It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
So a clear majority for the Government for the NI rise but 44 Tory MPs either voted against the proposals or abstained
They were only 9 from their majority so how is that compatible, without pairing possibly
Did the SNP vote?
I can't find out who the missing opposition voters were, but I would assume that the SNP were whipped against it as the NI changes clearly affect Scotland and they have been complaining about them vociferously.
It looks more like about 50 opposition MPs simply declined to turn up, the majority of them probably because they had concluded that the Government was bound to win the vote.
That'd be terrible if so. Of course it is usually true, but you still have to play your part and you might get lucky, or at least give the government a spool - equally so some Tory potential rebel could claim they saw loads of opposition not there so knew there was no point in being brave and so chickened out.
5 conservatives voted against, 37 abstained as well as 21 Labour mps
Who are the 5 Tories with principles?
Remarkable that of the 2 manifesto breaches more Tory MPs chose to stand up for giving billions more away to foreign countries and aid organisations, than stood up against increasing taxes by billions.
It's not that remarkable. The former is a less popular action than the latter would be, but for both it comes down to whether they considered it justified. Right or wrong many didn't think the case was made for reducing foreign aid so much, whereas the case for more money for social care is accepted by most, and its merely detail as to how you get to it. As it is a fair number abstained and we can safely assume plenty more would agree with the abstainers but lack the guts. It'd be nice if more who opposed had the guts to do so but it is so rare that even getting 5 is still pretty good.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
George Osborne supports this jobs tax?
Well George is wrong.
As I pointed out last night google 'George Osborne says an increase on national insurance is a tax on jobs' brings up nearly 2 million results.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
George Osborne supports this jobs tax?
Well George is wrong.
As I pointed out last night google 'George Osborne says an increase on national insurance is a tax on jobs' brings up nearly 2 million results.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
The INSA projection for the constituency vote in the German election looks horrendous for the Union and especially the CDU which is going to be driven out of most of North Germany and forced back to strongholds in Nord Rhein-Westfalen and Baden-Wurttemberg. The CSU will win most of the rural seats in Bavaria but looks set to be driven out of Munich and Nuremburg by the SPD and to face a few seat losses to the Greens.
The AfD looks set to do very well in Saxony while the Greens aren't going to win as many seats as seemed likely a few months ago as the SPD sweep across the north and east.
The Allensbach poll is as usual the "best" for the Union but 25% is hardly a number to get the pulse racing - Allensbach always polls highest for the Union - they were the ones who had the Union over 30% in mid summer - and conversely lowest for the FDP (below 10% while some pollsters have the FDP at 13%).
It may be right, it may be an outlier, we'll see.
The earlier Trend Research poll fits well into the pack - the Greens easing back to 15% as the SPD move forward to 26% and open up a six point lead on the Union.
Clearly a big shift to the SPD who will move from 59 constituency seats in 2017 to 198 now.
Terrible result for the CDU who will move from 185 constituency seats in 2017 to about 40 now. Indeed the CSU with about 38 constituency seats will have nearly as many as the CDU now and be almost as influential in the Union whereas in 2017 they were about 140 constituency seats behind the CDU.
That will likely shift the Union in a more conservative direction in opposition, even if the CDU pick up a few more on the list
The total number of seats a party gets is what matters, not whether they are mostly constituency seats or list seats. At least you've moved on from thinking that the CSU would have more seats in the new Bundestag than the CDU, as you posted a couple of days ago - maybe you do actually read other people's posts occasionally!
In 2017 the CSU had a terrible result in Bavaria, their worst result since 1949 (when the Bayernpartei got over 20% in Bavaria). 10.5% worse than 2013. If the latest Bavaria poll is right they will do even worse this time, maybe losing another 10% vote share.
Makes the whole list completely suspect. Anyone who has been to SF knows it's terrible. It's among my least favourite places to go in the US. The people who say they like SF like the idea of it, not what it actually is.
I visited in 2005 and it was really nice. But it sounds like it has gone downhill since then, ruined by income inequality.
I was also there in 2005 - March. I'm afraid I'm with @MaxPB - it was the most "alien" city I've ever visited. Beggars on every corner and an undercurrent of tension and hostility. The Japanese Garden in Golden Gate Park was, by contrast, delightful and it's not as though the weather was bad (we had four cloudless days) and the airport was decent but I wasn't taken with either SF or LA.
I loved San Diego.
LA has some absolutely delightful bits. But it also contains tens of miles of low rise ugliness.
I'm lucky, I'm in Brentwood, and am 5 minutes from beach, 30 minutes from the mountains, and 15 minutes from Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
At some point, The Sun will update one of their greatest front pages;
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Hilarious. Why are the Tories hitting people who work hard for their money instead of landlords, billionaires and pensioners?
I think the answer to that is pretty obvious - everyone hit by this will see it as a marginal hit.
The whole 'new tax' thing is very very bad. However if this produces some sort of fiscal sense then I'll live with it.
Making it a new tax is one of the worst aspects of the whole thing....as we all know in 10 years it won't be 1.25%.
There will be constant calls that NHS and Social care needs more money.
The government will set up an independent review body to recommend how much it needs to increase to provide adequate funding for health and social care. Then the Chancellor can just shrug their shoulders and say that it isn't their fault that taxes are going up.
Speaking of agreeable cities I am now in Lucerne. It is as lovely as they say. An entirely intact old town. Medieval bridges. Glittery lakes. Ancient piazzas with laughing students.
Downside: the food. It looks scary. Ticino this is not. Here is the home of the deep fried pork knuckle with kartoffelsalatenbrutenscampi with roast lard
To avoid this I went for a curry. It was rather good. Weirdly, it was identical to the curry I had in Inverness about 2 weeks ago. Chicken tikka, tarka dhal, rice. Beer. Only difference, the one in Inverness was somewhat more refined, and the one in Inverness cost £18 compared to £44 here
£44
A large craft beer by the picturesque river in central Lucerne will cost you £16. It’s a big old glass of beer. 75cl. But £16??
