Sky News getting excited about the idea of a wealth tax.
"What is a wealth tax, how would it work in the UK and where else has one? The idea of a wealth tax has been raised before in the UK but has never been implemented."
IMO it's a fairly naive, silly article from Sky (as you say, "excited") - afaics they only focus on the "2% above £10m worth" option. Our moronic media will go up the gum tree as they always do, yammering on about extreme options - exactly as the "Labour will tax you until your pips squeak" bollocks we had from the papers and the opposition politicians in the run up to the election.
At least Sky mention the Swiss option which is at much lower levels and is applied more widely and less regressively, and which afaik is about the only one that works in raising a decent amount of money.
Labour would be better saying "nothing like this in the current term - Kemi and Nigel are a couple of BS merchants", and close all the other loopholes of which lists have been published.
Then pivot Council Tax to a % of property value, or at least with no upper bands and make it linear, which is a type of wealth tax on our most featherbedded type of wealth. That would then begin to slay the house price inflation demon and make property more affordable, a superb contrast to the morally-bankrupt Conservative never-ending feeding of the demand side with subsidies, which makes the house price inflation worse.
Pivoting council tax to property value is going to drive renters out of better area's. Who renting is going to pay a council tax based on property value in london
It's a local tax not national, you don't pay 10x the council tax for a studio flat in London as you would for a 2up2down terrace in Grimsby.
I think you have said this before as I think I replied then. It doesn't make sense keeping in local because then it it not a wealth tax and the ability the pay the top band is going to be a lot different to a place will top band is 300k upwards and a place when the top band starts at 2 mill
What if, this entire time, the key to fixing our cities was enforcing our immigration laws?
I haven't noticed any improvement. In fact, yesterday I got out the Uber half a mile from airport and walked the last bit because it was so busy.
But LA traffic is weird. Sometimes it's super busy and takes you two hours to go a mile. Other times, you feel like it should be busy, and the reoads are empty.
Effigies of lifejacket-wearing migrants in boats have been placed on a village bonfire in a display condemned by critics as 'sickening' and 'racist'. A sign saying 'Stop the boats' was also attached to the pyre in Moygashel, on the outskirts of Dungannon in Co Tyrone in Northern Ireland, prompting protests.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
Not looking likely for the penny to drop any time soon when we look at today's polling on the Triple Lock.
There is absolutely no way the American government would allow this in reverse.
If you've ever wondered why Britain has fallen behind America and China in the tech world, this shows why. No investment in homegrown facilities or talent, over decades.
This is stupid on national security grounds, and equally stupid on development grounds.
I see Alistair and Rory have decided that they've been quiet for too long and need to criticise Israel on their podcast. Fair enough.
I'm not a regular listener but I wonder if they have also been silent on the cesspit that was Gaza before October 2023 and the role of all the international aid and charitable organisations that were complicit in it. Hamas built a network of tunnels bigger than the London underground headquartered next to hospitals and had schools indoctrinating children against Jews. Are we to believe that none of the agencies knew anything about this? That they were blissfully unaware of how all their aid was being mis-used in Gaza by psychopathic savages intent on violence? At the very least I'd like some question to be asked of them not be constantly treated like paragons on the BBC and Sky News as they detail Israel's crimes.
There's a lot of hate for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (inevitable since it is American/Israeli) but can well understand why Israel has taken the steps it has to take control of the aid distribution system from the international bodies who's goods always seemed to find their way into Hamas' hands. Of course the GHF is dubbed 'controversial' by the media whilst the UN bodies are not controversial. Who gets to decide on that?
I am not sure that any amount of whataboutery concerning Rory and friends is going to shed light, and I think you engage in a bit too much. Rory in particular is good on the history of the area, and taken as a whole TRIP gives reasonable and considered opinions, but can't cover all things at all times.
What is needed with respect is a considered approach which goes from where we currently are to a place which has good outcomes for good people on all sides (there are lots of these people) and minimum opportunity for bad people on all sides (there are lots of those too SFAICS).
Finding agreement on 'where we currently are' would be a start. We are well short of that. If America wants to use its firepower and influence well it would use it to bring about a massive multi party conference to meet until agreement and a settlement is found and agreed, with no route to get out of the dialogue and USA force as the backstop. Not because I trust USA force but because I trust the others even less.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
It's more toxic for the model of finance, politics and governance which has been in place since 1918.
The model needs to evolve to match the demographics and that means looking at different ways of funding including looking at accumulated wealth taxation.
An afternoon at Lingfield Park, a lunch time at Toby Carvery and any cruise will tell you there's a lot of money in this country and that money is among the older demographic. That's not an argument against triple locks or pensions per se but perhaps a recognition that wealth accumulated via paying off mortgages in times of low interest rates and the resulting asset appreciation realised via downsizing are other areas for HM Treasury to consider.
I’d echo this at Premiership Rugby at Bath. The crowd seems significantly older than say 10 years ago. Prices are high £800 for a season ticket to about 12 games.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a think tank, found that a non-working Universal Credit (UC) claimant receiving the average housing benefit and personal independence payment for ill health would have an income of £25,000 in 2026-27. This compares with a full-time worker paid the national living wage, who will earn about £22,500 after income tax and National Insurance.
