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I don't suppose they took into account that you can now be arrested for terrorism in the UK for holding up a sign saying "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action"
Nah they would approve of that. This report got updated by Trump and co and so has a rather special interpretation of "human rights".
And largely that's a job, not benefits.
The job has to pay meaningfully and be worthwhile to affect mental health outcomes.
We're going to have to do some work on social responsibility for shareholders/business owners with some regulation that has teeth for those that think they're "special".
There isn't the appetite for this currently because the managerial classes have got used to quick fix solutions with minimal effort and they will need to engage in some long-term planning (6 years and beyond). They don't have the skillset for this, for some next weeks planning is beyond them.
patient group for hypertensive, Obese, DT2 patients and there is still surprisingly a lack of understanding about what, for example, eating healthily means
If you're working 2 or 3 zero hours jobs there isn't the time, nor the funds for this. Fix the jobs market and it makes healthy eating choices easier as it helps get away from the 'quick-fix'.
Of course the big difference between the US and the UK is we still have a functioning judiciary which in this case has fast tracked a review of the governments on the face of it somewhat controversial decision to ban Palestine Action. A review that will actually look at the facts of the case and the underlying reasons for banning Palestine Action. The supporters being arrested is a sideshow, don't think many people would have any issues with people being arrested for openly showing support for Islamic State or the IRA in public. It all hinges on whether Palestine's Action action's meet the bar for it to be classed as a terrorist group. It is being intimated we don't have all the details in the public domain. A court that will have the full details will adjudicate on this soon, seems like human rights are being protected to me, government does something on the face of it that seems inappropriate, courts hold them to account and have the final say. Contrast that with the States where much of the legal system is fully politised and Trump's ability to run roughshod over any ruling he doesn't like, not really the same is it.
The job has to pay meaningfully and be worthwhile
Define worthwhile. There's loads of jobs that need doing or someone is prepared to pay someone else to do a lot of people don't consider to be worthwhile, do these just not get done?
As for the pay the more it goes up the more it removes low skilled jobs from the marketplace if they don't generate enough value for the business, either the business decides it can get by without employing those people (reduce service levels, automate the role) or the business ultimately goes bust as it doesn't work economically. And before Ernie jumps down my throat I'm not advocating for jobs that don't pay enough to fund a basic standard of living, I'm advocating that government should actively tackle the cost of living, housing and fuel costs being major things they should be working on, hard long terms things that will ultimately improve living standards.
Everyone in a highly paid interesting job that they jump out of bed for every day is just idealistic nonsense.
It all hinges on whether Palestine's Action action's meet the bar for it to be classed as a terrorist group
Given that that bar is set by politicians (and used by other politicians who are recipients of Israeli largesse), I don't share your rose tinted vision of our wonderful democracy.
Meanwhile it looks like Reeves has finally twigged that we need to start taxing wealth not income. Increasing CGT is a long overdue no-brainer. Putting a cap on lifetime gifts to prevent avoidance of IHT is also a good idea, as long as it's not too low to prevent working people helping out their kids with deposits on a house etc. Do that and they'll have a middle England rebellion on their hands.
Define worthwhile
A good chunk of finance related jobs are litterally just swilling money about. The productive gain in nominal.
That money and 'talent' could go in to much better public outcomes.
I'm advocating that government should actively tackle the cost of living, housing and fuel costs being major things they should be working on, hard long terms things that will ultimately improve living standards.
Totally agree. Scrap the failed models becuase that's the only way.
We've struggled on too long with Neoliberalism as it just fails at giving decent living standards for a large chunk of people.
None of this is even being remotely tackled by this government - in fact they will exacerbate problems with current policy choices.
Meanwhile it looks like Reeves has finally twigged that we need to start taxing wealth not income. Increasing CGT is a long overdue no-brainer. Putting a cap on lifetime gifts to prevent avoidance of IHT is also a good idea, as long as it's not too low to prevent working people helping out their kids with deposits on a house etc. Do that and they'll have a middle England rebellion on their hands.
I suspect she's only doing this so she can limit her spreadsheet black-holes.
Everything else will be smoke and mirrors.
I suspect she's only doing this so she can limit her spreadsheet black-holes.
