Ken Haylock

@crispinbates @NewStatesman Unions have de-affiliated or never bothered to affiliate.

@NewStatesman ‘ only just over half of union members are in party-affiliated unions”. What does that have to do with Stamer’? This article is pure journalistic guff: half-baked opinions for a fee.

"The question is not whether Labour values have been usurped by Starmer’s faction. It is what kind of party could be built out of the corpse of Starmer’s party. One option is clearly a more Blairite party: pro-tech giants, the US, and privatisation. But are there any serious options to create a progressive party, one that dares speak out on the issues of the day, that actually communicates with a progressive electorate? It is hard to see at the moment whether the ambition or capacity exists within it. It is worth noting that Starmer’s Party is only barely the official party of the organised working class. Whereas Labour had affiliated to it nearly every major trade union, today only just over half of union members are in party-affiliated unions. And even then some may leave. This is hardly surprising: as it stands its policies, Starmer’s Party’s political instincts, are far closer to those of the Tories and Reform than to the progressive parties that are eating it up. And that is not accidental, or the result of a lack of vision. It was the whole point." Read @DEHEdgerton's obituary for Starmerism newstatesman.com/politics/labou…

@seve_verdad @em_Lazzy Worth pointing out that the original sin was the CIA & MI6 overthrowing the democratically elected government & installing the Shah, who was basically a fascist dictator. Which is why you get an alliance of mad Mullahs, lefties, libertarians & the intelligentsia in the 1st place.

@em_Lazzy The world is full of motherfuckers. Choose yours, who are, evidently, Iranian mullahs, Hamas, Xi, Jong Un, and all manner of murderous totalitarian dictator and Islamist, your destiny that of Mao’s Red Guard and leftist Iranian students in 1979…

UK once ruled 1/4th of the world, calling it expansion. Now it protests people arriving from places it once ruled!! Did they think history wouldn’t come back??

@meadwaj Hello Sir! Have you done any work on using the Land Registry as a vector for an avoidance/evasion proof low-admin-burden wealth tax in the form of an LVT? I ask b/c my ADHD brain has worked up a detailed proposal for one & wonder if you'd like to see an A4 pitch for it?

@resistance_red @DagenhamMKIII @afneil Water is basically insolvent, loaded up with debt to pay dividends, built nothing & is filling the rivers with💩. Because they could. If you can screw them over in revenge why wouldn’t you?

@DagenhamMKIII @afneil Nah. Just make a law using the current huge majority and bring them in for free. They have failed us and taken the piss. Time to take the gloves off

At last, some national scrutiny of A Burnham. And it’s already clear that in a number of areas he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about, which explains the stumbling.

@afneil Water is easy. Change the accounting rules so that all the debt they took on to pay shareholders not fix infrastructure is immediately repayable or they are insolvent. Instant insolvency, govt takes over the assets without compensation, away we go. Because they can.

OK — you tell me — how do you nationalise energy, water and ‘housing’ (whatever that means) without borrowing tens of billions more to do so?

@RedRabbitCat @AnthonyMEmerson I mean, the Taliban thought it would be a great idea to provide a safe harbour for Osama Bin Laden from which he could launch the 9/11 attack. That was never going to end well for them.

@AnthonyMEmerson No one should feel any sympathy for the suffering of the invading army, responsible for butchering hundreds of thousands overseas. Save your sympathy for the Iraqis and the Afghans who had to endure war in their homeland for generations.

Holy fucking shit. From Platner’s interview with the NYT.

@AnnMSinnott @joshxhowie @Scarlettahf There are significant numbers of jews on the march... jews opposed to genocide.

@joshxhowie @Scarlettahf What's with the police? Their duty is to keep everyone safe. They must surely know that this is intrinsically unsafe for Jews, so why are they allowing it?

My synagogue by the way. So that’ll be a nice fun morning. With the most virulent Jew-haters in the country.

I just walked past that lot. It is an out and out racist march. It’s gross to be anywhere near. Anyone who says this is normal people expressing normal sentiments isn’t normal.

@lutzebroom @ZackPolanski I don't know whether that is true or not, but sounds plausible. But that also sounds like a planning dept thing not a tax thing, & also sounds like a problem for the marina owner not the boat owner. Not sure also how the marina owner would be expected to make the determination...

@khaylock @ZackPolanski If a leisure mooring is being used as a residential mooring, the owner must inform the local planning authority.

The next Labour leader must move decisively away from the status quo to beat Reform. That means giving power and wealth to working class people. It means a democratic revolution, rent controls and public ownership of water. It means someone who isn't Wes Streeting.

