I see we are rapidly going from its just your digital ID to prove who you say you are to something much bigger and of course you can't do all of this without the massive centralised database.
You can do it without a centralised database because the one login design is based around separate databases with a centralised authentication system...
Can...and will....two different things. the goal posts are already moving from a simple id check akin to a digital passport or driving licence.
'The Green Party's proposal for a wealth tax on 1% of assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn comes top of our list of tax reforms that Britons would support, with 75% giving it their backing.
93% of Green voters and 87% of Labour voters and 80% of LD voters back a wealth tax on the richest. Even 70% of Tory and 61% of Reform voters in favour
How much would it raise in the first year? I assume tax evasion/avoidance/put the Stubbs in the lorry would kick in from year 2 onwards.
Yes, plenty of the rich affected would base themselves in Monaco, Switzerland, Dubai, Florida, the Bahamas, Singapore etc if such a tax came in
They can’t take their Knightsbridge townhouses with them
And so the wealth tax argument reaches it natural conclusion - the only part of wealth that can be easily taxed is land and property.
And we simply don’t tax property efficiently or enough
And it’s going to apply to far more people than just the so called super rich with ‘wealth’ in excess of £10 million.
The super rich may not be able to take their townhouses with them but they can sell them off. They don’t need to own an asset that may be a liability.
They also take their spending on food and drink both in shops and bars/restaurants, they stop employing their cleaner, driver, security, accountant, solicitors. They stop buying their clothes, watches and jewellery, art, furniture in London too so the shops that were selling these things need fewer staff or close. Those staff have to find jobs in possibly lower paid roles elsewhere and so cut down their spending.
So great, the people have stuck it to those rich bastards by raising their taxes. Unfortunately those rich bastards aren’t going to be paying those taxes in the UK anyway now, you’ve sucked spending out of the country. You’ve affected balance of payments because a lot of those people were making their money overseas and bringing it in to the UK as they were living there.
They were also keeping maybe an office in the UK, don’t need that now. They might be about to be setting up a spin-off of one of their businesses and liked the idea of having it based in the UK as they can gets hands on.
Now they are in Zurich, Dubai, wherever they might as well do it there and employ people there.
If they care about the arts or a particularl medical condition then they aren’t going to be donating to UK based charities and entities, won’t be supporting fundraisers in the UK, they will support where they are living.
Ultimately the country is poorer and some people might feel so much better for having kicked the rich but they are still rich, just not benefiting the UK.
Despite what you say true patriots would, of course, just take the hit and stay in the greatest country on earth.
After all, it's not as if these millionaires and billionaires would be short of a bob or two if they had to pay 1% or 2% extra tax on their wealth.
Indeed, they'd still be absolutely rolling in it in a way that the vast majority of us can barely imagine. Unless they're just greedy.
You are assuming that they are mostly or even partly British.
On a smaller scale - why should my Indian or Chinese colleagues not move to another country where the bank we work for has offices? One that offers them a better tax/services/ environment?
People undersell the UK on this topic. It would still be a fabulous place to live with a wealth tax and whilst some would leave, the vast, vast majority won't.
Ah yes - “they won’t alter their behaviour” strategy on tax.
Always works.
Some will as I said. Moving to another country is towards the extreme side of changing behaviour for a tax that makes less difference to their wealth than a typical weeks of volatility in global share prices.
And yet people are bemoaning that Brexit has denied people the opportunity to move and live and work around Europe to improve their lives.
If we consider the apparent millions who have had their plans ruined by Brexit stopping them from moving as rational then it’s surely no different than the wealthy moving country for their best options - is keeping more of your own money not as valid as wanting a different culture, different career options, different weather and lifestyle.
I doubt there were millions of Brits looking to move abroad who have been stopped due to Brexit, low hundreds of thousands over several years perhaps. Unless we are including youngsters who would spend a summer or two there.
Hi None.
It was something Mrs PtP and I were looking at back then, but Brexit ruled it out. To be fair, we may not have gone anyway, and we could probably find workarounds if we really wanted to go now, but the bottom line is that it effectively closed a door for us.
Individual anecdotal examples prove nothing of course, but I should think there are quite a few others similarly affected.
