Thursday 9th July 2015

[LadyCentauria]

Chuka Umunna corrects himself after saying 'welfare' and repeats "Social Security" twice. (BBC QT)
Edit: I correct myself to spell his name correctly...

[LadyCentauria]

And the UKIP lady lambasts the Chancellor's reductions of Tax Credits saying without them she could not have worked two days a week and to University three days a week, whilst bringing up two daughters, which only the receipt of Tax Credits made possible.

[RogerOThornhill]

Pauline Latham:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. One of the ways in which we will do that, hardly mentioned by Opposition Members, is by changing inheritance tax. People have paid taxes on their money.

Jesus fuck.

Good grief...apart from the gains on house prices rises, someone should gently point out to her that when she fills up her tank next time, she'll be paying VAT on top of duty with money that's already been taxed...

Not to mention the fact that the people inheriting the money didn't actually pay tax on it because it wasn't theirs...

[LadyCentauria]

Tommy Sheppard (as one would assume) also highly critical of Osborne's 'monstrous assault on the Welfare State'. Rachel Johnson says the IFS makes it absolutely clear that this is a regressive budget which will make the poorest people even poorer and rebranding of NMW as NLW is a dreadful sleight of hand because it is far from a Living Wage. Chuka Umunna says the best way to bring down the overall Social Security Budget is to massively increase the building of truly affordable homes to bring down the escalating Housing Benefit bill.

[Tubby Isaacs]

And the funny idea that you promote mass home ownership by making rich people richer.

On another matter, Janet Downs unimpressed with BBC education reporting.

.... Today programme. The subject was ‘coasting’ schools and Morgan’s plans (culled from the DfE press release, no doubt). It finished by saying teaching unions claimed academy conversion wasn’t a magic wand.

But it isn’t just the unions, I shouted, it’s the Education Select Committee, the National Audit Office, the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, the Academies Commission and earlier reports such as PwC. Even Ofsted found good and outstanding schools shared similar features – academy status wasn’t one of them.

Yet all this seemed to have been missed by Today – it’s only the unions who say academy conversion isn’t the panacea it is claimed to be.

- See more at: http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2 ... yUvc0.dpuf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

FFS Tory Party Broadcast ana Question Time.

[citizenJA]

Tommy Sheppard (as one would assume) also highly critical of Osborne's 'monstrous assault on the Welfare State'. Rachel Johnson says the IFS makes it absolutely clear that this is a regressive budget which will make the poorest people even poorer and rebranding of NMW as NLW is a dreadful sleight of hand because it is far from a Living Wage. Chuka Umunna says the best way to bring down the overall Social Security Budget is to massively increase the building of truly affordable homes to bring down the escalating Housing Benefit bill.

Tory MP for Mid-Derbyshire, Pauline Latham, does not accept increasing the number of homes.
I'm serious. She's tireless in her campaign against homes being built though the local authorities in her area are required or recommended to do so.

[StephenDolan]

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liv ... ng-9627095" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good turnout tonight, I can just about spot myself!

[citizenJA]

Mr Ohso has just rung from the hospital...They have given him a machine to wear at night for sleep apanea.

The good news is the car passed its MOT. We had it serviced at the same time, so it cost a bit, but it didn't make me suck my breath in.
Now to get the road tax out of the way before I forget....

Will you please allow me to apprentice with you?
You're an intrepid, knowledgeable, down-to-earth, successful, human being.
We'll send the apprentice wage bill 'round to No 11 with thanks & progress reports.
We can run these Tories into the ground with persistent attention documenting their antics.

From a poet Ed Miliband has quoted more than one time:

"This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labour to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning god, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”"

Lovely quote JA. thanks. But I'm not standing up for IDS

- Walt Whitman
1819-1892
United States of America

I understand completely & good!

IDS is not our boat to row - he's currently on his own; he's chosen his path - I think his actions, his words are insane, unsound, irreconcilable but he's capable of choosing right from wrong & so is probably not clinically insane.