My guide explained that an average adult wage in Lucerne is £50-60,000 a year. A decent but not exceptional Lucerne lawyer can expect to earn £120,000. A central London salary… in a provincial city. Mad
Ha ha. Manchester isn't even the best city to visit in the North of England. I'd rather spend a weekend in Liverpool or Newcastle. Just spent a beautiful evening on the South Bank having pizza to celebrate my youngest's 9th birthday. Vivid purples and oranges of the sunset along the Thames, the path packed with beautiful people enjoying the balmy evening, blazing red sun setting behind the bridges. You can't beat London.
It's all a matter of taste. There are many attractions worth visiting in London and I'll make the trek down there if I'm strongly motivated to do so, but I wouldn't want to live there. Some of the leafier bits out to the South West look quite habitable but most of it feels noisy, crowded and dirty - especially when you want to get somewhere and you're obliged to use the tube. The deep level lines are grimy, airless, frequently ram packed solid and always roasting hot, even in the middle of Winter. Ghastly.
Come to South London then, the tube barely deigns to operate South of the river.
The main advantage of the tube is that it's way more convenient than the buses...
(And dear God, I once had the misfortune to need to use a London bus during a particularly hot Summer day. Sauna on wheels doesn't begin to describe it. I nearly died.)
Circle, district, metropolitan and the overground now all have air-conditioning. As does the new Elizabeth line.
Speaking of agreeable cities I am now in Lucerne. It is as lovely as they say. An entirely intact old town. Medieval bridges. Glittery lakes. Ancient piazzas with laughing students.
Downside: the food. It looks scary. Ticino this is not. Here is the home of the deep fried pork knuckle with kartoffelsalatenbrutenscampi with roast lard
To avoid this I went for a curry. It was rather good. Weirdly, it was identical to the curry I had in Inverness about 2 weeks ago. Chicken tikka, tarka dhal, rice. Beer. Only difference, the one in Inverness was somewhat more refined, and the one in Inverness cost £18 compared to £44 here
£44
A large craft beer by the picturesque river in central Lucerne will cost you £16. It’s a big old glass of beer. 75cl. But £16??
My guide explained that an average adult wage in Lucerne is £50-60,000 a year. A decent but not exceptional Lucerne lawyer can expect to earn £120,000. A central London salary… in a provincial city. Mad
At £16 a beer and £40 a curry, £50k a year won't go you far.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
There is no party demanding houses should be used for social care
And by the way my wife and I due to health reasons are not able to travel anymore or even visit out son in Canada so our enjoyment to travel is over
So a clear majority for the Government for the NI rise but 44 Tory MPs either voted against the proposals or abstained
They were only 9 from their majority so how is that compatible, without pairing possibly
Did the SNP vote?
I can't find out who the missing opposition voters were, but I would assume that the SNP were whipped against it as the NI changes clearly affect Scotland and they have been complaining about them vociferously.
It looks more like about 50 opposition MPs simply declined to turn up, the majority of them probably because they had concluded that the Government was bound to win the vote.
That'd be terrible if so. Of course it is usually true, but you still have to play your part and you might get lucky, or at least give the government a spool - equally so some Tory potential rebel could claim they saw loads of opposition not there so knew there was no point in being brave and so chickened out.
5 conservatives voted against, 37 abstained as well as 21 Labour mps
Who are the 5 Tories with principles?
Remarkable that of the 2 manifesto breaches more Tory MPs chose to stand up for giving billions more away to foreign countries and aid organisations, than stood up against increasing taxes by billions.
Christopher Chope, Philip Davies, Neil Hudson, Esther McVey, and John Redwood.
Ha ha. Manchester isn't even the best city to visit in the North of England. I'd rather spend a weekend in Liverpool or Newcastle. Just spent a beautiful evening on the South Bank having pizza to celebrate my youngest's 9th birthday. Vivid purples and oranges of the sunset along the Thames, the path packed with beautiful people enjoying the balmy evening, blazing red sun setting behind the bridges. You can't beat London.
It's all a matter of taste. There are many attractions worth visiting in London and I'll make the trek down there if I'm strongly motivated to do so, but I wouldn't want to live there. Some of the leafier bits out to the South West look quite habitable but most of it feels noisy, crowded and dirty - especially when you want to get somewhere and you're obliged to use the tube. The deep level lines are grimy, airless, frequently ram packed solid and always roasting hot, even in the middle of Winter. Ghastly.
Come to South London then, the tube barely deigns to operate South of the river.
The main advantage of the tube is that it's way more convenient than the buses...
(And dear God, I once had the misfortune to need to use a London bus during a particularly hot Summer day. Sauna on wheels doesn't begin to describe it. I nearly died.)
Circle, district, metropolitan and the overground now all have air-conditioning.
Yes, I am also mystified by the idea of the ‘roasting hot Tube in winter’
It is pleasantly warm and a respite from the frigid drizzle ‘at grass’
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
It's all quite simple - the Conservatives want to stay in power for ever. They think as long as they keep the pensioners on side that will be achievable.
The problem is the pensioners will demand more and more - they effectively have the Conservative Party as their hostage.
If so, can I suggest you start with the Bends and go from there. Personally, alongside The National, I think they are among the best bands of the last quarter century.
Good call on The National (I Am Easy to Find is a wonderful album). I'd have The Jayhawks as the best of the last 25 years too.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
At some point, The Sun will update one of their greatest front pages;
Coincidentally, Lamont turned up on tonight’s C4 News to push the line that people should still vote Tory if they want tax cuts because they won’t increase taxes as much as Labour (yes, really).
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
People over 50 are easily a majority of the entire electorate. Admittedly not nearly all of those are wealthy enough to benefit substantially from the Government's largesse towards the well-to-do pensioners landed gentry and their heirs, but all the same the lines between "client vote" and "majority (tyranny thereof)" are becoming blurred.
The best that any of us who aren't yet arthritic can do is invest as much as possible in assets and hold tight, until we get wrinkly enough to become part of the client vote ourselves...
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Hilarious. Why are the Tories hitting people who work hard for their money instead of landlords, billionaires and pensioners?
