet their obligations to Scotland (to try and save their electoral arses).
This campaign has the makings of a perfect storm for Labour. Good job they have such a top captain on the bridge....
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Once Balls admits the numbers dont add up and reduces the threshold to £1m it will affect the nicer bits of Edinburgh. 30+ properties valued over £1m for sale in Fife on Rightmove at the moment.
You get a slightly different property for £1m+ in Scotland than london
Labour Uncut’s Atul Hatwal compares Ed Miliband to Michael Foot unfavourably…
“Even Michael Foot’s Labour party managed to sustain an average poll lead of over 10% for a period of months just a year and a half after Mrs. Thatcher’s 1979 victory.”
The real vulnerability for Labour on the "mansion tax" isn't the people who are worried it will hit them. It's the people in London and the home counties who feel that revenue raised almost entirely on their localities being unhappy that it's sent out of the area to pay for electoral bribes elsewhere. It's not like income tax where the South East pays a bit more than elsewhere - this is 95% a tax on the South East, and housing taxes are supposed to go to local authorities. With London having a poverty rate higher than Scotland, a lot of people will be angry that the money isn't being spent here. Especially given that the NHS in London is under a lot more pressure the NHS in Scotland.
That point seems obvious to me. Higher taxes on the rich to fund the NHS? Popular.
Higher taxes on London and the South East to fund Scotland? Not so much.
Unionists showing their true colours now, want to keep all the tax revenues raised in the UK as well as all Scotland's money. Dear Dear whatever happened to the vaunted pooling and sharing.
Unionist my arse, I wanted you guys to vote yes, and you couldn't do it! It might be easier to get a "p155 off Scotland vote" in England, perhaps Salmond should not have made it a Scots only referendum!
The real vulnerability for Labour on the "mansion tax" isn't the people who are worried it will hit them. It's the people in London and the home counties who feel that revenue raised almost entirely on their localities being unhappy that it's sent out of the area to pay for electoral bribes elsewhere. It's not like income tax where the South East pays a bit more than elsewhere - this is 95% a tax on the South East, and housing taxes are supposed to go to local authorities. With London having a poverty rate higher than Scotland, a lot of people will be angry that the money isn't being spent here. Especially given that the NHS in London is under a lot more pressure the NHS in Scotland.
The killer for Labour is when their opponents conflate the two - fears that Labour will HAVE to tax much lower priced houses in order to meet their obligations to Scotland (to try and save their electoral arses).
This campaign has the makings of a perfect storm for Labour. Good job they have such a top captain on the bridge....
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Once Balls admits the numbers dont add up and reduces the threshold to £1m it will affect the nicer bits of Edinburgh. 30+ properties valued over £1m for sale in Fife on Rightmove at the moment.
I doubt Labour would lower the threshold to x after they said x*2, it's not much money so why take the political hit?
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
Personally I think that sitcoms about the Nazi occupation of France are in bad taste too. Essentially it's wrong to make fun of people dying on a large scale, especially when it was caused by someone else, because it trivialises it.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
Oh well, maybe we should wait a couple of years then...
"the historical Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland Reports (GERS) show that every year, for the last 32 years Scotland has generated more tax per head than the average for the UK. This quashes the oil volatility myth because a low oil price has never seen Scottish tax revenues, per head, go below that of the UK average."
You will be in trouble for pointing out the truth on here, don't you know we are subsidy junkies and savages feasting on the hard work of the south east.
Mr. Carnyx, quite. The Scots will be well aware of that and think Scottish Labour are peddling piss and calling it whisky, and the English will see Scottish Labour wanting to tax England to pay for Scottish nurses. It makes one wonder just how high up the SNP mole in Scottish Labour is.
Is Jim Murphy one of yours?
That had not occurred to me - but perhaps I don't want to get too paranoid/tinfoily.
Anyway, the SNP are the latest folk pointing out that the Labour sums don't add up, especially with the Barnett consequential added in:
I think that [edit: Labour] statement is absolutely insane. And disgracefully divisive.
Unless they are trying to hug the SNP at the same time as committing party suicide. And even then it doesn't make sense. There is also a question whether Ms Dugdale has agreed this statement (below) with Mr M, never mind most of the rest of SLAB for whom being polite to the SNP is going to be as welcome as a tin of baked beans in Pythagoras's Academy. MInd, it could be a ploy to say 'you might as well vote SLAB as SNP'. Or is she already making a bid for the SLAB head honchoship?
The real vulnerability for Labour on the "mansion tax" isn't the people who are worried it will hit them. It's the people in London and the home counties who feel that revenue raised almost entirely on their localities being unhappy that it's sent out of the area to pay for electoral bribes elsewhere. It's not like income tax where the South East pays a bit more than elsewhere - this is 95% a tax on the South East, and housing taxes are supposed to go to local authorities. With London having a poverty rate higher than Scotland, a lot of people will be angry that the money isn't being spent here. Especially given that the NHS in London is under a lot more pressure the NHS in Scotland.
The killer for Labour is when their opponents conflate the two - fears that Labour will HAVE to tax much lower priced houses in order to meet their obligations to Scotland (to try and save their electoral arses).
This campaign has the makings of a perfect storm for Labour. Good job they have such a top captain on the bridge....
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Once Balls admits the numbers dont add up and reduces the threshold to £1m it will affect the nicer bits of Edinburgh. 30+ properties valued over £1m for sale in Fife on Rightmove at the moment.
You get a slightly different property for £1m+ in Scotland than london
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
By the Second World War are you referring to, say, Dad's Army and Allo, Allo?
I think, for example, that there would be a difference between a sitcom set in the British Home Front/Occupied France and a sitcom set in Auschwitz. So it's a bit hard to compare WWII with the Irish Famine in this context.
Not that I think the petition is a good idea, but I don't think your argument against it is sound.
