Hi All,
Our beloved and wonderful head of state Queen Elizabeth II has passed away. I have no doubt she is with Prince Philip in a better place. She passes away at a time of great crisis for the UK, but God willing we shall overcome .
God save the Queen!
God save the King!
Hi All,
According to the news feeds the latest great idea from Thatcher Clone 1 is that VAT should be cut to zero or 5%. This is a bad idea and will only make matters worse. For those who don't know VAT is a sales tax paid by the end consumer of the product i.e. you and me. It is currently 20%, but 5% for domestic utility rates.
The reason why Truss thinks this is a good idea is that a £100 item could in theory be reduced to £80, thus helping people out in the sense they will go on an spend and lift the economy.
The problems are :
1. The current crisis is about food and energy costs .Most basic staples don't get a VAT charge anyway, so there would be little of the relief people are asking for and domestic utilities only charge 5%, which would mean that the increase is mitigated to only 75% and that is before the even bigger increases expected in January and February. The reduction in VAT for petrol (gasoline as Americans call it) would be welcome, but there is no legal requirement for a company to pass this on, in fact as energy producers are subject to windfall taxes, they are likely to just keep a £100 bill at £100, if not raise it.
2. As for the rest of the economy, there is as noted above, no legal compulsion to reduce a product in line with a VAT reduction and companies- struggling themselves or out to increase their margins, take your pick- are highly unlikey to pass on any tax reduction to the consumer. I remember this to be the caese way back in 2008 when Labour Chancellor Darling reduced VAT from 17.5% to 15% for a couple of months, wherein many companies simply took the cut onto their own profit margin, rather than pass the cut onto the consumer.
3.If most companies do not pass on the VAT cut then when this is reversed by the government it will see prices automatically rise by 20%, thus adding further to inflation.
4. If we do see companies pass on the VAT cut, then when it is reversed it will raise prices by 20% and thus create inflation.
5. VAT is a consumption tax, thus reducing it is supposed to encourage people to spend when they might not ordinarily do so. Except that because the increase in energy bills is not addressed by this idea, then it is doubtful that most people will have any spare cash to spend, even if there is a 20% price reduction.
Hi All,
Despite Friday's announcement confirming that the asteroid regulator Astreg has lifted the cap of how many asteroids can bombard the UK to a wopping 3,500 bits of flying rock and that this will be allowed to hit the UK in October, potentially destroying 24 million households, the current government is nowhere to be seen. The PM has just come back from his sixth holiday in six weeks, the Energy Secretary is apparently in the Bermuda Triangle and the Chancellor is saying the government is already subsidising the cost of bunkers, even as bunker makers make record profits.
Meanwhile the leadership race in the Conservative Party, between Thatcher clone I and Thatcher clone II is getting exciting. For members. stuck in the 1980s and have no wish to do what conservatives used to do and combine conservation with pragmatic policy. Rather it is more important for the candidates to be part of the cult of Thatcher, a feitsh party rather than a party for the 21st century. As for saving the UK during a national crisis- Labour have suggested either a full government purchasing of laser beams to destroy all of the asteroids or free bunkers for all or shuttlecraft to act as a 'noah's ark'- both conservative candidates dismissed such suggestions .
The current favourite Thatcher Clone I has said she doesn't like the idea of 'handouts' and instead insists her tax cutting will enable families to buy their own laser beams or maybe shuttle craft or bunker. Thatcher Clone II, meanwhile says that the government purchase of laser beams is 'fiscally irresponsible' given the current state of the deficit -as are tax cuts - so the 'right thing to do' is an austerity budget which increases taxes and cuts to the budget, with the exception of, say, subsidides to Tumbridge Wells, but as for the asteroids everyone, aside from the 1% mega rich who can look after themselves , will just have to lump it and suffer the full brunt of whatever destruction these rocks bring, maybe after the deficit is reduced could a responsible government even think about destroying those asteroids.
End.
Hi all,
One for our covid vaccine sceptics and to family doesn't th r French guy look like bro Sam, after he has stopped using just for men lol!
