Some significant COP26 news: President Biden is coming to Glasgow. A big relief for the PM, who invited him months ago. A needy shot in the arm for the summit too, which is in trouble after talks for a deal with China + others stalled.
Because having dozens of jets turn up at a climate change summit, is giving exactly the right message about how we all need to change our behaviours.
If the last 18 months has shown the world anyting, it’s that the vast majority of meetings can be done remotely when the chips are down.
Is this actually THE BIG F***ING EMERGENCY they want us to believe it is?
I’m still amazed that Cisco didn’t offer $10m to sponsor doing the whole thing on WebEx.
I don't really get this objection. It is such a completely irrelevant percentage of the impact of planes on climate change.
If they can do even 0.01% better in person than they can remotely it will have a positive pay off.
It’s the optics.
“We” are flying a hundred private planes to the summmit in Glasgow, so that “we” can have our conference, the output of which is that “we” expect “you” to do less flying, to buy expensive electric cars, pay extra taxes, and attend fewer conferences - while “we” appear totally exempt from what “we” impose on “you”.
Fuck optics. Either you are a software construct (or a sociopath), or you realise that face to face outweighs zoom to an extent that the private jets pay for themselves.
Yeah I’m in IT.
If there’s a MASSIVE CLIMATE EMERGENCY, then no, the private jets don’t pay for themselves, they’re the most selfish possible use of the scarce resources left on this planet.
Flying is about 2% of carbon emissions. Most of that is leisure, not business.
If they can all jet in and do something about coal burning in China then it will be well worth the flights.
If they *REALLY, ACTUALLY* do something about coal burning in China, then I will concede the point.
Just saw Starmer's "Rosie" speech in the HoC from yesterday. £1000 a year reduced UC plus the NI increase to a working mum. Starmer was actually very good and he played the Tory laughter very well.
Fortunately for Johnson nothing to interest the BBC. They are fully focused on the tax rise that is necessary to fully fund the NHS and social care for once and for all.
The UC is coming down the tracks and it will cause a monumental row imho.
It will dominate this autumn's politics frankly unless covid explodes again into another lockdown.
I am not sure we are going to see either of the main party espousing low taxation for many years to come....the reality is, huge bills have been rung up, aging population is incredibly expensive, and the first mention of cutting back the state, gets you Back to Wigan Pier stuff day in day out.
You have to be a very unique kind of politician to stand up and say no I am ideologically opposed to a big state. Its always easier just to at very least just keep it as is.
I think we're going through a 60s/70s type scenario right now, where everybody is a tax-and-spender, and everybody loves big government.
The only real difference between the Conservative and Labour parties right now seems to be that the Conservatives are seeking to somewhat shield their voters (who trend older) from the taxes required to pay for this.
My guess is that politicians will blanche at the scale of the required tax increases (or spending cuts) and will therefore choose to borrow and to print money. After all, it hasn't caused problems so far.
However... I think this will all end in tears. Under whose watch, I do not know.
It’s proved utterly astonishing, how much QE has gone almost unnoticed by the markets, simply because everyone’s doing it.
There has to be a serious worry that Western governments see continual devaluation as their only way out, but if everyone’s doing it there’s no relative loss…
Bingo: ultimately if everyone is trying to devalue their currency vs everyone else's currency... then the end result has to be the devaluation of all currency vs real things.
Which is why markets for *things* are red hot at the moment.
Property, art, classic cars, all gone totally insane in the last couple of years.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
That's the wrong solution. Any property in the UK has to be self declared. We have a land registry with the owners of all land in it. If you don't declare, then HMRC has the right to purchase and sell the property to recover missing property taxes.
It doesn't matter if it's in a company or a trust or it's owned by an individual, there is a declaration of value, and a resulting tax.
If you underdeclare the value of your property, HMRC will simply buy it from you at a 20% premium to what you said it was worth.
I am very much in favour but 20% is way too small a premium. Prices have risen by that in parts of the country over the last year (due to silly govt policies admittedly).
Some significant COP26 news: President Biden is coming to Glasgow. A big relief for the PM, who invited him months ago. A needy shot in the arm for the summit too, which is in trouble after talks for a deal with China + others stalled.
Because having dozens of jets turn up at a climate change summit, is giving exactly the right message about how we all need to change our behaviours.
If the last 18 months has shown the world anyting, it’s that the vast majority of meetings can be done remotely when the chips are down.
Is this actually THE BIG F***ING EMERGENCY they want us to believe it is?
I’m still amazed that Cisco didn’t offer $10m to sponsor doing the whole thing on WebEx.
I don't really get this objection. It is such a completely irrelevant percentage of the impact of planes on climate change.
If they can do even 0.01% better in person than they can remotely it will have a positive pay off.
It’s the optics.
“We” are flying a hundred private planes to the summmit in Glasgow, so that “we” can have our conference, the output of which is that “we” expect “you” to do less flying, to buy expensive electric cars, pay extra taxes, and attend fewer conferences - while “we” appear totally exempt from what “we” impose on “you”.
At least one can simply walk across the river from her house.
More Tory voters still think the Tories are the party of low tax than Labour however. For its core vote of pensioners and those waiting to inherit the Tory Party are still the party of low tax. For the rest the investment raised from the NI rise and dividends tax will go to the NHS and care, the electorate's top spending priority, especially post Covid.
Plus of course the Conservative Party did not emerge as the party of low tax, though it took on that mantle in the 20th century, especially against Labour.
The Tory Party, the ancestor of today's Conservative Party, emerged in the late 17th century as the party of the monarchy, the Church of England and the landed interest and to that can now be added the party of Brexit
Some significant COP26 news: President Biden is coming to Glasgow. A big relief for the PM, who invited him months ago. A needy shot in the arm for the summit too, which is in trouble after talks for a deal with China + others stalled.
Because having dozens of jets turn up at a climate change summit, is giving exactly the right message about how we all need to change our behaviours.
If the last 18 months has shown the world anyting, it’s that the vast majority of meetings can be done remotely when the chips are down.
Is this actually THE BIG F***ING EMERGENCY they want us to believe it is?
I’m still amazed that Cisco didn’t offer $10m to sponsor doing the whole thing on WebEx.
I don't really get this objection. It is such a completely irrelevant percentage of the impact of planes on climate change.
If they can do even 0.01% better in person than they can remotely it will have a positive pay off.
It’s the optics.
“We” are flying a hundred private planes to the summmit in Glasgow, so that “we” can have our conference, the output of which is that “we” expect “you” to do less flying, to buy expensive electric cars, pay extra taxes, and attend fewer conferences - while “we” appear totally exempt from what “we” impose on “you”.
Fuck optics. Either you are a software construct (or a sociopath), or you realise that face to face outweighs zoom to an extent that the private jets pay for themselves.
Yeah I’m in IT.
If there’s a MASSIVE CLIMATE EMERGENCY, then no, the private jets don’t pay for themselves, they’re the most selfish possible use of the scarce resources left on this planet.
Flying is about 2% of carbon emissions. Most of that is leisure, not business.
If they can all jet in and do something about coal burning in China then it will be well worth the flights.
If they *REALLY, ACTUALLY* do something about coal burning in China, then I will concede the point.
Some significant COP26 news: President Biden is coming to Glasgow. A big relief for the PM, who invited him months ago. A needy shot in the arm for the summit too, which is in trouble after talks for a deal with China + others stalled.
Today I had THE WORST SALAD OF MY LIFE on top of beautiful Mount Pilatus.
They have a lot of ground to make up
Your clear error was ordering a salad. It's that sort of thing that give Brits abroad a bad name.
You what? A salad Nicoise in the riviera sun. A salad caprese.. anywhere
My salad has fried lake fish (frozen, even tho we were right by the lake) with frisée, beetroot, black lentils, tomato, a tin of sweet corn, pickles, a hunk of stale bread and a dollop of tartare sauce
It was like a salad piled on a plate at a Garfunkel’s buffet by a cognitively deficient Russian in about 1983
That's the way the girls are in Texas. I'm just surprised there weren't gherkins in it.
Roast hare = this could be heaven and this could be hell. My signature dish is jugged hare. I'd think roast would be very dry.
I forgot to mention the two slices of melon in the salad AS WELL
I think Lucerne is right on the culinary border between shit Germanic food, and great Italian food, and complex could-go-either-way French food
I am relieved to report that the hare is delicious. Slow roast leg on the bone. Tender and succulent
That's a swing of 1.7% from Conservative to Labour. In terms of the coalition blocs, the centre-left "Red" bloc of parties has 49.8% and the centre-right bloc 40.4% so the gap has closed a fraction and isn't as great as the Respons poll this morning suggested but it's still a swing of more than 5% from Government to Opposition and at this point a Labour-lead coalition looks the more likely outcome.
Today I had THE WORST SALAD OF MY LIFE on top of beautiful Mount Pilatus.
They have a lot of ground to make up
Your clear error was ordering a salad. It's that sort of thing that give Brits abroad a bad name.
You what? A salad Nicoise in the riviera sun. A salad caprese.. anywhere
My salad has fried lake fish (frozen, even tho we were right by the lake) with frisée, beetroot, black lentils, tomato, a tin of sweet corn, pickles, a hunk of stale bread and a dollop of tartare sauce
It was like a salad piled on a plate at a Garfunkel’s buffet by a cognitively deficient Russian in about 1983
Leon. I have never been to Garfunkel's. (I have been to similar places though.)
I'm not averse to a salad, but when on tour I think it's vital that the see us eating the feasts of warriors.
When at home we can of course indulge ourselves in lemon twists.
Just saw Starmer's "Rosie" speech in the HoC from yesterday. £1000 a year reduced UC plus the NI increase to a working mum. Starmer was actually very good and he played the Tory laughter very well.
Fortunately for Johnson nothing to interest the BBC. They are fully focused on the tax rise that is necessary to fully fund the NHS and social care for once and for all.
And the point I made earlier, if that had been a young Tony Blair Boris would have been demolished but for labour Starmer is no Tony Blair
From the bit of what I saw, surprisingly Starmer confidently and comprehensively had the better of Johnson. Blair wouldn't have done any better.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
The point is that the likes of Jezz Bezos isn't understating by the letter of the law....he does nothing illegal.
That's not the point. We haven't got this wealth tax yet. Once we do - which we won't - we can enforce it via fear of the penalties for cheating.
Today I had THE WORST SALAD OF MY LIFE on top of beautiful Mount Pilatus.
They have a lot of ground to make up
Your clear error was ordering a salad. It's that sort of thing that give Brits abroad a bad name.
You what? A salad Nicoise in the riviera sun. A salad caprese.. anywhere
My salad has fried lake fish (frozen, even tho we were right by the lake) with frisée, beetroot, black lentils, tomato, a tin of sweet corn, pickles, a hunk of stale bread and a dollop of tartare sauce
It was like a salad piled on a plate at a Garfunkel’s buffet by a cognitively deficient Russian in about 1983
That's the way the girls are in Texas. I'm just surprised there weren't gherkins in it.
Roast hare = this could be heaven and this could be hell. My signature dish is jugged hare. I'd think roast would be very dry.
