You are making the error that 1) history repeats itself and 2) staying in the UK is the conservative option. Could be independence and joining the EU is seen as the conservative option. As i said the EU referendum outcome was a rejection of the conservative/status quo position
The most convincing aspect of the 'we all end up eating babies' argument is that it's almost always life long baby eaters who make it.
History does not always repeat itself, but it's safer to assume that it does than to assume that victory is assured because one's opponents are all going to die off.
Your second point is a good one, but whereas I think pro-Union Scots like David L are strongly committed to the UK at an emotional level, there is much less of an emotional commitment to the EU among Remain voters. There are people who are committed to the ideal of one European nation, but it's very much a minority viewpoint.
Didn't watch budget and only just catching up with details. Did see some clips of Hammond in action. It struck me that far more perturbing than any actual changes being announced was his style - the seemly endless, petty jokes at Corbyn and Labour's expense.
This struck me as cheap and unbecoming of the Budget process and the office of CoE.
Am I being old fashioned?
Probably. I sure I've seen reports that historical politics could be incredibly petty and brutal, with dodgy moments too, just as much or more than currently.
Perhaps it should be unbecoming, or not encouraged, maybe chancellors haven't typically acted so on such occasions, but it doesn't feel like a major change.
Looking at the front pages, the government's honeymoon has been interrupted at least.
With some journalists.
But millions on PAYE are LOLing at the outrage of others.
'Take it from them and give it to me' always gets support.
Yeah the texts to Radio 5 this morning have been broadly supportive with people on PAYE saying the NI rise is fairer.
Watching and listening to the media and the publics reaction there does seem to be anger that there is any difference at all between employed and self employed NICs and it is clear this has highlighted an issue that has been under the radar of the populace.
That will be a key point.
People on PAYE will be looking at their payslips - perhaps for the first time really noticing how much NI they pay - and asking why the self-employed pay a lower rate of NI than they do.
Because the self-employed get less benefits. Also we (should) want to, as a country, encourage people to be self-employed which can lead on to setting up business which create jobs.
To many people the self-employed are either:
Tradesmen who get paid in cash Arthur Daly / Del Boy Trotter 'wheeler-dealers' Highly paid professionals working the tax system
That's a lot of ignorance then.
Perhaps so, but the plans might be sellable of the back of that.
Looking at the front pages, the government's honeymoon has been interrupted at least.
With some journalists.
But millions on PAYE are LOLing at the outrage of others.
'Take it from them and give it to me' always gets support.
Yeah the texts to Radio 5 this morning have been broadly supportive with people on PAYE saying the NI rise is fairer.
Watching and listening to the media and the publics reaction there does seem to be anger that there is any difference at all between employed and self employed NICs and it is clear this has highlighted an issue that has been under the radar of the populace.
Sky's poll showed 57% approval and the comments by the public to the media would seem to confirm that this is quite a popular move particularly as it was tied into increased social care funding
Yes, there's a lot of ignorance over this. Or perhaps it was Hammond spending 10% of his speech spreading propaganda about it.
The more interesting questions will be if the public support equalising all benefits for self-employed. Will the taxpayer be prepared to pay for the sick/holiday/pay etc. If people want equal tax, then there has to be equal benefits. Right?
The problem is the huge difference between employed and self employed overall NIC contributions. Employees and Employers pay NIC amounting to circa 25% per employee while the self employed only pay 9% rising to 11% in 2019.
The more this disparity is highlighted the less sympathy there will be for the self employed
Until its explained what benefits and state pensions the self employed receive. You can't have it both ways.
I agree but is it not the case that the self employed will get the new enhanced state pension of circa £155 per week along with everyone else
I hope you're right but there will be enormous caveats to self employed people getting the full whack.
Hammond has helped to highlight the ignorance about the self employed which could actually be a good thing long term
Mr. 1000, is that Wilders' party? Why the rapid decline?
Yes it is.
Why the decline? I have three theories:
1. People like the Wilders/PVV policies, but don't actually want him running the country. (Trump running the US may have reinforced that!) By saying they support the PVV in polls, they drag other political parties policies nearer the PVV.
2. It's not really about the EU/Euro in the Netherlands, it's about Muslim immigration. Something like 80% of Dutch people agree with the statement "the Euro has been good for the Netherlands", and on some polling even a majority of PVV voters agree. As other political parties have taken a harder line on Muslim immigration, it's taken the most popular policy away from the PVV.
3. Geert Wilders went too far when he described Moroccan immigrants as "scum", which probably plays back into (1).
If (1) is correct, it probably augers poorly for Marine Le Pen in France too, although there is more of an anti-Euro trend in France. (Not least because while the Dutch economy has had a pretty good last 17 years, the same is not really true of France.)
There's a lot of support for opposing Muslim immigration. Not so much for banning Muslims from practising their religion.
On the subject of NIC, one thing the self-employed don't have to pay (I assume) is the employers contribution which is now a pretty hefty chunk of the total cost of employment. Equalising the benefits without actually equalising the contributions would be interesting.
I am currently acutely aware of the several benefits of being an employee as I am at home recuperating after another round of treatment in hospital (with a lot more to come) and I do not have to worry about what it will do to my take home pay. On the other hand that pay is a lot less than many of my contemporaries from university who went into the private sector.
Looking at the front pages, the government's honeymoon has been interrupted at least.
With some journalists.
But millions on PAYE are LOLing at the outrage of others.
'Take it from them and give it to me' always gets support.
Yeah the texts to Radio 5 this morning have been broadly supportive with people on PAYE saying the NI rise is fairer.
Watching and listening to the media and the publics reaction there does seem to be anger that there is any difference at all between employed and self employed NICs and it is clear this has highlighted an issue that has been under the radar of the populace.
Sky's poll showed 57% approval and the comments by the public to the media would seem to confirm that this is quite a popular move particularly as it was tied into increased social care funding
Yes, there's a lot of ignorance over this. Or perhaps it was Hammond spending 10% of his speech spreading propaganda about it.
The more interesting questions will be if the public support equalising all benefits for self-employed. Will the taxpayer be prepared to pay for the sick/holiday/pay etc. If people want equal tax, then there has to be equal benefits. Right?
The problem is the huge difference between employed and self employed overall NIC contributions. Employees and Employers pay NIC amounting to circa 25% per employee while the self employed only pay 9% rising to 11% in 2019.
The more this disparity is highlighted the less sympathy there will be for the self employed
Until its explained what benefits and state pensions the self employed receive. You can't have it both ways.
