[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't think they were prepared for the bollocks they get from the Left, but that was always the risk with kicking out Corbyn,

I can't remember hearing the Left when they were in charge talking about a wealth tax, Funnily enough, now that they aren't, it's become an article of faith, and no other taxes on the rich count. I also don't recall the election campaigns majoring on safe routes from world conflicts. There were about a quarter of the number of asylum seekers in 2017 as now.

[Boiler]

[The Weeping Angel]

I don't think they were prepared for the bollocks they get from the Left, but that was always the risk with kicking out Corbyn,

I can't remember hearing the Left when they were in charge talking about a wealth tax, Funnily enough, now that they aren't, it's become an article of faith, and no other taxes on the rich count. I also don't recall the election campaigns majoring on safe routes from world conflicts. There were about a quarter of the number of asylum seekers in 2017 as now.

Good example of this here.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm pleased to see him get some stick. As someone on the Guardian BTL said, the new word to disparage any good policy is "tinkering". Which means "I want it all now and don't want to pay any extra tax".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yep. Investment Minister met investors. But job well done- this lot are corrupt, you might as well let Farage win.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is interesting.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-crossing

UK ministers take control of £10bn Lower Thames Crossing
Exclusive: National Highways Agency stripped of oversight with project handed to DfT amid Labour government drive for growth

This seems like a pretty reasonable strategic route for road freight to Dover, but I can see the argument that other things might be a bigger priority. Hard to take this intervention seriously though.

Chris Todd, the director of Transport Action Network, said: “The government is continuing to throw good money after bad at the Lower Thames Crossing.

“Taking it outside of National Highways’ roads programme and treating it as a stand-alone project, with a DfT-signed blank cheque, risks going the same way as HS2 with ballooning budgets and no accountability.”

Was this written by AI? HS2 was overseen by HS2 Ltd, not by the Department. Accountability would seem to mean that they can challenge it every 5 minutes. And what does "blank cheque" mean? Would all their favourite projects come in on budget?

They have this campaign going. The horror here is... new houses, which might require new roads. We might as well all give up now.

https://transportactionnetwork.org.uk/c ... elopments/

[Boiler]

I doubt the LTC will have to be built in tunnels to shut the Chiltern types up though.

[kreuzberger]

Comfortably, in the Top-5 of the best records ever made. The Kreuzette rattles it out on the joanna - on the way to the outside lavatory.

[Boiler]

I suspect it would sound superb in the Fiat with it cranked up to 40...

(When specifying the Fiat 500 I now own, my sister didn't go for many other extras other than the best stereo Fiat offered, made by a company called Interscope)

[mattomac]

This is interesting.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-crossing

UK ministers take control of £10bn Lower Thames Crossing
Exclusive: National Highways Agency stripped of oversight with project handed to DfT amid Labour government drive for growth

This seems like a pretty reasonable strategic route for road freight to Dover, but I can see the argument that other things might be a bigger priority. Hard to take this intervention seriously though.

Chris Todd, the director of Transport Action Network, said: “The government is continuing to throw good money after bad at the Lower Thames Crossing.

“Taking it outside of National Highways’ roads programme and treating it as a stand-alone project, with a DfT-signed blank cheque, risks going the same way as HS2 with ballooning budgets and no accountability.”

Was this written by AI? HS2 was overseen by HS2 Ltd, not by the Department. Accountability would seem to mean that they can challenge it every 5 minutes. And what does "blank cheque" mean? Would all their favourite projects come in on budget?

They have this campaign going. The horror here is... new houses, which might require new roads. We might as well all give up now.

https://transportactionnetwork.org.uk/c ... elopments/

Not sure why these groups are treated as an authority when looking at their website it screams special interest.

[davidjay]

I don't think they were prepared for the bollocks they get from the Left, but that was always the risk with kicking out Corbyn,

I can't remember hearing the Left when they were in charge talking about a wealth tax, Funnily enough, now that they aren't, it's become an article of faith, and no other taxes on the rich count. I also don't recall the election campaigns majoring on safe routes from world conflicts. There were about a quarter of the number of asylum seekers in 2017 as now.