@lutzebroom @ZackPolanski And obviously, if they conclude that your boat is a dwelling &thus you are liable, you can challenge it, so they need evidence. Even if that evidence is just asking you & you telling them the truth. Otherwise your boat is, by default, not a dwelling & thus you are not liable.

@lutzebroom @ZackPolanski Yes, even I know that, BUT you are only liable if somebody from the council where your boat lives investigates & says you are. It's all very well saying you _would_ be liable if the council could be bothered to investigate, but there's no legal obligation to prompt them.

@lutzebroom @ZackPolanski But it was specifically a leisure mooring. If he’d been on a residential mooring then he’d have been liable from day 1, the boat would have been a dwelling. As it stands the boat is officially not a dwelling unless the council investigates & determines it meets the criteria…

@khaylock @ZackPolanski The tax is levied on the mooring, not the boat you daft tit. If it doesn’t go anywhere, if it doesn’t move on to another mooring every few weeks then it is a permanent residence. Liveaboards know this. That’s why they move around. It’s not a right wing smear. It’s the law.

@lutzebroom @ZackPolanski That’s a right wing smear. Tax evasion is a crime. He didn’t even avoid tax. No tax is due unless a boat is declared a dwelling, which his wasn’t, & unless & until it is declared a dwelling no tax liability exists. There is no mechanism I’m aware of to ‘self report’ anyway.

@khaylock @ZackPolanski What? He evaded the tax. He didn’t avoid it. He evaded it and admitted his guilt. Now every liveaboard getting away with it is now going to be hounded. What a silly cunt.

@lutzebroom @ZackPolanski It wasn’t him that did this, it was your mates in the right wing press that claimed he was a tax avoider.

@ZackPolanski All liveaboards are looking at you right now and calling you a cunt because now they’ve got to either move to the next mooring or pay tax. You are a liar and tax evader. Why the fuck should anyone listen to anything you have to say.

@JayExci He lives _in one room_ of an unaffordable house in Hackney that his mate might have inherited from a parent who paid £3000 for it in 1983...

"You can't make it up" evidently you can

@implausibleblog @AyoCaesar Also, is there even a form for ‘please investigate me’?

There are ~200 berths at Lee Valley Marina Over 35 years, with normal turnover, that’s around 1,000 boats Dan Neidle revealed: only 1 ever registered for council tax Zack Polanski was one of the 999 who didn’t realise the rules applied. The council never chased anyone there. He’s now contacting them to sort any shortfall What was sold as “Zack Polanski dodging council tax” is actually a story about hundreds of boaters not understanding the rules, not paying, and a council not enforcing them A genuine mistake that’s being fixed So why has the media turned this into a full scandal suggesting he’s a tax avoider? This isn’t journalism — it’s a coordinated effort to tarnish Polanski over an error that 998 others at the same marina over 35 years also made Meanwhile, barely a peep about Nigel Farage’s £5m from his foreign crypto billionaire backer Double standards much?

@implausibleblog @AyoCaesar It’s not even that. Not all of them will have been liable - they would need to be individually investigated to find out if they are continuously cruising or not. And if they are liable, the council may end up on the hook for housing them if they cannot afford the bill.

@ltg1810 @GuidoFawkes What council tax? He doesn’t owe any council tax…

@khaylock @GuidoFawkes Calling out that Polanski didn’t pay his council tax It’s all in black and white, a nine year old could understand it

Zack Polanski Admits Failing to Pay Correct Council Tax order-order.com/2026/05/11/zac…

@TheStalwart @chrislhayes ‘Why won’t people pay to acquire expensive to acquire skills so they can come & work for us full time plus unpaid overtime for less than it costs them to feed, clothe & shelter themselves? It’s a mystery…’

Man! Look at these quotes from today's NFIB Small Business Optimism Index. There are all kinds of signs out there that not only is inflation warm or hot, but the labor market is re-accelerating and/or tight. Wrote about it in the newsletter: bloomberg.com/news/newslette…

@armleyartist @BBCNews Boats not on residential moorings are exempt by default. The council can assess them for council tax if somebody is living on one & not continuously cruising, & send them a bill, but if they haven't bothered, no tax is due. Which is why Polanski doesn't owe any tax...

@BBCNews Wonder if I could get away with not paying Leeds council’s extortionate tax and then just send em a letter by way of apology 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Polanski apologises over houseboat council tax bbc.in/42tv1Ci