I forgot to mention the two slices of melon in the salad AS WELL
I think Lucerne is right on the culinary border between shit Germanic food, and great Italian food, and complex could-go-either-way French food
I am relieved to report that the hare is delicious. Slow roast leg on the bone. Tender and succulent
"beetroot, black lentils, tomato, a tin of sweet corn, pickles, a hunk of stale bread"
Sounds like something Withnail would be able to rustle up from the spares cupboard to be honest.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
Ooh, you've gone all authoritarian Priti Patel this evening.
Totally right! All this "Wealth tax is unenforceable" business - absolute bollox.
Today I had THE WORST SALAD OF MY LIFE on top of beautiful Mount Pilatus.
They have a lot of ground to make up
Your clear error was ordering a salad. It's that sort of thing that give Brits abroad a bad name.
You what? A salad Nicoise in the riviera sun. A salad caprese.. anywhere
My salad has fried lake fish (frozen, even tho we were right by the lake) with frisée, beetroot, black lentils, tomato, a tin of sweet corn, pickles, a hunk of stale bread and a dollop of tartare sauce
It was like a salad piled on a plate at a Garfunkel’s buffet by a cognitively deficient Russian in about 1983
That's the way the girls are in Texas. I'm just surprised there weren't gherkins in it.
Roast hare = this could be heaven and this could be hell. My signature dish is jugged hare. I'd think roast would be very dry.
I forgot to mention the two slices of melon in the salad AS WELL
I think Lucerne is right on the culinary border between shit Germanic food, and great Italian food, and complex could-go-either-way French food
I am relieved to report that the hare is delicious. Slow roast leg on the bone. Tender and succulent
Oh no! I've accidentally logged on to a European dining and travel blog. Sorry!
Met a couple of colleagues for the first time and others for the first time in 18 months.
Then our boss got the beers in.
Best day at work since March 2020.
On topic, the Conservative Party is there to take care of the wealthy. Nothing else. They create sufficient false consciousness to win elections and then shaft the useful idiots who vote for them. Sadly, some PBers fall into that category.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
Ooh, you've gone all authoritarian Priti Patel this evening.
Totally right! All this "Wealth tax is unenforceable" business - absolute bollox.
Ask Mons. Hollande.
Doable, but difficult.
What would happen to the employees rich people who's wealth is in a single (say) chain of shops, or manufacturing business, if they required to give 5% or more to the Govt a short period?
Just saw Starmer's "Rosie" speech in the HoC from yesterday. £1000 a year reduced UC plus the NI increase to a working mum. Starmer was actually very good and he played the Tory laughter very well.
Fortunately for Johnson nothing to interest the BBC. They are fully focused on the tax rise that is necessary to fully fund the NHS and social care for once and for all.
And the point I made earlier, if that had been a young Tony Blair Boris would have been demolished but for labour Starmer is no Tony Blair
From the bit of what I saw, surprisingly Starmer confidently and comprehensively had the better of Johnson. Blair wouldn't have done any better.
The Government is on very doubtful turf. I'd hope that you don't see me as a fool. I'd not vote for any party other than the Tories in a million years. Tricky!
Self-confessed 'Privileged, white middle class' XR protester, 60, who lives in a £900,000 farmhouse says she was 'exercising her human rights' while blocking roads outside Parliament, court hears
I am coming around to the idea of a massive wealth tax on property......the (eco) marxists all seem to own massive houses or make their money from flipping property, buy to lets, etc.
Not against a wealth tax on property, but not clear why her house is relevant to the case. I'm not class warrior enough to feel that rich people shouldn't have an opinion on the environment...
Good job she can afford to pay for the £35k (?) of damage deliberately inflicted, then.
And perhaps a £250k contribution to the policing costs caused, and the extra crime that happened because all those police were diverted from normal police work.
Are at least the first of these costs able to be awarded, plus those imposed on JP Morgan, under current law?
One of the holiday properties she rents out in Derbyshire is called Knob End, in Knob Lane - which seems appropriate.
Today I had THE WORST SALAD OF MY LIFE on top of beautiful Mount Pilatus.
They have a lot of ground to make up
Your clear error was ordering a salad. It's that sort of thing that give Brits abroad a bad name.
You what? A salad Nicoise in the riviera sun. A salad caprese.. anywhere
My salad has fried lake fish (frozen, even tho we were right by the lake) with frisée, beetroot, black lentils, tomato, a tin of sweet corn, pickles, a hunk of stale bread and a dollop of tartare sauce
It was like a salad piled on a plate at a Garfunkel’s buffet by a cognitively deficient Russian in about 1983
That's the way the girls are in Texas. I'm just surprised there weren't gherkins in it.
Roast hare = this could be heaven and this could be hell. My signature dish is jugged hare. I'd think roast would be very dry.
I forgot to mention the two slices of melon in the salad AS WELL
I think Lucerne is right on the culinary border between shit Germanic food, and great Italian food, and complex could-go-either-way French food
I am relieved to report that the hare is delicious. Slow roast leg on the bone. Tender and succulent
Oh no! I've accidentally logged on to a European dining and travel blog. Sorry!
The key to blog survival is diversification. It also moonlights as cricket commentary.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
In France, they have a simple solution. You self declare - but the state has the right to buy your house at a c. 20% premium to your self declared value. And every year they sweep up the most egregious cheaters and purchase their homes for less than they're worth and sell them.
It keeps cheating to a minimum.
Surely there must be loads of financial vehicles whereby assets are transferred into businesses and clever accounting is used, or as I stated with what we know about the uber uber wealthy, all those stakes in their own companies, large chunks of that has been swapped for very long term low interest loans.
Its a bit like the old Labour donation swerve, you don't donate, you make a loan, but never ask for the money back and thus you don't have to be named.
You will still lose your home under the scheme @rcs1000 mentions, I suppose. That's the beauty of it. You or whatever vehicle you use declares a property worth €200 000. The tax authorities think, that's undervalued, we will put it on the market and suppose they get an offer of €300 000. So they go back to you and say, you can continue to stay if you pay us the difference of €100 000. They don't care who lives there, pays the original wealth tax or who gets the €200 000 because they can sell the property at a profit of €100 000 if it's undervalued.
You could apply the same idea to assets that are more liquid than property. Wealth tax applies to the asset, not the owner, so asset managers pay a percentage of the assets to the government as tax. If owners have a justifiable reason for a rebate, they will need to apply for it with justification.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
In France, they have a simple solution. You self declare - but the state has the right to buy your house at a c. 20% premium to your self declared value. And every year they sweep up the most egregious cheaters and purchase their homes for less than they're worth and sell them.
It keeps cheating to a minimum.
Surely there must be loads of financial vehicles whereby assets are transferred into businesses and clever accounting is used, or as I stated with what we know about the uber uber wealthy, all those stakes in their own companies, large chunks of that has been swapped for very long term low interest loans.
Its a bit like the old Labour donation swerve, you don't donate, you make a loan, but never ask for the money back and thus you don't have to be named.
You will still lose your home under the scheme @rcs1000 mentions, I suppose. That's the beauty of it. You or whatever vehicle you use declares a property worth €200 000. The tax authorities think, that's undervalued, we will put it on the market and suppose they get an offer of €300 000. So they go back to you and say, you can continue to stay if you pay us the difference of €100 000. They don't care who lives there, pays the original wealth tax or who gets the €200 000 because they can sell the property at a profit of €100 000 if it's undervalued.
You could apply the same idea to assets that are more liquid than property. Wealth tax applies to the asset, not the owner, so asset managers pay a percentage of the assets to the government as tax. If owners have a justifiable reason for a rebate, they will need to apply for it with justification.
Instance way to kill the city of London as a financial centre.
Just saw Starmer's "Rosie" speech in the HoC from yesterday. £1000 a year reduced UC plus the NI increase to a working mum. Starmer was actually very good and he played the Tory laughter very well.
Fortunately for Johnson nothing to interest the BBC. They are fully focused on the tax rise that is necessary to fully fund the NHS and social care for once and for all.
And the point I made earlier, if that had been a young Tony Blair Boris would have been demolished but for labour Starmer is no Tony Blair
From the bit of what I saw, surprisingly Starmer confidently and comprehensively had the better of Johnson. Blair wouldn't have done any better.
Why not just reform VAT and if you want to catch the rich, stick a load of extra tax of high end things?
Proportionately the ultra rich dont consume much of their wealth, it just ends up buying up property and asset wealth. Yet another reason why it is bad for the economy as well as society to have the wealth concentration we have.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
Ooh, you've gone all authoritarian Priti Patel this evening.
Totally right! All this "Wealth tax is unenforceable" business - absolute bollox.
Ask Mons. Hollande.
Doable, but difficult.
What would happen to the employees rich people who's wealth is in a single (say) chain of shops, or manufacturing business, if they required to give 5% or more to the Govt a short period?
Why would it be 5%? Around 1% feels about right. Even if it was 5% of course they could borrow 5% of their wealth trivially.
This time it's Greater Manchester Police, which seems to be in just as big a mess.
Note in particular the reference to the useless new IT system and to the fact that safeguarding reports logged in it are lost. That means that future Oldhams, future grooming scandals, future child abuse scandals, future ill-treatment of the vulnerable scandals are happening right now and not being properly noticed - let alone investigated - right now,
To me this feels like a much more serious issue than what has occupied this forum endlessly for days now.
This time it's Greater Manchester Police, which seems to be in just as big a mess.
Note in particular the reference to the useless new IT system and to the fact that safeguarding reports logged in it are lost. That means that future Oldhams, future grooming scandals, future child abuse scandals, future ill-treatment of the vulnerable scandals are happening right now and not being properly noticed - let alone investigated - right now,
To me this feels like a much more serious issue than what has occupied this forum endlessly for days now.
No political upside in police failings. It causes a stink, people get angry, then they worry its wrong to get too angry at the police, someone says more money will fix everything, then it goes quiet again until next time.
We finally have some regional polling to digest in Germany.
In Bavaria, Infratest Dimap have the CSU on 28% (-11 from 2017) but the loss is being spread round so the Greens are up six, the SPD are up three and the Free Voters are up four. How this will translate in constituency terms isn't clear - to be fair, the CSU have huge majorities in rural Bavaria but may be in real trouble in Munich and Nuremburg and might lose one or two suburban seats to the Greens.
In Mecklenbutg-Vorpommern, Infratest has the following:
Changes from 2017 election (constituency vote):
Social Democrats: 31% (+16) Alternative for Germany: 18% (-1) CDU: 16% (-17) LINKE: 11% (-7) Free Democrats: 9% (+3) Greens: 8% (+4)
That's a devastating 16.5% swing from the CDU to the SPD - there are just six constituency seats in the region. The CDU won them all last time - on the above figures, they will lose all bar Griefswald.
The regional poll numbers for the same day look even worse for the CDU by the way.
We also have Rhineland-Palatinate. Last time, the CDU won this region by 12 points. The current figures are:
The region has 15 constituencies - in 2017, the CDU won 14. On a 9.5% swing the SPD will win 14 leaving the CDU with the stronghold of Bitburg.
It's looking like a complete disaster for the Union - the SPD is running riot in northern and eastern Germany with the CDU/CSU being pushed back to a few strongholds in the south and west. They could end up losing over 100 seats and could be down 130 on worst case scenario.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
In France, they have a simple solution. You self declare - but the state has the right to buy your house at a c. 20% premium to your self declared value. And every year they sweep up the most egregious cheaters and purchase their homes for less than they're worth and sell them.