Hi All,
I'd bet if the finnish prime minister , (same age as me!) decided to become our PM, she'd get elected . Well cool dance moves and in any case everyone is allowed to let their hair down once in a while :
Hi All,
After last weeks drama we now have a full blown leadership contest in the Conservative &Unionist Party to decide who will become the next UK Prime Minister. But if you were a genial Martian and you happened to read Twitter or left wing outlets you would conclude that the Conservative Party is full of bigoted, racist xenophobes, mostly white and middle class, determined on a vile 'cultural war' which attacks trans people and ethnic minorities (translation : those who hold either to common sense, to science or religion in respect of how to define a woman and those who think destroying statues and ripping up memorials in churches is not they way to achieve a just society) .
Yet curiously - could it be that the left is extremly hpyocritical ?- it is the Conservative Party which has produced a diverse list of candidates who have got there on the merits of their colleagues votes and unlike Labour there is no 'women only' short lists.
For example :
8 candidates
of which 4 or 50% are women.
Of which 2 are ethnic minorties - one of East African- Indian hertiage and one of African heritage
Yes that's right, the Conservatives have 25% of these candidates as ethnic minority women and could choose as the next leader and Prime Minister, either a black woman (a devout Evangelical Christian) or Indian woman (who says that the British Empire was a force for good in the world and got attacked in true Twitteria fashion for doing so).
Of the four men, half are from ethnic minority backgrounds and religious minority backgrounds as well :
1 is of East African -Indian heritage and a Hindu.
1 is of Iraqi -Kuridsh heritage and a Muslim
1 is married to a woman of Japanese heritage
1 whose mother is French
So if we were going to bring everything down to - which we won't as it's the left's fetish- a person's religious or ethnic status as defining who should win anyone can see that the Conservatives have produced 8 candidates of diverse backgrounds..... then go and look at the Labour contest, compare and contrast....
Hi all,
You couldn't make up this brilliant sketch about Anglo-Israeli relations and our ridiculously spineless foreign office 😃🔯🍹😎
Shabbat Shalom and enjoy the hot weather sensibly🍺😉😠👽😎🍹🔯
Hi All,
One of the common themes from the soft left, Guardian
reading type is that of a ‘progressive alliance’ of the left to help boot the conservatives
out, as evidenced by recent by-election defeats wherein the Liberal Democrats
defeat conservatives in rural- suburban seats and Labour take on their more traditional
heartlands. As a bolt on to this
alliance we are told that the nationalists parties and the greens must also be
included.
The problem for this idea is that it forgets exactly why
there are different parties of ‘the left’ in any event. For a start the
nationalists of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are, well, nationalists
first and foremost. That is they seek to become independent of the UK, so that
the UK is reduced to its largest component, England. That the Scottish or Welsh
nationalists appear to be ‘progressive’ is simply because to a popular add on to
their nationalism, they include generous freebies that you can’t get anywhere else
(in respect of prescriptions , dental care, university tuition) . This doesn’t
make them ideologically ‘left’ or ‘progressive’. Even if they were, as soon as
they get independence then the idea is moot as they would be mostly poorer as a result, England
would be left slightly richer and with a
conservative majority, except for the occasional times England goes a bit mad
and has given labour party a landslide ,
1945/1997.
In respect of the Greens, they hold 1 seat in the House and
their policies, crafted by what if you are a martian would be the comfortable and job for life middle-class
who are often in conflict with the interests of the wider working classes, food
and energy costs being a case in point. Veganism (the new religion) , Sourdough and quinoa
are the rage in SW7, but not one suspects in Hartlepool. Britain is having- like the rest of the world-
a inflation crisis brought on by energy and food- but even Germany is trying to
keep open or even re-open some of its coal powered stations as a result. This rather goes against what some green
friends hoped who produce the end to ‘nukes and fossil fuels’, instead of the
predictable gasp of governments to go for the cheapest and solution in terms of
energy and to continue to get foodstuff
from South America (thus killing the rain forests) .
Then there are the liberal democrats. Well the last time they
had an opportunity to form a progressive alliance, they, ahem, opted to put the
conservative party and the doctrine of austerity in power…..
Hi All,
Shabbat Shalom!
And looking forward to this Sunday's Shavuot (Pentecost), wherein we celebrate the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people.
Hi All,
Today is the start of four days of celebration of 70 years of the reign of our beloved Monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
God Save the Queen!