I think the election campaign showed the depths to which some of the Left can sink but what's even surprised me is the personal attacks on individual Cabinet ministers.

[The Weeping Angel]

Deep down, Stephen Bush just sees immigrants as cheap labour.

[The Weeping Angel]

Neo-liberalism latest.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... wtab-en-gb

Rachel Reeves has said higher taxes on the UK’s wealthy will form part of next month’s budget, as she shrugged off the “scaremongering” and “bleating” of her critics, and stressed her determination to repair the public finances.

Speaking in Washington, where she is attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the chancellor told the Guardian there “won’t be a return to austerity” and hinted at tax increases for the most well-off.

Reeves is expected to announce a package of tax rises on 26 November, in response to a downgrade in future growth forecasts from independent forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Asked whether higher taxes on the wealthy would feature, the chancellor said “that will be part of the story”.

She added: “Last year, when we announced things like the non-doms, like the [tax increase for] private equity, like the VAT on private school fees, there was so much bleating that it wasn’t going to raise the money – that people would leave.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I see the old monthly GDP figures got an outing again. 0.1% up in August. That's not great, but I can't remember hearing about these till fairly recently, certainly not when George Osborne had helped kill the economy virtually stone dead. It was considered some massive triumph when one quarter was revised up to zero, taking away a technical recession.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Costs of Motability are apparently to be reduced in the Budget, though I'm sure some of the claims made about the scheme have been wrong. Hilariously, I see Helen Whateley is still on the front bench and she's claimed the government are "following their lead". The lead of being in power for 14 years and not doing this stuff, apparently.

[The Weeping Angel]

Costs of Motability are apparently to be reduced in the Budget, though I'm sure some of the claims made about the scheme have been wrong. Hilariously, I see Helen Whateley is still on the front bench and she's claimed the government are "following their lead". The lead of being in power for 14 years and not doing this stuff, apparently.

How exactly are they to be reduced?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Some changes of tax treatment, and restrictions on some of the more expensive models, apparently. My guess is that, in the words of Arthur Daley when buying a second car, "these fall out of bed price wise" rather rapidly. But I don't know much about the scheme, admittedly.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The OBR reviewed its forecasting model over the summer and is expected to say the public finances look £10-20bn weaker than it believed at the time of Reeves’s spring statement. The chancellor has expressed irritation at the timing of this review, which she believes would have been better done immediately after last year’s general election or in 2023.

As well as tackling this deterioration, the chancellor must also deal with the £7bn cost of the U-turns on winter fuel and welfare. Reeves is hoping to build up more “headroom” against her fiscal rules, to avoid being buffeted by the bond markets

If that figure for the downgrade is right, then the Government has done a lot better than some people were predicting. Some were saying £50b a while ago. And the Government have a case that the downgrade could have been done earlier- the OBR has been too optimistic on productivity for a while, it's not that Labour came in and fucked it. Actually productivity has gone up this year (albeit with higher unemployment).

It sounds like rather than the economy being terrible, the problem has been too little headroom in the first budget. That led to the panic-debacle of the attempted welfare cuts, and the constant speculation whereby slightly breaking a rule for a 5 year projection gets talked up like it's carnage. Hopefully she learns from that, anyone else is going to be less trusted by markets. Least of all someone who spouts off like Andy Burnham.

[davidjay]

I see the old monthly GDP figures got an outing again. 0.1% up in August. That's not great, but I can't remember hearing about these till fairly recently, certainly not when George Osborne had helped kill the economy virtually stone dead. It was considered some massive triumph when one quarter was revised up to zero, taking away a technical recession.

There's always a widely-quoted figure, whether it be inflation, unemployment or growth, and it's always the one that's doing worst.

[Boiler]

Actually productivity has gone up this year (albeit with higher unemployment).

Goodness - that's not because of businesses actually investing in things to increase productivity, is it?