It keeps cheating to a minimum.
Surely there must be loads of financial vehicles whereby assets are transferred into businesses and clever accounting is used, or as I stated with what we know about the uber uber wealthy, all those stakes in their own companies, large chunks of that has been swapped for very long term low interest loans.
Its a bit like the old Labour donation swerve, you don't donate, you make a loan, but never ask for the money back and thus you don't have to be named.
You will still lose your home under the scheme @rcs1000 mentions, I suppose. That's the beauty of it. You or whatever vehicle you use declares a property worth €200 000. The tax authorities think, that's undervalued, we will put it on the market and suppose they get an offer of €300 000. So they go back to you and say, you can continue to stay if you pay us the difference of €100 000. They don't care who lives there, pays the original wealth tax or who gets the €200 000 because they can sell the property at a profit of €100 000 if it's undervalued.
You could apply the same idea to assets that are more liquid than property. Wealth tax applies to the asset, not the owner, so asset managers pay a percentage of the assets to the government as tax. If owners have a justifiable reason for a rebate, they will need to apply for it with justification.
Instance way to kill the city of London as a financial centre.
A hypothesis that is never tested from first principles because of special pleading.
Taxes discourage the activities they tax, at the margins. Income-related tax discourages work; wealth taxes discourage wealth creation. The question is whether that particular tax in the form it is implemented discourages that particular activity to the extent it becomes counterproductive and you are better shifting the burden to something else.
We finally have some regional polling to digest in Germany.
In Bavaria, Infratest Dimap have the CSU on 28% (-11 from 2017) but the loss is being spread round so the Greens are up six, the SPD are up three and the Free Voters are up four. How this will translate in constituency terms isn't clear - to be fair, the CSU have huge majorities in rural Bavaria but may be in real trouble in Munich and Nuremburg and might lose one or two suburban seats to the Greens.
In Mecklenbutg-Vorpommern, Infratest has the following:
Changes from 2017 election (constituency vote):
Social Democrats: 31% (+16) Alternative for Germany: 18% (-1) CDU: 16% (-17) LINKE: 11% (-7) Free Democrats: 9% (+3) Greens: 8% (+4)
That's a devastating 16.5% swing from the CDU to the SPD - there are just six constituency seats in the region. The CDU won them all last time - on the above figures, they will lose all bar Griefswald.
The regional poll numbers for the same day look even worse for the CDU by the way.
We also have Rhineland-Palatinate. Last time, the CDU won this region by 12 points. The current figures are:
The region has 15 constituencies - in 2017, the CDU won 14. On a 9.5% swing the SPD will win 14 leaving the CDU with the stronghold of Bitburg.
It's looking like a complete disaster for the Union - the SPD is running riot in northern and eastern Germany with the CDU/CSU being pushed back to a few strongholds in the south and west. They could end up losing over 100 seats and could be down 130 on worst case scenario.
A shellacking if it proves true. Even with the SPD chap playing the role of continuity Merkel apparently I bet they cannot believe their fortune.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
Ooh, you've gone all authoritarian Priti Patel this evening.
Totally right! All this "Wealth tax is unenforceable" business - absolute bollox.
Ask Mons. Hollande.
Doable, but difficult.
What would happen to the employees rich people who's wealth is in a single (say) chain of shops, or manufacturing business, if they required to give 5% or more to the Govt a short period?
Why would it be 5%? Around 1% feels about right. Even if it was 5% of course they could borrow 5% of their wealth trivially.
It depends on the proposals. I think there was a suggestion of a 10% one-off above?
The report linked earlier explores various options thoroughly.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
Ooh, you've gone all authoritarian Priti Patel this evening.
Totally right! All this "Wealth tax is unenforceable" business - absolute bollox.
Sure, but the way to tax stuff is, tax at the point where a cash transaction is happening anyway. Liquidity rocks. Not all assets are as liquid as mainstream bonds and equities. So just keep the IHT system but abolish the exemption for inter vivos transfers, which is what avoidance depends on. Job done.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
In France, they have a simple solution. You self declare - but the state has the right to buy your house at a c. 20% premium to your self declared value. And every year they sweep up the most egregious cheaters and purchase their homes for less than they're worth and sell them.
It keeps cheating to a minimum.
Surely there must be loads of financial vehicles whereby assets are transferred into businesses and clever accounting is used, or as I stated with what we know about the uber uber wealthy, all those stakes in their own companies, large chunks of that has been swapped for very long term low interest loans.
Its a bit like the old Labour donation swerve, you don't donate, you make a loan, but never ask for the money back and thus you don't have to be named.
You will still lose your home under the scheme @rcs1000 mentions, I suppose. That's the beauty of it. You or whatever vehicle you use declares a property worth €200 000. The tax authorities think, that's undervalued, we will put it on the market and suppose they get an offer of €300 000. So they go back to you and say, you can continue to stay if you pay us the difference of €100 000. They don't care who lives there, pays the original wealth tax or who gets the €200 000 because they can sell the property at a profit of €100 000 if it's undervalued.
You could apply the same idea to assets that are more liquid than property. Wealth tax applies to the asset, not the owner, so asset managers pay a percentage of the assets to the government as tax. If owners have a justifiable reason for a rebate, they will need to apply for it with justification.
Instance way to kill the city of London as a financial centre.
A hypothesis that is never tested from first principles because of special pleading.
Taxes discourage the activities they tax, at the margins. Income-related tax discourages work; wealth taxes discourage wealth creation. The question is whether that particular tax in the form it is implemented discourages that particular activity to the extent it becomes counterproductive and you are better shifting the burden to something else.
Taxing things like houses works, because its a pain in the ass to sell your house and move. And a lot of people want to live in certain locations, and willing to pay that bit of extra tax in order to do so e.g. London.
Where foreign individuals and what markets companies decide to invest when there are lots of global options and it is trivial to do so in any of them, there is low to no friction to doing so.
Adding a load of red tape, where tax money is withheld by the asset manager and then individuals have to claim it back is just going to have big investors move where they want to put their money.
If Brexit was a pain in the ass enough in terms of EU financial services, adding this massive extra layer would be terrible.
SNP realise how badly their proposed GRA bill will go down and are using Belarus tactics to ensure they don't get held to account.
Holyrood protesters to face criminal prosecution under new law
HOLYROOD is changing its legal status to make it easier for the police to remove protesters. Scottish Parliament bosses have asked the Home Office to designate the building and its grounds as a “protected site” in the interests of national security. Legislation has now been laid in Westminster under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which is due to come into force on October 1. At present, the police have limited powers to intervene if there is no substantive offence taking place, such as protesters making a prolonged noise outside the entrances. But from next month it will be a criminal offence to remain on the parliamentary estate “without lawful authority” punishable by a £5000 fine or a year in jail after a conviction.
Mastercard has agreed to acquire blockchain analytics start-up CipherTrace, in the latest sign of how major companies are warming to cryptocurrencies.
The payments giant said Thursday it entered into an agreement to buy CipherTrace for an undisclosed amount. Based in Menlo Park, California, CipherTrace develops tools that help businesses and law enforcement root out illicit digital currency transactions. The company’s competitors include New York-based Chainalysis and London start-up Elliptic.
My shovels sales have been very brisk the past 2 weeks.....one set of coins I bought that are widely used for NFTs went up as high as 5x my cost price.
British regulators have warned the country’s top banks that they must improve oversight of their trade finance businesses, after a spate of scandals that caused hundreds of millions in losses and allowed criminals to abuse the financial system.
An unusually blunt “dear CEO” letter, sent on Thursday by both the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, ordered recipients to conduct a full financial crime risk assessment of their processes to detect money laundering, sanctions evasion, terrorist financing and fraud among their clients.
“During the past 18 months there have been several high-profile failures of commodity and trade finance firms with significant financial loss,” the FCA and PRA said. “Assessments of individual firms have highlighted several significant issues relating to both credit risk analysis and financial crime controls.”
The regulators said they may ask to see the assessments and any follow-up action taken.
In recent years the commodity trading industry has been rocked by a series of scandals that have left lenders, including HSBC and Credit Suisse, with significant losses.
The incidents highlighted broader issues with trade finance — where banks provide credit to firms that buy and sell commodities around the world — such as aggressive lending practices and archaic paper-based systems that are vulnerable to abuse and forgery.
In April 2020, Hin Leong Trading, the oil trader owned by one of Singapore’s richest men, collapsed owing more than $3bn to 20 lenders. The founder admitted to hiding losses from trading in futures markets, selling off oil inventories that had been pledged as collateral for loans.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
Ooh, you've gone all authoritarian Priti Patel this evening.
Totally right! All this "Wealth tax is unenforceable" business - absolute bollox.
Ask Mons. Hollande.
Doable, but difficult.
What would happen to the employees rich people who's wealth is in a single (say) chain of shops, or manufacturing business, if they required to give 5% or more to the Govt a short period?
Why would it be 5%? Around 1% feels about right. Even if it was 5% of course they could borrow 5% of their wealth trivially.
It depends on the proposals. I think there was a suggestion of a 10% one-off above?
The report linked earlier explores various options thoroughly.
5-10% feels excessive.
The elite probably earn over 5% pa on their assets. So if we are taxing an additional 1% pa wealth tax, it is only 20% of the expected unearned increase in their wealth each year. The gap between their wealth and ours will still expand at a pretty quick rate in their favour, just slightly dampened.
Mastercard has agreed to acquire blockchain analytics start-up CipherTrace, in the latest sign of how major companies are warming to cryptocurrencies.
The payments giant said Thursday it entered into an agreement to buy CipherTrace for an undisclosed amount. Based in Menlo Park, California, CipherTrace develops tools that help businesses and law enforcement root out illicit digital currency transactions. The company’s competitors include New York-based Chainalysis and London start-up Elliptic.
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
Ooh, you've gone all authoritarian Priti Patel this evening.
Totally right! All this "Wealth tax is unenforceable" business - absolute bollox.
Ask Mons. Hollande.
Doable, but difficult.
What would happen to the employees rich people who's wealth is in a single (say) chain of shops, or manufacturing business, if they required to give 5% or more to the Govt a short period?
Why would it be 5%? Around 1% feels about right. Even if it was 5% of course they could borrow 5% of their wealth trivially.
It depends on the proposals. I think there was a suggestion of a 10% one-off above?
The report linked earlier explores various options thoroughly.
5-10% feels excessive.
The elite probably earn over 5% pa on their assets. So if we are taxing an additional 1% pa wealth tax, it is only 20% of the expected unearned increase in their wealth each year. The gap between their wealth and ours will still expand at a pretty quick rate in their favour, just slightly dampened.
My preference would I think be 0.2-0.5% on a permanent basis - rather than proposals for say 1% over 500k for 5 years. With a very broad tax base.
If the Conservatives aren't the party for low taxes and high aspirations then who will be? Nature abhors a vacuum.
Some rewriting of history going on.
Thatcher reduced direct taxes but increased indirect taxes - despite the latter being regressive. She encouraged people to set up businesses and gave them tax advantages for doing so. She encouraged house ownership and high prices for those houses. It was a Tory government which tripled university fees. The current council tax bands which do not take account of high house prices were set by a Tory government. It was a Tory government which introduced the triple lock. All of these Tory policies over the years have resulted in the situation we are now in where a small group holds a lot of wealth and is somewhat shielded from the costs which others are now having to pay.