How about Blackadder Goes Forth, which was set in the trenches of the First World War, where hundreds of thousands of young men got mowed down by machine guns, including in the final scene of the sitcom?
As for the comparison between people being deliberately exterminated in ovens, versus people dying of hunger due to a crop failure... well, that's just absurd.
I am not completely up on the Famine, but weren't the vast majority if the deaths entirely preventable? Food could have been provided to the hungry, but it wasn't.
The deaths from going over the top in the First World War could have been preventable also. Think of the Somme! But failing to prevent deaths is hardly the same as deliberately exterminating people!
Sure, but neither was the Famine the Somme. There was no war.
I don't think not throwing men over the top at the Battle of the Somme would have compromised national security either.
At the time it was thought that without the Somme offensive, there was a real risk of a French collapse at Verdun, with a resulting German victory in late 1916.
The view of some German generals was that their army never recovered from the Somme offensive - they took staggering losses for a defending army.
Proportionately the British casualties were about what you expect when you fight the main enemy in the main theatre, regardless of the era or the weaponry. At Waterloo 100 years previously, Wellington's army took 25% casualties in seven hours which is not much different other than scale and duration from what occurred in 1916.
"Another mean spirited Labour hack comments on stopping Evans finding work. Is this how rehabilitation works according to Labour rules? Baird is also a lawyer, and was kicked out in Redcar IRC on a huge swing against her."
It's pitiful what lengths some people will go to to court publicity. I don't think it's just Labour but I agree that Labour people are as bad as anyone in the holier-than-thou stakes
Oh well, maybe we should wait a couple of years then...
"the historical Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland Reports (GERS) show that every year, for the last 32 years Scotland has generated more tax per head than the average for the UK. This quashes the oil volatility myth because a low oil price has never seen Scottish tax revenues, per head, go below that of the UK average."
You will be in trouble for pointing out the truth on here, don't you know we are subsidy junkies and savages feasting on the hard work of the south east.
you are not subsidy junkies nor, from those I've met, savages.
Nevertheless, oil tax revenues as a percentage of GDP for an iScotland are far higher than for UK as a whole. Obviously.
Lower oil tax revenues will naturally enough require further fiscal consolidation (or would have, should an iScotland have sought to have joined the EU).
Of course all counter-factual but oil tax revenues do matter to Scotland.
Or to put it another way, Scotland, Wales, NI and all of England outside London & the SE are drains, just that Scotland is a smaller drain than the rest.
One nation!
Spot on. It is good that money from the richest parts of the UK is redistributed to the poorer parts.
Mr. Carnyx, quite. The Scots will be well aware of that and think Scottish Labour are peddling piss and calling it whisky, and the English will see Scottish Labour wanting to tax England to pay for Scottish nurses. It makes one wonder just how high up the SNP mole in Scottish Labour is.
Is Jim Murphy one of yours?
That had not occurred to me - but perhaps I don't want to get too paranoid/tinfoily.
Anyway, the SNP are the latest folk pointing out that the Labour sums don't add up, especially with the Barnett consequential added in:
I think that [edit: Labour] statement is absolutely insane. And disgracefully divisive.
Unless they are trying to hug the SNP at the same time as committing party suicide. And even then it doesn't make sense. There is also a question whether Ms Dugdale has agreed this statement (below) with Mr M, never mind most of the rest of SLAB for whom being polite to the SNP is going to be as welcome as a tin of baked beans in Pythagoras's Academy. MInd, it could be a ploy to say 'you might as well vote SLAB as SNP'. Or is she already making a bid for the SLAB head honchoship?
Which will be the first supermarket to dare to go for it: 99p a litre?
With my 20p a litre discount from Tescos I expect to be paying substantially less than £1 a litre when I fill up today.
I agree with you about the effectiveness of the "tax bombshell" in 1992. The wisdom of the time was that John Smith had made a major error in having a plan which did make it clear that higher taxes were in store to increase public spending. There is little doubt that folk memory of that experience is driving the lack of a plan at the moment. Will this work better for Labour or does it just give the tories more room to use their imaginations? Only time will tell.
But I didn't see anything yesterday that came close to the posters you linked to. 40 odd page documents are really not going to do it.
Agreed. The Tories need to be bolder and totally unscrupulous by talking about how Labour will tax everyone's house. Scare people by talking not about the "mansion tax" but about Labour's "home tax".
It's too late, the "mansion tax" framing has already stuck.
This is one of those times when coalition makes the messaging harder, because the LibDems came up with the policy first, and there was always a possibility the Tories would want to cut a deal where they enacted it themselves, so they weren't able to go after it very aggressively when people first started talking about it. By the time Labour adopted the policy and the Tories were clear that they wouldn't adopt it themselves it was too late to rebrand it.
You may be right. I'm not certain though - 4 months of wall to wall "Labour's home tax" may be a help, particularly with the polls as tight as they are. It's not just the rebranding. It's putting Labour on the defensive.
The Tories are not going to succeed by focusing on the economy in general terms. They have to focus on what it means for people personally. That is why Labour's cost of living crisis meme has been effective.
So the Tories need to turn that back on Labour by claiming that Labour will take more money from you - on top of your mortgage and council tax and income tax and National Insurance and VAT - simply for the privilege of living in your own home.
And they won't spend it on building more houses so that your children can find somewhere to live. No - they're going to spend it on nurses in Scotland.
As I said, totally unscrupulous - but with enough of a grain of truth - and could be effective enough.
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
Personally I think that sitcoms about the Nazi occupation of France are in bad taste too. Essentially it's wrong to make fun of people dying on a large scale, especially when it was caused by someone else, because it trivialises it.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
But you'll never be PM. The extremist politics of the Miliband household are of national importance.
The killer for Labour is when their opponents conflate the two - fears that Labour will HAVE to tax much lower priced houses in order to meet their obligations to Scotland (to try and save their electoral arses).
This campaign has the makings of a perfect storm for Labour. Good job they have such a top captain on the bridge....
