General UK Politics Thread

[VarysTheSpider]

[quote name='Usotsuki' post='1758141' date='Apr 17 2009, 15.00']:lol: That was impressively awful Varys, now stay in your corner till you're truly sorry for what you did. Even if Cabinet Minsters no longer show remorse for anything we know you can be better than they are :P[/quote]
:cry: I regret that. I've taken steps to ensure it will never happen again by writing a letter to myself informing myself in the strongest possible terms that I will be very disappointed with myself if it happens again.

[Blue Roses]

[quote name='VarysTheSpider' post='1758114' date='Apr 17 2009, 14.38']Makes you wonder how much longer the Home Secretary can Klingon to her job. :leaving:[/quote]

snigger...

[Usotsuki]

The Darling Budget of May April.

Alistair Darling has announced a new top tax rate of 50% for those earning more than £150,000 from next April.

The chancellor is trying to save the public finances after announcing bigger than expected borrowing of £175bn.

The UK economy will shrink by 3.5% - the worst in modern times, he said in his Budget but he said he expected it to pick up at the end of the year.

other measures, petrol duty will increase by 2p per litre in September and then by 1p a litre above inflation each April for the next four years.

Alcohol duties will go up by 2% - about 5p a pint - from midnight. There will be an increase in tobacco duty of 2% from 6pm. Mr Darling said these measures will raise more than £6bn by 2012.

I don't expect much immediate response but I do hope to see you all after midnight soaked in bargain booze.

[Hereward]

I like the fact that as soon as he finished, the IMF announced Britain's economy would contract by 4.1% this year and 0.4% next. Or, in other words, they issued a press release entitled "Darling, you're a lying sack of shit".

PS We're all doomed.

PPS I'll be soaked in booze alright, but I don't think the cheap stuff will adequately do the job.

[Usotsuki]

Enjoy the good stuff whilst it lasts, I foresee far fewer interesting posts in the drinking thread, it's hard to get excited about buckfast cocktails.

[Lyanna Stark]

Ouch for the fuel duty on petrol. Guess it is time to park the car for good and start cycling. Good thing we are moving closer to work.

While my leftie socialist self feels a bit smug about the tax changes to higher earners (sorry, can't help it, I blame my commie upbringing) I just wonder how effective they'll be and if they'll actually come into effect at all, what with the Tories getting into power soon***. Are they only there for show, or will they have any actual effects? Will it make the UK a country with a higher proportion of wealth distribution? I do think that is desperately needed, but is this the right way?

*** Unless Gordon Brown suddenly transforms himself into Somebody Popular, which seems more unlikely than flying pigs and hover cars at the moment.

[MinDonner]

Puzzled by the "£500m to kickstart stalled housing projects" - cos obviously the problem with the housing market is not enough flats being built...? Is this £500m going towards bailing out all the near-bankrupt BTL scum, or just to get more of their 2-bed shoebox flat projects finished off for, um, no-one to buy?

[Usotsuki]

Lyanna, the latest possible date for the election is June 3rd 2010 (though the last person to run close to the limit was John Major and he lost and I laughed). The new rate would apply from April 2010 so it strikes me as a political ploy rather than a reflection of either redistributive intent or the desire for revenue enhancement.

That said I don't think it's going to be a terribly effective ploy, the Dearly Beloved will need to travel door to door delivering our long delayed hover cars in a variety of colours to have a serious chance of victory.

Min, keeping the construction sector wheezing but alive rather than watch it actually fade away entirely? Though I'm not sure that £500 million is more than a bandaid on the missing limb.

[VarysTheSpider]

But [Darling] is gambling on a swift recovery and unveiled measures including a £2,000 "car scrappage" scheme aimed at kick starting industry.

In an ironic twist it appears the Queen has put an advert for her Kingdom in the free paper, going for a horse ONO.

[Multaniette]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8012838.stm

What a joke.

As a Pakistani national on a student visa to Britain, this hit a bit too close to home.

[Hereward]

Puzzled by the "£500m to kickstart stalled housing projects" - cos obviously the problem with the housing market is not enough flats being built...? Is this £500m going towards bailing out all the near-bankrupt BTL scum, or just to get more of their 2-bed shoebox flat projects finished off for, um, no-one to buy?

Looks like more 2-bed shoebox flat projects. Essentially, it seems like the government is waiving infrastructure charges for certain new developments, i.e. not charging developers for the costs of linking up their crappy blocks of flats to transport, etc, but bearing the costs themselves. Plus more money for the partial equity schemes.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/news/nol/shared...hapter5_256.pdf

See Chapter 5.76, if you really don't have anything better to do!

[Usotsuki]

Budget 2009 announces a £600 million fund to stimulate housing development in the short-term and boost capacity in the house building industry.

Unusual use of the word boost.

[Lyanna Stark]

Usotsuki,

Yes, that was my understanding as well and although I am perfectly ok with slapping the rich around a bit, I just wonder: won't the Tories reverse it as soon as they get into power? It is, after all, their main powerbase? Plus I guess they could argue that it doesn't actually save that much money. I dunno. As I said, ideologically, I don't mind it, I am all for progressive taxing and a decent amount of wealth distribution (combined with more Lutheran work ethics btw :P ) but this smells very much of ploy.

