If Burnham IS the new Leader and he has real BALLS, he will keep Rachel in No 11 Downing Street.
Undoubtedly she made mistakes early, but did SHE or was it driven by Treasury / McSweeney / SKS fear!
In the past 6-9 months she has made sound decisions, she ha clearly got the confidence of the markets and prior to Trump/Netayahu attacks on Iran almost EVERY economic indicator was running in the right direction.
I believe if it is burnham, he would be economically wise to retain here and actually Politically wise, don't rock the markets, show confidence in here, especially as he's tied himself it seems to her fiscal rules.
I dont see a better fit other than Darren Jones in the role and he'd not deviate much from her Policy.
Its the MESSAGING that is key as much as the policy and political nous Burnham may have surely has does have that Starmer has never had.
Nah. Rachel seems fine for adequately managing the decline but that’s about it in my view
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
The obvious one is to raise top rate to 50%.
Which would also be fucking stupid.
All great ideas for helping Dubai bounce back hard from the current crisis in the region.
It'd do that, and drive less work and employment in the country, and more movement from the private to the public sector, as some people just decided it wasn't worth it anymore.
So I'd expect no boost to the public finances, and it'd probably make it even worse.
VAT on school fees was the dry run for ideology over mathematics.
They want to “Tax The Rich”, with no thought whatsoever as to 2nd and 3rd order effects on the wider economy.
The much predicted terrible negative effects of VAT on school fees never actually materialised.
Speak for yourself. They had a terrible effect on my bank balance.
What positive case could Burnham make for calling a snap election ? He's an unknown quantity for most of the electorate. With years to go and a large majority in Parliament, what's the case for us awarding him another few years to demonstrate of he's any good in power ?
It doesn't exist from our point if view.
Asking for a new, and longer "mandate" before he's done anything other than kick out his predecessor would be entirely self serving.
He can say he wants a fresh mandate with a different manifesto. He’s supposed to be serving a full term as mayor of Greater Manchester but is now running in Makerfield. If the trick works once…
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
The obvious one is to raise top rate to 50%.
Which would also be fucking stupid.
All great ideas for helping Dubai bounce back hard from the current crisis in the region.
It'd do that, and drive less work and employment in the country, and more movement from the private to the public sector, as some people just decided it wasn't worth it anymore.
So I'd expect no boost to the public finances, and it'd probably make it even worse.
VAT on school fees was the dry run for ideology over mathematics.
They want to “Tax The Rich”, with no thought whatsoever as to 2nd and 3rd order effects on the wider economy.
The much predicted terrible negative effects of VAT on school fees never actually materialised.
"Overall, 582,477 pupils in England attended private schools when the census data was collected in January this year [2025], down from 593,486 the year before - a drop of 1.9% (or 11,009 pupils). ... The government had previously predicted that around 3,000 private school pupils would need to be absorbed into the state system this academic year, with state school places needed for around 37,000 private school pupils over the coming years."
We'll have the 2026 figures soon (the article is from June). I'm not sure what the reduction in pupil numbers predicted by opponents of the VAT charge was.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
The obvious one is to raise top rate to 50%.
Which would also be fucking stupid.
All great ideas for helping Dubai bounce back hard from the current crisis in the region.
It'd do that, and drive less work and employment in the country, and more movement from the private to the public sector, as some people just decided it wasn't worth it anymore.
So I'd expect no boost to the public finances, and it'd probably make it even worse.
VAT on school fees was the dry run for ideology over mathematics.
They want to “Tax The Rich”, with no thought whatsoever as to 2nd and 3rd order effects on the wider economy.
The much predicted terrible negative effects of VAT on school fees never actually materialised.
"Overall, 582,477 pupils in England attended private schools when the census data was collected in January this year [2025], down from 593,486 the year before - a drop of 1.9% (or 11,009 pupils). ... The government had previously predicted that around 3,000 private school pupils would need to be absorbed into the state system this academic year, with state school places needed for around 37,000 private school pupils over the coming years."
We'll have the 2026 figures soon (the article is from June). I'm not sure what the reduction in pupil numbers predicted by opponents of the VAT charge was.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
The obvious one is to raise top rate to 50%.
Which would also be fucking stupid.
All great ideas for helping Dubai bounce back hard from the current crisis in the region.
It'd do that, and drive less work and employment in the country, and more movement from the private to the public sector, as some people just decided it wasn't worth it anymore.
So I'd expect no boost to the public finances, and it'd probably make it even worse.
VAT on school fees was the dry run for ideology over mathematics.
They want to “Tax The Rich”, with no thought whatsoever as to 2nd and 3rd order effects on the wider economy.
The much predicted terrible negative effects of VAT on school fees never actually materialised.
"Overall, 582,477 pupils in England attended private schools when the census data was collected in January this year [2025], down from 593,486 the year before - a drop of 1.9% (or 11,009 pupils). ... The government had previously predicted that around 3,000 private school pupils would need to be absorbed into the state system this academic year, with state school places needed for around 37,000 private school pupils over the coming years."
We'll have the 2026 figures soon (the article is from June). I'm not sure what the reduction in pupil numbers predicted by opponents of the VAT charge was.
The total number of school pupils is also down by about 60k;
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
I did predict that the government would chose to subsidise jet fuel.
They're terrified that people might have to go without their week in Tenerife.
Are they subsidising it - All I see is the pragmatic approach of the only source is India we are going to have to hold our nose and fix things so it can be legally bought..
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
On a politics blog, you may expect to find the occasional poster comment about exceptional things like a US President committing treason, insurrection and then ordering his own team to pay him and his cronies billions for it. Just one of those strange quirks of life unfortunately.
Even if a new leader gets a poll bounce, likely only with Burnham, then unless they see a big poll lead for Labour over Reform they are unlikely to risk an early general election. As Theresa May in 2017 discovered British voters rarely reward governments with clear majorities calling unnecessary early general elections. Whereas Major in 1992 won an unexpected majority after taking over from Thatcher but only calling a general election after five years.
If Burnham loses the by election Starmer may stay PM anyway. Starmer beats Streeting in Labour membership polls, Rayner may not get enough Labour MPs to nominate her if the tax the rich more and spend more agenda of Burnham she backs is defeated in Makerfield by Reform. Ed Miliband has said he will not challenge Starmer himself
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The level of spending was quite extraordinary - I think the average for House primaries is something like half a million dollars. It's notable that the now top three most expensive House primaries in history (see also MO-O1 and NY-16) have all seen extremely large spending by AIPAC.
Has there ever been a better Basketball player inch for inch than Jalen Brunson?
Is there a more exciting sportsman on the Planet right now?
Defying gravity...literally!
My vote goes to Sabastian Sawe, for most exciting sportsman on the planet right now.
The bloke behind him broke 2 hours on his debut....whats his limit? And the 15 year old Indian opener is probably the winner in your category, not just the leading scorer in the IPL but he is hitting over 20% of balls faced for six, giving him a strike rate around 50% better than the average of the rest of the top 10 scorers. At 15.
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
The obvious one is to raise top rate to 50%.
Which would also be fucking stupid.
Camp Burnham has confirmed he would restore the 50% additional rate of income tax Brown and Darling introduced and Osborne scrapped
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Announcing a cure for cancer is exactly something he would do. Of course announcing something is not the same as having it.
Thus immediately proving my point.