I agree but is it not the case that the self employed will get the new enhanced state pension of circa £155 per week along with everyone else
I hope you're right but there will be enormous caveats to self employed people getting the full whack.
Hammond has helped to highlight the ignorance about the self employed which could actually be a good thing long term
Hammond made this point at the dispatch box yesterday
Glad to see the flam-flam and nonsense of Budget (or should that be Spring Statement) Day is behind us. It's not terribly good theatre with the stand up act having had months to work on his (or her) routine but still failing to offer anything other than a cheesy lounge bar attempt at lunchtime entertainment. Strange we've had two female Prime Ministers but no female CoE.
I find Hammond's attempts at being funny as stilted as his attempts to sound young by putting "gas in the tank". The problem is you think you're funny if your friends are told to laugh at all your jokes.
I've no particular view on the NI tax rise - I've never been self-employed and never wanted it to be. Mrs Stodge has always been a Contractor and prefers it. She's not happy but does recognise life for Contractors has in the past been very good.
Of more import in my world, as expected, Hammond found some money down the back of the Treasury sofa to fund adult social care:
Rob Whiteman's comments are interesting. Hammond has found some money to kick the can down the road but that's all. The long-term solutions to the issue of funding care for the elderly aren't there yet and it does seem foolish that for ideological, political and historical reasons, some possible solutions are being dismissed in advance by the Government.
Radical solutions to big problems need a blank sheet of paper - if, for example, some form of Inheritance or Asset Transfer Tax has to be considered, let it be considered. The proportion of people needing care is still quite small but looks set to increase so the entire gamut of costs from housing to staffing will rise sharply if more people come into care.
Did I see a stat the other day that said that people in the UK move jobs every three years. In London every two. Not sure jump or pushed.
I suspect that most of those are between similar jobs. Generalising, there is a trend to ever greater labour flexibility, and as you imply not necessarily by choice. We need a taxation and benefits system that supports all workers, not one that crudely says "these people pay less tax because there are no employer or state benefits".
I have a list. The top ten constituencies in terms of % self employed are all Tory. They range from 16.3% to 17.5% ( Brecon and Rad is the highest.) They are: Brecon and Radnorshire Montgomeryshire Central Devon North Herefordshire Finchley and Golders Green North Cornwall Penrith and The Border Totnes Ludlow
The one with the lowest majority in the top 10 is Finchley and GG with a majority of about 11,000.
The one with lowest majority in the top 50 by self employed is Lewes with a majority of about 2,000.
Have I understood this correctly? Class 2 NICs were going anyway and so someone who makes a self-employed profit/income of between £5,965 and £8,060 a year will now, under these plans, not pay NI (from next April).
Glad to see the flam-flam and nonsense of Budget (or should that be Spring Statement) Day is behind us. It's not terribly good theatre with the stand up act having had months to work on his (or her) routine but still failing to offer anything other than a cheesy lounge bar attempt at lunchtime entertainment. Strange we've had two female Prime Ministers but no female CoE.
I find Hammond's attempts at being funny as stilted as his attempts to sound young by putting "gas in the tank". The problem is you think you're funny if your friends are told to laugh at all your jokes.
I've no particular view on the NI tax rise - I've never been self-employed and never wanted it to be. Mrs Stodge has always been a Contractor and prefers it. She's not happy but does recognise life for Contractors has in the past been very good.
Of more import in my world, as expected, Hammond found some money down the back of the Treasury sofa to fund adult social care:
Rob Whiteman's comments are interesting. Hammond has found some money to kick the can down the road but that's all. The long-term solutions to the issue of funding care for the elderly aren't there yet and it does seem foolish that for ideological, political and historical reasons, some possible solutions are being dismissed in advance by the Government.
Radical solutions to big problems need a blank sheet of paper - if, for example, some form of Inheritance or Asset Transfer Tax has to be considered, let it be considered. The proportion of people needing care is still quite small but looks set to increase so the entire gamut of costs from housing to staffing will rise sharply if more people come into care.
Hammond announced a green paper on social care due out in the summer
Did I see a stat the other day that said that people in the UK move jobs every three years. In London every two. Not sure jump or pushed.
I suspect that most of those are between similar jobs. Generalising, there is a trend to ever greater labour flexibility, and as you imply not necessarily by choice. We need a taxation and benefits system that supports all workers, not one that crudely says "these people pay less tax because there are no employer or state benefits".
If Hammond had announced a bold initiative like that, understanding modern labour markets, then he would be getting a very different reaction.
To be honest I don't think I have ever watched a complete episode as it is not my type of humour at all. I prefer satire to slapstick, but it was on so much that it was impossible not to know the theme of the show.
Interesting that it should cause offence now, although when you look back at some of the comedy shows of the 70s they are very offensive by today's standards, but I can't ever remember being offended at the time.
Thanks. The irritating thing is I'm not actually unwell at the moment (apart from the effects of the treatment) : this is all designed to stop me getting it again.
Have I understood this correctly? Class 2 NICs were going anyway and so someone who makes a self-employed profit/income of between £5,965 and £8,060 a year will now, under these plans, not pay NI (from next April).
Also correct.. the press really have gotvthis wrong i feel. I bit like David Haye they may be able to land a few blows early on here but long term the self employed havent got much to moan about here
If Hammond had announced a bold initiative like that, understanding modern labour markets, then he would be getting a very different reaction.
Instead he degraded the self-employed.
Marginally, but alongside long-term improvements in the state pension so it's not quite as bad as it might seem at first glance.
That said I do think there needs to be a big review of this whole area, alongside a review of welfare and healthcare. We live in a different world to the one when these taxes and benefits were first introduced.
I have a list. The top ten constituencies in terms of % self employed are all Tory. They range from 16.3% to 17.5% ( Brecon and Rad is the highest.) They are: Brecon and Radnorshire Montgomeryshire Central Devon North Herefordshire Finchley and Golders Green North Cornwall Penrith and The Border Totnes Ludlow
The one with the lowest majority in the top 10 is Finchley and GG with a majority of about 11,000.
The one with lowest majority in the top 50 by self employed is Lewes with a majority of about 2,000.
Fichley & Golders Green is being broken up in the boundary review, isn't it? It's becoming Hampstead & Golders Green I think
< Hammond announced a green paper on social care due out in the summer
Yes but he has already closed down, for example, any thought of reducing the IT threshold. I also think it's not just about funding - it's about quality of care and for me that means taking the profit motive out of the exercise.
