[The Weeping Angel]

Hasn't stopped half of Bluesky predicting we're going to invade Iran.

Bluesky is not the world.

Of course it isn't.

[The Weeping Angel]

He's another of those who've gone mad for clicks. Here's another of his today. The IAEA seem extremely concerned about Iran's compliance if it's all "same shit different year".

Oh, he's bonkers. I remember when he claimed that Labour weren't renationalising the railways. Not even claiming it wouldn't make a difference,e it just wasn't happening.

[Andy McDandy]

I swear to whatever God you believe in, come the heat death of the universe the last blip of energy before the end will be a voice going "Yeah, but Iraq...".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh, he's bonkers. I remember when he claimed that Labour weren't renationalising the railways. Not even claiming it wouldn't make a difference,e it just wasn't happening.

You get a fair bit of that, "they say railways are being nationalized but they're not buying all the rolling stock". Such people often barely know that Railtrack- Network Rail was renationalized by "neoliberal" Tony Blair. Including whoever did Jez's Twitter back in the day, who blamed a signal failure on privatization. Even if Network Rail had been private, the idea that signals should never fail is like thinking a striker should never miss. And the busier a line is, the more trouble a signal failure costs- we have some very busy lines.

[Boiler]

I wonder where they stand on signals failing because the cabling has been stolen?

It's worth remembering that although she was no fan of the railways, more route miles were electrified under Thatcher than any other PM, and she also viewed privatising the railways as a step too far.

[Tubby Isaacs]

In principle, or because of where they were when she was PM?

I think her sectorisation of BR is fairly well regarded, certainly Network South East is.

[Boiler]

Not sure - but the sectorisation was an interesting one (even though the copious amounts of red paint for Network South East upset a lot of ASLEF members IIRC). One impact it had locally was the expresses no longer called at Huntingdon as that was now an NSE outpost; Peterborough became a half-and-half with InterCity.

According to Wiki, the first railway line to be privatised was also BR's last steam outpost - the Vale of Rheidol railway.

The "step too far" comment is referenced here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatisa ... te_note-30

[Tubby Isaacs]

This bloke, ennobled by Corbyn, is one of the worst of these.

As always a big number, not a percentage. It's 5.3%. That's a pretty decent performance. Even Tory Governments actually like to collect tax, because they know cuts and tax rises are unpopular. Lots of lost tax, btw, isn't collectable even with infinite compliance activities. Businesses owe it then go bust. But could we collect more? Absolutely, you know who agrees? Rachel Reeves who announced a big increase in HMRC's last week. One of his things is never to give Labour any credit.

It doesn't include tax that isn't payable? Crikey. Tax is paid here then some people move their money abroad. Just like lots of foreign firms make money abroad then invest in the UK with it. What does he want, Grace Blakely capital controls?

[Andy McDandy]

The Jeremy Corbyn tax form:

How much money did you squeeze out of the poor exploited workers, the overcharged consumers, and the dark and sinister intricacies of the international finance system?

Give it to us.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I see Sikka does to his credit mention that lots of this money uncollected comes from not billionaires, but "plucky" small guys. He can't resist the impulse long though and has to immediately follow that with "rich people don't pay tax on something that's not taxable".

The Left, quite rightly, make the point that you get adverts about benefit fraud that you wouldn't get about tax dodging. But Jez and co aren't powerless on this. How about they send out a few tweets "Tax evasion is illegal, you're all paying more tax as a result. if you know anyone big or small doing it Islington North, call HMRC on this number"? That would be snitching to the Man, though.