Of course, there's absolutely no hint that this extra tax will be used for anything productive, but it at least nudges the narrative towards taxing wealth rather than income. In a normal political world it would be an open goal for the tories to exploit but given the chaos in the tory party right now they might actually get away with it.
the tory party
The who?
This is a golden opportunity to make this as public as possible and make Farage state his position. He needs to be made to squirm.
He backs taxing wealth -> his real backers splutter their chateau lafitte all over their expensive carpet and "have a word".
He doesn't back taxing wealth -> his knuckle-dragging would-be voters (if they can be persuaded to notice) splutter their Carling over the wipe-clean floor in Spoons.
He needs to be nailed as an exploiter.
He doesn't back taxing wealth -> his knuckle-dragging would-be voters (if they can be persuaded to notice) splutter their Carling over the wipe-clean floor in Spoons.
Farage will misrepresent it as the govt taking away your kids inheritance, and many reform voters will agree even though they aren't liable for inheritance tax. That's where Labour need to make the argument.
@stumpyjon My comment was meaningfully paid, not highly paid. The two terms are not synonymous.
Worthwhile is a job that:
a benefits society
b appeals to the worker
c has the potential to engage the worker
just idealistic nonsense
There's no need to be rude and many of todays benefits started as someone's ideal.
Farage will misrepresent it as the govt taking away your kids inheritance, and many reform voters will agree even though they aren't liable for inheritance tax. That's where Labour need to make the argument.
I feel a sloganed bus coming on.
It worked last time...
The home secretary has welcomed guidance for the police that has told them to share suspects’ ethnicity and nationality with the public, reports the PA news agency.
Yvette Cooper said the government had been clearer for the need for more openness. It comes after authorities were accused of covering up offences carried out by asylum seekers, and in the wake of riots after the Southport murders which were partly fuelled by social media disinformation.
Why do we continue with this charade? Just install Farage in No 10 now and have done with it.
The Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper obviously believes that potential rioters should have the full and correct facts before them.
Plus how are Daily Mail columnists supposed to go into rants about foreign criminals if they are not supplied the information concerning the ethnicity of "suspects"?
The Labour Party leader recently made an important speech in which he claimed that recent immigration had done, quote, "incalcable damage" to the UK, presumably this vital information of the ethnicity of "suspects" will help to calculate the damage immigrants have caused the UK recently.
What do they do though? Retain the old opacity and feed the lie of a cover up and two tier policing?
David Lammy has referred himself to the environment watchdog because he did not have a rod licence to go fishing with JD Vance.
David Lammy - what an absolute waste of space. He should report himself to somebody for not beating Vance to death with a priest.
What do they do though? Retain the old opacity and feed the lie of a cover up and two tier policing?
Precisely, now baying mobs can get pitchforks out when it has been clearly established what the ethnicity and/or nationality of a "suspect" is.
I mean it must be really embarrassing to start rioting based on misinformation or straightforward lies!
Last summer's rioting and attacks on mosques was based on the lie that the suspect was Muslim, hopefully rioters will now feel more confident and less hesitant when they decide to take to the streets to display their bigotry.
Well done Labour!
I am getting very tired of those excusing labours racist rhetoric because "peer pressure made them do it". They are in charge, they have autonomy to take their own path and they should be fighting racism not encouraging it.
The old excuse used to be they couldn't do anything in opposition, the new excuse seems to be they can do nothing because they are in government, the far right are pulling Starmer’s strings and he seems quite comfortable with that.
Easier to take the oligarchs money and attack the left than actually deal with the problems.
A big problem with releasing ethnicity, refugee status, nationality is that the right wing press and social media grifters will just report and amplify those cases which fit their narrative.
Just reporting those cases where the accused was an asylum seeker, refugee, immigrant more widely etc will create a disproportionate sense that they are committing all the crime. The majority of the dozens/hundreds (?) of eg sexual assaults committed everyday by British nationals will carry on not being reported
I really worry where this is leading us
The old excuse used to be they couldn't do anything in opposition, the new excuse seems to be they can do nothing because they are in government, the far right are pulling Starmer’s strings and he seems quite comfortable with that.
