I struck up a conversation on Thursday with a local entrepreneur who had set up a successful company. He had made his own way in the world without inherited wealth and now wanted a good future for his family.
He told me he had opened an office in Dubai and could use modern computing and communications to run it from there. As a result last week was to be his last week in the U.K. He decided his business and his family have a better future in Dubai.
When I asked him why, the tax and regulatory attacks of recent weeks were clearly the last straw. He felt the government does not value or want people like him in the U.K. In Dubai he finds a positive approach to business success, lower taxes and sensible regulations.
I hear on the media that there are many successful strivers thinking like this, and Ā hear Dubai is just one of several locations making a good pitch to attract U.K. business and talent.
The world does not owe us a living. We are not so full of entrepreneurial energy that we can deter and export it in large quantities. Many of the so called rich are hard working, providing the rest of us with goods and services we need. Who will provide all these if we attack self employment and small companies, overtax employment and take away profits and gains?
October 29, 2024
Good morning.
The politics of envy leaves everyone a little poorer one way or another.
The UK and probably the rest of Europe is slowly slipping into Communism. A high tax, high regulation and large State sector to support we are losing sight of what once made this the engine room of the Industrial Revolution, once proud boast but now, thanks the Alexander Johnson, a denegrated acheivement.
You cannot run an economy with people on minimum wage. We all cannot afford or, wish to pay for Uber.
October 29, 2024
In 1976 I left the UK to work in Africa and the middle east and stayed away over 20 years. I managed to put money by and am now comfortably retired. I left the country because of liebour and things like the 3 day week etc. It now looks like this government us coming to fleece me of all I worked for.
Anyone with a saleable skill, I recommend leaving this country as government of all shades is only interested in the unions, channel hoppers and the feckless.
October 29, 2024
Indeed āwhat once made this the engine room of the Industrial Revolutionā – Well fossil fuels, hard work, ingenuity and a government that only spent about 10% of the countries earnings rather than nearly 50%. Also the 10% they did spend was rather better spent. Labour are heading in the same wrong direction as the Tories did for 14 years but even worse. More state, more taxes, more red tape, more daft employment laws, more payment to augment the feckless, more low skill immigration, more rigged markets and net zero rip off intermittent energy.
October 29, 2024
Mark B : āThe UK and probably the rest of Europe is slowly slipping into Communism.ā
I agree. This is being achieved by our communist sympathising Uniparty MPs handing over power to unelected communist sympathisers in the Civil Service, the quangos, the institutions, the regulators, the BBC, the Far Left think tanks, the tax-payer funded ācharitiesā and pressure groups, lawyers, the judiciary, the ECHR and finally the EU.
Whilst excessive ātax and regulationsā will of course play a very major role the real killer will be the awfulness of living in a decarbonised country which is dependent upon chaotically intermittent supplies of very expensive electricity. The only good news that may stop a mass exodus, apart from the usual law of a Communist state that no-one is allowed to leave, will be, according to the BBC and the Met Office, that our climate will be equivalent to that of the South of France today.
October 29, 2024
As it was during the Roman times. They grew vines along Hadrian’s Wall.
October 29, 2024
It’s not ‘Communism’ -not remotely so(Soviet communism in all but its final decades had-for better or worse- considerable energy)-rather it is the ineluctable historical process of decay manifesting itself.
Edward Gibbon:”In the end,more than freedom,they wanted security.They wanted a comfortable life,and they lost it all;security,comfort and freedom.When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them,when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”
October 29, 2024
See also Solzhenitsyn’s ever-more-prophetic 1978 Harvard address.
October 29, 2024
Yep.
British people certainly are not more secure, they have swapped their freedom (which delivered security) for nothing.
But maybe we deserve to lose everything given to us by previous generations whom it is fashionable to revile.
October 29, 2024
Exactly, and the war against landlords from Osborne, Gove and now even worse from Labour. Renting property is a business just like renting out hotel rooms, or cars or anything else. But without full interest tax deductions, or inflation indexation on any capital gains and an ability to get your property back at the end of the tenancy it is very hard to make anything after tax so people are the leaving in droves.
Easy availability of rental properties is also vital for job mobility and the economy.
October 29, 2024
Many industries also being killed and strangled by red tape, restrictive and slow planning, rip off Net Zero energy, OTT health and safety, absurdly restrictive employment laws, very high and very complex taxation rulesā¦ (energy virtually the most expensive in the world and circa 3 times those in the USA and Canada).
See the excellent Matt Ridley article in the Spectator āHow Ed Miliband plans to conjure electricity out of nothingā
Electricity/Energy in Dubai is about 1/5 of UK rates. Not that you need very much heating .
October 29, 2024
One of the often repeated reasons spouted by Milibrain and Co, for more wind farms is that they give us ‘security of energy supply’ from the wars in Europe and middle-east. Just a little bit of thought on this would produce the question; if we as a nation were to rely mainly on wind energy, how secure from attack/damage are those windmills?
The way to destroy the UK in any future conflict under a Milibrain economy would be childishly simple, turn the energy supply off.
October 29, 2024
Cut the sea interlinks with a suitable submarine equipped with some suitable snippers or explosives. All too easy to do.
October 29, 2024
Hardly need bother, they donāt deliver energy when we need it anyway. I would just leave the bloody windmills and the beached dolphins and whales caused by these heart-on-the-sleeve caring types so that they canāt not see their failure.