Yes, that is a loss, as is the option to spend say six months in another EU country, which was a freedom we had before Brexit. I travel a lot in Europe and every year have to do my sums to stay within the 90 day limit, across the summer, and both this year and the year before last hit the ninety days exactly. And if you go on any travel forum there are tons of motorhoming Brits having to do the ‘Schengen shuffle’ - much more difficult now Romania and Bulgaria are inside Schengen for land travel - looking at spending time in Serbia or Morocco or Turkey until their ninety days resets.
The irony is that Mr Dog can stay for four months, on the usual travel certificate used by Brits, and in my case indefinitely as he has a Belgian passport.
Does he wave you goodbye at the border - and is there again, waging his tail, when you come back?
'The Green Party's proposal for a wealth tax on 1% of assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn comes top of our list of tax reforms that Britons would support, with 75% giving it their backing.
93% of Green voters and 87% of Labour voters and 80% of LD voters back a wealth tax on the richest. Even 70% of Tory and 61% of Reform voters in favour
I support a wealth tax, so long as it is combined with reductions on income tax/National Insurance, particularly for lower income workers. What it cannot be is an opportunity to just soak people more.
One of the most important jobs of the government is to encourage economic activity. That means getting the incentives right.
Taxing work, particularly for those at the bottom of the income scale, is fucked up. It's basically discouraging the one thing we want more of.
So, like in Switzerland, we should have a modest wealth tax. And let's use that as an opportunity to fold NI and Income Tax together, and to reduce the burden on the lowest paid.
Problem is a wealth tax doesn’t work even in Switzerland it raises little to nothing.
At the Federal level it raises next to nothing.
But at the Canton level, it can be a fairly signficant share of receipts: on average it's 10% of total take, and in some Cantons it's closer to 20%.
(Bear in mind too, that the Cantons account for 60% of tax and spending in Switzlerland, against 40% for the Federal government.)
'The Green Party's proposal for a wealth tax on 1% of assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn comes top of our list of tax reforms that Britons would support, with 75% giving it their backing.
93% of Green voters and 87% of Labour voters and 80% of LD voters back a wealth tax on the richest. Even 70% of Tory and 61% of Reform voters in favour
How much would it raise in the first year? I assume tax evasion/avoidance/put the Stubbs in the lorry would kick in from year 2 onwards.
Yes, plenty of the rich affected would base themselves in Monaco, Switzerland, Dubai, Florida, the Bahamas, Singapore etc if such a tax came in
They can’t take their Knightsbridge townhouses with them
And so the wealth tax argument reaches it natural conclusion - the only part of wealth that can be easily taxed is land and property.
And we simply don’t tax property efficiently or enough
And it’s going to apply to far more people than just the so called super rich with ‘wealth’ in excess of £10 million.
The super rich may not be able to take their townhouses with them but they can sell them off. They don’t need to own an asset that may be a liability.
They also take their spending on food and drink both in shops and bars/restaurants, they stop employing their cleaner, driver, security, accountant, solicitors. They stop buying their clothes, watches and jewellery, art, furniture in London too so the shops that were selling these things need fewer staff or close. Those staff have to find jobs in possibly lower paid roles elsewhere and so cut down their spending.
So great, the people have stuck it to those rich bastards by raising their taxes. Unfortunately those rich bastards aren’t going to be paying those taxes in the UK anyway now, you’ve sucked spending out of the country. You’ve affected balance of payments because a lot of those people were making their money overseas and bringing it in to the UK as they were living there.
They were also keeping maybe an office in the UK, don’t need that now. They might be about to be setting up a spin-off of one of their businesses and liked the idea of having it based in the UK as they can gets hands on.
Now they are in Zurich, Dubai, wherever they might as well do it there and employ people there.
If they care about the arts or a particularl medical condition then they aren’t going to be donating to UK based charities and entities, won’t be supporting fundraisers in the UK, they will support where they are living.
Ultimately the country is poorer and some people might feel so much better for having kicked the rich but they are still rich, just not benefiting the UK.
Despite what you say true patriots would, of course, just take the hit and stay in the greatest country on earth.
After all, it's not as if these millionaires and billionaires would be short of a bob or two if they had to pay 1% or 2% extra tax on their wealth.
Indeed, they'd still be absolutely rolling in it in a way that the vast majority of us can barely imagine. Unless they're just greedy.