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Once Balls admits the numbers dont add up and reduces the threshold to £1m it will affect the nicer bits of Edinburgh. 30+ properties valued over £1m for sale in Fife on Rightmove at the moment.
You get a slightly different property for £1m+ in Scotland than london
"Another mean spirited Labour hack comments on stopping Evans finding work. Is this how rehabilitation works according to Labour rules? Baird is also a lawyer, and was kicked out in Redcar IRC on a huge swing against her."
It's pitiful what lengths some people will go to to court publicity. I don't think it's just Labour but I agree that Labour people are as bad as anyone in the holier-than-thou stakes
It's interesting how many lawyers are willing to disregard the principles that they supposedly uphold.
Which will be the first supermarket to dare to go for it: 99p a litre?
With my 20p a litre discount from Tescos I expect to be paying substantially less than £1 a litre when I fill up today.
I agree with you about the effectiveness of the "tax bombshell" in 1992. The wisdom of the time was that John Smith had made a major error in having a plan which did make it clear that higher taxes were in store to increase public spending. There is little doubt that folk memory of that experience is driving the lack of a plan at the moment. Will this work better for Labour or does it just give the tories more room to use their imaginations? Only time will tell.
But I didn't see anything yesterday that came close to the posters you linked to. 40 odd page documents are really not going to do it.
Agreed. The Tories need to be bolder and totally unscrupulous by talking about how Labour will tax everyone's house. Scare people by talking not about the "mansion tax" but about Labour's "home tax".
It's too late, the "mansion tax" framing has already stuck.
This is one of those times when coalition makes the messaging harder, because the LibDems came up with the policy first, and there was always a possibility the Tories would want to cut a deal where they enacted it themselves, so they weren't able to go after it very aggressively when people first started talking about it. By the time Labour adopted the policy and the Tories were clear that they wouldn't adopt it themselves it was too late to rebrand it.
You may be right. I'm not certain though - 4 months of wall to wall "Labour's home tax" may be a help, particularly with the polls as tight as they are. It's not just the rebranding. It's putting Labour on the defensive.
It's a mansion tax. If the Tories want to spend 4 months fretting about poor dears living in mansions that's up to them but I'm not sure it will resonate with the wider electorate.
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
Personally I think that sitcoms about the Nazi occupation of France are in bad taste too. Essentially it's wrong to make fun of people dying on a large scale, especially when it was caused by someone else, because it trivialises it.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
Agree. I disagree wholeheartedly with Ralph Milliband's views. But any criticisms of Ed Milliband I make will be because of what he has said or done not because of what his late father thought when he was 16.
Labour Uncut’s Atul Hatwal compares Ed Miliband to Michael Foot unfavourably…
“Even Michael Foot’s Labour party managed to sustain an average poll lead of over 10% for a period of months just a year and a half after Mrs. Thatcher’s 1979 victory.”
Sir Robert Peel's government organised famine relief pretty successfully, in 1845-46. Lord John Russell's, which took over in 1846, didn't regard famine relief as being any of the business of the government, but rather the job of charities. So, hundreds of thousands died, despite the charities' best efforts.
I think most people blame Charles Trevelyan more than Lord John Russell. Amazing to think that so many years later his name is still sung with venom by tens of thousands of people on a weekly basis!
Trevelyan was a piece of work. IIRC he made a comment about the dying Irish that compared them to rabbits that died when houses were built over a warren.
The killer for Labour is when their opponents conflate the two - fears that Labour will HAVE to tax much lower priced houses in order to meet their obligations to Scotland (to try and save their electoral arses).
This campaign has the makings of a perfect storm for Labour. Good job they have such a top captain on the bridge....
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Once Balls admits the numbers dont add up and reduces the threshold to £1m it will affect the nicer bits of Edinburgh. 30+ properties valued over £1m for sale in Fife on Rightmove at the moment.
You get a slightly different property for £1m+ in Scotland than london
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Once Balls admits the numbers dont add up and reduces the threshold to £1m it will affect the nicer bits of Edinburgh. 30+ properties valued over £1m for sale in Fife on Rightmove at the moment.
I doubt Labour would lower the threshold to x after they said x*2, it's not much money so why take the political hit?
The real problem is that x doesn't come close to making the amount of money he claims, he wanted to raise 2bn. That requires x to be just about 1m, when x is 2m it raises somewhere under 1bn after exemptions, and both those figures exclude any expense of collecting the money and settling disputes, so if he wants a "clean" 2bn to spend it will need an even smaller x, or a substantially more draconian rate.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
I'd like to take this opportunity to formally repudiate my father's vote in the 1989 European Parliamentary elections, in which he spoiled his ballot paper with the message JOIN THE BLOODY ERM NOW.
With that crappy layout I'd spend either £750,000 less and get one of the double uppers in the Stockbridge colonies next door or squeak out £100,000 more for a proper, much more central, townhouse with an extra bedroom and a decent layout
Which will be the first supermarket to dare to go for it: 99p a litre?
With my 20p a litre discount from Tescos I expect to be paying substantially less than £1 a litre when I fill up today.
But I didn't see anything yesterday that came close to the posters you linked to. 40 odd page documents are really not going to do it.
Agreed. The Tories need to be bolder and totally unscrupulous by talking about how Labour will tax everyone's house. Scare people by talking not about the "mansion tax" but about Labour's "home tax".
It's too late, the "mansion tax" framing has already stuck.
This is one of those times when coalition makes the messaging harder, because the LibDems came up with the policy first, and there was always a possibility the Tories would want to cut a deal where they enacted it themselves, so they weren't able to go after it very aggressively when people first started talking about it. By the time Labour adopted the policy and the Tories were clear that they wouldn't adopt it themselves it was too late to rebrand it.
You may be right. I'm not certain though - 4 months of wall to wall "Labour's home tax" may be a help, particularly with the polls as tight as they are. It's not just the rebranding. It's putting Labour on the defensive.
