politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Lucian Fletcher on the implications of the dramatic events in

LOL

https://order-order.com/2017/01/10/labours-new-immigration-policy/

ReggieCide said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

AlastairMeeks said:

This is next level incompetence from Jeremy Corbyn. If he were really adopting Trumpian tactics he would have junked his relaunch and spent the day tweeting and ranting about the NHS. Not going through fresh iterations of far left economic fantasies and muddled words on immigration with each passing hour.

Just imagine a six week long general election campaign and we get this every day.

Soon Shadsy will be offering odds on Labour polling sub 10%

Naughty but Tory propaganda!

The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that Jezza, for lack of a better word, is good. Jezza is right, Jezza works. Jezza clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the (R)evolutionary spirit. Jezza, in all of his forms; Jezza for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And Jezza, you mark my words, will not only save the Labour Party, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the UK! Thank you very much.

huzzah!

Comrades, this is your Leader. It is an honour to speak to you today, and I am honoured to be sailing with you on the maiden voyage of our motherland's most recent achievement. Once more, we play our dangerous game, a game of chess against our old adversary — The Conservative Party! For a hundred years, your fathers before you and your older brothers played this game and played it well. But today the game is different. We have the advantage! It reminds me of the heady days of 1945 and Clement Attlee when the world trembled at the sound of our Nationalisations. Well, they will tremble again — at the sound of our Immigration Policy. The order is: engage the Corbyn Drive!

Comrades, our own Parliamentary Labour Party don't know our full potential. They will do everything possible to test us; but they will only test their own embarrassment! We will leave our fleet behind, we will pass through the Conservative patrols, past their sonar nets, and lay off their largest constituency, and listen to their braying and tittering... while we conduct Austerity Debates. Then, and when we are finished, the only sound they will hear is our laughter, while we sail to Brighton, where the sun is warm, and so is the comradeship.

A great day, comrades. We sail into history!

Pulpstar said:

Jezza is lucky the UK voted to leave tbh, he'd be in more trouble if we'd voted to remain in the EU.

Alot more.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

Mr. Eagles, any word on MikeK's status?

AlastairMeeks said:

This is next level incompetence from Jeremy Corbyn. If he were really adopting Trumpian tactics he would have junked his relaunch and spent the day tweeting and ranting about the NHS. Not going through fresh iterations of far left economic fantasies and muddled words on immigration with each passing hour.

Owen Jones says as much here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/10/jeremy-corbyn-nhs-labour-immigration

In the space of a day, Corbyn has done the following:
1. Rather than postponing a relaunch, he's thrown a dead cat at himself - much as Labour does need to broaden its agenda beyond the NHS, now was not the time, just as the Government had grounded on the rocks.
2. He's done the rounds in the morning of a major speech billed as changing direction on immigration to such effect that the headlines generated by lunchtime were along the lines of him not changing tack and not wanting to reduce immigration.
3. He's chosen this of all times to float as well a vague policy of a salary cap initially on the sofa thus inviting his opponents to define it for him in order to ridicule it.

Whatever you stand on the political spectrum, this is indeed next level incompetence.

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Eagles, any word on MikeK's status?

He should be free to post now, I'm disappearing off now, remind he's not allowed to discuss Islam or Muslims.

The spam trap blocked him for posting some dodgy links about them.

Sunil_Prasannan said:

ReggieCide said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

AlastairMeeks said:

This is next level incompetence from Jeremy Corbyn. If he were really adopting Trumpian tactics he would have junked his relaunch and spent the day tweeting and ranting about the NHS. Not going through fresh iterations of far left economic fantasies and muddled words on immigration with each passing hour.

Just imagine a six week long general election campaign and we get this every day.

Soon Shadsy will be offering odds on Labour polling sub 10%

Naughty but Tory propaganda!

The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that Jezza, for lack of a better word, is good. Jezza is right, Jezza works. Jezza clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the (R)evolutionary spirit. Jezza, in all of his forms; Jezza for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And Jezza, you mark my words, will not only save the Labour Party, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the UK! Thank you very much.

huzzah!

Comrades, this is your Leader. It is an honour to speak to you today, and I am honoured to be sailing with you on the maiden voyage of our motherland's most recent achievement. Once more, we play our dangerous game, a game of chess against our old adversary — The Conservative Party! For a hundred years, your fathers before you and your older brothers played this game and played it well. But today the game is different. We have the advantage! It reminds me of the heady days of 1945 and Clement Attlee when the world trembled at the sound of our Nationalisations. Well, they will tremble again — at the sound of our Immigration Policy. The order is: engage the Corbyn Drive!