This.
All along this has been one of Centrism's great failings. There is no plan. There is only what the far-right 'do' and how Labour react to that.
Then a host of people queue up behind Starmer and jump through hoops to support the very things that 12 months ago they despised.
It's ridiculous and lacks any sort of critical thought process by constant excuse making and as proving is not delivering good results.
Just doesn't get any better. They will be all up in arms when Farage gets on the lecturn. And it will be down to them.
Don't make excuses for Starmer and co being awful. There's too much at stake.
The majority of the dozens/hundreds (?) of eg sexual assaults committed everyday by British nationals will carry on not being reported
Well if the media doesn't report the ethnicity and nationality of all suspects then I would assume that would fall foul of anti-discrimination laws.
I can't see how they can pick and choose when to mention the ethnicity and nationality of suspects. I would expect the media to report the arrest of all white British born suspects in exactly the same way.
I can't see how they can pick and choose when to mention the ethnicity and nationality of suspects. I would expect the media to report the arrest of all white British born suspects in exactly the same way.
My thoughts on that too. Unfortunately Trump is blazing the path for blatant dismissal of stats which don't follow the desired narrative.
It should be remembered that a year ago, whilst others did, Keir Starmer steadfastly refused to publicly criticised Nigel Farage for suggesting conspiracy theories and misinformation which were so important in fueling the riots and attacks on mosques throughout the country.
Ignoring Nigel Farage does not work, today Reform UK are far more popular than they were a year and Labour much less so.
Starmer and Farage are currently both singing from the same hymn sheet because neither have any solutions to offer and both are desperate for easy votes that rely on blaming others.
Also straight back on to Farage about small boat crossings being almost totally driven by Brexit.
2018-2020: 10,604 arrivals avg 3,535 per year.
2021-2024: 140,534 arrivals avg 35,134 per year.
That's a tenfold increase post Brexit. Labour also need to counter the argument that Johnson's Trump-esque rush to 'Get Brexit Done' resulted in it not being 'delivered properly'. Farage will inevitably go to leaving the ECHR as a double-down. Have the facts ready to combat this. Back the mother****er into a corner and keep at him. If it can be done in a live setting, try to panic him into looking stupid. If he remains calm, splice all his lies into a tiktok and caption each one with 'Lie'.
It's not sophisticated. It is what the electorate seem to respond to, though.
The majority of the dozens/hundreds (?) of eg sexual assaults committed everyday by British nationals will carry on not being reported
Well if the media doesn't report the ethnicity and nationality of all suspects then I would assume that would fall foul of anti-discrimination laws.
I can't see how they can pick and choose when to mention the ethnicity and nationality of suspects. I would expect the media to report the arrest of all white British born suspects in exactly the same way.
Sorry if I'm repeating a point already made
There have been criteria for a while, usually to counteract misinformation or disinformation leading to community tension.
It's sometimes necessary but you wouldn't want to stoke community tension by releasing information on every occasion, especially as a person is innocent until proven guilty.
Arrests and charges prove nothing
It kind of makes me a bit nostalgic for someone like John Prescott, TBH. He was no master politician, but against Starmer and his fellow scaredy-cats he looks like a colossus. Obviously being in government pulled his horns in on plenty of occasions, but I would have liked to see peak Prezza going toe-to-toe with Farage.
This current mob haven't got the balls to confront Farage head-on. So they do his job for him. At least if they stood and fought they could say to the electorate "well we exposed to you over and over again what this would be like" if Reform are elected in 2029.
🤬
It's sometimes necessary but you wouldn't want to stoke community tension by releasing information on every occasion, especially as a person is innocent until proven guilty.
Arrests and charges prove nothing
You will have noticed that I have repeatedly placed the term "suspect" in quotation marks precisely to emphasis the innocence of the individual. Or perhaps you haven't 😉
And no, you wouldn't want to stoke community tension by releasing information on every occasion but if the Labour Home Secretary is applying pressure to release the ethnicity, nationality, and immigration status of suspects, then I think it is probably morally correct (and probably also legally required) to apply it to British-born white Brits suspects as much as anyone else.
