Raising tax on the income of ordinary workers, not the wealth of the “successful”… I think that’s were you were going.
Raising tax on the income of ordinary workers, not the wealth of the “successful”… I think that’s were you were going.
Yes, thanks
I’m a civil servant, my personal views and what my employer expects me to do have not coincided for about 16 years
@MoreCashThanDash you are Sir Humphrey Appleby and I claim my £5.
The general premise of conservatism seems to be – lower taxes, smaller state, higher employment. I don’t agree but I can appreciate the argument.
However, if you look at the policies this government has introduced......
Not just this government. Britian's most famous Conservative Prime Minister of recent times, Margaret Thatcher, increased taxation, increased the size of the state, and slashed employment.
That's a good article...
But in her time, as today, high earners won and the poor lost out
Although she grabbed front pages for slashing income-tax rates, especially for top earners, she also jacked up national insurance contributions, and VAT for shoppers.
Taxes actually went up under Thatcher, and the increase fell hardest on the less well-off.
Under her, high earners won big and finance became the UK’s boss industry.
These weren’t screw-ups, but a deliberate and profound transfer of money and power to the already well-off.
Instead we should ask for whom the state will shrink – and who is in line for an almighty payout.
However, for business, differences in policies are vast.
And Boris didn't actually even need to say '**** business!". He indicated he wasn't much interested in what business thought when he promoted not just Brexit, but the hardest form of it possible. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone in business other than Wetherspoons Tim who thought leaving the single market was a good idea. Did Boris care? Of course he didn't. Every business in the country could go to the wall for all he cares.
We've commented many times on this thread that this isn't really a Tory party in any recognisable form any more. Its an English nationalist party, but behind the flag-waving populism the only economic interests they're really representing is nomadic (and usually extremely dodgy) global capital, whether thats US hedge funds or Russian Oligarchs.
It's a pro-wealth party... supported by people with little to no wealth, because they've got to be better than the lefty foreigner loving alternative, haven't they?
@MoreCashThanDash you are Sir Humphrey Appleby and I claim my £5.
Sadly, I am just a humble civil servant, and have not reached the lofty heights of those receiving an invite to a work event at No10.
Possibly because a lot of what I write on here probably breaches the Civil Service Code 🤣
Amazing to think, that some people look at Nadine and think “there is a formidable and intelligent woman” but no doubt they do
Surely, you only have to watch the interview with Charlie Stayt?
Amazing to think, that some people look at Nadine and think “there is a formidable and intelligent woman” but no doubt they do
Wave a flag, make the right noises about sending forriners back to where they came from and hanging criminals and the proles will vote for it.
Anyway, she was stridently pro-Brexit which is the only current requirement to be a Minister.
Under her, high earners won big and finance became the UK’s boss industry.
I can still remember (as in I can hear it in my head) her saying "a service economy". I am not sure what she meant by it, or whether it would have included providing "services" to Russian oligarchs
Unlike Trump though, in the absence of a written constitution, we don’t have the same capacity to limit the damage
I was emphatically told on here a few years back that we don’t need a written constitution. Like you I’m still not convinced
The Constitution didn't do much for the US in preventing a lot of the egregious shit trump got up to, nearly did, and might do yet. The same situation exists as in this country - the system relies on elected representatives doing the right thing and was never fully conceived to be robust in the defence of the system against those who might try to subvert it. In 2020 trump had people returning papers to the archives acting as illegitimate electors handing trump election wins he didn't earn. Trump was considering re-running the election in swing states he didn't take and even just starting a military coup. Everything was on the table. Pretty scary stuff if you care to look.
Another takeaway from the Peston show was that the public now trust Labour more than the Conservtives on tax.
I prefer the forensic approach that the show takes, using lots of data and graphs rather than the more convoluted and faux adverserial style of Newsnight.
The least unpopular recent former prime minsters are Gordon Brown and John Major.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/polling/2022/01/there-is-only-one-popular-politician-in-the-uk
I think they have not suffered in the same way as other leaders because hindsight has shown then to be fairly decent people.
It is interesting that Major's critisms are headlining in the The Times and Telegraph. As, I think to many they represent the conscience of the party.
