If I spent 5 years f*ucking up the economy would they pay me shed loads of money afterwards for crap advice? I already work for Blackrock in a roundabout sort of way as they hold large investments in the company that I work for.
You could earn even more if you spend a bit of time f***ing up the political climate in a geographical region and then take up a job as a "peace envoy" to fix it.
Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi makes over £20,000 a month as "advisor" to an oil company I have the misfortune to be invested in, and will make at least £1.5m if the company is sold. He allegedly does between 2 and 20 hours work a week for that (while being an MP at the same time!) And that work consists of providing spectacularly bad advice which has enabled the companies bond holders to effectively take control from the shareholders, and during his watch seen the share price fall to fractions of what it was before. He has previously advised another oil company for three years that collapsed. He is a multi-millionaire as a result of being a co-founder of polling company YouGov. http://www.stratford-herald.com/60096-mp-defends-criticisms-oil-firms-finances.html
Private Eye ran an interesting piece on the Osborne/Black Rock connection. There are supposedly strict rules (yeah, right) concerning former Ministers taking roles post-government in companies that their policies would have benefited. He got away with joining BR despite them making ridiculous financial gain as a direct result of the former Chancellor's decisions. Unbelievably corrupt, but we would expect nothing less!
Nigel Farage just visited the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. I wonder why he went there? Must be going on a trip. Yep. That's it.
I think these business people and politicians ignore climate change for their own benefit. But it's their kids and grandkids and beyond who are going to suffer.....do they care? Hell no!
Where I work the political climate has been f*ucked up for 170 years and it world take more than a peace envoy to fix it. You could take the GDP's of Russia, EU, USA and China combined and invest them in the DRC and it wouldn't change a thing. A few people would pocket the lot. The Belgian Colonists, in particular Leopold II (Quenn Victoria's Uncle) treated the Congolese very badly and it's never really been right since. Following independence things totally fell apart. Leaders like Mubutu, who nationalised everything, installed the belief that is is alright to steal from one's employer because you are not ripping of anyone and the Kabila's (father and son), rape/d the exchequer for their own ends ignoring the basic needs of the people. It sad to say, because the Belgians didn't treat them well, but they would definitely be better off still being a colony providing rules and regulations were based around modern values. Many African countries are similar, they would be better off still as colonies. Look at what Mugabi has done to the wonderful country Rhodesia, he has absolutely destroyed it just as Zuma is destroying South Africa.
Of course. In the middle east, that is exactly what the likes of Citizen Blair are counting on. <kerching>
Like many policies, I would suggest that the imposition of additional NI contributions for the self-employed might look ok from one perspective but has not been properly "thought through". There are many considerations - did anyone not think of these before???? For example, the self-employed would argue that they don't get access to some of the benefits received by the rest of the working population anyway, so why should they pay the same. Secondly, there are many self-employed (sadly increasing numbers I think) who are not self-employed by choice but are so by some technicality, such as uber drivers who effectively are employed by uber but for legal (?) reasons are technically self-employed. These people will be hit hard. It has been argued that many self-employed do not declare their full earnings, so should pay more anyway. But these are two completely different things. Making people pay more NI isn't going to make anyone more honest, if anything if you're that way inclined you might find a way to "recover" the extra tax by some other means. In other words, the more honest you are the more you will suffer. Perhaps it might even deter some self-employed from paying their full due. There is then the suggestion that the self-employed should then receive the same benefits as employees if they pay the same NI. Sounds fine but considering the suggestions above that (possibly) some will "offset" the greater contributions against declared work, you might find people being entitled to benefits that have not been paid for by overall increased NI contributions. Then of course there must be some administration cost of collection for the new system (I realise that self-employed kind of do their own tax, but there will be some knock on admin cost somewhere). My thought is that this new tax won't bring in anywhere near as much as the spreadsheet-driven Government thinks it will. I even suspect that if the self-employed "manage" their tax differently, it might even end up costing the nation!
What's really worth noting is that, in the space of a couple of months, Pruitt's gone from being a climate sceptic to admitting that climate change exists.
By the same benifits are you talking about some of these: Paid holidays, maternity/paternity leave, sick pay, pension, free training, PPE/work clothes provided, A heath and safety department to ensure your work place is safe, free heating at work, free power to make tea/coffee, free tea/coffee. IT department to provide and sort out software/hardware issues, reimbursement of expenses, fuel supplied for work vehicles, company cars, free BUPA insurance, etc,etc. OK, many of these things are tax deductable but you still have to work to earn the money in the first place to buy them. To suggest the self employed should pay the same national insurance as the PAYE employed is like saying Preston North End should pay the same salaries to their players as Real Madrid because both teams play football. The Chancellor is a K*nt.
But what you are describing are the benefits of working for a company. National Insurance is to pay for state benefits - supposedly just Pensions - and we all get the same from the state. There are benefits to being self employed too. Get full return on the value of your labour, work the hours you choose, expand your business whenever you want. A company employee can only earn what is in their contracts. If they contribute double that, then they just give that to the employers. It's unforgivable that the Tories promised one thing and delivered another, but the policy is sensible. It is really a socialist policy.
The only 'benifits' I ever found about being self employed was doing the governments work for them, i.e. doing VAT returns etc., only to get penalised if they were late. One worked on average 80-90 hours a week with little or no holiday in order to keep everything together. It ain't no bed of roses. We might all get the same weekly pension from the government but I'd like to bet the self employed don't live as long to enjoy it. People think that self employed people can claim for a lot things that PAYE people cannot. That is cr*ap, anyone can fill in a tax return and claim for exactly the same things if they choose to. HMRC just don't encourage it. Furthermore, I had the indignitity of all of my regular clients/customers being raided by HMRC at 06:00 one morning demanding to see everything connected with my business. When they found absolutely everything was in order, there was not even an apology or an admission that they are a bunch of f*uckwits who put 2 and 2 together and made 5. I had at least 90% of the people I was doing business with on the phone that day saying they wouldn't be doing any more business with me. People don't like HMRC beating on their door at any time, let alone 6 in the morning. The VAT man destroyed a quarter of a million turnover business in the space of a couple of hours. There was no compensation, nothing. Sweet FA. K*unts. I ended up taking a job delivering milk to make ends meet. The upshot wasn't so bad because I decided to go back to education and got myself a civil engineering degree, but the experience would have destroyed some people. It's a brave, desparate or stupid man or woman who chooses self employment in the UK nowadays.
A lot of people are forced into it because of the state of the jobs market, even though they're not really self-employed. These new taxi and delivery companies don't hire people, but claim that they're "independent contractors". This gives them a workforce, but without any of the responsibilities that would normally entail. It's a complete rip-off, but it suits some very, very rich people, so it's fine with the government. Arseholes.
HMRC in get everyone on the payroll shocker !!! Been trying to do it for nearly two decades, regardless of govt party colours (though party dogma, "class war" etc helps them in varying degrees) . <move along, nothing to see here>