There have been improvements, I'll concede that, but there have been too many instances of homes where the onus is more on making money for the owners rather than providing the quality and dignity of care people expect.
We shall see if Hammond is genuinely open to new ideas even if they are or could be politically difficult.
In the Netherlands the PVV"s rapid decline continues. In the latest I&O poll It's now forecast to get less than 13% of the vote, equal with the rabidly pro-EU D66, and down on where it was in 2010.
Glad to see the flam-flam and nonsense of Budget (or should that be Spring Statement) Day is behind us. It's not terribly good theatre with the stand up act having had months to work on his (or her) routine but still failing to offer anything other than a cheesy lounge bar attempt at lunchtime entertainment. Strange we've had two female Prime Ministers but no female CoE.
I find Hammond's attempts at being funny as stilted as his attempts to sound young by putting "gas in the tank". The problem is you think you're funny if your friends are told to laugh at all your jokes.
I've no particular view on the NI tax rise - I've never been self-employed and never wanted it to be. Mrs Stodge has always been a Contractor and prefers it. She's not happy but does recognise life for Contractors has in the past been very good.
Of more import in my world, as expected, Hammond found some money down the back of the Treasury sofa to fund adult social care:
Rob Whiteman's comments are interesting. Hammond has found some money to kick the can down the road but that's all. The long-term solutions to the issue of funding care for the elderly aren't there yet and it does seem foolish that for ideological, political and historical reasons, some possible solutions are being dismissed in advance by the Government.
Radical solutions to big problems need a blank sheet of paper - if, for example, some form of Inheritance or Asset Transfer Tax has to be considered, let it be considered. The proportion of people needing care is still quite small but looks set to increase so the entire gamut of costs from housing to staffing will rise sharply if more people come into care.
Hammond announced a green paper on social care due out in the summer
Extra and socially just taxes are so easy to devise: Return to rates on all buildings for about half the local taxation, revalue them every year if need be (the Land Registry keeps track of values) Local income tax Merge the allowance for CGT and income tax at about £11k Harmonise CGT and income tax rates Harmonise corpn. tax to US level (i.e. also level with income tax rates and stop trying to become a tax haven, that's for the Caymans, you fool) End the upper limit on NI. Charge richer pensioners NI (call it something else). End tax relief on pensions (people would save anyway if NS&I would pay say inflation plus 0.25%, that also allows borrowing for investment) ad nauseam
In which case they are ignorant. Tell them that they will get no holiday pay, no maternity pay, no company pension and if they get sick they will not only not get any pay but will lose their jobs as well. That should help to concentrate their minds.
All of those, plus employer NI are paid for by the employer.
Those PBers who believe I've been over critical here of Hammond's bashing of the self-employed, dividend earning, largely Tory voting elements in our society, may wish to reserve judgement by awaiting the results of polls over the forthcoming weeks and months, including not least the May local elections in order to gauge the electoral damage Hammond's budget has actually done to the Blue Team. George Osborne certainly had his faults but his intuitive political gut instinct would have stopped him far short from presenting a budget on anything remotely on the scale of the Tory-bashing version we heard yesterday.
Really? During the Osborne years I lost all of my personal allowance, the proportion of my income subject to 40% increased substantially and I had to pay back all of my Child Benefit. Higher earners like me were thumped repeatedly to allow him to address the deficit. I apparently had the broadest shoulders or something.
I had no real problem with that, it was necessary and the alternative would have been true austerity with completely unacceptable cuts in public spending, something Osborne largely avoided. But yesterday was a mere pinprick by comparison.
Quite.
Well said.
This is silly columnists being martyrish.
Having slept on it I'm inclined to agree. Lots of people, including those affected by this proposal, have been hit by measures to date, and factvis were still massively overspending compared to what we bring in. If no one is prepared to slash spending, and it appears no one is, and borrowing is still high, which it is, then more people need to pay more. Is this too much and toounfair of a change? At the moment I think not, but do the government have the will to resist the criticism, particularly given the need to explain why now is different to when they mocked the idea?
And that is the problem. In spite of the idiotic screaming by the Left about austerity, no one has actually really tried to do anything about Government spending. It continues to rise year after year - in 2005 it was just below £500 billion a year and in 2016 it was almost £750 billion a year. Such increases are simply unsustainable and we need real cuts in the size of the State and a real change in what we expect the State to be doing.
As a percentage of GDP the state has fallen but the NHS and social care have increasing demands and raising NI is the fairest way to pay for them.Though ironically the Leave victory you campaigned for has brought in May and Hammond who are if anything slightly more pro state than Cameron and Osborne who they replaced as PM and Chancellor
In one Harris poll by 1%, Ifop and Opinion Way still have Le Pen ahead in round 1
Of course, a few weeks ago almost all the pollsters had the PVV leading in the Netherlands. Now only one of five pollsters do.
The Harris poll seems to have shown a dramatic upsurge in the percentage who say they are certain to stick with Macron when it comes to the actual vote. They have it at 59% whereas most of the other pollsters have it at 50% or less. I would imagine this affect the weighting process and is responsible for this poll showing such an increase for Macron as against their last one.
Harris could be right and all the others wrong of course.
Do French people give a toss that Macron is gay? Matters of sex and sexuality usually attract a shrug of the shoulders in France.
More to the point, will they worry that he's consistently lied about it (if its true) which surely is a very much bigger issue....
Plus he said opponents of gay marriage deserve respect. An unlikely Le Pen win would combine the nationalist right and the hard left in the runoff, neither of which are exactly known for social liberalism, unlike Wilders she is no libertarian as he is beyond opposing immigration
The biggest problem with the attack on the self-employed is not the amounts, but the attitude.
Here we are, Brexit Britain, exciting and enterprising - ready to take on the world. And the first thing the new chancellor does is kick enterprising people in the teeth. Huh?
Brexit has to be paid for, there will be a few more punishment budgets to come.
F1: if you do subscribe to the view Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull will be closely matched, it's worth noting the Red Bull has slightly more reliability issues. It's had a couple of MGU-K failures. For context, if you lose all/part of the ERS, you're going to slide down the order very quickly (probably costs seconds per lap as well as braking issues).
