Do they think we are stupid?

  Well deluded Rachel is blaming the Tories for the state of the economy in her speech today at the Labour conference.  Come on Rachel you've been in power for well over 1 year.... Here's a  reminder of where things were when Labour came to power. OK the Tories didnt do a particular good job but when they handed over the keys to the economy to Rachel it wasnt as knackered as it is now. Inflation was 2% now it struggles to be less than 4% The pound was at a 2 year high against the Euro.  Now the pound is worth little more than a Euro and is at the lowest levels it's ever been.  OK our exports would will be cheaper - but we don't make anything nowadays..... Unemployment was falling - now unemployment is rising due to Rachel's jobs tax. Government spending was out of control - Rachel has simply put her foot on the accelerator. Growth was pretty stagnant at about 1.6%. The OBR is predicting around 1% growth this year.  So Rachel said " A Labour government, she ...

With the Peter Mandelson debacle, it has to be questioned whether Starmer really has any legal qualifications. His position is "I  would never have appointed him if I had known about the extent of the relationship with Epstein". Hang on back in December last year it was well known Mandy was good friends with Epstein.  Where was the surprise? Starmer went on to back Mandy last week despite it being clear that his team the day before were fully aware of the "extent of the relationship". Is he saying his team are useless and should be sacked? Doesnt he listen to briefings by his team? Or is he saying this to deflect it away from his incompetence? So what are the characteristics of a good lawyer?   1/ Attention to detail - lawyers focus on details in the words looking for alternative interpretations or gaps in the definition. This is a key skill for success. 2/ Following process.  The law is more about process than the actual written law.  Cases fall apart...

 The Laffer curve is an economic observation that higher levels of taxation result in less tax revenue. Before Labour came to power, UK taxation levels were already high and now they are even higher. The tax burden  when Labour came to power was 35.3% and is increasing. To put that in context at the end of the second world war it was 37.6% when a massive re-building programme was needed.  1993, a year I remember fondly, it was just 28.4%. The Laffer curve is a perfect example of "measurement drives behaviour".  I routinely hear from people (including plumbers, hair-dressers etc)  - "There's no incentive to work hard or better yourself". If you tax wealthy non-doms excessively don't be surprised when they modify their behaviour and flee the country. In fact the exodus is not limited to non-doms.  Millionaires are leaving to more business friendly countries like Italy. I know several millionaires who abandoned the UK in the last 12 months.  If you introd...

 Although it's clear Labour haven't got a clue about how to turn around Britain's fortunes, it looks like Reform, who seem to be in the lead to be the next government, are pretty light on ideas too. So here's my manifesto about how I'd turn around Britain. My absolute top priority is sorting out the economy.  We will need a vibrant buzzing economy with lots of job vacancies because I will be sacking government employees on a massive scale. Even Mervyn King recently said "The economy is not in a comfortable position and that we are in worse shape than after the 2008 financial crash". He went on to say that many developed economies are in a mess and reducing the national debt has to be  a priority . Every government says they want growth to balance the equation yet that's more elusive so we need to cut public spending.  It's impossible to tax your way to growth. So to turn around our economy we need to get our energy prices under control.  Although I...

 Although today's good news that Greedy Angela is no longer deputy PM and housing secretary, we can be sure her replacement will still be anti-landlord. As I continue to withdraw my rental properties over the anti-landlord stance, I have at least pondered whether it makes sense to become a landlord elsewhere. So I have taken a look at France.  Property in France can be cheap and there is high rental demand so yields of 10% can be achieved. I'm still researching but so far it seems to be a far more balanced system than the UK.  For example if the tenant hasn't paid rent for 2 months the lease is automatically revoked and the tenant is subject to eviction proceedings.  The only downside is that from 1st November to March 31st all evictions are suspended for "winter".  However in most cases the landlord can obtain possession in 7 to 12 months.  Eviction in France is an expensive process - typically a few thousand Euros but then the UK can be expensive the mome...

 The rumour mill is that Rachel is considering introducing National Insurance on rental income. How ironic! For as long as I can remember, the government and HMRC stance is that rental income is not earned income and therefore it has consequences in how it is taxed and treated. For example you can't use rental income to make pension contributions (that can only be from earned income).   Also unearned income bubbles to the top of the tax stack (order of taxation) so is most likely to treated at the highest level of income tax.  By making rental income (hopefully profits rather than income) subject to national insurance it will almost certainly have unintended consequences.  Firstly if you are past State Pension age you dont pay National Insurance. it would therefore open up the government to litigation if they make rental income subject to National Insurance for OAPs.  I can just see the negative headlines ! It is estimated that there are 1 Million Buy to Le...

 Why is energy in the UK so expensive?  It's currently contributing to the de-industrialisation of the UK economy and the demise of pubs.  Our energy is even more expensive than broken Germany. Part of the reason is the hidden stealth taxes in the form of the Green Levy. 16% of electric bills and 5.5% of gas bills.  This money is given to companies like Siemens to subsidise wind turbine construction. The argument currently goes that renewable energy is cheaper than non renewable yet our bills are higher than pretty much anywhere in the world. This high energy price means chemical plants, steel plants, data centres are not economic if they are located in Britain.   Pubs and restaurants are closing due to a combination of high energy prices and high labour costs. Yet consumers are subsiding renewables through the Green Levy. As renewable output increases it means that the business case for energy which provides consistent output (base load) eg nuclear becomes...