Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland Actual quote from a focus group last night. "I'd rather have a massive wind turbine in my back garden than nothing in my bank account."
SNIP
Even better is to have a massive wind turbine in someone else's back garden.
And so, the uplands of mid-Wales are sprouting wind-farms (with no benefit for the locals).
Most are run by a company called Bute Empire, I mean Bute Energy, based in Edinburgh and London,
And people still disputes that Wales is a colony run for the benefit of others ...
Are there no local taxes on these things, like for other businesses?
Now, look at the map and tell me which areas are devoid of wind-farms.
Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland must easily have three or four times as many wind-farms as the whole of England.
Look at the South East. Look at the South of England. Look at the English counties just next to Powys, Herefordshire, Shropshire. Look at the Pennines. Virtually no wind-farms.
I have no objections to wind-farms in Wales if it is benefitting Wales. It is not.
The profits are outsourced elsewhere. We are left with the turbines & no doubt the de-commissioning costs.
England as usual is exploiting its neighbour.
Much more likely it's the rich Welsh exploiting the poor Welsh (by stealing the howling gales which are the Welsh peasant's birthright).
Also, try overlaying a contour map, or looking at windy.com every day for a month.
No winds on the English South coast? No winds on the Pennines?
More to the point, try overloading a map of Tory constituencies.
What fraction of the UK's wind-farms are in Tory constituencies in England?
Incredibly, it looks like < 10 per cent!
Well get out there and campaign for a Tory MP of your own, then. Bloody apathy.
I don't mind wind-farms, I object to zero benefit accruing to the locals.
They don't accrue to the locals anywhere, it's landlords and Windcos everywhere. Except praps in Highland Scotland where the crofters have done a buyout.
Not everywhere. Try France.
I'd say the issue is that Planning means they will be no quicker than other renewables, and economics / small turbines means they will hardly be cheaper for the consumer.
Dale Vince of Ecotricity was on Sky earlier demanding that letting him build onshore wind farms would reduce the price of electricity.
But AIUI in the UK unit, the price is set by the "marginal" unit ie the one that meets the last bit of demand, once the generation sources have been sorted from low to high by various criteria.
So he won't be meeting his claim unless he builds enough to swamp the market, or the regulatory setup is changed.
Does anyone know different, this being quite a complex subject?
If anyone wants to keep their bill down, it is back to the reduce / reuse coalface, applied to power and energy, as it has always been.
As an aside, I would expect that makers of wind turbines are highly likely to be rather capacity constrained right now, because *everyone* will be wanting to buy new turbines.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician, it seems? But probably in his best role now, given his military career. Rather lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. A thread….
Confirming what I was sort-of conjecturing on PT, non domicile status looks open to Q
If you need to reach for Professor Murphaloon, it's usually a flag of an absence of evidence.
It's well over a decade since he was launching voluminous broadsides against banks for not paying enough taxes, whilst completely forgetting to mention that they had made losses of billions the previous year.
The latest I saw was him calculating recently how much the country was paying for energy by taking the fixed rate bill he had been offered for his house where his family live in Downham Market of "around £3000", and applying that universally.
(Fixed rate bills are not regulated by Ofgem, and are currently about 40-50% higher than the regulated "cap" for the same households on a variable tariff. For an average household, the capped bill is £1971 per annum, as we know.)
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Yes, Wallace seems mostly sane and vaguely competent, which puts him streets ahead of his rivals in the PCP.
Boris Johnson's fiendish wheezes to stifle his opponents is quite reminiscent of the Wacky Races... and what happened to Dick Dastardly at the end of each episode?
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not just if you live in the US. Also if you're a US citizen living anywhere else. The only way to get out of it is to renounce citizenship.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. A thread….
Confirming what I was sort-of conjecturing on PT, non domicile status looks open to Q
If you need to reach for Professor Murphaloon, it's usually a flag of an absence of evidence.
It's well over a decade since he was launching voluminous broadsides against banks for not paying enough taxes, whilst completely forgetting to mention that they had mad losses of billions the previous year.
The latest I saw was him calculating recently how much the country was paying for energy by taking the fixed rate bill he had been offered for his house where his family live in Downham Market of "around £3000", and applying that universally.
(Fixed rate bills are not regulated by Ofgem, and are currently about 40-50% higher than the regulated "cap" of £1971 for the average household on a variable tariff.)
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
It's a little worse than that, because you essentially pay the higher of the two rates.
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
It's a little worse than that, because you essentially pay the higher of the two rates.
Aren’t the Feds famously ruthless in hunting down all your foreign earnings? More than HMRC?
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Isn't Tugendhat more likely than Wallace?
Wallace has high approval ratings with Conservative members.
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not just if you live in the US. Also if you're a US citizen living anywhere else. The only way to get out of it is to renounce citizenship.
Which is very hard to do, apparently.
I have heard (not sure if true) it’s almost as hard to lose US citizenship as to gain US citizenship, if not harder.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
Maybe Nige but then fancy another go and come back and lead RefUK if you want excitement once Boris has gone?
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
Most of us gain our excitement in life from sources other than middle-aged politicians. You might be different.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Isn't Tugendhat more likely than Wallace?
No, too Remain and probably too posh. Wallace is posh but not that posh.
⚡️Kharkiv Oblast governor: Mayor of Balakliia fled to Russia.
Oleh Synehubov told ICTV that Balakliia Mayor Ivan Stolbovyi had fled to Russia with his family. Synehubov said the mayor is under investigation. He earlier accused Stolbovyi of collaborating with the Russian forces.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
From Wiki (on Wallace):
"From 1991 to 1998, he served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize, and Northern Ireland, rising to the rank of captain. During his time in Northern Ireland, he was mentioned in dispatches in 1992 for an incident in which the patrol he was commanding captured an entire IRA active service unit attempting to carry out a bomb attack against British troops."
I chanced to hear a radio profile on him a few weeks back. Apparently he was a heroic drinker in his younger days, according to soldier mate. And a risk taker when necessary. Worked hard, and played very hard. Won much respect etc.
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
It's a little worse than that, because you essentially pay the higher of the two rates.
Aren’t the Feds famously ruthless in hunting down all your foreign earnings? More than HMRC?
I have solved that problem by scrupulously reporting all my foreign income
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
Except for things like Capital Gains on house sales (for example). This caught Boris Johnson out.
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
It's a little worse than that, because you essentially pay the higher of the two rates.
Indeed. My American friends are always shocked at how high taxes are in the UK.
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not just if you live in the US. Also if you're a US citizen living anywhere else. The only way to get out of it is to renounce citizenship.
Which is very hard to do, apparently.
I have heard (not sure if true) it’s almost as hard to lose US citizenship as to gain US citizenship, if not harder.
Nope - it is quite easy to renounce.
The idea is it "difficult" comes from the fact that you have to have a complete set of US tax returns filed for the last x years first - think it was 7 when I did it.
"Wealth-income mismatch: The curious case of India's missing millionaires"
While India had 764,000 dollar-millionaires in 2019 by one account, just 316,000 filed tax returns declaring income of over $75,000. Large-scale [Income Tax] evasion may still be taking place, notes T N Ninan.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
Most of us gain our excitement in life from sources other than middle-aged politicians. You might be different.
You misconstrue me. I am not looking for “excitement” in my politics. I find plenty of that elsewhere, as may be obvious
What I am looking for are politicians who have a spark of imagination and creativity, who look like they will being new ideas, passion, vigour. Because we desperately need that: to overcome our many problems
I thought Boris might be the one to do it. He is full of imagination (as well as greed, lust, mendacity, the rest). But he is too chaotic and incapable of focus, he has too MANY mad ideas
I get a sense that Truss might just have that fresh perspective, with the will to see it through. Dunno. I might also be hopecasting
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
It's a little worse than that, because you essentially pay the higher of the two rates.
Indeed. My American friends are always shocked at how high taxes are in the UK.
As we would be at how high taxes are in Sweden.
I would imagine they would be more shocked though if the lived in Texas than Massachussetts
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
It's a little worse than that, because you essentially pay the higher of the two rates.
Aren’t the Feds famously ruthless in hunting down all your foreign earnings? More than HMRC?
I have solved that problem by scrupulously reporting all my foreign income
Bet yo have fun with the Foreign Controlled Corporations thing....
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not just if you live in the US. Also if you're a US citizen living anywhere else. The only way to get out of it is to renounce citizenship.
Which is very hard to do, apparently.
I have heard (not sure if true) it’s almost as hard to lose US citizenship as to gain US citizenship, if not harder.
Nah renouncing is easy, just a form and some tax returns. I know a few who have done this rather than become dual national UK/US.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Isn't Tugendhat more likely than Wallace?
No, too Remain and probably too posh. Wallace is posh but not that posh.