You are assuming that they are mostly or even partly British.
On a smaller scale - why should my Indian or Chinese colleagues not move to another country where the bank we work for has offices? One that offers them a better tax/services/ environment?
People undersell the UK on this topic. It would still be a fabulous place to live with a wealth tax and whilst some would leave, the vast, vast majority won't.
Ah yes - “they won’t alter their behaviour” strategy on tax.
Always works.
Some will as I said. Moving to another country is towards the extreme side of changing behaviour for a tax that makes less difference to their wealth than a typical weeks volatility in global share prices.
I work in private banking. It’s not a wealth tax as such - it’s that such people see the U.K. government as incompetent and unable to control costs
A number have already moved assets.
They assume that taxes will go up and services and the environment in general will decline.
The trouble is that our tax base has become narrower and narrower. The top 10% pay a huge proportion of tax, but that largely reflects the fact such a large proportion of the nation's income accrues to them too.
It's a doom loop. It's difficult to see a way out of this income/tax structure.
'The Green Party's proposal for a wealth tax on 1% of assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn comes top of our list of tax reforms that Britons would support, with 75% giving it their backing.
93% of Green voters and 87% of Labour voters and 80% of LD voters back a wealth tax on the richest. Even 70% of Tory and 61% of Reform voters in favour
How much would it raise in the first year? I assume tax evasion/avoidance/put the Stubbs in the lorry would kick in from year 2 onwards.
Yes, plenty of the rich affected would base themselves in Monaco, Switzerland, Dubai, Florida, the Bahamas, Singapore etc if such a tax came in
They can’t take their Knightsbridge townhouses with them
And so the wealth tax argument reaches it natural conclusion - the only part of wealth that can be easily taxed is land and property.
And we simply don’t tax property efficiently or enough
And it’s going to apply to far more people than just the so called super rich with ‘wealth’ in excess of £10 million.
The super rich may not be able to take their townhouses with them but they can sell them off. They don’t need to own an asset that may be a liability.
They also take their spending on food and drink both in shops and bars/restaurants, they stop employing their cleaner, driver, security, accountant, solicitors. They stop buying their clothes, watches and jewellery, art, furniture in London too so the shops that were selling these things need fewer staff or close. Those staff have to find jobs in possibly lower paid roles elsewhere and so cut down their spending.
So great, the people have stuck it to those rich bastards by raising their taxes. Unfortunately those rich bastards aren’t going to be paying those taxes in the UK anyway now, you’ve sucked spending out of the country. You’ve affected balance of payments because a lot of those people were making their money overseas and bringing it in to the UK as they were living there.
They were also keeping maybe an office in the UK, don’t need that now. They might be about to be setting up a spin-off of one of their businesses and liked the idea of having it based in the UK as they can gets hands on.
Now they are in Zurich, Dubai, wherever they might as well do it there and employ people there.
If they care about the arts or a particularl medical condition then they aren’t going to be donating to UK based charities and entities, won’t be supporting fundraisers in the UK, they will support where they are living.
Ultimately the country is poorer and some people might feel so much better for having kicked the rich but they are still rich, just not benefiting the UK.
Despite what you say true patriots would, of course, just take the hit and stay in the greatest country on earth.
After all, it's not as if these millionaires and billionaires would be short of a bob or two if they had to pay 1% or 2% extra tax on their wealth.
Indeed, they'd still be absolutely rolling in it in a way that the vast majority of us can barely imagine. Unless they're just greedy.
You are assuming that they are mostly or even partly British.
On a smaller scale - why should my Indian or Chinese colleagues not move to another country where the bank we work for has offices? One that offers them a better tax/services/ environment?
People undersell the UK on this topic. It would still be a fabulous place to live with a wealth tax and whilst some would leave, the vast, vast majority won't.
Ah yes - “they won’t alter their behaviour” strategy on tax.
Always works.
Some will as I said. Moving to another country is towards the extreme side of changing behaviour for a tax that makes less difference to their wealth than a typical weeks of volatility in global share prices.
And yet people are bemoaning that Brexit has denied people the opportunity to move and live and work around Europe to improve their lives.