Those PBers who believe I've been over critical here of Hammond's bashing of the self-employed, dividend earning, largely Tory voting elements in our society, may wish to reserve judgement by awaiting the results of polls over the forthcoming weeks and months, including not least the May local elections in order to gauge the electoral damage Hammond's budget has actually done to the Blue Team. George Osborne certainly had his faults but his intuitive political gut instinct would have stopped him far short from presenting a budget on anything remotely on the scale of the Tory-bashing version we heard yesterday.
Really? During the Osborne years I lost all of my personal allowance, the proportion of my income subject to 40% increased substantially and I had to pay back all of my Child Benefit. Higher earners like me were thumped repeatedly to allow him to address the deficit. I apparently had the broadest shoulders or something.
I had no real problem with that, it was necessary and the alternative would have been true austerity with completely unacceptable cuts in public spending, something Osborne largely avoided. But yesterday was a mere pinprick by comparison.
Quite.
Well said.
This is silly columnists being martyrish.
Having slept on it I'm inclined to agree. Lots of people, including those affected by this proposal, have been hit by measures to date, and factvis were still massively overspending compared to what we bring in. If no one is prepared to slash spending, and it appears no one is, and borrowing is still high, which it is, then more people need to pay more. Is this too much and toounfair of a change? At the moment I think not, but do the government have the will to resist the criticism, particularly given the need to explain why now is different to when they mocked the idea?
And that is the problem. In spite of the idiotic screaming by the Left about austerity, no one has actually really tried to do anything about Government spending. It continues to rise year after year - in 2005 it was just below £500 billion a year and in 2016 it was almost £750 billion a year. Such increases are simply unsustainable and we need real cuts in the size of the State and a real change in what we expect the State to be doing.
The left is totally irrelevant in all of this. It is nowhere near to power and has no impact on government decision-making. Just cutting is not a sustainable policy either, because it would cause unmitigated and disastrous hardship for millions and millions of people. The social consequences of that are unknowable, but are unlikely to be good.
The big losers would be self-employed management consultants, accountants and lawyers rather than a low paid plumber or hairdresser..... the real debate about tax and the self-employed lies not in the National Insurance individuals directly pay but with the fact that firms pay 13.8 per cent employer National Insurance for everyone they employ, but nothing if they use self-employed labour. How to close that huge gap without causing wider problems is what our limited capacity for anxiety should really prioritise…
If we're going to break manifesto pledges please could we start with the ridiculously damaging virtue signalling 0.7 percent DfiD nonsense. The sop to social care was only one fifth of the amount we waste on anti smoking campaigns etc in foreign lands.
The big losers would be self-employed management consultants, accountants and lawyers rather than a low paid plumber or hairdresser..... the real debate about tax and the self-employed lies not in the National Insurance individuals directly pay but with the fact that firms pay 13.8 per cent employer National Insurance for everyone they employ, but nothing if they use self-employed labour. How to close that huge gap without causing wider problems is what our limited capacity for anxiety should really prioritise…
< Hammond announced a green paper on social care due out in the summer
Yes but he has already closed down, for example, any thought of reducing the IT threshold. I also think it's not just about funding - it's about quality of care and for me that means taking the profit motive out of the exercise.
There have been improvements, I'll concede that, but there have been too many instances of homes where the onus is more on making money for the owners rather than providing the quality and dignity of care people expect.
We shall see if Hammond is genuinely open to new ideas even if they are or could be politically difficult.
The green paper should be an opportunity to get a cross party consensus as this is the only way the NHS and social care can be resolved
I have a list. The top ten constituencies in terms of % self employed are all Tory. They range from 16.3% to 17.5% ( Brecon and Rad is the highest.) They are: Brecon and Radnorshire Montgomeryshire Central Devon North Herefordshire Finchley and Golders Green North Cornwall Penrith and The Border Totnes Ludlow
The one with the lowest majority in the top 10 is Finchley and GG with a majority of about 11,000.
The one with lowest majority in the top 50 by self employed is Lewes with a majority of about 2,000.
Fichley & Golders Green is being broken up in the boundary review, isn't it? It's becoming Hampstead & Golders Green I think
I only have constituency data on 2015 boundaries but it comes with 164 variables including population density, age profile, education, employment, religion, ethnicity, remain/leave etc etc. plus voting record. It is a treasure trove for multi-linear regressions. A nerd's paradise.
Mr. Patrick, indeed. Slashing foreign aid would upset the media/political class, but delight most of the electorate.
It's not even slashing it that needs to be done, merely some flexibility so that if they can't hit the target in the current year they save that money for when there are some more productive aid programmes.
The big losers would be self-employed management consultants, accountants and lawyers rather than a low paid plumber or hairdresser..... the real debate about tax and the self-employed lies not in the National Insurance individuals directly pay but with the fact that firms pay 13.8 per cent employer National Insurance for everyone they employ, but nothing if they use self-employed labour. How to close that huge gap without causing wider problems is what our limited capacity for anxiety should really prioritise…
Absolutely! Firms that hire employees are punished left, right and centre for doing the right thing. Employers NI should be abolished it is a tax on creating secure jobs. All other major non-property taxes are levied at the point you receive money - a company pays VAT on its sales, a company pays corporation taxes on its profits, individuals pay income, NIC and dividend taxes on their incomes, capitals gains is on realised income, inheritance tax is paid when money is inherited.
Employers NIC is the exception in paying a charge on hiring someone who is themselves paying NIC too. It should be abolished.
In one Harris poll by 1%, Ifop and Opinion Way still have Le Pen ahead in round 1
Of course, a few weeks ago almost all the pollsters had the PVV leading in the Netherlands. Now only one of five pollsters do.
Before Rutte stole Wilders' anti immigration clothes and almost all polls still have the PVV up on the last election
It's worth remembering, though, that the PVV isn't going to be the big winner from this election. The PVV, if we reckon they get 22 seats (which is midpoint of the polling right now), will be uo 7 seats, and back at the same level they were at in 2010. That's pretty much the same increases as the rabidly pro-EU D66, and the CDA (both up 6 seats to 18 or 19 seats). Both of those parties saw their vote share markedly increase when they made commitments not to go into coalition with the PVV.
And the big winners on the evening are likely to be... The Greens who are forecast to be up 12 seats to 16. The Party of the Animals is also expected to rise 3 seats to 5.
Coalition building in the Netherlands is going to take a loooooooong time.
In one Harris poll by 1%, Ifop and Opinion Way still have Le Pen ahead in round 1
Of course, a few weeks ago almost all the pollsters had the PVV leading in the Netherlands. Now only one of five pollsters do.
