I presume you mean not to increase it? In principle it needs to be increased to the same level as income tax and that’s what Lawson did
A quick look at this suggests it is generally poorer areas and likely more Labour voters than Tory Labour govt needs to strengthen democracy by extending ID to forms that treat different age groups the same, constituencies of more equal size, AVR and PR
Yes, sorry increase. Models show it will hamper investment at a time where London is trying extremely hard (and winning) in terms of staying relevant as the main European investment hub, so I assume that's why. Increasing it would impact portfolio strategies and those of individual investors and companies with shareholder option agreements, who can keep staff incentivised in this way.
There was a major step backwards in the Elections Act 2022 when FPTP was introduced for Mayoral elections, it could be said slipped in, in place of the Supplementary Vote system which lets voters choose a second choice as a backup candidate. If your favourite candidate doesn’t get through to the top two, your vote moves to your back-up, giving more voters a say in the final winner. https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk...ections-means-less-choice-and-a-weaker-voice/ Sadiq Khan has said that the combination of both the new voter ID requirements and the introduction of First Past the Post is a “cynical attempt to make it harder for people to vote”. Mr Khan estimates more than 900,000 London voters could be locked out of the process as a result of the new measures. Worth noting that FPTP and voter ID will be applied in countrywide elections for councils, mayors and police and crime commissioners in May. I know it's wiki but this illustrates the change since the previous elections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_local_elections "When these elections were last held in 2021 the Conservative party had made significant gains, mainly at the expense of the Labour party. Since then the Conservative Party had several high-profile political scandals and crises and had seen a significant decrease to their popularity in opinion polling. This was reflected in the poor results for the Conservative Party at both the 2022 and 2023 local elections. As a result of the 2023 local elections, Labour had become the party with most members elected to local government for the first time since 2002."
Not read into it properly, as I've got a ton on today, but glad to see Gove pushing for a heavy tax on foreign owned/unoccupied home ownership. That's long overdue.
I’m not sure about your first point, but it would seem more relevant whether the investor was a UK taxpayer rather than whether they invest through London or say Geneva. Londons reputation is what sells it not the CGT rate On the 2nd point, you mean the mechanism that allows highly paid executives to get payment at a lower tax rate than those of us on PAYE. Fantastic!
Long overdue indeed along with increases in CGT. Talk is cheap let's see it as a manifesto pledge in the general election campaigns, all parties. Oh a quick search shows nosebag Gove appears to have lifted his push from Labour https://www.theguardian.com/society...sidering-higher-taxes-foreign-buyers-uk-homes nothing new with that, the tories really are Labour lite. 18 months old but indicative of the level of foreign ownership https://propertyindustryeye.com/foreign-owners-hold-90-7bn-worth-of-property-in-the-uk/
Labour - who are very quick to stamp on anyone linked to Corbyn - have been way too slow to deal with this Rochdale MP candidate. If they were going to stand by him, they can't ditch him the next day.
Honestly i’m glad they came to the right decision either way, people are acting like it took forever for them to respond, but you are talking a couple of days maybe? They have had to choose to deprive a constituency of a Labour option, I think 48-72 hours to make that call isn’t bad, I certainly don’t think any other political party would have taken action any faster than that. The problem is in vetting. One of the complaints from the left hand side of the Labour Party about Starmer’s leadership is that the leadership has lacked respect for CLP’s selection processes. This situation completely vindicates this approach, expect him to rule them with an iron fist from now on, certain CLPs just can’t be trusted to select candidates. As a sidenote I think unfortunately this is reflective of some local attitudes in the constituency, before this there was a video of Azhar Ali campaigning in Rochdale getting sworn at for Labour’s stance on Palestine and having ‘Allahu ackbar’ shouted at him. So simultaneously Labour have a candidate repeating an anti-Israeli conspiracy, who also was getting attacked for not being critical enough of Israel, it’s such a poisonous atmosphere.
It's extremely toxic at the moment. In an ideal world, they've have done the deed 24 hours earlier, but I think (slightly) late is better than never. I wonder why the recording (at a labour meeting) was released when it was, seems odd timing...
The comment from a BBC radio programme was that the Daily Mail deliberately held back on publishing the recording until after the closing date for candidates to be announced. In other words, to provide maximum embarrassment for the Labour Party, as well as depriving them of the opportunity to put up a different candidate. I can see the headlines now: "It's The Mail wot won it"
If true this is The Mail once again highlighting just how much they hold the interests of British people at heart by… withholding evidence of antisemitic conspiracy until a convenient time for political gain?
I don't think the source was originally the Mail, though. It was supposedly given to them the week they ran it. Anyway, wouldn't be surprised either way tbh
Tucker Carlson, such a tough interviewer that Putin complained...that he just lobbed softballs. https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-says-he-was-not-impressed-by-tucker-carlson
Just found the below in my FB memories. Quite apt I think. Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response: "A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: * Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. * You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of ****. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: 'My God… what… have… I… created? If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set."
If they were half-decent psychics, there wouldn't be much drama. Everyone would show up, immediately congratulate the future winner, and go home without any of the mess of competition.
If this is the program the last phrase is very apt and could include Trump as well as Carlson and Putin "Bitva Extrasenov (Битва Экстрасенсов), Battle of the Psychics, is a Russian-language TNT (ТНТ) TV show based on Britain's Psychic Challenge. Each season starts with 8-13 participants selected for their superior psychic abilities, but tries (and succeeds) to expose them as frauds."