I would be happy with either though
Wallace is also Remain
There will come a time in Tory politics - soon, I hope - when this dichotomy won’t matter. But we are not there yet. It matters
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
It's a little worse than that, because you essentially pay the higher of the two rates.
Indeed. My American friends are always shocked at how high taxes are in the UK.
In the same way that we're shocked by the fact you have to pay $8000 to give birth in a hospital in the US etc. Me, I'd take the higher taxes.
I doubt it, they all have health insurance through their employers. As always, the US is a society of haves and have nots.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
From Wiki (on Wallace):
"From 1991 to 1998, he served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize, and Northern Ireland, rising to the rank of captain. During his time in Northern Ireland, he was mentioned in dispatches in 1992 for an incident in which the patrol he was commanding captured an entire IRA active service unit attempting to carry out a bomb attack against British troops."
I chanced to hear a radio profile on him a few weeks back. Apparently he was a heroic drinker in his younger days, according to soldier mate. And a risk taker when necessary. Worked hard, and played very hard. Won much respect etc.
Not so dull, really.
Respect for anyone who has served and faced actual bullets, of course
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
Most of us gain our excitement in life from sources other than middle-aged politicians. You might be different.
You misconstrue me. I am not looking for “excitement” in my politics. I find plenty of that elsewhere, as may be obvious
What I am looking for are politicians who have a spark of imagination and creativity, who look like they will being new ideas, passion, vigour. Because we desperately need that: to overcome our many problems
I thought Boris might be the one to do it. He is full of imagination (as well as greed, lust, mendacity, the rest). But he is too chaotic and incapable of focus, he has too MANY mad ideas
I get a sense that Truss might just have that fresh perspective, with the will to see it through. Dunno. I might also be hopecasting
Mordaunt v Rayner or Nandy could create that, but I suspect that Starmer may win and settle in for a bit first, as the stabilising influence.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Isn't Tugendhat more likely than Wallace?
No, too Remain and probably too posh. Wallace is posh but not that posh.
I would be happy with either though
"I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE."
Yep. As I posted a few days ago after the most tin-eared budget anyone can remember: he will not be an MP in five years time.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
From Wiki (on Wallace):
"From 1991 to 1998, he served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize, and Northern Ireland, rising to the rank of captain. During his time in Northern Ireland, he was mentioned in dispatches in 1992 for an incident in which the patrol he was commanding captured an entire IRA active service unit attempting to carry out a bomb attack against British troops."
I chanced to hear a radio profile on him a few weeks back. Apparently he was a heroic drinker in his younger days, according to soldier mate. And a risk taker when necessary. Worked hard, and played very hard. Won much respect etc.
Not so dull, really.
Indeed, albeit IDS also served in the army as a captain in Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
Have you thought of looking outside of politics for your entertainment? I hear Channel 4 has some good programmes..
You only ever hear that Channel 4 has some good programmes. No first hand accounts....
Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland Actual quote from a focus group last night. "I'd rather have a massive wind turbine in my back garden than nothing in my bank account."
SNIP
Even better is to have a massive wind turbine in someone else's back garden.
And so, the uplands of mid-Wales are sprouting wind-farms (with no benefit for the locals).
Most are run by a company called Bute Empire, I mean Bute Energy, based in Edinburgh and London,
And people still disputes that Wales is a colony run for the benefit of others ...
Are there no local taxes on these things, like for other businesses?
Now, look at the map and tell me which areas are devoid of wind-farms.
Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland must easily have three or four times as many wind-farms as the whole of England.
Look at the South East. Look at the South of England. Look at the English counties just next to Powys, Herefordshire, Shropshire. Look at the Pennines. Virtually no wind-farms.
I have no objections to wind-farms in Wales if it is benefitting Wales. It is not.
The profits are outsourced elsewhere. We are left with the turbines & no doubt the de-commissioning costs.
England as usual is exploiting its neighbour.
Whilst I do understand the sentiment, a wind map might reveal why.
But there should be local business rates, surely? If not, why not?
There is an uplift to the business rates, but my understanding is that this is not spent locally.
It is gathered e.g., by Powys Council, who merge it with central funds.
And then the Welsh Government's Local Government Settlement will take this additional income into account.
So the practical benefit to the locals is almost zero.
Yet again, I am objecting not to windfarms ... but to windfarms built in Wales with no discernible benefit to the Welsh. That is colonialism.
Off Topic
Hmmm.
I am currently in dispute with the Community Council, the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Sustainable * *** who have applied to the Duchy of Lancaster to plant a forest on the rather idylic Duchy owned paddock (which for many years I tended with my ride on mower- for sale £200, spares or repairs) in front of my house in order to create a rural wasteland of brambles, nettles, litter and dog sh** over time.
The Community Council have had to apply directly to our English overlords before they create this eyesore. I am hopeful that the Duchy will reject this hairbrained scheme. Hat tip to our English Lords and Masters in this case.
They will now officially be wearing adult nappies at the Elysee
For the purposes of clarity, I am not joyously laughing at the idea of Le Pen as POTFR (tho I don’t think she’s be anything like as bad as some fear) I AM laughing at the idea of that pompous vain popinjay, E Macron, getting the scare of his life
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. A thread….
According to flow chart one on this govt website, nobody with settled long term plans to stay in the UK should be a non-dom. If the Chancellor's wife has no settled long term plans to be in the UK then that is a rather odd state of affairs isn't it?
Zac Goldsmith had to give up his non-dom status for this reason
The wife of the CHANCELLOR?
Incidentally, in answer to the question why do mega-rich people try and avoid tax so strenuously, when they can easily afford it, a friend of mine - who is literally married to a billionairess (her extended family is even richer) explained this to me the other day
What happens is that a clever person comes to you and says, Oh, by the way, did you realise that if you do THIS, THIS and THIS, you can avoid £20 million in tax this year?
Even the ultra-rich find that psychologically hard to resist. Twenty million quid. In one year? What happens if something terrible happens and I suddenly need that twenty million after all? A coup? An asteroid? A plague?
And so the rich person says Yes to the clever person, and off they go down the road of tax minimization, which then conjures a life of its own: more people get involved, more schemes are devised, it gets more complex, the taxman takes an interest, more schemes are needed, and so on and so forth. My friend says he’s seen members of this family spend fruitless weeks sorting their finances when they are stupidly, stupidly rich, and could thus enjoy one of the great benefits of wealth - NOT having to worry about money. Yet they do not enjoy this benefit
I found his argument plausible - and consoling
My own experience is... as soon as you start dealing with multiple types of income across different countries... you get inevitably drawn in to time consuming issues relating to tax planning. You just have no choice other than to engage with it. I am sure that other people posting on here will have the same experience.
Life is simple for people who just live in one country, you can manage your tax affairs yourself easily. As soon as you start living in two countries or owning property overseas, it gets very complicated.
These are not dilemmas unique to the ultra rich, by any means.
I dunno. If I was worth, say, a billion, I’d just hire a solid reputable accountant and say: minimise my taxes, but don’t go overboard, and leave it at that
I’d probably end up paying £10mn a year rather than the possibly optimum, fuck-the-taxman £5mn? But I would calm myself by remembering I am worth £1bn so it is peanuts. And I would get on with my life not having to give another thought to money, which is a marvellous thing, and surely the greatest boon of serious wealth (unless you actually enjoy playing with money, and some do - I don’t)
If you had a billion, and it was productively invested at 7% return, you would have an income of £70 million. Hard to see how you could get away with paying £10 million, never mind £5 million. You would probably expect to pay about a third, so about £20 million. But even to get to that point, you would have to be structuring the investments in a tax efficient way and taking advantage of legal schemes, such as the non domicile arrangement - which then open you up to accusations of tax avoidance. If you just say 'im going to pay whatever the tax rate is', then you could end up just paying eye watering and painful amounts of tax. I am not an expert, and certainly not wealthy, but have gone through enough of this to see the problem.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
Have you thought of looking outside of politics for your entertainment? I hear Channel 4 has some good programmes..
You only ever hear that Channel 4 has some good programmes. No first hand accounts....
That's coz nobody will own up to watching Naked Attraction.
The thing is, traditionally these are the kind of polls in France that bring out a huge anti-FN turnout. As I result I doubt the Macron camp will be too unhappy to see them coming out at this particular time, on the eve of polling.
Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland Actual quote from a focus group last night. "I'd rather have a massive wind turbine in my back garden than nothing in my bank account."
SNIP
Even better is to have a massive wind turbine in someone else's back garden.
And so, the uplands of mid-Wales are sprouting wind-farms (with no benefit for the locals).
Most are run by a company called Bute Empire, I mean Bute Energy, based in Edinburgh and London,
And people still disputes that Wales is a colony run for the benefit of others ...
Are there no local taxes on these things, like for other businesses?
Now, look at the map and tell me which areas are devoid of wind-farms.
Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland must easily have three or four times as many wind-farms as the whole of England.
Look at the South East. Look at the South of England. Look at the English counties just next to Powys, Herefordshire, Shropshire. Look at the Pennines. Virtually no wind-farms.
I have no objections to wind-farms in Wales if it is benefitting Wales. It is not.
The profits are outsourced elsewhere. We are left with the turbines & no doubt the de-commissioning costs.
England as usual is exploiting its neighbour.
Whilst I do understand the sentiment, a wind map might reveal why.
But there should be local business rates, surely? If not, why not?
There is an uplift to the business rates, but my understanding is that this is not spent locally.
It is gathered e.g., by Powys Council, who merge it with central funds.
And then the Welsh Government's Local Government Settlement will take this additional income into account.
So the practical benefit to the locals is almost zero.
Yet again, I am objecting not to windfarms ... but to windfarms built in Wales with no discernible benefit to the Welsh. That is colonialism.
Off Topic
Hmmm.
I am currently in dispute with the Community Council, the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Sustainable * *** who have applied to the Duchy of Lancaster to plant a forest on the rather idylic Duchy owned paddock (which for many years I tended with my ride on mower- for sale £200, spares or repairs) in front of my house in order to create a rural wasteland of brambles, nettles, litter and dog sh** over time.
The Community Council have had to apply directly to our English overlords before they create this eyesore. I am hopeful that the Duchy will reject this hairbrained scheme. Hat tip to our English Lords and Masters in this case.
Wonder if Macron will take the risk of trying to shift Melenchon into second place by getting his voters to lend their votes to him. Would be risky as he may end up not making the final two and Melenchon could end up doing a Jez and actually winning.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Isn't Tugendhat more likely than Wallace?
No, too Remain and probably too posh. Wallace is posh but not that posh.
I would be happy with either though
Wallace is also Remain
There will come a time in Tory politics - soon, I hope - when this dichotomy won’t matter. But we are not there yet. It matters
Yes, but I think he was very much part of Team Boris which may help if BJ is defenestrated. Readymade team of loyalists on hand.
Have you noticed how recent PMs have alternated between the charismatic and the dull/worthy? An iron law?
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than all 3 of those with Yougov.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Can you imagine the tedium of British politics if we end up with Starmer versus Wallace. With Ed Davey in the wings
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
Have you thought of looking outside of politics for your entertainment? I hear Channel 4 has some good programmes..
You only ever hear that Channel 4 has some good programmes. No first hand accounts....
That's coz nobody will own up to watching Naked Attraction.
Wonder if Macron will take the risk of trying to shift Melenchon into second place by getting his voters to lend their votes to him. Would be risky as he may end up not making the final two and Melenchon could end up doing a Jez and actually winning.
It could backfire. Melenchon is as high as 46% in some polls for the second round.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Isn't Tugendhat more likely than Wallace?
No, too Remain and probably too posh. Wallace is posh but not that posh.
I would be happy with either though
Wallace is also Remain
There will come a time in Tory politics - soon, I hope - when this dichotomy won’t matter. But we are not there yet. It matters
Yes, but I think he was very much part of Team Boris which may help if BJ is defenestrated. Readymade team of loyalists on hand.
Have you noticed how recent PMs have alternated between the charismatic and the dull/worthy? An iron law?
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not just if you live in the US. Also if you're a US citizen living anywhere else. The only way to get out of it is to renounce citizenship.
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. A thread….
According to flow chart one on this govt website, nobody with settled long term plans to stay in the UK should be a non-dom. If the Chancellor's wife has no settled long term plans to be in the UK then that is a rather odd state of affairs isn't it?
Zac Goldsmith had to give up his non-dom status for this reason
The wife of the CHANCELLOR?
Incidentally, in answer to the question why do mega-rich people try and avoid tax so strenuously, when they can easily afford it, a friend of mine - who is literally married to a billionairess (her extended family is even richer) explained this to me the other day
What happens is that a clever person comes to you and says, Oh, by the way, did you realise that if you do THIS, THIS and THIS, you can avoid £20 million in tax this year?
Even the ultra-rich find that psychologically hard to resist. Twenty million quid. In one year? What happens if something terrible happens and I suddenly need that twenty million after all? A coup? An asteroid? A plague?
And so the rich person says Yes to the clever person, and off they go down the road of tax minimization, which then conjures a life of its own: more people get involved, more schemes are devised, it gets more complex, the taxman takes an interest, more schemes are needed, and so on and so forth. My friend says he’s seen members of this family spend fruitless weeks sorting their finances when they are stupidly, stupidly rich, and could thus enjoy one of the great benefits of wealth - NOT having to worry about money. Yet they do not enjoy this benefit
I found his argument plausible - and consoling
My own experience is... as soon as you start dealing with multiple types of income across different countries... you get inevitably drawn in to time consuming issues relating to tax planning. You just have no choice other than to engage with it. I am sure that other people posting on here will have the same experience.
Life is simple for people who just live in one country, you can manage your tax affairs yourself easily. As soon as you start living in two countries or owning property overseas, it gets very complicated.
These are not dilemmas unique to the ultra rich, by any means.
I dunno. If I was worth, say, a billion, I’d just hire a solid reputable accountant and say: minimise my taxes, but don’t go overboard, and leave it at that
I’d probably end up paying £10mn a year rather than the possibly optimum, fuck-the-taxman £5mn? But I would calm myself by remembering I am worth £1bn so it is peanuts. And I would get on with my life not having to give another thought to money, which is a marvellous thing, and surely the greatest boon of serious wealth (unless you actually enjoy playing with money, and some do - I don’t)
If you had a billion, and it was productively invested at 7% return, you would have an income of £70 million. Hard to see how you could get away with paying £10 million, never mind £5 million. You would probably expect to pay about a third, so about £20 million. But even to get to that point, you would have to be structuring the investments in a tax efficient way and taking advantage of legal schemes, such as the non domicile arrangement - which then open you up to accusations of tax avoidance. If you just say 'im going to pay whatever the tax rate is', then you could end up just paying eye watering and painful amounts of tax. I am not an expert, and certainly not wealthy, but have gone through enough of this to see the problem.
No
If I was earning £70 million a year, I’d probably tell my accountant to pay the 45% tax on everything over the max tax threshold
I’d still have £35-£40 million a year, FFS, and an entirely clean conscience. I would still be obscenely wealthy, and also able to look my fellow Brits in the eye
Who can spend £35 million a year? How many homes do you need? Who actually needs a fucking mega-yacht?
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. A thread….
According to flow chart one on this govt website, nobody with settled long term plans to stay in the UK should be a non-dom. If the Chancellor's wife has no settled long term plans to be in the UK then that is a rather odd state of affairs isn't it?
Zac Goldsmith had to give up his non-dom status for this reason
The wife of the CHANCELLOR?
Incidentally, in answer to the question why do mega-rich people try and avoid tax so strenuously, when they can easily afford it, a friend of mine - who is literally married to a billionairess (her extended family is even richer) explained this to me the other day
What happens is that a clever person comes to you and says, Oh, by the way, did you realise that if you do THIS, THIS and THIS, you can avoid £20 million in tax this year?
Even the ultra-rich find that psychologically hard to resist. Twenty million quid. In one year? What happens if something terrible happens and I suddenly need that twenty million after all? A coup? An asteroid? A plague?
And so the rich person says Yes to the clever person, and off they go down the road of tax minimization, which then conjures a life of its own: more people get involved, more schemes are devised, it gets more complex, the taxman takes an interest, more schemes are needed, and so on and so forth. My friend says he’s seen members of this family spend fruitless weeks sorting their finances when they are stupidly, stupidly rich, and could thus enjoy one of the great benefits of wealth - NOT having to worry about money. Yet they do not enjoy this benefit
I found his argument plausible - and consoling
My own experience is... as soon as you start dealing with multiple types of income across different countries... you get inevitably drawn in to time consuming issues relating to tax planning. You just have no choice other than to engage with it. I am sure that other people posting on here will have the same experience.
Life is simple for people who just live in one country, you can manage your tax affairs yourself easily. As soon as you start living in two countries or owning property overseas, it gets very complicated.
These are not dilemmas unique to the ultra rich, by any means.
I dunno. If I was worth, say, a billion, I’d just hire a solid reputable accountant and say: minimise my taxes, but don’t go overboard, and leave it at that
I’d probably end up paying £10mn a year rather than the possibly optimum, fuck-the-taxman £5mn? But I would calm myself by remembering I am worth £1bn so it is peanuts. And I would get on with my life not having to give another thought to money, which is a marvellous thing, and surely the greatest boon of serious wealth (unless you actually enjoy playing with money, and some do - I don’t)
If you had a billion, and it was productively invested at 7% return, you would have an income of £70 million. Hard to see how you could get away with paying £10 million, never mind £5 million. You would probably expect to pay about a third, so about £20 million. But even to get to that point, you would have to be structuring the investments in a tax efficient way and taking advantage of legal schemes, such as the non domicile arrangement - which then open you up to accusations of tax avoidance. If you just say 'im going to pay whatever the tax rate is', then you could end up just paying eye watering and painful amounts of tax. I am not an expert, and certainly not wealthy, but have gone through enough of this to see the problem.
