The History Novice

I don’t have the stomach to talk about price controls right now and I promise I’ll get back to talking substantively about British economic policy soon, but you have to live in on a different plane of existence to believe UK supermarkets are ‘world leading’ in terms of consumer choice and quality. The one thing that I can’t get used to even after almost a decade here is the abysmal quality of the groceries. I go back to Europe every other month and I’ve become perfectly comfortable saying that, for my basket, Waitrose is about as good as a good French or German supermarket but is roughly twice as expensive. This isn’t European snobbery; I happen to think that Italian supermarkets are quite poor. But whenever I have to do groceries in this country I have to suppress my rage and my urge to vomit.

Wes Streeting has this morning set out his tax plans - specifically bringing capital gains tax into line with income tax He says that the current system is unfair because it penalises work Higher or additional rate taxpayers will pay 24% on gains in the current financial year. Streeting said that the rates should mirror income tax bands - so 40% for higher rate taxpayers and 45% for additional rate taxpayers He says that the approach could raise £12billion a year Streeting said: “A member of my family is a cleaner in Lancashire. She pays a higher tax rate on her salary than her landlord pays for the growing value of the home she lives in. She slogs her guts out, he puts in far less effort, yet the state rewards him more than her. And we wonder why people are angry. “The system is penalising work. It’s not fair and it’s bad for our economy. We need a wealth tax that works. A pound made from simply owning assets should not be taxed less than a pound made from a hard day's work. We can do it in a way that is pro-growth, pro-entrepreneur and pro-work.”

On the one hand people shouldn’t overspend on lunch. On the other hand, it is genuinely weird to me that the norm is for everyone to prepare their own food when basically nothing else works this way. Used to be that everyone made their own clothes too.

Such a scam that right wingers have suddenly switched to 'profit margins' when discussing supermarkets, because its far easier to say 'oh poor Tesco is scraping by on a 2% profit margin' rather than consider whether Tesco making £3bn a year while people starve is good

NZ religious denominations, 2001. Source: Wikipedia

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Social housing should be given only conditional 5 year leases, once you reach year 5 you are means tested. If your income exceeds a threshold you need to rent in the private sector. Simple and effective.

Siamo tutti di sinistra finché non iniziamo a lavorare