We will have to deal with any anti-white riots this information might trigger when we come to it 💡
It's sometimes necessary but you wouldn't want to stoke community tension by releasing information on every occasion, especially as a person is innocent until proven guilty.
Arrests and charges prove nothing
You will have noticed that I have repeatedly placed the term "suspect" in quotation marks precisely to emphasis the innocence of the individual. Or perhaps you haven't 😉
And no, you wouldn't want to stoke community tension by releasing information on every occasion but if the Labour Home Secretary is applying pressure to release the ethnicity, nationality, and immigration status of suspects, then I think it is probably morally correct (and probably also legally required) to apply it to British-born white Brits suspects as much as anyone else.
We will have to deal with any anti-white riots this information might trigger when we come to it 💡
I'm expanding the point, not taking a cheap shot
The most read occurrences in the last year are possibly Southport where the Chief Constable wanted to include "Christian" to counter anti-Islamist feeling but was advised not to by the CPS https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d491mqqq5o
The other was the "white British" driver of the car in Liverpool in May.
The latest guidance is out on the College of Policing website and is IMHO rightly limited https://www.college.police.uk/article/forces-encouraged-disclose-ethnicity-and-nationality-specific-cases
https://twitter.com/RachelReevesMP/status/1955693980835852573?t=449oEG3IRUKUZEUWTYiF6A&s=19
Clearly if Starmer can make a good job out of lying then Reeves has decided that path exists too.
To claim they've fixed the foundations is utterly delusional.
Specifically citing variable rate mortgages are lower now than when she came to power as a product of the Labour party is totally ridiculous when she has simply let the BoE do whatever it wants. (The BoE have created their own chaos too.)
This is mind-blowing. She dare not mention the reality of growth either or unemployment moving upwards.
No mention of crippling utility bills in the mix either.
Her fiscal rules and legacy will have now saddled the UK with a bizarre interpretation of what a deficit is. As back to front and self-defeating as an economic concept could be.
Not to mention the pain of the WFA and 2CBC.
No one was expecting them to do miracles in the first year but this article is celebrating nothing.
What is apparent is no one believes anything she says because they squandered goodwill and made so many stupid Tory mistakes, confusing the hell out of the public for what a Labour party should be about.
Useful piece from a member of the HoL
Her fiscal rules and legacy will have now saddled the UK with a bizarre interpretation of what a deficit is. As back to front and self-defeating as an economic concept could be.
I haven't heard talk of a "Tory financial black hole" for a while. I wonder why? 🙂
So Northern rail, maybe even extra leg of HS2 back on?
2 analyses out today show that the IHT reforms protect smaller family farms and that non-doms havent fled the country
so just like with VAT on schools the right wing press were talking bobbins
https://www.ft.com/content/918e0ce3-0dc7-470b-968d-94d6982dabdd
https://bsky.app/profile/jamesfitzjourno.bsky.social/post/3lwdv7g4pu22b
Now lets see what happens with IHT reforms in the budget, unlocking a lot of the assets hoarded by the boomers would be very welcome
so just like with VAT on schools the right wing press were talking bobbins
And yet the right wing press still set the agenda for this supposed Labour government...
🤔
Now lets see what happens with IHT reforms in the budget, unlocking a lot of the assets hoarded by the boomers would be very welcome
Yeah, we've cleaned out the working class; now let's get to work on the middle class.
I stand behind the idea there is no real political appetite for shifting taxation in any meaningful way.
The emphasis will be on cuts. Absolutely nothing of real benefit will happen until she reverses her logic on the economy about growth appearing to fund government spending.
Reeves will be entirely focussed on creating her bloody black-holes and then jumping around until she *fixes* (drain money out the economy) them from a balance sheet perspective. She has created a no-win situation, for us at least.
Labour are creating shrinking bit of pie for eveyrone.
Yeah, we've cleaned out the working class; now let's get to work on the middle class.
so you think the present asset distribution is fair?
1 in 5 boomers are millionaires
(this graph is nearly a decade old as well , the value of mostly property has only increased massively since since then-
In total, the housing stock owned by over-65s is valued at £2.735 trillion, £2.038 trillion of which is mortgage free. The last 10 years have been especially profitable for this age group and their housing wealth has risen by over £1.111 trillion, according to the data.