I deplore this. It is hugely unfair - especially on the working poor and the young. But I have not been a Tory supporter nor have I been cheering on Tory governments.
I do not mean to get at you. But this government rewarding its supporters and stuffing those who don't vote for it has been a constant of Tory governments for most of my life. Watching former Tory supporters seeing the penny drop when they realise that these policies have consequences for them too has been .... well .... quite the spectacle.
SNP realise how badly their proposed GRA bill will go down and are using Belarus tactics to ensure they don't get held to account.
Holyrood protesters to face criminal prosecution under new law
HOLYROOD is changing its legal status to make it easier for the police to remove protesters. Scottish Parliament bosses have asked the Home Office to designate the building and its grounds as a “protected site” in the interests of national security. Legislation has now been laid in Westminster under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which is due to come into force on October 1. At present, the police have limited powers to intervene if there is no substantive offence taking place, such as protesters making a prolonged noise outside the entrances. But from next month it will be a criminal offence to remain on the parliamentary estate “without lawful authority” punishable by a £5000 fine or a year in jail after a conviction.
And comes a day after Sturgeon shouted in Holyrood "shame on you" when Murdo Fraser pointed out that he had spoken to some of the women protesters with concerns about the Bill. That's right: Nicola "I'm a feminist to my fingertips" thinks it shameful to speak to women protesters to hear their concerns.
Some significant COP26 news: President Biden is coming to Glasgow. A big relief for the PM, who invited him months ago. A needy shot in the arm for the summit too, which is in trouble after talks for a deal with China + others stalled.
Because having dozens of jets turn up at a climate change summit, is giving exactly the right message about how we all need to change our behaviours.
If the last 18 months has shown the world anyting, it’s that the vast majority of meetings can be done remotely when the chips are down.
Is this actually THE BIG F***ING EMERGENCY they want us to believe it is?
I’m still amazed that Cisco didn’t offer $10m to sponsor doing the whole thing on WebEx.
I don't really get this objection. It is such a completely irrelevant percentage of the impact of planes on climate change.
If they can do even 0.01% better in person than they can remotely it will have a positive pay off.
It’s the optics.
“We” are flying a hundred private planes to the summmit in Glasgow, so that “we” can have our conference, the output of which is that “we” expect “you” to do less flying, to buy expensive electric cars, pay extra taxes, and attend fewer conferences - while “we” appear totally exempt from what “we” impose on “you”.
Fuck optics. Either you are a software construct (or a sociopath), or you realise that face to face outweighs zoom to an extent that the private jets pay for themselves.
Does climate change mean nothing to the IshmaelZ's?
Noooo, way to miss the point. Literally nothing concerns me more thasn climate change. What I'm saying is a face to face climate change conf where everybody turns up in a Learjet is likely to produce a better result, net, than a zoom meeting.
Dunno about anyone else, but in zoom meetings I'm invariably on PB on a phone just under camera level.
At least you’re doing something useful with your time!
One question I always have about wealth taxes...if you aren't a normie, i.e. regular 9-5 job, semi-detached new build house, with the 2.5 kids and the dog, it quickly becomes incredibly difficult to assess.
Also, what about all these schemes that the ultra wealthy use where they transfer their shares into a company, which then trades them to a financial institution, who in return provides lifetime loans at very low interest rates. Do they still have that wealth?
Even trying to assess the value of your home is tricky. It is why the Lib Dem idea of tax on the exact house value didn't fly, because it was quickly realised that you have to keep reassessing even normal homes, as Bob gets a conservatory, Fred gets a lovely garden make-over etc.
Self assessment with very stiff penalties - jail time - for materially understating it. Fear works wonders.
Ooh, you've gone all authoritarian Priti Patel this evening.
Totally right! All this "Wealth tax is unenforceable" business - absolute bollox.
Hang on for a minute while I set up an inheritance trust for my children.
I am not very left wing on this, and I will tell you why. I have worked my nuts off and lived a frugal lifestyle to achieve what I have. I would like to have blown it all on booze, woman and fast cars like George Best, but I did not. George chose to party like it was 1999, I have chosen to look after my children post my passing. Also, having paid my taxes first time round, why should I pay them again on my death to fund the self- inflicted liver damaged social care costs of the George Bests of this world.
We should be chasing Amazon and their ilk,, we should be closing offshore loopholes. We should be taxing unearned incomes, hedge funds, non-inherited (to an extent) windfalls, and revisit charitable status scams. It seems to me there is an awful lot that could be done before we look at inheritance tax and/ or NI.
On the other hand we could also be less profligate as a nation with NHS PPE contracts, Royal yachts, Garden Bridges, aircraft paintjobs. and Liverpool council vanity projects.
Some significant COP26 news: President Biden is coming to Glasgow. A big relief for the PM, who invited him months ago. A needy shot in the arm for the summit too, which is in trouble after talks for a deal with China + others stalled.
Because having dozens of jets turn up at a climate change summit, is giving exactly the right message about how we all need to change our behaviours.
If the last 18 months has shown the world anyting, it’s that the vast majority of meetings can be done remotely when the chips are down.
Is this actually THE BIG F***ING EMERGENCY they want us to believe it is?
I’m still amazed that Cisco didn’t offer $10m to sponsor doing the whole thing on WebEx.
I don't really get this objection. It is such a completely irrelevant percentage of the impact of planes on climate change.
If they can do even 0.01% better in person than they can remotely it will have a positive pay off.
It’s the optics.
“We” are flying a hundred private planes to the summmit in Glasgow, so that “we” can have our conference, the output of which is that “we” expect “you” to do less flying, to buy expensive electric cars, pay extra taxes, and attend fewer conferences - while “we” appear totally exempt from what “we” impose on “you”.
At least one can simply walk across the river from her house.
Mastercard has agreed to acquire blockchain analytics start-up CipherTrace, in the latest sign of how major companies are warming to cryptocurrencies.
The payments giant said Thursday it entered into an agreement to buy CipherTrace for an undisclosed amount. Based in Menlo Park, California, CipherTrace develops tools that help businesses and law enforcement root out illicit digital currency transactions. The company’s competitors include New York-based Chainalysis and London start-up Elliptic.
Broadly on topic, the more I think about the social care "solution", the less of a solution it is.
My turn to think more radically tonight - if we aren't going down the route of Land Value Taxation, the fact remains property and the asset of property is one area you could and perhaps should be looking at.
The current Council Tax valuations are from 1991 when house prices were low. The top band was for all houses over £320,000 in value which is laughable.
It's time for some proper serious revaluations with more condensed bands (£100k between bands) at the lower end and more bands at the top end of house values (£500k and higher) with perhaps bands every £500k up to £5 million for example.
Funding local Government is one of those things to which there is of course no right answer and plenty of wrong ones (apparently). That's probably why no one with any sense (yours truly excluded) goes there.
The Biden administration on Thursday sued Texas, seeking to block enforcement of a new law almost entirely banning abortion in the state, as Democrats fear the right to abortion established 50 years ago may be at risk.
The U.S. Supreme Court last week let stand the Texas law banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many woman realize they are pregnant. The decision represented a major victory for social conservatives who have been trying to ban the procedure since the court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision established the constitutional right to abortion.
President Joe Biden has warned the law would cause "unconstitutional chaos" because it relies on private citizens to enforce it by filing civil lawsuits against people who help a woman obtain an abortion after six weeks, whether it be a doctor who performs the procedure or a cabbie who drives a woman to a clinic.
On taxation. Of course Labour thinks that wealth/the wealthy will need to be taxed more, much more, to achieve their aims in government. The tax burden on the low and average paid is enough, if not too much, as it is - where else will it come from but those with the "broadest shoulders"?
But Starmer knows full well that as soon as he says this openly, the Tories and their mates in the printed press will be joyful. Those of us who've been around a while could wheel out the headlines: Labour tax bombshell; your home at risk (as if); entrepreneurs, the brightest and the best, all relocating to wherever; Labour kills aspiration; Premier League football at risk from Labour's tax plans; and so on. You get the drift.
So, politically, he needs to keep it under wraps. In fact, some of the tax plans should not be revealed until/unless Labour wins power. Just like the Tories. Their tax hikes, their detailed Brexit plan, their cuts to overseas aid, weren't in their manifesto. All Starmer needs to do for now is what he's doing: say that in principle, those with the broadest shoulders should contribute more. Those looking for a detailed plan can whistle. He doesn't need one. He's smarter than some think - one step ahead. Why give the Tories and the tabloids what they want?
Today I had THE WORST SALAD OF MY LIFE on top of beautiful Mount Pilatus.
They have a lot of ground to make up
Your clear error was ordering a salad. It's that sort of thing that give Brits abroad a bad name.
You what? A salad Nicoise in the riviera sun. A salad caprese.. anywhere
My salad has fried lake fish (frozen, even tho we were right by the lake) with frisée, beetroot, black lentils, tomato, a tin of sweet corn, pickles, a hunk of stale bread and a dollop of tartare sauce
It was like a salad piled on a plate at a Garfunkel’s buffet by a cognitively deficient Russian in about 1983
That's the way the girls are in Texas. I'm just surprised there weren't gherkins in it.
Roast hare = this could be heaven and this could be hell. My signature dish is jugged hare. I'd think roast would be very dry.
I forgot to mention the two slices of melon in the salad AS WELL
I think Lucerne is right on the culinary border between shit Germanic food, and great Italian food, and complex could-go-either-way French food
I am relieved to report that the hare is delicious. Slow roast leg on the bone. Tender and succulent
Oh no! I've accidentally logged on to a European dining and travel blog. Sorry!
The key to blog survival is diversification. It also moonlights as cricket commentary.
Just saw Starmer's "Rosie" speech in the HoC from yesterday. £1000 a year reduced UC plus the NI increase to a working mum. Starmer was actually very good and he played the Tory laughter very well.
Fortunately for Johnson nothing to interest the BBC. They are fully focused on the tax rise that is necessary to fully fund the NHS and social care for once and for all.
And the point I made earlier, if that had been a young Tony Blair Boris would have been demolished but for labour Starmer is no Tony Blair
From the bit of what I saw, surprisingly Starmer confidently and comprehensively had the better of Johnson. Blair wouldn't have done any better.
British regulators have warned the country’s top banks that they must improve oversight of their trade finance businesses, after a spate of scandals that caused hundreds of millions in losses and allowed criminals to abuse the financial system.
An unusually blunt “dear CEO” letter, sent on Thursday by both the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, ordered recipients to conduct a full financial crime risk assessment of their processes to detect money laundering, sanctions evasion, terrorist financing and fraud among their clients.
“During the past 18 months there have been several high-profile failures of commodity and trade finance firms with significant financial loss,” the FCA and PRA said. “Assessments of individual firms have highlighted several significant issues relating to both credit risk analysis and financial crime controls.”
The regulators said they may ask to see the assessments and any follow-up action taken.
In recent years the commodity trading industry has been rocked by a series of scandals that have left lenders, including HSBC and Credit Suisse, with significant losses.