October 29, 2024
But you do want air-con.
October 29, 2024
Yes that is better that heating as you get plenty solar power when you need cooling but not much solar power in the UK in Dec, Jan, Feb, March for heating.
October 29, 2024
I would hate to live in Dubai.
As for lights, I recently bought a few packets of unscented candles from Asda in case of issues with power cuts. I then discovered I still had some Prices candles in a cupboard. I have had them for decades. Maybe not as far back as the three day week – but not far off. Spivs tried to corner the market in candles back then.
October 29, 2024
There’s nothing wrong with Dubai, the Arabs take a very pragmatic view of hard workers.
They’re not to be confused with the head bangers who always complain of victim hood and expert handouts from the rest of the world.
October 29, 2024
Plus the UAE is in many respects the offshore financial centre for BRICS.
Historically,the Arabs (unlike,say, the Turks) have been great traders.
October 29, 2024
Maybe, but they still don’t allow women to be in their hotel swimming pools.
October 29, 2024
“the Arabs take a very pragmatic view of hard workers.” And they also take their passports.
October 29, 2024
I don’t think ‘Ealth n’safety’ figures much in their infrastructure plans and staffing,
October 29, 2024
I’ve had a couple of dozen clear candles for a couple of decades unused, anticipating that power-cut we expect in a future winter. It seems the only reason we haven’t is that we buy electricity via interconnectors, handing our taxes over to other countries.
If you are not a well paid civil servant, retiring doctor or train driver then leaving UK is becoming more and more attractive.
October 29, 2024
MT,
Prices Patent Candle company used to have a massive site in Battersea. I think at one time they were the biggest candle manufacturer in the world. Now relocated elsewhere in UK.
So much of the London manufacturing I remember now gone.
As for Dubai, there may be nothing wrong with it but it holds no appeal whatsoever for me.
October 29, 2024
I never knew that – but ‘er indoors had an uncle who worked at the Power Station for years and years, and knew the eel, pie and mash shops well. I forgot yesterday to remark on Eel Pie Island (Richmond/Twickenham). Back in the early blues &rock London scene 1960-70( Marqueeclub etc) it was the place for the groups and famous guitarists making their way in the world.
October 29, 2024
MT
Indeed Richmond was a very buzzy town in the 1960’s, spent a lot of happy times there.
Went to Eel Pie Island, the Marque club and many other west London haunts back then.
The Boathouse at Kew, Hammersmith Palais also good on a Monday night.
Few Venues/Clubs nowadays..
I wonder what the younger generation get up to now, ?
October 29, 2024
Plaque on pub wall opposite Richmond station to commemorate Crawdaddy club – a haunt of popular beat combos.
Similar opposite Ealing Broadway station. The Ealing club was another venue.
Whereas Hammersmith Palais had Ray McVay and his Orchestra. I think the musicians union stopped the big places relying solely on records.
October 29, 2024
They do have good LED torches that last for ages.
October 29, 2024
LL,
I find the batteries in cheap, basic torches last longer. I donāt particularly need the extra light of the LED torches. Then again candles are usually alight for longer than a torch.
Prices candles oversaw great changes in candle technology. Tallow v beeswax was the option before them. Beeswax was expensive, tallow was nasty. Candles produced from coconuts and palm olive were better especially with improved chemical techniques.
October 29, 2024
Wind up one is useful, or will be in a few years when probably much needed.
October 29, 2024
Powered by human food then. Led torches can last very well indeed circa 10 times as long as the old incandescent bulbs for similar light levels.
October 29, 2024
The message from Starmer, Reeves and the Labour party to savers, investors and entrepreneurs is all too clear. If we cannot strangle you with red tape, we will suffocate you with taxes.
October 29, 2024
Dave Andrews
+1
October 29, 2024
@David Andrews & @Sharon – in the words of Labours big ticket donor who is only a millionaire as a result of corrupt Taxpayer hand outs, if you don’t want to pay more taxes F…. Off
October 29, 2024
If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights”, with Kinnock’s portrait in a lightbulb.
It’s The Sun Wot Won It.
Alas thanks to 14 years of Con-socialist failures and lies from Cameron, May, Boris and throw in the towel early Sunak we have to suffer two Tier Kier, Lammy (not for much longer when Trump wins in a week), mad zealot Miliband, tax to death National Insurance liar Rachel Reeves, Cooper-Balls and that Tory scum, scum, scum woman.
It seems Wes Streeting is to set up a better(?) compensation scheme for the rather large numbers injured by the Astra-Zeneca vaccine (sadly not withdrawn as quickly as it clearly should have been in the UK). It will be needed for the Moderna and Pfizer too. Has Sunak corrected his ‘Unequivocally the Covid vaccines are safe’ surely deliberately misleading the House of Commons yet? If not when will he do so.
Mind you we still have had no apology for Majorās moronic ERM fiasco. I think he even told the house that if we left the ruinous ERM interest rates would have to go up further still?
October 29, 2024
Your entrepeneur is quite right. I have only returned to the UK to support my partner. My relationship to the UK is pure nostalgia for an England I once knew, that has suffered self destruction in the hands of politicians, the civil service, and free roaming self interest groups. It is lawless, overtaxed, and now in the hands of a political party, that since Bevan’s NHS has contributed very little to the progressive enhancement of the UK. They are the thin lipped committee members of life that have never created or built a business in their lives, have no concept of what is involved, only in how to shackle it. They have emerged from a corrupt voting system, due to the incompetence and dishonesty of their predecessors, who arrived full of promise and departed leaving the door open. I suppose labours ultimate insanity is putting our energy supply in the hands of Rasputin, so your request to turn out the lights will prove unnecessary. They will switch themselves off due to a lack of electricity.