There is no one "cure for cancer", and there never will be given that cancer is an enormous multiplicity of different diseases. Couple that with Trump's extraordinary propensity for lying, and your example would tend to prove the point of those that claim you're unduly generous towards Trump, than otherwise.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
Good for Trump in terms of GOP loyalists being GOP candidates but stoping the GOP being a broad church makes the mid terms very much a de facto referendum on him
Thank you, GOTV, for another fascinating and useful header. This your triumvirate of groups for the CoE to keep happy:
The bond markets Labour MPs The voters.
Now, the happiness score is 0/3. Our bond yields are too high, MPs are so happy they are planning to oust the PM and about 82% of voters plan to vote Not Labour.
Normally you would say of these three groups that you can pick any two. But it's worse than that. Keeping the bond markets (a ludicrous term to mean the index created by people and markets dealing in fiscal reality) happy doesn't look possible to combine with either the voters (DavidL and me being exceptions but we only have two votes) or with Labour MPs.
SFAICS unless PM Burnham plans to do the old Labour thing of crash and burn, he needs early and often to develop a narrative of a quasi wartime sort. It is a given that he needs to preserve fiscal and economic reality, and he needs to do this in a way which doesn't just demonise others, except past Tory governments. He can only keep voters and MPs onside by narrative and hope. The 'bond markets' won't change. They understand balance sheets. Voters and MPs don't and don't want to. They can be moved by story, future plans, clarity of direction and the air of competence that some possess.
What positive case could Burnham make for calling a snap election ? He's an unknown quantity for most of the electorate. With years to go and a large majority in Parliament, what's the case for us awarding him another few years to demonstrate of he's any good in power ?
It doesn't exist from our point if view.
Asking for a new, and longer "mandate" before he's done anything other than kick out his predecessor would be entirely self serving.
He can say he wants a fresh mandate with a different manifesto. He’s supposed to be serving a full term as mayor of Greater Manchester but is now running in Makerfield. If the trick works once…
He can say that, and I'm not arguing it's unlikely, My point is that it would be more likely than not to backfire on him, given the lack of objective justification.
He might be extremely popular in the Labour electorate, and around Manchester, but I doubt that extends to the whole country giving him the benefit of the doubt.
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
The obvious one is to raise top rate to 50%.
Which would also be fucking stupid.
Camp Burnham has confirmed he would restore the 50% additional rate of income tax Brown and Darling introduced and Osborne scrapped
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
Good for Trump in terms of GOP loyalists being GOP candidates but stoping the GOP being a broad church makes the mid terms very much a de facto referendum on him
Massie is a shill for Russia, Iran, China etc. This really was a case where the pro-Trump candidate was the lesser of two evils.
In terms of Burnham ratings I think it was @HYUFD who posted that Burnham had positive favourability ratings in most parts of the country.
He does, except in the South which is the only GB region to give Burnham a net negative rating according to Yougov (though even there he outpolled Starmer still).
So a Burnham premiership should worry Farage, Polanski, Swinney and ap Ioerweth more than Kemi and Davey
My reading of Andy Burnham is that he's an ambitious careerist, but better at presentation and politics than Starmer.
I don't expect radical left-wing stuff from him because if he tries that the markets and the electorate will rapidly boot him out of office.
What he will do is make them think he's on their side, and be rather more convincing about it.
Is he left, or is he pragmatic?
Left: Manchester transport is in private hands, that's an outrage, it must be nationalised even if that makes it worse.
Pragmatic: Manchester transport is a fragmented mess, but we can improve it by bringing it all together, the easiest way is under public ownership that we control
It can be hard to tell the difference. I don't think most people will care too much who owns stuff if it works well.
ETA: e.g. I'm unconvinced about total public rail ownership. I prefer the (accidental) East Coast model where you have a publicly owned operator and private operators innovating, like Lumo
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
Where are you going with this both-sides-ism, Taz? What point are you making?
Has there ever been a better Basketball player inch for inch than Jalen Brunson?
Is there a more exciting sportsman on the Planet right now?
Defying gravity...literally!
My vote goes to Sabastian Sawe, for most exciting sportsman on the planet right now.
The bloke behind him broke 2 hours on his debut....whats his limit? And the 15 year old Indian opener is probably the winner in your category, not just the leading scorer in the IPL but he is hitting over 20% of balls faced for six, giving him a strike rate around 50% better than the average of the rest of the top 10 scorers. At 15.
Sawe I agree is an incredible achievement
Indian batsmen playing on roads can only be judged outside India.
Brunson is carrying a team, a City, 4 nights a week for 8 months. At a huge physical disadvantage and having gifted away about 33% of his salary to allow his team to build a squad under salary cap to compete.
Has there ever been a better Basketball player inch for inch than Jalen Brunson?
Is there a more exciting sportsman on the Planet right now?
Defying gravity...literally!
My vote goes to Sabastian Sawe, for most exciting sportsman on the planet right now.
The bloke behind him broke 2 hours on his debut....whats his limit? And the 15 year old Indian opener is probably the winner in your category, not just the leading scorer in the IPL but he is hitting over 20% of balls faced for six, giving him a strike rate around 50% better than the average of the rest of the top 10 scorers. At 15.
As yes that Indian kid. I’ve not seen much of him but he’s supposed to be very good.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
On a politics blog, you may expect to find the occasional poster comment about exceptional things like a US President committing treason, insurrection and then ordering his own team to pay him and his cronies billions for it. Just one of those strange quirks of life unfortunately.
Indeed and doing it daily takes some real resolve.
I did predict that the government would chose to subsidise jet fuel.
They're terrified that people might have to go without their week in Tenerife.
Pragmatism can be a virtue.
I also quite like the thought that Starmer can ring up Trump and Netahyahu and say "don't fuck with us" - we'll just go and get OIl off Putin!
Putin or Netanyahu - no doubt at all save and deal with Vlad every time!, let Bibi rot in hell!
Putin is more of a danger to this country than Netanyahu is.
I think very few would disagree with that.
However the jet fuel and diesel shortages will hit the economy very shortly without fresh supplies, and that is more pressing. Putting Britain first in other words.
Of course if Trump and Netanyahu hadn't bitten off more than they could chew we wouldn't be in the mess in the first place.
Because prices are going up, because Trump attacked Iran. The problem is Trump, not Miliband.
They are both problems in their different ways. The absurd policies of Miliband have increased our exposure to the lunacies of Trump.
The policies of Miliband have reduced our exposure to the lunacies of Trump. By switching demand in the UK away from overreliance on fossil fuels.
100%
How’s those policies helped with Nitrogen Fertiliser, Helium, Jet Fuel, Sulfites and all the other by products we don’t have scalable alternatives to that we get from oil,and gas ?
Going renewables makes sense. But we still need oil and gas for the foreseeable.
Burnham does have one feature that is unusual in that he is collegiate, and that is an important ingredient in his success in Manchester
I really hope he does win, because anything else will be a disaster for labour and those of us who want Farage to lose
Yesterday the Intelligence and Security select committee asked an urgent question why the government were still prevaricating over releasing the Mandelson files to them as required by the humble address, and Emily Thornberry of the Foreign affairs select committee also condemned the government , as Darren Jones struggled to defend the indefensible at the dispatch box
Apparently the papers were due to be released tomorrow, but Jones said it would happen in June but would not confirm if it would be before the by election
Starmer is already on life support and no doubt these files are not going to help him
He should set out his resignation timetable if he really cared about his party and the country, as we witness the surreal sight of cabinet ministers jockeying for Burnham's eye and deciding whether they can campaign with him
This is a dying government and it needs Burnham to win
“The curse of being the smart child is that you are genetically coded to be your family's unpaid crisis manager—and the world's. A massive 2024 population registry study published in The Economic Journal proved that higher general fluid intelligence directly causes increased altruism, cooperation, and prosocial behavior.