Comrades, our own Parliamentary Labour Party don't know our full potential. They will do everything possible to test us; but they will only test their own embarrassment! We will leave our fleet behind, we will pass through the Conservative patrols, past their sonar nets, and lay off their largest constituency, and listen to their braying and tittering... while we conduct Austerity Debates. Then, and when we are finished, the only sound they will hear is our laughter, while we sail to Brighton, where the sun is warm, and so is the comradeship.

A great day, comrades. We sail into history!

Could this be the soul of Good Queen Bess incarnate?

TheScreamingEagles said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Eagles, any word on MikeK's status?

He should be free to post now, I'm disappearing off now, remind he's not allowed to discuss Islam or Muslims.

The spam trap blocked him for posting some dodgy links about them.

Dodgy links about iSam? Crikey!

Mr. Eagles, cheers.

TOPPING said:

Wulfrun_Phil said:

AlastairMeeks said:

This is next level incompetence from Jeremy Corbyn. If he were really adopting Trumpian tactics he would have junked his relaunch and spent the day tweeting and ranting about the NHS. Not going through fresh iterations of far left economic fantasies and muddled words on immigration with each passing hour.

Owen Jones says as much here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/10/jeremy-corbyn-nhs-labour-immigration

In the space of a day, Corbyn has done the following:
1. Rather than postponing a relaunch, he's thrown a dead cat at himself - much as Labour does need to broaden its agenda beyond the NHS, now was not the time, just as the Government had grounded on the rocks.
2. He's done the rounds in the morning of a major speech billed as changing direction on immigration to such effect that the headlines generated by lunchtime were along the lines of him not changing tack and not wanting to reduce immigration.
3. He's chosen this of all times to float as well a vague policy of a salary cap initially on the sofa thus inviting his opponents to define it for him in order to ridicule it.

Whatever you stand on the political spectrum, this is indeed next level incompetence.

You know you are dealing with a special kind of stupid when both Owen Jones and Polly sound sensible.

pinch yourself quick

isam said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Eagles, any word on MikeK's status?

He should be free to post now, I'm disappearing off now, remind he's not allowed to discuss Islam or Muslims.

The spam trap blocked him for posting some dodgy links about them.

What about @TCPoliticalBetting @Moses_ and @GeoffM ?

Mine was broken for weeks, or maybe I was sinbinned yet again who knows.

@singharj: Corbyn "misspoke" when he talked about a wage cap this morning and actually meant ratios, his spokesman tells me

Let Corbyn be Corbyn...

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

SeanT said:

That missing airman story gets weirder. Now they may have found part of his phone. But won't link it to him? Don't get it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-38568194

I don't believe he was kidnapped by ISIS. There'd be some terrible video online, by now.

But how can a man just disappear?

I must say when I read that story the other day, I thought he had probably died from alcohol overdose/fell into a river pissed/fell asleep in a field and the combine harvester got him... all a bit Midsomer!

Terrorists would have been shouting about it from the hilltops wouldn't they? Its the only reason they target army/police

Lucian_Fletcher said:

Pong said:

Thanks. Really interesting and accessible.

I don't feel like I know enough about NI politics or the post-GF electoral system. Can anyone advise on reasonably non-partisan reading materials?

My usual goto for irish politics/betting - politics.ie - is crap for analysis/indepth discussion.

Slugger O'Toole is my blog of choice. The comments can often be worth reading.

Thanks.

Hopefully there will be betting opportunities...

SeanT said:

isam said:

SeanT said:

That missing airman story gets weirder. Now they may have found part of his phone. But won't link it to him? Don't get it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-38568194

I don't believe he was kidnapped by ISIS. There'd be some terrible video online, by now.

But how can a man just disappear?

I must say when I read that story the other day, I thought he had probably died from alcohol overdose/fell into a river pissed/fell asleep in a field and the combine harvester got him... all a bit Midsomer!

Terrorists would have been shouting about it from the hilltops wouldn't they? Its the only reason they target army/police

Yes, and he was very drunk. So an accident is likely. But no body, no blood, nothing in the rivers (they've been searched, endlessly). Now a bit of his phone turns up, maybe?

