[Youngian]

He veers between a state regulated market and pragmatic decriminalisation on drugs, they're different approaches. His defence and foreign policy approaches are just as muddled.
Neither does Zack appear steeped in green economics (as personfied by E F Schumacher) but muscular fairly mainstream Keynesianism. Always like to inform Zack's left supporters that Keynes was a member of the Liberal Party.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He's not just a particularly hubristic Keynsian. He's anything that sounds like it means he can spend a lot without raising taxes. He's MMT as well.

It's nonsense. Hopefully James Meadway can knock some sense into him.

[Youngian]

As I understand MMT its spend and tax. Taxation is raised as a method of halting rising inflation. According to advocates who are lousy at politics even if the economic theory is plausible. It is a kind of round the houses deficit spending.

[Boiler]

Taxation is raised as a method of halting rising inflation.

Once upon a time, we had a thing called "Purchase Tax". The rate varied depending upon what it was that you were purchasing. If the economy showed signs of overheating, it was raised; when it was slack, it was reduced. It was a method of controlling the economy.

As an example, it probably did more to kill the British radio and television industry than anything else; for example, in a boom period manufacturers would step up production of their TV sets - and then when the Chancellor looked at the economy as a whole and inflation was rising, up would go the PT, leaving manufacturers with warehouses full of TVs they could no longer sell because they suddenly became very expensive indeed.

[Youngian]

Sounds very worthy but misguided. A green policy might be to tax cheap disposable goods out of existence in favour long lasting repairable ones.

The Purchase Tax was a tax levied between 1940[1] and 1973[1] on the wholesale value of luxury goods sold in the United Kingdom. Introduced on 21 October 1940, with the stated aim of reducing the wastage of raw materials during World War II, it was initially set at a rate of 33.33%.

The tax was subsequently set at differing rates dependent upon individual items' degree of "luxury"[2] as determined by the government of the day.[3]

The 33.33% rate was increased to 66% for cars costing over £1,000 in 1947 and this rate was extended to all cars from 1951. In 1953, it was reduced to 50%.[4]

In connection with the accession of the UK to the European Economic Community,[5] the Purchase Tax was abolished on 2 April 1973 and replaced by the Value Added Tax (VAT), charged on most goods and services, which is currently charged at a rate of between 5 and 20%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_Tax

[Killer Whale]

There was a 'luxury' rate of VAT for a while, wasn't there? I've got an idea that it was either lower, or not much higher than today's standard rate.

[Boiler]

There was a 'luxury' rate of VAT for a while, wasn't there? I've got an idea that it was either lower, or not much higher than today's standard rate.

There was indeed. It was 12.5%, as opposed to the standard 8%. Its application was odd, IIRC a BC108 transistor (which had a metal case) was 12.5% whilst the electrically identical BC148 in a plastic case was 8%.

25% is also rattling about in my head.

With regards to PT: during the Winter of 1947, coal trains couldn't get to power stations and staithes for merchants to deliver to homes. But people needed to keep warm, so they bought electric fires which overloaded a struggling post-war electricity grid and the capacity of the power stations.

Next year, to prevent a repeat of that scenario the PT on electric fires was raised to 100 %. On the new-fangled electric shavers, 125%.

Another oddity: a radiogram was considered a luxury item so attracted a high rate of PT, but a record player didn't. So Decca sold their very expensive "Decola" radiogram without a radio, which could be bought separately.

And another: from the world of Meccano, the Hornby model A3 controller was not sold as a model train controller because it would attract a high rate of PT, so it was sold as a "laboratory power supply" instead - with a lower rate of tax.

[Killer Whale]

Was there a thing where car radios had a high rate of PT, so manufacturers devised radios that could be taken out of the car housing and used stand-alone? I have a vague recollection of my dad telling me about this, and it being the reason behind us having a weird tall and thin transistor radio in the kitchen.

[Boiler]

Was there a thing where car radios had a high rate of PT, so manufacturers devised radios that could be taken out of the car housing and used stand-alone? I have a vague recollection of my dad telling me about this, and it being the reason behind us having a weird tall and thin transistor radio in the kitchen.

I think there was; not so long ago I had a battle royal trying to repair an "Elpico" convertible radio - it had battery corrosion damage and it was only me playing detective that discovered it was in fact a re-badged Hitachi radio that helped me fix it. But there was a connector on the bottom of the radio that engaged with a car holder that altered the power and aerial arrangements. I think there were others too - whilst not as complex, many a portable radio in the 1960s had a car aerial socket on them (the design classic that is the Bush TR82 was one such set) and some even a "car" button that disconnected the internal aerial and connected it to the car's aerial. The Bush TR90 looks very much like it was made to go in a car.

[Killer Whale]

A quick search leads me to this, which is the exact model we had:


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/136703956061 ... ar=0&ff=11

[The Weeping Angel]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1mk2m9ree3o

"Industrial scale" solar farms planned by foreign-owned firms have been attacked by the leader of the Green Party on a county council.