If we consider the apparent millions who have had their plans ruined by Brexit stopping them from moving as rational then it’s surely no different than the wealthy moving country for their best options - is keeping more of your own money not as valid as wanting a different culture, different career options, different weather and lifestyle.
I doubt there were millions of Brits looking to move abroad who have been stopped due to Brexit, low hundreds of thousands over several years perhaps. Unless we are including youngsters who would spend a summer or two there.
Hi None.
It was something Mrs PtP and I were looking at back then, but Brexit ruled it out. To be fair, we may not have gone anyway, and we could probably find workarounds if we really wanted to go now, but the bottom line is that it effectively closed a door for us.
Individual anecdotal examples prove nothing of course, but I should think there are quite a few others similarly affected.
Yes, that is a loss, as is the option to spend say six months in another EU country, which was a freedom we had before Brexit. I travel a lot in Europe and every year have to do my sums to stay within the 90 day limit, across the summer, and both this year and the year before last hit the ninety days exactly. And if you go on any travel forum there are tons of motorhoming Brits having to do the ‘Schengen shuffle’ - much more difficult now Romania and Bulgaria are inside Schengen for land travel - looking at spending time in Serbia or Morocco or Turkey until their ninety days resets.
The irony is that Mr Dog can stay for four months, on the usual travel certificate used by Brits, and in my case indefinitely as he has a Belgian passport.
'The Green Party's proposal for a wealth tax on 1% of assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn comes top of our list of tax reforms that Britons would support, with 75% giving it their backing.
93% of Green voters and 87% of Labour voters and 80% of LD voters back a wealth tax on the richest. Even 70% of Tory and 61% of Reform voters in favour
How much would it raise in the first year? I assume tax evasion/avoidance/put the Stubbs in the lorry would kick in from year 2 onwards.
Yes, plenty of the rich affected would base themselves in Monaco, Switzerland, Dubai, Florida, the Bahamas, Singapore etc if such a tax came in
They can’t take their Knightsbridge townhouses with them
And so the wealth tax argument reaches it natural conclusion - the only part of wealth that can be easily taxed is land and property.
And we simply don’t tax property efficiently or enough
And it’s going to apply to far more people than just the so called super rich with ‘wealth’ in excess of £10 million.
The super rich may not be able to take their townhouses with them but they can sell them off. They don’t need to own an asset that may be a liability.
They also take their spending on food and drink both in shops and bars/restaurants, they stop employing their cleaner, driver, security, accountant, solicitors. They stop buying their clothes, watches and jewellery, art, furniture in London too so the shops that were selling these things need fewer staff or close. Those staff have to find jobs in possibly lower paid roles elsewhere and so cut down their spending.
So great, the people have stuck it to those rich bastards by raising their taxes. Unfortunately those rich bastards aren’t going to be paying those taxes in the UK anyway now, you’ve sucked spending out of the country. You’ve affected balance of payments because a lot of those people were making their money overseas and bringing it in to the UK as they were living there.
They were also keeping maybe an office in the UK, don’t need that now. They might be about to be setting up a spin-off of one of their businesses and liked the idea of having it based in the UK as they can gets hands on.
Now they are in Zurich, Dubai, wherever they might as well do it there and employ people there.
If they care about the arts or a particularl medical condition then they aren’t going to be donating to UK based charities and entities, won’t be supporting fundraisers in the UK, they will support where they are living.
Ultimately the country is poorer and some people might feel so much better for having kicked the rich but they are still rich, just not benefiting the UK.
Despite what you say true patriots would, of course, just take the hit and stay in the greatest country on earth.
After all, it's not as if these millionaires and billionaires would be short of a bob or two if they had to pay 1% or 2% extra tax on their wealth.
Indeed, they'd still be absolutely rolling in it in a way that the vast majority of us can barely imagine. Unless they're just greedy.
You are assuming that they are mostly or even partly British.
On a smaller scale - why should my Indian or Chinese colleagues not move to another country where the bank we work for has offices? One that offers them a better tax/services/ environment?
People undersell the UK on this topic. It would still be a fabulous place to live with a wealth tax and whilst some would leave, the vast, vast majority won't.
Ah yes - “they won’t alter their behaviour” strategy on tax.
Always works.
Some will as I said. Moving to another country is towards the extreme side of changing behaviour for a tax that makes less difference to their wealth than a typical weeks of volatility in global share prices.