“Because an intelligent brain calculates long-term consequences and systemic risks faster than everyone else around it, it sees the family or societal trainwreck coming miles away. It means you are either a psychological hostage to your own foresight, or a reluctant savior trying to fix a world that doesn't even see the cliff it’s walking over.”
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
Where are you going with this both-sides-ism, Taz? What point are you making?
I’m not both siding, I’m just pointing out the binary nature of PB when it comes to Trump. I think the guy is an idiot and a menace. Hasn’t stopped people accusing me of being a Trump fanatic.
It’s all very binary. You’re for us or against us.
Instead of the better than expected inflation figures being the main story they decide to announce the weakening of Russian oil sanctions today .
And I wonder what they’ll announce tomorrow to ensure the drop in net migration isn’t the main headline!
Failure really?
We'll do what we have to do to ensure stocks.
Fuck Trump Fuck Netanyahu
And Putin?
Just asking, because a couple of your comments suggest a slight whiff of our usual Saturday intruders- and while the Putin trolls maybe learning better tactics, their cause is certainly not ours, or anyone who prefers freedom over loathsome tyranny.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
Where are you going with this both-sides-ism, Taz? What point are you making?
I’m not both siding, I’m just pointing out the binary nature of PB when it comes to Trump. I think the guy is an idiot and a menace. Hasn’t stopped people accusing me of being a Trump fanatic.
It’s all very binary. You’re for us or against us.
My thing about Trump at this point is that he’s clearly not all there.
Compare 2026 Trump to 2016 Trump and the decline is clear.
It seems plausible at least for a while, Burnham can get Labour’s polling up? Squeezing the Greens with Polanski continuing to fall, seems straightforward?
“The curse of being the smart child is that you are genetically coded to be your family's unpaid crisis manager—and the world's. A massive 2024 population registry study published in The Economic Journal proved that higher general fluid intelligence directly causes increased altruism, cooperation, and prosocial behavior.
“Because an intelligent brain calculates long-term consequences and systemic risks faster than everyone else around it, it sees the family or societal trainwreck coming miles away. It means you are either a psychological hostage to your own foresight, or a reluctant savior trying to fix a world that doesn't even see the cliff it’s walking over.”
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
Where are you going with this both-sides-ism, Taz? What point are you making?
I’m not both siding, I’m just pointing out the binary nature of PB when it comes to Trump. I think the guy is an idiot and a menace. Hasn’t stopped people accusing me of being a Trump fanatic.
It’s all very binary. You’re for us or against us.
My thing about Trump at this point is that he’s clearly not all there.
Compare 2026 Trump to 2016 Trump and the decline is clear.
He is a clear and present danger and some of his pronouncements are just nuts.
Instead of the better than expected inflation figures being the main story they decide to announce the weakening of Russian oil sanctions today .
And I wonder what they’ll announce tomorrow to ensure the drop in net migration isn’t the main headline!
Failure really?
We'll do what we have to do to ensure stocks.
Fuck Trump Fuck Netanyahu
And Xi Jimping?
I'd take either Trump or Netanyahu over Communist tyrants in China.
Or do we still have nothing to lose and everything to gain from them?
Putin, Xi, Kim - and don’t forget the mullahs in Iran, who we know would lob a nuke at Tel Aviv the minute they manage to make one, which is why that part of the world is so screwed up right now.
Trump will be irrelevant in a couple of years’ time, and Bibi probably doesn’t last that long. The commies and mullahs, they’re very much long-term threats to the world order.
“The curse of being the smart child is that you are genetically coded to be your family's unpaid crisis manager—and the world's. A massive 2024 population registry study published in The Economic Journal proved that higher general fluid intelligence directly causes increased altruism, cooperation, and prosocial behavior.
“Because an intelligent brain calculates long-term consequences and systemic risks faster than everyone else around it, it sees the family or societal trainwreck coming miles away. It means you are either a psychological hostage to your own foresight, or a reluctant savior trying to fix a world that doesn't even see the cliff it’s walking over.”
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
How do we have some of the highest level of property taxes at the top end in the world. We have high transaction costs (which should go) but our taxes for owning an expensive property are low
These are the figures for property taxes as a %GDP from the OECD
OECD average - 1.9% UK - 3.7% US - 2.8% France - 3.5% Germany - 0.9% Canada - 3.4% Japan - 2.6% Australia - 2.7% Netherlands - 1.2%
And 12% stamp duty on top end transactions is I think about the highest tax rate in the world, only beaten by Belgium at 12.5% (federal+provincial) afaik. When you add to that clueless Rachel's revision of Council Tax from 2027 to soak high end property, you have a system that is very punitive.
Funny how those who think that The Germans Do It Better never seem to want to cut our property taxes by more than 75% ...
Um I don't think there is anyone on here who thinks Stamp Duty is a decent tax - the only part that should be applied is on second and subsequent homes to discourage private landlords buying up all residential property..
No, the government should allow more housing to be built to reduce housing costs overall.
It should be neutral on whether houses are bought for owner occupation or for other people's occupation. Having a strong rental sector for those who want it boosts labour mobility.
And having a surcharge on second home availability (or indeed any ad valorem property tax) incentivises the government to keep housing scarce, screwing the young royally, and being disastrous for economic growth.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The level of spending was quite extraordinary - I think the average for House primaries is something like half a million dollars. It's notable that the now top three most expensive House primaries in history (see also MO-O1 and NY-16) have all seen extremely large spending by AIPAC.
There were less than 100,000 voters in the Georgia GOP primary. Over $32 million was spend on advertising - over $300 per voter. About half was spent by pro Israel PACs.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you are an out-and-out Trump fanboy but too embarrassed to be honest about it. You jump to his defence constantly with massive doses of whataboutery. At least you are about the only one left on PB
Thanks Gareth. No-one better at the helicopter. A 2027 election is possible of course, but I'd be amazed if there is one because any feasible result for Labour would be worse than they have now.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
On a politics blog, you may expect to find the occasional poster comment about exceptional things like a US President committing treason, insurrection and then ordering his own team to pay him and his cronies billions for it. Just one of those strange quirks of life unfortunately.
Indeed and doing it daily takes some real resolve.
You might find it weekly or monthly on a cooking or travel blog perhaps, but yeah, on a politics forum, of course there is going to be pretty much daily criticism of someone like Trump.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
One of the oddest things is how some of the PBers most interested in Hunter Biden's scandals (which had only the most tenuous links to his father) seem to take little or no interest in the blatant, direct and corrupt involvement of Trump's family in government.
“The curse of being the smart child is that you are genetically coded to be your family's unpaid crisis manager—and the world's. A massive 2024 population registry study published in The Economic Journal proved that higher general fluid intelligence directly causes increased altruism, cooperation, and prosocial behavior.
“Because an intelligent brain calculates long-term consequences and systemic risks faster than everyone else around it, it sees the family or societal trainwreck coming miles away. It means you are either a psychological hostage to your own foresight, or a reluctant savior trying to fix a world that doesn't even see the cliff it’s walking over.”
“The curse of being the smart child is that you are genetically coded to be your family's unpaid crisis manager—and the world's. A massive 2024 population registry study published in The Economic Journal proved that higher general fluid intelligence directly causes increased altruism, cooperation, and prosocial behavior.
“Because an intelligent brain calculates long-term consequences and systemic risks faster than everyone else around it, it sees the family or societal trainwreck coming miles away. It means you are either a psychological hostage to your own foresight, or a reluctant savior trying to fix a world that doesn't even see the cliff it’s walking over.”