Redistribution has to start with putting money into people's pockets / public investment(s) that need it in the first place.
Sure tax plays a part but just because she taxes a boomer - simply she's taking money out of one part of the economy. How does taking money out of the economy give the people support at the other end?
All they will do is claim the black-hole as shrunk. That's no extra help for anyone right there.
They need investment programmes to add money back to the economy. They can do that now!
We're talking about a chancellor who thought saving 1.5b - 1/9bn in a 1trillion budget was a worthwhile endeavour. That 1.5bn was not going to anyone. It was deleting money.
Yeah, we've cleaned out the working class; now let's get to work on the middle class.
Nonsense. The middle class, or more specifically boomer property owners have benefited from an unearned windfall on the scale of hundreds of thousands or low millions. People who bought a non-descript average family home in the south east 40 years ago are now sitting on property assets worth millions, and are now using that unearned wealth to generate rental income and grow their assets. Scale that up by however many millions of people who have benefitted and you have billions* in unearned and under-taxed assets while tax from incomes on working people shrinks due to the shrinking labour force and stagnation of wages.
*correction: make that trillions as Kimbers post above illustrates
The point is the investment projects the country does need (see HS2 and northern rail) will need to be balanced by tax raised (otherwise markets get spooked, interest rates & inflation rocket and everyone suffers- ask Truss)
and crucially , if its done right could help with the housing crisis too, not to mention having all this wealth locked up in property punishes those at the bottom who are excluded from getting a toehold
with people living longer than ever having all this wealth tied up in property is not good for the country
and I would like to see this done alongside putting money directly back in the pockets of the poorest
good article here on how IHT could be reformed, but its never that easy
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/02/14/too-little-too-late-inheritance-tax/
so you think the present asset distribution is fair?
Do I think it fair that young people have seen their wealth barely increase at all while others have prospered? No. But that is not a sensible motivation for impoverishing older people.
People who bought a non-descript average family home in the south east 40 years ago are now sitting on property assets worth millions, and are now using that unearned wealth to generate rental income and grow their assets
So tax those people, and that income, but talking about "boomers" just makes you look vindictive.
WFA original form 1.5bn revenue
VAT Private Schools 1.5bn revenue
NI 25bn revenue
Farm Tax 115mn revenue
(that was previous plugging.)
We have a 1tn budget.
If anyone believes Labour are going to raise any amount of tax that would make a substanial difference to their 'blackhole' (let alone investment) at 50bn.
Good luck with those maths. There is no appetite for taxation politically to make any sort of real difference.
As an aside it's incredibly difficult to administor a wealth tax. The downsides of adjusting taxation is it can lead to unemployment because someone further down the chain pays for it or the private sector doesn't hire. (But it will free up resources.)
I'm not against any of this necessarily but no point thinking it's going to fix much of anything in isolation.
Also constantly pretending we need to go to get money from the wealthy is more than half of the problem with the narrative here.
If anyone believes Labour are going to raise any amount of tax that would make a substanial difference to their 'blackhole' (let alone investment) at 50bn.
so much of the markets is about 'vibes' - spooked is the right term for the markets when they get startled , its no way to run a financial system but Ive no idea how we break our relationship with them
Sorry but who is saying that?
indeed!
from the article I linked to above
While inheritance tax does take more from larger estates, under the current system, its role in redistributing wealth is modest. The reason for this is the same reason that inheritance tax doesn’t raise much revenue: only a few pay it. Currently, most couples can leave up to £1 million before paying any inheritance tax at all. Consequently, only around 5½ per cent of those who die have any inheritance tax paid on their estate. And while the tax rate for inheritances above this tax-free threshold is 40 per cent, numerous exemptions and reliefs – including for agricultural land, business assets, some types of shares, gifts and pensions, to name a few – mean that even among those who do pay, the actual rate is far lower than this headline rate
IHT dodging is the reason clarkson bought his farm (its also part of the reason farmland has shot up so much in value)
you can see how much IHT actually manages to catch (child wealth does mean little kids btw!)
Its pretty obvious how the current system leads to more wealth being hoarded by the richest
