British Politics
Been on holiday for a few weeks, surprised to find no general discussion of British politics so though I'd kick one off.
Tory leadership contest is quickly turning into farce. Trump has backed Boris, which should be reason enough for anyone with half a brain to exclude him.
Of the other candidates Rory Stewart looks the best of the outsiders. Surprised to see Cleverly and Javid not further up the betting, but not sure the Tory membership are ready for a brown PM.
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/bri...
Regarding the LD leadership contest, Jo Swinson is miles ahead of any other candidate (and indeed any of the Tory lot). Should be a shoe in.
Finally, it's Groundhog Day in Labour - the more serious the anti-Semitism claims get, the more Corbyn's cronies write their own obituary by blaming it on outlandish conspiracy theories - this week, it's apparently the Jewish Embassy's fault...
He will lose authority over the party because ultimately no one, even his own party and staff, is really convinced by him because he's so utterly vapid. It's just a matter of time.
He's a middle-raking civil servant who somehow became DPP and then, in unusual circumstances, PM.
Rachel Reeves is pushing ahead with plans to borrow billions of pounds extra for infrastructure investment, the Guardian has learned, despite concerns about the rising cost of UK government debt.
The chancellor told the cabinet on Tuesday she wanted to change how the Treasury accounted for capital spending to reflect its benefits, as allies say she intends to finalise her debt rule in the coming days.
The move, which will be confirmed to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) as soon as Wednesday, will allow the government to borrow tens of billions more for capital spending over the course of this parliament.
Guardian
It would be good. Low bar good but still good. EXCEPT
... Despite support from many in the Labour party for changing the debt rule, some ministers are concerned that the Treasury is also planning to cut capital spending this year in an effort to close an immediate £22bn shortfall in this year’s accounts.
One minister accused Reeves of sending mixed messages by pursuing capital spending cuts in the short term but promising rises in the longer term. “There is a lack of a strategic approach here, as well as a chaotic process,” the person said.
Reeves will receive the first OBR analysis of her budget measures on Monday – the same day that the government is hosting a summit of international investors in an attempt to encourage foreign institutions to invest in the UK.
Business leaders have queried the wisdom of holding the summit before the budget is announced and while the government is still without an investment minister.
The minister is totally wrong. There is very much a stategy. It's to use our money to sweeten the deal for all the private equity to buy up what we have left.
It will probably be a very successful strategy.
I like it.
Any views on the Tory leadership race? Badenoch appears the smartest and most capable, but also the most right wing.
Cleverley seems the most likely and he might be the worst for Starmer. He's probably the unifying candidate, and as far as the public are concerned he's populist enough for get cut though, but centrist enough for mass appeal.
Not sure any of them would get me rushing to the ballot box.
It's very odd. Cleverley might be worst for labour and tories. He might nick a bit of the center off strarmer at the same time as strenghtening farage with the disaffected.
Badenoch will be the most entertaining. Bad Enoch as soemone else pointed out. What could go wrong.
Jenrich. Seems a bland right wing ****er. Might be truly awful but most likely a difficult quiz question.
current rumours for the labour budget are
tax relief on pension contributions will be left alone after all - too complicated to implement and a change would smash GPs
osbourne's pension tax-free lump sum at 55 (soon to be 57) will be at least halved
capital gains will increase a bit, but will remain lower than income
undrawn pension pots at death will be subject to IHT
a few of the IHT reliefs will disappear or be nerfed. farmers are going to get ****ed
PE execs will have to pay a bit more up front for carry (this can be done by enforcing existing legislation)
Badenoch is a stupid person's idea of what an intelligent person sounds like. It didn't surprise me to find she had a career in IT because there are many extremists like her working in that field.
Badenoch once admitted, or perhaps boasted, about hacking into Harriet Harman's website. Apart from showing a terrible lack of judgment, why has she never been prosecuted?
current rumours for the labour budget are
tax relief on pension contributions will be left alone after all - too complicated to implement and a change would smash GPs
osbourne's pension tax-free lump sum at 55 (soon to be 57) will be at least halved
capital gains will increase a bit, but will remain lower than income
undrawn pension pots at death will be subject to IHT
a few of the IHT reliefs will disappear or be nerfed. farmers are going to get ****ed
PE execs will have to pay a bit more up front fo
From a selfish point of view I’m definitely not liking the possible halving of the tax free lump sum.
I read an interesting thread on Twitter about Capital Gains Tax the other day that I’ll post if I can find it.
Doesn't effect me much but there should be a threshold before it gets cut so ordinary tax payers aren't clobbered too much. It's also seems incredibly retrospective if it applies to current value of pension pot. People have saves for years on the basis there's a 25% tax free sum - many have mortages informally linked to it. Be very suprised if there aren't some 'details' in whatever RR does - if noit she is going to clobbered with stories about this has devastated older ordinary earning people.
A big change is just going to be in the adding up to allow more borrowing for investment while still claiming to be sticking to the rules.
Any views on the Tory leadership race? Badenoch appears the smartest and most capable, but also the most right wing.
Cleverley seems the most likely and he might be the worst for Starmer. He's probably the unifying candidate, and as far as the public are concerned he's populist enough for get cut though, but centrist enough for mass appeal.
Not sure any of them would get me rushing to the ballot box.
Like watching the elephant man decide the best way to part his hair.
I don't think Labour have too much to worry about, the massive pool of talent the tories are offering would rattle if you crammed it inside a walnut.
Latest poll shows a hung Parliament with Labour well short of a majority. lol Starmer
I might just stop working early and draw down that 25% if the dates work out lol
Current limit is ~268k tax free. Rumours are reducing that to 100k.
Ok that's not horrible I guess
Taking money from old people's savings instead of taxing the wealthy - New New Labour.
clevs knocked out, wild and unbelievable, he had 39 votes last time and only needed one more to go through. got 37 this time
pretty sure team cleverly tried to engineer a cleverly vs jenrick final by lending votes to jenrick, and ****ed it up bigly
grant shapps was the campaign manager and would've been behind any such shenanigans
Not very Cleverly self-sabotages his own election. What a dickhead.
Badenoch will be bad enough.
so we're at frying pan or fire stage then
The Tories are. It's another gift to Starmer that he will no doubt contrive to kick into his own net.
Also, I'm guessing conservative MPs didn't coordinate properly and this is what happens. They are such a bag of dicks. It made me chuckle tho, so whatevs.
Not that it matters imo, they are done for 2 terms unless Labour majorly shits the bed. Which Starmer might well precipitate.
tom tugjob's 20 votes all going to the right wingers doesnt make any sense, looking forward to finding out what happened here