Instead of the better than expected inflation figures being the main story they decide to announce the weakening of Russian oil sanctions today .
And I wonder what they’ll announce tomorrow to ensure the drop in net migration isn’t the main headline!
Failure really?
We'll do what we have to do to ensure stocks.
Fuck Trump Fuck Netanyahu
And Xi Jimping?
I'd take either Trump or Netanyahu over Communist tyrants in China.
Or do we still have nothing to lose and everything to gain from them?
Putin, Xi, Kim - and don’t forget the mullahs in Iran, who we know would lob a nuke at Tel Aviv the minute they manage to make one, which is why that part of the world is so screwed up right now.
I think we know that the Iranians wouldn't lob a nuke at Tel Aviv straight away.
The most interesting thing about the Iran War is that, by assassinating the Supreme Leader, and explicitly aiming for regime change, the US and Israel pushed Iran to take retaliatory action that they haven't taken in the past - large strikes on oil and gas infrastructure across the middle east and closing the Strait of Hormuz.
This proves that, contrary to much rhetoric, the Iranian regime was operating with restraint in response to previous attacks from Israel and the US, and that in general it has been deterred from using all the means at its disposal by fear of retaliation.
I'm not at all happy about them possessing a nuke, but I think a similar logic would apply. They would be deterred from first use by fear of retaliation, and they would use it to deter attacks on them in turn.
The reason that part of the world is so particularly screwed up right now is that the US didn't recognise that the Iranians genuinely had the ability to close the Strait of Hormuz, and were using that to deter an existential attack on the Iranian theocratic state.
It seems plausible at least for a while, Burnham can get Labour’s polling up? Squeezing the Greens with Polanski continuing to fall, seems straightforward?
You may be right and this is the first sign of a Burnham bounce
Burnham needs to win and government resets
I have no problem with wealth taxes or revaluation of council tax bands which are archaic
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
How do we have some of the highest level of property taxes at the top end in the world. We have high transaction costs (which should go) but our taxes for owning an expensive property are low
These are the figures for property taxes as a %GDP from the OECD
OECD average - 1.9% UK - 3.7% US - 2.8% France - 3.5% Germany - 0.9% Canada - 3.4% Japan - 2.6% Australia - 2.7% Netherlands - 1.2%
And 12% stamp duty on top end transactions is I think about the highest tax rate in the world, only beaten by Belgium at 12.5% (federal+provincial) afaik. When you add to that clueless Rachel's revision of Council Tax from 2027 to soak high end property, you have a system that is very punitive.
Funny how those who think that The Germans Do It Better never seem to want to cut our property taxes by more than 75% ...
Um I don't think there is anyone on here who thinks Stamp Duty is a decent tax - the only part that should be applied is on second and subsequent homes to discourage private landlords buying up all residential property..
No, the government should allow more housing to be built to reduce housing costs overall.
It should be neutral on whether houses are bought for owner occupation or for other people's occupation. Having a strong rental sector for those who want it boosts labour mobility.
And having a surcharge on second home availability (or indeed any ad valorem property tax) incentivises the government to keep housing scarce, screwing the young royally, and being disastrous for economic growth.
Do you really think the current size of the rental market is the optimal proportion? I’ve come across dozens of people who want to get on the housing ladder but can’t because they have to compete with cash buyers (including me - I was repeatedly outbid by investors when I was looking for a flat - and now I’ve become one myself).
The proportion in the private rental market has doubled since 2000. If you put punitive taxes on it I’d sell my flat as quickly as possible, ideally to my tenant, at a low price because all the other BtL landlords would do the same.
Instead of the better than expected inflation figures being the main story they decide to announce the weakening of Russian oil sanctions today .
And I wonder what they’ll announce tomorrow to ensure the drop in net migration isn’t the main headline!
Failure really?
We'll do what we have to do to ensure stocks.
Fuck Trump Fuck Netanyahu
And Xi Jimping?
I'd take either Trump or Netanyahu over Communist tyrants in China.
Or do we still have nothing to lose and everything to gain from them?
Putin, Xi, Kim - and don’t forget the mullahs in Iran, who we know would lob a nuke at Tel Aviv the minute they manage to make one, which is why that part of the world is so screwed up right now.
Trump will be irrelevant in a couple of years’ time, and Bibi probably doesn’t last that long. The commies and mullahs, they’re very much long-term threats to the world order.
Trump himself will be gone or dead very shortly for sure, but the toxicity will last for decades. The return of Jim Crow in the Deep South, the control of womens bodies by the judiciary and the loss of overseas alliances will long out last him.
Perhaps the biggest legacy will be the normalisation of corruption. There has always been some, but its scale now and the lack of shame over it dwarfs anything previous. It contaminates us too, the way Farage is also behaving in confusing personal and party financial interests.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
One of the oddest things is how some of the PBers most interested in Hunter Biden's scandals (which had only the most tenuous links to his father) seem to take little or no interest in the blatant, direct and corrupt involvement of Trump's family in government.
And apparently we are deranged if we mention how outrageous Trump's behaviour and actions are.
Burnham does have one feature that is unusual in that he is collegiate, and that is an important ingredient in his success in Manchester
I really hope he does win, because anything else will be a disaster for labour and those of us who want Farage to lose
Yesterday the Intelligence and Security select committee asked an urgent question why the government were still prevaricating over releasing the Mandelson files to them as required by the humble address, and Emily Thornberry of the Foreign affairs select committee also condemned the government , as Darren Jones struggled to defend the indefensible at the dispatch box
Apparently the papers were due to be released tomorrow, but Jones said it would happen in June but would not confirm if it would be before the by election
Starmer is already on life support and no doubt these files are not going to help him
He should set out his resignation timetable if he really cared about his party and the country, as we witness the surreal sight of cabinet ministers jockeying for Burnham's eye and deciding whether they can campaign with him
This is a dying government and it needs Burnham to win
The files will contain a train of embarrassments for civil servants and politicians.
And after Robbins, everyone will expect Starmer to take responsibility by summarily firing them.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
Where are you going with this both-sides-ism, Taz? What point are you making?
I’m not both siding, I’m just pointing out the binary nature of PB when it comes to Trump. I think the guy is an idiot and a menace. Hasn’t stopped people accusing me of being a Trump fanatic.
It’s all very binary. You’re for us or against us.
Politics is often binary, and US politics with a strict 2-party system, more so. But I'm not certain PB is that binary. Lots of people think Trump is an idiot and a menace, just like you and I do. Plenty support conservative values and traditional GOP positions, which are sometimes enacted by the Trump administration, while criticising Trump. There are a few who are well-I-supported-him-but-he's-turned-out-to-be-worse-than-I-thought. No-one really thinks Trump is all good: even @Sandpit , when pushed, notes his flaws. That's a range of nuance there.
But in a discussion of Trump's pros and cons, I don't see what's surprising about people listing his pros and cons. Trump is central to US politics and US political betting. He is also (unfortunately) central to UK politics and UK political betting because of the impact he has on us. People are going to have views on Trump!
Instead of the better than expected inflation figures being the main story they decide to announce the weakening of Russian oil sanctions today .
And I wonder what they’ll announce tomorrow to ensure the drop in net migration isn’t the main headline!
Failure really?
We'll do what we have to do to ensure stocks.
Fuck Trump Fuck Netanyahu
And Xi Jimping?
I'd take either Trump or Netanyahu over Communist tyrants in China.