Abducted by Aliens.

@faisalislam: Conservatives have actually pulled their punches in their briefing on Jeremy Corbyn's "day of chaos"...

@DPJHodges: Anyway, the thing to bear in mind is what we are witnessing today is what happens when people let Corbyn be Corbyn.

Lucian_Fletcher said:

Pong said:

Thanks. Really interesting and accessible.

I don't feel like I know enough about NI politics or the post-GF electoral system. Can anyone advise on reasonably non-partisan reading materials?

My usual goto for irish politics/betting - politics.ie - is crap for analysis/indepth discussion.

Slugger O'Toole is my blog of choice. The comments can often be worth reading.

Slugger's good fun

I'm an occasional poster, what about you ?

on the other hand I'm still trying to get over just how ill Marty looked on TV, I doubt he's up to serving a full term in any case

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

The questions are how he got to Barton Mills from Bury St Edmunds, and why. I can't remember if they've said the mobile signal was moving fast, slow or was just intermittent. If he travelled by car, and no-one's come forward, that makes it a little more suspicious.

The River Lark in that area isn't particularly wide or fast-flowing, at least from memory. However there are loads of drainage channels and a few lakes.

Incidentally, the following place is nearby, and might be of interest to you:
https://www.weststow.org/west-stow

SeanT said:

isam said:

SeanT said:

That missing airman story gets weirder. Now they may have found part of his phone. But won't link it to him? Don't get it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-38568194

I don't believe he was kidnapped by ISIS. There'd be some terrible video online, by now.

But how can a man just disappear?

I must say when I read that story the other day, I thought he had probably died from alcohol overdose/fell into a river pissed/fell asleep in a field and the combine harvester got him... all a bit Midsomer!

Terrorists would have been shouting about it from the hilltops wouldn't they? Its the only reason they target army/police

Yes, and he was very drunk. So an accident is likely. But no body, no blood, nothing in the rivers (they've been searched, endlessly). Now a bit of his phone turns up, maybe?

By the way, did you see the David Bowie link I posted earlier? He posted on his own fan forums and his answer to a poster that was on shown on twitter was right out of your repertoire!

To answer some of my questions, a timelime:
http://www.findcorrie.co.uk/

JosiasJessop said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

The questions are how he got to Barton Mills from Bury St Edmunds, and why. I can't remember if they've said the mobile signal was moving fast, slow or was just intermittent. If he travelled by car, and no-one's come forward, that makes it a little more suspicious.

The River Lark in that area isn't particularly wide or fast-flowing, at least from memory. However there are loads of drainage channels and a few lakes.

Incidentally, the following place is nearby, and might be of interest to you:
https://www.weststow.org/west-stow

He was last seen, IIRC, close to a big bin store. It's not unknown for people to sleep in rubbish bins, and, again IIRC, the bins were cleared the next day. The phone wasn't far away from the place where they were taken.

West Stow is very interesting.

SeanT said:

JosiasJessop said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

The questions are how he got to Barton Mills from Bury St Edmunds, and why. I can't remember if they've said the mobile signal was moving fast, slow or was just intermittent. If he travelled by car, and no-one's come forward, that makes it a little more suspicious.

The River Lark in that area isn't particularly wide or fast-flowing, at least from memory. However there are loads of drainage channels and a few lakes.

Incidentally, the following place is nearby, and might be of interest to you:
https://www.weststow.org/west-stow

If it wasn't an accident, my suspicion is a gay murder....

Surely they would have seen anyone else also enter the bin area. Sounds like he ended up in a bin unfortunately , just had one too many.

SeanT said:

JosiasJessop said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

The questions are how he got to Barton Mills from Bury St Edmunds, and why. I can't remember if they've said the mobile signal was moving fast, slow or was just intermittent. If he travelled by car, and no-one's come forward, that makes it a little more suspicious.

The River Lark in that area isn't particularly wide or fast-flowing, at least from memory. However there are loads of drainage channels and a few lakes.

Incidentally, the following place is nearby, and might be of interest to you:
https://www.weststow.org/west-stow

If it wasn't an accident, my suspicion is a gay murder....

Why?

About the only strange thing I've ever seen in Bury is someone taking his two ferrets on their regular Sunday afternoon walk around the abbey ruins.

