What the public expects from the budget – politicalbetting.com
What the public expects from the budget – politicalbetting.com
Who do Britons think will be most impacted by the Budget?People on low incomes: 35%People on middle incomes: 37%People on high incomes: 8%yougov.co.uk/topics/polit…
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I believe some Labour MP once referred to it as "picking the pockets of the workers".
Her name escapes me.
From the Telegraph:-
Twelve taxes expected to rise
- Property – A surcharge on homes worth more than £2m
- Incomes – Extending the freeze on income tax thresholds
- Milkshakes and lattes – Increased levies on sugary drinks
- Dividends – A raid on money made from stocks and shares
- EVs – Pay per mile charging for electric cars
- Pensions – A crackdown on salary sacrifice schemes
- Gambling – Higher levies on the betting industry
- Tourists – Charges on tourists visiting major cities
- Chinese imports – Closing a loophole for fast fashion giants such as Shein
- Taxis – Closing a VAT loophole currently used by Uber
- Cash Isas – Reducing the annual allowance to £12,000
- Cycle-to-work schemes – Ending tax breaks for expensive bicycles
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/11/25/reeves-to-sting-voters-with-dirty-dozen-tax-rises-in-budget/ (£££)Just to be clear, we are not talking about a return to the days when punters paid tax when they placed a bet. These are taxes paid by operators on their profits, essentially what's left from total stakes after winnings have been paid out. There are a number of duties with different rates but three concern us here. They are:
General betting duty (GBD) which covers fixed-odds and pool bets on horse and greyhound racing placed in betting shops or online, as well as sports bets. Set at 15 per cent.
Machine games duty (MGD) which covers the machines found in betting shops. Set at 20 per cent.
Remote gaming duty (RGD) which covers online games of chance such as slots. Set at 21 per cent.
https://www.racingpost.com/news/britain/racing-tax/the-budget-explained-how-rachel-reeves-statement-could-impact-british-horseracing-aNza08r913dI/
Whats all the fuss about?
The only real big revenue earner there is theoretically the pension salary sacrifice stuff, aiming to drag a few hundred thousand people kicking and screaming into that pernicious £100k 60% rate. But people don’t work like that, they’ll start taking unpaid leave or negotiating four-day weeks.
I might have to switch to cappuccino.
Oh, and a load of betting companies moving themselves offshore out of reach of Rachel from accounts.
What a guy!
Then again we have those fukers proposing "scrap HS2" as their big headline. I know that some of it is sunk cost (literally) but is their plan to just leave the infrastructure sat there? Or will there be a ceremonial blowing up of the structures and concrete pouring into the tunnels? Or perhaps they will line them with muslims, foreigners and anyone the flagshaggers think has a skin tone too swarthy to be the baby Jesus...
How I threw my trilby into the political ring
(2002)
Political journalist Julia Langdon reveals her heady influence on the corridors of power
..And it was this hat that I was wearing shortly afterwards when I reported for an interview with the Secretary of State for Education, one Kenneth Clarke. 'Oh, I like your hat,' he said, trying it on for size. 'Where did you get it?'
There was a Cabinet reshuffle not long afterwards, in 1992. Recognising there was little point in pursuing his planned diary while awaiting the call from Number 10, Clarke paid the first visit of his life to Harrods and bought the replica of my hat. Later in the day he was appointed Home Secretary and celebrated by triumphantly sporting a hat which his wife, Gillian, declared made him look like a mafioso. For some time he only ever dared wear it to football matches. Now, at last, to my immense pride, he has come out...
What Year will Nigel Farage be replaced as Reform UK leader?
8/11 2029 or later
5/2 2028
7/1 2027
9/1 2026
33/1 2025
https://www.ladbrokes.com/en/sports/event/politics/uk/uk-politics/nigel-farage-specials/242728111/main-markets
https://www.libdems.org.uk/press/release/9-million-to-be-hit-by-conservative-labour-stealth-tax-stitch-up
..The Liberal Democrats added that it would be “rank hypocrisy” if the Chancellor goes ahead with extending the Conservative stealth tax by another two years at the Budget on Wednesday. In 2023, Rachel Reeves said the then Conservative government’s decision to freeze income tax thresholds amounted to “picking the pockets” of working people...
Reality is if you are making 95% of your income in the UK are you really an overseas / offshore company.
At least Revolut is global - I don’t remember seeing adverts for SkyBet in say Prague.
Round here I need to specify dairy to the barista, which always makes me feel a bit naughty, like ordering alcohol before midday.
You do get a sense they are trying to alienate everyone. If they can't count on the C2W brigade...
The only time I've used the entire allowance is when I've had inheritances to deal with. Saving that much tax-free really is a nice bung for the very comfortably off.)
At which point millions of people used to gambling start discovering $USDT, the cryptocurrency pegged to the dollar.
The VAT shift (I think the threshold falls from £90k to £30k) is going to be bloody awful. I've cunningly avoided it by not making much money, but those committing the sin of success will be shafted for their capitalist ways.
If you're a gardener making, say, £40k a year that's an extra £2,000 in tax. If you're making £90k then 20% on the £60k covered comes to £12,000 more in tax. It's bloody horrendous. [I believe I've got those threshold figures right but am going by memory, so am open to correction].