Or do we still have nothing to lose and everything to gain from them?
Putin, Xi, Kim - and don’t forget the mullahs in Iran, who we know would lob a nuke at Tel Aviv the minute they manage to make one, which is why that part of the world is so screwed up right now.
Trump will be irrelevant in a couple of years’ time, and Bibi probably doesn’t last that long. The commies and mullahs, they’re very much long-term threats to the world order.
Trump himself will be gone or dead very shortly for sure, but the toxicity will last for decades. The return of Jim Crow in the Deep South, the control of womens bodies by the judiciary and the loss of overseas alliances will long out last him.
Perhaps the biggest legacy will be the normalisation of corruption. There has always been some, but its scale now and the lack of shame over it dwarfs anything previous. It contaminates us too, the way Farage is also behaving in confusing personal and party financial interests.
The level of corruption is of such a scale - literally billions - that the risk is that future elections are just bought. We have just seen an early example of this, with Massie and the tens of million spent to unseat him.
The great fear is that the Trump Crime Family are amassing such monstrous wealth that they become a self-preserving kleptocracy within a "democratic" framework.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
Good for Trump in terms of GOP loyalists being GOP candidates but stoping the GOP being a broad church makes the mid terms very much a de facto referendum on him
Yes Trump is trashing the hopes of the Republican party by placing MAGA loyalists on the ballot for the mid-terms replacing traditional experienced Republicans. Does he not realise or does he not care?
The redistricting might also rebound on the Republicans. If a state is 55/45 Rep/Dem and is split into ten districts, each 55/45 then the Republicans get all ten. But on a 6% swing to the Democrats, the Republicans lose all ten. It's not as simple as that of course, but it illustrates that there is a tipping point. It's not linear.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
On a politics blog, you may expect to find the occasional poster comment about exceptional things like a US President committing treason, insurrection and then ordering his own team to pay him and his cronies billions for it. Just one of those strange quirks of life unfortunately.
Indeed and doing it daily takes some real resolve.
You might find it weekly or monthly on a cooking or travel blog perhaps, but yeah, on a politics forum, of course there is going to be pretty much daily criticism of someone like Trump.
Indeed, but also there will be those who praise him and continual brow beating, as opposed to reasoned discussion, makes it tedious as well as accusations of ‘both sides’. The Democrats are hardly perfect too.
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
How do we have some of the highest level of property taxes at the top end in the world. We have high transaction costs (which should go) but our taxes for owning an expensive property are low
These are the figures for property taxes as a %GDP from the OECD
OECD average - 1.9% UK - 3.7% US - 2.8% France - 3.5% Germany - 0.9% Canada - 3.4% Japan - 2.6% Australia - 2.7% Netherlands - 1.2%
And 12% stamp duty on top end transactions is I think about the highest tax rate in the world, only beaten by Belgium at 12.5% (federal+provincial) afaik. When you add to that clueless Rachel's revision of Council Tax from 2027 to soak high end property, you have a system that is very punitive.
Funny how those who think that The Germans Do It Better never seem to want to cut our property taxes by more than 75% ...
Um I don't think there is anyone on here who thinks Stamp Duty is a decent tax - the only part that should be applied is on second and subsequent homes to discourage private landlords buying up all residential property..
No, the government should allow more housing to be built to reduce housing costs overall.
It should be neutral on whether houses are bought for owner occupation or for other people's occupation. Having a strong rental sector for those who want it boosts labour mobility.
And having a surcharge on second home availability (or indeed any ad valorem property tax) incentivises the government to keep housing scarce, screwing the young royally, and being disastrous for economic growth.
Do you really think the current size of the rental market is the optimal proportion? I’ve come across dozens of people who want to get on the housing ladder but can’t because they have to compete with cash buyers (including me - I was repeatedly outbid by investors when I was looking for a flat - and now I’ve become one myself).
The proportion in the private rental market has doubled since 2000. If you put punitive taxes on it I’d sell my flat as quickly as possible, ideally to my tenant, at a low price because all the other BtL landlords would do the same.
'My property is my pension.'
Encouraged by two long term effects from that era:
1) Brown's tax on pensions 2) The increase in students
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest ?
Where are you going with this both-sides-ism, Taz? What point are you making?
I’m not both siding, I’m just pointing out the binary nature of PB when it comes to Trump. I think the guy is an idiot and a menace. Hasn’t stopped people accusing me of being a Trump fanatic.
It’s all very binary. You’re for us or against us.
Not really. While I'm happy to disagree with you on a lot of stuff, you've never stuck me as a consistent Trump apologist. And many of those who tend a bit more in that direction aren't entirely in the tank, either.
I think it's more that there's a tendency to both-sides US politics. I don't think that's a very useful way to view this administration, which is more corrupt and lawless than any in my lifetime.
Got to say that the loosening of sanctions on Russian oil /LNG is the single most disgraceful episode of this government (so far). It’s morally wrong, it yet again rewards those who have not transitioned to EVs and renewables, and it shovels money towards one of our enemies.
Putin has won, and the government has facilitated it. We can only be deeply grateful to the Ukrainians for continuing to smash their infrastructure.
"The problem is how you define “the rich.” The top 1% have good tax lawyers"
That's one of the problems. The other problems with taxing the rich, however defined, are that
- they are key to the country's savings and entrepreneurial investment decisions, so you damage long run economic growth - they are unusually internationally mobile, so they can just leave, as around 25,000 millionaires have since Labour took office - much of their wealth is tied up in primary residences, which are quite difficult to tax beyond a certain small amount, because they doesn't directly generate cash, while such property transactions can be taxed but doing so gums up labour mobility, and anyway the UK already has some of the highest property taxes, especially at the high end, in the world - previous governments over the past generation have used this expedient many times anyway.
Overall, taxing the rich more than the heavy burden they already pay is a terrible idea, economically destructive and financially counter-productive. So I imagine the new Labour leader will probably jump at it.
How do we have some of the highest level of property taxes at the top end in the world. We have high transaction costs (which should go) but our taxes for owning an expensive property are low
These are the figures for property taxes as a %GDP from the OECD
OECD average - 1.9% UK - 3.7% US - 2.8% France - 3.5% Germany - 0.9% Canada - 3.4% Japan - 2.6% Australia - 2.7% Netherlands - 1.2%
And 12% stamp duty on top end transactions is I think about the highest tax rate in the world, only beaten by Belgium at 12.5% (federal+provincial) afaik. When you add to that clueless Rachel's revision of Council Tax from 2027 to soak high end property, you have a system that is very punitive.
Funny how those who think that The Germans Do It Better never seem to want to cut our property taxes by more than 75% ...
Um I don't think there is anyone on here who thinks Stamp Duty is a decent tax - the only part that should be applied is on second and subsequent homes to discourage private landlords buying up all residential property..
No, the government should allow more housing to be built to reduce housing costs overall.
It should be neutral on whether houses are bought for owner occupation or for other people's occupation. Having a strong rental sector for those who want it boosts labour mobility.
And having a surcharge on second home availability (or indeed any ad valorem property tax) incentivises the government to keep housing scarce, screwing the young royally, and being disastrous for economic growth.
Do you really think the current size of the rental market is the optimal proportion? I’ve come across dozens of people who want to get on the housing ladder but can’t because they have to compete with cash buyers (including me - I was repeatedly outbid by investors when I was looking for a flat - and now I’ve become one myself).
The proportion in the private rental market has doubled since 2000. If you put punitive taxes on it I’d sell my flat as quickly as possible, ideally to my tenant, at a low price because all the other BtL landlords would do the same.