It found that a jobless single parent claiming for anxiety and for a child with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) would receive nearly £37,000 a year – £14,000 more than a worker on the national minimum wage.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
Not looking likely for the penny to drop any time soon when we look at today's polling on the Triple Lock.
Well I am over 65 and in the 1% group who would certainly abolish the triple lock. I wonder what % of PB posters and readers are over 65 and also believe the triple lock should certainly go. I guess it is well over 1% of them. Are we too altruistic, or just too well off? Or both.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
It's more toxic for the model of finance, politics and governance which has been in place since 1918.
The model needs to evolve to match the demographics and that means looking at different ways of funding including looking at accumulated wealth taxation.
An afternoon at Lingfield Park, a lunch time at Toby Carvery and any cruise will tell you there's a lot of money in this country and that money is among the older demographic. That's not an argument against triple locks or pensions per se but perhaps a recognition that wealth accumulated via paying off mortgages in times of low interest rates and the resulting asset appreciation realised via downsizing are other areas for HM Treasury to consider.
I’d echo this at Premiership Rugby at Bath. The crowd seems significantly older than say 10 years ago. Prices are high £800 for a season ticket to about 12 games.
My mate took me to watch the playoff semi-final between Bath and Bristol, I nearly choked on my pint when he said regular games are £100 a ticket, sitting in what is basically a temporary open air stand with no facilities, the one big screen being hardly visible and massive queues for the bar because there isn't enough space.
Oh sweet fucking Jesus. That’s one dinghy. A week. This is Starmer’s big new deal? This is him “smashing the gangs”?
He is so utterly helpless and shite
He is dead good at this negotiation lark...he has probably given away the Channel Islands to France as part of it.
Wait. Hold on. According to the Telegraph Labour have also set up a “new intelligence unit” at Dunkirk
They are a comedy government. This is what they do. Establish inquiries. Set up “units”. Appoint a commission. Wait six years. Appoint another “unit”. Share details with stakeholders. Give away the Crown Jewels to the mayor of Calcutta
Sky News getting excited about the idea of a wealth tax.
"What is a wealth tax, how would it work in the UK and where else has one? The idea of a wealth tax has been raised before in the UK but has never been implemented."
IMO it's a fairly naive, silly article from Sky (as you say, "excited") - afaics they only focus on the "2% above £10m worth" option. Our moronic media will go up the gum tree as they always do, yammering on about extreme options - exactly as the "Labour will tax you until your pips squeak" bollocks we had from the papers and the opposition politicians in the run up to the election.
At least Sky mention the Swiss option which is at much lower levels and is applied more widely and less regressively, and which afaik is about the only one that works in raising a decent amount of money.
Labour would be better saying "nothing like this in the current term - Kemi and Nigel are a couple of BS merchants", and close all the other loopholes of which lists have been published.
Then pivot Council Tax to a % of property value, or at least with no upper bands and make it linear, which is a type of wealth tax on our most featherbedded type of wealth. That would then begin to slay the house price inflation demon and make property more affordable, a superb contrast to the morally-bankrupt Conservative never-ending feeding of the demand side with subsidies, which makes the house price inflation worse.
Pivoting council tax to property value is going to drive renters out of better area's. Who renting is going to pay a council tax based on property value in london
It's a local tax not national, you don't pay 10x the council tax for a studio flat in London as you would for a 2up2down terrace in Grimsby.
I think you have said this before as I think I replied then. It doesn't make sense keeping in local because then it it not a wealth tax and the ability the pay the top band is going to be a lot different to a place will top band is 300k upwards and a place when the top band starts at 2 mill
Those are 2 different things, council tax to pay for local council services and wealth tax based on asset value. Renters wouldn't pay a wealth tax based on the value of the property they are renting because they don't own it, do they. Whether renters should pay for local council services rather than the property owner is an argument that was lost in the late 80s/early 90s.
Oh sweet fucking Jesus. That’s one dinghy. A week. This is Starmer’s big new deal? This is him “smashing the gangs”?
He is so utterly helpless and shite
He is dead good at this negotiation lark...he has probably given away the Channel Islands to France as part of it.
Wait. Hold on. According to the Telegraph Labour have also set up a “new intelligence unit” at Dunkirk
They are a comedy government. This is what they do. Establish inquiries. Set up “units”. Appoint a commission. Wait six years. Appoint another “unit”. Share details with stakeholders. Give away the Crown Jewels to the mayor of Calcutta
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
Not looking likely for the penny to drop any time soon when we look at today's polling on the Triple Lock.
Well I am over 65 and in the 1% group who would certainly abolish the triple lock. I wonder what % of PB posters and readers are over 65 and also believe the triple lock should certainly go. I guess it is well over 1% of them. Are we too altruistic, or just too well off? Or both.
I'm in the next group and also happy to be rid of it.
I think the problem is that the question doesn't carry costs. If it asked "would you be willing to increase income tax by 2% to keep the triple lock for another parliamentary term?" there may well be a different answer.
Sky News getting excited about the idea of a wealth tax.
"What is a wealth tax, how would it work in the UK and where else has one? The idea of a wealth tax has been raised before in the UK but has never been implemented."