The incidents highlighted broader issues with trade finance — where banks provide credit to firms that buy and sell commodities around the world — such as aggressive lending practices and archaic paper-based systems that are vulnerable to abuse and forgery.
In April 2020, Hin Leong Trading, the oil trader owned by one of Singapore’s richest men, collapsed owing more than $3bn to 20 lenders. The founder admitted to hiding losses from trading in futures markets, selling off oil inventories that had been pledged as collateral for loans.
This time it's Greater Manchester Police, which seems to be in just as big a mess.
Note in particular the reference to the useless new IT system and to the fact that safeguarding reports logged in it are lost. That means that future Oldhams, future grooming scandals, future child abuse scandals, future ill-treatment of the vulnerable scandals are happening right now and not being properly noticed - let alone investigated - right now,
To me this feels like a much more serious issue than what has occupied this forum endlessly for days now.
No political upside in police failings. It causes a stink, people get angry, then they worry its wrong to get too angry at the police, someone says more money will fix everything, then it goes quiet again until next time.
And that's why useless incompetents like Cressida Dick get their contracts renewed.
Law and order is the most important and basic function of the state. If it can't or won't get that right, why trust it with anything else?
If you read the article, it is not money which is the issue but poor leadership and a defensive culture which considers its own reputation as the most important thing. In that respect, little has changed since the 1970's - as this documentary on iPlayer makes clear: Bent Coppers - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v4h6.
On taxation. Of course Labour thinks that wealth/the wealthy will need to be taxed more, much more, to achieve their aims in government. The tax burden on the low and average paid is enough, if not too much, as it is - where else will it come from but those with the "broadest shoulders"?
But Starmer knows full well that as soon as he says this openly, the Tories and their mates in the printed press will be joyful. Those of us who've been around a while could wheel out the headlines: Labour tax bombshell; your home at risk (as if); entrepreneurs, the brightest and the best, all relocating to wherever, Labour kills aspiration, Premier League football at risk from Labour's tax plans; and so on, You get the drift.
So, politically, he needs to keep it under wraps. In fact, some of the tax plans should not be revealed until/unless Labour wins power. Just like the Tories. Their tax hikes, their detailed Brexit plan, their cuts to overseas aid, weren't in their manifesto. All Starmer needs to do for now is what he's doing: say that in principle, those with the broadest shoulders should contribute more. Those looking for a detailed plan can whistle. He doesn't need one. He's smarter than some think - one step ahead. Why give the Tories and the tabloids what they want?
Tories have shifted the political landscape from left v right to retirees vs workers. Retirees know the Tories are on their side. Workers dont think either party is on their side. Labour need to change that and can do, but they need to demonstrate it. Taxes on wealth and reducing taxes on income should be their key policy imo.
A shellacking if it proves true. Even with the SPD chap playing the role of continuity Merkel apparently I bet they cannot believe their fortune.
Yes, I suspect the SPD wouldn't have fancied Soeder though he's far from invincible but Laschet has been the gift that has kept on giving.
The SPD are starting to roll the bandwagon through the north and east and squeezing out the Greens.
If the Union ends up around 20% of the vote, that'll be about 140-150 seats so a net loss of 100. The CSU will win 40 constituency seats in Bavaria and the CDU around 100 in the rest of Germany - mainly second votes with a sprinkling of constituencies.
Tories have shifted the political landscape from left v right to retirees vs workers. Retirees know the Tories are on their side. Workers dont think either party is on their side. Labour need to change that and can do, but they need to demonstrate it. Taxes on wealth and reducing taxes on income should be their key policy imo.
I agree. But it's important to put the horse before the cart. You don't start by saying "We want a wealth tax". You start by saying "We want to reduce the tax burden on people at work." How? Then you talk about wealth taxes. The mistake we often make on the left is to talk about a wealth tax as virtuous in itself, which reinforces the idea that Labour loves to tax you.
British regulators have warned the country’s top banks that they must improve oversight of their trade finance businesses, after a spate of scandals that caused hundreds of millions in losses and allowed criminals to abuse the financial system.
An unusually blunt “dear CEO” letter, sent on Thursday by both the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, ordered recipients to conduct a full financial crime risk assessment of their processes to detect money laundering, sanctions evasion, terrorist financing and fraud among their clients.
“During the past 18 months there have been several high-profile failures of commodity and trade finance firms with significant financial loss,” the FCA and PRA said. “Assessments of individual firms have highlighted several significant issues relating to both credit risk analysis and financial crime controls.”
The regulators said they may ask to see the assessments and any follow-up action taken.
In recent years the commodity trading industry has been rocked by a series of scandals that have left lenders, including HSBC and Credit Suisse, with significant losses.
The incidents highlighted broader issues with trade finance — where banks provide credit to firms that buy and sell commodities around the world — such as aggressive lending practices and archaic paper-based systems that are vulnerable to abuse and forgery.
In April 2020, Hin Leong Trading, the oil trader owned by one of Singapore’s richest men, collapsed owing more than $3bn to 20 lenders. The founder admitted to hiding losses from trading in futures markets, selling off oil inventories that had been pledged as collateral for loans.
TSE, would making directors criminally responsible for their institutions enabling financial crime achieve anything?
Is already the law of the land.
Where it gets messy, say UK bank helped a foreign company, that bank gives credit/finance etc based on reports from a reputable global auditor, a reputable legal firm, and a reputable bank in another country.
When all of those auditors, banks, and solicitors have been honest and something has gone horribly wrong (say Enron style) it's not really the UK bank's fault.
Tories have shifted the political landscape from left v right to retirees vs workers. Retirees know the Tories are on their side. Workers dont think either party is on their side. Labour need to change that and can do, but they need to demonstrate it. Taxes on wealth and reducing taxes on income should be their key policy imo.
I agree. But it's important to put the horse before the cart. You don't start by saying "We want a wealth tax". You start by saying "We want to reduce the tax burden on people at work." How? Then you talk about wealth taxes. The mistake we often make on the left is to talk about a wealth tax as virtuous in itself, which reinforces the idea that Labour loves to tax you.
Agreed and that is why I am surprised that they did not come out for a wealth tax this week.
It should have been:
"The Tory plan does not raise enough and is unfair on workers yet again, so we would have a wealth tax instead to raise enough money to actually fund social care now, without hitting most peoples hard work and jobs"
Instead we heard:
"We are against this proposal but not providing any better alternative ourselves."
British regulators have warned the country’s top banks that they must improve oversight of their trade finance businesses, after a spate of scandals that caused hundreds of millions in losses and allowed criminals to abuse the financial system.
An unusually blunt “dear CEO” letter, sent on Thursday by both the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, ordered recipients to conduct a full financial crime risk assessment of their processes to detect money laundering, sanctions evasion, terrorist financing and fraud among their clients.
“During the past 18 months there have been several high-profile failures of commodity and trade finance firms with significant financial loss,” the FCA and PRA said. “Assessments of individual firms have highlighted several significant issues relating to both credit risk analysis and financial crime controls.”
The regulators said they may ask to see the assessments and any follow-up action taken.
In recent years the commodity trading industry has been rocked by a series of scandals that have left lenders, including HSBC and Credit Suisse, with significant losses.
The incidents highlighted broader issues with trade finance — where banks provide credit to firms that buy and sell commodities around the world — such as aggressive lending practices and archaic paper-based systems that are vulnerable to abuse and forgery.
In April 2020, Hin Leong Trading, the oil trader owned by one of Singapore’s richest men, collapsed owing more than $3bn to 20 lenders. The founder admitted to hiding losses from trading in futures markets, selling off oil inventories that had been pledged as collateral for loans.
TSE, would making directors criminally responsible for their institutions enabling financial crime achieve anything?
Is already the law of the land.
Where it gets messy, say UK bank helped a foreign company, that bank gives credit/finance etc based on reports from a reputable global auditor, a reputable legal firm, and a reputable bank in another country.
When all of those auditors, banks, and solicitors have been honest and something has gone horribly wrong (say Enron style) it's not really the UK bank's fault.
Although HSBC deserve everything they get.
Could it be said that sometimes financiers are willing to take figures on trust from foreign companies when perhaps they should be looking a little deeper?
I dislike vaccine passports, but understand the public health rationale in societies where covid vaccine uptake is low. Though, given Scotland's successful rollout (~85% in ≥16s; ~100% in ≥60s), I can't see how their cost-benefit balance may be positive.
Just saw Starmer's "Rosie" speech in the HoC from yesterday. £1000 a year reduced UC plus the NI increase to a working mum. Starmer was actually very good and he played the Tory laughter very well.
Fortunately for Johnson nothing to interest the BBC. They are fully focused on the tax rise that is necessary to fully fund the NHS and social care for once and for all.
And the point I made earlier, if that had been a young Tony Blair Boris would have been demolished but for labour Starmer is no Tony Blair
From the bit of what I saw, surprisingly Starmer confidently and comprehensively had the better of Johnson. Blair wouldn't have done any better.
Some significant COP26 news: President Biden is coming to Glasgow. A big relief for the PM, who invited him months ago. A needy shot in the arm for the summit too, which is in trouble after talks for a deal with China + others stalled.
Because having dozens of jets turn up at a climate change summit, is giving exactly the right message about how we all need to change our behaviours.
If the last 18 months has shown the world anyting, it’s that the vast majority of meetings can be done remotely when the chips are down.
Is this actually THE BIG F***ING EMERGENCY they want us to believe it is?
I’m still amazed that Cisco didn’t offer $10m to sponsor doing the whole thing on WebEx.
I don't really get this objection. It is such a completely irrelevant percentage of the impact of planes on climate change.
If they can do even 0.01% better in person than they can remotely it will have a positive pay off.
It’s the optics.
“We” are flying a hundred private planes to the summmit in Glasgow, so that “we” can have our conference, the output of which is that “we” expect “you” to do less flying, to buy expensive electric cars, pay extra taxes, and attend fewer conferences - while “we” appear totally exempt from what “we” impose on “you”.
Fuck optics. Either you are a software construct (or a sociopath), or you realise that face to face outweighs zoom to an extent that the private jets pay for themselves.
Yeah I’m in IT.
If there’s a MASSIVE CLIMATE EMERGENCY, then no, the private jets don’t pay for themselves, they’re the most selfish possible use of the scarce resources left on this planet.
Flying is about 2% of carbon emissions. Most of that is leisure, not business.
If they can all jet in and do something about coal burning in China then it will be well worth the flights.
That activity X involves only Y% of global carbon emissions is not an argument for anything. You may as well say that as the UK is only 1.1% that it need do nothing but imitate the owners of private jets and carry on regardless.
Also, the use of private jets by elites says to everyone else that opinion formers and exemplars for young impressionable people do not believe a single word of their own rhetoric.
On taxation. Of course Labour thinks that wealth/the wealthy will need to be taxed more, much more, to achieve their aims in government. The tax burden on the low and average paid is enough, if not too much, as it is - where else will it come from but those with the "broadest shoulders"?
But Starmer knows full well that as soon as he says this openly, the Tories and their mates in the printed press will be joyful. Those of us who've been around a while could wheel out the headlines: Labour tax bombshell; your home at risk (as if); entrepreneurs, the brightest and the best, all relocating to wherever; Labour kills aspiration; Premier League football at risk from Labour's tax plans; and so on. You get the drift.
