Thursday 27th June 2019

[AnatolyKasparov]

Its time for a PTO, then?

[citizenJA]

There's no way to successfully deliver a no-deal Brexit.

[Willow904]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... eremy-hunt

And not much will be done unless the evidentially false and skewed narrative changes.

I'm getting really fed up of this treatment of someone's home as an asset. An asset is something you can sell for money, but as long as you need somewhere to live, you can't sell your home and just pocket the cash so your home is both priceless in the sense of providing a basic need - shelter - and monetarily worthless as you can't sell a house you need to live in.

The obvious answer is to tax property owned but not lived in, tax the speculators on the profit they make from property and also tax property that's lived in only when no longer lived in - ie inheritance tax. What's that? The Tories keep cutting those taxes? Yep and they want Doreen from Neath to make up the shortfall by taking out a loan on her two bed terrace to pay for her own social care. Profit for the financial sector who make the loans, a proportionally higher inheritance tax on Doreen's kids than those of Lord Snooty and local councils no doubt lumbered with unexpected, unaffordable social care bills if house prices suddenly collapse, because social care is being funded by volatile paper assets rather than actual money.

[citizenJA]

Willow is right.
Any leader knowing what good ought to read it and act benefiting everyone not a few.

[RogerOThornhill]

Who is this guy? Had a leading role in DofE and was head of no-deal Brexit? I don't understand.

I did say "was"!

He moved the the Brexit department when it was set up - I thought he'd left altogether and it was pointed out to me that he'd moved on. Very bright according to those who worked with him so it's a big loss - and the timing is terrible.

I know you did, Roger, I wasn't questioning that. The two positions seem quite different. I'm questioning whether or not he's qualified for either position.

Oh sorry!

I guess if you're in a strategic role rather than an operational one you don't have to know massive detail but be able to pinpoint what are the important bits of what the department is trying to do and present a solid case for implementing them including timelines, resources, potential issues etc.

[citizenJA]

Willow is right.
Any leader knowing what good ought to read it and act benefiting everyone not a few.

That'll mean making sure pensioners relying on buy-to-let property income, for example, aren't forgotten.

[RogerOThornhill]

Interesting defence Nige...

Nigel Farage told the European Parliament that he did not need to declare nearly half a million pounds of gifts from Brexiteer tycoon Arron Banks because the money was meant to help become a US television star after Brexit.

The defence was dismissed by the parliament's code of conduct committee, which recommended the European Parliament president impose the “highest penalty” possible under the institutions' rules.

The leader of the Brexit Party said that trips to the US in 2016 and 2017 were not connected to his work as an MEP and as such did not need to be declared on the parliament’s register of financial interests.

[Willow904]

Willow is right.
Any leader knowing what good ought to read it and act benefiting everyone not a few.

That'll mean making sure pensioners relying on buy-to-let property income, for example, aren't forgotten.

I'm not sure pensioner landlords should be treated any differently to other landlords. And I was thinking in terms of a sales tax on all property other than a main residence. Not an ongoing tax during ownership, though a land value tax is not without merit. I was just thinking make main residences exempt, but tax other property when sold, rather than stamp duty which taxes the purchaser. It's not a fully worked out idea, I'm just trying to show there are other ways to tap into the wealth accumulated through house price inflation that doesn't involve forcing people to mortgage their homes. You then fund social care through general taxation, like the NHS.

[citizenJA]

Willow is right.
Any leader knowing what good ought to read it and act benefiting everyone not a few.

That'll mean making sure pensioners relying on buy-to-let property income, for example, aren't forgotten.

I'm not sure pensioner landlords should be treated any differently to other landlords. And I was thinking in terms of a sales tax on all property other than a main residence. Not an ongoing tax during ownership, though a land value tax is not without merit. I was just thinking make main residences exempt, but tax other property when sold, rather than stamp duty which taxes the purchaser. It's not a fully worked out idea, I'm just trying to show there are other ways to tap into the wealth accumulated through house price inflation that doesn't involve forcing people to mortgage their homes. You then fund social care through general taxation, like the NHS.

Of course. I was thinking of good post you'd made some time ago about the financialisation of housing. People have been encouraged to use a buy-to-let property as pension provision. Please excuse me if I've misunderstood or mistakenly attributed something to you you've not written about.

[citizenJA]

Early night for me, everyone.
Goodnight.
love,
cJA

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Caroline Flint on Question Time claiming Labour are losing more votes to the Brexit Party than the Lib-Dems and Greens.

It's really something when you have Tom Newton Dunn of The Sun being more realistic and honest about Labour's Brexit position and prospects than one of their own MPs.

She's a self serving disgrace.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

When asked if they supported Boris Johnson's tax cuts not a single one of the good people of Harrogate raised their hand.

Liz Truss made the usual ludicrous 'Laffer curve' claim that the less you tax the rich the higher the tax take will be while admiting it would cost billions which seemed somewhat contradictory. Apparently the difference would be made up by the magic growth fairies or some such shit. Nobody seemed convinced.

And that's the problem. Her pitch as a supporter of Johnson is aimed at Tory Party members not the wider public, despite the pointless efforts of our national broadcasters to persuade us that we have even the slightest bit of involvement, and when faced with the wider public she received a very stony silence.

She did get one thing right though later while trying to curry favour, public transport in Leeds is an absolute disgrace.

Hmm...let me think, who was it who deregulated the bus services?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

The readmittance of Chris Williamson went down about as well as you'd expect with not a single member of the panel supporting it.

I don't know. I can kinda see where he was coming from and there definitely was a concerted effort by elements on the Jewish right in this country to manufacture outrage against Corbyn. But there are flat out anti-semites on the left, a vanishingly small number from my experience, I've only ever met two in my life and both were SWP, but they do exist. So maybe it would have been wiser to make a genuine show of dealing with such idiots before letting one of your mates back in who, rightly or wrongly, has attracted such ire. That's politics.

I have no idea of the inner workings or procedures of the Labour Party when it comes to his readmittance so am speaking from a position of ignorance but what I do know is I've spent all my adult life around people involved in the Labour movement and other than the couple of idiots I've mentioned above (who weren't even Labour members) I've never met any among them who were remotely anti-Semitic. And I say that as an outsider.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

And then we came to Harry and Meghan being giffted over 2 million quid of public money to do up their free house.

Curiously that also seemed to go down quite badly with the good people of Harrogate which quite suprised me given how posh the place is, if I were to think of anywhere in Yorkshire that would put out bunting for a royal wedding or any of that shit it would be Harrogate, but then again they're also from Yorkshire so perhaps the stinginess encoded in their genes overwhelmed their royal ardour.

And now a massive moth has flown in and is sitting on my TV screen, I'm actually typing under it right now...hang on while I get a jar.

Hmmm that's weird, it looked like an Orange Underwing but they're a spring moth. It was large mottled brown on top with bright orange under the wings. Don't know what else it could have been. Anyway it's safely back outside now going about its Lepidopteran business.

Perhaps spending 2 million quid on trying to get our insect populations back up would have been money better spent.