Price management does not work, never has done. Competition works.
The only issue is scarcity. Currently BtL landlords know that they will get a tenant even if the property is poorly maintained and/or overly expensive because there are insufficient homes for the property to be left vacant for long. So they can buy with cash and outbid those who need to pay for a mortgage, even with stamp duty surcharge etc
The best way to shrink the rental market to the right size is to have competition. Have the erstwhile tenants say "I don't want to rent, so I will buy elsewhere instead" - and leave the would-be landlord holding a vacant property that they can't let out as people don't want to rent it, unless they lower the rent enough that it becomes tempting to would-be tenants.
It seems plausible at least for a while, Burnham can get Labour’s polling up? Squeezing the Greens with Polanski continuing to fall, seems straightforward?
You may be right and this is the first sign of a Burnham bounce
Burnham needs to win and government resets
I have no problem with wealth taxes or revaluation of council tax bands which are archaic
More of a sign of a "get fucking shot of Starmer" bounce I'd suggest.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
I am really struggling here to see how the examples given prove the point. Giving dentistry to homeless people hardly seems like the height of wokery, communism or, in any way, antisemitism. I work in public health often and it sounds like a sensible public health measure to decrease future emergency healthcare costs, but, sure, you can debate the merits of the scheme. But, good or bad, it just seems completely trivial compared to everything Trump is doing: giving £1.776 billion of taxpayers' money to his supporters who tried to violently overthrow democracy, exempting himself and family from tax audits, refusing to obey the courts, starting a war against Iran with no plan to end it, mishandling that war such that he's wrecking the world economy and appears to be giving Iran what they want, parroting the Chinese government's line on Taiwan, defrauding the public with the Trump phone, continuing to cover up Epstein's crimes, etc. etc. etc. And that's just recent months!
You say you "just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad". OK, can you suggest 5 Good Things Trump has done this year?
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
One of the oddest things is how some of the PBers most interested in Hunter Biden's scandals (which had only the most tenuous links to his father) seem to take little or no interest in the blatant, direct and corrupt involvement of Trump's family in government.
Dogs and tails.
While the Trump brats are grifting on a record scale they're not the puppet master Hunter Biden was.
Nor do I remember anyone defending the Trump brats and claiming they were victims of a political witch hunt.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
Come on, you know PB
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
The $1.776 billion of US tax payers money to compensate the Jan 6th rioters combined with an agreement to never audit and Trump or Trump family tax return is one of the most blatent bits of corruption in modern history.
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
One of the oddest things is how some of the PBers most interested in Hunter Biden's scandals (which had only the most tenuous links to his father) seem to take little or no interest in the blatant, direct and corrupt involvement of Trump's family in government.
Dogs and tails.
While the Trump brats are grifting on a record scale they're not the puppet master Hunter Biden was.
Nor do I remember anyone defending the Trump brats and claiming they were victims of a political witch hunt.
Sorry, what??? Hunter Biden is a puppet master??????
Conclusion: If he wins the by-election, Burnham is a shoo-in.
Just out of interest, was the big majority favouring Burnham filled with excitement at the prospect of being led by a winner or was it more resigned TINA?
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
Good for Trump in terms of GOP loyalists being GOP candidates but stoping the GOP being a broad church makes the mid terms very much a de facto referendum on him
Yes Trump is trashing the hopes of the Republican party by placing MAGA loyalists on the ballot for the mid-terms replacing traditional experienced Republicans. Does he not realise or does he not care?
The redistricting might also rebound on the Republicans. If a state is 55/45 Rep/Dem and is split into ten districts, each 55/45 then the Republicans get all ten. But on a 6% swing to the Democrats, the Republicans lose all ten. It's not as simple as that of course, but it illustrates that there is a tipping point. It's not linear.
Trump's first instinct is to attempt to cheat rather than act competently and honestly.
Even when acting competently and honestly would be easier and more effective.
Trump purges another Republican critic with Massie defeat in Kentucky
U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
The voters of Kentucky’s 4th District decided to get rid of the guy who voted against the budget in Congress, and was more interested in personal grandstanding than representing the views of his constituents.
Or it shows GOP activists and PACs have been captured by Trump.
Sandpit is remarkably loyal to Trump and MAGA, in the face of all comers and even when their ideology is at odds with his (e.g. Ukraine). I’m not sure there’s a more completely, full-spectrum loyal poster to an individual politician or movement on PB. Not even BigG. If anything the norm is for posters conveniently to disavow allegiance, St Peter style, when the cock crows.
Not at all, I don’t even particularly like Trump. I just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad, or that he’s only doing something because of some ulterior motive.
I’m firmly of the opinion that, were he to announce a cure for cancer, the US media and most of this forum would be trying to present it negatively.
I’ve definitely critised Trump on Ukraine, as I did with Biden before him. They have both been weak in different ways, and I don’t like Bessent’s trading of Russian oil just as I don’t like Miliband’s doing the same.
My over-riding opinion on US politics is on the other side, that the Democrats have been captured by wokery, communism, and increasingly antisemitism. They’re starting to look like the Greens in the UK, with the mayor of New York talking about opening state-run grocery stores, and the mayor of LA talking about giving free dentistry to illegal immigrant homeless meth-heads living on the streets.
Anyway, work to do!
I am really struggling here to see how the examples given prove the point. Giving dentistry to homeless people hardly seems like the height of wokery, communism or, in any way, antisemitism. I work in public health often and it sounds like a sensible public health measure to decrease future emergency healthcare costs, but, sure, you can debate the merits of the scheme. But, good or bad, it just seems completely trivial compared to everything Trump is doing: giving £1.776 billion of taxpayers' money to his supporters who tried to violently overthrow democracy, exempting himself and family from tax audits, refusing to obey the courts, starting a war against Iran with no plan to end it, mishandling that war such that he's wrecking the world economy and appears to be giving Iran what they want, parroting the Chinese government's line on Taiwan, defrauding the public with the Trump phone, continuing to cover up Epstein's crimes, etc. etc. etc. And that's just recent months!
You say you "just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad". OK, can you suggest 5 Good Things Trump has done this year?
Well, on the plus side, by driving up the price of oil, Trump's actions in the Middle East have almost certainly reduced global CO2 emissions and promoted the use of EVs and renewable energy. Mind you, this good deed has been somewhat stymied by his bizarre decision to pay offshore wind developers the best part of $2 billion of taxpayer's money to not build wind farms.
Got to say that the loosening of sanctions on Russian oil /LNG is the single most disgraceful episode of this government (so far). It’s morally wrong, it yet again rewards those who have not transitioned to EVs and renewables, and it shovels money towards one of our enemies.
Putin has won, and the government has facilitated it. We can only be deeply grateful to the Ukrainians for continuing to smash their infrastructure.
The next step will be trying to leverage the Ukrainians to stop smashing Russian refineries.
As I understand it, they are destroying the Russian oil facilities faster than they can be rebuilt or other parts pushed to greater activity. So the Russians are facing reducing capacity.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know Nadine Dorries was the MP who introduced the Online Safety Act
Not the best community note, it is not a correction and does not change what she said at all.
Politicians too often don't admit their mistakes and will double-down that whatever they have done must be right because they did it.
For someone who introduced an Act to say it should be repealed as its being abused makes the message more powerful, not less.
Community notes are notes, not corrections. Have a look and you'll see lots are like this. They offer some context.
Also, X is hardly a community of wise and thoughtful people...
