News from the opposition

I agree, mostlyharmless.

Very suspicious dj.
It was never convincing as a suicide. As they’re not releasing the papers for seventy years we won’t know the truth in our lifetime.

This is interesting as well, mostlyharmless, from evolve.

evolvepolitics.com/tony-blair-blocked-coroners-inquiry-into-death-of-dr-david-kelly-within-minutes-of-body-being-found-explosive-new-book-claims/

I'd quite like to read that book.

Apparently, anti-semitism among Labour voters has gone down significantly under Corbyn (by two thirds in two years).
And it’s still only half of the anti-Semitic views of Conservative voters.

27% of Tories agreed with anti-Semitic statements compared with 14% of Labour voters
Still not acceptable but Corbyn has helped in the decline.

Analysis of both surveys shows that anti-Semitic views held by Labour voters had declined amongst every single statement from 2015 until 2017.

In 2015, 22% of Labour voters agreed with the statement that ‘Jews chase money more than other people’, whilst in 2017 the number of Labour voters agreeing with the statement had declined to 14%.

These results compare with 31% of Conservative voters who agreed with the statement that ‘Jews chase money more than other people’ in 2015, whilst in 2017 this had declined slightly to 27% who still agreed with the statement.

evolvepolitics.com/yougov-polls-show-anti-semitism-in-labour-has-actually-reduced-dramatically-since-jeremy-corbyn-became-leader/

labourlist.org/2018/03/tory-minister-urged-to-apologise-for-smear-against-momentum/

Has anyone seen any sign of an apology from Javid?

The judiciary are withdrawing their labour because of the new payment systems about to be put in which reduces, and I believe even stops, payment for certain work done. What horrified me even more listening to the person who was describing this was saying how the cuts had left them with such things as a jury having to be sent home because it was too cold in the courtroom and another courtroom where the lighting fell out of the ceiling.

Whatever happens and which ever government is in power there will have to be spending because they have extended the "austerity" which we may have needed for 18 months/two years for such a long period.

We know there will be problems with hospitals, schools, roads, etc., but there will be many hidden deteriorations that have to be dealt with too.

This is interesting, too.

kittysjones.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/a-word-of-caution-about-esther-mcveys-u-turn-on-housing-benefit-for-young-people/

The government creates lots of homelessness among the young, then announces a u-turn just before the local elections.
It would be better if they hadn't created it in the first place, and did not think the young would be suitably grateful and vote for them.

More tory fibs. Every time the police are mentioned in PMQs May always says that police numbers are protected.
She's lying through her teeth, and must know it.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/theresa-secretly-slashes-7000-local-12269107

We would love to have control of ALL our taxes,at the moment we have very little control ..only around 20% of all powers .If all our exports were counted as ours that would make a huge difference to our "books" currently all Scottish exports that leave through English ports ....and thats the majority of them ,are counted as English Exports .Of course the arguement from down south that the EU controls us is very misguided ,they have only control over around 5% of our laws /rules .While our "friends in the union have many times that .Think how well we could do with all our revenue and all our powers when we're doing reasonably well with only a fraction of our revenue returned for our use

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/03/28/three-tax-inquiries-to-get-your-teeth-into/

Good for Scotland again, paddyann. Unfortunately, where Scotland leads England rarely follows.

This is interesting, too.
If Scotland could collect its own VAT, they could lead here, too.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/03/28/vat-fraud-on-amazon/

The news from Scotlands government today is that from April 3rd there will no longer be "sanctions" allowed whatever the reason someone is late to a meeting or hasn't applied for the right number of jobs..they wont be punished by having their benefits stopped or suspended.Thankfully we have have a government that can see making people starve isn't the way to get them into work !

twitter.com/twitter/statuses/966040078425493504

How acceptable do you think this is?

www.theweek.co.uk/92567/cunard-faces-boycott-after-canceling-gay-weddings

Only one reason I can think of for Cunard and P&O being registered in Bermuda - tax?

www.theweek.co.uk/education/92556/grammar-schools-no-better-than-other-schools-says-study

Good bit of research here. Here's hoping that May doesn't bring the topic up after the local elections.
On the other hand.....

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/03/26/vat-and-brexit-the-cash-flow-bombshell-that-will-hit-british-business/

I wonder how many small businesses thought about this.

www.theguardian.com/business/2018/mar/27/tax-avoiders-accountants-may-have-to-give-evidence-to-mps

Still allowing tax avoiders to get away with it.

From this article.

kittysjones.wordpress.com/2018/03/26/yougov-an-antidemocratic-survey-question-and-a-brief-investigation/

This is awful. I hope anyone on yougov objects to it.

www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2018/mar/26/campaigners-welcome-labours-overhaul-its-international-policy

This is an excellent article, too.

Beginning to look at the article.

I think that the idea of a wealth tax has been around for some time, and Thomas Picketty the French economist was one of the first ones to look at it in depth and to extol its virtues.

Thank you both!

I will read it and get back to you so we can have a good chat.

Haven't managed to read it yet and have to go out. I hope the discussion is still going later on today

(I only suggested a new thread because I got this thread muddled with the 'Poverty of Brexit', which is near its end...)

I think what he is saying is that the "wealth tax" would equate to the unpaid VAT because wealth is inactive. What I don't understand is whether he is saying we should collect the equivalent of VAT.

Also how would you differentiate between active capital and inactive wealth?

I feel there is something I could strongly agree with in the article but I can't seem to get hold of it