The Tories are not going to succeed by focusing on the economy in general terms. They have to focus on what it means for people personally. That is why Labour's cost of living crisis meme has been effective.
So the Tories need to turn that back on Labour by claiming that Labour will take more money from you - on top of your mortgage and council tax and income tax and National Insurance and VAT - simply for the privilege of living in your own home.
And they won't spend it on building more houses so that your children can find somewhere to live. No - they're going to spend it on nurses in Scotland.
As I said, totally unscrupulous - but with enough of a grain of truth - and could be effective enough.
The other two points worth driving home are that the tax will not be levied on current market value, any more than the council tax is based on current market value. This opens the door to levying it on all homes in Tory constituencies; the state just declares all those homes to have a mansion tax value of more than 2 million. And that Miliband, Harman and all the other Labour refuse will not pay the tax themselves, they'll declare their mansions to be parliamentary second homes, and will expense them.
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
Personally I think that sitcoms about the Nazi occupation of France are in bad taste too. Essentially it's wrong to make fun of people dying on a large scale, especially when it was caused by someone else, because it trivialises it.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
But you'll never be PM. The extremist politics of the Miliband household are of national importance.
Milliband is a weapons grade cock, let's make no bones about it, but holding him to account because of his father's politics is just plain barmy.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
I'd like to take this opportunity to formally repudiate my father's vote in the 1989 European Parliamentary elections, in which he spoiled his ballot paper with the message JOIN THE BLOODY ERM NOW.
My Father voted Labour in 1983. The shame.
Which possibly makes him the only person to vote Lab in 1983 and Tory in 1997
Judging by the recent Populus Poll, the section of the population that is economically dry, socially liberal, and pro-EU amounts to 13%. Granted, it's the position of the Times, FT, and Economist, but that doesn't seem to me to the basis of a mass movement.
Or to put it another way, Scotland, Wales, NI and all of England outside London & the SE are drains, just that Scotland is a smaller drain than the rest.
One nation!
Spot on. It is good that money from the richest parts of the UK is redistributed to the poorer parts.
Personally I'd have preferred that the UK hadn't evolved an over centralised economy and government over the last 300 years, and therefore avoided developing the dependency/largesse psyche we see so delightfully expressed today (and on oh-so-many-other days). Still, spilt milk and all that..
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
Personally I think that sitcoms about the Nazi occupation of France are in bad taste too. Essentially it's wrong to make fun of people dying on a large scale, especially when it was caused by someone else, because it trivialises it.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
Five years ago I studied Humanities at Brighton Uni.. Ralph Miliband was the poster boy for the SWP/Marxist lecturers that indoctrinated the students with left wing bile... They said he would be turning in his grave if he could see Ed and David's politics today.
So fair to say Ed isn't a carbon copy of his father
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Once Balls admits the numbers dont add up and reduces the threshold to £1m it will affect the nicer bits of Edinburgh. 30+ properties valued over £1m for sale in Fife on Rightmove at the moment.
I doubt Labour would lower the threshold to x after they said x*2, it's not much money so why take the political hit?
The real problem is that x doesn't come close to making the amount of money he claims, he wanted to raise 2bn. That requires x to be just about 1m, when x is 2m it raises somewhere under 1bn after exemptions, and both those figures exclude any expense of collecting the money and settling disputes, so if he wants a "clean" 2bn to spend it will need an even smaller x, or a substantially more draconian rate.
That's my point, in the grand scheme of things it's basically sod all: The main significance of the policy is political. Since it's mainly for political messaging rather than actual revenue-raising, he's not going to lower the threshold beyond what he said, because that would be a political negative instead of a political positive.
Sir Robert Peel's government organised famine relief pretty successfully, in 1845-46. Lord John Russell's, which took over in 1846, didn't regard famine relief as being any of the business of the government, but rather the job of charities. So, hundreds of thousands died, despite the charities' best efforts.
I think most people blame Charles Trevelyan more than Lord John Russell. Amazing to think that so many years later his name is still sung with venom by tens of thousands of people on a weekly basis!
Trevelyan was a piece of work. IIRC he made a comment about the dying Irish that compared them to rabbits that died when houses were built over a warren.
Trevelyan would have done better not to have committed many of his opinions to paper.
The Irish Crisis is available for free on google books. I found the two reviews amusing. The first was:
"An excellent book to aid in the understanding of the situation regarding Irish land tenure prior to the potato famine and also gives an understanding of the Liberal/Whig attitude towards the landowners and the unemployed pauper class."
"Another mean spirited Labour hack comments on stopping Evans finding work. Is this how rehabilitation works according to Labour rules? Baird is also a lawyer, and was kicked out in Redcar IRC on a huge swing against her."
It's pitiful what lengths some people will go to to court publicity. I don't think it's just Labour but I agree that Labour people are as bad as anyone in the holier-than-thou stakes
I haven't followed the case closely but did some research yesterday. To be fair it IS problematic. As I understand it he refuses to admit he's done anything wrong. Of course he can argue that it was a miscarriage of justice. At the same time there is a very unpleasant minority who who seem to hold him in a high regard. The victim has also been named repeatedly, harassed and forced to move house. Fans in the terraces chanting his name and the like, though he can hardly be blamed for that himself. I don't know what the answer is and football being a business built around individual stars means he probably has little hope of playing professionally in this country. It does make one wonder how we deal with ex convicts as a society though. There's a lot of talk about rehabilitation into society but what sort of options does someone convicted of a serious crime have? In all sorts of areas they will never be trusted again. I saw an example of a teacher who was unable to work again because of a minor piece of shoplifting. There may be a degree of NIMBYism. Of course we want people to be given another chance but we don't want to be the ones to give it to them, thank you.