October 29, 2024
“They are the thin lipped committee members of life”
What an excellent characterisation.
October 29, 2024
I too had a chuckle.
October 29, 2024
I agree with agricola and NS. Great quote.
October 29, 2024
Not keen on quote as it is based upon older generation who lose bulkiness in their lips as they age !
October 29, 2024
The voting system is NOT corrupt. The selection of candidates Is corrupt.
Work out who would be PM if the last election was based on PR. What would have been the difference.
Think in the name of God, before you speak.
October 29, 2024
They appear to be deliberately driving away the entrepreneurial class and anyone who has the ability and sufficient money to enable them to up sticks and leave. Meanwhile, like the Tories, they’re importing foreign “liabilities” in the form of poor legal immigrants and the criminal migrants as fast as they possibly can.
Anyone would think it was a deliberate policy to destroy this country.
No small businesses, but because they intend breaking England into the kingdoms of Alfred the Great’s time, we’ll have the most politicians; the most Quangos; the largest Public Sector; the most Debt ….. and STILL nothing will work.
But look on the bright side. If the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing “just right” there won’t be any lights TO turn off.
October 29, 2024
If we have to keep borrowing ever larger sums then the population increase certainly can’t be paying for itself.
October 29, 2024
NS.
Think of it in family or indivudual budgeting. If they need to borrow it has to relate to income. If you have enough of tbe latter yoy have no need to borrow.
UK income (taxation) should not sensibly exceed the point at which it impacts on the incentive to create wealth, for individuals or businesses. It should be an absolute no no to indulge in bond sales, money printing, or private finance initiatives. When government does this it is to further their political programme, never is it to invest for making a profit even when they steal the word and calk it investment. I can accept government investment when the profit is less tangible, like the health of the nation via the NHS.
What I would be amazed to see tomorrow is a radicle reduction in spending such that it reduced even to the current taxation levy. That is what needs to happen.
October 29, 2024
āthe tax and regulatory attacks of recent weeks were clearly the last strawā – indeed and this on top of 14 years of vast tax and regulatory increases from the Con-Socialists (and we have not even had the details of the halloween budget yet. Though is seems certain they were lying when they said no increases in National Insurance and no taxes on working people. They have already put bus fares up by 50% which will cost many working people Ā£1,200 a year up from Ā£800 PA in commuting costs. This out of their already heavily taxed income from their job. Ā£800 worse off for some couples. With little chance of pay rises and far less investment given the NI increases for employers.
October 29, 2024
The socialists are still living in the 1870s to 1920s. That UK still produces so many of them says something about education and culture in UK.
October 29, 2024
Too many people in the UK believe / are taught that equality of outcome is possible by taking from one set if people and giving to another. Equality of outcome is not possible without complete redistributive polices which remove any incentive to perform so doesn’t work.
Equality of opportunity is the way forward. Take your chances or don’t but don’t expect endless assistance if you don’t
October 29, 2024
Equality of Opportunity is bang on the money.
It was Anthony Crossland , education secretary 1965 who began the destruction of Grammar Schools when he stated ” He wanted to destroy every fucking grammar school in England”. His words not mine.
Crossland, a so called labour intellectual more aptly described as the destroyer of Opportunity. This warped philosophy was built on by just about every political party since. It has now grown, like the terminal cancer it is, to infest just about every government institution in existence. The UK is now in palliative care where the symptoms are relieved but the disease not cured. My hope with this labour rabble is that they speed the arrival of Reform.
October 29, 2024
Yes the LSE students of that time, and their offspring, have changed the face of our Schools , Universities, the Civil Service and many other Government departments
October 29, 2024
Work continued by Thatcher as Education Sec. and PM who closed more than anyone else. Needless to say Crossland went to a posh private school himself Highgate and then Trinity Oxford Classics.
October 29, 2024
their concept of redistribution sounds sort of ok. But only on the basis of what is there to distribute remains the same (or grows) – but if you set out to destroy the bread on the table, nobody gets much to eat.
October 29, 2024
It’s not just the high flyers. And not just the UK.
I met a self-employed Syrian fitness instructor last year in Austria. His family had been in the Gulf (I forget which country), but had moved to Europe because his Austrian wife was homesick. After 6 months they were looking to return to the Gulf. With lower taxation and less red tape their standard of living had been much better there, also with better roads, healthcare, schools, less crime etc. Costs were high as many of these services were private, but earnings more than covered them.
I was astonished: Austria beats the UK hands down on many of these measures. I thought the country was pretty good!
As christians they also both liked the traditional (non-woke) values of the Gulf as a place to raise their children. They could apparently practise their religion without undue interference.
Finally, my Syrian friend thought many of his compatriots flooding into Austria as illegals were the worst sort of people. He was horrified at the influx.
Meeting him was an eye-opener. So, it’s not just the comparatively wealthy who move out of the West.
October 29, 2024
+1. Fascinating. Thanks for sharing this.
October 29, 2024
The nostalgia for the England that was the birthplace of the industrial revolution puzzles me. Nostalgia for slums, 14 hour days in filthy, dangerous factories, soot in the air etc.
