Oliver Tonkin

@L__Macfarlane US can get away with it because it's the US. Look at the rates of entrepreneurship and wealth creation in many of the others. Tells you something

Many rich countries have exit taxes - the US, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Japan, etc. The UK is actually somewhat unusual in not having one.

@JohnSimpsonNews Ludicrous tweet

Argentina v England is important way beyond football. If Argentina wins tomorrow night, it’ll put real fire behind the demand for the Falklands. If England wins, that should put the lid on it — for now.

@DanNeidle Good thread. I'm glad you recognise the problems with implementing what looks good in theory

Stamp duty and council tax are terrible taxes. Land value tax could replace both - and Andy Burnham has backed it for 16 years. Who wins? Who loses? What happens to house prices? LVT could drive growth. But it isn’t easy. Our model shows its promise - and its problems.

@mrjakehumphrey "We need to build things, just not here"

There are plans being submitted to build the largest data centre in the UK on rural land next to a nature reserve in Norfolk. We can t allow our countryside to be stolen in this way. We need data centres, but this application is wrong on every level. change.org/p/stop-the-sou…

@Jonathan_Hinder Imposing taxes for moral grounds, even if it raises no money and depresses economic activity is, I would suggest, a very bad basis for making policy

The Right’s response to a wealth tax is always “but it won’t work!” What I find interesting is that there is rarely an attempt to argue against it on moral grounds, because they know most people find such wealth inequality utterly grotesque. There is overwhelming public support for doing something about this - I mean, LOOK at that polling👇👀 So, why don’t we crack on with the most effective and practicable ideas? We know that a proportional property tax, while a bit less flashy, actually works, so let’s start there! @FairerShare

@AaronBastani This is drivel

There’s a good line from Gary Stevenson while speaking to Piers Morgan last night. You can’t have an untaxed billionaire class, and an asset owning middle class at the same time. You have to choose. He’s right.

@NUCLRGOLF 100% putt out

Surely you have to putt this out? 🧐⛳️

@PeterBleksley @bedspolice He looks like a cruise liner magician

This is how a Detective Inspector from @bedspolice chose to present himself to the media and therefore the public today. Mate, you’re a detective, not a poet. Get a haircut and a beard trim.

@CapelLofft He moved here when he was one and has lived here ever since! He's a product of our system

@jamierkennedy @NorthBerwick_GC 30 back is decent, including the hole in one!

Definite framer.

@griffitha Fundamentally it comes down to the fact that UK institutional investors chronically undervalue their home market vs the US. There is a reason why a US company valued at, say, 6x profit is attractive to a US listed competitor valued at 30x on the NYSE or Nasdaq

As the City Minister who came up with the original package of Mansion House reforms, I’ve thought and worked more deeply on this issue than anyone. My view? 1. The basic problem is too much ‘institutionalisation’ of pensions. Except for wealthy SIPP holders, individuals have no agency and no means to act on their home market preference. (When asked, UK pension savers think they have vastly more exposure to U.K. stocks than is the case). The answer is not more complicated tax rules and regulations - or letting a socialist Chancellor invest your pension for you - it’s giving individuals more control. 2. ‘Culture beats strategy’. Few are brave enough to say it but left-leaning U.K. rules and practice on remuneration, ESG and diversity are a huge issue in choosing where to list. You can change the rule book for listings all you like (and we broadly did!) but unless this changes, it is all in vain. Epic self harm. 3. ‘Tone at the top’ from individual regulators matters. Both Labour and Conservative ministers do get the problem and want to fix this. They are incentivised (and elected!) to get the U.K. to grow. But ivory tower financial regulators spending their time jetting off to regulatory mutual admiration fests need to get with the programme. It’s a scandal and the damage they have done to the City has been tolerated for far too long. 4. When the government puts up tax on alcohol or tobacco it’s because they want less of it. Why does anyone think the same logic doesn’t apply to stamp duty on UK share trading? Especially, when competitors don’t levy same. 5. Growth rate is everything. Although the U.K. market has the virtue of being the world’s most international, it’s hard to outrun your own economy. When everything is too slow, too regulated, too expensive (yes, that’s looking at you energy prices!) it’s hard to get markets vibe-ing. We need to fall back in love with risk. Please share, like or comment. This really matters.

@PolitlcsUK WTF

🚨 NEW: Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has called for families on benefits to be given 30 free hours of childcare a week

@mbeisen Yeah, that Norway Viking row thing they do doesn't half trigger the inhabitants of Lindisfarne

The three set quarterfinals are all colonizer - colonized pairs: France - Morocco, Spain - Belgium, Norway - England.

@TheRestHistory Trying to keep cool with Coolidge

It was great to see so many of you at the first day of The Rest Is History Festival yesterday. We have more incredible talks and activities coming up today! Including, very excitingly, a duel. If you're attending, drop your photos below!

@israel_ajoje Given his output over the time he's been with us, it goes down as a great piece of business

Arsenal bought Leandro Trossard from Brighton in January 2023 for an initial £20 million, with add-ons taking the headline figure to £27 million. He signed a four and a half year deal running to the summer of 2027. Three and a half years later, Besiktas have agreed €20 million, roughly £17 million, to take him off Arsenal's hands with one year left on that contract. Let's talk about what this actually means for lay men and for a club financially, because the number looks underwhelming until you understand how football accounting works. When a club signs a player, the transfer fee is not recorded as an immediate expense. It is spread evenly across the length of the contract, a process called amortization. I have written about this before. Arsenal paid £20 million guaranteed and spread that over 4.5 years. By July 2026, approximately 3.5 years have elapsed, meaning roughly 78% of that cost has already been written off the books. The remaining book value sitting on Arsenal's balance sheet is somewhere around £4.4 to £6 million depending on which fee figure you use. So when Besiktas pay £17 million for a player whose book value is roughly £5 million, Arsenal are booking a profit of somewhere between £11 and £12 million on a player entering the final year of his deal. That is actually quite smart business. A 32 year old with one year left on his contract and a player who, whatever his contributions, was never going to be a first team starter. Getting £17 million for him rather than watching him walk away for nothing next summer is exactly the kind of decision that keeps clubs on the right side of PSR. I think Arsenal have done well. What do you think? My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

@Thesecreteact And proper entrepreneurs relief for founders? Inflation adjustment on the base cost doesn't help you if your base cost is zero

I’m ok with capital gains tax being equalised with income tax if: 1) there is inflation adjustment and 2) there is a sensible exemption allowance. thetimes.com/article/657e8d

@NUCLRGOLF In no world is a 2 foot putt a gimme

Are you giving this putt in a situation like this? 🤔

@s8mb It would be a catastrophic policy combined with an exit tax. Would kill off entrepreneurship stone dead

A 45p rate would be bad but the reliefs Dan proposes would mitigate the harms a bit. Then someone else would get the job, need to find more revenue somewhere, and these reliefs would be the first things to go. Exactly what happened last time we had inflation indexation for CGT.

@NUCLRGOLF Swap 3rd for 2nd

🚨🏆⛳️ #DISCUSSION — Do you agree with this ranking of golf’s major championships?

@CobGreat @owenjonesjourno What so these headlines tell me other than the people writing them are as deranged as you?

@PemCap @owenjonesjourno You don't care about kids being murdered and corrupt companies helping. I do. That's the difference between us.

This is good!