Judging by the recent Populus Poll, the section of the population that is economically dry, socially liberal, and pro-EU amounts to 13%. Granted, it's the position of the Times, FT, and Economist, but that doesn't seem to me to the basis of a mass movement.
But the recent YouGov poll shows a centre right Tory Party doing better than a right wing Tory party.
Plus my new Tory Party wouldn't be Pro European.
We'd just stop banging on about it as if it were more important than the economy or schools and hospitals.
The last three Tory PMs have been toppled or seen their Premierships ruined by Europe and it is starting to grate.
No I haven't though I heard it was good. What did you think? I'm a bit over stuffed with biopics this year with Turner Turing and Hawkins. All well acted-Redmayne and Cumberbatch particularly-but as films only 'The Imitation Game' really worked.
I'd be surprised if both Cumberbatch and Redmayne don't get Oscar nominations. And Redmayne will certainly win the Bafta
PS for pure craft you must see Exodus though not on a small screen.
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
Personally I think that sitcoms about the Nazi occupation of France are in bad taste too. Essentially it's wrong to make fun of people dying on a large scale, especially when it was caused by someone else, because it trivialises it.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
But you'll never be PM. The extremist politics of the Miliband household are of national importance.
Milliband is a weapons grade cock, let's make no bones about it, but holding him to account because of his father's politics is just plain barmy.
If David Cameron's father had been a fanatical Nazi and was Dave's political hero, I'd hold him to account.
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
Personally I think that sitcoms about the Nazi occupation of France are in bad taste too. Essentially it's wrong to make fun of people dying on a large scale, especially when it was caused by someone else, because it trivialises it.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
But you'll never be PM. The extremist politics of the Miliband household are of national importance.
Milliband is a weapons grade cock, let's make no bones about it, but holding him to account because of his father's politics is just plain barmy.
If David Cameron's father had been a fanatical Nazi and was Dave's political hero, I'd hold him to account.
So we can have sitcoms about the Second World War but not about the Irish Famine? Eejits.
Personally I think that sitcoms about the Nazi occupation of France are in bad taste too. Essentially it's wrong to make fun of people dying on a large scale, especially when it was caused by someone else, because it trivialises it.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
But you'll never be PM. The extremist politics of the Miliband household are of national importance.
Milliband is a weapons grade cock, let's make no bones about it, but holding him to account because of his father's politics is just plain barmy.
Except for the fact that Miliband has said his leadership is the "ultimate tribute" to his father, and that he was going to bring socialism to the UK as a "homage" to him. Given that, it's perfectly reasonable to question other aspects of Miliband Snr's views. Even though Ed wrote a full length column after the revelations, he never actually denounced them. Meanwhile, he supports plenty of anti-English policies.
Except Ched Evans "serious crime" was to sleep with a woman who was apparently too drunk to give consent to him, but was sober enough to give consent to the other footballer she slept with immediately before him.
Judging by the recent Populus Poll, the section of the population that is economically dry, socially liberal, and pro-EU amounts to 13%. Granted, it's the position of the Times, FT, and Economist, but that doesn't seem to me to the basis of a mass movement.
But the recent YouGov poll shows a centre right Tory Party doing better than a right wing Tory party.
Plus my new Tory Party wouldn't be Pro European.
We'd just stop banging on about it as if it were more important than the economy or schools and hospitals.
The last three Tory PMs have been toppled or seen their Premierships ruined by Europe and it is starting to grate.
FPTP creates broad church/big tent parties but sects of the church don't seem to realise that they aren't the whole thing.
Or to put it another way, Scotland, Wales, NI and all of England outside London & the SE are drains, just that Scotland is a smaller drain than the rest.
One nation!
Spot on. It is good that money from the richest parts of the UK is redistributed to the poorer parts.
Personally I'd have preferred that the UK hadn't evolved an over centralised economy and government over the last 300 years, and therefore avoided developing the dependency/largesse psyche we see so delightfully expressed today (and on oh-so-many-other days). Still, spilt milk and all that..
The UK did not have a centralised economy until pretty recently. It was the decline in heavy industry and manufacturing that led to the change and the development of London's dominance. Where you and I would be in full agreement is that both labour and Tory governments wasted the North Sea oil money. More wisely spent and/or invested much of the economic centralisation that has occurred over the last 40 years could have been avoided. But, as you say, it is spilt milk. There is no point in refighting battles that have been lost. It's what is best for the future that matters. That is where we disagree.
With that crappy layout I'd spend either £750,000 less and get one of the double uppers in the Stockbridge colonies next door or squeak out £100,000 more for a proper, much more central, townhouse with an extra bedroom and a decent layout
Yes, I saw that one, but I thought giving a Grade 'A' listed Georgian townhouse as my example of Edinburgh house prices might be taking the p--- a bit ;-)
Judging by the recent Populus Poll, the section of the population that is economically dry, socially liberal, and pro-EU amounts to 13%. Granted, it's the position of the Times, FT, and Economist, but that doesn't seem to me to the basis of a mass movement.
That's because being pro-EU is not consistent with being economically dry or socially liberal. A real economic dry could never support a budget that is 50% agricultural subsidies and riddled with fraud, and a proper social liberal could not support so much governance being so removed from a democratic mandate. Pro-EU supporters do so out of ideology rather than anything else - as is demonstrated by TSE seemingly characterising anyone that doesn't want to stay in the EU as being "obsessed".
The real vulnerability for Labour on the "mansion tax" isn't the people who are worried it will hit them. It's the people in London and the home counties who feel that revenue raised almost entirely on their localities being unhappy that it's sent out of the area to pay for electoral bribes elsewhere. It's not like income tax where the South East pays a bit more than elsewhere - this is 95% a tax on the South East, and housing taxes are supposed to go to local authorities. With London having a poverty rate higher than Scotland, a lot of people will be angry that the money isn't being spent here. Especially given that the NHS in London is under a lot more pressure the NHS in Scotland.