IMO it's a fairly naive, silly article from Sky (as you say, "excited") - afaics they only focus on the "2% above £10m worth" option. Our moronic media will go up the gum tree as they always do, yammering on about extreme options - exactly as the "Labour will tax you until your pips squeak" bollocks we had from the papers and the opposition politicians in the run up to the election.
At least Sky mention the Swiss option which is at much lower levels and is applied more widely and less regressively, and which afaik is about the only one that works in raising a decent amount of money.
Labour would be better saying "nothing like this in the current term - Kemi and Nigel are a couple of BS merchants", and close all the other loopholes of which lists have been published.
Then pivot Council Tax to a % of property value, or at least with no upper bands and make it linear, which is a type of wealth tax on our most featherbedded type of wealth. That would then begin to slay the house price inflation demon and make property more affordable, a superb contrast to the morally-bankrupt Conservative never-ending feeding of the demand side with subsidies, which makes the house price inflation worse.
Pivoting council tax to property value is going to drive renters out of better area's. Who renting is going to pay a council tax based on property value in london
It depends where liability lies.
The Proportional Property tax, which is my preferred of the options I have seen, also includes abolition of Stamp Duty and Council Tax liability on the property owner. So there swings and roundabouts.
I think that last element has problems - in that for some properties to remain viable it would be necessary sharply to increase rent, depending on the tenant.
In this neck of the woods a Council Tax may be of the order of 15-30% of the rent. In London property prices would tend to fall - the calculation of the Proportional Tax model is that ~80%+ of properties would have a lower Council Tax, and it would skew towards a greater impact on the higher priced ones, which is what we want.
Overall, I think it is a better balance in a lot of ways.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
It's more toxic for the model of finance, politics and governance which has been in place since 1918.
The model needs to evolve to match the demographics and that means looking at different ways of funding including looking at accumulated wealth taxation.
An afternoon at Lingfield Park, a lunch time at Toby Carvery and any cruise will tell you there's a lot of money in this country and that money is among the older demographic. That's not an argument against triple locks or pensions per se but perhaps a recognition that wealth accumulated via paying off mortgages in times of low interest rates and the resulting asset appreciation realised via downsizing are other areas for HM Treasury to consider.
I’d echo this at Premiership Rugby at Bath. The crowd seems significantly older than say 10 years ago. Prices are high £800 for a season ticket to about 12 games.
My mate took me to watch the playoff semi-final between Bath and Bristol, I nearly choked on my pint when he said regular games are £100 a ticket, sitting in what is basically a temporary open air stand with no facilities, the one big screen being hardly visible and massive queues for the bar because there isn't enough space.
max £20 to go to a County championship cricket game and you can take your own booze and food. Perhaps they could be popular if the ECB didn't schedule them almost entirely during the working week.
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
Oh sweet fucking Jesus. That’s one dinghy. A week. This is Starmer’s big new deal? This is him “smashing the gangs”?
He is so utterly helpless and shite
And we get 50 more in return. Gangs smashed
They’re probably sitting in pas de Calais in a tent shaking their heads in despair at the skill and ruthlessness of the Gang smasher. Literally sending 50 people a week back to France as 800 go the other way every day
I bet they hate him. The gangs. I bet the gangs hate the gang smasher as he smashes them to pieces so that literally 1 in 17 of the migrants might get returned or maybe not. He’s literally smashed them all to pieces
Oh sweet fucking Jesus. That’s one dinghy. A week. This is Starmer’s big new deal? This is him “smashing the gangs”?
He is so utterly helpless and shite
And we get 50 more in return. Gangs smashed
They’re probably sitting in pas de Calais in a tent shaking their heads in despair at the skill and ruthlessness of the Gang smasher. Literally sending 50 people a week back to France as 800 go the other way every day
I bet they hate him. The gangs. I bet the gangs hate the gang smasher as he smashes them to pieces so that literally 1 in 17 of the migrants might get returned or maybe not. He’s literally smashed them all to pieces
They hate every penny of the 'second boat' insurance theyll now charge Bring me your huddled masses innit
Sky News getting excited about the idea of a wealth tax.
"What is a wealth tax, how would it work in the UK and where else has one? The idea of a wealth tax has been raised before in the UK but has never been implemented."
IMO it's a fairly naive, silly article from Sky (as you say, "excited") - afaics they only focus on the "2% above £10m worth" option. Our moronic media will go up the gum tree as they always do, yammering on about extreme options - exactly as the "Labour will tax you until your pips squeak" bollocks we had from the papers and the opposition politicians in the run up to the election.
At least Sky mention the Swiss option which is at much lower levels and is applied more widely and less regressively, and which afaik is about the only one that works in raising a decent amount of money.
Labour would be better saying "nothing like this in the current term - Kemi and Nigel are a couple of BS merchants", and close all the other loopholes of which lists have been published.
Then pivot Council Tax to a % of property value, or at least with no upper bands and make it linear, which is a type of wealth tax on our most featherbedded type of wealth. That would then begin to slay the house price inflation demon and make property more affordable, a superb contrast to the morally-bankrupt Conservative never-ending feeding of the demand side with subsidies, which makes the house price inflation worse.
Pivoting council tax to property value is going to drive renters out of better area's. Who renting is going to pay a council tax based on property value in london
It's a local tax not national, you don't pay 10x the council tax for a studio flat in London as you would for a 2up2down terrace in Grimsby.