I think that Major probably personifies in a lot of peoples minds what the Tory Party was before it set off on its transformation into UKIP. Him and Ken Clarke
Him and Ken Clarke
Good old Ken Clarke. Lobbying for tobacco and screwing over haemophiliacs.
However, if you look at the policies this government has introduced that affect people in work directly, some of them are pretty far to the left
FTFY. There are also those who are not in work that we need to care for as a (currently) rich first world country.
Good old Ken Clarke. Lobbying for tobacco and screwing over haemophiliacs.
Thats sort of the point I was making. We despised him (and the rest of them) at the time but he looks like Mother ****ing Theresa compared to any one of this present shower
Major always had a hard time for his dull image, and was "unlucky" that he was PM as the Tory bubble finally burst, and Blair moved new Labour towards the centre pushing the Torues to the right. Though I can't forgive him for shagging Edwina.
Also the last PM who went to state school iirc, brought up on a council estate? So possibly the last one with a social conscience and any empathy
According to Wikipedia brown also went to a state school.
"Brown was educated first at Kirkcaldy West Primary School where he was selected for an experimental fast stream education programme, which took him two years early to Kirkcaldy High School for an academic hothouse education taught in separate classes.[19] Aged 16, he wrote that he loathed and resented this "ludicrous" experiment on young lives."
"but he looks like Mother *ing Theresa"
Mother *ing Theresa May?
Theresa May went to a state school.
Though I can’t forgive him for shagging Edwina.
A personal slight?
Truss deploying the memes to keep her leadership bid going
https://twitter.com/trussliz/status/1491667933269045249
Im not sure the disastruss press conference will have done much good for her bid tho
Between Boris and the leadership contenders they must be employing more photographers than most media groups
Im not sure the disastruss press conference will have done much good for her bid tho
Loving your work Kimbers.
If she becomes PM I suspect it'll be a front page headline within 6 months.
That Truss meme needs the text replacing with her "Pork Markets" speech 😀
Major always had a hard time for his dull image, and was “unlucky” that he was PM as the Tory bubble finally burst, and Blair moved new Labour towards the centre pushing the Tories to the right. Though I can’t forgive him for shagging Edwina.
Also the last PM who went to state school iirc, brought up on a council estate? So possibly the last one with a social conscience and any empathy
Major was, and is a decent person and he was a good PM. If you look at his background and policies, he's a far better fit for Labour under Starmer, Blair or Brown than he is a for a modern Tory party. He started a lot of the 'good things' that happened under New Labour.
Yeah, he was the Grey man, Spitting Image even made him grey, but it was that, that killed him, it was his sleazy MPs "Tory Sleaze" being said on the news most evenings in the late 90s, tbh most of it pales into insignificance compared to what they're up to these days.
This current period is different, but there parallels, if Johnson really does call a GE next year, which I think it more a threat to his new Red Wall MPs, they'll lose, Labour seem to have finally put their differences aside for now and KS is finding his groove at PMQs/TV, whilst the Tories descend into chaotic in-fighting, by May 2023 we'll be getting battered by an inflation crisis and no government survives something like that. What can Johnson offer? More Brexit? Examples of how well they handled the Pandemic? The longer this goes on, the worse it will be for them.
When Johnson is finally, dragged kicking and screaming out of No10, I suspect Sunak will take his place, he'll quickly U-turn and find some money to do something more meaningful about the Energy cost crisis and probably at least soften the blow of the NI increase somehow and hope like hell it makes him seem like our saviour.
That picture of Liz Truss - was it an official pic? She surely can't have approved such a vacant look, or I guess she may be too stupid to notice? Also can't open her mouth without the "sovereignty" dog whistle spilling out.
When Johnson is finally, dragged kicking and screaming out of No10, I suspect Sunak will take his place,
Sunak is relatively popular now because he has been able to give a few handouts but is relatively unknown.
The blunt truth is that he is not a leader. The Tory party know that.
Boris has largely surrounded himself with lambs and *****. They have also been damaged by association. My hunch is that anyone who stands a chance in a general election will need to come from outside the cabinet. So the more electable that Keir is, the longer Boris will cling to power whilst they await the Messiah.
Seddon is the Moscow correspondent for the FT:
max seddon
@maxseddon
· 1h
Things behind the scenes were even worse, according to @ElenaChernenko.