JosiasJessop said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

The questions are how he got to Barton Mills from Bury St Edmunds, and why. I can't remember if they've said the mobile signal was moving fast, slow or was just intermittent. If he travelled by car, and no-one's come forward, that makes it a little more suspicious.

The River Lark in that area isn't particularly wide or fast-flowing, at least from memory. However there are loads of drainage channels and a few lakes.

Incidentally, the following place is nearby, and might be of interest to you:
https://www.weststow.org/west-stow

That place is not that far from me and looks interesting.

Cheers

Floater said:

JosiasJessop said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

The questions are how he got to Barton Mills from Bury St Edmunds, and why. I can't remember if they've said the mobile signal was moving fast, slow or was just intermittent. If he travelled by car, and no-one's come forward, that makes it a little more suspicious.

The River Lark in that area isn't particularly wide or fast-flowing, at least from memory. However there are loads of drainage channels and a few lakes.

Incidentally, the following place is nearby, and might be of interest to you:
https://www.weststow.org/west-stow

That place is not that far from me and looks interesting.

Cheers

I wouldn't recommend West Stow if it's raining, TBH.

Floater said:

JosiasJessop said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

The questions are how he got to Barton Mills from Bury St Edmunds, and why. I can't remember if they've said the mobile signal was moving fast, slow or was just intermittent. If he travelled by car, and no-one's come forward, that makes it a little more suspicious.

The River Lark in that area isn't particularly wide or fast-flowing, at least from memory. However there are loads of drainage channels and a few lakes.

Incidentally, the following place is nearby, and might be of interest to you:
https://www.weststow.org/west-stow

That place is not that far from me and looks interesting.

Cheers

Despite having walked right past it on two or three occasions, I've never actually been in. One of the places I'll take the little 'un when he's a little older.

There's also this place a little further away, which a friend raves about:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/grimes-graves-prehistoric-flint-mine/

@Sean__Clare: Team corbyn pleased with relaunch. Say he might not have all the answers yet (pay cap) but he's getting a hearing and making waves.

SeanT said:

AlastairMeeks said:

SeanT said:

AlastairMeeks said:

malcolmg said:

SeanT said:

JosiasJessop said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

The questions are how he got to Barton Mills from Bury St Edmunds, and why. I can't remember if they've said the mobile signal was moving fast, slow or was just intermittent. If he travelled by car, and no-one's come forward, that makes it a little more suspicious.

The River Lark in that area isn't particularly wide or fast-flowing, at least from memory. However there are loads of drainage channels and a few lakes.

Incidentally, the following place is nearby, and might be of interest to you:
https://www.weststow.org/west-stow

If it wasn't an accident, my suspicion is a gay murder....

Surely they would have seen anyone else also enter the bin area. Sounds like he ended up in a bin unfortunately , just had one too many.

He was apparently taken to a village which is near a wellknown gay cruising area. @SeanT's theory can't be ruled out.

There are also rumours floating around that he was bisexual. An assignation that somehow went wrong? Grindr?

If he'd been on Grindr the police would surely have known? If they could track where his phone was, they'd have been able to track what he'd been looking at on it, surely?

I dunno. I guess.

I've just discovered an entire website dedicated to sleuthing these mysteries, with tens of thousands of comments on the Corrie case.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?326291-UK-Corrie-McKeague-23-Bury-St-Edmunds-24-September-2016-14/page71

Their consensus seems to be either 1. he somehow fell in the lorry, then fell out later, concussed and confused, and wandered into a forest or a river and perished, or 2. the poor lad was abducted and killed, or 3. it was an assignation that went very wrong

Spooky and sad.

Yes, wandering into a vehicle and then wandering out of it again seems plausible. Bizarre and dangerous things can be done when very drunk. I knew someone who once woke up in an unknown spare bedroom, fled the house in panic and found he was round the corner from Shepherd's Bush tube. He could only guess that he'd missed the last train and pleaded with a total stranger to put him up for the night. A bit scary really.

Germany is really getting hooked on the idea of reducing foreign aid for countries that wont take asylum seekers back

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/wirtschaftspolitik/ruecknahme-von-asylbewerbern-die-entwicklungshilfe-muss-druckmittel-werden-14612894.html.

Scott_P said:

@Sean__Clare: Team corbyn pleased with relaunch. Say he might not have all the answers yet (pay cap) but he's getting a hearing and making waves.

well, that's one way of looking at it.