Before Rutte stole Wilders' anti immigration clothes and almost all polls still have the PVV up on the last election
It's worth remembering, though, that the PVV isn't going to be the big winner from this election. The PVV, if we reckon they get 22 seats (which is midpoint of the polling right now), will be uo 7 seats, and back at the same level they were at in 2010. That's pretty much the same increases as the rabidly pro-EU D66, and the CDA (both up 6 seats to 18 or 19 seats). Both of those parties saw their vote share markedly increase when they made commitments not to go into coalition with the PVV.
And the big winners on the evening are likely to be... The Greens who are forecast to be up 12 seats to 16. The Party of the Animals is also expected to rise 3 seats to 5.
Coalition building in the Netherlands is going to take a loooooooong time.
Will it take a long time? Or will it be everyone who isn't far left or PVV joins together?
If we're going to break manifesto pledges please could we start with the ridiculously damaging virtue signalling 0.7 percent DfiD nonsense. The sop to social care was only one fifth of the amount we waste on anti smoking campaigns etc in foreign lands.
I agree, and this is the paradigm case of virtue-signalling. How it works is this: highly-paid lefties have to pay income tax, like everyone else. This pisses them off because high taxes are just what the dr ordered for loathsome hedge fund managers, and Starbucks, but clearly not appropriate for people doing creative, life-enhancing leftie-type jobs like, ooh, leading the Opposition or writing for the guardian. Lefties ought to be whole-heartedly giving their dosh away to alleviate poverty and suffering (in addition to taking in all those refugees), but when you look at them their houses are devoid of Syrians and their tax returns free of charitable donations (see under Corbyn, J.) They square this circle by saying to themselves that if I pay large sums in tax, and say in a loud voice how happy I am that with the proportion of this that goes to DfiD, and wish it were larger, that is tantamount to making a charitable donation equivalent to their entire tax bill, and bugger the collateral damage to the tax-paying poor who really cannot afford the luxury of supporting DfiD, but have to anyway.
The left is totally irrelevant in all of this. It is nowhere near to power and has no impact on government decision-making. Just cutting is not a sustainable policy either, because it would cause unmitigated and disastrous hardship for millions and millions of people. The social consequences of that are unknowable, but are unlikely to be good.
It is the Left who scream about every supposed cut the Government makes and who set the whole tone of the debate. Just as UKIP didn't have to be in power to set the tone that led to Brexit, the Left do not have to be in power to make people think we are living in an age of austerity when nothing could be further from the truth. Your comments on cuts being a disaster is a classic example of this.
Betting: Quintana is good value at 4.5 for the Tour. Sky might have to modify their "preparations" given the recent scrutiny making Froome poor value at 2.1 in my opinion.
And that is the problem. In spite of the idiotic screaming by the Left about austerity, no one has actually really tried to do anything about Government spending. It continues to rise year after year - in 2005 it was just below £500 billion a year and in 2016 it was almost £750 billion a year. Such increases are simply unsustainable and we need real cuts in the size of the State and a real change in what we expect the State to be doing.
Yet the Conservatives under Cameron and now it seems May have resolutely failed to address the spending in large parts of the State. Areas such as the NHS and Education have been ring-fenced from any reductions so the axe has fallen disproportionately on other sectors.
I understand the politics of that but it makes no sense in terms of a holistic view of what the State should be doing and how efficient it is at doing it. There comes a point when funding reductions seriously impair the ability of a public service to operate as we saw in the 1990s.
We also have the absurd position we spend more on managing the debt in terms of interest payments than we do on defending the country yet all we hear from some Conservatives is how we should be spending more on defence.
Hammond is actually quite right to raise C4 NICs. The orchestrated ballyhoo by self employed journalists etc is quite amusing. Interesting to see Tim Farron being opportunistic in condemning the rise when people on the centre-left of politics by rights should be applauding this move. Backbench Tories with more to lose will cause trouble.
As a percentage of GDP the state has fallen but the NHS and social care have increasing demands and raising NI is the fairest way to pay for them.Though ironically the Leave victory you campaigned for has brought in May and Hammond who are if anything slightly more pro state than Cameron and Osborne who they replaced as PM and Chancellor
They are all cut from the same cloth. No real thinking outside the box and just keep spending more and more taxpayers money on failed ideas and failed institutions. And as an aside, as a percentage of GDP public spending is now higher than it was in 2005.
In one Harris poll by 1%, Ifop and Opinion Way still have Le Pen ahead in round 1
Of course, a few weeks ago almost all the pollsters had the PVV leading in the Netherlands. Now only one of five pollsters do.
Before Rutte stole Wilders' anti immigration clothes and almost all polls still have the PVV up on the last election
It's worth remembering, though, that the PVV isn't going to be the big winner from this election. The PVV, if we reckon they get 22 seats (which is midpoint of the polling right now), will be uo 7 seats, and back at the same level they were at in 2010. That's pretty much the same increases as the rabidly pro-EU D66, and the CDA (both up 6 seats to 18 or 19 seats). Both of those parties saw their vote share markedly increase when they made commitments not to go into coalition with the PVV.
And the big winners on the evening are likely to be... The Greens who are forecast to be up 12 seats to 16. The Party of the Animals is also expected to rise 3 seats to 5.
Coalition building in the Netherlands is going to take a loooooooong time.
Will it take a long time? Or will it be everyone who isn't far left or PVV joins together?
Are you kidding!
They all hate each other in the Netherlands, even without the PVV.
The Greens think the Party of the Animals are splittists who don't care enough about the regular environment. The CU and the Reformed Political Party won't get into bed with anyone who doesn't promise to recriminalise homesexuality*. The Socialist Party regards the PvdA as capitalist sell outs, while the PvdA blames the Socialist Party for knocking them off their top spot in the Netherlands. D66 and the VVD are both members of the ALDE in the European Parliament, but aren't in coalition together. The PvdA will not go back into coalition with the VVD because they got - LibDem-like - shafted this time around. And then we've got DENK, the Pirates, and over-50s, all of whom may be needed to get a parliamentary majority.
Glad to see the flam-flam and nonsense of Budget (or should that be Spring Statement) Day is behind us. It's not terribly good theatre with the stand up act having had months to work on his (or her) routine but still failing to offer anything other than a cheesy lounge bar attempt at lunchtime entertainment. Strange we've had two female Prime Ministers but no female CoE.
I find Hammond's attempts at being funny as stilted as his attempts to sound young by putting "gas in the tank". The problem is you think you're funny if your friends are told to laugh at all your jokes.