If one makes the argument that we are too highly taxed and that the state is too large, there are always people who will argue that in some other Western countries the state is bigger, taxes are higher and public services are MUCH better.
I think the problems in this country stem from a very inefficient public sector – and the problem is systemic.
October 29, 2024
āNostalgie de la boueā
Quite common I believe but very misplaced.
What the powers that be are doing now is exactly the same as in the late 1700s/early 1800s.
We had just a little respite 1950s to 1980s. A little taste of luxury?
It is simply that the agenda has changed.
October 29, 2024
Wow! What a narrow perspective…Do you dislike the people too? You wouldn’t be alone.
October 29, 2024
+1 certainly dislikes the achievements of our forebears. When you read āHow green was my valleyā understand that those in the green values were starving, it was those in the ungreen valleys who were creating wealth.
October 29, 2024
but not much wealth for the workers! Yes they got to eat if health remained. Wealth was for mostly English landowners.
October 29, 2024
You mean the people who had put their own money, energy and ingenuity into the Welsh Valleys?
One think for certain, they created more wealth than they took for themselves.
All capitalists are Net Givers.
October 29, 2024
Lynn – we all have opinions.
October 29, 2024
MW : “The nostalgia for the England that was the birthplace of the industrial revolution puzzles me. Nostalgia for slums, 14 hour days in filthy, dangerous factories, soot in the air etc.”
It is true the factories, slums and atmosphere were awful. But since there was a flight out of the countryside to work in the indoor factories and live in the slums I can only presume that this was considered preferable to working out in the fields in all weathers….
October 30, 2024
Or it could have been the effects of the draconian Enclosure Acts on the rural population.
October 31, 2024
+1
October 29, 2024
Means tested winter fuel payments!As people age many invest in bigger and better houses .In turn these cost higher to heat.Now retired and having achieved a dream to pass on to children assets to enable a better future and less reliance on the state,the dream and practicalities of that situation
are spoiled where houses have to be sold off to pay bills. Does this government know anything about growth?
October 29, 2024
It’s working, but they want to force you to downsize.
These retirement homes seem great on paper, but they’re worth less when it comes time to sell them. As they get held in probate for months on end, you have to pay all the charges, which are getting higher and higher each year, as well as the council tax.
October 30, 2024
Do not buy anything that is not freehold is my general rule. Also only buy things that have development potential a house on the garden or other extensions. Very rarely do new houses or flats have much or any potential as the developers have already used it all up. So if you need an extra rooms as your needs change you have to move and incur yet more stamps duty, legal costs, agents feesā¦
October 30, 2024
Easier to say than do in places like London.
October 29, 2024
Selling off assets such as your home can be likened to selling off gilts .All the insight into future prosperity and stability in life is ruined by others who only know how to destroy.
I have kept quiet about financial affairs as I used to believe that these people knew more about balancing the books than myself.Now i believe that it’s all self serving arrogant hype .
Whilst natives ruin their land ,their peoples and we observe the goings on,we are building up a nation who have been wronged and ready to seek revenge and only follow their ancestors methods of destruction.Yet these fools in charge cannot see the danger to our lands.
We are selling off freedom.
October 29, 2024
Well, isn’t that astounding: this is the same attitude which is already in full bloom in Germany where things have become so bad that the Red-Green government has imposed a ‘leaving tax’ on SME wanting to leave and a similar tax on private persons is now in the offing as well.
The combination of socialism, ‘thought crime prosecution’ included, coupled with insane ‘green’ economic measures and huge bills to pay for uninvited illegal immigrants is having unintended consequences there as well as here. Mind you, Brits do still have a small advantage as native English speakers …
October 29, 2024
I have a better idea. Why don’t they just build a big wall around the country and then no one could ever leave. It worked, for a while, for East Germany š
October 29, 2024
Or better still, Mark, just turn Nordstream back on, and start to reverse their economic decline. One pipeline is apparently still intact.
October 29, 2024
Both damaged, both can be repaired. The German Government prefers to lose manufacturing.
October 30, 2024
I was going on Wikipedia: ‘On 26 September 2022, a series of underwater explosions and consequent gas leaks occurred on 3 of 4 pipes, that were rendered inoperable.’ Sure, the current German government is the problem, but technically it could be done.
October 29, 2024
Shame your party didnāt recognise this. High taxes excessive bureaucracy despite the regular BS to the contrary. As if you were that much different to Labour. At least they are being honest about putting up taxes.
Far more important was the recent authoritative report detailing the billions wasted through a culture of inter departmental fighting over budgets, spending decisions made for political reasons by senior civil servants, so much for independence and cost/benefit assessments before spending seen as a bureaucratic nuisance so not down or skimped.
So nothing learned from the private sector, no effort at all to improve/emulate best practice and going on for decades/ever.
And what has been the response? Zero from the politicos it contained inconvenient truths so letās ignore it.
And of course continue to waste umpteen billions.
Instead of sniping at Labour maybe some honesty about the whole Westminster swamp.
October 29, 2024
Talking about the NHS..it’s all about ‘we need more ‘ This is not the case for all situations.We need to stop the piece work and stop breaking the professionals roles into pieces where patients need to have many appointments where one would suffice. The staff can be unnecessarily precious about their little Jobs.Less appointments under the care of all round practitioners.