So, politically, he needs to keep it under wraps. In fact, some of the tax plans should not be revealed until/unless Labour wins power. Just like the Tories. Their tax hikes, their detailed Brexit plan, their cuts to overseas aid, weren't in their manifesto. All Starmer needs to do for now is what he's doing: say that in principle, those with the broadest shoulders should contribute more. Those looking for a detailed plan can whistle. He doesn't need one. He's smarter than some think - one step ahead. Why give the Tories and the tabloids what they want?
The problem is that he has a wishy washy, indecisive image - people frequently say they don’t know what he stands for. To combat that, he has proposed to outline his vision ‘in primary colours’, which doesn’t really fit with someone refusing to answer what he would do differently
Tories have shifted the political landscape from left v right to retirees vs workers. Retirees know the Tories are on their side. Workers dont think either party is on their side. Labour need to change that and can do, but they need to demonstrate it. Taxes on wealth and reducing taxes on income should be their key policy imo.
I agree. But it's important to put the horse before the cart. You don't start by saying "We want a wealth tax". You start by saying "We want to reduce the tax burden on people at work." How? Then you talk about wealth taxes. The mistake we often make on the left is to talk about a wealth tax as virtuous in itself, which reinforces the idea that Labour loves to tax you.
I agree, but think Labour can afford to be a bit braver as we enter post-Covid times. Back in the 1980s. the "greed is good" mantra was largely unchallenged.
But now, the level of corporate, and individual, greed is so vast that I think challenging it could be popular. The grotesque differences in income between the average and the top 1-5% are stupendously large, with people (including PL footballers) earning salaries that are just ridiculous. Similarly, the greed that some of the most wealthy corporations exhibit - paying their workers a pittance while directors and shareholders are lining their pockets - should be challenged. Of course we'll get the "you'll just drive investment abroad" mantra. But if Britain really wants to be great for business, Labour should he arguing for less grotesque differentials of income and wealth. For a more equitable and happy form of capitalism, if you like.
Tories have shifted the political landscape from left v right to retirees vs workers. Retirees know the Tories are on their side. Workers dont think either party is on their side. Labour need to change that and can do, but they need to demonstrate it. Taxes on wealth and reducing taxes on income should be their key policy imo.
I agree. But it's important to put the horse before the cart. You don't start by saying "We want a wealth tax". You start by saying "We want to reduce the tax burden on people at work." How? Then you talk about wealth taxes. The mistake we often make on the left is to talk about a wealth tax as virtuous in itself, which reinforces the idea that Labour loves to tax you.
Agreed and that is why I am surprised that they did not come out for a wealth tax this week.
It should have been:
"The Tory plan does not raise enough and is unfair on workers yet again, so we would have a wealth tax instead to raise enough money to actually fund social care now, without hitting most peoples hard work and jobs"
Instead we heard:
"We are against this proposal but not providing any better alternative ourselves."
Ipsos Mori polling on a wealth tax.
69% oppose a tax on pensions, 58% oppose a tax on the main home minus mortgage, 64% oppose a tax on savings.
However voters support a tax on financial investment by 43% to 29% and 59% support a tax on all net property minus the main home
Some significant COP26 news: President Biden is coming to Glasgow. A big relief for the PM, who invited him months ago. A needy shot in the arm for the summit too, which is in trouble after talks for a deal with China + others stalled.
Because having dozens of jets turn up at a climate change summit, is giving exactly the right message about how we all need to change our behaviours.
If the last 18 months has shown the world anyting, it’s that the vast majority of meetings can be done remotely when the chips are down.
Is this actually THE BIG F***ING EMERGENCY they want us to believe it is?
I’m still amazed that Cisco didn’t offer $10m to sponsor doing the whole thing on WebEx.
I don't really get this objection. It is such a completely irrelevant percentage of the impact of planes on climate change.
If they can do even 0.01% better in person than they can remotely it will have a positive pay off.
It’s the optics.
“We” are flying a hundred private planes to the summmit in Glasgow, so that “we” can have our conference, the output of which is that “we” expect “you” to do less flying, to buy expensive electric cars, pay extra taxes, and attend fewer conferences - while “we” appear totally exempt from what “we” impose on “you”.
Fuck optics. Either you are a software construct (or a sociopath), or you realise that face to face outweighs zoom to an extent that the private jets pay for themselves.
Yeah I’m in IT.
If there’s a MASSIVE CLIMATE EMERGENCY, then no, the private jets don’t pay for themselves, they’re the most selfish possible use of the scarce resources left on this planet.
Flying is about 2% of carbon emissions. Most of that is leisure, not business.
If they can all jet in and do something about coal burning in China then it will be well worth the flights.
That activity X involves only Y% of global carbon emissions is not an argument for anything. You may as well say that as the UK is only 1.1% that it need do nothing but imitate the owners of private jets and carry on regardless.
Also, the use of private jets by elites says to everyone else that opinion formers and exemplars for young impressionable people do not believe a single word of their own rhetoric.
You realise I presume that the whole 'private jet' thing is a lump-mine?
It is of course true, but the actual degree of it's menace is small.
J K Rowling is trending on twitter....i presume its the now seemingly monthly pile on due to her saying something vaguely controversial at some point some where.
She gets more abuse on twitter than you average premier league footballer.
British regulators have warned the country’s top banks that they must improve oversight of their trade finance businesses, after a spate of scandals that caused hundreds of millions in losses and allowed criminals to abuse the financial system.
An unusually blunt “dear CEO” letter, sent on Thursday by both the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, ordered recipients to conduct a full financial crime risk assessment of their processes to detect money laundering, sanctions evasion, terrorist financing and fraud among their clients.
“During the past 18 months there have been several high-profile failures of commodity and trade finance firms with significant financial loss,” the FCA and PRA said. “Assessments of individual firms have highlighted several significant issues relating to both credit risk analysis and financial crime controls.”
The regulators said they may ask to see the assessments and any follow-up action taken.
In recent years the commodity trading industry has been rocked by a series of scandals that have left lenders, including HSBC and Credit Suisse, with significant losses.
The incidents highlighted broader issues with trade finance — where banks provide credit to firms that buy and sell commodities around the world — such as aggressive lending practices and archaic paper-based systems that are vulnerable to abuse and forgery.
In April 2020, Hin Leong Trading, the oil trader owned by one of Singapore’s richest men, collapsed owing more than $3bn to 20 lenders. The founder admitted to hiding losses from trading in futures markets, selling off oil inventories that had been pledged as collateral for loans.
TSE, would making directors criminally responsible for their institutions enabling financial crime achieve anything?
Is already the law of the land.
Where it gets messy, say UK bank helped a foreign company, that bank gives credit/finance etc based on reports from a reputable global auditor, a reputable legal firm, and a reputable bank in another country.
When all of those auditors, banks, and solicitors have been honest and something has gone horribly wrong (say Enron style) it's not really the UK bank's fault.
Although HSBC deserve everything they get.
Could it be said that sometimes financiers are willing to take figures on trust from foreign companies when perhaps they should be looking a little deeper?
Ask yourself why a lot of very educated people decided to do business with a fund run by someone who had committed insider dealing?
Full disclosure: I was involved in the original SEC/HKMA investigation which resulted in the insider dealing finding. I wonder whether anyone at my old shop (yes, they lost money too) bothered to look at the files or the database where all this was recorded before making the decision to do business with him again .......
J K Rowling is trending on twitter....i presume its the now monthly pile on due to her saying something vaguely controversial at some point some where.
No
An awful lot of people QTing this apology determined to find out if there is indeed safety in numbers. Well, chaps, there might be for most of you. But the weak ones at the back of the flock are going to be picked off one by one... https://twitter.com/no1guncle/status/1435952913638215684
J K Rowling is trending on twitter....i presume its the now monthly pile on due to her saying something vaguely controversial at some point some where.
Nope, someone said some bad things about her in July and m'learned friends have been on the case.
On 16th July I posted a tweet of JK Rowling saying “I ignore porn tweeted at children”. This was entirely misleading as I took her words out of context. I was wrong to make this defamatory and untrue allegation and apologise to JK Rowling.
Tories have shifted the political landscape from left v right to retirees vs workers. Retirees know the Tories are on their side. Workers dont think either party is on their side. Labour need to change that and can do, but they need to demonstrate it. Taxes on wealth and reducing taxes on income should be their key policy imo.
I agree. But it's important to put the horse before the cart. You don't start by saying "We want a wealth tax". You start by saying "We want to reduce the tax burden on people at work." How? Then you talk about wealth taxes. The mistake we often make on the left is to talk about a wealth tax as virtuous in itself, which reinforces the idea that Labour loves to tax you.
I agree, but think Labour can afford to be a bit braver as we enter post-Covid times. Back in the 1980s. the "greed is good" mantra was largely unchallenged.
But now, the level of corporate, and individual, greed is so vast that I think challenging it could be popular. The grotesque differences in income between the average and the top 1-5% are stupendously large, with people (including PL footballers) earning salaries that are just ridiculous. Similarly, the greed that some of the most wealthy corporations exhibit - paying their workers a pittance while directors and shareholders are lining their pockets - should be challenged. Of course we'll get the "you'll just drive investment abroad" mantra. But if Britain really wants to be great for business, Labour should he arguing for less grotesque differentials of income and wealth. For a more equitable and happy form of capitalism, if you like.
I think I completely agree - I find it hard to see how someone can think all that and also think FOM was a good thing though. It was a magnificent enabler of the basic principle you are criticising
J K Rowling is trending on twitter....i presume its the now seemingly monthly pile on due to her saying something vaguely controversial at some point some where.
She gets more abuse on twitter than you average premier league footballer.
No. It's because someone who wrote a libellous tweet about her has had to retract it and apologise.
J K Rowling is trending on twitter....i presume its the now monthly pile on due to her saying something vaguely controversial at some point some where.
No
An awful lot of people QTing this apology determined to find out if there is indeed safety in numbers. Well, chaps, there might be for most of you. But the weak ones at the back of the flock are going to be picked off one by one... https://twitter.com/no1guncle/status/1435952913638215684
It has started the pile on ....latest tweet . .
"On the 10th September 2021 I will call JK Rowling a fucking transphobic howler monkey with the talent of a syphilitic horse and the decency of Savile on a hospital ward. I reserve any apology in advance of this statement."
J K Rowling is trending on twitter....i presume its the now monthly pile on due to her saying something vaguely controversial at some point some where.
No
An awful lot of people QTing this apology determined to find out if there is indeed safety in numbers. Well, chaps, there might be for most of you. But the weak ones at the back of the flock are going to be picked off one by one... https://twitter.com/no1guncle/status/1435952913638215684
It has started the pile on ....latest tweet . .
"On the 10th September 2021 I will call JK Rowling a fucking transphobic howler monkey with the talent of a syphilitic horse and the decency of Savile on a hospital ward. I reserve any apology in advance of this statement."
On taxation. Of course Labour thinks that wealth/the wealthy will need to be taxed more, much more, to achieve their aims in government. The tax burden on the low and average paid is enough, if not too much, as it is - where else will it come from but those with the "broadest shoulders"?
But Starmer knows full well that as soon as he says this openly, the Tories and their mates in the printed press will be joyful. Those of us who've been around a while could wheel out the headlines: Labour tax bombshell; your home at risk (as if); entrepreneurs, the brightest and the best, all relocating to wherever; Labour kills aspiration; Premier League football at risk from Labour's tax plans; and so on. You get the drift.