The killer for Labour is when their opponents conflate the two - fears that Labour will HAVE to tax much lower priced houses in order to meet their obligations to Scotland (to try and save their electoral arses).
This campaign has the makings of a perfect storm for Labour. Good job they have such a top captain on the bridge....
The killer for Labour is when they can only get the measure through on Scottish votes.
Scottish votes for London taxes. What could possibly go wrong....?
Are you not a Unionist.
20000 Extra nurses message is popular no matter hoe loud Tory press and PBers squeal.
18000 in England 1000 in Wales 1000 in Scotland
All paid for by people with mansions
Only on PB is that a disaster for Ed in the real world 72% support
Once you have to explain it ('spare room subsidy', anyone?) you've lost the argument.
'Scottish Votes on English Taxes (for extra Scottish spending)' is much simpler.........
You at the lies again, it is a UK tax , just because most of the rich bloodsucking parasitic mansion owners live in the subsidised south is not our problem. Pooling and sharing Dear Pooling and sharing, you should learn your unionist mantra.
Taxes are disbursed according to formula and need. Scots cannot have it both ways - no matter how much constantly lying people like you try. If they produce more tax per head then there is no specific need in Scotland for the extra tax - only at best their share per head. What happens to tax is the business of the devolved government not Westminster MPs.
FWIW I do not think most Scots do want it both ways, they are only fed gross lefty propaganda by people like you and desperate Labour politicians. Its hard to see why nationalists should seek to rely on money from London property owners to make their sums add up.
Judging by the recent Populus Poll, the section of the population that is economically dry, socially liberal, and pro-EU amounts to 13%. Granted, it's the position of the Times, FT, and Economist, but that doesn't seem to me to the basis of a mass movement.
But the recent YouGov poll shows a centre right Tory Party doing better than a right wing Tory party.
Plus my new Tory Party wouldn't be Pro European.
We'd just stop banging on about it as if it were more important than the economy or schools and hospitals.
The last three Tory PMs have been toppled or seen their Premierships ruined by Europe and it is starting to grate.
Opposition to the EU and mass immigration IS centrist. That's why UKIP are winning votes off Labour. If Tory PMs want to stop their party being divided on the EU they could start agreeing with their activist and voter base on the topic.
It's too late, the "mansion tax" framing has already stuck.
This is one of those times when coalition makes the messaging harder, because the LibDems came up with the policy first, and there was always a possibility the Tories would want to cut a deal where they enacted it themselves, so they weren't able to go after it very aggressively when people first started talking about it. By the time Labour adopted the policy and the Tories were clear that they wouldn't adopt it themselves it was too late to rebrand it.
You may be right. I'm not certain though - 4 months of wall to wall "Labour's home tax" may be a help, particularly with the polls as tight as they are. It's not just the rebranding. It's putting Labour on the defensive.
The Tories are not going to succeed by focusing on the economy in general terms. They have to focus on what it means for people personally. That is why Labour's cost of living crisis meme has been effective.
So the Tories need to turn that back on Labour by claiming that Labour will take more money from you - on top of your mortgage and council tax and income tax and National Insurance and VAT - simply for the privilege of living in your own home.
And they won't spend it on building more houses so that your children can find somewhere to live. No - they're going to spend it on nurses in Scotland.
As I said, totally unscrupulous - but with enough of a grain of truth - and could be effective enough.
The other two points worth driving home are that the tax will not be levied on current market value, any more than the council tax is based on current market value. This opens the door to levying it on all homes in Tory constituencies; the state just declares all those homes to have a mansion tax value of more than 2 million. And that Miliband, Harman and all the other Labour refuse will not pay the tax themselves, they'll declare their mansions to be parliamentary second homes, and will expense them.
Actually it is on current value, that one of the things that is so damn stupid about the proposal. Every year the owner is meant to make their own assessment of the value, and enter it onto their tax return where buy the tax due will be assessed. If HMRC does not believe them it can challenge the value, and fine you heavily if you were wrong. The only allowable defense would be to be acting on professional advice, ie. having engaged a qualified surveyor (rather than just an estate agent) to value your property and give you a written report. So lots of people with properties a little over £1m in areas like London are going to have to get valuations every year "just in case" - daft.
With that crappy layout I'd spend either £750,000 less and get one of the double uppers in the Stockbridge colonies next door or squeak out £100,000 more for a proper, much more central, townhouse with an extra bedroom and a decent layout
No outside space, and someone else in the basement. Hardly ideal, particularly if the lower floor neighbour turns out to be Malcolm tossing empty bottles into the backyard on an hourly basis.
"Another mean spirited Labour hack comments on stopping Evans finding work. Is this how rehabilitation works according to Labour rules? Baird is also a lawyer, and was kicked out in Redcar IRC on a huge swing against her."
It's pitiful what lengths some people will go to to court publicity. I don't think it's just Labour but I agree that Labour people are as bad as anyone in the holier-than-thou stakes
There are plenty of twitter users who think that they sit in The Court of Public Opinion on this and other cases. Baird has been a QC, but perhaps she thought if Ed waded in, she could join him and the Manc. Police Commissioner.
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
If your father was a fascist, and you said your political career was the "ultimate tribute" to him, and it came out he had made, say, bigoted comments about black people, you don't think you have a responsibility to criticise such comments?
If that had been the case, and you then supported various policies that gave additional rights to white people, and Asian people, but not black people, I think it would be perfectly legitimate to start connecting your father's views to your policies.
I love that Damian Green's description of a reformed EU has now been watered down to "liberalising cross-border EU trade" and "focusing on agreements such as the TTIP Transatlantic Free Trade deal".
Is this what Tory euroscepticism has been reduced to? Not a single repatriation in sight.
Look at how well tiny Luxembourg does out of the EU too ! And still they beggar our neighbour with low corp tax rates...
Flat corporation tax rate across the EU would be a sensible move, you could lower it from the British one to a flat rate of 19% or so and both British companies and the British Gov't would win.