Evening. A very informative article, thanks @Lucian_Fletcher.

BannedInParis said:

Scott_P said:

@Sean__Clare: Team corbyn pleased with relaunch. Say he might not have all the answers yet (pay cap) but he's getting a hearing and making waves.

well, that's one way of looking at it.

And here's another:

https://twitter.com/jamesrbuk/status/818880534856237056

Alanbrooke said:

Germany is really getting hooked on the idea of reducing foreign aid for countries that wont take asylum seekers back

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/wirtschaftspolitik/ruecknahme-von-asylbewerbern-die-entwicklungshilfe-muss-druckmittel-werden-14612894.html.

Racists! Xenophobes! ;-)

matt said:

I've just flicked on the BBC News. Despite all the hilarity here, Corbyn hasn't been mentioned so far -no I'm wrong it's third - one wonders if his inconsistency will really cut through.

Maybe consider bringing back Livingstone from retirement ... Only a year older than Trump.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Floater said:

JosiasJessop said:

Floater said:

JosiasJessop said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. T, he might have suffered some sort of accident. There have been a few cases, especially in York, of people drowning in rivers due to accidentally falling in or drunkenly trying to swim them.

The questions are how he got to Barton Mills from Bury St Edmunds, and why. I can't remember if they've said the mobile signal was moving fast, slow or was just intermittent. If he travelled by car, and no-one's come forward, that makes it a little more suspicious.

The River Lark in that area isn't particularly wide or fast-flowing, at least from memory. However there are loads of drainage channels and a few lakes.

Incidentally, the following place is nearby, and might be of interest to you:
https://www.weststow.org/west-stow

That place is not that far from me and looks interesting.

Cheers

Despite having walked right past it on two or three occasions, I've never actually been in. One of the places I'll take the little 'un when he's a little older.

There's also this place a little further away, which a friend raves about:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/grimes-graves-prehistoric-flint-mine/

That looks interesting too.

Been to Sutton Hoo?

Yes; other end of the Anglo-Saxon social scale from West Stow!

Clive Lewis just said in C4 "we are not wedded to the free movement of capital". Hmm.

welshowl said:

Clive Lewis just said in C4 "we are not wedded to the free movement of capital". Hmm.

So back to exchange controls - wonder what the limit will be for going on holiday - maybe a few hundred quid?

FrancisUrquhart said:

welshowl said:

Clive Lewis just said in C4 "we are not wedded to the free movement of capital". Hmm.

Maximum wage, limits on how much money you can take on your hols, have I woken up in the 1970s?

60's

MikeL said:

If maximum wage ratio became law surely it would just lead to a huge increase in out-sourcing.

eg a top Premier League football club would just employ its footballers.

They would then outsource literally everything else - security, cleaning, catering, sales, ticketing, finance, HR - the lot.

They might even set up a separate company (or even club) for reserve players - if necessary.

Arsenal used to have a cunning scheme where players were technically paid very little. Instead they got shares in an overseas holding company which they would hold in their own companies.

Most of the foreign players paid basically hardly any tax.

williamglenn said:

The Russian finance ministry has just announced that it spent over half its reserves in the month of December alone...

Mostly on honeytraps for OGH.

FrancisUrquhart said:

welshowl said:

Clive Lewis just said in C4 "we are not wedded to the free movement of capital". Hmm.

Maximum wage, limits on how much money you can take on your hols, have I woken up in the 1970s?

Quite. If they get anywhere near power get anything out of the country not bolted down or at least converted into foreign assets. It'll be Venezuela with cold weather.

Luckyguy1983 said:

williamglenn said:

The Russian finance ministry has just announced that it spent over half its reserves in the month of December alone...

Mostly on honeytraps for OGH.

Mikhail Smithsonovski

John_M said:

welshowl said:

Clive Lewis just said in C4 "we are not wedded to the free movement of capital". Hmm.

Probably misspoke. Or perhaps they're just going to run through the permutations on the Four Freedoms.

But the thing is - unless they did do something like exchange controls then everything else they want to do will just be got round.

eg with a maximum wage everyone will just be paid offshore etc.

But putting to one side how crazy it is, would it be possible in the world of the internet etc to actually impose exchange controls? I guess you would have to do something like making it a criminal offence to have a foreign bank account?

matt said:

MikeL said:

John_M said:

welshowl said:

Clive Lewis just said in C4 "we are not wedded to the free movement of capital". Hmm.

