Michael Austin ⭐️⭐️🌎

@cliveoconnell @RupertMyers Good point, well made.

@RupertMyers Lower paid workers are often obliged to claim universal credit. It is about time that the profits of those who exploit the low paid go towards funding the subsidies that they are in effect receiving.

It’s a budget for the workers! 🤪

@Jo_WhiteheadUK @DanielPriestley Across the nation we should find ways to invest in training.

@DanielPriestley Many small businesses owners I know, who’d have had no choice at one time but to expand their teams, are training existing people up in how to use AI effectively to help instead.

Who is really paying for Employers National Insurance? Is this a tax on business or on “working people”? Technically the business that employs people transfers the money to the tax man but the honest answer is any tax on employing someone is a tax that is on the shoulders of the worker. If a business hires someone they do a quick calculation to see if it’s a good idea. They ask “am I earning more profit as a result of hiring this person or am I making a loss?” If a business is making a loss on an employee, they probably have to fire the worker or risk going broke. It doesn’t matter if you call it an employer tax, insurance, fee or payment - anything that makes an employee more expensive places a pressure on that employee to be a profitable investment. Imagine Starbucks suddenly had to pay £100 per hour fee on every employee. Technically that fee has nothing to do with the employee, but it still causes Starbucks to evaluate each employee in light of this new fee. This means that any tax on labour, even if you call it an “employer contribution” , is actually a pressure on the employees shoulders to prove that they are a productive, profitable investment. A tax on labour is a tax on the worker. You can see this in the way that businesses respond to labour taxes - they invest in automation, they outsource to overseas workers, they push for contractors and they close locations that don’t make economic sense. Businesses view all labour costs as one consideration when choosing how many people to employ and how much to pay them. Next week @RachelReevesMP and @Keir_Starmer will try to convince the British public that a rise in Employers NI is NOT a tax on working people. Don’t believe the obvious lie - of course it is. The pressure to prove the added productivity is on the shoulders of the worker. There is only one thing the government could announce that is sensible. They could announce that they need to live within their means like the rest of us. They could announce that they are bloated, inefficient, outdated and incompetent and they must make difficult cuts that affect them not us.

Why are we hearing so much about the 4% of people who are landlords, and 7% who go to private school, rather than the more than 9 in 10 of us who do not? How coverage of the Budget has been heavily slanted towards the interests of a wealthy minority adambienkov.co.uk/p/you-want-to-…

@cfc_jb Is that why they always go east to west these days?

@michaeljcaustin I did have a lovely friend helping out with a crowd surfer in MHU one time that ended up on a diagonal and well into the east stand

Always funny when flags at games go a bit wrong 😅

@will_1889 Good to see you stick to your values. Important lesson in life. When are we out for a beer?

@michaeljcaustin x.com/tsr98_/status/… left after 2-0 and went to bed

30mins of watching that back 4

@chriswrightzz A fine night out. The home fans were a lot in love with Marcel Desailly, if I remember well.

CHELSEA REWIND: On this day in 1999, Chelsea drew 1-1 away to AC Milan at the San Siro in the Champions League. A memorable equaliser scored by captain Dennis Wise. "Oh Dennis Wise, scored a f***ing great goal, in the San Siro, with ten minutes to go..."

@TheCinesthetic Whoops, Apocolypse

What is the most underrated tv series that barely anyone knows?

Defeated but not forgotten.

@chriswrightzz Not sure JFH was as happy as the rest of us.

CHELSEA REWIND: On this day in 2002, a class no look finish from Gianfranco Zola away at Manchester City in a 3-0 victory. Goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel thinks the pass is on to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Gianfranco had other ideas. 👏🇮🇹

@chriswrightzz Never heard a louder roar at The Bridge than the one following this goal.

CHELSEA REWIND: That moment when Fernando Torres finally scored his first goal. Meant so much to the supporters & the team which is evident in the celebrations. He wasn’t the goalscoring machine we hoped for but he certainly left his mark, especially in our European success. 👏

Good for him.

Today’s Guardian. A letter that will punch the breath from you 💔 #Partygate

@PippaCrerar The 100 days thing is a media / political construct that’s a pretty meaningless load of bollocks in the real world.

“We all hope it’s teething troubles - not something worse”: the inside story of Labour’s first 100 days in power I spoke to more than two dozen people - cabinet ministers, political aides, civil servants & Keir Starmer himself - for a look behind scenes theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

I won’t take lectures from the Tories on standards in public life. - They breached the rules many times - ⁠Voted to change the rules to get one of their own off the hook - ⁠Had a mates “fast lane” for £m’s Covid contracts - ⁠Lied about breaking the rules on partying in COVID

These kids sold a video-sharing website for $1.65 billion in 2006. Then vanished overnight. Today, that site is worth over $455 BILLION dollars. Here's why they walked away from the most valuable website in history:

🤣😂🤣😂