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@Finumus1 I always thought that 🙄

I can date when they'll actually get round to doing this. It'll be the day I become an "older person".

@Debbie26998 @iAmJoshHunt Labour govt 😂 Everything was fine before Jul 2024.

@iAmJoshHunt And that’s why at 55 my husband (6 fig salary) retired. We are downsizing our house (helping kids on property ladder) and living a life of adventure (buying a camper to travel). After 35+ years of grafting, we’re done under a Labour gov.

When it comes to tax in the UK, a lot of people are deluding themselves, thinking the government will just go after the wealthy to pay for the ballooning commitments they’ve made. The truth is, the real target is the middle class. And the reason is simple. The middle class is the only viable option for the kind of revenue the government wants. Start with who’s off the table. A third of British adults pay no income tax at all. The bottom half of earners take home about a quarter of the income in this country and pay roughly a tenth of the tax. There’s no pot of gold buried down there, and every party has spent years promising to protect “working people.” Squeezing them is politically radioactive and would raise next to nothing anyway. The rich are off the table too, whatever the Channel 4 documentaries say. The top 1% already pay 28% of all income tax. Their money is capital, dividends and gains, so they’re mobile, and they’ve already started leaving. One widely quoted forecast has Britain losing half a million millionaires by 2028. Push the rate on these people much higher and you collect less, not more. Threatening them polls brilliantly, but relying on them for a tax bonanza is pure fantasy. Which leaves the middle class, and the middle class can’t run. Most are on PAYE, taxed at source before the money touches their account. They can’t turn a salary into a capital gain. They can’t declare residency in Monaco, because the job, the kids’ school and the mortgage are all here. Their wealth is a house they can’t hide under the mattress and a pension they can’t reach. Numerous, visible and immobile. The perfect target, and in some ways the only one. And here’s how it’s already being done. They won’t raise your headline rate of income tax, because they promised not to. But the threshold freeze, the one that sounds like a non-event on Budget day, is quietly hammering you, and it’s now been extended to 2031. Took out a student loan since 2012? You’ve been paying the graduate tax in all but name. Hold investments outside an ISA? You’ve watched CGT climb to 24%, and it’s likely to be equalised with income tax next. Sent your kids to private school? That’s the VAT charge. Saving into a cash ISA? That shelter just shrank from £20,000 to £12,000. And from 2027, your pension gets pulled into inheritance tax, so the pot you spent a career building can be taxed again on the way out. There’s more coming. Mansion taxes, higher CGT, property levies, dividends. Most of the taxes we’re told will hit the ultra wealthy will actually land on the middle class. And in most cases they’re not sat on fortunes, they’re sat on assets they spent a working life building. What’s worse, the burden grows with every Budget, because of the compounding commitments this government keeps making, and that nearly every other party has pledged too. So who pays for the past, present and future spending of the UK government? The middle class. And there’s not a thing they can do about it. Debt-trapped, stuck in place, with nowhere to turn, and the government knows it. If any of this resonated, you’re likely in the taxation crosshairs. I wish you luck.

@smclellanduk @DAaronovitch think..may...

@DAaronovitch with counter terrorisim now leading the investigation there is a good reason to think they may have a point

There is a level of cynicism about the way Reform spokespeople and supporters are campaigning for us to believe a particular version of the murder of Ann Widdecombe - in advance of the evidence and against the advice of the police - that I haven't quite experienced before.

@DominicFrisby Can you spell out the sucesses please?

Ignore the prophets of doom. Brexit will be good for Britain theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

@fieldcmdr @Richard_She Delusional. Robinson plays for Fulham. Cucurella plays for Real Madrid.

@Richard_She Robinson 100% would be one of the first names on the team sheet. McKennie and Adams are equal to vanaken and raskin, if not better.

There have been a lot of exciting games in this World Cup. Plenty of close competitors by score. But it’s pretty noticeable having two strong teams, both playing near the top of their game, going up against each other. Just a different level of play.

@Samingo_real @Richard_She @TheStalwart Because Elon. In truth - bollocks.

@Richard_She @TheStalwart I asked Grok to put together the best US/Belgium or US/Spain starting lineup based on objective player rating sources, and it put 2-3 Americans as starters (Robinson, McKenny, Pulisic).

@msericathegreat @LUFC1992_v2 Hi Erica I want to visit the US. I appreciate America and want to learn more about the different states and cultures. Can you transfer $10,000 to my account please?

@LUFC1992_v2 Who cares! As an American, I’d rather fund a trip for someone who appreciates America and wants to learn more about the different states and cultures. Stop being a twat.

