The VAT guy!

@cleanupbritain More likely contractors left them, but can't believe LA employees drive/walk around and not see these things or think "I'll report it/get it removed by calling the contractors".

There are, literally, hundreds of thousands of discarded pieces of roadside equipment abandoned all over Britain. Councils that plead poverty but waste taxpayers money. They need to be 'named and shamed'. Please help us do this. Use our free App. cleanupbritain.app

@DominicMcGregor Pensions Act 2008 made employers provide a mandatory pension scheme, whislt many of those pots will be a pittance, they are still in addition to the state pension, so rather than means test, a more nuanced/layered approach might be preferable?

I’m 32 years old and I want to change the state pension. With the triple lock, based on historical growth (4.5%) when I reach my pension age. The state pension will be £30,100 a year. This would account for £512bn a year. The current government budget is 1.2Trn. This would be 3x the current NHS budget. The triple lock is unsustainable. Now the debate, no one is saying that pensioners shouldn’t recieve support. That goes without saying. But there shouldn’t be a non-means tested, non contribution based pension which gives everyone blanket support. Especially when you consider 1 in 4 of over 60 years are asset millionaires. My view is, we need to have a means tested only state pension. Which is reassessed every 3 years. There is no “pot” people pay into, national insurance is just a tax - there is no ring fenced fund for a state pension. It comes directly from taxation ever annum. Without changes like this, young people will suffer while older people - who receive their pension and political protection because they actively vote - will continue to have a glorious quality of life.

@alison_vyse @GeoffBuysCars Toblerone can't use the Swiss "bear" or Matterhorn images as it's no longer produced exclusively in Switzerland (ie, it's not Swiss chocolate anymore), Toberlone has changed it's taste, not what it used to be, but still better than Cabury's.

@GeoffBuysCars I had a Toblerone egg, boy there is a difference!

Check this out... Cadburys are getting so slammed with negative comments they've given up monitoring social media. People hate the changed taste, the oily ingredients and the shrinkflation, and the fact they aren't using the word Easter on the packaging. I'd normally go through a fair few easter eggs, but no... (I did take down a box of Guylian Seashells though, which are made with proper cocoa butter and milk.)

@Proper_Memes HMRC are not fit for purpose since COVID, IT systems are a bin fire, so much manual processing despite the image of it all being digital and AI, not enough staff who actually know their job, so much for making tax digital hey!

Quite remarkable by the HMRC. In October 2025 I noticed there was gap in my NI contributions for 22/23, which I pay myself as I run my own business. I called the HMRC, waited for ages and eventually got to someone (clearly working from home; bad line, background noise) who said that my payment is seen but it needs to allocated towards my account. I had done the payments exactly the same way years before and after 22/23, yet that year was not allocated towards my account? She said she'll 'push it' to my account now. I asked how long it will take and when can I see it on my records. She she said a few months. I was flabbergasted: months. I checked my records again this week. The gap was still there. I called HMRC again. This time I got through pretty quickly and talked someone who seemed very professional and efficient. He put me on hold for a bit and then got back to me. "I'm going to be honest with you. I can see that your contribution is on the queue and it needs to be allocated to your account by a case worker. The current queue is 52 weeks, so since you initiated the check in October, task would be completed by October 2026." Unbelievable. I follow the rules, I file my taxes on time, do everything by the book, yet the system doesn't work on the HMRC end and it'll take a year to remedy a simple error, yet if I miss my deadline, I'll get fined immediately. The tax processes need to streamlined, the tax code needs to massively simplified and HMRC needs to work for the people, not against them. @RupertLowe10

@peterkyle Why 60 days? Big firms have big IT systems that can process things using AI in an instant, 60 days will still kill a small business, should be 14 or 30 days max.

Small businesses should be paid on time. That’s why we’re announcing the strongest, most robust changes to payment laws in a generation. lbc.co.uk/article/late-p…

@Steven_Swinford Not even a referral to Special Branch or MI5 to check data hadn't been compromised? The cover up of the stolen phone is as bad as the cover up as to what was on it.

The police response to Morgan McSweeney having his phone stolen in October last year seems bizarre As phones go his was about as sensitive as it gets. The number of every cabinet minister and the prime minister. Messages with all of them. Emails, text messages. You name it If you were a hostile state looking for an insight into what was going on in government at that time/ kompromat it's probably about as good as it gets And yet they treated him in the same way as tens of thousands of people are treated every year when their phones are stolen They gave him a crime reference number. Officers didn't speak to him. They didn't conduct an investigation. They just closed the case Now that's not to say they could have tracked down the thief - he was on an e-bike and wearing a balaclava for one. It's just the lack of any further investigation seems odd, although I'm sure it will be familiar to many of the 70,000+ people who reported their mobiles stolen last year More on our podcast The State of It pod.fo/e/3bdacf

@EdConwaySky Tariffs are paid by consumers, either the plan is to increase inflation or to slow the speed of cheap imports, but in a supposed growing economy, how does making materials like steel more expensive align with increased productivity?

🚨Clearly there's loads of news today so there's a chance this gets ignored but... it is a BIG deal. Britain, the country that invented free trade as we know it, is raising steel tariffs to 50%. Biggest tariffs since Brexit. A massively symbolic moment. news.sky.com/story/watershe…

@dan7heman @CadburyUK Mondelez done the same to Toblerone, tastes horrible now, my go to chocolate now is Galaxy or Tony's or if I'm feeling rich, Hotel Chocolat.

