John Baldry

@SkyNews @TrevorPTweets The OBR forecast at the time showed the knock-on effects of the rise in employers' NI which included the pushing of part of the cost on to employees in the form of lower wages and fewer employees hired.

'We did that for a reason' Work and Pensions Sec Pat McFadden defends the rise in National Insurance for employers, after Streeting claims it 'makes employers reluctant to hire' Youth employment is "pretty good", McFadden also told @TrevorPTweets trib.al/HOQPgnw

@EdwdPrice @StuartMaggs I'm afraid I think that's rather letting the Chancellor off the hook for some terrible policy decisions which are primarily her responsibility.

@jcbaldry @StuartMaggs It’s still better when people talk than not. Which is largely where the new Labour government immediately failed, by spending most of its first year refusing to do so. The principal architect of that failure is now the new health secretary, having replaced Mr Streeting.

Forgive me if I'm sceptical.

The problem is that you cannot lump several lots of additional costs onto business *at the same time* and at a time when other costs are significantly rising, especially when your policies do nothing to reduce those costs (particularly rising energy). You can also look at VAT changes in the round - have a broader base which includes unhealthy food albeit at a reduced rate and make the differential between that food and cold takeaway (zero) and catering (20%) lower. Other countries use lower rates for good overall. It takes boldness and imagination with the tax system so you achieve what you want without huge losses in revenue overall.

"Anybody who's saying 'Please cut my taxes', there's always a cost associated with that." Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden responds to Yotam Ottolenghi and Tom Kerridge's calls on Newsnight for VAT on the hospitality industry to be cut to 10%. #Newsnight

Polanski pulls out the typical left wing play book that any questioning of him is unfair. But mainstream media is not pulling out unfair or irrelevant things against him, they are things which are directly relevant to his character and ability, and he isn't very good at addressing them. Journalists aren't just noble if they are war correspondents, keeping politicians honest is an essential part of democracy. If Zack really doesn't understand that or can't deal with it, before he has even reached the House of Commons, then that's another thing that makes him unfit for public office.

@ArtsTrapper @bbcnickrobinson @Ofcom @katierazz @BBCr4today @GBNEWS Just because you're watching people dance around in their underwear doesn't mean you've ended up at a Madonna concert.

@jcbaldry @bbcnickrobinson @Ofcom @katierazz @BBCr4today @GBNEWS by 'regulate', John, you mean get only your side of the story out? (An avid @GBNEWS watcher and listener)

I know the heat can make us all light headed but i think I just heard the ex Chair of @Ofcom Michael Grade tell @katierazz on #mediashow that @bbcr4today or any other BBC News programme could be presented by a politician just like @GBNEWS. Can anyone remind me when parliament, the public, licence fee payers or anyone else was asked their opinion on this ?

A sign of a radical tax policy indicating any understanding of growth at all would be welcome. The left always thinks you can regulate your way into growth, but whilst you can certainly change incentives via regulation, it's rarely without someone else paying a price. The Treasury seems devoid of decent ideas, which is unforgivable for the most prestigious department in Government. Of course tax academics, policy people and lately the Office for Tax Simplification (before it's untimely demise and notable lack of revival under Labour) have been telling them the answers for years, as well as consistently warning them not to do stupid anti-growth things. Nearly always ignored unless it can be established that it literally doesn't work at all. The more you look at that, the more ridiculous you find it.

If you want to make small changes to encourage more investment in UK-listed equities then one thing we really should do is to get rid of stamp duty on shares bloomberg.com/news/newslette…

@MichaelLCrick @OliverKamm If we're looking at responsibility for their inaction, rather a lot of that would seem to lie properly with the Chief Exec.

Michael Grade was once a great TV executive, but he's no longer fit to hold public office. Under his watch Ofcom have become one of the weakest institutions in the British state. A complete joke.

Reeves wants to encourage greater investment in stocks and shares - ideally UK ones. I don't personally believe in interfering too much in investment decisions in that way - there's a place for money market funds in a portfolio. We'll see what the industry consultation produces.

@jcbaldry @John_Stepek Oh well that’s just shit then. Why would people choose to invest in that way. Surely that was the point of an ISA?