So, politically, he needs to keep it under wraps. In fact, some of the tax plans should not be revealed until/unless Labour wins power. Just like the Tories. Their tax hikes, their detailed Brexit plan, their cuts to overseas aid, weren't in their manifesto. All Starmer needs to do for now is what he's doing: say that in principle, those with the broadest shoulders should contribute more. Those looking for a detailed plan can whistle. He doesn't need one. He's smarter than some think - one step ahead. Why give the Tories and the tabloids what they want?
The problem is that he has a wishy washy, indecisive image - people frequently say they don’t know what he stands for. To combat that, he has proposed to outline his vision ‘in primary colours’, which doesn’t really fit with someone refusing to answer what he would do differently
I don't disagree. But I would argue that he could set out a vision in 'primary colours' without going into precise detail. Blair, Clinton and Obama set out 'visions' that generally included little detail, for example (I'm not arguing Starmer is charismatic like them). In fact, the 'vision' thing - what the future of the country should be - can get completely lost if there's too much (lawyerly) detail.
Tories have shifted the political landscape from left v right to retirees vs workers. Retirees know the Tories are on their side. Workers dont think either party is on their side. Labour need to change that and can do, but they need to demonstrate it. Taxes on wealth and reducing taxes on income should be their key policy imo.
I agree. But it's important to put the horse before the cart. You don't start by saying "We want a wealth tax". You start by saying "We want to reduce the tax burden on people at work." How? Then you talk about wealth taxes. The mistake we often make on the left is to talk about a wealth tax as virtuous in itself, which reinforces the idea that Labour loves to tax you.
Agreed and that is why I am surprised that they did not come out for a wealth tax this week.
It should have been:
"The Tory plan does not raise enough and is unfair on workers yet again, so we would have a wealth tax instead to raise enough money to actually fund social care now, without hitting most peoples hard work and jobs"
Instead we heard:
"We are against this proposal but not providing any better alternative ourselves."
Ipsos Mori polling on a wealth tax.
69% oppose a tax on pensions, 58% oppose a tax on the main home minus mortgage, 64% oppose a tax on savings.
However voters support a tax on financial investment by 43% to 29% and 59% support a tax on all net property minus the main home
Tories have shifted the political landscape from left v right to retirees vs workers. Retirees know the Tories are on their side. Workers dont think either party is on their side. Labour need to change that and can do, but they need to demonstrate it. Taxes on wealth and reducing taxes on income should be their key policy imo.
I agree. But it's important to put the horse before the cart. You don't start by saying "We want a wealth tax". You start by saying "We want to reduce the tax burden on people at work." How? Then you talk about wealth taxes. The mistake we often make on the left is to talk about a wealth tax as virtuous in itself, which reinforces the idea that Labour loves to tax you.
I agree, but think Labour can afford to be a bit braver as we enter post-Covid times. Back in the 1980s. the "greed is good" mantra was largely unchallenged.
But now, the level of corporate, and individual, greed is so vast that I think challenging it could be popular. The grotesque differences in income between the average and the top 1-5% are stupendously large, with people (including PL footballers) earning salaries that are just ridiculous. Similarly, the greed that some of the most wealthy corporations exhibit - paying their workers a pittance while directors and shareholders are lining their pockets - should be challenged. Of course we'll get the "you'll just drive investment abroad" mantra. But if Britain really wants to be great for business, Labour should he arguing for less grotesque differentials of income and wealth. For a more equitable and happy form of capitalism, if you like.
I think I completely agree - I find it hard to see how someone can think all that and also think FOM was a good thing though. It was a magnificent enabler of the basic principle you are criticising
Well, we'll have to disagree on that - but pleased you agree with the general argument. From my point of view, FOM could have been managed much better, and we didn't use the constraints available to us to limit the numbers. But more importantly, my point about greed extends to FOM as well: it's greed that led employers to use FOM to undercut wages for workers from Europe, nothing else. That culture of greed and exploitation is the problem, not the workers from Eastern Europe. If those jobs had been well paid, they'd have been filled within this country regardless of FOM, and the numbers coming here would have been much smaller. All about corporate profit, not FOM.
Some significant COP26 news: President Biden is coming to Glasgow. A big relief for the PM, who invited him months ago. A needy shot in the arm for the summit too, which is in trouble after talks for a deal with China + others stalled.
Because having dozens of jets turn up at a climate change summit, is giving exactly the right message about how we all need to change our behaviours.
If the last 18 months has shown the world anyting, it’s that the vast majority of meetings can be done remotely when the chips are down.
Is this actually THE BIG F***ING EMERGENCY they want us to believe it is?
I’m still amazed that Cisco didn’t offer $10m to sponsor doing the whole thing on WebEx.
I don't really get this objection. It is such a completely irrelevant percentage of the impact of planes on climate change.
If they can do even 0.01% better in person than they can remotely it will have a positive pay off.
It’s the optics.
“We” are flying a hundred private planes to the summmit in Glasgow, so that “we” can have our conference, the output of which is that “we” expect “you” to do less flying, to buy expensive electric cars, pay extra taxes, and attend fewer conferences - while “we” appear totally exempt from what “we” impose on “you”.
Fuck optics. Either you are a software construct (or a sociopath), or you realise that face to face outweighs zoom to an extent that the private jets pay for themselves.
Yeah I’m in IT.
If there’s a MASSIVE CLIMATE EMERGENCY, then no, the private jets don’t pay for themselves, they’re the most selfish possible use of the scarce resources left on this planet.
Flying is about 2% of carbon emissions. Most of that is leisure, not business.
If they can all jet in and do something about coal burning in China then it will be well worth the flights.
That activity X involves only Y% of global carbon emissions is not an argument for anything. You may as well say that as the UK is only 1.1% that it need do nothing but imitate the owners of private jets and carry on regardless.
Also, the use of private jets by elites says to everyone else that opinion formers and exemplars for young impressionable people do not believe a single word of their own rhetoric.
I agree. Buying beach properties when sea level rises are going to drown every coastal city is another example. If decision makers and green advocate billionaires really believed in the rhetoric they parrot they would have plan B (big nuclear power build), plan X (Dutch style dykes around London) etc. ready to roll. Its almost as though they know they are promoting exaggerated threats for political expediency or because they think that over egging the pudding is justified to get popular acquiescence.
J K Rowling is trending on twitter....i presume its the now monthly pile on due to her saying something vaguely controversial at some point some where.
No
An awful lot of people QTing this apology determined to find out if there is indeed safety in numbers. Well, chaps, there might be for most of you. But the weak ones at the back of the flock are going to be picked off one by one... https://twitter.com/no1guncle/status/1435952913638215684
It has started the pile on ....latest tweet . .
"On the 10th September 2021 I will call JK Rowling a fucking transphobic howler monkey with the talent of a syphilitic horse and the decency of Savile on a hospital ward. I reserve any apology in advance of this statement."
Comments
It will dominate this autumn's politics frankly unless covid explodes again into another lockdown.
Property, art, classic cars, all gone totally insane in the last couple of years.
🤷🏻♀️
I know...
If you round it up to the nearest 10%, it's basically a zero percent rise.
And that's as good as a tax decrease.
I've been told if I repeat this 500 times I get an "H"
I think Lucerne is right on the culinary border between shit Germanic food, and great Italian food, and complex could-go-either-way French food
I am relieved to report that the hare is delicious. Slow roast leg on the bone. Tender and succulent
Real votes in real elections soon in Norway and the latest Norstat poll as follows:
Changes from 2017 Storting election:
Labour: 24.6% (-2.8)
Conservative: 18.8% (-6.2)
Progress Party: 11.9% (-3.3)
Centre Party: 11.6% (+1.3)
Socialist Left: 9.0% (+3.0)
Liberal: 5.8% (+1.4)
Greens: 4.9% (+1.7)
Red Party: 4.6% (+2.2)
Christian People's Party: 3.9% (-0.3)
That's a swing of 1.7% from Conservative to Labour. In terms of the coalition blocs, the centre-left "Red" bloc of parties has 49.8% and the centre-right bloc 40.4% so the gap has closed a fraction and isn't as great as the Respons poll this morning suggested but it's still a swing of more than 5% from Government to Opposition and at this point a Labour-lead coalition looks the more likely outcome.
I'm not averse to a salad, but when on tour I think it's vital that the see us eating the feasts of warriors.
When at home we can of course indulge ourselves in lemon twists.
We will add the ‘Y?FU!’
Sounds like something Withnail would be able to rustle up from the spares cupboard to be honest.
Met a couple of colleagues for the first time and others for the first time in 18 months.
Then our boss got the beers in.
Best day at work since March 2020.
On topic, the Conservative Party is there to take care of the wealthy. Nothing else. They create sufficient false consciousness to win elections and then shaft the useful idiots who vote for them. Sadly, some PBers fall into that category.
Doable, but difficult.
What would happen to the employees rich people who's wealth is in a single (say) chain of shops, or manufacturing business, if they required to give 5% or more to the Govt a short period?
And perhaps a £250k contribution to the policing costs caused, and the extra crime that happened because all those police were diverted from normal police work.
Are at least the first of these costs able to be awarded, plus those imposed on JP Morgan, under current law?
One of the holiday properties she rents out in Derbyshire is called Knob End, in Knob Lane - which seems appropriate.
Average price per ape: $241,515.
TWO MONTHS AGO, the average price of Bored Ape on Opensea was $3,600. https://t.co/gejv2bEm8T
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1435967697913880580?s=19
https://twitter.com/abc7leanne/status/1435819170944274434
https://twitter.com/jenwilliamsmen/status/1436029384390029320?s=21
This time it's Greater Manchester Police, which seems to be in just as big a mess.
Note in particular the reference to the useless new IT system and to the fact that safeguarding reports logged in it are lost. That means that future Oldhams, future grooming scandals, future child abuse scandals, future ill-treatment of the vulnerable scandals are happening right now and not being properly noticed - let alone investigated - right now,
To me this feels like a much more serious issue than what has occupied this forum endlessly for days now.
In Bavaria, Infratest Dimap have the CSU on 28% (-11 from 2017) but the loss is being spread round so the Greens are up six, the SPD are up three and the Free Voters are up four. How this will translate in constituency terms isn't clear - to be fair, the CSU have huge majorities in rural Bavaria but may be in real trouble in Munich and Nuremburg and might lose one or two suburban seats to the Greens.
In Mecklenbutg-Vorpommern, Infratest has the following:
Changes from 2017 election (constituency vote):
Social Democrats: 31% (+16)
Alternative for Germany: 18% (-1)
CDU: 16% (-17)
LINKE: 11% (-7)
Free Democrats: 9% (+3)
Greens: 8% (+4)
That's a devastating 16.5% swing from the CDU to the SPD - there are just six constituency seats in the region. The CDU won them all last time - on the above figures, they will lose all bar Griefswald.
The regional poll numbers for the same day look even worse for the CDU by the way.