I think the answer to that is pretty obvious - everyone hit by this will see it as a marginal hit.
The whole 'new tax' thing is very very bad. However if this produces some sort of fiscal sense then I'll live with it.
Making it a new tax is one of the worst aspects of the whole thing....as we all know in 10 years it won't be 1.25%.
There will be constant calls that NHS and Social care needs more money.
The government will set up an independent review body to recommend how much it needs to increase to provide adequate funding for health and social care. Then the Chancellor can just shrug their shoulders and say that it isn't their fault that taxes are going up.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
I will not laugh at any job loss but with the shortage of labour I just do not see lost jobs
Speaking of agreeable cities I am now in Lucerne. It is as lovely as they say. An entirely intact old town. Medieval bridges. Glittery lakes. Ancient piazzas with laughing students.
Downside: the food. It looks scary. Ticino this is not. Here is the home of the deep fried pork knuckle with kartoffelsalatenbrutenscampi with roast lard
To avoid this I went for a curry. It was rather good. Weirdly, it was identical to the curry I had in Inverness about 2 weeks ago. Chicken tikka, tarka dhal, rice. Beer. Only difference, the one in Inverness was somewhat more refined, and the one in Inverness cost £18 compared to £44 here
£44
A large craft beer by the picturesque river in central Lucerne will cost you £16. It’s a big old glass of beer. 75cl. But £16??
My guide explained that an average adult wage in Lucerne is £50-60,000 a year. A decent but not exceptional Lucerne lawyer can expect to earn £120,000. A central London salary… in a provincial city. Mad
At £16 a beer and £40 a curry, £50k a year won't go you far.
Indeed. I’m sure there are cheaper places outside central Lucerne but wow.
My guide did admit that travelling the world on a Swiss salary was, however, delightful. To them, price-wise, london feels like Lisbon does to us, and Lisbon feels like Mumbai
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
At some point, The Sun will update one of their greatest front pages;
Coincidentally, Lamont turned up on tonight’s C4 News to push the line that people should still vote Tory if they want tax cuts because they won’t increase taxes as much as Labour (yes, really).
This is probably true and the electorate will know it.
Regardless, the new gerontocracy means that low tax policy is now dead. I was going to say that the only battles left to fight are over who gets to pay the taxes, but I don't think even that's true. It's going to be the workers. Once you take the ones who are also prospective heirs out of the equation, there aren't enough of them left to defend themselves at the ballot box from being bled white.
The young are stuffed and so is the Labour Party along with them. The Tories could be in power for decades.
More than two decades ago, a place I know implemented its own security and alarm system - apparently it was an experiment to see whether it was a business area they wanted to move into.
It was all rather a mess. Firstly, locks were put on the doors leading into the toilets, so you had to wave your security card at an RFID receiver to get in and out. People complained, because it potentially gave the management the chance to see how long people were spending on loo breaks.
Then there was an incident one weekend. Some engineers were working when the alarm was triggered. All the doors locked. Because some idiots had designed it as a fail-secure, not fail-safe system, they were trapped in their parts of the building. The site security guard was also locked in, and could not reset the system. In the end a couple of engineers had to smash the window into a server room, climb in, and reboot the computer. Only then did the doors unlock.
The system was abandoned, and an alarm firm further up the road came in to do a proper job ...
At my previous job they built a list X room inside an existing office. The door swipe was fitted before the air conditioning. The air conditioning guy cut a cable installing the vent. And couldn't open the door again...
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Boris done a Jennifer Acuri on you TSE?
No, I always knew Boris Johnson would screw everybody.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
At some point, The Sun will update one of their greatest front pages;
Coincidentally, Lamont turned up on tonight’s C4 News to push the line that people should still vote Tory if they want tax cuts because they won’t increase taxes as much as Labour (yes, really).
This is probably true and the electorate will know it.
Regardless, the new gerontocracy means that low tax policy is now dead. I was going to say that the only battles left to fight are over who gets to pay the taxes, but I don't think even that's true. It's going to be the workers. Once you take the ones who are also prospective heirs out of the equation, there aren't enough of them left to defend themselves at the ballot box from being bled white.
The young are stuffed and so is the Labour Party along with them. The Tories could be in power for decades.
Also because the young can no longer easily get jobs in, say, Germany. I wonder why?
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
And, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
More tax will mean some people choose to work less, take fewer risks, move to another job or none or move abroad - because every new calculation alters decisions at the margins, and it's all cumulative.
My guess is that this tax won't raise as much as it's estimated to do for those reasons, and it will also crowd out some private sector investment in other parts of the economy too - probably in R&D.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
I might be wrong but I believed Foxy to be a woman? Many apologies if I am wrong
All man, well he was when I met him in 2015.
Times change.
I always find it polite to make sure that I am not misgendering people, so I like to start each conversation with "[x], how nice to see you. Tell me, how do you self identify these days?"
Of course, there are limits to this. One shouldn't ask more than once (or at most twice) per day.
Are you really saying that you don't like them. I mean, differences of opinion are fine and all that. So, I understand you could have a different opinion.
But I'm reminded of something a musician friend of mine said "people who say they like music, who don't like Radiohead, don't really like music."
I'm unfamiliar with their oeuvre, so just wanted to check you still thought them worth investigation.
Are you genuinely unfamiliar?
If so, can I suggest you start with the Bends and go from there. Personally, alongside The National, I think they are among the best bands of the last quarter century.
Absolutely start with the bends.
It’s completely untypical of their excessively shoe gazing output which followed, hence best place to start and finish. 😆
Am I banned now?
I started with OK Computer, then went to The Bends, then Pablo Honey, then Kid A, etc.
I think their best album is In Rainbows, but every single one of their releases has absolute gems on them - from Lotus Flower on The King of Limbs to Present Tense on A Moon Shaped Pool.
Creep.
That’s a bit harsh
Hehe
Anyway, I heard they came to hate that song. I can see why. Still a great tune.
Personally I’ve rediscovered REM’s earlier stuff. Country feedback is bloody amazing.