And yet people are bemoaning that Brexit has denied people the opportunity to move and live and work around Europe to improve their lives.
If we consider the apparent millions who have had their plans ruined by Brexit stopping them from moving as rational then it’s surely no different than the wealthy moving country for their best options - is keeping more of your own money not as valid as wanting a different culture, different career options, different weather and lifestyle.
I doubt there were millions of Brits looking to move abroad who have been stopped due to Brexit, low hundreds of thousands over several years perhaps. Unless we are including youngsters who would spend a summer or two there.
Hi None.
It was something Mrs PtP and I were looking at back then, but Brexit ruled it out. To be fair, we may not have gone anyway, and we could probably find workarounds if we really wanted to go now, but the bottom line is that it effectively closed a door for us.
Individual anecdotal examples prove nothing of course, but I should think there are quite a few others similarly affected.
I have no plans to retire to the continent but my grandparents retired to Spain, thanks to the EU, so I am very aware of how Brexit has shrunk our opportunities.
I tell you what I do miss. The free and easy travel through Europe.
A few years before Brexit I drove to Nice for a holiday and on a whim decided to return through Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. It was a delight, and I don't think I showed my passport once.
You will have had to show your passport to go from UK -> France and back. But the rest, nothing has changed, in terms of driving around Europe. I did it the other month.
In terms of people's holidays, nothing has really changed.
The big impact is relocating long term. But actually many European counties were or have increasingly become very pragmatic about it. Portual made it super easy, France are changing their laws, Italy are open for business for anybody who can be self reilant.
Thanks Francis. That's nice to know, in case the motivation returns.
Portugal appeals. Always thought it was underated. Language might be a problem, but as a native Cockney I find picking up new lanuages quite easy.
The big problem with Portugal, on top of a tricky language to speak, full time is getting anything done. It makes the infamous Italian red tape look like small beer, because not only are the government massive on red tape, 5 companies dominant every sector of the economy. So if your providers of x service are shit or you want building work done let you down, you can complain, but good luck as at best there is one other company who can provide that service and they won't be any better.
Now if you just go for 2-3 months, you rent from somebody else (or you pay over the top for a management company), happy days. They have to deal with sitting on the phone for 8 days to hire scaffolding to fix the roof.
I know a couple of Brits who have started tech companies over there, and they've generally found it to be -housing costs excepted- a pretty easy place to do business, with good connectivity, reasonable amenties, and OK labour laws.
'The Green Party's proposal for a wealth tax on 1% of assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn comes top of our list of tax reforms that Britons would support, with 75% giving it their backing.
93% of Green voters and 87% of Labour voters and 80% of LD voters back a wealth tax on the richest. Even 70% of Tory and 61% of Reform voters in favour
I support a wealth tax, so long as it is combined with reductions on income tax/National Insurance, particularly for lower income workers. What it cannot be is an opportunity to just soak people more.
One of the most important jobs of the government is to encourage economic activity. That means getting the incentives right.
Taxing work, particularly for those at the bottom of the income scale, is fucked up. It's basically discouraging the one thing we want more of.
So, like in Switzerland, we should have a modest wealth tax. And let's use that as an opportunity to fold NI and Income Tax together, and to reduce the burden on the lowest paid.
Problem is a wealth tax doesn’t work even in Switzerland it raises little to nothing.
Hardly "little to nothing". The Swiss a wealth tax raised CHF 9 billion in 2022, on a smaller economy than ours. It varies by canton and doesn't seem to have led to an exodus of plutocrats.
It closes the loopholes where the super-rich keep income down while inflating other assets.
Will it give us the power to check and amend our data and monitor who has been accessing it?
If not, it does not empower us. Quite the contrary.
I guess every generation has to have the same tedious ID card debate between the Home Office (who love the things) and everyone else (who hates them).
The government does not need ID cards to clamp down on the employment of immigrants without right to work - make it a criminal offence to do so, with that offence cutting through ltd liability cutout companies & you’d have an effective system to screen workers implemented in a heartbeat.
Until that happens, UberEats, Deliveroo et al will continue to benefit from people without work visas carrying out deliveries on their behalf through ltd liability companies nominally owned by the delivery contractors they engage to carry out deliveries.
