The first 100 days.

My main issue - not with the article, exactly, but with Reeves - that her ‘fiscal rules’ are just something she/Labour have determined. They don’t need to be bound by them, and never did.

Oh, and I’m sure you’re right WWM about people reading posts, not links.

Siope

My main issue - not with the article, exactly, but with Reeves - that her ‘fiscal rules’ are just something she/Labour have determined. They don’t need to be bound by them, and never did.

Yes I absolutely agree with you. I can’t believe that they would choose cuts over kicking out the fiscal rules.

Time will tell.

There is also a good article which I suppose I could post about the child benefit cap.

It’s all well and good Labour discussing hitting people with extra CGT & IHT, but this will hit middle income households.

The so called super rich will ensure that their money is untouchable.

GrannyGravy13

It’s all well and good Labour discussing hitting people with extra CGT & IHT, but this will hit middle income households.

The so called super rich will ensure that their money is untouchable.

Well tbh I don’t read it like that, but I take your point.

If however the point is to do two things - raise money for the exchequer and secondly to even out inequality, it would satisfy the first criteria but not the second imo if the middle income group was hit rather than the ultra wealthy.

I don’t think it is going to be easy, but I think judging even by posts on a relatively conservative demographic as GN, there is a feeling that inequality is too great.

It all depends what a “middle income” turns out to be, I’m expecting anything over £500,000 equity to be targeted for more tax, excluding pension income which is already taxed at whatever marginal rate.

David49

It all depends what a “middle income” turns out to be, I’m expecting anything over £500,000 equity to be targeted for more tax, excluding pension income which is already taxed at whatever marginal rate.

That level will hit lots of SME owners, who are also employers and the backbone of the UK.

GrannyGravy13

David49

It all depends what a “middle income” turns out to be, I’m expecting anything over £500,000 equity to be targeted for more tax, excluding pension income which is already taxed at whatever marginal rate.

That level will hit lots of SME owners, who are also employers and the backbone of the UK.

There are and will be concessions for business assets, this is the problem, much of the wealth is held as business capital and can’t be taxed until the business breaks up, or shares sold.

Now you have to say why it s ridiculous, you can’t leave it in the air.

I know I can't, Wwmk2, but I've been out all day with my DD at, ahem... a dressage competition and am off out again soon, so I don't think I'll have time this evening.

I'll have a go tomorrow.

But I will say that MMT has provided the only coherent explanation of how money enters the national economy that I've ever found. Something not covered by other branches of economy.

And I've never found a critique of this, either positive or negative:

www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/sites/bartlett_public_purpose/files/the_self-financing_state_an_institutional_analysis_of_government_expenditure_revenue_collection_and_debt_issuance_operations_in_the_united_kingdom.pdf

MMP applies where overseas investors have confidence to lend money or sell products to you, no government is free to create as much money as it wants because the value of the currency will fall. There have been many examples of this, the UK borrowings are high but manageable, if there was increased borrowing for growth that would be acceptable, finance markets would not be impressed by borrowing to fund social spending.

If the recent revelation that there is a larger debt than expected dont expect any quick end to austerity, we don’t live in a vacuum, a fall in the value of sterling would make life much harder.

MMP applies where overseas investors have confidence to lend money or sell products to you, no government is free to create as much money as it wants because the value of the currency will fall. There have been many examples of this,

I'm afraid that's just nonsense, David.

Guardian reports Rachel Reeves will cut or delay various projects- Boris Johnson’s 40 hospital project, tunnelling under Stonehenge and HS2 to Euston are suggested.

Today Rachel Reeves will lay the ground for cuts to public spending, tax rises and delays to some major infrastructure projects.

She is expected to pause work on a string of infrastructure projects, including Boris Johnson’s flagship plan to build 40 new hospitals and the proposed two-mile road tunnel bypassing Stonehenge.
Reeves will unveil a “Office of Value for Money”, an arm’s-length body that will use civil service resources to immediately start identifying and recommending savings for the current financial year.
She will say surplus publicly owned property will be sold and action will be taken straight away to stop “non-essential” spending on consultants.

Which infrastructure projects is Reeves likely to axe?
Chancellor expected to announce cuts and delays to some projects.