Probably misspoke. Or perhaps they're just going to run through the permutations on the Four Freedoms.

But the thing is - unless they did do something like exchange controls then everything else they want to do will just be got round.

eg with a maximum wage everyone will just be paid offshore etc.

But putting to one side how crazy it is, would it be possible in the world of the internet etc to actually impose exchange controls? I guess you would have to do something like making it a criminal offence to have a foreign bank account?

I disagree. It's all possible. It's just that one ends up looking not a million miles away from the DDR.

That's what I meant - wouldn't the DDR have had exactly that type of law - ie that you couldn't own a foreign bank account?

As well as a wall to stop anyone leaving, etc.

FrancisUrquhart said:

MikeL said:

If maximum wage ratio became law surely it would just lead to a huge increase in out-sourcing.

eg a top Premier League football club would just employ its footballers.

They would then outsource literally everything else - security, cleaning, catering, sales, ticketing, finance, HR - the lot.

They might even set up a separate company (or even club) for reserve players - if necessary.

Arsenal used to have a cunning scheme where players were technically paid very little. Instead they got shares in an overseas holding company which they would hold in their own companies.

Most of the foreign players paid basically hardly any tax.

I hope the scheme was registered with HMRC, else its evasion. As is the substance is avoidance.

welshowl said:

MikeL said:

matt said:

MikeL said:

John_M said:

welshowl said:

Clive Lewis just said in C4 "we are not wedded to the free movement of capital". Hmm.

Probably misspoke. Or perhaps they're just going to run through the permutations on the Four Freedoms.

But the thing is - unless they did do something like exchange controls then everything else they want to do will just be got round.

eg with a maximum wage everyone will just be paid offshore etc.

But putting to one side how crazy it is, would it be possible in the world of the internet etc to actually impose exchange controls? I guess you would have to do something like making it a criminal offence to have a foreign bank account?

I disagree. It's all possible. It's just that one ends up looking not a million miles away from the DDR.

That's what I meant - wouldn't the DDR have had exactly that type of law - ie that you couldn't own a foreign bank account?

As well as a wall to stop anyone leaving, etc.

Great for motorbike tours though apparently.

Talking of which, if you want the closest thing to that experience in modern Europe, Belarus is introducing visa free travel for short visits.

Sandpit said:

So we're now talking about exchange controls, I guess Labour's relaunch day went well then...?

It could hardly have gone better. Oh sorry, you meant for the Labour Party? Total f*ckup for them.

Pulpstar said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

MikeL said:

If maximum wage ratio became law surely it would just lead to a huge increase in out-sourcing.

eg a top Premier League football club would just employ its footballers.

They would then outsource literally everything else - security, cleaning, catering, sales, ticketing, finance, HR - the lot.

They might even set up a separate company (or even club) for reserve players - if necessary.

Arsenal used to have a cunning scheme where players were technically paid very little. Instead they got shares in an overseas holding company which they would hold in their own companies.

Most of the foreign players paid basically hardly any tax.

I hope the scheme was registered with HMRC, else its evasion. As is the substance is avoidance.

It was revealed as part of Ray Parlour divorce settlement. I presume they don't operate the scheme any more.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1467295/Parlour-divorce-exposes-Arsenal-offshore-tax-dodge.html

Watching "Killing Reagan" from Nat Geo.... really good tv

MikeL said:

John_M said:

welshowl said:

Clive Lewis just said in C4 "we are not wedded to the free movement of capital". Hmm.

Probably misspoke. Or perhaps they're just going to run through the permutations on the Four Freedoms.

But the thing is - unless they did do something like exchange controls then everything else they want to do will just be got round.

eg with a maximum wage everyone will just be paid offshore etc.

But putting to one side how crazy it is, would it be possible in the world of the internet etc to actually impose exchange controls? I guess you would have to do something like making it a criminal offence to have a foreign bank account?

I have some sympathy with Corbyn's position - per Cummings epic blog post yesterday. Far too few people were jailed or otherwise punished for crashing the banking system. Those responsible are, by and large, rich and free. Shareholders seem to be supine as executive reward correlates poorly with actual performance. A lot of people are very, very angry about this, and his positioning will play well with them.

I just don't know what practical measures a Corbyn administration could actually take to address the issue of income inequality, that wouldn't, as you point out, have extremely undesirable side effects.