Right now, those ltd companies carry all the liability but none of the power - we need to change that so that the execs at these huge multinationals have some skin in the game.
Same goes for all those employed on dodgy building sites - consistent enforcement of the existing rules would go a long way but the government has gutted local authority funding so this is way down their list of priorities.
'The Green Party's proposal for a wealth tax on 1% of assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn comes top of our list of tax reforms that Britons would support, with 75% giving it their backing.
93% of Green voters and 87% of Labour voters and 80% of LD voters back a wealth tax on the richest. Even 70% of Tory and 61% of Reform voters in favour
How much would it raise in the first year? I assume tax evasion/avoidance/put the Stubbs in the lorry would kick in from year 2 onwards.
Yes, plenty of the rich affected would base themselves in Monaco, Switzerland, Dubai, Florida, the Bahamas, Singapore etc if such a tax came in
They can’t take their Knightsbridge townhouses with them
And so the wealth tax argument reaches it natural conclusion - the only part of wealth that can be easily taxed is land and property.
And we simply don’t tax property efficiently or enough
And it’s going to apply to far more people than just the so called super rich with ‘wealth’ in excess of £10 million.
The super rich may not be able to take their townhouses with them but they can sell them off. They don’t need to own an asset that may be a liability.
They also take their spending on food and drink both in shops and bars/restaurants, they stop employing their cleaner, driver, security, accountant, solicitors. They stop buying their clothes, watches and jewellery, art, furniture in London too so the shops that were selling these things need fewer staff or close. Those staff have to find jobs in possibly lower paid roles elsewhere and so cut down their spending.
So great, the people have stuck it to those rich bastards by raising their taxes. Unfortunately those rich bastards aren’t going to be paying those taxes in the UK anyway now, you’ve sucked spending out of the country. You’ve affected balance of payments because a lot of those people were making their money overseas and bringing it in to the UK as they were living there.
They were also keeping maybe an office in the UK, don’t need that now. They might be about to be setting up a spin-off of one of their businesses and liked the idea of having it based in the UK as they can gets hands on.
Now they are in Zurich, Dubai, wherever they might as well do it there and employ people there.
If they care about the arts or a particularl medical condition then they aren’t going to be donating to UK based charities and entities, won’t be supporting fundraisers in the UK, they will support where they are living.
Ultimately the country is poorer and some people might feel so much better for having kicked the rich but they are still rich, just not benefiting the UK.
Despite what you say, true patriots would, of course, just take the hit.
After all, it's not as if these millionaires and billionaires would be short of a bob or two if they had to pay1% or 2% extra tax on their wealth.
Indeed, they'd still be absolutely rolling in it in a way that the vast majority of us can barely imagine.
Whilst the British wealthy are more likely to stay the foreign wealthy don’t need to and those considering moving to the UK won’t come.
There is a line people have when they have a lot of money where they feel they are paying too much. It’s not right or wrong it’s just human.
These people aren’t using an excess of the national infrastructure because they are wealthier, they aren’t using more resources from the state in proportion to their tax contribution. if they used in proportion to their wealth then there is an argument to tax them more proportionately but generally they use less. Private education and healthcare being the clearest examples.
If the argument for taxing them more is that it will generate a higher long term tax rate and increase growth and new business then great. If it’s really about a gut envy, which sadly it often really is, then why cut off the country’s nose to spite its face.
So many people most exercised by the wealthy and their tax rates aren’t in any way affected by them. They aren’t being blocked from buying a “Knightsbridge Mansion” because a Swiss hedge fund manager is living there and if we tax him out then it becomes in their price range. People aren’t finding they can’t get served quickly enough because there are a load of super rich wives hogging the deli counter at Harrods. They aren’t pissed off because the waiting list for their new Ferrari is long so if we can tax the fuckers out we will get our new car quicker. I could understand it if there was a battle for resources but there isn’t that.
Indeed.
You have to tax somebody if you want a sovereign nation-state. We've been going for years with Scandi services and New York taxes, with debt to patch the hole. We can't do that any more and are reluctant to do less with less, instead drowning ourselves in fantasies of immigrants caused it or civil servants are lazy. So we're stuck taxing the middle-class to death. And they're pissed off.
I see Resident Doctors have decided to strike again .