I think you have said this before as I think I replied then. It doesn't make sense keeping in local because then it it not a wealth tax and the ability the pay the top band is going to be a lot different to a place will top band is 300k upwards and a place when the top band starts at 2 mill
Those are 2 different things, council tax to pay for local council services and wealth tax based on asset value. Renters wouldn't pay a wealth tax based on the value of the property they are renting because they don't own it, do they. Whether renters should pay for local council services rather than the property owner is an argument that was lost in the late 80s/early 90s.
We have a system where both the owner and a renter pay rates which are the equivalent of council tax. These are owner (foncier) and renter (occupier) and there are two sets, one that pays for your local parish services such as bins, recycling etc and one set goes to the central gov.
These are calculated by a Parish committee of rate payers but not Parish officials. The method is in basic form below - it helps having smaller administrative entities here I imagine in the Parish system (very like the French commune system in effect.
“ The rateable value of land is based on the “attributes” of that land.
The Law defines “attributes” as the size, location, accommodation, condition and use of the land and the quality of any house, building or other structure in, on, under or over the land.
The rateable value of each area of land with similar or substantially similar attributes will be the same. Rateable values are proportionate to attributes.
Land is assessed on the attributes at 1 January. If there has been no change to the attributes, and the previous rateable value is not disputed, then the rateable value will not change from the previous year.”
And young people, bring back WI, Mothers' Union, Rotary Club, youth clubs, scouts etc and champion mothers and wives as well as high earning career women
That may be something to do with the annual number of emergency calls having gone down from ~1 million to ~600k in the last 20 years.
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
alexmassie @alexmassie · 4h Once again, I beseech you: Every single discussion of public sector pay - nurses, doctors, teachers etc - should include the value of public sector pensions. Compensation deferred remains compensation.
Oh sweet fucking Jesus. That’s one dinghy. A week. This is Starmer’s big new deal? This is him “smashing the gangs”?
He is so utterly helpless and shite
He is dead good at this negotiation lark...he has probably given away the Channel Islands to France as part of it.
Wait. Hold on. According to the Telegraph Labour have also set up a “new intelligence unit” at Dunkirk
They are a comedy government. This is what they do. Establish inquiries. Set up “units”. Appoint a commission. Wait six years. Appoint another “unit”. Share details with stakeholders. Give away the Crown Jewels to the mayor of Calcutta
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
It's more toxic for the model of finance, politics and governance which has been in place since 1918.
The model needs to evolve to match the demographics and that means looking at different ways of funding including looking at accumulated wealth taxation.
An afternoon at Lingfield Park, a lunch time at Toby Carvery and any cruise will tell you there's a lot of money in this country and that money is among the older demographic. That's not an argument against triple locks or pensions per se but perhaps a recognition that wealth accumulated via paying off mortgages in times of low interest rates and the resulting asset appreciation realised via downsizing are other areas for HM Treasury to consider.
I’d echo this at Premiership Rugby at Bath. The crowd seems significantly older than say 10 years ago. Prices are high £800 for a season ticket to about 12 games.
Blimey. Supply and demand I guess. Reckon my £1,400 for 23 Arsenal games is a bargain.
"While the agreement between the UK and Rwanda does say that the countries will make arrangements “to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom”, it does not say that the number will be the same as the number of asylum seekers sent by the UK to Rwanda."
From that link, so we did agree to take some in exchange. All theoretical of course because the scheme was an expensive flop.
"While the agreement between the UK and Rwanda does say that the countries will make arrangements “to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom”, it does not say that the number will be the same as the number of asylum seekers sent by the UK to Rwanda."
From that link, so we did agree to take some in exchange. All theoretical of course because the scheme was an expensive flop.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
Not looking likely for the penny to drop any time soon when we look at today's polling on the Triple Lock.
Well I am over 65 and in the 1% group who would certainly abolish the triple lock. I wonder what % of PB posters and readers are over 65 and also believe the triple lock should certainly go. I guess it is well over 1% of them. Are we too altruistic, or just too well off? Or both.
The Maths and Logic skills of PB posters are, with a few notable exceptions, comfortably in the upper decile for the population as a whole.
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
I hope kier is not reading as he might get ideas
Not as crazy as it sounds.
It’s not at all crazy. It would be a brilliant political move - transforming and electrifying politics and completely bamboozling my opponents inside Labour and out. Millions would adore me, overnight. The polls would shift radically in hours - largely in my favour
Luckily the Toolmakersson has zero imagination and zero courage so he won’t do this
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
It's more toxic for the model of finance, politics and governance which has been in place since 1918.
The model needs to evolve to match the demographics and that means looking at different ways of funding including looking at accumulated wealth taxation.
An afternoon at Lingfield Park, a lunch time at Toby Carvery and any cruise will tell you there's a lot of money in this country and that money is among the older demographic. That's not an argument against triple locks or pensions per se but perhaps a recognition that wealth accumulated via paying off mortgages in times of low interest rates and the resulting asset appreciation realised via downsizing are other areas for HM Treasury to consider.
I’d echo this at Premiership Rugby at Bath. The crowd seems significantly older than say 10 years ago. Prices are high £800 for a season ticket to about 12 games.