October 30, 2024
More appointments logistically means a lackk of understanding of appointments systems ,more voice mails never answered,more blame pushers and investigations,many more trips to various departments for the patient and extra staff and resources to cover these small specialised areas,more feedback letters saying nothing or highlighing the inadequacy of the systems.. You know’ PP’ .Young hospital drs giving their supposed advice to seasoned practitioners arrogantly because they were qualified in for example Turkey in 2020! and have a perception that they are more important than others! The list goes on and on.
Can we do anything about it ?No they keep us down and won’t let us take sensible steps to put things right.They achieve this by clanning and corruption, interference with computerized documents and wipe out information important to the individual.
October 29, 2024
He sounds like a consultant – while I am sympathetic to your overall premise Sir John, we can do with fewer consultants in the world.
Put some skin in the game rather than carping from the side lines with identikit solutions for complex issues.
October 29, 2024
I saw an interesting international comparison of tax rates across various categories (income, CGT, corporation etc). As expected UK was near the top in each category except one – exit taxes, taxes you pay when, like your businessman, you want to move your business abroad. I believe these have recently been imposed in Germany (?) and I hear left-wing lobbyists talking about them here. It is surely only a matter of time before they are imposed to try to slow down capital flight.
October 29, 2024
Letās try and be optimistic. If Starmer can get away with campaigning to unseat the EU Referendum result and still become PM, then, providing they offer a coherent alternative vision, either Jenrick or Badenoch could soon lead a government in waiting. The sooner the better because āeventsā may well soon show the electorate how inexperienced and naive the current administration really is, leading to its collapse.
October 29, 2024
If you think that the Tory’s under those two will lead a Europhile Party then I think you are fooling no one except yourself. Think David Cameron when he was Opposition Leader to the one that fought to Remain in the EU in 2016.
October 29, 2024
That is no solution. Sadly.
October 29, 2024
The Labour government has no recognition of small business, apart from seeing them as a goose to pluck. To them there is only public sector and large employers – coincidentally those operations where their union friends are strong. The previous Tory government were nearly as bad as well.
There’s no hope for this administration, as they are arrogantly blinkered in their ideology. I wrote to our new Labour MP at the beginning of the month in regard to small business needs. I have had no reply or acknowledgement of my letter.
One can just hope tax returns nose dive and their insane financial aspirations unravel in short order and brings the government down.
October 29, 2024
I expect Corporation Tax and various business charges to increase.
October 29, 2024
I had to laugh, you wanted an intelligent response from a Labour MP on matters business?
Still waiting I see.
October 29, 2024
Starker yesterday spoke for roughly one hour telling us he was intent on rebuilding the foundations of the Nation.
The sinister message being, he does not like the building that exists and is determined to take it down to its foundation. Once demolished he will reshape it to enable a Marxists construction to be erected. His desire replacing our historic world influence with his mean spirited Socialist kennel filled with Marxist dogma.
We have never been in such danger as we are with this deindustrialising faux government. Starker is determined to take us back into the socialist strictures of the EU. He will do anything needed to weaken our position thus shaping opinion into regarding the EU as the safe haven, which it certainly is not.
October 29, 2024
I tried listening to him Rod but it was actually quite hard to stay awake. I may have to record his speeches for use late at bedtime when they will be of more use to me.
October 29, 2024
I don’t think he has the wit to build anything. Whatever he destroys will remain as junk.
I believe the EU factor will be useful to him. Once the Tory blame approach wears thin they will go back to blaming everything on Brexit.
October 29, 2024
Indeed but Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak were doing exactly the same (highest taxes for 70 years with vast increases in state debt and very poor and declining public services too) he is just accelerating rather.
October 29, 2024
The lights were switched off the moment the present regime replaced the last pathetic regime I’m afraid.
October 29, 2024
Most serious companies that make their money in the UK become foreign based. It is simple and logical, if your HQ is abroad it can charge the UK end an administration/management fees, those fees equate to the tax paying profit being made in the UK. Therefore tax payable by the UK end becomes zero as it doesn’t make a profit in the there. Ask all those enjoying the freebie UK Taxpayer handouts where they pay the bulk of their taxes.
That is the system used by all the big corporations not just the local entrepreneurs.
Central Governments web of deceit is in not running a real budget(a balanced budget) i.e. having expenditure being equated to and matching actual real earnings(what it can afford) is the cause of the depleted income pot of the UK. Tax is just a way of removing money from the economy it can never create money or an economy. Similar borrowing and the interest that has to be paid, is depleting UK wealth. Contrary to the belief doctrine of the State and the Government – Tax is not income.
As was shown by Sir John yesterday the State is being run by the numpties that are emptying the UK’s coffers. The BoE gives the appearance ( I have no idea whether this assertion is true of not, it is just my personal view, and they are certainly acting that way) that it is selling the UK maliciously at a loss, to whom and who is involved in the actual profit taking – friends of friends? What other reason could there be when there is no compulsion or need for it?
There is no ‘Black Hole’ in the UK’s finances just poor management control of expenditure. The People, the Taxpayer don’t run their own lives in such a corrupting, sloppy fashion
Don’t forget you can turn the ‘lights out’ remotely nowadays, its a big massive World, the UK is a minnow an insignificant bit player, the World will continue to grow exponentially whether it is involved or not
October 30, 2024
+1
October 29, 2024
My sister, brother-in-law and nephew are also relocating to Dubai next year. The parents are both 29 years old and their son is 2 years old. They are not entrepreneurs (they are employees) but they told me Dubai’s main appeal is the much reduced tax burden along with Dubai being very safe and very clean.