No
If I was earning £70 million a year, I’d probably tell my accountant to pay the 45% tax on everything over the max tax threshold
I’d still have £35-£40 million a year, FFS, and an entirely clean conscience. I would still be obscenely wealthy, and also able to look my fellow Brits in the eye
Who can spend £35 million a year? How many homes do you need? Who actually needs a fucking mega-yacht?
Are you telling us that as a internationally recognised Flint knapper you don't make that sort of money already?
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Isn't Tugendhat more likely than Wallace?
Wallace has high approval ratings with Conservative members.
I think it is the approval rating among Tory MPs that matters. They control which two candidates go to members. That's why Truss won't make it.
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. A thread….
According to flow chart one on this govt website, nobody with settled long term plans to stay in the UK should be a non-dom. If the Chancellor's wife has no settled long term plans to be in the UK then that is a rather odd state of affairs isn't it?
Zac Goldsmith had to give up his non-dom status for this reason
The wife of the CHANCELLOR?
Incidentally, in answer to the question why do mega-rich people try and avoid tax so strenuously, when they can easily afford it, a friend of mine - who is literally married to a billionairess (her extended family is even richer) explained this to me the other day
What happens is that a clever person comes to you and says, Oh, by the way, did you realise that if you do THIS, THIS and THIS, you can avoid £20 million in tax this year?
Even the ultra-rich find that psychologically hard to resist. Twenty million quid. In one year? What happens if something terrible happens and I suddenly need that twenty million after all? A coup? An asteroid? A plague?
And so the rich person says Yes to the clever person, and off they go down the road of tax minimization, which then conjures a life of its own: more people get involved, more schemes are devised, it gets more complex, the taxman takes an interest, more schemes are needed, and so on and so forth. My friend says he’s seen members of this family spend fruitless weeks sorting their finances when they are stupidly, stupidly rich, and could thus enjoy one of the great benefits of wealth - NOT having to worry about money. Yet they do not enjoy this benefit
I found his argument plausible - and consoling
My own experience is... as soon as you start dealing with multiple types of income across different countries... you get inevitably drawn in to time consuming issues relating to tax planning. You just have no choice other than to engage with it. I am sure that other people posting on here will have the same experience.
Life is simple for people who just live in one country, you can manage your tax affairs yourself easily. As soon as you start living in two countries or owning property overseas, it gets very complicated.
These are not dilemmas unique to the ultra rich, by any means.
I dunno. If I was worth, say, a billion, I’d just hire a solid reputable accountant and say: minimise my taxes, but don’t go overboard, and leave it at that
I’d probably end up paying £10mn a year rather than the possibly optimum, fuck-the-taxman £5mn? But I would calm myself by remembering I am worth £1bn so it is peanuts. And I would get on with my life not having to give another thought to money, which is a marvellous thing, and surely the greatest boon of serious wealth (unless you actually enjoy playing with money, and some do - I don’t)
If you had a billion, and it was productively invested at 7% return, you would have an income of £70 million. Hard to see how you could get away with paying £10 million, never mind £5 million. You would probably expect to pay about a third, so about £20 million. But even to get to that point, you would have to be structuring the investments in a tax efficient way and taking advantage of legal schemes, such as the non domicile arrangement - which then open you up to accusations of tax avoidance. If you just say 'im going to pay whatever the tax rate is', then you could end up just paying eye watering and painful amounts of tax. I am not an expert, and certainly not wealthy, but have gone through enough of this to see the problem.
More likely you would have unrealised capital gain of £50m++ and income of <<£20m.
As an example Bezos over 5 years:
Wealth grown $99bn Taxable income $4.2bn Tax paid $1bn
Wonder if Macron will take the risk of trying to shift Melenchon into second place by getting his voters to lend their votes to him. Would be risky as he may end up not making the final two and Melenchon could end up doing a Jez and actually winning.
It could backfire. Melenchon is as high as 46% in some polls for the second round.
On a pure Bantz Basis, it would be HILARIOUS if Macron did not even make the final 2
This poll feels like the one that showed YES in Sindyref ahead, which made everyone crap themselves, and I feel the same result will ensue: the pendulum will swing back and Macron will win, comfortably if not easily, as NO won
However we still have the debates. That is the grand unknown
They will now officially be wearing adult nappies at the Elysee
For the purposes of clarity, I am not joyously laughing at the idea of Le Pen as POTFR (tho I don’t think she’s be anything like as bad as some fear) I AM laughing at the idea of that pompous vain popinjay, E Macron, getting the scare of his life
I am also still fairly sure he will win
Any more disclaimers and you could get a job with a bank
Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland Actual quote from a focus group last night. "I'd rather have a massive wind turbine in my back garden than nothing in my bank account."
SNIP
Even better is to have a massive wind turbine in someone else's back garden.
And so, the uplands of mid-Wales are sprouting wind-farms (with no benefit for the locals).
Most are run by a company called Bute Empire, I mean Bute Energy, based in Edinburgh and London,
And people still disputes that Wales is a colony run for the benefit of others ...
Are there no local taxes on these things, like for other businesses?
Now, look at the map and tell me which areas are devoid of wind-farms.
Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland must easily have three or four times as many wind-farms as the whole of England.
Look at the South East. Look at the South of England. Look at the English counties just next to Powys, Herefordshire, Shropshire. Look at the Pennines. Virtually no wind-farms.
I have no objections to wind-farms in Wales if it is benefitting Wales. It is not.
The profits are outsourced elsewhere. We are left with the turbines & no doubt the de-commissioning costs.
England as usual is exploiting its neighbour.
Whilst I do understand the sentiment, a wind map might reveal why.
But there should be local business rates, surely? If not, why not?
There is an uplift to the business rates, but my understanding is that this is not spent locally.
It is gathered e.g., by Powys Council, who merge it with central funds.
And then the Welsh Government's Local Government Settlement will take this additional income into account.
So the practical benefit to the locals is almost zero.
Yet again, I am objecting not to windfarms ... but to windfarms built in Wales with no discernible benefit to the Welsh. That is colonialism.
Off Topic
Hmmm.
I am currently in dispute with the Community Council, the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Sustainable * *** who have applied to the Duchy of Lancaster to plant a forest on the rather idylic Duchy owned paddock (which for many years I tended with my ride on mower- for sale £200, spares or repairs) in front of my house in order to create a rural wasteland of brambles, nettles, litter and dog sh** over time.
The Community Council have had to apply directly to our English overlords before they create this eyesore. I am hopeful that the Duchy will reject this hairbrained scheme. Hat tip to our English Lords and Masters in this case.
I am shocked, Comrade.
A paddock is for horses of the squirearchy. A tree is for future generations.
It is Llafur policy to plant trees everywhere. In fact, I think Mark Drakeford is giving everyone in Wales a tree.
"From next year, every household in Wales will get a free tree and if you live in a flat, one can be planted on your behalf" [Welsh Labour's Twitter account].
I shall be planting my tree inside Andrew RT Davies' oesophagus.
Wonder if Macron will take the risk of trying to shift Melenchon into second place by getting his voters to lend their votes to him. Would be risky as he may end up not making the final two and Melenchon could end up doing a Jez and actually winning.
It could backfire. Melenchon is as high as 46% in some polls for the second round.
On a pure Bantz Basis, it would be HILARIOUS if Macron did not even make the final 2
This poll feels like the one that showed YES in Sindyref ahead, which made everyone crap themselves, and I feel the same result will ensue: the pendulum will swing back and Macron will win, comfortably if not easily, as NO won
However we still have the debates. That is the grand unknown
At this point Macron needs those debates !
Le Pen if she could would rather avoid them as she will be forced to defend her pro Putin stance .
Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland Actual quote from a focus group last night. "I'd rather have a massive wind turbine in my back garden than nothing in my bank account."
SNIP
Even better is to have a massive wind turbine in someone else's back garden.
And so, the uplands of mid-Wales are sprouting wind-farms (with no benefit for the locals).
Most are run by a company called Bute Empire, I mean Bute Energy, based in Edinburgh and London,
And people still disputes that Wales is a colony run for the benefit of others ...
Are there no local taxes on these things, like for other businesses?
Now, look at the map and tell me which areas are devoid of wind-farms.
Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland must easily have three or four times as many wind-farms as the whole of England.
Look at the South East. Look at the South of England. Look at the English counties just next to Powys, Herefordshire, Shropshire. Look at the Pennines. Virtually no wind-farms.