I've no particular view on the NI tax rise - I've never been self-employed and never wanted it to be. Mrs Stodge has always been a Contractor and prefers it. She's not happy but does recognise life for Contractors has in the past been very good.
Of more import in my world, as expected, Hammond found some money down the back of the Treasury sofa to fund adult social care:
Rob Whiteman's comments are interesting. Hammond has found some money to kick the can down the road but that's all. The long-term solutions to the issue of funding care for the elderly aren't there yet and it does seem foolish that for ideological, political and historical reasons, some possible solutions are being dismissed in advance by the Government.
Radical solutions to big problems need a blank sheet of paper - if, for example, some form of Inheritance or Asset Transfer Tax has to be considered, let it be considered. The proportion of people needing care is still quite small but looks set to increase so the entire gamut of costs from housing to staffing will rise sharply if more people come into care.
Hammond announced a green paper on social care due out in the summer
Extra and socially just taxes are so easy to devise: Return to rates on all buildings for about half the local taxation, revalue them every year if need be (the Land Registry keeps track of values) Local income tax Merge the allowance for CGT and income tax at about £11k Harmonise CGT and income tax rates Harmonise corpn. tax to US level (i.e. also level with income tax rates and stop trying to become a tax haven, that's for the Caymans, you fool) End the upper limit on NI. Charge richer pensioners NI (call it something else). End tax relief on pensions (people would save anyway if NS&I would pay say inflation plus 0.25%, that also allows borrowing for investment) ad nauseam
And then waste all that extra money and get no improvement in services just like every other Government has done for the last 5 decades.
'Ipsos MORI also asked Scots how they plan to vote in May's local government elections.
The SNP are set to pick up almost half of first preference votes (46%) giving the party a 27-percentage point lead over the second largest party, the Scottish Conservatives, on 19% Scottish Labour polled just 17% in third. At the last local government elections in 2012 the party finished second with 31% of the national vote.
The pro-independence Scottish Greens (8%) also look seat leapfrog the Lib Dems (6%) into fourth place in terms of first preference votes. Scotland's only pro-Brexit party, UKIP, polled 3%.'
Harmonise corpn. tax to US level (i.e. also level with income tax rates and stop trying to become a tax haven, that's for the Caymans, you fool)
Just as a point of order, the US states have different corporation tax levels. Also, no-one actually pays the official US corporate tax rate, S&P500 companies paid an average of 20% of profits in tax against a federal corporate tax rate of 35%.
My guess is that in the autumn of next year, following Ms Sturgeon’s resignation in the wake of another referendum defeat, Mr Salmond would survey the SNP leadership contenders and find them wanting.
His conclusion, honestly reached after much consideration, would be that none of them could do the job as well as he could....Alex Salmond would be back. Big Eck redux. Cometh the hour, cometh the big man. And this time, no more Mister Nice Guy.
Wait for CarlottaVance to read something into more women backing Tessy...
Perhaps the significant thing is that 75% think an independent Scotland should be in the single market so Europe shouldn't be a wedge issue against Yes.
The biggest problem with the attack on the self-employed is not the amounts, but the attitude.
Here we are, Brexit Britain, exciting and enterprising - ready to take on the world. And the first thing the new chancellor does is kick enterprising people in the teeth. Huh?
If businesses are abusing the self employment system, then target those employers. If a business employs the bulk of their workers as "self-employed", then they probably are not and should be treated as employees. The self-employed working for a business should be for occasional use e.g. skills not available within the company or seasonal requirements; not for the majority of workers.
Don't penalise people who are prepared to take a risk and create new jobs for our country.
Those who back the Union were also found to be most set in their support.
When asked to choose on a scale of one to ten, with one being complete support for independence and ten being complete support for the Union, 28% said they completely supported independence while 38% had total support for the Union.
Harmonise corpn. tax to US level (i.e. also level with income tax rates and stop trying to become a tax haven, that's for the Caymans, you fool)
Just as a point of order, the US states have different corporation tax levels. Also, no-one actually pays the official US corporate tax rate, S&P500 companies paid an average of 20% of profits in tax against a federal corporate tax rate of 35%.
Plus we pay 20% VAT on our takings and then pay corporation tax on top of that, there's no VAT in the USA. The proposal in America to introduce a "20% border-adjusted corporation tax" is essentially a 20% VAT with a deduction allowed for payroll expenses [which we don't get here] and then no traditional corporation tax on top of that.
I have a list. The top ten constituencies in terms of % self employed are all Tory. They range from 16.3% to 17.5% ( Brecon and Rad is the highest.) They are: Brecon and Radnorshire Montgomeryshire Central Devon North Herefordshire Finchley and Golders Green North Cornwall Penrith and The Border Totnes Ludlow
The one with the lowest majority in the top 10 is Finchley and GG with a majority of about 11,000.
The one with lowest majority in the top 50 by self employed is Lewes with a majority of about 2,000.
Fichley & Golders Green is being broken up in the boundary review, isn't it? It's becoming Hampstead & Golders Green I think
So mostly areas with a large number of farmers. Will they be badly affected by these changes?
Harmonise corpn. tax to US level (i.e. also level with income tax rates and stop trying to become a tax haven, that's for the Caymans, you fool)
Just as a point of order, the US states have different corporation tax levels. Also, no-one actually pays the official US corporate tax rate, S&P500 companies paid an average of 20% of profits in tax against a federal corporate tax rate of 35%.
Plus we pay 20% VAT on our takings and then pay corporation tax on top of that, there's no VAT in the USA. The proposal in America to introduce a "20% border-adjusted corporation tax" is essentially a 20% VAT with a deduction allowed for payroll expenses [which we don't get here] and then no traditional corporation tax on top of that.
Well strictly speaking VAT lies entirely within the balance sheet :>
The left is totally irrelevant in all of this. It is nowhere near to power and has no impact on government decision-making. Just cutting is not a sustainable policy either, because it would cause unmitigated and disastrous hardship for millions and millions of people. The social consequences of that are unknowable, but are unlikely to be good.
It is the Left who scream about every supposed cut the Government makes and who set the whole tone of the debate. Just as UKIP didn't have to be in power to set the tone that led to Brexit, the Left do not have to be in power to make people think we are living in an age of austerity when nothing could be further from the truth. Your comments on cuts being a disaster is a classic example of this.