October 29, 2024
It is a sad story, and I have to say, if I were starting again, as opposed to looking at the finishing post, I am pretty confident I would choose somewhere else for what I wanted to do. Possibly not Dubai, but pretty well anywhere other than the UK. But I would have been thinking like that for a good few years before this Government came to power.
October 29, 2024
I regret not taking up opportunities to move to California several decades ago, being in the IT business.
I was content with a family and frequent trips, mostly employed business, but had wonderful holidays too.
Ah well, all a long time ago.
But then the climate of government sliding down the economic, legal and moral slope wasn’t so damn alarming.
October 29, 2024
You would have experienced the slide earlier had you been in California.
October 29, 2024
No slide for the first 30 years I should have been there, and would have learned Spanish which was the thing to do. First shock was a certain semiconductor business, after failures in electricity supply to its Fab, power no longer guaranteed, new one took over in Austin and former E.Germany.
I remember so many people admired Thatcher, and would have swapped leaders. Always a point of admiring the British, how times have changed.
October 29, 2024
Sir John,
Every time a member of the government opens their mouth, they commit to spending even more money. Problem is, we go along with it. We all suggest different areas to tax more rather than saying, tax is already high enough, make do with what you already take from us. Do what we have to do and learn to budget, prioritise the bills you need to pay and cut your coat according to your cloth. Too many areas of government expenditure are really unnecessary and should be cut before dipping into our pockets again. No wonder people are leaving the sinking ship.
I have already advised my grandchildren to leave whilst they still can.
October 29, 2024
Cliff
Every time our Prime Minister goes abroad they always promise more taxpayers money so some project or another before they come back.
Spending other peoples money so much easier than spending your own !
October 29, 2024
BA,
Exactly… They’re like giddy aunts at a wedding with boxes of confetti.
October 29, 2024
more like the best man at a wedding inviting all the young women to order doubles at the bar, knowing full well its a free bar!
October 29, 2024
Cliff.. Wokingham +1
October 29, 2024
Who will provide all the services and innovative goods if Entrepreneurs are forced abroad?
We should remember that the future planned for us has no need of special services, new products or even innovation — We will be living in our 15 minute cities without cars, because they will be banned. All of our activities will be based around not creating any Co2, meaning we will be using our legs a lot.
On rare occasions we might be allowed out of our zones, with special permission, but forget about holidays or visiting the in-laws up North.
With our industrial base all but gone, the best skills to have will include ‘making-do’ or ‘fixer-upper’ – New products won’t be appearing and where food, clothing furniture are available to buy they will be very expensive due to their scarcity.
So, losing the clever people that create wealth will not affect us. We will have no need of innovative products. Our lives will be simple, peasant like, and at a subsistence level.
October 29, 2024
For those that think 15 minute cities are a figment of a warped imagination, just be aware that London is already moving that way with so many roads becoming 20MPH zones. The London mayor has already published his plans on this subject: VISION ZERO.
https://content.tfl.gov.uk/vision-zero-action-plan.pdf
Holland is leading the way though.
https://expose-news.com/2024/10/28/15-minute-cages-being-built-in-holland/
The questions are will there be anybody with free will left who can turn out the lights when they leave, and will the lights still be on at that time?
October 29, 2024
I donāt believe anyone leaving the UK will be going to the EU, or Africa, or South America.
October 29, 2024
I suspect you are correct.
October 30, 2024
No, but a lot of them will be coming here.
October 29, 2024
Maybe off topic somewhat, but Oxfam, an organisation seemingly fully aligned with Net Zero, have reported that of the $100billion set aside by the World Bank for “climate change projects” $41billion has vanished without trace. Draw your own conclusions. Surely there isn’t any corruption to be found in the world of the green dream?
October 29, 2024
Donāt worry about the lights, Ed Miliband is taking care of that!
October 29, 2024
What is wrong with inherited wealth? Somebody worked and saved hard to accumulate it.
October 29, 2024
I was taking part in a field sport near Canterbury this weekend. Two doctors and three business owners announced their intention to retire prematurely in order to avoid paying more than 50% in tax. Several of them felt that the government wants to collapse the economy in order to recaste it in the way they want. The dislike of the country as is is so intense amongst our elite political this may be true. Even Rory Stewart said on a podcast he wanted to see 350,000 immigrants a year to counter the ‘far right’ here. A mid-ranking Home Office official I know said we needed new citizens to offset the people who voted for Brexit. (She did not seem to understand that non-European origin British citizens voted 47% for Brexit.)
October 29, 2024
Rory Stewart is a fool at best. Is Britain the same country if the British are no longer here? Why do we need it if it is not for us?
October 29, 2024
Many of the so-called “Rich” are Premier League footballers, past and present. They are never mentioned, though. Why are just the ‘entrepreneurs’ and other self-made millionaires singled out by Labour as suitable targets for what has become a “punishment” for their doing so well?
Labour’s problem is they, like most socialists, do not understand how markets or businesses work.
Mere common sense should tell them that those who work hard and produce a return, deserve to be rewarded, and those that are lazy, do not.
If someone gets an income for doing nothing, many others will abandon their jobs to do the same. However, Labour sees such people as client voters for their Party and the reason why socialists always seem to adopt this idea.