I have no objections to wind-farms in Wales if it is benefitting Wales. It is not.
The profits are outsourced elsewhere. We are left with the turbines & no doubt the de-commissioning costs.
England as usual is exploiting its neighbour.
Whilst I do understand the sentiment, a wind map might reveal why.
But there should be local business rates, surely? If not, why not?
There is an uplift to the business rates, but my understanding is that this is not spent locally.
It is gathered e.g., by Powys Council, who merge it with central funds.
And then the Welsh Government's Local Government Settlement will take this additional income into account.
So the practical benefit to the locals is almost zero.
Yet again, I am objecting not to windfarms ... but to windfarms built in Wales with no discernible benefit to the Welsh. That is colonialism.
Off Topic
Hmmm.
I am currently in dispute with the Community Council, the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Sustainable * *** who have applied to the Duchy of Lancaster to plant a forest on the rather idylic Duchy owned paddock (which for many years I tended with my ride on mower- for sale £200, spares or repairs) in front of my house in order to create a rural wasteland of brambles, nettles, litter and dog sh** over time.
The Community Council have had to apply directly to our English overlords before they create this eyesore. I am hopeful that the Duchy will reject this hairbrained scheme. Hat tip to our English Lords and Masters in this case.
Mown grass = shit habitat
Brambles and nettles = good habitat
Not in my back yard, or in this instance not in my front yard.
The Community Council haven't offered the grassed areas in front of their houses for mass tree planting, although their r'aison d'etre for ruining my view is the same as yours. In my defence I have done my civic duty down at the Milennium Wood, which must be a "good habitat" because it looks overgrown and awful, particularly after the gypsy horses were illegally put into the wood to graze on the trees, and I did help my neighbour re-lay hedging in the fields behind my house.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician, it seems? But probably in his best role now, given his military career. Rather lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Id agree with the trio but would order them Mordaunt , Hunt and Truss last in terms of electability for the GE.
Wonder if Macron will take the risk of trying to shift Melenchon into second place by getting his voters to lend their votes to him. Would be risky as he may end up not making the final two and Melenchon could end up doing a Jez and actually winning.
It could backfire. Melenchon is as high as 46% in some polls for the second round.
On a pure Bantz Basis, it would be HILARIOUS if Macron did not even make the final 2
This poll feels like the one that showed YES in Sindyref ahead, which made everyone crap themselves, and I feel the same result will ensue: the pendulum will swing back and Macron will win, comfortably if not easily, as NO won
However we still have the debates. That is the grand unknown
At this point Macron needs those debates !
Le Pen if she could would rather avoid them as she will be forced to defend her pro Putin stance .
Yes, remarkably. He is now, almost, the underdog. She has the big momentum. The French are clearly in a rebellious mood
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician, it seems? But probably in his best role now, given his military career. Rather lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Id agree with the trio but would order them Mordaunt , Hunt and Truss last in terms of electability for the GE.
I quite like Mordaunt, as well. State school, tough backstory. Married for just one year then divorced. I sense issues, but also grit
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. A thread….
According to flow chart one on this govt website, nobody with settled long term plans to stay in the UK should be a non-dom. If the Chancellor's wife has no settled long term plans to be in the UK then that is a rather odd state of affairs isn't it?
I absolutely love this line of attack on the Chancellor, because it basically boils down to "women are the property of their husband, who is therefore to be held responsible for all the silly things they do".
Which is... let's say, somewhat at odds with the general views on gender equality usually held by many of those people making the argument.
It boils down to nothing of the kind. Those of us less inherently gammonious than you are quite capable of regarding a spouse as, gender neutrally, a spouse.
That's my point. If you believe that, it's incompatible with the idea that Sunak is somehow responsible for his spouse's financial affairs. What's he supposed to do, order her to change her status? Beat her if she refuses?
No, but it does limit his employment prospects in British politics.
Wonder if Macron will take the risk of trying to shift Melenchon into second place by getting his voters to lend their votes to him. Would be risky as he may end up not making the final two and Melenchon could end up doing a Jez and actually winning.
It could backfire. Melenchon is as high as 46% in some polls for the second round.
On a pure Bantz Basis, it would be HILARIOUS if Macron did not even make the final 2
This poll feels like the one that showed YES in Sindyref ahead, which made everyone crap themselves, and I feel the same result will ensue: the pendulum will swing back and Macron will win, comfortably if not easily, as NO won
However we still have the debates. That is the grand unknown
At this point Macron needs those debates !
Le Pen if she could would rather avoid them as she will be forced to defend her pro Putin stance .
The problem for Macron is his phonecalls, he's constantly being trying to rehabilitate Putin. I don't think the Putin stuff really hurts Le Pen because of this, neither of them come out well at the moment. Even today Macron has been suggesting we talk to Putin despite the clear and obvious war crimes committed by Putin's forces in Bucha.
Le Pen down to 10/3 on Bet365. Getting excruciatingly close for Macron
Also, Melenchon is 66/1, even 100/1 in places. That also looks like VALUE, maybe, because he is only 2 points behind Le Pen in the first round polls, and if he makes it through, his price will shorten dramatically
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. A thread….
According to flow chart one on this govt website, nobody with settled long term plans to stay in the UK should be a non-dom. If the Chancellor's wife has no settled long term plans to be in the UK then that is a rather odd state of affairs isn't it?
Zac Goldsmith had to give up his non-dom status for this reason
The wife of the CHANCELLOR?
Incidentally, in answer to the question why do mega-rich people try and avoid tax so strenuously, when they can easily afford it, a friend of mine - who is literally married to a billionairess (her extended family is even richer) explained this to me the other day
What happens is that a clever person comes to you and says, Oh, by the way, did you realise that if you do THIS, THIS and THIS, you can avoid £20 million in tax this year?
Even the ultra-rich find that psychologically hard to resist. Twenty million quid. In one year? What happens if something terrible happens and I suddenly need that twenty million after all? A coup? An asteroid? A plague?
And so the rich person says Yes to the clever person, and off they go down the road of tax minimization, which then conjures a life of its own: more people get involved, more schemes are devised, it gets more complex, the taxman takes an interest, more schemes are needed, and so on and so forth. My friend says he’s seen members of this family spend fruitless weeks sorting their finances when they are stupidly, stupidly rich, and could thus enjoy one of the great benefits of wealth - NOT having to worry about money. Yet they do not enjoy this benefit
I found his argument plausible - and consoling
My own experience is... as soon as you start dealing with multiple types of income across different countries... you get inevitably drawn in to time consuming issues relating to tax planning. You just have no choice other than to engage with it. I am sure that other people posting on here will have the same experience.
Life is simple for people who just live in one country, you can manage your tax affairs yourself easily. As soon as you start living in two countries or owning property overseas, it gets very complicated.
These are not dilemmas unique to the ultra rich, by any means.
I dunno. If I was worth, say, a billion, I’d just hire a solid reputable accountant and say: minimise my taxes, but don’t go overboard, and leave it at that
I’d probably end up paying £10mn a year rather than the possibly optimum, fuck-the-taxman £5mn? But I would calm myself by remembering I am worth £1bn so it is peanuts. And I would get on with my life not having to give another thought to money, which is a marvellous thing, and surely the greatest boon of serious wealth (unless you actually enjoy playing with money, and some do - I don’t)
If you had a billion, and it was productively invested at 7% return, you would have an income of £70 million. Hard to see how you could get away with paying £10 million, never mind £5 million. You would probably expect to pay about a third, so about £20 million. But even to get to that point, you would have to be structuring the investments in a tax efficient way and taking advantage of legal schemes, such as the non domicile arrangement - which then open you up to accusations of tax avoidance. If you just say 'im going to pay whatever the tax rate is', then you could end up just paying eye watering and painful amounts of tax. I am not an expert, and certainly not wealthy, but have gone through enough of this to see the problem.
No
If I was earning £70 million a year, I’d probably tell my accountant to pay the 45% tax on everything over the max tax threshold
I’d still have £35-£40 million a year, FFS, and an entirely clean conscience. I would still be obscenely wealthy, and also able to look my fellow Brits in the eye
Who can spend £35 million a year? How many homes do you need? Who actually needs a fucking mega-yacht?
It depends on the class of income, surely. What if it's an unrealised capital gain because you own a company that has increased in value? Would you tell your accountant to pay 45% on that?
Tax matters are always more complicated than meet the eye.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician, it seems? But probably in his best role now, given his military career. Rather lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Id agree with the trio but would order them Mordaunt , Hunt and Truss last in terms of electability for the GE.
I quite like Mordaunt, as well. State school, tough backstory. Married for just one year then divorced. I sense issues, but also grit
Some signs of both grit and sensitivity/imagination - not a common combination in modern British politics, and I think Angela Rayner and Lisa Nandy, probably uncoicidentally also both female politicians who haven't had a picnic on their way up, also have a bit of this quality too.