Hereward,

Essentially, it seems like the government is waiving infrastructure charges for certain new developments, i.e. not charging developers for the costs of linking up their crappy blocks of flats to transport, etc, but bearing the costs themselves.

I thought they didn't do this properly anyway, so the savings for the builders should be minimal. :P

Min,

Is this £500m going towards bailing out all the near-bankrupt BTL scum, or just to get more of their 2-bed shoebox flat projects finished off for, um, no-one to buy?

Both, I imagine. They might even throw in a washing machine and a cheap Majorca holiday if you buy one of the shoeboxes. How can you resist??? :P

[Hereward]

Yes, that was my understanding as well and although I am perfectly ok with slapping the rich around a bit, I just wonder: won't the Tories reverse it as soon as they get into power? It is, after all, their main powerbase? Plus I guess they could argue that it doesn't actually save that much money. I dunno. As I said, ideologically, I don't mind it, I am all for progressive taxing and a decent amount of wealth distribution (combined with more Lutheran work ethics btw :P ) but this smells very much of ploy.

The rich aren't the Tories main power base. You could argue that they are the party's raison d'etre, but the power base is the aspirational middle class, though it has been a smaller fraction of that group in the last 15 years than ever before.

Anyway, the increase will apparently not bring in very much extra income, because people earning that much have accountants! So yes, it's a combination of an attempted nod to the angry mob and a transparent ploy to force the Tories to oppose it.

[Usotsuki]

... combined with more Lutheran work ethics btw :P

I have a proud Catholic work ethic, wait till the filthy Lutherans have a lot of stuff, burn 'em, take the shiny things and party till there's a new crop of heretics :P

There is I think a fairly strong substitution effect that comes into play here with compensation shifting from direct payment to fuzzier options, so ploy it is.

Edit: or what the filthy running dog Hereward said:

[williamjm]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8012838.stm

What a joke.

As a Pakistani national on a student visa to Britain, this hit a bit too close to home.

Some of the comments made by various right-wing politicians about the supposed dangers of student visas did seem a bit stupid. Apparently the system is 'insecure' because the applicants don't have a full interview before being granting the visa which would somehow 'show if they were genuine', which doesn't make much sense, since I imagine people intending to be terrorists would be perfectly capable of pretending to be aspiring students in an interview.

Yes, that was my understanding as well and although I am perfectly ok with slapping the rich around a bit, I just wonder: won't the Tories reverse it as soon as they get into power? It is, after all, their main powerbase?

George Osbourne was quote as saying a few weeks back that the Conservative wouldn't repeal the proposed 45% tax rate in the short term. Of course, the tax rate is now 50% so that promise wouldn't be relevant any more, but they do seem keen on fighting the next election with the issue of trying to balance the budget and reduce government debt as one of the things they're going to attack Labour about. I guess they're not going to be doing too much tax cutting initially because of that, perhaps they're more likely to make removing the 50% tax rate an election issue in the 2015 (or whenever) election.

[MinDonner]

Sadly there are no links for this, as either no journalists were present or the story is not big enough to oust swine flu, but according to my well-placed sources*, David Cameron has stated that he thinks the internet should be regulated in the Chinese fashion. Now, he was saying this to a Chinese minister, so this might just be vapid arse-kissing, but it's a slightly worrying sign nonetheless.

*These are genuine sources (who I heard gossiping about it this morning) but I'm somewhat reluctant to divulge my workplace in case this is strictly confidential and I get fired...

[Werthead]

Interesting. Brown and Labour it seems just about dodged the bullet on the expenses issue by redirecting attention onto the Tories' Shadow Cabinet members and how much they earn from their other jobs. Surprisingly effective move there from Brown. Doesn't change anything but they effectively shut up the Tories on the issue and avoided a second disastrous defeat in just a couple of days.

[VarysTheSpider]

The government only escaped defeat last night because they withdrew the vote on second homes allowances. Then things got even stranger. Harman accepted a Tory MP's ammendment that the Commons wouldn't pre-empt Chris Kelly's inquiry, then announced that the government would go ahead with the votes for reform anyway. So the government agreed not to decide but decided to decide anyway. No one knew what the hell was going on. Just like that absurd Youtube video it was completely Kafka, the unique kind of cock-up that only occurs when tyrants panic.

Whatever heat the Tories take for having part-time directorships (if working one day a month counts as part-time), it's nothing compared with the embarrassment this government has brought on itself and Parliament, or the loss of authority of the PM has suffered this week. Time to go, Gordon. Sod off and write another book on courage or something.

[mormont]

From the 'My God, he's got a hell of a brass neck' department:

Charles Clarke 'ashamed to be a Labour MP'.

Well, now you know how it feels, Chuck. A large chunk of the Labour party are pretty ashamed that you're a Labour MP, too. Particularly as you're the man who introduced university top-up fees (breaking a manifesto commitment), presided over the erosion of civil rights as Home Secretary, and have spent your time on the backbenches stabbing former colleagues in the back.

Never liked the man. Can you tell? :P