Connie Huq must be permanently embarrassed by her sister.

He’s good at identifying the problems but doesn’t really offer practical solutions

Sounds like a good way to describe a Populist.

Hmm. Starmer's "tax return" doesn't actually add-up. He claimed a capital gain of £85,466 and paid CGT of £23,930 on that. That's exactly 28%, the rate of CGT on residential property.

His tax summary shows the Capital Gain after his CGT allowance has been allocated. It's a very unconventional way to present it.

Three years today since lockdown began.

Feels like a distant past already.

"My lived experience" - not a phrase I'd expect to hear from Boris.

For anyone that opens the Google homepage; be aware, they're currently in breach of subreddit rule 22.

There are subreddit rules? I was told by my advisers they were just guidelines!

Those mental gymnastics are impressive.

It's not mental gymnastics, it's you just not acknowledging you're wanting to achieve the same thing (removal of incentives to retire early) via a different mechanism.

Probably means that the Base Rate tomorrow will be increased. There had been speculation it would be kept at 4% due to concerns with banks.

You do have to take into account that they are one of the few high-street businesses that can't really be replaced by the internet. So it might be less "there's loads of barber shops" and more "they're the only shops left, so they stand out more".

There's already an "Amazon Salon" by Spitalfields Market. Seems a very unusual branching out for such a huge global business.

Isn't part of their business model to spend loads on random concepts like this to reduce their profit for tax purposes.

I don't see why they'd choose to open a single salon if it was purely for some accounting trickery to reduce taxable profit. Has to be easier ways to achieve that with the kind of money that Amazon would be dealing with.

No way? Any more info on this?

https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2022/0310/1285699-russian-embassy-orwell-road-irish-government/

To rephrase Henry Kissinger:

That sounds like absolute chaos.

The ukpol Megathread demands this energetic chaos!

I know automod posts archive.is links but that's so often down it would be nice if people would follow rule 5a and actually post the content of the article in the comments.

I've just checked the archive link and it's working fine for me. I haven't known it to have issues with reliability, is it still not working for you now?

He's pleased with the pension cap being removed from doctors. There was a MUCH cheaper way of doing that: removing the pension cap from doctors. (I know, mind blowingly complicated isn't it?)

Why just doctors? Why not people in the armed forces? Or the police? Or the civil service?

"We shouldn't have government deciding who is and isn't deserving of being exempt from the lifetime allowance." Why not?

I want limited government in general. I don't want the government making a moral and arbitrary choice on what careers are and aren't worthy of being exempt from the lifetime allowance.

The thing is why bother being a politician

I don't think the pay is the main barrier to attracting talent.

The UK can't do anything. When the Chinese started to ignore the One country, two systems principle in Hong Kong, what did we do? We wrote a strongly worded letter and sent Dominic Raab onto the Tele to say that he was very upset and disappointed at China.

We did at least open up a safe & legal route to offer Hong Kongers escape from the CCP's tyranny.

Text

Million pound pension pots - in the public sector?

Did you Google the taper allowance?

This says Labour would abolish the cap in doctors pensions. Exactly as they say today.

Do you know what the Tapered Annual Allowance is?

"Once in a generation" was a piece of rhetoric that the SNP used during the referendum to motivate their base to vote. It's about as binding a commitment as Boris Johnson promising to lie in front of the bulldozers to stop a third runway at Heathrow airport. It's about as binding a commitment as the Tories promising to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands in their manifestos and then increasing it to record levels.

It was said by politicians on both sides, not just SNP politicians and it wasn't just said to encourage high turnout but because it was true; the losing side wouldn't get a 2nd attempt for decades.

The argument for "No referendum any time soon" remains just as persuasive to me regardless of if those politicians have since left politics since the argument itself remains valid.

The continuity establishment candidate can't be the reformer. He's the business as usual candidate.