I like it a lot, esp the crashing guitar bit, also the vocals and the lyrics are great, sweet incel, ie without the gun, or maybe with it the next day, who knows. But they're a group I haven't really explored. Should do really. Same goes for REM. I only know the hits.
Dylan covered creep he loved it so much.
Ah well there you go then. I am moved to seek that out asap as in NOW.
Edit: No, the chops are burning.
Just a few carrots at lunch?
Modest lunch, modest dinner. This is how I navigate my way through a typical day. Banana for breakfast.
Chops for dinner sounds lavish.
Just the one, with sweetcorn plus 2 small potatoes. It's restrained. I think that's the word.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
Hmm. Tough on classicists and linguists. Do we have enough of the former and no need for the latter?
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Hilarious. Why are the Tories hitting people who work hard for their money instead of landlords, billionaires and pensioners?
They should be doing both and I have said that all along
I expect the budget will see measures to address the imbalance
And by the way if my wife and I do have to have care we are looking at upto 172,000 from our home
I was simply going to reply "LOL" but to be scrupulously fair the Government did junk the 8% state pension uplift so perhaps I should at least wait and see if they bother to do any such thing.
TSE also one of my favourite posters - and this proves that I'm not just fanning over Labourites
Is a coincidence that you only talk about someone being a "favourite poster" of yours when they critique the Government?
You're also one of my favourite posters - believe it or not.
And I've never agreed with a single thing you've posted, I think ever
That's kind of you to say so.
I think we have agreed on several things, by the way, and it's a sign of confidence (not weakness) in your political identity if you're able to recognise that from time to time in your opponents.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Hilarious. Why are the Tories hitting people who work hard for their money instead of landlords, billionaires and pensioners?
They should be doing both and I have said that all along
I expect the budget will see measures to address the imbalance
And by the way if my wife and I do have to have care we are looking at upto 172,000 from our home
I was simply going to reply "LOL" but to be scrupulously fair the Government did junk the 8% state pension uplift so perhaps I should at least wait and see if they bother to do any such thing.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Hilarious. Why are the Tories hitting people who work hard for their money instead of landlords, billionaires and pensioners?
They should be doing both and I have said that all along
I expect the budget will see measures to address the imbalance
And by the way if my wife and I do have to have care we are looking at upto 172,000 from our home
I was simply going to reply "LOL" but to be scrupulously fair the Government did junk the 8% state pension uplift so perhaps I should at least wait and see if they bother to do any such thing.
I'm not holding my breath though.
And they extended the 1.25% to all working pensioners, indeed an mp was saying he would now be included
One well-placed Whitehall official on ending the £20 a week uplift:
“The internal modelling of ending the UC uplift is catastrophic. Homelessness and poverty are likely to rise, and food banks usage will soar. It could be the real disaster of the autumn”
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
And, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
More tax will mean some people choose to work less, take fewer risks, move to another job or none or move abroad - because every new calculation alters decisions at the margins, and it's all cumulative.
My guess is that this tax won't raise as much as it's estimated to do for those reasons, and it will also crowd out some private sector investment in other parts of the economy too - probably in R&D.
Indeed, I reckon in direct tax I'll be paying 60% of my salary by the end of this decade as this levy keeps on going up. That's back to the pre Thatcher era.
As you know via my father I know some fairly top people at Health trusts and what not.
They reckon for the next five years all this extra revenue raised will be gobbled up by the NHS and there'll be nothing left for social care.
So after 2024 this levy will be increased a lot because social care is going to be in an even worth situation because it has had no extra funds.
Social care also has a major vaccination problem and staffing problem, so salaries are likely to increase over the next few years.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
Hmm. Tough on classicists and linguists. Do we have enough of the former and no need for the latter?
I'd class classics as history.
As someone who speaks seven languages yes languages should be on my list.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
BA (Hons) History of Needlework as a Tool of Oppression by the Patriarchy *is* a history degree. The clue's in the name.
It's true. I checked the University of Brighton website to be sure.
BA (Hons) History of the Development of Fruit-Based Pizza Toppings is also available.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
BA (Hons) History of Needlework as a Tool of Oppression by the Patriarchy *is* a history degree. The clue's in the name.
It's true. I checked the University of Brighton website to be sure.
BA (Hons) History of the Development of Fruit-Based Pizza Toppings is also available.
I'd modify my policy to only include red brick universities.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Hilarious. Why are the Tories hitting people who work hard for their money instead of landlords, billionaires and pensioners?
They should be doing both and I have said that all along
I expect the budget will see measures to address the imbalance
And by the way if my wife and I do have to have care we are looking at upto 172,000 from our home
I was simply going to reply "LOL" but to be scrupulously fair the Government did junk the 8% state pension uplift so perhaps I should at least wait and see if they bother to do any such thing.
I'm not holding my breath though.
And they extended the 1.25% to all working pensioners, indeed an mp was saying he would now be included
That's not such a big deal. The large bulk of pensioners don't work, and most of those who do could afford to stop.
The INSA projection for the constituency vote in the German election looks horrendous for the Union and especially the CDU which is going to be driven out of most of North Germany and forced back to strongholds in Nord Rhein-Westfalen and Baden-Wurttemberg. The CSU will win most of the rural seats in Bavaria but looks set to be driven out of Munich and Nuremburg by the SPD and to face a few seat losses to the Greens.
The AfD looks set to do very well in Saxony while the Greens aren't going to win as many seats as seemed likely a few months ago as the SPD sweep across the north and east.
The Allensbach poll is as usual the "best" for the Union but 25% is hardly a number to get the pulse racing - Allensbach always polls highest for the Union - they were the ones who had the Union over 30% in mid summer - and conversely lowest for the FDP (below 10% while some pollsters have the FDP at 13%).
It may be right, it may be an outlier, we'll see.
The earlier Trend Research poll fits well into the pack - the Greens easing back to 15% as the SPD move forward to 26% and open up a six point lead on the Union.
Clearly a big shift to the SPD who will move from 59 constituency seats in 2017 to 198 now.