I try extending general benevolence toward all while carefully choosing who I'll stand up & speak for, if necessary, if it's wanted.
Whitman used words that don't have the same meaning now, or even when he wrote them!
He was regarded as insane among his contemporaries.
His poetry was purchased by people who loved him & but thought his writing ridiculous.

xx
cJA

[rebeccariots2]

Tim Stanley ‏@timothy_stanley 43m43 minutes ago
Someone mess with Louise Bours's mind - create a BA in Ukip studies #bbcqt

That's actually spot on.

[rebeccariots2]

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liv ... ng-9627095

Good turnout tonight, I can just about spot myself!

And did you and the rest of the audience enjoy it?

[citizenJA]

Pauline Latham:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. One of the ways in which we will do that, hardly mentioned by Opposition Members, is by changing inheritance tax. People have paid taxes on their money.

Jesus fuck.

Exactly.

I love you all - I don't know what I'd do without you.
Thank you.
Sleep well & read more soon, goodnight.
love
cJA

[rebeccariots2]

I was about to go to bed but got side-tracked by this excellent video of Brian May going head to head with a Countryside Alliance rep on Newsnight tonight.

He tells him he's talking bollocks and ends the segment by saying they are a bunch of lying bastards. Wish we had 100s more Brian Mays.

[youtube]d6JgW9zQCi0[/youtube]

[LadyCentauria]

I was about to go to bed but got side-tracked by this excellent video of Brian May going head to head with a Countryside Alliance rep on Newsnight tonight.

He tells him he's talking bollocks and ends the segment by saying they are a bunch of lying bastards. Wish we had 100s more Brian Mays.

[youtube]d6JgW9zQCi0[/youtube]

So right!

[LadyCentauria]

Goodnight @cJA Sleep well

Here's a tweet from Ed Miliband, earlier, about the Tory Government's energy and climate change policy:

Ed Miliband @Ed_Miliband. 7hrs
Can someone explain justification for applying the climate change levy to renewables? Seems like yet another blow to the industry.

It's a ridiculous thing to do, on top of removing the subsidy for onshore wind. I read, yesterday, that shares in Drax fell 30% on the news, although they've clambered back up a notch since. They plunged from 363 to 250 and are now back only to 274. Drax is the newest coal-fired power station in the UK and the second largest in Europe. It co-burns biomass and petcoke, is undergoing expansion of the biomass burners with plans to add three which will solely burn biomass, and is the site of experimental carbon-capture storage, having been an early sponsor of research. According to Wikipedia, "As of June 2014, Drax is engaged in a joint venture with Alstom and BOC to build a 626 MW oxygen-fuelled combustion power plant adjacent to the existing Drax site. National Grid would simultaneously construct a pipeline to transport CO2 40 miles (64 km) to the Yorkshire coast for sequestration."

Drax issued this statement, yesterday (Wednesday):

The Government has today announced that it will remove the Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption for renewable electricity generated after 1 August 2015.

Whilst we are still assessing the impact of this change, our initial estimate is for a reduction in EBITDA in the region of £30m in 2015 and £60m in 2016. Thereafter we expect the impact to reduce. As noted by the Government in its announcement today, the value of CCL exemptions is expected to be negligible by the early 2020s.

Dorothy Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of Drax, commented:

"We are surprised and disappointed at this retrospective change to a support regime which has been in place since 2001 specifically to encourage green energy and support renewable investment."

[LadyCentauria]

Listening to debate in the HoL from earlier. Apparently the Government have shifted their planned introduction of 'tax-free childcare' back by another year to 2017.

[HindleA]

Noticed in the Red Book savings accrued from reducing ESA (WRAG) to JSA levels"dependent on potential increase in applications for PIP"

[LadyCentauria]

@HindleA: Would you share the link to the Red Book, please? I'm not surprised that the savings from reduction of ESA (WRAG) would be dependent on something. Wouldn't be surprised if it led to an increase in requests for review and/or more appeals – and more people risking making themselves more ill/inducing a relapse by returning to work too early especially amongst people who are planning to return to the jobs that they are off sick/injured from, of which there are a great many in the ESA (WRAG.)