Am I right in thinking that you have to pay tax on all your worldwide income in the US if you live in the US? Wouldn't this put us at a major disadvantage since we allow people who are resident here to pay their tax on foreign income in that jurisdiction?
Not really, we have a double taxation treaty with the US. Income earned here is taxed here and then knocked off their potential US tax liability. In reality UK taxes are much higher anyway.
It's a little worse than that, because you essentially pay the higher of the two rates.
Indeed. My American friends are always shocked at how high taxes are in the UK.
In the same way that we're shocked by the fact you have to pay $8000 to give birth in a hospital in the US etc. Me, I'd take the higher taxes.
I doubt it, they all have health insurance through their employers. As always, the US is a society of haves and have nots.
Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland Actual quote from a focus group last night. "I'd rather have a massive wind turbine in my back garden than nothing in my bank account."
SNIP
Even better is to have a massive wind turbine in someone else's back garden.
And so, the uplands of mid-Wales are sprouting wind-farms (with no benefit for the locals).
Most are run by a company called Bute Empire, I mean Bute Energy, based in Edinburgh and London,
And people still disputes that Wales is a colony run for the benefit of others ...
Are there no local taxes on these things, like for other businesses?
Now, look at the map and tell me which areas are devoid of wind-farms.
Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland must easily have three or four times as many wind-farms as the whole of England.
Look at the South East. Look at the South of England. Look at the English counties just next to Powys, Herefordshire, Shropshire. Look at the Pennines. Virtually no wind-farms.
I have no objections to wind-farms in Wales if it is benefitting Wales. It is not.
The profits are outsourced elsewhere. We are left with the turbines & no doubt the de-commissioning costs.
England as usual is exploiting its neighbour.
Whilst I do understand the sentiment, a wind map might reveal why.
But there should be local business rates, surely? If not, why not?
There is an uplift to the business rates, but my understanding is that this is not spent locally.
It is gathered e.g., by Powys Council, who merge it with central funds.
And then the Welsh Government's Local Government Settlement will take this additional income into account.
So the practical benefit to the locals is almost zero.
Yet again, I am objecting not to windfarms ... but to windfarms built in Wales with no discernible benefit to the Welsh. That is colonialism.
But isn't the BIB the responsibility/fault of the Welsh government?
Interesting read. As a Russian-speaking person of color who was born and raised in Ukraine, I believe that I am in a position to speak on the issue of nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine. A long thread ... https://twitter.com/mariamposts/status/1511995713135443969
Wonder if Macron will take the risk of trying to shift Melenchon into second place by getting his voters to lend their votes to him. Would be risky as he may end up not making the final two and Melenchon could end up doing a Jez and actually winning.
It could backfire. Melenchon is as high as 46% in some polls for the second round.
On a pure Bantz Basis, it would be HILARIOUS if Macron did not even make the final 2
This poll feels like the one that showed YES in Sindyref ahead, which made everyone crap themselves, and I feel the same result will ensue: the pendulum will swing back and Macron will win, comfortably if not easily, as NO won
However we still have the debates. That is the grand unknown
At this point Macron needs those debates !
Le Pen if she could would rather avoid them as she will be forced to defend her pro Putin stance .
Yes, remarkably. He is now, almost, the underdog. She has the big momentum. The French are clearly in a rebellious mood
On the latter, I think the international "pressure" will backfire as well, just like it did here wrt Brexit.
Wonder if Macron will take the risk of trying to shift Melenchon into second place by getting his voters to lend their votes to him. Would be risky as he may end up not making the final two and Melenchon could end up doing a Jez and actually winning.
It could backfire. Melenchon is as high as 46% in some polls for the second round.
On a pure Bantz Basis, it would be HILARIOUS if Macron did not even make the final 2
This poll feels like the one that showed YES in Sindyref ahead, which made everyone crap themselves, and I feel the same result will ensue: the pendulum will swing back and Macron will win, comfortably if not easily, as NO won
However we still have the debates. That is the grand unknown
At this point Macron needs those debates !
Le Pen if she could would rather avoid them as she will be forced to defend her pro Putin stance .
Yes, remarkably. He is now, almost, the underdog. She has the big momentum. The French are clearly in a rebellious mood
On the latter, I think the international "pressure" will backfire as well, just like it did here wrt Brexit.
If Macron contrives to lose this, his decision not to really engage with the campaign, but to rise above it like the God Jupiter, will be viewed as one of the greatest and most consequential mistakes in postwar French politics
Macron will still win Paris by a landslide v Le Pen even Le Pen gets a shock narrow win across France as a whole.
Much as London was overwhelmingly Remain when Brexit won in the UK and overwhelmingly Labour in 2019 when Boris won a UK wide landslide and NYC was strongly for Hillary even when Trump won the US Presidency in 2016
Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland Actual quote from a focus group last night. "I'd rather have a massive wind turbine in my back garden than nothing in my bank account."
SNIP
Even better is to have a massive wind turbine in someone else's back garden.
And so, the uplands of mid-Wales are sprouting wind-farms (with no benefit for the locals).
Most are run by a company called Bute Empire, I mean Bute Energy, based in Edinburgh and London,
And people still disputes that Wales is a colony run for the benefit of others ...
Are there no local taxes on these things, like for other businesses?
Now, look at the map and tell me which areas are devoid of wind-farms.
Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland must easily have three or four times as many wind-farms as the whole of England.
Look at the South East. Look at the South of England. Look at the English counties just next to Powys, Herefordshire, Shropshire. Look at the Pennines. Virtually no wind-farms.
I have no objections to wind-farms in Wales if it is benefitting Wales. It is not.
The profits are outsourced elsewhere. We are left with the turbines & no doubt the de-commissioning costs.
England as usual is exploiting its neighbour.
Whilst I do understand the sentiment, a wind map might reveal why.
But there should be local business rates, surely? If not, why not?
There is an uplift to the business rates, but my understanding is that this is not spent locally.
It is gathered e.g., by Powys Council, who merge it with central funds.
And then the Welsh Government's Local Government Settlement will take this additional income into account.
So the practical benefit to the locals is almost zero.
Yet again, I am objecting not to windfarms ... but to windfarms built in Wales with no discernible benefit to the Welsh. That is colonialism.
Off Topic
Hmmm.
I am currently in dispute with the Community Council, the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Sustainable * *** who have applied to the Duchy of Lancaster to plant a forest on the rather idylic Duchy owned paddock (which for many years I tended with my ride on mower- for sale £200, spares or repairs) in front of my house in order to create a rural wasteland of brambles, nettles, litter and dog sh** over time.
The Community Council have had to apply directly to our English overlords before they create this eyesore. I am hopeful that the Duchy will reject this hairbrained scheme. Hat tip to our English Lords and Masters in this case.
I am shocked, Comrade.
A paddock is for horses of the squirearchy. A tree is for future generations.
It is Llafur policy to plant trees everywhere. In fact, I think Mark Drakeford is giving everyone in Wales a tree.
"From next year, every household in Wales will get a free tree and if you live in a flat, one can be planted on your behalf" [Welsh Labour's Twitter account].
I shall be planting my tree inside Andrew RT Davies' oesophagus.
What are you doing with your tree?
Grazing horses you say? If they do plant 150 trees in front of my house I will pin a note to the gypsy horses on Lamby Way in Cardiff inviting their owners to graze them on the land in front of my house.
Mr Drakeford is more than welcome to have my tree and to do with it as he wishes. I have an idea as to how he can use it, I can share my idea with Mr Drakeford at any time convenient to him, it does involve him touching his toes.
Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland Actual quote from a focus group last night. "I'd rather have a massive wind turbine in my back garden than nothing in my bank account."
SNIP
Even better is to have a massive wind turbine in someone else's back garden.
And so, the uplands of mid-Wales are sprouting wind-farms (with no benefit for the locals).
Most are run by a company called Bute Empire, I mean Bute Energy, based in Edinburgh and London,
And people still disputes that Wales is a colony run for the benefit of others ...
Are there no local taxes on these things, like for other businesses?
Now, look at the map and tell me which areas are devoid of wind-farms.
Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland must easily have three or four times as many wind-farms as the whole of England.
Look at the South East. Look at the South of England. Look at the English counties just next to Powys, Herefordshire, Shropshire. Look at the Pennines. Virtually no wind-farms.
I have no objections to wind-farms in Wales if it is benefitting Wales. It is not.
The profits are outsourced elsewhere. We are left with the turbines & no doubt the de-commissioning costs.
England as usual is exploiting its neighbour.
Whilst I do understand the sentiment, a wind map might reveal why.
But there should be local business rates, surely? If not, why not?
There is an uplift to the business rates, but my understanding is that this is not spent locally.