The A27 Arundel bypass

Plans to restore 45 railway lines

The Stonehenge tunnel

The Tories’ 40 new hospitals programme

My MP😊

UK ‘desperately exposed’ to cyber-threats and pandemics, says minister

The UK science secretary has warned Britain is “desperately exposed” to cyber-threats and the upheaval of another pandemic, claiming that national resilience suffered “catastrophically” under the previous government.
Deep public spending cuts under the austerity programme diminished the NHS and other local and national services, and hampered pandemic preparedness exercises, Peter Kyle told the Guardian, while too little was done to address rising cybersecurity risks.
Kyle, who was appointed science secretary when Labour came to power three weeks ago, said “open warfare” in the Tory ranks appeared to have prevented former ministers from working together to ensure the country was well-prepared for future threats.
“National resilience suffered terribly, catastrophically,” he said. “The open warfare of the previous government prevented any kind of progress in these areas and left our country desperately exposed not just to a future pandemic but also to cybersecurity issues.”
Renewed concern over cyber-threats to Britain prompted an abrupt change in plans for the king’s speech, with the much-anticipated AI bill being bumped out to make room for a new cyber security and resilience bill.
“When I became secretary of state, within a very short period of time, and I’m talking hours, not multiple days, I became very, very aware that there was a cybersecurity challenge that our country faced that I simply wasn’t aware of before becoming secretary of state,” Kyle said. The threat led him to put forward a request for the new CS&R bill, which had “national security priority”.
“We are preparing the [AI] bill, we are consulting on the bill and we will have the bill ready to go” he added. “We are committed to legislating for AI.”
The National Cyber Security Centre warned last week that despite making progress with government and industry, Britain was being outpaced by those seeking to attack the country. In particular, it said the “scale, pace and complexity” of threats to critical national infrastructure (CNI), such as water, power and healthcare, was rising.
Beyond ransomware attacks, the NCSC is now seeing a rise in state and state-aligned groups targeting the country’s CNI. The CS&R bill will make it harder for malicious actors to exploit weak points in CNI supply chains, the organisation said.
Kyle said further work was needed to boost the UK’s readiness for a future pandemic. The first report from the Covid inquiry, released two weeks ago, offered a damning assessment of the nation’s pandemic planning, describing it as beset with “fatal strategic flaws”. Little has improved since, experts suggest.
Responding to the Covid inquiry report, the head of the British Medical Association said the UK was “still massively underprepared” should another pandemic hit. In January, Dr Clive Dix, the former chair of the UK’s vaccine taskforce, told MPs of “a complete demise” in efforts to ensure the UK was well equipped with vaccines for the next pandemic.

Define ‘desperately’ ?? It’s just exposed ….

ronib

Define ‘desperately’ ?? It’s just exposed ….

Who? Me? 😄😄

I take it that ‘desperately’ means that there is not the infrastructure in place to carry out the most straightforward of checks and respond to urgent breaches of security. I hope that isn’t what it means, but I suspect it is.

This is alarming. I expect that it needs highlighting and ( hopefully) addressing, but it doesn't make for comfortable reading.

Casdon this is simply untrue.

I was surprised how widespread the online breakdown was 10days ago, one bug in an update simultaneously crashed so many systems. Nobody had any backup system, organizations are now so dependant on one core internet system that everything stops.
This was a minor inadvertent mistake, a major deliberate attack really would be catastrophic.

I didn’t realise you were a cyber security expert ronib, but do tell us what you know, so we can be reassured that this is just a red herring from Labour, I’d be happy for that to be the case?

Casdon let’s just say that I have a very close proximity to someone who is ….

That doesn’t reassure me, because there have been a lot of breaches recently. I’d rather wait to hear exactly what the government say the issues are, and most importantly, what specifically they are proposing to do. The proof that there is a significant issue to solve in the action they take or don’t. If none is forthcoming I will believe what you say.

Casdon fair comment. I can only wait and see what Labour does next and assess the accuracy of its approach then. Good way ahead.

Casdon

I take it that ‘desperately’ means that there is not the infrastructure in place to carry out the most straightforward of checks and respond to urgent breaches of security. I hope that isn’t what it means, but I suspect it is.

I think that I exactly what Kylie is alluding to.

As david49 posted look at how widespread the breakdowns are ad how frequent.