Terrible result for the CDU who will move from 185 constituency seats in 2017 to about 40 now. Indeed the CSU with about 38 constituency seats will have nearly as many as the CDU now and be almost as influential in the Union whereas in 2017 they were about 140 constituency seats behind the CDU.
That will likely shift the Union in a more conservative direction in opposition, even if the CDU pick up a few more on the list
The total number of seats a party gets is what matters, not whether they are mostly constituency seats or list seats. At least you've moved on from thinking that the CSU would have more seats in the new Bundestag than the CDU, as you posted a couple of days ago - maybe you do actually read other people's posts occasionally!
In 2017 the CSU had a terrible result in Bavaria, their worst result since 1949 (when the Bayernpartei got over 20% in Bavaria). 10.5% worse than 2013. If the latest Bavaria poll is right they will do even worse this time, maybe losing another 10% vote share.
The CSU will console themselves however with the fact that they will still likely have the best performance for the Union in Germany on the worst election night for the Union since the Federal Republic of Germany was created in 1949.
More importantly for the CSU the CDU's defeat under Laschet will likely mean the CSU can at least pick the Union's chancellor candidate in 2025 most likely ie Markus Soder.
Since WW2 the CSU have picked the Union's chancellor candidate twice, in 1980 in the West German election Franz Josef Strauss of the CSU was picked after Kohl of the CDU lost to Schmidt of the SPD in 1976.
In 2002 Stoiber of the CSU was picked after Kohl of the CDU lost power to Schroder of the SPD in 1998.
So it normally requires the CDU to lose an election for the CSU to be able to get the pick the Union's chancellor candidate
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
BA (Hons) History of Needlework as a Tool of Oppression by the Patriarchy *is* a history degree. The clue's in the name.
It's true. I checked the University of Brighton website to be sure.
BA (Hons) History of the Development of Fruit-Based Pizza Toppings is also available.
Actually, there's a whole constellation of social history about the seamstress, and what was the Victorian seamstress about if not oppressed (and often actually rogered) by the patriarchy?
A friend is a costume historian and there is a whole load of fascinating stuff there to tie in with all sorts of other themes.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
One well-placed Whitehall official on ending the £20 a week uplift:
“The internal modelling of ending the UC uplift is catastrophic. Homelessness and poverty are likely to rise, and food banks usage will soar. It could be the real disaster of the autumn”
I think the ending of the UC uplift could cause quite a few problems for the government.
It was, of course, a temporary, Covid uplift, so there's no reason why it shouldn't end, in theory. The problem is that people have got used to having that extra £20 a week over the last 18 months or so, and so taking it away is likely to cause more problems than if it had never been given in the first place. You don't miss what you've never had so much.
A separate argument is, of course, that UC is just too low. I noticed Boris praising the staff who help out at food banks in response to a question at PMQs today. Maybe it would be better if the PM thought there should be no place for food banks in a society as affluent as ours.
One well-placed Whitehall official on ending the £20 a week uplift:
“The internal modelling of ending the UC uplift is catastrophic. Homelessness and poverty are likely to rise, and food banks usage will soar. It could be the real disaster of the autumn”
I think the ending of the UC uplift could cause quite a few problems for the government.
It was, of course, a temporary, Covid uplift, so there's no reason why it shouldn't end, in theory. The problem is that people have got used to having that extra £20 a week over the last 18 months or so, and so taking it away is likely to cause more problems than if it had never been given in the first place. You don't miss what you've never had so much.
A separate argument is, of course, that UC is just too low. I noticed Boris praising the staff who help out at food banks in response to a question at PMQs today. Maybe it would be better if the PM thought there should be no place for food banks in a society as affluent as ours.
UC is what will I think, turn the polls upside down. Then we will see a Labour lead
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
UKIP policy!
Was it MRLP? Someone, I think the Guardian, did a comparative quiz on UKIP and MRLP policy statements and manifestoes and you had to tryy and judge who went for which proposal. It was surprisingly difficult and the MRLP came out as remarkably sane and promising.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Hilarious. Why are the Tories hitting people who work hard for their money instead of landlords, billionaires and pensioners?
They should be doing both and I have said that all along
I expect the budget will see measures to address the imbalance
And by the way if my wife and I do have to have care we are looking at upto 172,000 from our home
I was simply going to reply "LOL" but to be scrupulously fair the Government did junk the 8% state pension uplift so perhaps I should at least wait and see if they bother to do any such thing.
I'm not holding my breath though.
And they extended the 1.25% to all working pensioners, indeed an mp was saying he would now be included
That's not such a big deal. The large bulk of pensioners don't work, and most of those who do could afford to stop.
Maybe but there was a lot of anger that working pensioners did not pay NI
I heard a 70 year old pensioner interviewed today saying his pension income made it essential he worked and it was not by choice
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
And, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
More tax will mean some people choose to work less, take fewer risks, move to another job or none or move abroad - because every new calculation alters decisions at the margins, and it's all cumulative.
My guess is that this tax won't raise as much as it's estimated to do for those reasons, and it will also crowd out some private sector investment in other parts of the economy too - probably in R&D.
Indeed, I reckon in direct tax I'll be paying 60% of my salary by the end of this decade as this levy keeps on going up. That's back to the pre Thatcher era.
As you know via my father I know some fairly top people at Health trusts and what not.
They reckon for the next five years all this extra revenue raised will be gobbled up by the NHS and there'll be nothing left for social care.
So after 2024 this levy will be increased a lot because social care is going to be in an even worth situation because it has had no extra funds.
Social care also has a major vaccination problem and staffing problem, so salaries are likely to increase over the next few years.
Yes. The worst aspect of this is the invention of a whole new tax. Not only that, a tax dedicated to an inviolable God, the NHS, who can only be propitiated, never ignored (let alone neglected)
Paying this NHS levy for Brits, will be like paying the Gods with blood, for the Aztecs.