Lavrov said, "Do you recognize Russia's sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh oblasts?"
Truss said the UK would "never" do so – before the ambassador told her they're not in Ukraine
https://kommersant.ru/doc/5207486?tg
How they must have all laughed when May made Johnson Foreign Secretary, and the buffoon rocked up totally unprepared and winging it for important international visits
Who could then have imagined that fast forward a few years and the buffoon is now PM and his appointed Foreign Secretary is even more stupid, unprepared and winging it?
John Major was absolutely bang on about the damage that these clowns are doing to this countries international standing. We're an absolute laughing stock.
Chump in being played for a chump shocker. Still, she got some pics on her instabanger, chump.
There is only one popular politician in the UK
Largely thanks to furlough, it's easy to be popular when you're handing out money.
I strongly suspect that Sunak's popularity is going to hit the buffers hard when people get their first pay cheques with the increaed NI contributions.
The 'average man in the street' is largely unaware that his taxes are about to go up, just as inflation spikes and as a rule, nobody who votes Tory does so with the expectation of having to pay higher taxes.
The patently unfair nature of raising NI rather that capital gains or income tax, and thereby thumping salaried workers and not the relatively wealthy rentier/investor class is going to write Labour's next election leaflets for them
It is. That doesn’t mean that any attention will be paid to them though. Johnson got Brexit and Covid done. 💩
Largely thanks to furlough, it’s easy to be popular when you’re handing out money.
His eat out to spread it about was particularly successful as well. I would agree once the taxes and other costs such as energy really start to bite then he will run into issues. Needs to take over fast and then blame everything on the new chancellor shortly before replacing them.
Looks like Liz Truss’ Moscow trip has not gone down well with Lavrov, who said UK diplomats came “unprepared” to their meeting and said it was “like a mute talking to a deaf person”
It's what they all do.
David Davis famously turned up to one of the many Brexit negotiation meetings with no papers at all. The official pic had all the EU people with dossiers and laptops and him with...nothing.
They come along to interviews, talks, summits etc without having read any of the briefings, without any of the info to hand and then just bluster, bluff and bullshit through it all. A few jokes, a pithy Latin phrase, some sov-rin-tee and some outright dodging of the questions. Job done.
Lavrov said, “Do you recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh oblasts?”
Truss said the UK would “never” do so – before the ambassador told her they’re not in Ukraine
Already up there rivalling Boris for the title of 'worst foreign secretary in history'. What a ****ing idiot.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK, YOU USELESS, PREENING, MUPPET!
Lavrov said, “Do you recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh oblasts?”
Superb trolling there you have to admit.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK, YOU USELESS, PREENING, MUPPET!
Same all over.
HoC yesterday, Boris Johnson was answering a question from Bradford MP Naz Shah about levelling-up, he blathered on about "not ruling out" that HS2 could eventually come to Bradford.
Bradford was never on the plans for HS2 (it was supposed to go to [b]Leeds[/b] and the separate, but connected, Northern Powerhouse Rail was supposed to link the east-west Pennines via Bradford). All binned off naturally, wouldn't want to actually invest in the North.
But the accusation is that he simply doesn't know the difference between Leeds and Bradford - or maybe if he's aware of the existence of Leeds-Bradford Airport, he thinks they're the same? Or that he hasn't done his homework on any of the details in two of the most important documents to come out of Government recently, the Integrated Rail Plan and the Levelling Up White Paper.
None of them have a ****ing clue. Barely a brain cell amongst them.
levelling-up
There is no spoon. Never was.
Minister for Levelling Up.
Minister for Brexit Opportunities.
Never before have binners Python references been so appropriate.
I listened to Gavin Barwell on a podcast, think it was the Guardian politics weekly, he said that a risky tactic might be that the Johnson loyalists all send their letters of no confidence in to trigger the vote soon, on the basis that BJ is more likely to win the vote now rather than later (if more partygate revelations come out and/or the Met police make a finding).
This is a quite useful for a MP by MP guide to where the Tories are:
I now think he'll just be allowed to bumble along until the local elections in May. Right up until the exit polls come in showing huge losses to the Lib Dems daaahn saaarf and massive losses to labour oop norf.
Then he'll be gone in minutes