Catherine Rowett, from Norfolk County Council, said overseas investors were aiming to make huge profits and called for solar projects to be locally owned.

Some of the UK's largest solar sites are planned for Norfolk, including the East Pye development - which would cover the equivalent of about 1,500 football pitches.

Island Green Power (IGP), which is behind the East Pye project in South Norfolk, said that the scheme would help meet the UK government's "need for secure affordable and low carbon energy" .

'Transparent'
East Pye has faced strong opposition from politicians in the other main parties on the council including the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK.

An IGP spokesperson said the company was a UK taxpayer and pointed to the extensive work that has already gone into a Development Consent Order application.

They added that a "thorough and transparent" process would allow all interested parties to make their views known.

"If consented, the scheme would make a long term contribution to clean and secure energy generation, while mitigating any impacts and responding sensitively to its local environment," the spokesperson said.

Industrial solar power the worst kind of renewable energy.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ah, the old "I'd support those houses if they were council houses" approach. Not those solar panels there. In fairness, all parties tend to be nimby when it's something big near them, but they're not posing as the only people who get climate change.

In other news, Zack's comic does another "Isn't Hannah Spencer lovely and cool?"

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... hounds-ban

Green MP: Labour caricatures working-class people over greyhound racing
Hannah Spencer says minister ‘continuously offends people by saying working-class people don’t care about dogs’

I couldn't care less if greyhound racing is banned. I think it probably will be in the not too distant future. But I'm struggling to find a quote of Labour "saying working class people don't care about dogs". I've certainly seen people speculate that Labour think it would lose them votes to ban it, but that's not the same thing. Quotes in the article from Nandy point out, quite accurately, that it's a popular sport, and big industry. Governments don't tend to rush to ban these things.

Just in case you don't think Labour are the baddies here, the article points out.

Labour has close ties to the gambling industry, taking hundreds of thousands of pound in donations during the general election campaign. Senior figures have been invited to glitzy events held by betting lobbyists.

Alas no space to point out that the Budget raised an extra billion of tax off gambling.

I like that she rehomed greyhounds, but she's already shown herself to be a self-righteous bullshitter, who as far as I know hasn't engaged with people who pointed out that subsidizing high energy users in a rich country will mean people in poor countries can't even cook.

And look who else has shown up? I admire his gambling work, but he's not an academic expert or anything, and he hates Labour because they chucked Jez out.

Matt Zarb-Cousin, a co-founder of Gamban, an app that helps people with gambling addictions, said: “The gambling lobby in Westminster has had successive governments believing they somehow speak for the working class while their sector exploits and extracts from it. To make the assumption ordinary working people somehow don’t care about the welfare of dogs is a form of class prejudice.

Again, why do you have to be "class-prejudiced" because you won't ban a popular sport? This stuff is such guff.

We might reasonably ask, what's Hannah Spencer's policy on gambling? She wouldn't accept gambling hospitality (not that it did all that much good for the providers in terms of Labour raising extra tax), but what would she actually do?

[Killer Whale]

I couldn't care less if greyhound racing is banned. I think it probably will be in the not too distant future.

It's just been banned in Wales.

[Tubby Isaacs]

And Scotland, but there were no tracks there, and only 1 in Wales. There are 20 in England, which may explain why it hasn't followed Scotland and Wales.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I like that the Green Party politician in Norfolk chucked in the "foreigners are making the money out of this" trope there.

[Youngian]

Maybe Lisa Nandy gets her knowledge of greyhound racing's popularity from Steptoe and Son or Jack Regan meeting a grass 50 years ago.
Watch an English greyhound race in a bookies or dodgy pub and you'll notice the stadiums are nearly empty, the revenue is mainly from international online betting. Iconic stadiums like Walthmastow and Catford shut because punters not longer trusted the odds which became out of kilter with results. When it was cleaned up the odds were so similar you may as well throw four dice in the air. So not much excitement for gamblers and the industry's reputation among dog lovers tanked as well. Interestingly GH racing wasn't invented for betting but by a man who opposed coursing but wanted to watch these amazing animals run.
As someone who races a sighthound for fun and a former GH racing punter, I don't have a high opinion of the industry.

[Boiler]

Peterborough's dog track shut years ago and the site has now been redeveloped.

[davidjay]

If you were worried about gambling you'd ban football. i would imagine more is bet in a weekend, perhaps even on one fixture, than in a year of greyhounds.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, the article cunningly elides animal welfare and gambling. Football and horse racing are miles ahead of the rest. Greyhound racing is behind golf.

[Youngian]

If you were worried about gambling you'd ban football. i would imagine more is bet in a weekend, perhaps even on one fixture, than in a year of greyhounds.

The argument Zarb-Cousins is advancing is that the gambling lobby is an extremely lucrative one able to excert weighty pressure on legislators. To continue an activity opponents regard as cruel to animals.