UK Politics: Life in the Johnsonian Dystopia

[BigFatCoward]

 

12 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

I’m not sure what’s going on with UK figures today, I saw a few reports that we’d switched systems for tallying and that’s why we had the caveat of yesterday’s stats that it was less than 24 hours, and that they may switch to 9am announcements. But that was gleaned from a few tweets, nothing official from DHSC.  

For some reason england announces their figures at different times to Scotland and Wales. 

[Heartofice]

27 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

80% help up to £2500 for self employed people as well. But possibly not in peoples pockets until June. 

Who are these pretend tories? 

This does seem like an insane outlay on the face of it.

However as someone who has been self employed contractor in the past few years, I know that one of the tricks is to use the expense systemt o make sure you are making as little profit as possible, meaning you pay less tax. Dodgy, but it's what you do.

So this being based on 3 years of profits might mean people aren't getting paid as much as it seems, if everyone has been playing the system in the same way.

[BigFatCoward]

5 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

This does seem like an insane outlay on the face of it.

However as someone who has been self employed contractor in the past few years, I know that one of the tricks is to use the expense systemt o make sure you are making as little profit as possible, meaning you pay less tax. Dodgy, but it's what you do.

So this being based on 3 years of profits might mean people aren't getting paid as much as it seems, if everyone has been playing the system in the same way.

I hope every self employed person who has been lying to avoid paying child maintenance gets royally screwed. 

[Heartofice]

4 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

I hope every self employed person who has been lying to avoid paying child maintenance gets royally screwed. 

That might well happen, I’m sure at the lower pay levels some people have been managing to pay zero corp tax, I know a lot of people like that.

Possibly the government  are very aware of this fact. The changes to IR35 this year ( that got pushed back due to crisis) were going to hit the self employed hard, and were targeted at this sort of loophole 

[Heartofice]

Actually looking a little bit more closely I think it’s just for sole traders? Not people using limited companies. So maybe that’s different 

[Jen'ari]

I undoubtedly think they’re doing the right thing for both employed and self employed but can’t help but wonder how much taxes are going to go up once the crisis has abated to cover this, for the record I’m not against a tax increase as long as it is proportionate and fair.

[ljkeane]

Hmm. I've mostly been ok with the government's handling of this crisis, even when errors have been made it's been for understandable reasons, but apparently the UK isn't part of the current EU wide scheme for procuring ventilators because somebody missed an e-mail. It might not matter anyway if the UK's own efforts to source ventilators produce comparable results but if this leads to an avoidable shortage that's a big error.

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

Hmm. I've mostly been ok with the government's handling of this crisis, even when errors have been made it's been for understandable reasons, but apparently the UK isn't part of the current EU wide scheme for procuring ventilators because somebody missed an e-mail. It might not matter anyway if the UK's own efforts to source ventilators produce comparable results but if this leads to an avoidable shortage that's a big error.

The 10,000 extra ventilators sourced from Dyson should make a big dent, although 50,000 is a better target. I suspect Dyson guaranteed they could deliver 10,000 in the next couple of weeks (when they'll be most badly needed), because they apparently already had a production chain set up for these things independently of the crisis, which is quite lucky.

Seeing some optimism that the UK hasn't had a recorded big outbreak in a care home or geriatric ward yet, and we don't have elderly people living with families and younger people who have caught the disease, both of which contributed to the figures in Spain and Italy. Whether that will end up being statistically significant is unclear.

[john]

£60 fine for lockdown violations, £120 for second offence?

That’s nothing. In Luxembourg you can get €10,000 or up to 2 months jail time. Not sure how they’d enforce that, presumably after the outbreak’s over.

[BigFatCoward]

7 hours ago, john said:

£60 fine for lockdown violations, £120 for second offence?

That’s nothing. In Luxembourg you can get €10,000 or up to 2 months jail time. Not sure how they’d enforce that, presumably after the outbreak’s over.

Goes down to 30 quid if you pay straight away though. Hardly a massive punishment. 

[Jen'ari]

2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Goes down to 30 quid if you pay straight away though. Hardly a massive punishment. 

It will also be quite difficult to enforce/prove that someone has been out more than once imo, well depending on the circumstances, if someone nips to the shops for a second time because they forgot a pint of milk for example, and said it was their first trip, it would be difficult to prove them wrong without spending more time on it than I’d guess most officers would have the inclination to?. I’d assume these new powers will be used more to go after people obviously flouting the social distancing laws/antisocial behaviour/driving like dickheads etc?.

[Which Tyler]

It's a "no, we really mean it this time" measure

[john]

1 hour ago, Jen'ari said:

It will also be quite difficult to enforce/prove that someone has been out more than once imo, well depending on the circumstances, if someone nips to the shops for a second time because they forgot a pint of milk for example, and said it was their first trip, it would be difficult to prove them wrong without spending more time on it than I’d guess most officers would have the inclination to?. I’d assume these new powers will be used more to go after people obviously flouting the social distancing laws/antisocial behaviour/driving like dickheads etc?.

Yeah, as someone said in the comments section of a report I read, unless you tell the officer explicitly that you came out to snuggle up to strangers and spit on handrails, then you’re probably fine.

[BigFatCoward]

1 minute ago, john said:

Yeah, as someone said in the comments section of a report I read, unless you tell the officer explicitly that you came out to snuggle up to strangers and spit on handrails, then you’re probably fine.

Unless you are a gang member and get recognized easily, after 2 or 3 times of being moved along you are asking for it. 

[Jen'ari]

11 minutes ago, john said:

Yeah, as someone said in the comments section of a report I read, unless you tell the officer explicitly that you came out to snuggle up to strangers and spit on handrails, then you’re probably fine.

 

9 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Unless you are a gang member and get recognized easily, after 2 or 3 times of being moved along you are asking for it. 

To be fair it seems most people are ok with social distancing and willing to do their part, acting in a way that is obviously selfish with disregard to others lives in this situation deserves addressing. 

I read a news article about an RSPCA worker going to help an injured/distressed swan and a group of teenagers approached her, when she asked them to stay back a few of them spat in her face and said ‘have corona bitch’ hearing this kind of thing really makes me angry.Why anyone would be confrontational to someone helping an injured animal at the best of times is beyond me but doing that in the current climate is unforgivable imo.

[BigFatCoward]

Boris, fucking hilarious. 

[Derfel Cadarn]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52060791

Boris johnston has it.

[Spockydog]

3 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52060791

Boris johnston has it.

"Operation Last Gasp."

 

[Jeor]

I don't want to wish ill on someone, but if Boris gets just a mild case and easily recovers it would be really bad if he started using that as an excuse to downplay the whole thing.

[Gaston de Foix]

2 minutes ago, Jeor said:

I don't want to wish ill on someone, but if Boris gets just a mild case and easily recovers it would be really bad if he started using that as an excuse to downplay the whole thing.

If he doesn't recover (which I profoundly hope is not the case) his official successor will be (checks notes) Dominic Raab.  Gulp.