Lettuce Liz then Tetchy Rish! and the battle to replace him

[Paddingtonwolf]

And reducing CGT. Dear god.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

And scrapping non dom tax status.

 

[Sniffer]

As if by magic (and nobody saw this coming....)

Tories challenge Labour to say what will happen to policies it planned to fund through tax measures Hunt has adopted​

Governments don’t like performing U-turns, but for Jeremy Hunt there were two bonuses from lifting two of Labour’s tax plans; it funded his tax cuts, and might force Labour to drop some of its more attractive spending plans.

To emphasis this point, CCHQ has just sent a briefing note to journalists saying Labour must now explain whether it is going to abandon these policies, or find another way of funding them.

The Tories say these are the policies Labour was planning to fund with £1.6bn from the abolition of non-dom status.

• More NHS appointments (£1.1bn per year)
• Breakfast clubs in schools (£186m per year)
• More NHS equipment (£171m per year)
• More NHS dental appointments (£111m per year)

And the Tories says these are the policies that Labour plans to fund with £4.9bn from the extension of the windfall tax.

• Home insulation programme (£1.32bn a year)
• Green-related jobs (£500m per year)
• Setting up GB Energy (£1.66bn a year)
• Creating a sovereign wealth fund (£1.46bn a year

Labour is holding a briefing this afternoon, so we should get some sort of response then.

If Labour haven't already got a costed plan up there sleeves for this I'll be very disappointed.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

The obvious question would be, why didn't they abolish non dom tax status 14 years ago if it generates so much cash for other far more in need services.....

 

[Templeton Peck]

Only interesting thing Hunt said was that he'd like to get rid of NI. It's a good idea as it's all the same pot and needlessly complicates things. Surprising though as it also exposes the myth that it's something people pay into. This is always a key plank of any argument to phase them out (which I'd assumed was the desired end goal) as they're 'unsustainable'.

 

[EpsomWolf]

Reducing CGT from 28 to 24% (unchanged at 18% for lower rate tax payers) whilst removing Stamp Duty tax breaks on multiple property purchases is very interesting.

Further confirmation in my mind they’re reluctantly accepting the need to discourage property stockpiling (losing SD tax breaks) and have properties returned to market for owner-occupancy, but protecting those offloading said properties by reducing CGT.

My concern is, with landlords haemorrhaging properties ahead of impending 2025 legislation changes, the subsequent shortage of properties resulting in the rent rises we are seeing isn’t going to make that sector any easier unfortunately.

The only alternative I can see is the reduction in CGT is designed to maintain interest and steady the transition. A 4% reduction should offset the loss of the SD tax break, certainly over the longer term.

With tax breaks disappearing on holiday lets, I’m sticking with strategy A.

Sadly, if that is the case then the CGT reduction stinks - it brings nothing to anyone. Well, apart that is from the investor being handed back a nice additional 4% profit bonus and the tories doing what the tories do best in looking after those who look after them.

Hmmm, they’d never do such a thing surely…

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Don’t forget you pay CGT on disposal of huge chunks of shares from executive share options and long term incentive plans. Plenty of high worth individuals will do well there, especially as share options falling out of trust in 2024 will have low strike prices due to the depressed stock market in 2021 after covid will mean bigger profit

 

[lemonjelly]

Meanwhile funding for local authorities, and other "unprotected " areas is in for huge cuts yet again .
Brexit was a massive unnecessary form of self harm. The evisceration of local authorities is a 2nd form of unnecessary and ideologically prescribed self harm. It will escalate local authorities issuing s114 notices.

Quite how the tories believe they're the safe handlers of the economy astounds me. We've had stagnation (at best!) for 14 years now, and we're unlikely to see much growth for another decade because of their decisions.

 

[Templeton Peck]

Meanwhile funding for local authorities, and other "unprotected " areas is in for huge cuts yet again .
Brexit was a massive unnecessary form of self harm. The evisceration of local authorities is a 2nd form of unnecessary and ideologically prescribed self harm. It will escalate local authorities issuing s114 notices.

Quite how the tories believe they're the safe handlers of the economy astounds me. We've had stagnation (at best!) for 14 years now, and we're unlikely to see much growth for another decade because of their decisions.

Austerity has done huge damage to this country and claimed the lives of thousands. Sadly, Labour seem set for more of the same thanks to their self imposed nonsensical fiscal rules.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Meanwhile funding for local authorities, and other "unprotected " areas is in for huge cuts yet again .
Brexit was a massive unnecessary form of self harm. The evisceration of local authorities is a 2nd form of unnecessary and ideologically prescribed self harm. It will escalate local authorities issuing s114 notices.

Quite how the tories believe they're the safe handlers of the economy astounds me. We've had stagnation (at best!) for 14 years now, and we're unlikely to see much growth for another decade because of their decisions.

So they pay for NI cut by cutting funding to LAs who then put Councl Tax up so the money in your pocket goes on Council Tax. Sadly you can fool some of the people all of the time.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Had the email from the council today, saying it's gone up 4.9% that's a few quid!

 

[lemonjelly]

Had the email from the council today, saying it's gone up 4.9% that's a few quid!

That's half what my increase will be!

 

[Del Woppio]

So they pay for NI cut by cutting funding to LAs who then put Councl Tax up so the money in your pocket goes on Council Tax. Sadly you can fool some of the people all of the time.

LA's are the ones that it's quantifiable and public. They're not ideal, but gonna be less than twenty quid a month for most people and cancelled out by the energy cap increase decrease in household budgets

It's the cuts to adult social care, policing and other services that will really hurt people. Kill people.

If Reeves' first budget isn't taking more tax from the wealthy (1-2% on higher rate, or a new tax band. Ideally a wealth tax but that may be impossible) or closing loopholes in corporation tax then the country isn't getting any better. People think things are bad while services are on their knees, wait until they're lying on the floor gasping for breath, which isn't far away. Yes, efficiency improvements and extra value is possible, but that's a lot easier when you're not already fucked

 

[Sniffer]

Jesus wept. Brexit is a great success because Kemi says so.

 

[Del Woppio]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1765851954482213079

 

[Templeton Peck]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1765851954482213079

The abandonment the Keynesian economics has a lot to answer for.

 

[Templeton Peck]

The real tragedy is that these are all false choices. The money is never the issue. This is the problem with the maxed out credit card narrative. Until we start having adult conversations about public spending we'll be forever stuck in a cycle of shit.

 

[Del Woppio]

Yup, we really do need somebody to just be honest with people and say we can either have excellent public services, or we can have a low tax burden, but we really can't have both. Obviously at the moment we've got neither, so you'd like to think that would be a relatively easy sell, but they're all cowardly bellends

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Ouch

https://twitter.com/x/status/1766003924299895100

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I'm sure the Tories will do some kind of deal with Reform before the election, and that in reality there will be many who say they will vote Reform now when it comes to it on the day will vote Tory.

But either way, that's quite a thumping.

Also that's still nearly a third of the electorate that are backing hard right parties.

One in three voters are either happy with the current Tories or thinks they need to go even further to the right.

Scromit.