October 29, 2024
Sir Keir brings no cheer, and Rachel Reeves has no peer, as both seem to believe in misery for you and me!
They are not very bright, as they say with delight, we’ll tax you to death til you can’t draw breath,
then we’ll tax breathing, too, and when you are dead, we’ll tax you again!
October 29, 2024
“How not to run a country into the ground asap” by RR.
The future title for Labour’s chancer.
“How I made Britain appear attractive in my new suits and glasses” by KS.
“How I made the NHS feel better” by WS.
” How I improved workers pay demands and rights ” by AR.
You can go on with “How I changed the rules and the language of criticism on”
Debt, finance, borrowing, illegal immigration, climate change etc etc etc.
October 29, 2024
‘How we changed the meaning of so many words in entries in the Oxford Dictionary’ by Labour Party voters.
October 29, 2024
Where are you headed to.?
October 29, 2024
Small business owner of 40 years just about to sell and retire. I am now eagerly awaiting a change to the tax treatment for entrepreneurs relief tomorrow to finally ruin my retirement. 40 years of no holiday pay, sickness benefit, working my lunch hour, and 2 weeks holiday a year.
I have also been on the receiving end of the draconian regulations spewed out by the FCA making my life a misery. Still i could illegally arrive here and live in a hotel for free.
Governments of all persuasions treat us like cash machines- a plague on all their houses.
October 29, 2024
..and what party of government would help you…labour, tory or reform
October 29, 2024
Frank
You have well earned your retirement and I am convinced that when people put in the hard yards they create good karma for themselves and others, regardless of all obstacles imposed upon us by ungrateful governments etc.
(On the FCA see my late comment yesterday).
October 30, 2024
+1
October 29, 2024
I really commisserate. I am waiting for the Budget with bated breath. Many of the small traders in my small shops will not be able to continue. Uplift in minimum wage and 20% VAT on energy – all demanded after the pandemic fraud and the bus strike and a few other minor attacks.
They will be forced to close. More demand on the Benefits budget, I wish I could claim myself! Anyway I will continue to reduce my income and spend any excess on refurbishment etc so that I do not find these evil morons in Westminster. āA four day week will do the economy no harmā š¤Æ
Iām thinking of trying a Net Zero Day Week. Should have no impact at all.
October 29, 2024
Dubai comes with a bundle of political risk even if dismissing invasion by hostile powers.
There does not see to be a happy land, far far away where the grass is assurredly greener.
October 29, 2024
There is one. Have a think.
October 29, 2024
I went to Dubai on business once but I don’t think I’d want to live there.
I like this country but it would be very nice to have someone competent in charge. You know people who can do simple arithmetic and with enough common sense to cut through all the crap.
October 29, 2024
BBC News.
A huge newly-constructed ship is to be mothballed in Edinburgh as result of a “ferries fiasco” on the other side of the world. The 212m-long (695ft) Spirit of Tasmania IV will be stored at Port of Leith because it is too large to fit the existing berths in the Australian city of Devonport. The ferry has been built at a shipyard in Finland but it has to be moved out before winter because it could be damaged by pack ice.
A new berth to accommodate the ship in the island state of Tasmania will not be ready until late 2026 or 2027.
The ship – and its sister vessel Spirit of Tasmania V, which is still being built – had previously been described as a “game changer” for Tasmania’s tourism industry.
But construction delays, rising costs and the problems with upgrading existing infrastructure have turned it into the state’s biggest political scandal in a decade. Australian media have described it as a “fiasco” and “debacle” while opposition leader Dean Winter called it the “biggest infrastructure stuff-up”, external in the state’s history.
The cost of building the two LNG dual-fuel ships has risen by A$94m (Ā£47.5m) from A$850m (Ā£430m) when the contract was signed in 2021 – while port upgrade costs, originally estimated at A$90m (Ā£45.5m), have more than quadrupled.
Both the ferry company TT-Line and ports firm TasPorts are state-owned, and in August the infrastructure minister, Michael Ferguson, and TT-line chairman, Mike Grainger, both resigned.
In recent days it has emerged that the berth in Devonport – that was supposed to be built by now – would not be completed until October 2026 at the earliest.
State owned….all sounding a bit familiar?
October 29, 2024
Politicians seem to have problems with Ferries – as Saint Nicola discovered
October 29, 2024
Sure, but no point in complaining (we all know Labour are rubbish / last Tory bunch not much better).
Tory voters want a positive vision of something positive and creative the Tory Party are going to do in the future.
When I talk about how the Tory Party should be ambitious and focus on trying to co-create the British equivalent of the Volkswagen car and company, how popular would that be?!
HUGE. Think of BBC’s Top Gear. Loads of Tory voters love that programme. The cars but also celebrating British life which goes with cars. Except we don’t have any British cars to celebrate .. Or at least not like Volkswagen / BMW / Mercedes / Audi etc.
What I say isn’t just about capturing Tory voters’ imaginations, it also makes very good economic sense too.
(And we should also tell Tory voters how we’re going to support more the High Tech Industry and help develop the North of England – so that overall we have a stronger, more diversified / better-balanced economy – both in terms of geography but more importantly in terms of what we do.
October 29, 2024
Also, co-creating (with private enterprise and then handing over more and more stocks to them so that we end up owning just 20% as the German government still owns 20% of Volkswagen I believe) the British equivalent of Volkswagen (as well as developing more our High Tech Industry and the North of England) connects brilliantly with making Brexit work.
