Starmer, the cuckoo https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/05/19/starmer-the-cuckoo/ Like a cuckoo, Starmer has foisted himself into alien territory, ousted its natural occupants, demanded blind loyalty from those who are left, and will then deliver something totally opposite to their best interests. Of course, we have to create an alternative to that. What other choice do we have?
Answer the ****** phone https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/05/19/answer-the-phone/ How many times have you been told your call matters to a company or government department you're ringing, only to be put on hold again? Are they just lying to us? And isn't time that they really did value us, and not just say they do, if only be answering the ****** phone?
@RichardJMurphy I recall the Labour leadership contest when Starmer first conned his way into winning an election with 10 pledges, all of which he has reneged on or watered down into unrecognisability. I suspect these 6 election pledges will go the same way.
@RichardJMurphy Well school budgets are reserved responsibilities, so some benefit should flow through consequentials handed back reluctantly by Westminster.
But Labour have tied their own hands - socially, economically and trade wise.
The sectoral balances show that the government has very little control over the national debt https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/05/15/the-sectoral-balances-show-that-the-government-has-very-little-control-over-the-national-debt/ When the government discusses what it calls national debt, it forgets something really important - that if it supposedly owes money, there must be someone it owes to. Those people it might owe it to are either households, businesses, or people from overseas saving in sterling in the UK. And if all those three groups decide to save then the government has no choice but to borrow.
@RichardJMurphy back in June last year I had a self-assessment issue dealing with my dad's estate that couldn't be sorted through their digital "tools". Tried phoning and automated message said self assessment helpline was closed until September (!). In desperation, since his estate was threatened with daily fines, phoned through to their IT support line, and the very helpful lady there gave me just the tax advice and support I needed!!
@RichardJMurphy A minority of the electorate voted for 14 years of #Tory chaos and indeed for Cameron's disastrous #Brexit gamble. Rightwing policy is destroying the disUK, which desperately needs ethical, climate-friendly politics of cooperation, compassion and reason.
The only person who is in a position to change this pattern is #Starmer by introducing a form of #ProportionalRepresentation, so that the left (as opposed to #Labour) has a voice.
Jacob Rees-Mogg is right: the Bank of England is a massive threat to our well-being https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/05/13/jacob-rees-mogg-is-right-the-bank-of-england-is-a-massive-threat-to-our-well-being/ I never thought I would say that Jacob Rees-Mogg is right about anything, but he is about the Bank of England. We sing from the same hymn sheet when he and I criticise its interest rate-setting policies and quantitative tightening, which is utterly unnecessary and designed to keep interest rates high and require government austerity.
Interest rates should be as low as possible https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/05/13/interest-rates-should-be-as-low-as-possible/ The Bank of England is trying to force up interest rates so that they can keep them as high as possible. That’s deeply threatening to our wellbeing by redistributing wealth upwards, reducing the amount of investment in the country and demanding austerity of government. Interest rates need to be as low as possible.
@RichardJMurphy at risk of saying the unmentionable, this isnt what lot of people would agree with. Higher interest rates allow those with savings to actually make some return on all that hard earned money. The very low/zero interest rates only benefitted banks or building societies, who could invest that money anyway, without passing on any gain to the people it belonged to. We are ordinary people who have managed to save a bit. We are not millionaire monsters.
@DrPen@RichardJMurphy If you have enough money saved for the amount of interest returned on it to make a real difference, you're probably not doing anything productive with it the capital or the interest. And this is a real problem. Too many savers sitting on wealth. Far better for govt to give savers interest incentives to invest in, for example, green bonds or ISAs which would actually do some good in the economy.
We do not have a national debt https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/05/11/we-do-not-have-a-national-debt/ The government says the fact that we have a national debt is a problem. But the truth is we don’t have a national debt. In reality the government provides people, banks, pension funds and foreign governments the chance to save with it, which is something very different. That’s a national savings facility.