With the Aztecs it started with the odd live human sacrifice on sacred days, and it ended - literally - with the rich buying babies from the poor, just to kill them, and weekends of orgiastic sacrificial murder when the streets of Tenochtitlan ran ‘ankle deep’ in human gore
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
Let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that they end up increasing it sufficiently to cover the entire NHS & Social Care budget. DHSC budget was £150bn in 2019/20 and £212bn in 20/21.
1.25% expected to raise £12bn, so it would need to be ~15.6% to raise £150bn, or ~22% to cover the 20/21 budget.
I could see it being very tempting to have a hypothecated tax to fund the NHS, as that might be more popular with the general public, as they'd know that tax was spent on the NHS and not "wasted" on whatever else the government spends money on that a particular voter objects to (Foreign Aid, Benefits, Trident, etc). So the question then becomes what taxes the government will seek to cut with (at least some of) the money raised?
Perhaps it will help to cover the expected hole in the public finances when fuel duty revenue disappears as cars switch to electricity? Perhaps we will see income tax cut (which I could sadly see being very popular, even though a switch from Income Tax to a rebadged NI would be sub-optimal for many reasons). Inheritance Tax could be abolished. Stamp Duty could be cut.
I think that's where this is heading. The government will seek to cut some taxes, to burnish its low-tax credentials and create a point of difference with Labour, and it will find it is popular to increase a hypothecated NHS tax and cut other general taxes. I'd expect to see it cut taxes that its voters dislike, as it loads more taxes on the people who don't vote Tory.
So I'd expect to see this levy increase, and to see taxes on assets (or aspiration if you will) to be cut.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I will be stung for a bit over a grand. On the other hand the money is going to go to pay me overtime to do the work that I cannot do at the moment because our staff are pressganged to ICU. If I jack up my rates, a Saturday should do it.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
UKIP policy!
Was it MRLP? Someone, I think the Guardian, did a comparative quiz on UKIP and MRLP policy statements and manifestoes and you had to tryy and judge who went for which proposal. It was surprisingly difficult and the MRLP came out as remarkably sane and promising.
“UKIP’s manifesto has pledged that the party would waive tuition fees for students in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine”.”
Ha ha. Manchester isn't even the best city to visit in the North of England. I'd rather spend a weekend in Liverpool or Newcastle. Just spent a beautiful evening on the South Bank having pizza to celebrate my youngest's 9th birthday. Vivid purples and oranges of the sunset along the Thames, the path packed with beautiful people enjoying the balmy evening, blazing red sun setting behind the bridges. You can't beat London.
It's all a matter of taste. There are many attractions worth visiting in London and I'll make the trek down there if I'm strongly motivated to do so, but I wouldn't want to live there. Some of the leafier bits out to the South West look quite habitable but most of it feels noisy, crowded and dirty - especially when you want to get somewhere and you're obliged to use the tube. The deep level lines are grimy, airless, frequently ram packed solid and always roasting hot, even in the middle of Winter. Ghastly.
Come to South London then, the tube barely deigns to operate South of the river.
The main advantage of the tube is that it's way more convenient than the buses...
(And dear God, I once had the misfortune to need to use a London bus during a particularly hot Summer day. Sauna on wheels doesn't begin to describe it. I nearly died.)
The deep level Tubes DO get very hot in the summer! (one reason being they were built too narrow - tunnels only 12ft diameter vs. 16ft for main line tunnels)
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
UKIP policy!
Was it MRLP? Someone, I think the Guardian, did a comparative quiz on UKIP and MRLP policy statements and manifestoes and you had to tryy and judge who went for which proposal. It was surprisingly difficult and the MRLP came out as remarkably sane and promising.
“UKIP’s manifesto has pledged that the party would waive tuition fees for students in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine”.”
My favourite was for taxi drivers to wear uniforms. Though was it maybe only when cleaning behind ther fridges. It all blends into one cocktail of pooterishness now.
One well-placed Whitehall official on ending the £20 a week uplift:
“The internal modelling of ending the UC uplift is catastrophic. Homelessness and poverty are likely to rise, and food banks usage will soar. It could be the real disaster of the autumn”
I think the ending of the UC uplift could cause quite a few problems for the government.
It was, of course, a temporary, Covid uplift, so there's no reason why it shouldn't end, in theory. The problem is that people have got used to having that extra £20 a week over the last 18 months or so, and so taking it away is likely to cause more problems than if it had never been given in the first place. You don't miss what you've never had so much.
A separate argument is, of course, that UC is just too low. I noticed Boris praising the staff who help out at food banks in response to a question at PMQs today. Maybe it would be better if the PM thought there should be no place for food banks in a society as affluent as ours.
UC is what will I think, turn the polls upside down. Then we will see a Labour lead
Interesting. How much of the Tory vote both relies on the uplift and doesn't loathe Labour so much that they're willing to contemplate voting for them? I guess we might get an answer to that.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
I'll have you know that my better half did an MA in the History of Fashion at the University of Brighton. Very rigorous it was too. Her first degree was in Performing Arts at a 'good' university. She went on to be successful enough to marry me.
And seriously, it would be a miserable old world if we didn't have the scope for people to study the arts and humanities. There's nothing wrong with education for education's sake. It contributes hugely to a civilised society.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
UKIP policy!
Was it MRLP? Someone, I think the Guardian, did a comparative quiz on UKIP and MRLP policy statements and manifestoes and you had to tryy and judge who went for which proposal. It was surprisingly difficult and the MRLP came out as remarkably sane and promising.
“UKIP’s manifesto has pledged that the party would waive tuition fees for students in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine”.”
Well, UKIP seem a good deal more articulate than TSE who wrote tautologically "I'd end tuition fees in STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees."
I wonder if TSE can guess what the "E" in STEM might be.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
It's the first time I've been tempted by tax avoidance in my life, not because it's a lot of money, but because the government is no longer deserving of my very significant tax contribution. It's galling that rich old people are not paying their own way and costs are being lumped into working people.