Can anyone clarify the news that Reeves plans to tax stocks and shares ISAs? I don’t understand why if you are trying to encourage people to participate in stocks and shares ISA rather than cash to boost the economy, would you tax them and not cash held? @John_Stepek

@Nicoledso @John_Stepek It's the interest income, or potentially income from money market funds that will be taxed - just as if they were held outside an ISA.

@jcbaldry @John_Stepek So you mean they have stocks and shares and then pull it out as cash if they think the stock will perform less well and that is going to be taxed? Sorry still trying to understand. Need an ISA for dummies course!

If people are sensible mostly whilst it's awaiting investment or just small balances as the interest rates are generally terrible. Some people use short term money market funds which are very popular, especially when markets are uncertain. I think the rules on exactly what will and won't be affected are still being finalised.

@jcbaldry @John_Stepek See I consider myself more educated on this than at least 80% of the general public (probably more) but I don’t understand it

Think of it as anti-avoidance. Cash ISAs are fine but the subscription limits will be lower. W/out some rule you could get around that by holding more cash in a stocks and shares ISA. The tax is designed to disincentivise that. So there’s a reason but it complicates what until now was a simple enough product, especially if money market funds are also caught.

@John_Stepek I don’t understand that ;)

It helps to remember that X is an unregulated cess-pool. I still think it's a dereliction of duty that the investors in SpaceX (of which XAI is now part) don't make a bigger fuss about it. Of course it also reflects people's legitimate desperation for answers to real problems. Starmer is obviously extremely intelligent, but he's not the right type of leader, and I don't know that there are other great candidates (I'm slightly with Michael Gove on Shabana Mahmood but that won't happen). People need to see something different, and they are so attuned to negativity that restoring trust is a tough job.

Great work on this by @DanNeidle. The level of vitriol this issue has triggered seems exceptional. I know our politics is tribal, but we really do have to be able to talk about this stuff. Sometimes our side has good ideas. Sometimes the other side has good ideas. The more we implement good ideas and point out bad ideas, the better off the whole country will be.

@samjbeth @DanNeidle It was *sarcasm* and believe me I've spent my career working plenty of real hours as well as a ton of hours on tax policy. Stop assuming everyone is your enemy, they're not.

@jcbaldry @DanNeidle The Plebs! When will u lot ever bloody learn. Lawyer and business coach, proper LinkedIn grifter

Reform UK wants to abolish income tax on overtime. It sounds like a tax cut for hard work. Actually a tax cut for the word “overtime”. So little GDP impact & huge cost - we reckon £14bn not Reform's £5bn If you want to spent £5bn on tax cuts, we have ten better ways: 🧵

@julianHjessop It isn't 'well-intentioned', it's designed to make people work more hours because Reform thinks people don't work 'hard enough'.

"Why Reform’s tax-free overtime plan is a bad idea" ICYMI, here's something I wrote yesterday... 🤔 (TL;DR - this is a well-intentioned proposal, but it would be unfair, complex, and have many unintended and unwelcome consequences.) julianhjessop.substack.com/p/why-reforms-…

@DanNeidle Because I think good politics is about finding policies that are positive and promote good outcomes. Not populist bribery designed to make the plebs work more hours.

@jcbaldry Go on… ?

@DanNeidle It's good marketing - I actually think it's terrible politics.

Julian Jessop put it best: this is "yet another example of a policy that is both good politics and terrible economics." julianhjessop.substack.com/p/why-reforms-…

@Wigapedia @DeborahMeaden That was apparently the French experience.

@jcbaldry @DeborahMeaden Companies will simply redesignate hours as overtime to avoid PAYE. The total income to the workers won't change, but the employer gets a PAYE windfall. Ker-ching!

As a tax lawyer, let me tell you that this is a mad policy. Deeply unfair between taxpayers with no common sense basis. Pure bribery. Why should you pay less tax than your neighbour who's hours are contracted but you do regular 'overtime' ? Ridiculous.

No, it's the policy of fairness. Plenty of industries involve working long hours without overtime. It's effectively built in to the salary and assumed. Under this policy you can easily have two people working the same hours for the same money and paying different tax. That's fundamentally unfair.

What difference does it make to the guy on contracted hours He’s getting the same wage as always, absolutely nothing changes for him , if he’s unhappy, get another job that allows for overtime The guy doing the EXTRA hours gets to keep more of the EXTRA pay from the work they are performing His normal 40hrs is taxed at exactly the same the other contracted guy This is pure politics of envy