Blimey. Supply and demand I guess. Reckon my £1,400 for 23 Arsenal games is a bargain.
£600 for my season ticket at Leicester City for 23 games.
Presuming we have a manager and team in a month's time, of course...
The problem with Starmer is he is so anxious to get a deal, he will make an announcement without having completed the process and obtained EU approval
He really is a terrible PM, and if he thinks he can sell sending 50 migrants back in exchange for 50 coming here from France then he really is more stupid then even I thought
"While the agreement between the UK and Rwanda does say that the countries will make arrangements “to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom”, it does not say that the number will be the same as the number of asylum seekers sent by the UK to Rwanda."
From that link, so we did agree to take some in exchange. All theoretical of course because the scheme was an expensive flop.
Yes. A simple "I was wrong" would have sufficed.
Yes, not one in, one out, but rather an agreement to take an unspecified number.
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
I hope kier is not reading as he might get ideas
Not as crazy as it sounds.
It’s not at all crazy. It would be a brilliant political move - transforming and electrifying politics and completely bamboozling my opponents inside Labour and out. Millions would adore me, overnight. The polls would shift radically in hours - largely in my favour
Luckily the Toolmakersson has zero imagination and zero courage so he won’t do this
He will instead negotiate a deal to sell all second born children to Belgium and have the parents rent them back.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
Not looking likely for the penny to drop any time soon when we look at today's polling on the Triple Lock.
Well I am over 65 and in the 1% group who would certainly abolish the triple lock. I wonder what % of PB posters and readers are over 65 and also believe the triple lock should certainly go. I guess it is well over 1% of them. Are we too altruistic, or just too well off? Or both.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
It's more toxic for the model of finance, politics and governance which has been in place since 1918.
The model needs to evolve to match the demographics and that means looking at different ways of funding including looking at accumulated wealth taxation.
An afternoon at Lingfield Park, a lunch time at Toby Carvery and any cruise will tell you there's a lot of money in this country and that money is among the older demographic. That's not an argument against triple locks or pensions per se but perhaps a recognition that wealth accumulated via paying off mortgages in times of low interest rates and the resulting asset appreciation realised via downsizing are other areas for HM Treasury to consider.
I’d echo this at Premiership Rugby at Bath. The crowd seems significantly older than say 10 years ago. Prices are high £800 for a season ticket to about 12 games.
My mate took me to watch the playoff semi-final between Bath and Bristol, I nearly choked on my pint when he said regular games are £100 a ticket, sitting in what is basically a temporary open air stand with no facilities, the one big screen being hardly visible and massive queues for the bar because there isn't enough space.
max £20 to go to a County championship cricket game and you can take your own booze and food. Perhaps they could be popular if the ECB didn't schedule them almost entirely during the working week.
I did hear that County Championship attendances are higher during the week, because there are fewer other events scheduled and the younger families the retired might visit are busy at work.
"While the agreement between the UK and Rwanda does say that the countries will make arrangements “to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom”, it does not say that the number will be the same as the number of asylum seekers sent by the UK to Rwanda."
From that link, so we did agree to take some in exchange. All theoretical of course because the scheme was an expensive flop.
Yes. A simple "I was wrong" would have sufficed.
Yes, not one in, one out, but rather an agreement to take an unspecified number.
"While the agreement between the UK and Rwanda does say that the countries will make arrangements “to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom”, it does not say that the number will be the same as the number of asylum seekers sent by the UK to Rwanda."
From that link, so we did agree to take some in exchange. All theoretical of course because the scheme was an expensive flop.
Yes. A simple "I was wrong" would have sufficed.
Yes, not one in, one out, but rather an agreement to take an unspecified number.
It wasn't to be a one way traffic.
Who said it was?
A test for @foxy here as he struggles to say “yes I was wrong”
"While the agreement between the UK and Rwanda does say that the countries will make arrangements “to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom”, it does not say that the number will be the same as the number of asylum seekers sent by the UK to Rwanda."
From that link, so we did agree to take some in exchange. All theoretical of course because the scheme was an expensive flop.
Yes. A simple "I was wrong" would have sufficed.
Yes, not one in, one out, but rather an agreement to take an unspecified number.
It wasn't to be a one way traffic.
Who said it was?
A test for @foxy here as he struggles to say “yes I was wrong”
The forum waits. Tenterhooks
That’s a big fat ‘I’m always right’ mote you’ve got there.
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
I hope kier is not reading as he might get ideas
The voters might be enthusiastic, but can the country afford it? Cost of referendum; cost of negotiations; massive costs to persuade them to take us; massive costs to convert sterling to euro; massive annual payments into the EU coffers from then on in.
alexmassie @alexmassie · 4h Once again, I beseech you: Every single discussion of public sector pay - nurses, doctors, teachers etc - should include the value of public sector pensions. Compensation deferred remains compensation.
The cash equivalent value of public sector versus equivalent private sector defined contribution pensions is a lot lower with real yields at 2% than it was with real yields at 0% to -2%.
Sure, it's a good perk. But it's not as game changing in terms of total compensation as people imply.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
Not looking likely for the penny to drop any time soon when we look at today's polling on the Triple Lock.