It has to be said, loads of my friends are feeling absolutely mutinous about this tax. Labour could capitalise on it really easily but they have a complete numpty in charge.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
I'll have you know that my better half did an MA in the History of Fashion at the University of Brighton. Very rigorous it was too. Her first degree was in Performing Arts at a 'good' university. She went on to be successful enough to marry me.
And seriously, it would be a miserable old world if we didn't have the scope for people to study the arts and humanities. There's nothing wrong with education for education's sake. It contributes hugely to a civilised society.
I'm someone who over the last fifteen years has looked at lots of CVs of graduates and then see their qualitative and quantitative skills in pre interview tests I do wonder about some universities and the degrees and I think you've racked up £40k worth of debt for this? I'd be asking for a refund.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
Yes, I can imagine you've been burdened with a big fat extra bill. Even for us ordinary mortals who don't work for SwankyWankyBank plc it's still a good few hundred quid a year. For starters. I don't think that any of us believes that it'll stay at 1.25% for very long.
To be honest I don't mind paying extra tax, even when my personal allowance was stolen, and my tax was whacked up to 50% there was an element of doing this for the greater good and that we were all in this together, now there's the government protecting their client vote, which is what Labour used to do.
Did you oppose David Cameron when he brought in £9,000 a year tuition fees?
No, I thought it would be a good way to stop people who really shouldn't go to university going.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
UKIP policy!
Was it MRLP? Someone, I think the Guardian, did a comparative quiz on UKIP and MRLP policy statements and manifestoes and you had to tryy and judge who went for which proposal. It was surprisingly difficult and the MRLP came out as remarkably sane and promising.
“UKIP’s manifesto has pledged that the party would waive tuition fees for students in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine”.”
Well, UKIP seem a good deal more articulate than TSE who wrote tautologically "I'd end tuition fees in STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees."
I wonder if TSE can guess what the "E" in STEM might be.
It is said London will be hit the hardest by the 1.25% charge
It was so funny when a conservative mp said to Adam Boulton that television presenters on £400 000 will need to find another £4,500
Yes it is really funny that a pensioner like you is getting an increase whilst us workers have to pay a lot more tax so you can enjoy life more and bequeath your family a nice house.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
It's the first time I've been tempted by tax avoidance in my life, not because it's a lot of money, but because the government is no longer deserving of my very significant tax contribution. It's galling that rich old people are not paying their own way and costs are being lumped into working people.
It has to be said, loads of my friends are feeling absolutely mutinous about this tax. Labour could capitalise on it really easily but they have a complete numpty in charge.
The correct term is tax minimisation, and my financial advisers and accountants have already been in touch about this tax.
My father is a pensioner has gone back to work (part time) and he's furious that he will pay 1.25% NI whilst I'm paying 13.25% so his generation can be better off.
The Conservative Party knew who they were electing when they made Johnson their leader. If they didn't, they weren't paying attention.
They chose to ride the tiger anyway, because of his election-winning powers. (Most voters don't actually know Boris the Man, why should they, and Boris the Show is attractive.)
And riding a tiger is great fun, until you want to dismount.
Comments
The whole 'new tax' thing is very very bad. However if this produces some sort of fiscal sense then I'll live with it.
Yes, I've just calculated how much extra I have to pay for this.
There will be constant calls that NHS and Social care needs more money.
The IFS say this tax on jobs will cost 50,000 jobs, then Big G really will laugh.
As I pointed out last night google 'George Osborne says an increase on national insurance is a tax on jobs' brings up nearly 2 million results.
In 2017 the CSU had a terrible result in Bavaria, their worst result since 1949 (when the Bayernpartei got over 20% in Bavaria). 10.5% worse than 2013. If the latest Bavaria poll is right they will do even worse this time, maybe losing another 10% vote share.
I'm lucky, I'm in Brentwood, and am 5 minutes from beach, 30 minutes from the mountains, and 15 minutes from Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.
But most people aren't so lucky.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1992-Sept-17-e1573638666506.jpg
"London transport staff warned of razors inside Covid conspiracy posters"
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/08/london-transport-staff-warned-of-razors-inside-covid-conspiracy-posters
Downside: the food. It looks scary. Ticino this is not. Here is the home of the deep fried pork knuckle with kartoffelsalatenbrutenscampi with roast lard
To avoid this I went for a curry. It was rather good. Weirdly, it was identical to the curry I had in Inverness about 2 weeks ago. Chicken tikka, tarka dhal, rice. Beer. Only difference, the one in Inverness was somewhat more refined, and the one in Inverness cost £18 compared to £44 here
£44
A large craft beer by the picturesque river in central Lucerne will cost you £16. It’s a big old glass of beer. 75cl. But £16??
My guide explained that an average adult wage in Lucerne is £50-60,000 a year. A decent but not exceptional Lucerne lawyer can expect to earn £120,000. A central London salary… in a provincial city. Mad
If they find them then they should be facing consecutive sentences for every razor/poster they put up.
And by the way my wife and I due to health reasons are not able to travel anymore or even visit out son in Canada so our enjoyment to travel is over
Suggests they know there's a social care problem but really don't like this method so are willing to fence-sit on a 3-line.
It is pleasantly warm and a respite from the frigid drizzle ‘at grass’
The problem is the pensioners will demand more and more - they effectively have the Conservative Party as their hostage.
The best that any of us who aren't yet arthritic can do is invest as much as possible in assets and hold tight, until we get wrinkly enough to become part of the client vote ourselves...
I expect the budget will see measures to address the imbalance
And by the way if my wife and I do have to have care we are looking at upto 172,000 from our home
My guide did admit that travelling the world on a Swiss salary was, however, delightful. To them, price-wise, london feels like Lisbon does to us, and Lisbon feels like Mumbai
Really is the wild west.
Lay off @Big_G_NorthWales
He’s no more responsible than tens of millions of older voters to whom this policy is pandering. Singling him out is nasty.
I agree with your sentiment @tse but you do us no favours singling out individual pensioners.
You’re being unfair
And I've never agreed with a single thing you've posted, I think ever
Regardless, the new gerontocracy means that low tax policy is now dead. I was going to say that the only battles left to fight are over who gets to pay the taxes, but I don't think even that's true. It's going to be the workers. Once you take the ones who are also prospective heirs out of the equation, there aren't enough of them left to defend themselves at the ballot box from being bled white.