1) "pull jurors out of a hat" - my experience is being sorted into groups of 16 at the beginning of the week but it could just be done by computer in a matter of seconds once the juror register is complete
2) Judge briefing the Jury on their duties and responsibilities - apart from case specific issues this is boilerplate. Could be online with a little quiz and declaration, e.g. "If I do my own research on the internet" will I a) be better briefed than the legal counsel, b) be helping my fellow jurors to understand the case or c) do 6 months d) all of the above?
3) Check in advance whether witnesses need screens and prepare. In your cases I assume it's a given, so the screens should be there by default.
None of the above has to be on the critical path.
My experience is that if you're assigned to a trial in the morning then it's 11.30am by the time you're sat down, HHJ does his solemn briefing etc, now 12, they have a brief conflab and decide that there isn't time for 2 opening addresses before lunch, "jury will only remember one side", so break. 2pm before you're back in court in the afternoon, if Judge or barristers don't have an afternoon clash.
There are delays around sending Juries out and reassembling them, but they can just be sent to the next room rather than allowed to disperse.
Juries can be taken off the critical path for most of it. Leveson has just blamed them for the inefficiency of the professionals involved.
I have regular city breaks and I use Uber Exec/Lux a lot, that's going to hurt a lot, my once a month indulgence on a milkshake may have to go.
For me, it's Dividends, EVs, Chinese FF and gambling. Sadly excluded from cycle2work but in any case I tend to enjoy putting my own together from secondhand frames rather than buying this year's colour scheme for £5k.
Some things need to be said in public, particularly if they are to be the basis of a prosecution. I saw yesterday a juror got 4 months for crashing a murder trial. I don't think that we can do that on the basis of multiple choice.
Vulnerable witness applications will have been dealt with in advance of the trial and that will include screens. Quite often in these sorts of cases the evidence will have been recorded at a commission.
So I think that we are doing what we can but I would not dispute that jurors have a fair amount of waiting about. In the research that has been done that was a major complaint.
Life is going well.
She took it extremely seriously, as it should be. A young man was having his life changed that week.
This is going to be another budget that pleases no one and fixes precisely nothing. Labour are firmly in the “something might turn up” phase of governing.
If Labour extend the £4k EV grant to e-bikes then fair enough. But they won't.
I will be looking to see if she finds ways to cut spending that she thinks her back benches can live with. I will also be trying to judge if we face the prospects of more indecision, unhelpful speculation and deferred investment next year because she has given herself far too little room for manoeuvre.
I will be glad when this is all over and, hopefully, some markets such as the housing market, will be able to breathe again.
Good morning, everybody.
https://x.com/cyclefree2/status/1993590514416074932
This not simply a policy change. It is a very major constitutional change for which it has no mandate at all. Sneaked out via the press on the eve of the Budget.
It reeks of Labour's utter contempt for us and our liberties.
The Brabin bikes in Leeds and the Burnham bikes in Manchester don't seem to be used much either.
Clearly, if you want a bike scheme in your city, electing a mayor with a name beginning with B is essential.
Labour reverting to type.
Defendents are not allowed to hear the evidence against them.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov/26/secret-courts-palestine-action-cmp-heard-behind-closed-doors?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Take the load off the expensive, skilled people so they can get on with the job.
See med techs doing all the tests and lining up the results for The Consultant.
So the court staff line up a jury for the court.
Are the screens built into the court room infrastructure - always there?? Or wheeled in each time?
I've been on a case where there were case-specific issues that the Jury needed to be briefed on. It took an additional 5 minutes. I think the "no internet or other independent research", "don't discuss the case", etc warnings don't require a bewigged delivery system.
Sadly, case I was on preparing for screens hadn't been done. So Jury out again for the first witness, Judge had conflicting schedule for next two days, got ill at the weekend and following week we were trooped in again to be told by a different Judge that there'd be a retrial because original Judge couldn't continue to hear the case. Unfortunate, but it would have been done before the weekend but for the schedule conflicts (and the defendant would have been on their way as the CPS had clearly been smoking something).
No chance of 8% 'national insurance' being put on rental income.
Have jury prep as a courthouse function, run by staff. As a continual operation. Lining up juries, get them sorted, warned, lanyarded.
So 9am, the judge, lawyers, etc all roll in together.
Judge can have the option to say - “I don’t look this jury, do you have a similar one? But in a shade of mauve?”
"If you step back and look at the full strategic picture, the balance of advantage is shifting in favour of Ukraine, and not Russia as some would have it. We should not lose sight of this as we grapple with the chaos of Donald Trump’s latest and most shameless intervention. To walk away now is to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory"
"The only safe peace deal is one that leaves Ukraine armed to the teeth as a steel porcupine, and Russia nursing its economic wounds for a generation."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/11/26/snatching-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory-against-russia/
The £90k threshold acted as another cliffedge that was sufficiently high such that many didn't seem to exceed it. Which is negative for growth and the ambitions of small firms.
Better have everyone charging VAT, beyond those making money as more of a hobby, then there's no disincentive to expanding (or merging) businesses to add scale.
Spending a bit more to get a lot more is still spending more, and we've conditioned ourselves to not want that.
It's moving spending from frontline staff to backstage. And we've massively conditioned ourselves to not want that.