I’m sorry @CadburyUK but your chocolate is now horrid. Palm oil makes the taste and texture all wrong. Profiteering above all else has ruined the most famous product from my city. Should never have sold out to out to Craft. #chocolate #cadbury

@TheSecretAcct Presumably the land is on a separate Ltd and it's just the parking revenue that has made a loss, csnt see the shareholders losing out here, theyll just rent the land to 3rd parties on a franchise type basis, just the banks taking the hit on debt.

I’m not surprised given the cost. It’s an absolutely ridiculous price to park in an NCP car park. People are feeling it and looking at other ways of commuting and parking..

@KelvinEHughes @BBCNews This, BHX parking is insane, cheaper to get a taxi. Even Luton and Stansted are way cheaper than BHX.

@BBCNews What a surprise. Their parking charges are so high it's cheaper to find alternatives. The cost to leave my car at Birmingham airport for a week is much higher than a taxi either way now. People vote with their feet, or tyres in this case.

Car park firm NCP collapses with nearly 700 jobs at risk bbc.in/4lwmh75

@BBCNews Who knew that dark, dingy areas with flickery lights, urine smelling stairwells and tight spaces not designed for modern barges whilst charging stupid money for a parking space would be unpopular with consumers?

@HJ_Gibbs @dresserman It was supposed to be a shipment of Gravlax, not gravel, obviously a typo at the purchasing stage 😉

Would you like some gravel with your salmon and doughnuts, sir? @dresserman

@dresserman Take it away = food, eat it in store = catering. One is a supply of goods (food), one is a supply of services (catering), but agree it's insanity.

I still remember this in 2011. It's shameful this insanity wasn't reversed.

@darrenpjones If it's voluntary then it means you will have parallel systems for those who use ID and those who do not, that will double the costs, you know it's only voluntary until you then make it mandatory. Care to comment on the Companies House data breach fiasco?

I saw this tweet and wanted to respond. Digital ID will be voluntary.

@DanNeidle @craigie_b Not a great advert for Digital ID which we're told will be super-dooper secure. Who's fingers are on this mess up, Fujitsu?

@craigie_b Craig, it was much more complex than that. You had to press the “back” button four times.

A major failure at Companies House Reports that pressing the 'back button' exposed - and even allowed changes to - millions of business records. Yet in February it doubled its fees for small businesses to register, and keeps demanding more data: full accounts, P&L, personal details. More power + more data + higher fees… and this is the security? This should end the case for further hikes and the ask for detailed accounts. taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/03/13/com… ft.com/content/afddb9… @DanNeidle @AArmstrong_says @fsb_policy

@faisalislam @BBCBreakfast The increased VAT alone from higher fuel prices is a government windfall at the expense of consumers, not suggesting government cuts VAT, bit if PA doesn't play ball, what powers does government actually have other than to threaten competition watchdog.

NEW Petrol Retailers Association withdraw from this afternoon’s Number 11 fuel summit with Reeves and Miliband quoting my @BBCBreakfast interview with Ed Miliband saying “inflammatory language” re “price gouging” and “rip offs” had led to retail staff being abused by public ⛽️

@s8mb Reducing fuel duty does not mean prices at the pump will drop 5%, a price cap (only in times of global distress) similar to electric/gas pricing is perhaps better option here as temp measure to control price gouging. Doesn't help there being little competition in this sector.

During Covid, supermarkets refrained from raising prices on things like rice in part to avoid the accusation that they were price gouging. The result was that you couldn't get rice in supermarkets. Corner shops, on the other hand, raised prices and usually had rice in stock. I think this kind of threat may lead to fuel shortages on the same basis.

@Hyundai_UK car off road for 2 months, dealer still awaiting parts, car less than 1yr old. Dealer not interested, Hyundai Finance not interested, car is dangerous (no speedo, car in video is moving), can Hyundai on X help move this forwards?

@Kevin_Maguire Should require both sides to pay an agreed amount of costs into the Court and then whoever wins gets their money back plus the costs from other side, that way both parties have skin in the game and can't raise frivolous cases or do a runner if they lose.

The £146,000 cost is criminal. When legal costs are intimidating and potentially ruinous we badly need a cheaper way for people to defend themselves and deflect attacks.

@EvacTony Should never have closed down the training colleges at Ryton/Cwmbran, in force training model creates weak spots, but agree that a rookie will make mistakes and her senior officer should be standing there taking the blame rather than hang her out to dry.

This tells you everything you need to know about how broken the police organisation is. She cocked up, didn't do her checks properly (we've all done this btw, people make mistakes) but she was 12 shifts into the job of being a police officer. Its a huge job, at 12 shifts in you have no idea what you're doing! Its not her fault in any way, its organisational failure. Her tutor, there to ensure she was doing what she's supposed be was only 3 years in I'm told, thats a year out of training himself! I keep telling you, the police is that broken, its that much of a mess, all the experience that can leave, has left, many of the rest are burnt out and demoralised because they're trapped, many others are totally unsuitable for the job. Its the blind leading the blind and even if you do lock people up, or put dangerous mentalists in secure accommodation, 5 minutes later they're back on the streets. The police is a facade of law and order, we're on our own. #ValdoCalocane #NottinghamAttacks