The young are stuffed and so is the Labour Party along with them. The Tories could be in power for decades.
More tax will mean some people choose to work less, take fewer risks, move to another job or none or move abroad - because every new calculation alters decisions at the margins, and it's all cumulative.
My guess is that this tax won't raise as much as it's estimated to do for those reasons, and it will also crowd out some private sector investment in other parts of the economy too - probably in R&D.
One of the big policy errors of my lifetime was Mrs Thatcher/John Major then Blair upping the university target of having 40-50% of students go to university.
It is bloody stupid going to ready the history of needlework as a tool of oppression by the patriarchy at the University of Brighton with low job prospects at the end of it with £40k worth of debt at the end of it.
Personally I'd end tuition fees for STEM, medicine, computing, engineering, history, and law degrees.
Degrees the country really needs
I'm not holding my breath though.
I think we have agreed on several things, by the way, and it's a sign of confidence (not weakness) in your political identity if you're able to recognise that from time to time in your opponents.
“The internal modelling of ending the UC uplift is catastrophic. Homelessness and poverty are likely to rise, and food banks usage will soar. It could be the real disaster of the autumn”
https://www.ft.com/content/ea096afa-7747-4763-811f-46e79dd41990
As you know via my father I know some fairly top people at Health trusts and what not.
They reckon for the next five years all this extra revenue raised will be gobbled up by the NHS and there'll be nothing left for social care.
So after 2024 this levy will be increased a lot because social care is going to be in an even worth situation because it has had no extra funds.
Social care also has a major vaccination problem and staffing problem, so salaries are likely to increase over the next few years.
As someone who speaks seven languages yes languages should be on my list.
It's true. I checked the University of Brighton website to be sure.
BA (Hons) History of the Development of Fruit-Based Pizza Toppings is also available.
But getting attacked by that source is a rite of passage. Look at it that way. You’ve arrived.
Hey, I don’t make the rules in your family
Former polys are excluded.
More importantly for the CSU the CDU's defeat under Laschet will likely mean the CSU can at least pick the Union's chancellor candidate in 2025 most likely ie Markus Soder.
Since WW2 the CSU have picked the Union's chancellor candidate twice, in 1980 in the West German election Franz Josef Strauss of the CSU was picked after Kohl of the CDU lost to Schmidt of the SPD in 1976.
In 2002 Stoiber of the CSU was picked after Kohl of the CDU lost power to Schroder of the SPD in 1998.
So it normally requires the CDU to lose an election for the CSU to be able to get the pick the Union's chancellor candidate
He works at glory holes in the toilets at Euston station, he's just lashing out how rubbish his life is.
A friend is a costume historian and there is a whole load of fascinating stuff there to tie in with all sorts of other themes.
It was, of course, a temporary, Covid uplift, so there's no reason why it shouldn't end, in theory. The problem is that people have got used to having that extra £20 a week over the last 18 months or so, and so taking it away is likely to cause more problems than if it had never been given in the first place. You don't miss what you've never had so much.
A separate argument is, of course, that UC is just too low. I noticed Boris praising the staff who help out at food banks in response to a question at PMQs today. Maybe it would be better if the PM thought there should be no place for food banks in a society as affluent as ours.
Me: “Wow, so you’re voting against it?”
The MP: “I don’t see how I can.”
🤷🏻♂️
https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1435611081045647367
I see Tissue Price voted for it too
I heard a 70 year old pensioner interviewed today saying his pension income made it essential he worked and it was not by choice
Paying this NHS levy for Brits, will be like paying the Gods with blood, for the Aztecs.
With the Aztecs it started with the odd live human sacrifice on sacred days, and it ended - literally - with the rich buying babies from the poor, just to kill them, and weekends of orgiastic sacrificial murder when the streets of Tenochtitlan ran ‘ankle deep’ in human gore
That’s the future of the British economy
1.25% expected to raise £12bn, so it would need to be ~15.6% to raise £150bn, or ~22% to cover the 20/21 budget.
I could see it being very tempting to have a hypothecated tax to fund the NHS, as that might be more popular with the general public, as they'd know that tax was spent on the NHS and not "wasted" on whatever else the government spends money on that a particular voter objects to (Foreign Aid, Benefits, Trident, etc). So the question then becomes what taxes the government will seek to cut with (at least some of) the money raised?
Perhaps it will help to cover the expected hole in the public finances when fuel duty revenue disappears as cars switch to electricity? Perhaps we will see income tax cut (which I could sadly see being very popular, even though a switch from Income Tax to a rebadged NI would be sub-optimal for many reasons). Inheritance Tax could be abolished. Stamp Duty could be cut.
I think that's where this is heading. The government will seek to cut some taxes, to burnish its low-tax credentials and create a point of difference with Labour, and it will find it is popular to increase a hypothecated NHS tax and cut other general taxes. I'd expect to see it cut taxes that its voters dislike, as it loads more taxes on the people who don't vote Tory.
So I'd expect to see this levy increase, and to see taxes on assets (or aspiration if you will) to be cut.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ukip-would-make-stem-tuition-fee-free-and-revise-net-migration-count/2019716.article
Goodnight all.
And seriously, it would be a miserable old world if we didn't have the scope for people to study the arts and humanities. There's nothing wrong with education for education's sake. It contributes hugely to a civilised society.
They've lost Darren!
I wonder if TSE can guess what the "E" in STEM might be.
It has to be said, loads of my friends are feeling absolutely mutinous about this tax. Labour could capitalise on it really easily but they have a complete numpty in charge.
My father is a pensioner has gone back to work (part time) and he's furious that he will pay 1.25% NI whilst I'm paying 13.25% so his generation can be better off.
They chose to ride the tiger anyway, because of his election-winning powers. (Most voters don't actually know Boris the Man, why should they, and Boris the Show is attractive.)
And riding a tiger is great fun, until you want to dismount.