With that crappy layout I'd spend either £750,000 less and get one of the double uppers in the Stockbridge colonies next door or squeak out £100,000 more for a proper, much more central, townhouse with an extra bedroom and a decent layout
Yes, I saw that one, but I thought giving a Grade 'A' listed Georgian townhouse as my example of Edinburgh house prices might be taking the p--- a bit ;-)
At £1m+ in Edinburgh you'll find a lot more 4+ bed Georgian town houses that new builds.
EDIT: Lovely area, nice garden, good for the rugby
Tesco canning it's defined benefits pension scheme.
time for the public sector to smell the coffee ?
It's considering closing it to new entrants. We've discussed why we cant afford to close the unfunded public sector pension schemes many times before. I know you're only pretending not to understand.
This govt have already reformed the public sector pensions and have been raising the pension age. Labour and public sector unions constantly attack them. Members of the pension schemes will have to work longer, in most cases contribute more, and in some cases accept a lower pension than they would have received under the previous system. Its amazing that some people can say things like ''time for the public sector to smell the coffee'' when from last April this govt led by the tories has done what Labour refused to. Its pretty pathetic that kipper enthusiasts can pretend that there is no difference between the parties when you see the lengths that the tories have gone to to make themselves unpopular with the public sector.
Except Ched Evans "serious crime" was to sleep with a woman who was apparently too drunk to give consent to him, but was sober enough to give consent to the other footballer she slept with immediately before him.
Apparently she sent texts the next morning saying "When I go, I go big" or some other boast
Miliband hasn't even been willing to criticise his father's comments. It's because he shares the same contempt for the English people.
Give over! My father was an active street-canvassing Tory and then later a Liberal. I've no intention of criticising him for either thing - he was a private individual, he's dead, he had a right to his opinions, and they were none of my business to comment on. I'd feel the same if he'd been a fascist or a Trotskyist, or if Cameron's father was.
If your father was a fascist, and you said your political career was the "ultimate tribute" to him, and it came out he had made, say, bigoted comments about black people, you don't think you have a responsibility to criticise such comments?
If that had been the case, and you then supported various policies that gave additional rights to white people, and Asian people, but not black people, I think it would be perfectly legitimate to start connecting your father's views to your policies.
Socrates: surely the point is that you criticise the son for adopting the father's views not assume that because a son was brought up by his father he automatically believes exactly the same things as his father?
You're perfectly free to criticise Ed Milliband for wanting to bring back "socialism" but criticising him for the fact that he loves his late father and learnt from him (we all learn from our parents but not, perhaps, in the way they intend!) detracts from the point I think you are trying to make.
Comments
Another mean spirited Labour hack comments on stopping Evans finding work. Is this how rehabilitation works according to Labour rules? Baird is also a lawyer, and was kicked out in Redcar IRC on a huge swing against her.
http://www.isitfair.co.uk/reports/public/oe ukpublicfinance.pdf
The Lib Dem will be channelling Goldilocks.
As Socrates points out, framing things in terms of the average is the giveaway. It's agenda driven research, not disintetested research.
I've had a look at the Oxford Economic report and the link on their website to their clients page. Nothing there to suggest they aren't "agenda driven" as well. Maybe one day we'll find out how Scotland would do as an independent country, but we might have to put the fossil-fuel based economy behind us first...
"England" and "Scotland"?
Is there a blue-rinse tartan?
Talking of which I believe the death of SLAB has been gratly eggagerated. I'd be evry surprised if they get less than 20 maybe more.
I'm well aware that this is not Labour's policy but it plays into fears that (a) this is what the mansion tax will turn into; (b) it will be charged on much lower value properties; and (c) at a much higher rate than Labour are now saying. Even if Labour deny that this is the case it turns the attention onto a Labour tax on homes and, secondly, on the fact that - according to reports (and I have not checked their accuracy) - the tax at the rates mentioned by Balls will not raise the sums claimed.
Currently, as another poster said below, a lot of rich people moaning about paying more sends exactly the sort of message Labour wants people to hear.
And it's a message I'm sympathetic too - even though I'm not affected by the mansion tax and think it a silly way to proceed (higher council tax bands would be better IMO).
As you say, I doubt if the Irish landlords will be treated very kindly in a sitcom.
So it's a tax on pensioners and savers.
8/11 here if anyone wants it
Mr. Eagles, not sure if you're bothered but it seems there may be a CBS series about Supergirl.
I dont think that means what you think it means.
From the disaggregated accounts Scoltand produced more Tax Per Head then England in every year bar 1999-2002, but they were more than outweighed by 2006-2012 where Scotland massively outperformed England in tax per head.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/transaction/191829830?ref=shop_review
Hung parliamentarian light switch.
For anyone interested, the museum at Cobh - where so many Irish emigrants fled - is an eye-opening and harrowing experience.
Ireland has always been the country which has tested Britain's liberal values - and it's self-regarding "we're the best country in the world" view of itself - to destruction.
Have you seen Selma yet Roger? Looks like the big Oscar movie...
It is the Golden Age of comics on tv at the moment (at the cinema too)
Or to put it another way, Scotland, Wales, NI and all of England outside London & the SE are drains, just that Scotland is a smaller drain than the rest.
One nation!
This is one of those times when coalition makes the messaging harder, because the LibDems came up with the policy first, and there was always a possibility the Tories would want to cut a deal where they enacted it themselves, so they weren't able to go after it very aggressively when people first started talking about it. By the time Labour adopted the policy and the Tories were clear that they wouldn't adopt it themselves it was too late to rebrand it.
Round one to Burnham, I think.
If you lot didn't need civilising, England would never have needed to invade Ireland and the Pope would never have given his blessing.
Ultimately, the SNP don't actually care how many MP's they win in May. It actually suits their agenda to have a tory majority government and be given a crappy devomax deal.