The public have already turned against them after the last strike so they’ve decided to have another go at trashing their reputation .
I was happy to support the initial strikes before they had that huge pay rise but now they just look greedy and out of touch .
Strikers don't give a toss about public opinion, although they say they do.
They strike if they think it will work.
I think it's more ideological to be honest. Their leadership doesn't care if it will work to get what they want, they will strike anyway. It's a moral crusade.
I happen to be visiting Caerphilly today, just by coincidence. I'll let PBers know if I find out any interesting information while I'm here.
Coincidence? I'm not buying that for a second. It's the pull of a Senedd by-election for the true politics fan. TV is one thing but there's no substitute for live.
Around the year 2000 I would have supported this sort of thing. Now I don't, for some strange reason. Maybe something to do with all the hacks that take place nearly every day.
Former Labour justice minister Shahid Malik helped to set up a fraudulent Covid testing firm that made £6.6 million in just three weeks, a court has heard.
Malik, 57, is accused of establishing the 'cash cow' firm alongside a pharmacist, a registered scientist and his own former office manager.
The former MP for Dewsbury is one of five people on trial over the 'inadequate and non-compliant' RT Diagnostics, which prosecutors say made £6.67 million in three weeks but did not meet UK standards.
Malik, who was first elected in 2005 and served as a justice minister and communities minister in Gordon Brown's government before losing his seat in 2010, is accused of fraudulent trading, causing a public nuisance and money laundering.
I'm glad to see attempted enforcement against people from multiple parties.
It's a shame if Malik has done the crime, as as far as I can see his political record is commendable apart from one or two blots on the copybook (eg an expenses issue in 2009-10).
Have we had any prosecutions against Tories? Perhaps their arrangements, and the arrangements of their friends and family were all above board.
I would comment on this c****** tw** but as the case is ongoing, I won't.
'The Green Party's proposal for a wealth tax on 1% of assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn comes top of our list of tax reforms that Britons would support, with 75% giving it their backing.
93% of Green voters and 87% of Labour voters and 80% of LD voters back a wealth tax on the richest. Even 70% of Tory and 61% of Reform voters in favour
How much would it raise in the first year? I assume tax evasion/avoidance/put the Stubbs in the lorry would kick in from year 2 onwards.
Yes, plenty of the rich affected would base themselves in Monaco, Switzerland, Dubai, Florida, the Bahamas, Singapore etc if such a tax came in
They can’t take their Knightsbridge townhouses with them
And so the wealth tax argument reaches it natural conclusion - the only part of wealth that can be easily taxed is land and property.
And we simply don’t tax property efficiently or enough
And it’s going to apply to far more people than just the so called super rich with ‘wealth’ in excess of £10 million.
The super rich may not be able to take their townhouses with them but they can sell them off. They don’t need to own an asset that may be a liability.
They also take their spending on food and drink both in shops and bars/restaurants, they stop employing their cleaner, driver, security, accountant, solicitors. They stop buying their clothes, watches and jewellery, art, furniture in London too so the shops that were selling these things need fewer staff or close. Those staff have to find jobs in possibly lower paid roles elsewhere and so cut down their spending.
So great, the people have stuck it to those rich bastards by raising their taxes. Unfortunately those rich bastards aren’t going to be paying those taxes in the UK anyway now, you’ve sucked spending out of the country. You’ve affected balance of payments because a lot of those people were making their money overseas and bringing it in to the UK as they were living there.
They were also keeping maybe an office in the UK, don’t need that now. They might be about to be setting up a spin-off of one of their businesses and liked the idea of having it based in the UK as they can gets hands on.
Now they are in Zurich, Dubai, wherever they might as well do it there and employ people there.
If they care about the arts or a particularl medical condition then they aren’t going to be donating to UK based charities and entities, won’t be supporting fundraisers in the UK, they will support where they are living.
Ultimately the country is poorer and some people might feel so much better for having kicked the rich but they are still rich, just not benefiting the UK.
Despite what you say true patriots would, of course, just take the hit and stay in the greatest country on earth.
After all, it's not as if these millionaires and billionaires would be short of a bob or two if they had to pay 1% or 2% extra tax on their wealth.
Indeed, they'd still be absolutely rolling in it in a way that the vast majority of us can barely imagine. Unless they're just greedy.