Well I am over 65 and in the 1% group who would certainly abolish the triple lock. I wonder what % of PB posters and readers are over 65 and also believe the triple lock should certainly go. I guess it is well over 1% of them. Are we too altruistic, or just too well off? Or both.
Just asking whether it should be abolished is a bit meaningless, without giving any indication of what - if anything - would replace it. It would be interesting to see the response to replacing it with a "single-lock" based on price inflation.
alexmassie @alexmassie · 4h Once again, I beseech you: Every single discussion of public sector pay - nurses, doctors, teachers etc - should include the value of public sector pensions. Compensation deferred remains compensation.
The cash equivalent value of public sector versus equivalent private sector defined contribution pensions is a lot lower with real yields at 2% than it was with real yields at 0% to -2%.
Sure, it's a good perk. But it's not as game changing in terms of total compensation as people imply.
That's now though surely? 'Now' may be short lived. Who the f knows.
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
I hope kier is not reading as he might get ideas
The voters might be enthusiastic, but can the country afford it? Cost of referendum; cost of negotiations; massive costs to persuade them to take us; massive costs to convert sterling to euro; massive annual payments into the EU coffers from then on in.
Again. And again. And again. How often do some of us have to remind people?
Rejoining the EU involves joining the Euro unless there is the mother of all opt outs in recent world history.
Interesting post from Daniel Priestley, who has debated wealth tax fanatic and greatest trader ever, Gary Stevenson, a few times on the possible effect of labours proposed (via Kinnock and others, leak it and gauge reaction) 2% wealth tax on assets above £10 million.
What a chump Redwood is. No awareness at all that the period of Norman subjugation, as he would put it, was the furnace from which English would emerge as the language that would go on to conquer the world. Prior to the Conquest, 'we' spoke Old English, with all the complexity of other European languages - three genders, a complex set of inflections and endings, a whole stack of now unfamiliar letters.
While the Normans were running everything and churning out their documents in Latin and Norman french, our ancestors were turning Old English into Middle English - one of the most dramatic linguistic transformations of history. Spoken by ordinary folk and rarely written down, out went the genders and most of the inflections and endings, with propositions and a more rigid word order used to convey tense and subject/object. The dialect in the linguistic driving seat shifted from Wessex to the more populous and prosperous East Midlands, enabling a synthesis of English and Norse syntax. Through some process not fully understood, the most straightforward elements of English and Norse were melded a new language, which also took in a batch of Latin derived words from French. After a few hundred years, when writing stuff down in the way that ordinary folk spoke, our proto-super-language was born.
Had we not invented printing at just the time when, for reasons not fully understood, we changed the pronunciation of all of our vowels, such that the pronunciation of English became separated from its spelling, English would have been so obviously superior that no-one would ever have bothered to invent Esperanto.
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
I hope kier is not reading as he might get ideas
The voters might be enthusiastic, but can the country afford it? Cost of referendum; cost of negotiations; massive costs to persuade them to take us; massive costs to convert sterling to euro; massive annual payments into the EU coffers from then on in.
But that's what brilliant: we'd never actually region the EU!
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
I hope kier is not reading as he might get ideas
The voters might be enthusiastic, but can the country afford it? Cost of referendum; cost of negotiations; massive costs to persuade them to take us; massive costs to convert sterling to euro; massive annual payments into the EU coffers from then on in.
Again. And again. And again. How often do some of us have to remind people?
Rejoining the EU involves joining the Euro unless there is the mother of all opt outs in recent world history.
WE DO NOT WANT TO JOIN THE EURO.
While that's technically true, it's not actually true.
Sweden is treaty bound to join the Euro, but has made no steps to do so, and I highly doubt will ever actually join.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
Not looking likely for the penny to drop any time soon when we look at today's polling on the Triple Lock.
Well I am over 65 and in the 1% group who would certainly abolish the triple lock. I wonder what % of PB posters and readers are over 65 and also believe the triple lock should certainly go. I guess it is well over 1% of them. Are we too altruistic, or just too well off? Or both.
Neither. Just very untypical of real people.
I post from Alpha Centauri, so, asking for a friend, what is the difference between 'people' and 'real people'. And which sort is Leon?
There is absolutely no way the American government would allow this in reverse.
If you've ever wondered why Britain has fallen behind America and China in the tech world, this shows why. No investment in homegrown facilities or talent, over decades.
This is stupid on national security grounds, and equally stupid on development grounds.
The Ministers involved are simply corrupt, and this is a meal ticket for them. No more, no less.
There is absolutely no way the American government would allow this in reverse.
If you've ever wondered why Britain has fallen behind America and China in the tech world, this shows why. No investment in homegrown facilities or talent, over decades.
This is stupid on national security grounds, and equally stupid on development grounds.
The Ministers involved are simply corrupt, and this is a meal ticket for them. No more, no less.
Never attribute to malice, that which night be adequately explained by incompetence.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
Not looking likely for the penny to drop any time soon when we look at today's polling on the Triple Lock.
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
I hope kier is not reading as he might get ideas
The voters might be enthusiastic, but can the country afford it? Cost of referendum; cost of negotiations; massive costs to persuade them to take us; massive costs to convert sterling to euro; massive annual payments into the EU coffers from then on in.