We also have Rhineland-Palatinate. Last time, the CDU won this region by 12 points. The current figures are:
SPD: 30% (+6)
CDU: 23% (-13)
Greens: 13% (+5.5)
FDP: 11% (+0.5)
Alternative for Germany: 10% (-1)
Linke: 4% (-3)
Free Voters: 4% (+2.5)
The region has 15 constituencies - in 2017, the CDU won 14. On a 9.5% swing the SPD will win 14 leaving the CDU with the stronghold of Bitburg.
It's looking like a complete disaster for the Union - the SPD is running riot in northern and eastern Germany with the CDU/CSU being pushed back to a few strongholds in the south and west. They could end up losing over 100 seats and could be down 130 on worst case scenario.
Taxes discourage the activities they tax, at the margins. Income-related tax discourages work; wealth taxes discourage wealth creation. The question is whether that particular tax in the form it is implemented discourages that particular activity to the extent it becomes counterproductive and you are better shifting the burden to something else.
The report linked earlier explores various options thoroughly.
Where foreign individuals and what markets companies decide to invest when there are lots of global options and it is trivial to do so in any of them, there is low to no friction to doing so.
Adding a load of red tape, where tax money is withheld by the asset manager and then individuals have to claim it back is just going to have big investors move where they want to put their money.
If Brexit was a pain in the ass enough in terms of EU financial services, adding this massive extra layer would be terrible.
Mastercard has agreed to acquire blockchain analytics start-up CipherTrace, in the latest sign of how major companies are warming to cryptocurrencies.
The payments giant said Thursday it entered into an agreement to buy CipherTrace for an undisclosed amount. Based in Menlo Park, California, CipherTrace develops tools that help businesses and law enforcement root out illicit digital currency transactions. The company’s competitors include New York-based Chainalysis and London start-up Elliptic.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/09/mastercard-to-buy-blockchain-analytics-start-up-ciphertrace.html
They smell like victory.
British regulators have warned the country’s top banks that they must improve oversight of their trade finance businesses, after a spate of scandals that caused hundreds of millions in losses and allowed criminals to abuse the financial system.
An unusually blunt “dear CEO” letter, sent on Thursday by both the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, ordered recipients to conduct a full financial crime risk assessment of their processes to detect money laundering, sanctions evasion, terrorist financing and fraud among their clients.
“During the past 18 months there have been several high-profile failures of commodity and trade finance firms with significant financial loss,” the FCA and PRA said. “Assessments of individual firms have highlighted several significant issues relating to both credit risk analysis and financial crime controls.”
The regulators said they may ask to see the assessments and any follow-up action taken.
In recent years the commodity trading industry has been rocked by a series of scandals that have left lenders, including HSBC and Credit Suisse, with significant losses.
The incidents highlighted broader issues with trade finance — where banks provide credit to firms that buy and sell commodities around the world — such as aggressive lending practices and archaic paper-based systems that are vulnerable to abuse and forgery.
In April 2020, Hin Leong Trading, the oil trader owned by one of Singapore’s richest men, collapsed owing more than $3bn to 20 lenders. The founder admitted to hiding losses from trading in futures markets, selling off oil inventories that had been pledged as collateral for loans.
https://www.ft.com/content/6a08659d-623f-49ad-abb5-057b7defc152
The elite probably earn over 5% pa on their assets. So if we are taxing an additional 1% pa wealth tax, it is only 20% of the expected unearned increase in their wealth each year. The gap between their wealth and ours will still expand at a pretty quick rate in their favour, just slightly dampened.
Thatcher reduced direct taxes but increased indirect taxes - despite the latter being regressive. She encouraged people to set up businesses and gave them tax advantages for doing so. She encouraged house ownership and high prices for those houses. It was a Tory government which tripled university fees. The current council tax bands which do not take account of high house prices were set by a Tory government. It was a Tory government which introduced the triple lock. All of these Tory policies over the years have resulted in the situation we are now in where a small group holds a lot of wealth and is somewhat shielded from the costs which others are now having to pay.
I deplore this. It is hugely unfair - especially on the working poor and the young. But I have not been a Tory supporter nor have I been cheering on Tory governments.
I do not mean to get at you. But this government rewarding its supporters and stuffing those who don't vote for it has been a constant of Tory governments for most of my life. Watching former Tory supporters seeing the penny drop when they realise that these policies have consequences for them too has been .... well .... quite the spectacle. And comes a day after Sturgeon shouted in Holyrood "shame on you" when Murdo Fraser pointed out that he had spoken to some of the women protesters with concerns about the Bill. That's right: Nicola "I'm a feminist to my fingertips" thinks it shameful to speak to women protesters to hear their concerns.
She's the one who should be feeling ashamed.
I am not very left wing on this, and I will tell you why. I have worked my nuts off and lived a frugal lifestyle to achieve what I have. I would like to have blown it all on booze, woman and fast cars like George Best, but I did not. George chose to party like it was 1999, I have chosen to look after my children post my passing. Also, having paid my taxes first time round, why should I pay them again on my death to fund the self- inflicted liver damaged social care costs of the George Bests of this world.
We should be chasing Amazon and their ilk,, we should be closing offshore loopholes. We should be taxing unearned incomes, hedge funds, non-inherited (to an extent) windfalls, and revisit charitable status scams. It seems to me there is an awful lot that could be done before we look at inheritance tax and/ or NI.
On the other hand we could also be less profligate as a nation with NHS PPE contracts, Royal yachts, Garden Bridges, aircraft paintjobs. and Liverpool council vanity projects.
Broadly on topic, the more I think about the social care "solution", the less of a solution it is.
My turn to think more radically tonight - if we aren't going down the route of Land Value Taxation, the fact remains property and the asset of property is one area you could and perhaps should be looking at.
The current Council Tax valuations are from 1991 when house prices were low. The top band was for all houses over £320,000 in value which is laughable.
It's time for some proper serious revaluations with more condensed bands (£100k between bands) at the lower end and more bands at the top end of house values (£500k and higher) with perhaps bands every £500k up to £5 million for example.
Funding local Government is one of those things to which there is of course no right answer and plenty of wrong ones (apparently). That's probably why no one with any sense (yours truly excluded) goes there.
The U.S. Supreme Court last week let stand the Texas law banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many woman realize they are pregnant. The decision represented a major victory for social conservatives who have been trying to ban the procedure since the court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision established the constitutional right to abortion.
President Joe Biden has warned the law would cause "unconstitutional chaos" because it relies on private citizens to enforce it by filing civil lawsuits against people who help a woman obtain an abortion after six weeks, whether it be a doctor who performs the procedure or a cabbie who drives a woman to a clinic.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-justice-dept-announce-civil-rights-case-after-texas-abortion-ban-takes-effect-2021-09-09/
But Starmer knows full well that as soon as he says this openly, the Tories and their mates in the printed press will be joyful. Those of us who've been around a while could wheel out the headlines: Labour tax bombshell; your home at risk (as if); entrepreneurs, the brightest and the best, all relocating to wherever; Labour kills aspiration; Premier League football at risk from Labour's tax plans; and so on. You get the drift.
So, politically, he needs to keep it under wraps. In fact, some of the tax plans should not be revealed until/unless Labour wins power. Just like the Tories. Their tax hikes, their detailed Brexit plan, their cuts to overseas aid, weren't in their manifesto. All Starmer needs to do for now is what he's doing: say that in principle, those with the broadest shoulders should contribute more. Those looking for a detailed plan can whistle. He doesn't need one. He's smarter than some think - one step ahead. Why give the Tories and the tabloids what they want?
Law and order is the most important and basic function of the state. If it can't or won't get that right, why trust it with anything else?
If you read the article, it is not money which is the issue but poor leadership and a defensive culture which considers its own reputation as the most important thing. In that respect, little has changed since the 1970's - as this documentary on iPlayer makes clear: Bent Coppers - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v4h6.
The SPD are starting to roll the bandwagon through the north and east and squeezing out the Greens.
If the Union ends up around 20% of the vote, that'll be about 140-150 seats so a net loss of 100. The CSU will win 40 constituency seats in Bavaria and the CDU around 100 in the rest of Germany - mainly second votes with a sprinkling of constituencies.
Where it gets messy, say UK bank helped a foreign company, that bank gives credit/finance etc based on reports from a reputable global auditor, a reputable legal firm, and a reputable bank in another country.
When all of those auditors, banks, and solicitors have been honest and something has gone horribly wrong (say Enron style) it's not really the UK bank's fault.
Although HSBC deserve everything they get.
It should have been:
"The Tory plan does not raise enough and is unfair on workers yet again, so we would have a wealth tax instead to raise enough money to actually fund social care now, without hitting most peoples hard work and jobs"
Instead we heard:
"We are against this proposal but not providing any better alternative ourselves."
https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1436022170749214725?s=20
Also, the use of private jets by elites says to everyone else that opinion formers and exemplars for young impressionable people do not believe a single word of their own rhetoric.
But now, the level of corporate, and individual, greed is so vast that I think challenging it could be popular. The grotesque differences in income between the average and the top 1-5% are stupendously large, with people (including PL footballers) earning salaries that are just ridiculous. Similarly, the greed that some of the most wealthy corporations exhibit - paying their workers a pittance while directors and shareholders are lining their pockets - should be challenged. Of course we'll get the "you'll just drive investment abroad" mantra. But if Britain really wants to be great for business, Labour should he arguing for less grotesque differentials of income and wealth. For a more equitable and happy form of capitalism, if you like.
69% oppose a tax on pensions, 58% oppose a tax on the main home minus mortgage, 64% oppose a tax on savings.
However voters support a tax on financial investment by 43% to 29% and 59% support a tax on all net property minus the main home
https://twitter.com/APHanrahan/status/1436032157001166850?s=20
It is of course true, but the actual degree of it's menace is small.
She gets more abuse on twitter than you average premier league footballer.
Or this - https://barry-walsh.co.uk/for-want-of-a-nail/
Ask yourself why a lot of very educated people decided to do business with a fund run by someone who had committed insider dealing?
Full disclosure: I was involved in the original SEC/HKMA investigation which resulted in the insider dealing finding. I wonder whether anyone at my old shop (yes, they lost money too) bothered to look at the files or the database where all this was recorded before making the decision to do business with him again .......
An awful lot of people QTing this apology determined to find out if there is indeed safety in numbers. Well, chaps, there might be for most of you. But the weak ones at the back of the flock are going to be picked off one by one...
https://twitter.com/no1guncle/status/1435952913638215684
On 16th July I posted a tweet of JK Rowling saying “I ignore porn tweeted at children”. This was entirely misleading as I took her words out of context. I was wrong to make this defamatory and untrue allegation and apologise to JK Rowling.
https://twitter.com/no1guncle/status/1435952913638215684
"On the 10th September 2021 I will call JK Rowling a fucking transphobic howler monkey with the talent of a syphilitic horse and the decency of Savile on a hospital ward. I reserve any apology in advance of this statement."
https://twitter.com/Easy_As_He_Him/status/1436057973328171009?s=19
Absolutely disgraceful the abuse she gets on social media.
https://twitter.com/Locopells/status/1436054168935018501/photo/1
"Anybody else but me"
The Queen and the royal family are supporters of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, one of Her Majesty’s representatives has said.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/queen-black-lives-matter-london-buckingham-palace-archie-b954590.html
Who knew?
2.49 + 2.49 = 5 (well 4.98, but that's rounded up to 5.)
But rounded down that's 2+2 = 5.