Spending cuts and freezes are already having a huge and negative impact on the NHS, social care, education and council services. And that's before you even begin to look at welfare. If you think a smaller state is the solution, then it is incumbent on you to explain how to achieve one without inflicting further harm on real people. Blaming the left for decisions being taken by Conservative ministers is ever so slightly silly.
Harmonise corpn. tax to US level (i.e. also level with income tax rates and stop trying to become a tax haven, that's for the Caymans, you fool)
Just as a point of order, the US states have different corporation tax levels. Also, no-one actually pays the official US corporate tax rate, S&P500 companies paid an average of 20% of profits in tax against a federal corporate tax rate of 35%.
Plus we pay 20% VAT on our takings and then pay corporation tax on top of that, there's no VAT in the USA. The proposal in America to introduce a "20% border-adjusted corporation tax" is essentially a 20% VAT with a deduction allowed for payroll expenses [which we don't get here] and then no traditional corporation tax on top of that.
I know that's how the BTA is being sold, but it's not actually VAT. Also, US states do already (mostly) have sales taxes.
The BTA is a tariff on imports and a subsidy on exports, pure and simple.
To be clear, I don't see this making very much difference to the polling. I can't see many self-employed switching to Labour as a result of this change. Perhaps UKIP will pick up some of the more crazed.
We need to watch closely whether the executive can face down the backbenches. It will tell us a lot about how the rest of this Parliament will play out.
My guess is that in the autumn of next year, following Ms Sturgeon’s resignation in the wake of another referendum defeat, Mr Salmond would survey the SNP leadership contenders and find them wanting.
His conclusion, honestly reached after much consideration, would be that none of them could do the job as well as he could....Alex Salmond would be back. Big Eck redux. Cometh the hour, cometh the big man. And this time, no more Mister Nice Guy.
This time last year Cameron was the most powerful man in the country. Now he is virtually anonymous... How quickly power shifts.
Oddly enough, I find it reassuring that Cameron and Clegg, for everything that happened in Coalition, have maintained a relationship.
Whether we will come to look at the 2010-15 Government as a beacon of stability and order remains to be seen but I'm glad Cameron and Clegg's personal relationship has survived. It shows how much some things transcend politics.
Looking at the front pages, the government's honeymoon has been interrupted at least.
With some journalists.
But millions on PAYE are LOLing at the outrage of others.
'Take it from them and give it to me' always gets support.
Yeah the texts to Radio 5 this morning have been broadly supportive with people on PAYE saying the NI rise is fairer.
Watching and listening to the media and the publics reaction there does seem to be anger that there is any difference at all between employed and self employed NICs and it is clear this has highlighted an issue that has been under the radar of the populace.
That will be a key point.
People on PAYE will be looking at their payslips - perhaps for the first time really noticing how much NI they pay - and asking why the self-employed pay a lower rate of NI than they do.
Because the self-employed get less benefits. Also we (should) want to, as a country, encourage people to be self-employed which can lead on to setting up business which create jobs.
To many people the self-employed are either:
Tradesmen who get paid in cash Arthur Daly / Del Boy Trotter 'wheeler-dealers' Highly paid professionals working the tax system
Don't forget the Avon Ladies! The Daily Mail featured one as a loser.
Harmonise corpn. tax to US level (i.e. also level with income tax rates and stop trying to become a tax haven, that's for the Caymans, you fool)
Just as a point of order, the US states have different corporation tax levels. Also, no-one actually pays the official US corporate tax rate, S&P500 companies paid an average of 20% of profits in tax against a federal corporate tax rate of 35%.
Plus we pay 20% VAT on our takings and then pay corporation tax on top of that, there's no VAT in the USA. The proposal in America to introduce a "20% border-adjusted corporation tax" is essentially a 20% VAT with a deduction allowed for payroll expenses [which we don't get here] and then no traditional corporation tax on top of that.
I know that's how the BTA is being sold, but it's not actually VAT. Also, US states do already (mostly) have sales taxes.
The BTA is a tariff on imports and a subsidy on exports, pure and simple.
US state sales taxes average at about 5-7% not 20%
The government needs immigration to be well above 100,000 a year for the foreseeable future. It is currently within its power to get immigration to the levels it believes are required without us having to leave the single market.
My guess is that in the autumn of next year, following Ms Sturgeon’s resignation in the wake of another referendum defeat, Mr Salmond would survey the SNP leadership contenders and find them wanting.
His conclusion, honestly reached after much consideration, would be that none of them could do the job as well as he could....Alex Salmond would be back. Big Eck redux. Cometh the hour, cometh the big man. And this time, no more Mister Nice Guy.
Comments
Your second point is a good one, but whereas I think pro-Union Scots like David L are strongly committed to the UK at an emotional level, there is much less of an emotional commitment to the EU among Remain voters. There are people who are committed to the ideal of one European nation, but it's very much a minority viewpoint.
Perhaps it should be unbecoming, or not encouraged, maybe chancellors haven't typically acted so on such occasions, but it doesn't feel like a major change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Allo_'Allo!#Alleged_abandoned_remake
Hammond has helped to highlight the ignorance about the self employed which could actually be a good thing long term
Quite right. If one of the consequences of this policy is to rectify the staggering ignorance on show re: s/e then that at least is something.
I am currently acutely aware of the several benefits of being an employee as I am at home recuperating after another round of treatment in hospital (with a lot more to come) and I do not have to worry about what it will do to my take home pay. On the other hand that pay is a lot less than many of my contemporaries from university who went into the private sector.
Glad to see the flam-flam and nonsense of Budget (or should that be Spring Statement) Day is behind us. It's not terribly good theatre with the stand up act having had months to work on his (or her) routine but still failing to offer anything other than a cheesy lounge bar attempt at lunchtime entertainment. Strange we've had two female Prime Ministers but no female CoE.
I find Hammond's attempts at being funny as stilted as his attempts to sound young by putting "gas in the tank". The problem is you think you're funny if your friends are told to laugh at all your jokes.
I've no particular view on the NI tax rise - I've never been self-employed and never wanted it to be. Mrs Stodge has always been a Contractor and prefers it. She's not happy but does recognise life for Contractors has in the past been very good.
Of more import in my world, as expected, Hammond found some money down the back of the Treasury sofa to fund adult social care:
http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2017/03/hammonds-finds-ps3bn-councils-plug-social-care-crisis?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_term=
Rob Whiteman's comments are interesting. Hammond has found some money to kick the can down the road but that's all. The long-term solutions to the issue of funding care for the elderly aren't there yet and it does seem foolish that for ideological, political and historical reasons, some possible solutions are being dismissed in advance by the Government.
