Ponz55

To those using a climate change argument as a reason to close down North Sea oil & gas... 👉Supporting the UK's oil & gas sector and wanting to reduce carbon emissions is not incompatible. In fact, it is essential. Explained ⤵️⤵️

I'm by no means a Jeevun Sandher stan, but the UK's high tax is ~normal by advanced economy/aging society standards. Many of the countries with higher tax-%-GDP have a better recent record on per capita growth. There's no automatic high growth + low taxes correlation. That's because the state allocating money towards capital projects, R&D or skills/education might have better multipliers than suppressing the top rate so that the middle classes can do extra foreign holidays/home improvement projects/mid-week meals out. I don't begrudge hard working people any of these things – the state can (and does) spend money badly, OFC, & personal incentives to work & earn have to be maintained, OBVS. But taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilised, functioning society. In recent years they've risen across much of the West, roughly in proportion to the less favourable demographics (i.e. poor worker:pensioner ratios). There's a HUGE economic cost to having crap services, failing infrastructure, an exodus of doctors to Australia, 7m people on waiting lists, and dirty, unsafe, uninvestable public spaces... etc. etc. etc.

This is why the IEA/Adam Smith guys are deluding themselves thinking we can “reindustrialise” with some deregulation/N. Sea drilling. The Chinese have spent 50yrs doing aggressive industrial policy. The Americans are abandoning 50yrs of free trade orthodoxy to protect their industries behind tariff walls. The idea that the UK can rebuild a tired manufacturing sector with some supply-side reforms is a fantasy. We’ll need a heavy dose of upgraded dirigisme implemented by an agile, lean state with an empowered executive/improved capacity & freedom of action following reform of JR, ECHR relationship + stripping out of QUANGOcracy: 👉High levels of public investment, facilitated by BoE, if necessary 👉Leveraging public procurement to support/rebuild domestic producers 👉Shift of public spending from benefits/pensions to capital investment/infrastructure/R&D. Move to contributory/social insurance rather than means-tested welfare/pensions model 👉Mobilise pension funds to invest in strategic, domestic industries 👉Wholesale tax reform to shift revenue burden away from productive work/patient & productive investment towards unproductive asset wealth, land, real estate, short-term speculative investments etc. 👉Energy independence/abundance 👉Targeted protectionism/Capital controls to re-domesticate & tame footloose, globalised nature of British capital The whole state apparatus would have to be used to redirect & steer money towards key, essential sectors that are core to national resilience/autonomy. In the short-term that might feel like we’re living poorer, because it’s about a shift from day-to-day consumption to production + investment: fewer high street coffee options, more gigafactories; fewer choices on Deliveroo, more industrial robots; fewer competitive iPhone/car finance deals, more advanced materials labs + mass transit networks.

BREAKING   Scotland Yard has confirmed that Morgan McSweeney reported the theft of his phone to them on October 20 last year   They took down ***the wrong address*** and assumed the offence had taken place in East London rather than Westminster   As a result they could not identify a suspect and the case was closed   The Times has been told officers were 'too busy' to speak to Morgan McSweeney directly about it   Having established the error following the report by The Sun on Sunday they have amended the report   Worth bearing in mind that this was the theft of the phone with the prime minister's number, the number of every cabinet minister, sensitive WhatsApps, messages, emails… you name it. This was NOT an ordinary phone Starmer: “On Monday, 20 October police received a report from a man in his 40s alleging that his phone had been snatched.   “The incident was recorded as having taken place in Belgrave Street, E1.   “A review of the allegation, including a consideration of whether there was available CCTV, did not identify any realistic lines of enquiry. The investigation was subsequently closed.   “In the course of responding to a recent media enquiry, we became aware that the address was entered incorrectly at the time of the initial call and should instead have been recorded as Belgrave Road, Pimlico.   “Having identified this error, the report will be amended and the assessment of whether there is available evidence revisited."