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.
Labour currently hold 58 out of 75 seats in London, which has a population far bigger than Scotland. If Burnham goes and doubles low-to-middle earners' and pensioners' council tax across London, as proposed, they're not going to win 58 seats next time. I mean they weren't going to anyway, but they might as well retire to the study with a bottle of Scotch and a Luger at this rate. Burnham appears not to have noticed that Labour now depends heavily on middle-class voters in the South-East and other prosperous enclaves.
And landlords will have to pass the cost on to tenants, so the effect on renters, including key workers, who are already paying a very high proportion of net income in rent, will be interestingly bad.
Rumours that Burnham is in favour of replacing Council Tax and Stamp Duty with a Proportional Property Tax set at 0.48% of market value (0.96% for second homes) are hard to believe when the South East would be hit hard. Even three bed terrace houses here cost in excess of the break even point of £500k, so most house owners in the South East will be net losers.The Valuation Offi
I'm in favour as well as a long as rich people have to pay. If it can avoided though trusts and companies then it's just more sticking plasters as we bleed to death
Labour currently hold 58 out of 75 seats in London, which has a population far bigger than Scotland. If Burnham goes and doubles low-to-middle earners' and pensioners' council tax across London, as proposed, they're not going to win 58 seats next time. I mean they weren't going to anyway, but they might as well retire to the study with a bottle of Scotch and a Luger at this rat
I suppose that includes me. Hopefully burnham has noticed that but realised that of he wants to win he should appeal more heavily to the those who want serious left wing progressive politics.
Burnham appears not to have noticed that Labour now depends heavily on middle-class voters in the South-East and other prosperous enclaves.
And landlords will have to pass the cost on to tenants, so the effect on renters, including key workers, who are already paying a very high proportion of net income in rent, will be interestingly bad.
He’s probably calculating that seats lost in Greater London will be more than compensated for by seats gained in the provinces where house prices are much less and frequently under the 500k break even threshold, and he might be right - I’d have to look at the electoral map. Whether he has the political will to follow through with “losing London” remains to be seen. The mainstream media, most of them London based, would make a huge song and dance of it, which is another reason it probably won’t happen. I can’t wait to see how the nouveau Guardians bourgeois elite balance their claimed social conscience with their rising bills.
Landlords will pass any increase on to tenants but again this will affect people in the south east more, and rents “should” fall elsewhere for the same reason as above.
Can always modify it with the rate depending on the price of an average home in the area. I wouldn't but if it gets it through it might be worth doing something.
All taxes based on some hypothetical value have difficulties but assuming it's a replacement for stamp duty then it can be a big boost to the economy. Stamp duty is a huge disincentive to move house which makes no sense for people or the economy.
Can always modify it with the rate depending on the price of an average home in the area. I wouldn't but if it gets it through it might be worth doing something.All taxes based on some hypothetical value have difficulties but assuming it's a replacement for stamp duty then it can be a big boost to the economy. Stamp duty is a huge disincentive to move house which makes no sens
Stamp duty has hardly held down the property prices that put UK housing costs above European norms. Like conveyancing costs, it's built into the mortgage deal and abolishing it would just cause a price hike to take up the slack.
I think that's totally wrong. For people who own houses it's a big expensive deterrent to moving.
A property tax is no deterrent to moving.
Tommy Ten-Names isn't an MP, yet, though he could be one because criminal convictions are no bar to standing or sitting as an MP. Burnham is apparently thinking of bringing his pal Louise Haigh into Cabinet. She has a conviction for fraud.
I'd imagine it would be counter productive though, the opposition would have a field day with such types.
Burnham is believed to favour appointing as his Chief of Staff James Purnell, Blairite and ex Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.
Nothing will change.
Must really stick in your craw to have so many Jews in the Labour party.
Please stop with the antismeitic conflation of Jews and Israel.
Elrager posting online at 5:48am on Saturday again. Get a life, you sad fack.
Burnham is due to be made party leader on 17th July, becoming PM on Monday 20th, a day after the world cup final.
The Times.
The financial rules are very flexible. starmer/reeves use them as an excuse as much as anything
for example we could renationalise the whole of energy/water/...etc.... and keep within the fiscal rules. We can introduce wealth taxes to redistribute. We can invest more etc etc etc
The financial rules are very flexible. starmer/reeves use them as an excuse as much as anything
for example we could renationalise the whole of energy/water/...etc.... and keep within the fiscal rules. We can introduce wealth taxes to redistribute. We can invest more etc etc etc
No, that kind of renationalisation would inflate borrowing drastically when the interest repayments are already up to half the health budget, and the market reaction would drive the government's borrowing cost even higher.
It may be possible to acquire Thames Water, because the government has declined to bail it out of its debt crisis, but then the government would assume the debt itself.
He had to say that or the markets would humiliate him in the lettuce stakes like Liz Truss. As it is, 30-year gilt yields dropped 0.02% and the pound gained a third of a cent against the dollar, which kind of means 'Ooookay, now tell us more.'
But yeah, the rest is just fluff and he doesn't even know how to fund the gigantic council-house-building programme he's proposing, which renders it a bit moot.
one good thing netanyahu has achieved is totally destroying any idea that criticizing israel is being antisemitic
Some still bleat on about it but nobody except the racists who do conflate israel with being jewish are taking it seriously anymore.
Of course Burnham could last for many lettuce spans, because of the 'anyone but Reform' voting we're seeing, with Green and Lib Dem voters jumping ship and doggy-paddling over to Labour's rusted hulk. But the longer he goes on, the more he's liable to do stupid things.
I shouldn't be surprised that you haven't learned about BST yet, thicko.
As you've raised this you might be interested to know that when I do read 2+2 over breakfast with my wife (a real person, not an imaginary one like yours), part of the entertainment at your expense is to check what hour you were up, fuming at immigrants and unable to sleep, and the answer is frequently between 3am and 4am (that's BST, dummy), and it's a relief when you haven't posted yet another of your "I can't sleep I hate immigrants so much" repellent posts, loser.
You need help.
An interesting shift seems to have happened to Meloni, who is now happily banging the pro-EU drum, saying that the EU needs to become a greater power, so that all the nation states within it are more sovereign and less cramped and/or controlled by external bullies like Putin, Trump, Musk & Xi. This is one of the arguments I made here pre-Brexit.