Again. And again. And again. How often do some of us have to remind people?
Rejoining the EU involves joining the Euro unless there is the mother of all opt outs in recent world history.
There is absolutely no way the American government would allow this in reverse.
If you've ever wondered why Britain has fallen behind America and China in the tech world, this shows why. No investment in homegrown facilities or talent, over decades.
This is stupid on national security grounds, and equally stupid on development grounds.
The Ministers involved are simply corrupt, and this is a meal ticket for them. No more, no less.
Don't forget this is also the Government that seemingly inexplicably cancelled a UK AI scheme based in Scotland. Wonder why.
"Britain "cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public", the budget watchdog has concluded in a stark warning that the country has been living beyond its means".
That's true of all developed world countries.
The combination of rising life expectancy, promised pensions, increasingly expensive healthcare, and low birthrates is absolutely toxic for the sustainability of developed world government finances.
Not looking likely for the penny to drop any time soon when we look at today's polling on the Triple Lock.
Well I am over 65 and in the 1% group who would certainly abolish the triple lock. I wonder what % of PB posters and readers are over 65 and also believe the triple lock should certainly go. I guess it is well over 1% of them. Are we too altruistic, or just too well off? Or both.
Neither. Just very untypical of real people.
I post from Alpha Centauri, so, asking for a friend, what is the difference between 'people' and 'real people'. And which sort is Leon?
Sky News getting excited about the idea of a wealth tax.
"What is a wealth tax, how would it work in the UK and where else has one? The idea of a wealth tax has been raised before in the UK but has never been implemented."
IMO it's a fairly naive, silly article from Sky (as you say, "excited") - afaics they only focus on the "2% above £10m worth" option. Our moronic media will go up the gum tree as they always do, yammering on about extreme options - exactly as the "Labour will tax you until your pips squeak" bollocks we had from the papers and the opposition politicians in the run up to the election.
At least Sky mention the Swiss option which is at much lower levels and is applied more widely and less regressively, and which afaik is about the only one that works in raising a decent amount of money.
Labour would be better saying "nothing like this in the current term - Kemi and Nigel are a couple of BS merchants", and close all the other loopholes of which lists have been published.
Then pivot Council Tax to a % of property value, or at least with no upper bands and make it linear, which is a type of wealth tax on our most featherbedded type of wealth. That would then begin to slay the house price inflation demon and make property more affordable, a superb contrast to the morally-bankrupt Conservative never-ending feeding of the demand side with subsidies, which makes the house price inflation worse.
Pivoting council tax to property value is going to drive renters out of better area's. Who renting is going to pay a council tax based on property value in london
It's a local tax not national, you don't pay 10x the council tax for a studio flat in London as you would for a 2up2down terrace in Grimsby.
I think you have said this before as I think I replied then. It doesn't make sense keeping in local because then it it not a wealth tax and the ability the pay the top band is going to be a lot different to a place will top band is 300k upwards and a place when the top band starts at 2 mill
Those are 2 different things, council tax to pay for local council services and wealth tax based on asset value. Renters wouldn't pay a wealth tax based on the value of the property they are renting because they don't own it, do they. Whether renters should pay for local council services rather than the property owner is an argument that was lost in the late 80s/early 90s.
Don't be naive, if my landlord has to pay 10k property tax it will added to rent just like mortgage rate rises
Comments
But LA traffic is weird. Sometimes it's super busy and takes you two hours to go a mile. Other times, you feel like it should be busy, and the reoads are empty.
https://x.com/higgsfield_ai/status/1942985415520333942
That's e-thots out of work.
https://bsky.app/profile/yougov.co.uk/post/3ltk4bjssnk22
Johnson's was the worst, on every metric
What is needed with respect is a considered approach which goes from where we currently are to a place which has good outcomes for good people on all sides (there are lots of these people) and minimum opportunity for bad people on all sides (there are lots of those too SFAICS).
Finding agreement on 'where we currently are' would be a start. We are well short of that. If America wants to use its firepower and influence well it would use it to bring about a massive multi party conference to meet until agreement and a settlement is found and agreed, with no route to get out of the dialogue and USA force as the backstop. Not because I trust USA force but because I trust the others even less.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/09/starmer-send-back-one-in-17-migrants-under-macron-deal-uk/
It found that a jobless single parent claiming for anxiety and for a child with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) would receive nearly £37,000 a year – £14,000 more than a worker on the national minimum wage.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/09/proof-that-benefits-pay-more-than-a-full-time-job-uc/
Just because you have this enormous vocabulary and greater intellect doesn’t give you the right to bully people off the site
So, yeah, very funny. Well done. Bravo you. Nice one - “as indeed do you [go on and on]”
How am I meant to respond to a brutal assault like that? I may have to leave the site. Hope you’re happy
He is so utterly helpless and shite
They are a comedy government. This is what they do. Establish inquiries. Set up “units”. Appoint a commission. Wait six years. Appoint another “unit”. Share details with stakeholders. Give away the Crown Jewels to the mayor of Calcutta
Renters wouldn't pay a wealth tax based on the value of the property they are renting because they don't own it, do they.
Whether renters should pay for local council services rather than the property owner is an argument that was lost in the late 80s/early 90s.