So many Brexiters have just given up on Brexit (trying to make a success of it). I haven’t (even though I didn’t vote for it as I thought we were unwisely unprepared for it but supported in in theory) and sticking to Brexit as you can’t chop and change and we CAN still make a go of Brexit.
Cutting taxes / more efficiency blah blah blah (I agree – but it’s not nearly enough) is not going to make Brexit work or get Tory voters back on board (well they will only vote Tory again when Labour mess up but a lot might not bother to vote or vote Remain). We need a big radical and creative economic plan that will grow and stabilise our economy as well as being focused on markets (High Tech and Cars) that people can get more passionate about / more excited about (as opposed to financial services / consumer market – no-one gets excited over toothpaste but people get a lot more enthusiastic about cars – look at TOP GEAR. There is no Top Gear for the financial markets or the consumer market …
Reply VW is closing 3 German factories and cutting pay by 10% . it makes a lot of vehicles in China
October 29, 2024
The British motor industry was offered VW in the immediate aftermath of WW2 but decline to take it on. So much for entrepreneurial spirit!
British officaldom gave access to Sir Frank Whittle’s jet engine to British industry (I do ot record the details) but the Morris works put it in a car (never brought to market). So much for entrepreneurial spirit!
October 30, 2024
Hi. But let’s forget that part of the past (the bad bits!) and focus on how we can learn from the past – and then add a dash of spirit of adventure to that!
I think big problem with British politics it that our post WW2 economy was to a degree run by old Etonians / toffs (I don’t mean that in bad way – I like a lot of toffs and old Etonians) who had no or little entrepreneurial spirit. Except how to hang on to their inheritance (and good luck to them except there was no, or little, ambition beyond that). Notice also how these Old Etonians / toffs headed to the City. They had no or little interest in the Car Industry / High Tech Industry / North of England.
Real entrepreneurial spirit comes more from the grammar school boys. We need them and their self-discipline and hard work and ambition and intelligence and entrepreneurial spirit to revive our Car Industry (and why not focus it in the North of England) and help grow the High Tech industry in Cambridge and elsewhere (including Oxford and London).
All of this would go well with Brexit and make it a success we want it and need it to be.
October 30, 2024
I agree.
But the problems with the German car industry are to do with German’s failure to respond to changes from combustion engine to electric (and other issues – gets complicated). This change is inevitable. Also, how the car industry is becoming more integrated with the High Tech industry in general. In the future, ‘car manufacturers’ will be more High Tech companies than the old fashioned car manufacturer. Or should.
Unless Germany (and the UK) think big, our high tech / car industries will shrink even more – to the Americans, Chinese and others.
October 30, 2024
This is the 1970s all over again (some of us remember). It will end in disaster for the country like then and who will take up the challenge? I see no Thatcher on the horizon and will Reform be taken seriously by the electorate as they seem to be the only ones with people who have business acumen to deal with what will happen. The Conservatives have brought us to this, it cannot be denied, so they must accept equal blame for what will come. The aftermath ruined part of my life when I should have been paying off a mortgage at 17% rate at one stage and making my plans for a good pension pot retirement. Wake up Britain as you will be working until old age (meaning your 80s this time round) if you make it with the crumbling NHS which they do not know any more how to repair than the last lot.
October 31, 2024
The importance of SMEs as the backbone of the country has been undermined since joining the EEC, and gets worse by the day. (Same with farmers whose importance is grossly underrated by the system).
Good governance no longer exists, so itās hard to have hope for improvement in the future.
I recall Mrs T saying sheād like to get to a point where there is (next to) no direct taxation and instead one pays for any services one uses with payments going directly to the departments concerned.
Thatās the system used in Dubai (which i know well). There is no direct taxation (yet) you simply pay for any service you utilise. VAT is 5%. Businesses are enabled in the same way. Everything works.
Thereās much to learn from how they operate.
October 31, 2024
We are dealing with a Communist government that believes the only purpose of people working is to funnel money into the government and everyone else should share in equal states of government dependency. It is ideological conviction not real world economics. Why else does Rachel Reeves have a picture of an early convert to Communism? It is not just because it was a woman.
October 31, 2024
Itās as though the Labour government is trying to destroy the U.K. economy. They should be helping businesses. Putting up the minimum wage for 18 year olds will make it harder for training because of the extra cost to employers, it will put them off taking on young people who have nothing to offer. Increasing ERs national insurance will decrease staffing levels. I wonder if the Chancellor has any common sense at all
November 1, 2024
We are currently visiting our son and his family in Thailand to get away from the wind, rain, and Labour.
He has been here 7 years and when I retired, we transferred our marine business to Phuket and it is thriving.
Everything is so much easier to do in Thailand. Once you have a work and residency permit, Regulation is light touch and taxes are much lower as, of course are wages for your local employees. Premises are cheap to acquire and far larger than we could ever afford in the UK. If we were 20 years younger, we would be moving out here. Instead, we will visit for three separate months through the UK winter.
Last week I bought a second-hand Mercedes car here to use so we will be independent. That was quite simple and insurance and road tax cost a fraction of the UK price. The roads are very good – there are many dual carriageways, where we only have single lane roads and petrol is Ā£1 a litre or less. There are almost no EVs here and no infrastructure for them either !