Shaun, can I ask a genuine question? A couple of weeks after returning from your World Cup road trip, you’re already back in America for another road trip. Normally, that wouldn’t be anybody else’s business. Except that, in between those two trips, you launched a GoFundMe asking the public to contribute $10,000 towards a US immigration lawyer. The obvious question is… If you needed strangers to fund your visa application, how have you been able to afford another US road trip almost immediately afterwards? I’ve looked into this properly and there are several other things that don’t seem to add up:

@Jo_Marney @DPJHodges Google 'aristocracy' Then engage brain.

@DPJHodges Being anti-establishment does not mean being anti anyone who's rich. Socialists seem to get very confused about this.

For those that have missed this, Arron (himself a close Farage confidante) is suggesting Posh George may have lost the £16 million in one night in a Montenegrin casino he actually owns himself. Which again, helps cement Reform's anti-elite, anti-establishment credentials...

Accepting a peerage shows a nasty contempt for democracy, no?

People v the establishment update. Richard Tice tells Times Radio: "My family have known the Cottrell family for 50 years, they're a very successful aristocratic family."

@ejpreston @TheStalwart He's already bought FIFA. That much is obvious.

@TheStalwart Mega same. Trump just needs to buy FIFA somehow and make it the property of the USA lol, then North America can be the perpetual hosts!

I'm gonna miss this World Cup

@kalincoln100 @biancoresearch Maybe you could just add 20 more hydration breaks - then you could really pack the advertising in. Problem solved.

@biancoresearch I've given it a solid effort, but, sorry, soccer is just not as exciting as the NFL or NBA. Just my subjective opinion.

A soccer match not involving the US, not played in the US, was the highest rated soccer match in the history of US TV ... just below the NFL Conference Championships this past January. To be clear, it was higher rated that the US/Belgium. This TV rating record might be broken again in the coming week, if not later today. --- When the US lost, many in the US said something like "good, now we can stop paying attention to soccer." Maybe something bigger is happening here. Isn't this how investors lose money? Failing to recognize a trend shift when it is happening? Are the snarky posters (trolls) failing to see a trend change?

@izakaminska Maybe revert to the Nelson Mandela/Nigel Farage likening

@izakaminska A streeeeeetch

What’s really amazing are the optics here. Beyond the obvious absurdism, that is. Because of all the parody aesthetics to base a “uni party” candidate on… they’ve inadvertently rallied around probably the most recognisable fictional embodiment of authoritarian power in modern popular culture. Just saying.

@TakeNoSht1 @DPJHodges How would you deal with it?

@DPJHodges It's an establishment stitch up. They are terrified of Nigel. They cannot beat him at the make shit up & all say it's true. Nigel needs to beat this or is open session for the establishment. GE is coming before Christmas & they want Nigel gone. That committee is 100% biased

And replace it with what.

Funny how there’s never “pull that up Jamie, that can’t be right” when the guest is spewing right wing bile

Sack him …

@RaheemKassam @BasedMillwaII

@BasedMillwaII Yep.

All this Count Binface talk got me looking into who this guy really is. Jonathan David Harvey — who earns his living making comedy shows for the BBC — is an Oxbridge liberal elitist who has screeds of anti-Brexit, anti-Trump, and anti-British rants on his Twitter going back over a decade. He even thought Nigel Farage’s Brexit balloons “looked Russian.” His “Talent Manager” Hollie Ebdon once wrote of Farage, “Oh f*ck off you horrible c*nt.” Don’t get me wrong, I think Binface is a hilarious character, and Harvey is clearly a talented satirist. But pretending he’s just some random bloke in a suit having a laugh is nonsense. He’s an establishment luvvie sent to try to undermine the aspirations of people who vote for right wing candidates or parties. Reminds me of when Al Murray ran against Farage in 2015 and got 300-odd votes. Mocking people to their faces is only funny for so long.

Messi fala pro árbitro assistente que houve falta no início da jogada, e o assistente faz o sinal de VAR para a cabine no fim. Apenas o árbitro PRINCIPAL pode fazer o sinal do VAR. Eles fazem o que o reizinho deles manda e é isso.

@beef_happy @TheMichaelEvery Until they're not.

@TheMichaelEvery Trump was angry this time, my bet is gloves are off.

So, will we see a new 🇺🇸 blockade; efforts to keep Hormuz open by force; 🇮🇷 hits at the GCC; 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇱 strikes on 🇮🇷; and 🇮🇱 vs Hezbollah… or do we back off by Friday… and wait until after the midterms to do the same?