Rufus555

No-one is talking about AI at this election. At the next election people will talk of nothing else. Please take a few minutes to read this important article. spectator.co.uk/article/ai-wil…

I’m not too sure about the remake of The Wizard of Oz.

Look at the girl's reaction when the boy holds her hand, it might be the most positive video on the planet..

Only the Dutch 🤣🤣

I'd much rather see the Norwegian Viking Row in Times Square than Muslims praying "Allahu Akbhar"

The Iraqi player couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Haaland😭

@georgegalloway Not a fan then?

Constipated adenoidal sclerotic dull devious doubtful dickhead. You were the worst. You made Liz Truss look competent made Sunak seem spectacular made Johnson look honest. You were the WORST prime minister we had. A whole nation will rejoice that you are GONE! May you plunge into a slough of despond and sink in it for ever. George Galloway, leader of the @WorkersPartyGB in exile.

I didn't say council tax is perfect. In fact, most people agree it has serious flaws. My point was that replacing it with a land value tax would create its own set of winners and losers, and those losers are unlikely to quietly accept the change. For example, some people sitting on high-value plots are not wealthy investors. They may be retirees who bought their homes decades ago and have relatively modest incomes. Telling them they can simply sell up and move is exactly the sort of argument that generates political resistance. It gets perilously close to a suggestion of redistribution of wealth, and serious political parties, or at least those that would like to get elected, realise that even a suggestion of that goes down like a lead balloon. You may think the trade-off is worthwhile, but that doesn't change the fact that implementing a land value tax would be politically difficult. That's the point I was making.

@Rufus5552 @CommonWealth_ca the council tax system has winners and losers. don’t act like it’s perfect. land value tax incentives making productive use of land. the winners of lvt would be regular ppl. the “losers” would be ppl sitting on high value plots. of which they could sell for lots and be fine.

Andy Burnham proposes land value tax: "We Overtax People's Work"

I don’t disagree that a government could introduce a land value tax if it had sufficient political capital. My point is that acquiring that political capital is the difficult part. It’s not just a technical question of designing the tax. You’re talking about a reform that would create clear losers as well as winners, require a contentious valuation process, and potentially affect property values in some of the country’s most politically influential areas. That’s why I said it’s not coming any time soon. The issue isn’t whether an LVT can be justified in theory; it’s whether a government is willing to spend a huge amount of political capital on it when there are many competing priorities. In other words, “all we need is enough will” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Most major tax reforms fail not because nobody can think of them, but because building and maintaining that political will is extremely difficult.

@Rufus5552 @CommonWealth_ca Yes inherently the issue with valuations still stands. However the overarching point is that we need to introduce some sort of tax on wealth and given wealth is held mainly on property, a LVT would be a great start. Political capital can be acquired, all we need is enough will

I don't think that negates my argument. You're making a case for why a land value tax would be desirable. My point was about whether it's likely to be introduced. Lots of policies may have economic benefits, but that doesn't make them politically easy to implement. Even many supporters of LVT acknowledge that it would require a huge valuation exercise, would create large groups of winners and losers, and would face strong opposition from people whose tax bills would rise. Whether LVT would improve productivity or disposable incomes is a separate question from whether a government is willing and able to introduce it. The UK's planning system, council tax and business rates are all widely criticised, yet major reform has repeatedly proven difficult because of the political costs.

@Rufus5552 @CommonWealth_ca Your argument here is negated due to how the UK economy is set up now. Productivity in the UK is generally being hit by this rentier system. A land value tax is the only way to solve this productivity gap, because there will be an increase in disposable incomes.

@TheGoodBobby @CommonWealth_ca Oh, I see. I was talking specifically about the UK and the problems faced here.

@Rufus5552 @CommonWealth_ca Sorry, by "we" I mean in the US. It's done every year in our municipality. Maybe look at our Wisconsin State Statutes to see how guidelines are built to make it as uniform and fair as possible

We do property valuations now, but council tax bands were largely based on 1991 values in England and are only a small part of the overall tax system. Moving to a land value tax is a different proposition entirely. The issue isn’t whether valuation is possible; it’s whether you can revalue every property fairly, deal with the resulting winners and losers, and persuade those facing much higher bills that the system is legitimate. That’s why even many advocates of LVT spend a lot of time discussing the transition problem, and why my initial proposition was that this won’t happen any time soon.

@Rufus5552 @CommonWealth_ca We already do that for property taxes

@GameSetVolley @CommonWealth_ca They’re different things, though.

@Rufus5552 @CommonWealth_ca You say that but censoring the internet was seen as an impossible, yet it’s happening January 2027

@BritainUnbound Just had a quick look at the YouTube live stream recorded earlier today. They are a good natured but pretty eccentric bunch 😂

Currently enjoying the commentary on the live stream from the Rejoin EU March currently walking from Temple Station to Parliament Square. Apparently according to the streamer, there could be "as many as a few thousand". It looks as though there might be 5-800 people.

A Twitter poll from someone’s follower base isn’t evidence of public opinion. If it were, every political tribe on X could prove they’re the majority by polling their own followers. You say there was never a majority for ending FoM, but there was a majority for leaving the EU, and ending FoM was one of the central and most discussed consequences of that choice. You also say growth would be “guaranteed” by rejoining the Single Market. If that were true, every EU country would be booming all the time. Economics doesn’t work that way. The strongest argument for rejoining would be broad public demand. Yet a national march organised for over a year appears to have attracted roughly the same number of people as a decent-sized village fête. That rather suggests most people have moved on.

@Rufus5552 @BritainUnbound There was never a majority for ending FoM... Economic growth (standards of living) would be guaranteed if rejoined the SM. Into the EU27 & EFTA4,, regardless of how they are growing into other markets x.com/_SimonBarnett/…

Freedom of movement ended because the UK voted to leave the EU. People can disagree with that decision, but ten years on, a march that draws around 1,500 people after months of planning doesn’t suggest a groundswell for rejoining. As for being “shat upon by elites”, many Brexit supporters would argue they were voting against what they saw as elite institutions. Reasonable people can debate whether Brexit has helped or harmed the country, but constantly relitigating a referendum from a decade ago isn’t a strategy for improving living standards today.

@Rufus5552 @BritainUnbound Because some do not like (having freedom of movement rights & benefits removed) being shat upon by elites, without being equally compensated elsewhere? Some are not willing to pathetically roll over for a poorer life, behind UK's (still descending) Gammon Curtain

SpaceX is about to spend the $85B they raised. The companies they spend it on will win. I put together a list of EVERY single public company supplier of Elon's companies (Tesla, Solar City, SpaceX, X, xAI) and what they supplied. Let me know what looks interesting to you. (1/2)

If you know you know

@BritainUnbound Apparently police reckon 1,500 in march, but it looks like a lot didn’t hang around because the numbers at the “rally” look quite sparse. Those there look a bit bemused and embarrassed.