What they really want is this kind of resentful, sectarian campaign.
RIP United Kingdom.
http://www.espc.com/properties/details.aspx?pid=336169&sid=640939963
Might almost describe this 8 bedroom 5 public room 3 floor property with substansial grounds as a mansion-like.
Labour Uncut’s Atul Hatwal compares Ed Miliband to Michael Foot unfavourably…
“Even Michael Foot’s Labour party managed to sustain an average poll lead of over 10% for a period of months just a year and a half after Mrs. Thatcher’s 1979 victory.”
http://order-order.com/2015/01/06/quote-of-the-day-975/
Spirit Duty: 13.2%
Wine Duty: 9.1%
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31848294.html
The view of some German generals was that their army never recovered from the Somme offensive - they took staggering losses for a defending army.
Proportionately the British casualties were about what you expect when you fight the main enemy in the main theatre, regardless of the era or the weaponry. At Waterloo 100 years previously, Wellington's army took 25% casualties in seven hours which is not much different other than scale and duration from what occurred in 1916.
"Another mean spirited Labour hack comments on stopping Evans finding work. Is this how rehabilitation works according to Labour rules? Baird is also a lawyer, and was kicked out in Redcar IRC on a huge swing against her."
It's pitiful what lengths some people will go to to court publicity. I don't think it's just Labour but I agree that Labour people are as bad as anyone in the holier-than-thou stakes
My £25@100/1 on me winning is the first guaranteed losing bet of GE2015 on PB!
Nevertheless, oil tax revenues as a percentage of GDP for an iScotland are far higher than for UK as a whole. Obviously.
Lower oil tax revenues will naturally enough require further fiscal consolidation (or would have, should an iScotland have sought to have joined the EU).
Of course all counter-factual but oil tax revenues do matter to Scotland.
The Tories are not going to succeed by focusing on the economy in general terms. They have to focus on what it means for people personally. That is why Labour's cost of living crisis meme has been effective.
So the Tories need to turn that back on Labour by claiming that Labour will take more money from you - on top of your mortgage and council tax and income tax and National Insurance and VAT - simply for the privilege of living in your own home.
And they won't spend it on building more houses so that your children can find somewhere to live. No - they're going to spend it on nurses in Scotland.
As I said, totally unscrupulous - but with enough of a grain of truth - and could be effective enough.
http://search.savills.com/property-detail/gbedruedr100016
I might not have to set up the Dry but not obsessed by the gays and Europe Tory Party after all
@jameskirkup: . @damiangreenmp says Conservatives MPs are quietly rejecting the 'Ukip tendency' and want to stay in Europe: http://t.co/gNAWdmxtVH
http://www.espc.com/properties/details.aspx?pid=344201&sid=640939963
Which possibly makes him the only person to vote Lab in 1983 and Tory in 1997
So fair to say Ed isn't a carbon copy of his father
The Irish Crisis is available for free on google books. I found the two reviews amusing. The first was:
"An excellent book to aid in the understanding of the situation regarding Irish land tenure prior to the potato famine and also gives an understanding of the Liberal/Whig attitude towards the landowners and the unemployed pauper class."
The second:
"Charles Edward Trevelyan = Mass Murderer......"
Clearly he still evokes a strong reaction!
Plus my new Tory Party wouldn't be Pro European.
We'd just stop banging on about it as if it were more important than the economy or schools and hospitals.
The last three Tory PMs have been toppled or seen their Premierships ruined by Europe and it is starting to grate.
"Selma"
No I haven't though I heard it was good. What did you think? I'm a bit over stuffed with biopics this year with Turner Turing and Hawkins. All well acted-Redmayne and Cumberbatch particularly-but as films only 'The Imitation Game' really worked.
I'd be surprised if both Cumberbatch and Redmayne don't get Oscar nominations. And Redmayne will certainly win the Bafta
PS for pure craft you must see Exodus though not on a small screen.
Gambling: 9.1%
Except Ched Evans "serious crime" was to sleep with a woman who was apparently too drunk to give consent to him, but was sober enough to give consent to the other footballer she slept with immediately before him.
I can understand why people would take offence. (Not that I think that offence should stop people from creating TV programmes).
FWIW I do not think most Scots do want it both ways, they are only fed gross lefty propaganda by people like you and desperate Labour politicians. Its hard to see why nationalists should seek to rely on money from London property owners to make their sums add up.
In any case its not going to make any difference, the referendum has been committed to, and Cameron was always going to campaign for IN.
Though there was a tweet from an 'excessively tired' ex LD councillor which caused a stir as well. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30687263
Shades of Yes Minister's emotional as a newt comment.
If that had been the case, and you then supported various policies that gave additional rights to white people, and Asian people, but not black people, I think it would be perfectly legitimate to start connecting your father's views to your policies.
Is this what Tory euroscepticism has been reduced to? Not a single repatriation in sight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_the_European_Union
Look at how well tiny Luxembourg does out of the EU too ! And still they beggar our neighbour with low corp tax rates...
Flat corporation tax rate across the EU would be a sensible move, you could lower it from the British one to a flat rate of 19% or so and both British companies and the British Gov't would win.
EDIT: Lovely area, nice garden, good for the rugby
http://www.espc.com/properties/details.aspx?pid=346340&sid=643889291
Its amazing that some people can say things like ''time for the public sector to smell the coffee'' when from last April this govt led by the tories has done what Labour refused to. Its pretty pathetic that kipper enthusiasts can pretend that there is no difference between the parties when you see the lengths that the tories have gone to to make themselves unpopular with the public sector.
Too many negs and not enough positives really to make it worthwhile... I'm saving myself for Essex.
You're perfectly free to criticise Ed Milliband for wanting to bring back "socialism" but criticising him for the fact that he loves his late father and learnt from him (we all learn from our parents but not, perhaps, in the way they intend!) detracts from the point I think you are trying to make.