You are assuming that they are mostly or even partly British.
On a smaller scale - why should my Indian or Chinese colleagues not move to another country where the bank we work for has offices? One that offers them a better tax/services/ environment?
People undersell the UK on this topic. It would still be a fabulous place to live with a wealth tax and whilst some would leave, the vast, vast majority won't.
Ah yes - “they won’t alter their behaviour” strategy on tax.
Always works.
Some will as I said. Moving to another country is towards the extreme side of changing behaviour for a tax that makes less difference to their wealth than a typical weeks of volatility in global share prices.
And yet people are bemoaning that Brexit has denied people the opportunity to move and live and work around Europe to improve their lives.
If we consider the apparent millions who have had their plans ruined by Brexit stopping them from moving as rational then it’s surely no different than the wealthy moving country for their best options - is keeping more of your own money not as valid as wanting a different culture, different career options, different weather and lifestyle.
I doubt there were millions of Brits looking to move abroad who have been stopped due to Brexit, low hundreds of thousands over several years perhaps. Unless we are including youngsters who would spend a summer or two there.
Hi None.
It was something Mrs PtP and I were looking at back then, but Brexit ruled it out. To be fair, we may not have gone anyway, and we could probably find workarounds if we really wanted to go now, but the bottom line is that it effectively closed a door for us.
Individual anecdotal examples prove nothing of course, but I should think there are quite a few others similarly affected.
Yes, that is a loss, as is the option to spend say six months in another EU country, which was a freedom we had before Brexit. I travel a lot in Europe and every year have to do my sums to stay within the 90 day limit, across the summer, and both this year and the year before last hit the ninety days exactly. And if you go on any travel forum there are tons of motorhoming Brits having to do the ‘Schengen shuffle’ - much more difficult now Romania and Bulgaria are inside Schengen for land travel - looking at spending time in Serbia or Morocco or Turkey until their ninety days resets.
The irony is that Mr Dog can stay for four months, on the usual travel certificate used by Brits, and in my case indefinitely as he has a Belgian passport.
Does he wave you goodbye at the border - and is there again, waging his tail, when you come back?
Comments
But at the Canton level, it can be a fairly signficant share of receipts: on average it's 10% of total take, and in some Cantons it's closer to 20%.
(Bear in mind too, that the Cantons account for 60% of tax and spending in Switzlerland, against 40% for the Federal government.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_(character)
Although he's clearly gone grey with age
It closes the loopholes where the super-rich keep income down while inflating other assets.
https://kof.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/kof-bulletin/kof-bulletin/2024/07/wealth-tax-a-minimum-tax-on-the-rich.html
Keir Starmer
@Keir_Starmer
It’s frustrating having to rummage around in a drawer, looking for an old electricity bill just to open a new bank account.
Digital ID will make our lives easier.
https://x.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1981412929762099673
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wv42yXex7DM
The government does not need ID cards to clamp down on the employment of immigrants without right to work - make it a criminal offence to do so, with that offence cutting through ltd liability cutout companies & you’d have an effective system to screen workers implemented in a heartbeat.
Until that happens, UberEats, Deliveroo et al will continue to benefit from people without work visas carrying out deliveries on their behalf through ltd liability companies nominally owned by the delivery contractors they engage to carry out deliveries.
Right now, those ltd companies carry all the liability but none of the power - we need to change that so that the execs at these huge multinationals have some skin in the game.
Same goes for all those employed on dodgy building sites - consistent enforcement of the existing rules would go a long way but the government has gutted local authority funding so this is way down their list of priorities.
You have to tax somebody if you want a sovereign nation-state. We've been going for years with Scandi services and New York taxes, with debt to patch the hole. We can't do that any more and are reluctant to do less with less, instead drowning ourselves in fantasies of immigrants caused it or civil servants are lazy. So we're stuck taxing the middle-class to death. And they're pissed off.
Though 1 ID that can access and create anything? Sounds like a fraudsters wet dream.
Phish and get access to someone's digital ID and now you have access to everything. Wonderful!
Oh, but its by the government so it must be secure, fraudsters never take advantage of anything digital. 🤦♂️
I would comment on this c****** tw** but as the case is ongoing, I won't.
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