Indeed, which is why I don't post on X and do post here, where we do have wise and thoughtful people. So I was responding not to the community note, but to Nigelb calling it the "note of the day".
Typically when people post them here it is because of corrections or mistakes etc, but this is weak. So she introduced the Act (which the article itself mentions as context) and now says it was a mistake - why is mentioning that she introduced it worthy of being "note of the day".
It would be like Gordon Brown saying Bank of England independence was a mistake, with a sub-heading of the fact that Brown made them independent, being community noted with the fact he made it independent.
Got to say that the loosening of sanctions on Russian oil /LNG is the single most disgraceful episode of this government (so far). It’s morally wrong, it yet again rewards those who have not transitioned to EVs and renewables, and it shovels money towards one of our enemies.
Putin has won, and the government has facilitated it. We can only be deeply grateful to the Ukrainians for continuing to smash their infrastructure.
The founder of Firepoint, the Ukrainian dinner and missile manufacturer, recently claimed Ukraine could completely blockade Russian oil export terminated in the Baltic and Black Seas.
I do wonder how much pressure is being applied behind the scenes by European governments, including the UK, to persuade them not to do so. As though a war can be won without incurring any discomfort.
The recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure around Moscow might be thought to concentrate their attacks on damaging Russia's domestic oil industry, rather than its export industry. Maybe that's a good idea anyway, but I do wonder.
Comments
We’re actually in a decent position to start growing. I think she also is getting a grasp of what needs to be done.
She will go down to the vanity of Trump in Iran and Burnham in the UK
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1O1vxAIhY2w2eWK4rZNRLW?si=3ablhVzgSoeCME5YSkHjNg
We’re actually in a decent position to start growing. I think she also is getting a grasp of what needs to be done.
She will go down to the vanity of Trump in Iran and Burnham in the UK
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1O1vxAIhY2w2eWK4rZNRLW?si=3ablhVzgSoeCME5YSkHjNg
...
The government had previously predicted that around 3,000 private school pupils would need to be absorbed into the state system this academic year, with state school places needed for around 37,000 private school pupils over the coming years."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2lk2p7wpr4o
We'll have the 2026 figures soon (the article is from June). I'm not sure what the reduction in pupil numbers predicted by opponents of the VAT charge was.
If you’re not participating in the daily hate on Trump you’re clearly a fan. It’s that binary
British oil bad, Russian oil good.
I did predict that the government would chose to subsidise jet fuel.
They're terrified that people might have to go without their week in Tenerife.
Do other things. They have made proposals already on landing slot retention and empty flights.
I also quite like the thought that Starmer can ring up Trump and Netahyahu and say "don't fuck with us" - we'll just go and get OIl off Putin!
Putin or Netanyahu - no doubt at all save and deal with Vlad every time!, let Bibi rot in hell!
Is there a more exciting sportsman on the Planet right now?
Defying gravity...literally!
But I suppose we need to "both sides" it. After all corruption, golden statues and a Jesus complex are all fine and dandy if you bash the Libs.
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25
The primary school consolidation is ongoing in the state sector as well, and the baby bust is about to hit secondaries.
I'm just hoping that the system will keep.me in work until I don't want/need to work any more.
If Burnham loses the by election Starmer may stay PM anyway. Starmer beats Streeting in Labour membership polls, Rayner may not get enough Labour MPs to nominate her if the tax the rich more and spend more agenda of Burnham she backs is defeated in Makerfield by Reform. Ed Miliband has said he will not challenge Starmer himself
Instead of the better than expected inflation figures being the main story they decide to announce the weakening of Russian oil sanctions today .
And I wonder what they’ll announce tomorrow to ensure the drop in net migration isn’t the main headline!
It's notable that the now top three most expensive House primaries in history (see also MO-O1 and NY-16) have all seen extremely large spending by AIPAC.
Couple that with Trump's extraordinary propensity for lying, and your example would tend to prove the point of those that claim you're unduly generous towards Trump, than otherwise.
We'll do what we have to do to ensure stocks.
Fuck Trump
Fuck Netanyahu
The bond markets
Labour MPs
The voters.
Now, the happiness score is 0/3. Our bond yields are too high, MPs are so happy they are planning to oust the PM and about 82% of voters plan to vote Not Labour.
Normally you would say of these three groups that you can pick any two. But it's worse than that. Keeping the bond markets (a ludicrous term to mean the index created by people and markets dealing in fiscal reality) happy doesn't look possible to combine with either the voters (DavidL and me being exceptions but we only have two votes) or with Labour MPs.
SFAICS unless PM Burnham plans to do the old Labour thing of crash and burn, he needs early and often to develop a narrative of a quasi wartime sort. It is a given that he needs to preserve fiscal and economic reality, and he needs to do this in a way which doesn't just demonise others, except past Tory governments. He can only keep voters and MPs onside by narrative and hope. The 'bond markets' won't change. They understand balance sheets. Voters and MPs don't and don't want to. They can be moved by story, future plans, clarity of direction and the air of competence that some possess.
My point is that it would be more likely than not to backfire on him, given the lack of objective justification.
He might be extremely popular in the Labour electorate, and around Manchester, but I doubt that extends to the whole country giving him the benefit of the doubt.
So a Burnham premiership should worry Farage, Polanski, Swinney and ap Ioerweth more than Kemi and Davey
Left: Manchester transport is in private hands, that's an outrage, it must be nationalised even if that makes it worse.
Pragmatic: Manchester transport is a fragmented mess, but we can improve it by bringing it all together, the easiest way is under public ownership that we control
It can be hard to tell the difference. I don't think most people will care too much who owns stuff if it works well.
ETA: e.g. I'm unconvinced about total public rail ownership. I prefer the (accidental) East Coast model where you have a publicly owned operator and private operators innovating, like Lumo
Indian batsmen playing on roads can only be judged outside India.
Brunson is carrying a team, a City, 4 nights a week for 8 months. At a huge physical disadvantage and having gifted away about 33% of his salary to allow his team to build a squad under salary cap to compete.
There’s also an Australian kid breaking Usain Bolt’s junior 100m and 200m world records. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/apr/18/gout-athletics-australia-junior-championships-100m-final
He’s training with the American team for the summer season.
However the jet fuel and diesel shortages will hit the economy very shortly without fresh supplies, and that is more pressing. Putting Britain first in other words.
Of course if Trump and Netanyahu hadn't bitten off more than they could chew we wouldn't be in the mess in the first place.
Going renewables makes sense. But we still need oil and gas for the foreseeable.
Allowing Russian oil into the “white” market does that
Burnham does have one feature that is unusual in that he is collegiate, and that is an important ingredient in his success in Manchester
I really hope he does win, because anything else will be a disaster for labour and those of us who want Farage to lose
Yesterday the Intelligence and Security select committee asked an urgent question why the government were still prevaricating over releasing the Mandelson files to them as required by the humble address, and Emily Thornberry of the Foreign affairs select committee also condemned the government , as Darren Jones struggled to defend the indefensible at the dispatch box
Apparently the papers were due to be released tomorrow, but Jones said it would happen in June but would not confirm if it would be before the by election
Starmer is already on life support and no doubt these files are not going to help him
He should set out his resignation timetable if he really cared about his party and the country, as we witness the surreal sight of cabinet ministers jockeying for Burnham's eye and deciding whether they can campaign with him
This is a dying government and it needs Burnham to win
“The curse of being the smart child is that you are genetically coded to be your family's unpaid crisis manager—and the world's. A massive 2024 population registry study published in The Economic Journal proved that higher general fluid intelligence directly causes increased altruism, cooperation, and prosocial behavior.