It is gathered e.g., by Powys Council, who merge it with central funds.
And then the Welsh Government's Local Government Settlement will take this additional income into account.
So the practical benefit to the locals is almost zero.
Yet again, I am objecting not to windfarms ... but to windfarms built in Wales with no discernible benefit to the Welsh. That is colonialism.
Off Topic
Hmmm.
I am currently in dispute with the Community Council, the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Sustainable * *** who have applied to the Duchy of Lancaster to plant a forest on the rather idylic Duchy owned paddock (which for many years I tended with my ride on mower- for sale £200, spares or repairs) in front of my house in order to create a rural wasteland of brambles, nettles, litter and dog sh** over time.
The Community Council have had to apply directly to our English overlords before they create this eyesore. I am hopeful that the Duchy will reject this hairbrained scheme. Hat tip to our English Lords and Masters in this case.
I am shocked, Comrade.
A paddock is for horses of the squirearchy. A tree is for future generations.
It is Llafur policy to plant trees everywhere. In fact, I think Mark Drakeford is giving everyone in Wales a tree.
"From next year, every household in Wales will get a free tree and if you live in a flat, one can be planted on your behalf" [Welsh Labour's Twitter account].
I shall be planting my tree inside Andrew RT Davies' oesophagus.
What seems to be recent footage from Mariupol showing Ukrainian resistance with fighting outside of the city centre, in the suburbs. Also, pretty ballsy taking on tanks with a BTR.
https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1512060297607065602 Footage from #Mariupol showing a Ukrainian BTR-4E APC attacking two Russian T-72 tanks from the rear with a 30mm cannon. Apparently, both tanks received serious damage...
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Isn't Tugendhat more likely than Wallace?
No, too Remain and probably too posh. Wallace is posh but not that posh.
I would be happy with either though
Wallace = Millfield, 1SG, Father 1KDG Tugendhat = St.Pauls, AGC, Father son of immigrants.
Wonder if Macron will take the risk of trying to shift Melenchon into second place by getting his voters to lend their votes to him. Would be risky as he may end up not making the final two and Melenchon could end up doing a Jez and actually winning.
It could backfire. Melenchon is as high as 46% in some polls for the second round.
On a pure Bantz Basis, it would be HILARIOUS if Macron did not even make the final 2
This poll feels like the one that showed YES in Sindyref ahead, which made everyone crap themselves, and I feel the same result will ensue: the pendulum will swing back and Macron will win, comfortably if not easily, as NO won
However we still have the debates. That is the grand unknown
At this point Macron needs those debates !
Le Pen if she could would rather avoid them as she will be forced to defend her pro Putin stance .
Yes, remarkably. He is now, almost, the underdog. She has the big momentum. The French are clearly in a rebellious mood
On the latter, I think the international "pressure" will backfire as well, just like it did here wrt Brexit.
If Macron contrives to lose this, his decision not to really engage with the campaign, but to rise above it like the God Jupiter, will be viewed as one of the greatest and most consequential mistakes in postwar French politics
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. A thread….
According to flow chart one on this govt website, nobody with settled long term plans to stay in the UK should be a non-dom. If the Chancellor's wife has no settled long term plans to be in the UK then that is a rather odd state of affairs isn't it?
Zac Goldsmith had to give up his non-dom status for this reason
The wife of the CHANCELLOR?
Incidentally, in answer to the question why do mega-rich people try and avoid tax so strenuously, when they can easily afford it, a friend of mine - who is literally married to a billionairess (her extended family is even richer) explained this to me the other day
What happens is that a clever person comes to you and says, Oh, by the way, did you realise that if you do THIS, THIS and THIS, you can avoid £20 million in tax this year?
Even the ultra-rich find that psychologically hard to resist. Twenty million quid. In one year? What happens if something terrible happens and I suddenly need that twenty million after all? A coup? An asteroid? A plague?
And so the rich person says Yes to the clever person, and off they go down the road of tax minimization, which then conjures a life of its own: more people get involved, more schemes are devised, it gets more complex, the taxman takes an interest, more schemes are needed, and so on and so forth. My friend says he’s seen members of this family spend fruitless weeks sorting their finances when they are stupidly, stupidly rich, and could thus enjoy one of the great benefits of wealth - NOT having to worry about money. Yet they do not enjoy this benefit
I found his argument plausible - and consoling
My own experience is... as soon as you start dealing with multiple types of income across different countries... you get inevitably drawn in to time consuming issues relating to tax planning. You just have no choice other than to engage with it. I am sure that other people posting on here will have the same experience.
Life is simple for people who just live in one country, you can manage your tax affairs yourself easily. As soon as you start living in two countries or owning property overseas, it gets very complicated.
These are not dilemmas unique to the ultra rich, by any means.
I dunno. If I was worth, say, a billion, I’d just hire a solid reputable accountant and say: minimise my taxes, but don’t go overboard, and leave it at that
I’d probably end up paying £10mn a year rather than the possibly optimum, fuck-the-taxman £5mn? But I would calm myself by remembering I am worth £1bn so it is peanuts. And I would get on with my life not having to give another thought to money, which is a marvellous thing, and surely the greatest boon of serious wealth (unless you actually enjoy playing with money, and some do - I don’t)
If you had a billion, and it was productively invested at 7% return, you would have an income of £70 million. Hard to see how you could get away with paying £10 million, never mind £5 million. You would probably expect to pay about a third, so about £20 million. But even to get to that point, you would have to be structuring the investments in a tax efficient way and taking advantage of legal schemes, such as the non domicile arrangement - which then open you up to accusations of tax avoidance. If you just say 'im going to pay whatever the tax rate is', then you could end up just paying eye watering and painful amounts of tax. I am not an expert, and certainly not wealthy, but have gone through enough of this to see the problem.
No
If I was earning £70 million a year, I’d probably tell my accountant to pay the 45% tax on everything over the max tax threshold
I’d still have £35-£40 million a year, FFS, and an entirely clean conscience. I would still be obscenely wealthy, and also able to look my fellow Brits in the eye
Who can spend £35 million a year? How many homes do you need? Who actually needs a fucking mega-yacht?
This is fine, if your income is all derived from the UK and you live here, you would just pay the additional rate (on dividends), which is 39.35%. But as I said, it just gets complicated when the income is derived from other countries, and you live in different countries - you inevitably get sucked in to tax planning and accusations of tax avoidance, even if you just want to pay around 39.35%, which is what you would pay were you the 'honest UK citizen who can look their fellow countrymen in the eye'. I'd hazard a guess that Sunak and his wife have basically been caught in this trap. I don't feel that sorry for them, but it would be unfortunate if his career was ruined over it; he seems ok; and there is a severe shortage of competent people willing to go in to politics.
An apparently expert tax lawyer on Twitter says that Sunak’s wife has to make this choice every tax year: stay non dom or become a domiciled Brit paying full British taxes
So she could have decided, once Sunak made it to Chancellor, to avoid this obvious looming clusterfuck and pay her full taxes (not that painful for her, given that she is worth 700 million). Then Sunak could have looked us all in the eye and said We pay full taxes in the UK. No scandal
Instead she decided to carry on avoiding lots of tax. In which case Sunak should have told her: fair enough darling, but that means I cannot be Chancellor, the political embarrassment will be horrible and damaging
That’s the conversation they should have had. Either they didn’t have it - hard to believe - or they thought, fuck it, we can get away with it
Sunak is obviously now dead in the water so far as the leadership is concerned. I wonder if at the next reshuffle he'll stand down from the cabinet and leave politics at the next GE. The dream is over - UK's first BAME PM. What is there to look forward to now?
I've felt for quite a while - before Ukraine - that Ben Wallace was being overlooked as a potential successor to Boris. He will go down very well with Tory members and looks very competent and reliable. Hopefully he doesn't have a billionaire wife either.
Wallace doesn’t seem papabile to me. A decent honest politician? Probably in his best role, given his military career. But lacking in the charisma and leadership stuff
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Wallace has higher approval ratings than Truss and Hunt with Yougov. He is also in the Cabinet unlike Mordaunt now.
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
Isn't Tugendhat more likely than Wallace?
No, too Remain and probably too posh. Wallace is posh but not that posh.
I would be happy with either though
Wallace is also Remain
There will come a time in Tory politics - soon, I hope - when this dichotomy won’t matter. But we are not there yet. It matters
Yes, but I think he was very much part of Team Boris which may help if BJ is defenestrated. Readymade team of loyalists on hand.
Have you noticed how recent PMs have alternated between the charismatic and the dull/worthy? An iron law?
Thatcher/Major Blair/Brown Cameron/May Johnson/??
Starmer.
Still value in the Next PM market even though he's clear fav now.
