Kyle Black

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The gift that keeps on giving..

This will be a tough weekend for the Chancellor. She knew almost six weeks before the Budget from the OBR there was no ‘black hole’. Yet she and the Treasury still stoked up the idea that there was — and it would take big tax rises to fill it. By Oct 31 she knew from the OBR there was actually £4bn headroom rather than a black hole. Yet still on Nov 5th she commandeered breakfast media to roll the pitch for big tax rises. Even by mid-November she was telling the BBC if Labour stuck to its manifesto commitments (ie no income tax rises) she’d need deep cuts to capital investment. None of what she said in the run up to the Budget was true. The Treasury select committee needs to ask her why she so misled the Parliament, the markets and the British people. She raised taxes to give herself some more headroom and to pay for yet another increase in (largely welfare) spending. The tax burden is going to all-time record level for a simple reason: the Labour manifesto said public spending would be around £10bn higher than Tory plans by 2028/29. In reality on the latest projections it will be £179bn higher!!! Nothing to do with filling in black holes.

But it wasn’t Rishi Sunak who was lying was it

“Socialists often start by distributing wealth. They forget it first has to be created.” - Margaret Thatcher

FIVE THINGS RACHEL REEVES DIDN'T MENTION ABOUT THE BUDGET 1. The Budget confirmed an extra £165 BILLION of spending across this parliament, paid for by almost £100bn more in taxes and the rest from extra borrowing. More taxes and more borrowing, to pay for more welfare. (1/6)🧵

Today’s Budget was a total humiliation for Rachel Reeves. She will go down as the worst Chancellor this country has ever had. Her position is now untenable and she knows it👇

Scrapping the two-child benefit rule might appeal to feckless Labour backbenchers. But ripping out one of the last remnants of financial restraint in our bloated welfare system won't play well with the public, 73 per cent of whom support the cap.

Rachel Reeves promised that she wouldn’t raise taxes again. Later this month, she’s going to break that promise, and blame everyone else but herself. There is an alternative: cut spending and lower taxes.

It’s outrageous that Labour plan to hike taxes AGAIN this month, having promised not to. Rachel Reeves actually thinks working people should pay for Labour’s own failures. People who work hard and do the right thing should be backed not punished.

If Rachel Reeves really is planning to cap salary sacrifice relief, it's another reckless hit on business and jobs. Hurting those doing the responsible thing and saving for their retirement at the same time as loading up yet further costs on struggling businesses.

Keir Starmer will put up your taxes. Bookmark this tweet.

13 years gone today. David Black was a true gentleman and brilliant Prison Officer. Sadly like almost 30 other colleagues he was murdered by IRA terrorists. Leaving a loving wife and 2 young children, their loss has disgracefully been compounded by no convictions. Gone but never forgotten. Remeberance Quilt image courtesy of SEFF

The @Conservatives could just play this on a loop for the next month, and then for the next three and a half years as well:

We just absolutely love this man.

Many are thinking it. This says it out loud 👏🏻 Taxpayers deserve accountability. Let’s fix how current resources are used before demanding more money from people in taxes! We’re punishing hard work and ambition. It’s killing the incentive for people and businesses alike.

Some background context required from our perspective when interpreting this frankly disingenuous tweet: There was also a period of Direct Rule between Jan 2017 - Jan 2020. It was the UK government that decided upon and funded the uplift of police numbers in that period as part of the Brexit process. 2020 saw the reformation of the Executive, the appointment of Minister Long, and the unfulfilled New Decade New Approach promise to bring the PSNI’s officer numbers up to 7500. Officer numbers then tumbled when the Executive dissolved again from October 2022 until February 2024. In early 2024 on the reformation of the Executive the PSNI had around 6300 officers but the decline has continued as on 1st October 2025 there are now 6190 officers (the lowest in PSNI’s existence). The forward facing recovery plan being attributed to Minister Long was actually developed and submitted by @ChiefConPSNI Both NIPB and DOJ were consulted and assisted with the compilation of the plan but it remains PSNI’s business case submission. With the ongoing dithering and delay by the Executive in funding this plan the suggested uplift trajectory on the graph is already behind schedule. That’s because Phaze 1 of the plan was supposed to start in April 2025 but still hasn’t been funded so numbers have continued to go backwards. Even if some of the required funding started tomorrow PSNI are now not going to be able to meet the first staging post of having 6500 officers in post by April 2026.

Yes, I’m watching. Congratulations!

Would it not have been an idea to demand the release of the hostages held by Hamas *before* handing the terrorists what they asked for?

Psalm 46:1 - God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.