Radical solutions to big problems need a blank sheet of paper - if, for example, some form of Inheritance or Asset Transfer Tax has to be considered, let it be considered. The proportion of people needing care is still quite small but looks set to increase so the entire gamut of costs from housing to staffing will rise sharply if more people come into care.
I think the last ultra-competitive season was 2012 (seven different winners in the first seven races).
They range from 16.3% to 17.5% ( Brecon and Rad is the highest.)
They are:
Brecon and Radnorshire
Montgomeryshire
Central Devon
North Herefordshire
Finchley and Golders Green
North Cornwall
Penrith and The Border
Totnes
Ludlow
The one with the lowest majority in the top 10 is Finchley and GG with a majority of about 11,000.
The one with lowest majority in the top 50 by self employed is Lewes with a majority of about 2,000.
If Hammond had announced a bold initiative like that, understanding modern labour markets, then he would be getting a very different reaction.
Instead he degraded the self-employed.
Do French people give a toss that Macron is gay? Matters of sex and sexuality usually attract a shrug of the shoulders in France.
Interesting that it should cause offence now, although when you look back at some of the comedy shows of the 70s they are very offensive by today's standards, but I can't ever remember being offended at the time.
That said I do think there needs to be a big review of this whole area, alongside a review of welfare and healthcare. We live in a different world to the one when these taxes and benefits were first introduced.
There have been improvements, I'll concede that, but there have been too many instances of homes where the onus is more on making money for the owners rather than providing the quality and dignity of care people expect.
We shall see if Hammond is genuinely open to new ideas even if they are or could be politically difficult.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/b8B0gKu8MdcAWQGJ1pfu4BqaftQ/appointments
And there's nothing in his wife's name.....
Extra and socially just taxes are so easy to devise:
Return to rates on all buildings for about half the local taxation, revalue them every year if need be (the Land Registry keeps track of values)
Local income tax
Merge the allowance for CGT and income tax at about £11k
Harmonise CGT and income tax rates
Harmonise corpn. tax to US level (i.e. also level with income tax rates and stop trying to become a tax haven, that's for the Caymans, you fool)
End the upper limit on NI.
Charge richer pensioners NI (call it something else).
End tax relief on pensions (people would save anyway if NS&I would pay say inflation plus 0.25%, that also allows borrowing for investment)
ad nauseam
Harris could be right and all the others wrong of course.
2005-06 523.7 41.2
2016-17 755.1 40.9
2017-18 765.5 39.5
Cash spending, and as % of GDP.
The big losers would be self-employed management consultants, accountants and lawyers rather than a low paid plumber or hairdresser..... the real debate about tax and the self-employed lies not in the National Insurance individuals directly pay but with the fact that firms pay 13.8 per cent employer National Insurance for everyone they employ, but nothing if they use self-employed labour. How to close that huge gap without causing wider problems is what our limited capacity for anxiety should really prioritise…
http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/blog/is-the-chancellor-about-to-start-closing-the-self-employment-tax-gap/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OJrUcDV0vxhB3JYLc01O2u9agmL0EG8-aTRfm2_JdxU/edit#gid=5
https://twitter.com/montynero/status/839769942715219968
Employers NIC is the exception in paying a charge on hiring someone who is themselves paying NIC too. It should be abolished.
And the big winners on the evening are likely to be... The Greens who are forecast to be up 12 seats to 16. The Party of the Animals is also expected to rise 3 seats to 5.
Coalition building in the Netherlands is going to take a loooooooong time.
I understand the politics of that but it makes no sense in terms of a holistic view of what the State should be doing and how efficient it is at doing it. There comes a point when funding reductions seriously impair the ability of a public service to operate as we saw in the 1990s.
We also have the absurd position we spend more on managing the debt in terms of interest payments than we do on defending the country yet all we hear from some Conservatives is how we should be spending more on defence.
http://labourlist.org/2017/03/manchester-gorton-selection-mep-and-activist-enter-the-race/
They all hate each other in the Netherlands, even without the PVV.
The Greens think the Party of the Animals are splittists who don't care enough about the regular environment. The CU and the Reformed Political Party won't get into bed with anyone who doesn't promise to recriminalise homesexuality*. The Socialist Party regards the PvdA as capitalist sell outs, while the PvdA blames the Socialist Party for knocking them off their top spot in the Netherlands. D66 and the VVD are both members of the ALDE in the European Parliament, but aren't in coalition together. The PvdA will not go back into coalition with the VVD because they got - LibDem-like - shafted this time around. And then we've got DENK, the Pirates, and over-50s, all of whom may be needed to get a parliamentary majority.
* A joke, but only just.
http://tinyurl.com/zewy8w6
The SNP are set to pick up almost half of first preference votes (46%) giving the party a 27-percentage point lead over the second largest party, the Scottish Conservatives, on 19% Scottish Labour polled just 17% in third. At the last local government elections in 2012 the party finished second with 31% of the national vote.
The pro-independence Scottish Greens (8%) also look seat leapfrog the Lib Dems (6%) into fourth place in terms of first preference votes. Scotland's only pro-Brexit party, UKIP, polled 3%.'
http://tinyurl.com/zewy8w6
My guess is that in the autumn of next year, following Ms Sturgeon’s resignation in the wake of another referendum defeat, Mr Salmond would survey the SNP leadership contenders and find them wanting.
His conclusion, honestly reached after much consideration, would be that none of them could do the job as well as he could....Alex Salmond would be back. Big Eck redux. Cometh the hour, cometh the big man. And this time, no more Mister Nice Guy.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/277e02c2-0377-11e7-ae09-71f14792998a
Perhaps the significant thing is that 75% think an independent Scotland should be in the single market so Europe shouldn't be a wedge issue against Yes.
https://twitter.com/dailymailuk/status/839767483682803712
When asked to choose on a scale of one to ten, with one being complete support for independence and ten being complete support for the Union, 28% said they completely supported independence while 38% had total support for the Union.
https://twitter.com/BBCNormanS/status/839774387494584320
The BTA is a tariff on imports and a subsidy on exports, pure and simple.
Omg the last paragraph.....
Whether we will come to look at the 2010-15 Government as a beacon of stability and order remains to be seen but I'm glad Cameron and Clegg's personal relationship has survived. It shows how much some things transcend politics.
Is 5/2 odds on?