“Because an intelligent brain calculates long-term consequences and systemic risks faster than everyone else around it, it sees the family or societal trainwreck coming miles away. It means you are either a psychological hostage to your own foresight, or a reluctant savior trying to fix a world that doesn't even see the cliff it’s walking over.”
https://x.com/idyllicmusing/status/2056833790698254403?s=46
It’s all very binary. You’re for us or against us.
Just asking, because a couple of your comments suggest a slight whiff of our usual Saturday intruders- and while the Putin trolls maybe learning better tactics, their cause is certainly not ours, or anyone who prefers freedom over loathsome tyranny.
Compare 2026 Trump to 2016 Trump and the decline is clear.
I'd take either Trump or Netanyahu over Communist tyrants in China.
Or do we still have nothing to lose and everything to gain from them?
https://x.com/electionmapsuk/status/2057016190430495094
Westminster Voting Intention:
RFM: 29% (-1)
LAB: 23% (+2)
CON: 18% (-1)
LDM: 13% (-1)
GRN: 10% (-1)
SNP: 3% (=)
Via @Moreincommon_, 15-19 May.
Changes w/ 9-12 May.
It seems plausible at least for a while, Burnham can get Labour’s polling up? Squeezing the Greens with Polanski continuing to fall, seems straightforward?
I'd hate to see your character if you didn't have higher intelligence to make you more altruistic.
Trump will be irrelevant in a couple of years’ time, and Bibi probably doesn’t last that long. The commies and mullahs, they’re very much long-term threats to the world order.
It should be neutral on whether houses are bought for owner occupation or for other people's occupation. Having a strong rental sector for those who want it boosts labour mobility.
And having a surcharge on second home availability (or indeed any ad valorem property tax) incentivises the government to keep housing scarce, screwing the young royally, and being disastrous for economic growth.
Over $32 million was spend on advertising - over $300 per voter.
About half was spent by pro Israel PACs.
They have a problem with Uyghurs. We need to really drop the cost of labour.
So import Uyghurs. They can work for life in the care homes, washing bums and farm labour. For no pay.
The Chinese *pay* us to take their problem.
Low paid immigrants are good. So lower paid is better, right?
Further, since the government wants to drop the price of basic foods, organise vast estate farms. The Uyghurs can be housed onsite in big barracks.
I demand a statue understand there is a spot near Bristol docks.
The most interesting thing about the Iran War is that, by assassinating the Supreme Leader, and explicitly aiming for regime change, the US and Israel pushed Iran to take retaliatory action that they haven't taken in the past - large strikes on oil and gas infrastructure across the middle east and closing the Strait of Hormuz.
This proves that, contrary to much rhetoric, the Iranian regime was operating with restraint in response to previous attacks from Israel and the US, and that in general it has been deterred from using all the means at its disposal by fear of retaliation.
I'm not at all happy about them possessing a nuke, but I think a similar logic would apply. They would be deterred from first use by fear of retaliation, and they would use it to deter attacks on them in turn.
The reason that part of the world is so particularly screwed up right now is that the US didn't recognise that the Iranians genuinely had the ability to close the Strait of Hormuz, and were using that to deter an existential attack on the Iranian theocratic state.
Burnham needs to win and government resets
I have no problem with wealth taxes or revaluation of council tax bands which are archaic
The proportion in the private rental market has doubled since 2000. If you put punitive taxes on it I’d sell my flat as quickly as possible, ideally to my tenant, at a low price because all the other BtL landlords would do the same.
Perhaps the biggest legacy will be the normalisation of corruption. There has always been some, but its scale now and the lack of shame over it dwarfs anything previous. It contaminates us too, the way Farage is also behaving in confusing personal and party financial interests.
And after Robbins, everyone will expect Starmer to take responsibility by summarily firing them.
But in a discussion of Trump's pros and cons, I don't see what's surprising about people listing his pros and cons. Trump is central to US politics and US political betting. He is also (unfortunately) central to UK politics and UK political betting because of the impact he has on us. People are going to have views on Trump!
The great fear is that the Trump Crime Family are amassing such monstrous wealth that they become a self-preserving kleptocracy within a "democratic" framework.
The redistricting might also rebound on the Republicans. If a state is 55/45 Rep/Dem and is split into ten districts, each 55/45 then the Republicans get all ten. But on a 6% swing to the Democrats, the Republicans lose all ten. It's not as simple as that of course, but it illustrates that there is a tipping point. It's not linear.
Encouraged by two long term effects from that era:
1) Brown's tax on pensions
2) The increase in students
While I'm happy to disagree with you on a lot of stuff, you've never stuck me as a consistent Trump apologist. And many of those who tend a bit more in that direction aren't entirely in the tank, either.
I think it's more that there's a tendency to both-sides US politics. I don't think that's a very useful way to view this administration, which is more corrupt and lawless than any in my lifetime.
Putin has won, and the government has facilitated it. We can only be deeply grateful to the Ukrainians for continuing to smash their infrastructure.
The only issue is scarcity. Currently BtL landlords know that they will get a tenant even if the property is poorly maintained and/or overly expensive because there are insufficient homes for the property to be left vacant for long. So they can buy with cash and outbid those who need to pay for a mortgage, even with stamp duty surcharge etc
The best way to shrink the rental market to the right size is to have competition. Have the erstwhile tenants say "I don't want to rent, so I will buy elsewhere instead" - and leave the would-be landlord holding a vacant property that they can't let out as people don't want to rent it, unless they lower the rent enough that it becomes tempting to would-be tenants.
And with him gone, Reeves too. Very popular.
You say you "just push back against the prevailing narritive that everything he does is bad". OK, can you suggest 5 Good Things Trump has done this year?
The Online Safety Act should be repealed.
The principle at its core, to protect children and young people has been abused and used for political advantage.
https://x.com/NadineDorries/status/2056624345594679301
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Nadine Dorries was the MP who introduced the Online Safety Act
Big majority want Starmer to go.
Big majority favour Burnham.
No support for Streeting.
Conclusion: If he wins the by-election, Burnham is a shoo-in.
While the Trump brats are grifting on a record scale they're not the puppet master Hunter Biden was.
Nor do I remember anyone defending the Trump brats and claiming they were victims of a political witch hunt.
Politicians too often don't admit their mistakes and will double-down that whatever they have done must be right because they did it.
For someone who introduced an Act to say it should be repealed as its being abused makes the message more powerful, not less.
Also, X is hardly a community of wise and thoughtful people...
https://x.com/angelshalagina/status/2056827029211812247
And Ryazan refinery is back on fire again.
https://x.com/euromaidanpr/status/2056965458209673398
Even when acting competently and honestly would be easier and more effective.
As I understand it, they are destroying the Russian oil facilities faster than they can be rebuilt or other parts pushed to greater activity. So the Russians are facing reducing capacity.
Typically when people post them here it is because of corrections or mistakes etc, but this is weak. So she introduced the Act (which the article itself mentions as context) and now says it was a mistake - why is mentioning that she introduced it worthy of being "note of the day".
It would be like Gordon Brown saying Bank of England independence was a mistake, with a sub-heading of the fact that Brown made them independent, being community noted with the fact he made it independent.
I do wonder how much pressure is being applied behind the scenes by European governments, including the UK, to persuade them not to do so. As though a war can be won without incurring any discomfort.
The recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure around Moscow might be thought to concentrate their attacks on damaging Russia's domestic oil industry, rather than its export industry. Maybe that's a good idea anyway, but I do wonder.