Comments
Also maybe a bit dim. I don’t want to be mean, but Wiki says he went to Millfield, which is a private school famous for taking in the modestly posh but significantly stupid (Roger went there: QED)
Nope. Can’t see it
I agree with others who have said at the moment it is Truss, Mordaunt or Hunt, these three, and the greatest of these is Truss
Ppl tried to bury bodies so they wouldn't be eaten by dogs
As of 6 Apr, bodies of 320 civilians were recovered, search ongoing
https://dw.com/ru/mjer-buchi-chislo-obnaruzhennyh-tel-rastet-s-kazhdym-dnem/a-61385416?fbclid=IwAR2u71DCViDX7myC6DKsXbACf6phHp_EL1K9aYGo1LKWbPvpGhcTb9vgFak
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1512051183317393409
Tory leaders often go charismatic then dull. Wallace is the anti Boris, dull but serious and decent and hardworking, if not naturally gifted. He is an excellent bet
It's well over a decade since he was launching voluminous broadsides against banks for not paying enough taxes, whilst completely forgetting to mention that they had made losses of billions the previous year.
The latest I saw was him calculating recently how much the country was paying for energy by taking the fixed rate bill he had been offered for his house where his family live in Downham Market of "around £3000", and applying that universally.
(Fixed rate bills are not regulated by Ofgem, and are currently about 40-50% higher than the regulated "cap" for the same households on a variable tariff. For an average household, the capped bill is £1971 per annum, as we know.)
The thread is here. It is full of other bizarre assumptions.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1502671563530948610.html
Fuck me
I know we all want a calmer period in political life, but that’s not a calmer period, that’s a desperate torpor of wrist-slitting tedium
Just as I would say that Daily Mail opinion columns = no data.
In both cases, they might be right. But the past history suggests that quality is low.
In this case we need an analysis from a reliable expert with accounting and legal training - for the legal status
Political status = Rishi Fail.
Aren’t the Feds famously ruthless in hunting down all your foreign earnings? More than HMRC?
I have heard (not sure if true) it’s almost as hard to lose US citizenship as to gain US citizenship, if not harder.
I would be happy with either though
Oleh Synehubov told ICTV that Balakliia Mayor Ivan Stolbovyi had fled to Russia with his family. Synehubov said the mayor is under investigation. He earlier accused Stolbovyi of collaborating with the Russian forces.
https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1512056220953288709
"From 1991 to 1998, he served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize, and Northern Ireland, rising to the rank of captain. During his time in Northern Ireland, he was mentioned in dispatches in 1992 for an incident in which the patrol he was commanding captured an entire IRA active service unit attempting to carry out a bomb attack against British troops."
I chanced to hear a radio profile on him a few weeks back. Apparently he was a heroic drinker in his younger days, according to soldier mate. And a risk taker when necessary. Worked hard, and played very hard. Won much respect etc.
Not so dull, really.
The idea is it "difficult" comes from the fact that you have to have a complete set of US tax returns filed for the last x years first - think it was 7 when I did it.
While India had 764,000 dollar-millionaires in 2019 by one account, just 316,000 filed tax returns declaring income of over $75,000. Large-scale [Income Tax] evasion may still be taking place, notes T N Ninan.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/wealth-income-mismatch-the-curious-case-of-india-s-missing-millionaires-122032500993_1.html
What I am looking for are politicians who have a spark of imagination and creativity, who look like they will being new ideas, passion, vigour. Because we desperately need that: to overcome our many problems
I thought Boris might be the one to do it. He is full of imagination (as well as greed, lust, mendacity, the rest). But he is too chaotic and incapable of focus, he has too MANY mad ideas
I get a sense that Truss might just have that fresh perspective, with the will to see it through. Dunno. I might also be hopecasting
I would imagine they would be more shocked though if the lived in Texas than Massachussetts
https://twitter.com/RupertMyers/status/1512064908199751682
There will come a time in Tory politics - soon, I hope - when this dichotomy won’t matter. But we are not there yet. It matters
Presidential run-off election
Le Pen (RN-ID): 50.5%
Macron (EC-RE): 49.5%
Macron (EC-RE): 54%
Mélenchon (LFI-LEFT): 46%
...
Fieldwork: 4-6 April 2022
Sample size: N/A
I still don’t see him as PM material
Yep. As I posted a few days ago after the most tin-eared budget anyone can remember: he will not be an MP in five years time.
Hmmm.
I am currently in dispute with the Community Council, the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Sustainable * *** who have applied to the Duchy of Lancaster to plant a forest on the rather idylic Duchy owned paddock (which for many years I tended with my ride on mower- for sale £200, spares or repairs) in front of my house in order to create a rural wasteland of brambles, nettles, litter and dog sh** over time.
The Community Council have had to apply directly to our English overlords before they create this eyesore. I am hopeful that the Duchy will reject this hairbrained scheme. Hat tip to our English Lords and Masters in this case.
Macron 27%
Le Pen 20.7%
Melenchon 18.1%
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/61025388
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
They will now officially be wearing adult nappies at the Elysee
For the purposes of clarity, I am not joyously laughing at the idea of Le Pen as POTFR (tho I don’t think she’s be anything like as bad as some fear) I AM laughing at the idea of that pompous vain popinjay, E Macron, getting the scare of his life
I am also still fairly sure he will win
Brambles and nettles = good habitat
Have you noticed how recent PMs have alternated between the charismatic and the dull/worthy? An iron law?
Thatcher/Major
Blair/Brown
Cameron/May
Johnson/??
https://twitter.com/alexmasterley/status/1511987552433192965?s=21&t=SxvNQWYEZ5Qjf_38TIuQGA
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/08/boris-johnson-renounces-us-citizenship-record-2016-uk-foreign-secretary
If I was earning £70 million a year, I’d probably tell my accountant to pay the 45% tax on everything over the max tax threshold
I’d still have £35-£40 million a year, FFS, and an entirely clean conscience. I would still be obscenely wealthy, and also able to look my fellow Brits in the eye
Who can spend £35 million a year? How many homes do you need? Who actually needs a fucking mega-yacht?
As an example Bezos over 5 years:
Wealth grown $99bn
Taxable income $4.2bn
Tax paid $1bn
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/08/bezos-musk-buffett-bloomberg-icahn-and-soros-pay-little-in-taxes.html
This poll feels like the one that showed YES in Sindyref ahead, which made everyone crap themselves, and I feel the same result will ensue: the pendulum will swing back and Macron will win, comfortably if not easily, as NO won
However we still have the debates. That is the grand unknown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_French_presidential_election#By_department_2
A paddock is for horses of the squirearchy. A tree is for future generations.
It is Llafur policy to plant trees everywhere. In fact, I think Mark Drakeford is giving everyone in Wales a tree.
"From next year, every household in Wales will get a free tree and if you live in a flat, one can be planted on your behalf" [Welsh Labour's Twitter account].
I shall be planting my tree inside Andrew RT Davies' oesophagus.
What are you doing with your tree?
Le Pen if she could would rather avoid them as she will be forced to defend her pro Putin stance .
The Community Council haven't offered the grassed areas in front of their houses for mass tree planting, although their r'aison d'etre for ruining my view is the same as yours. In my defence I have done my civic duty down at the Milennium Wood, which must be a "good habitat" because it looks overgrown and awful, particularly after the gypsy horses were illegally put into the wood to graze on the trees, and I did help my neighbour re-lay hedging in the fields behind my house.
Also, Melenchon is 66/1, even 100/1 in places. That also looks like VALUE, maybe, because he is only 2 points behind Le Pen in the first round polls, and if he makes it through, his price will shorten dramatically
Tax matters are always more complicated than meet the eye.
(Figures from 2015; paper published in 2020. I imagine prices have only increased since then.)
Looks faintly like Mumbles to me
How about this view?
Yeah, that's pretty much Townhill. Are you in Swansea?
Palm trees in Swansea??
As a Russian-speaking person of color who was born and raised in Ukraine, I believe that I am in a position to speak on the issue of nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine. A long thread ...
https://twitter.com/mariamposts/status/1511995713135443969
Much as London was overwhelmingly Remain when Brexit won in the UK and overwhelmingly Labour in 2019 when Boris won a UK wide landslide and NYC was strongly for Hillary even when Trump won the US Presidency in 2016
Mr Drakeford is more than welcome to have my tree and to do with it as he wishes. I have an idea as to how he can use it, I can share my idea with Mr Drakeford at any time convenient to him, it does involve him touching his toes.
Also, pretty ballsy taking on tanks with a BTR.
https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1512060297607065602
Footage from #Mariupol showing a Ukrainian BTR-4E APC attacking two Russian T-72 tanks from the rear with a 30mm cannon. Apparently, both tanks received serious damage...
Tugendhat = St.Pauls, AGC, Father son of immigrants.
Wallace is posher.
Still value in the Next PM market even though he's clear fav now.