I think the problem is that the question doesn't carry costs. If it asked "would you be willing to increase income tax by 2% to keep the triple lock for another parliamentary term?" there may well be a different answer.
The Proportional Property tax, which is my preferred of the options I have seen, also includes abolition of Stamp Duty and Council Tax liability on the property owner. So there swings and roundabouts.
I think that last element has problems - in that for some properties to remain viable it would be necessary sharply to increase rent, depending on the tenant.
In this neck of the woods a Council Tax may be of the order of 15-30% of the rent. In London property prices would tend to fall - the calculation of the Proportional Tax model is that ~80%+ of properties would have a lower Council Tax, and it would skew towards a greater impact on the higher priced ones, which is what we want.
Overall, I think it is a better balance in a lot of ways.
Perhaps they could be popular if the ECB didn't schedule them almost entirely during the working week.
Let’s say I’m sir kier traitor. Everyone hates me. Turns out I am shit at being PM. I’m quite miserable as well. I don’t like the scrutiny. My wife hasn’t been seen in public for a year. My mps laugh at me and rebel openly. I have no ideas and no agenda and I am a void. I never dream. I can barely talk. I am behind a hard right party in the polls and heading for a historically pathetic single term
How to turn it around with one astonishing move?
Call a referendum on rejoining the EU. Say the country is in such a bad way I have no choice
Immediately I will have the ardent support of 30% of the people. They will love me. My party will stare at me in awe. I will go down in history. Polls say I will probably win. Thus securing my legacy forever. Even if I do nothing else
It is also one of the few things I genuinely believe
I hope kier is not reading as he might get ideas
Gangs smashed
And has the EU agreed to the deal ?
So they'll have matched the Conservatives record by lunchtime Monday of week 1....
I bet they hate him. The gangs. I bet the gangs hate the gang smasher as he smashes them to pieces so that literally 1 in 17 of the migrants might get returned or maybe not. He’s literally smashed them all to pieces
Bring me your huddled masses innit
I might offer that to Visit Britain as a slogan for their next campaign
“Nicer than Bulgaria”
These are calculated by a Parish committee of rate payers but not Parish officials. The method is in basic form below - it helps having smaller administrative entities here I imagine in the Parish system (very like the French commune system in effect.
“ The rateable value of land is based on the “attributes” of that land.
The Law defines “attributes” as the size, location, accommodation, condition and use of the land and the quality of any house, building or other structure in, on, under or over the land.
The rateable value of each area of land with similar or substantially similar attributes will be the same. Rateable values are proportionate to attributes.
Land is assessed on the attributes at 1 January. If there has been no change to the attributes, and the previous rateable value is not disputed, then the rateable value will not change from the previous year.”
https://fullfact.org/immigration/rwanda-policy-refugees/
@alexmassie
·
4h
Once again, I beseech you: Every single discussion of public sector pay - nurses, doctors, teachers etc - should include the value of public sector pensions. Compensation deferred remains compensation.
https://x.com/alexmassie/status/1942937642649493788
From that link, so we did agree to take some in exchange. All theoretical of course because the scheme was an expensive flop.
Luckily the Toolmakersson has zero imagination and zero courage so he won’t do this
Presuming we have a manager and team in a month's time, of course...
He really is a terrible PM, and if he thinks he can sell sending 50 migrants back in exchange for 50 coming here from France then he really is more stupid then even I thought
It wasn't to be a one way traffic.
The forum waits. Tenterhooks
Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck,Duck, Duck, GOOSE deal
Sure, it's a good perk. But it's not as game changing in terms of total compensation as people imply.
Public sector pension has certainty.
Rejoining the EU involves joining the Euro unless there is the mother of all opt outs in recent world history.
WE DO NOT WANT TO JOIN THE EURO.
Castlereagh himself could not conceive of such brilliance
https://x.com/danielpriestley/status/1943001013113491648?s=61
While the Normans were running everything and churning out their documents in Latin and Norman french, our ancestors were turning Old English into Middle English - one of the most dramatic linguistic transformations of history. Spoken by ordinary folk and rarely written down, out went the genders and most of the inflections and endings, with propositions and a more rigid word order used to convey tense and subject/object. The dialect in the linguistic driving seat shifted from Wessex to the more populous and prosperous East Midlands, enabling a synthesis of English and Norse syntax. Through some process not fully understood, the most straightforward elements of English and Norse were melded a new language, which also took in a batch of Latin derived words from French. After a few hundred years, when writing stuff down in the way that ordinary folk spoke, our proto-super-language was born.
Had we not invented printing at just the time when, for reasons not fully understood, we changed the pronunciation of all of our vowels, such that the pronunciation of English became separated from its spelling, English would have been so obviously superior that no-one would ever have bothered to invent Esperanto.
Spencer Hakimian
@SpencerHakimian
·
49m
“Can you explain how you calculated your latest round of tariffs? Was there a formula?” - Question
“The formula was a formula based on common sense.” - Trump
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1943001181825175960
Starmer may have no personality and no idea why he is PM and no story to tell the country but he isn't an actual total clown loon.
Let's count our blessings.
Sweden is treaty bound to join the Euro, but has made no steps to do so, and I highly doubt will ever actually join.
Asking her wouldn’t have improved Labour’s score.
“We’re doomed”.