The Times runs detailed stories on what will be in the so called Autumn Statement. Time Ā was when the Autumn Statement was an annual review and future budget for spending, provoking proper debate about priorities, costs, public sector productivity and the rest. This was followed by a Spring budget which set out how the spending would be paid for. Tax changes were proposed and revenue voted by Parliament.
This Autumn Statement appears also to be a budget. There is active discussion of tax changes. The story has changed several times recently. I have no idea what the PM and Chancellor will decide. I do not think the Times makes it all up, so their stories presumably Ā come from people who do know something. This implies that the ideas for the budget have been fluid. Today’s stories say the decisions are still not made. This is running it late as the government will need to print all the documents with their confidential press in time to release them the moment the Chancellor completes his presentation to Parliament.
After someone briefed widely a cut in Inheritance tax I now read that this will not happen next week. A tax cut for a Ā small group of well off families to receive more Ā on death does Ā seem an odd priority for now. I am sticking with my advice to prioritise getting inflation Ā down with energy tax cuts for the next year, and to boost growth and output with cuts to tax on small business and self employment. There is a suggestion in the press that the latest figures give the Chancellor more scope to cut taxes as the outlook is better again than OBR forecasts.
My package was modest, and included asset sales and spending changes to give more leeway. I read they are considering a possible 5% cut in the standard rate of income tax from 20% to 19 % or a lifting of the 40% threshold or a cut in National Insurance. Of those as an extra to my proposals I favour threshold changes to take more out of 40% tax and to correct the anomaly of withdrawing tax free allowances from Ā£100,000 rather than a higher figure. A cut in standard rate would also be OK. The National Insurance proposal is the least attractive.
I stress again the main objectives must be to Ā give inflation another push down and get growth going. This argues for a more generous package for the self employed, small business and on energy costs than I set out rather than tackling Income tax next week. Sort growth and inflation now and start a stated planned reduction of Income Tax next spring as growth returns and yields more revenue. Getting Ā inflation down faster would mean earlier interest rate cuts to boost the economy .
November 19, 2023
Good morning.
I believe that this is a hangover from our time that we were officially in the EU and to align ourselves with the rest of the EU. And if that is in fact the case, one might ask given we have supposedly left, why do we still continue with it ?
There is only one tax the government can get rid of and not lose money – Employees National Insurance (Tax). This is because that any monies saved by the employer will simply be either :
a) hovered up by corporation tax.
b) spent. Only to be taxed further down the line.
A simple win-win.
November 19, 2023
Sorry, I meant Employers not Employees.
November 19, 2023
Plebgate Mitchell seemed to be saying we need to feed Africa to stop immigration!! Perhaps if Cameron had not bombed Libya making it failed state there would be more stability in the area and Libya not used as a spring board for mass immigration. Gadaffimactually made clear if he were removed people from Africa would move up and pass through his country!! Sadly, Plebgate Mitchell missed that bit out. He also missed out how Cameron wanted to bomb Syria but was stopped by āRed Edā. Also that Cameron, at huge expense to taxpayer, set up camps in Syria as a base to vet and apply for asylum. How did that work out? Plebgate also failed to mention, as a matter of Tory Choice and against its manifesto promise, 1.2 million low paid people were given visas and only 2,700 were golden visas ie the skilled people wanted by the country!! Nevertheless, get your cheque books out Plebgate has a spending mission for taxpayers to feed Africa to make him feel good!!
JR, if your party/Govt. Continues to give 1.2 million visas will there ever be enough housing and will the dire public services continue to fail the nation in providing basic services? Will we continue to be forced to accept alien cultures, oppressed into silence and the destruction of our family and way of life?
November 19, 2023
We’ve been feeding Africa for the last 50 years and nothing changes except the size of the cars their rulers ride around in. Some years ago I was in West Africa where they were holding a conference in the best hotel (I was next door as I could not afford their hotel) with dozens of soldiers guarding it and they all arrived in limousines or Land Cruisers and were boozing on the golf course and eating the finest food. The title of the conference ‘Starvation in Africa’.
November 19, 2023
Ah feeding them has increased their numbers to a point that the continent canāt itself sustain. Thatās where āsaving the childrenā got us. Saving them for what?
November 20, 2023
Much truth in this.
November 19, 2023
Portilo seemed to be able to sum up Hunts disingenuous /false comment. Inflation caused by Snake allowing BOE to print too much money.
What did the maths genius think when BOE letters started to arrive about transitory inflation, followed by more transitionary rubbish to it will be here for a while!! Swiss inflation under 2% because of sensible monetary policy. Snake and Hunt ought to be schooled there they would not have to lie to voters.
Better still if JR was in place he could have taken proper action, but a conservative in cabinet will never be allowed to happen. They (JR types) are a fringe minority group for window dressing at elections.
Why could Lord Hammond not be brought back to cabinet?
November 19, 2023
Eh? If a company’s NI bill is reduced by Ā£1000, then its profit will increase by the same amount, and lead to a Ā£250 increase in its corporation tax bill. It’s not revenue-neutral for the government (losing Ā£750) – or have I missed something?
November 19, 2023
Well the company then either reinvests the Ā£750 hopefully giving higher profits and more jobs in future years or they pay it in extra salary with about 50% going in NI and tax, or distribute it in taxable dividends. Then the recipients either invest it (taxes on that) or spend it so VAT, IPT, fuel taxes, alcohol, flight taxesā¦ are paid too.
November 19, 2023
adding full meaning to ‘taxed to death’.
November 19, 2023
Oh please, this party and govt are not interested in business especially self employed, small and medium sized business.
Have you not witnessed that the Tory party has actively closed manufacturing in the country under Net Stupid by making energy too expensive so the same energy, goods are produced by hostile countries and sold back to us!! This was not a mistake but a deliberate Tory govt policy over 14 years!! The EU threatened to cut electricity to Jersey, stop vaccines to UK, stop PPE, yet the Tory govt. has increased its dependency on EU inter connectors! Worse EU has increased its purchase of LNG fromā¦.Russia! There are meant to be sanctions against Russia. Yet Cameron offering more of our taxes to Ukraine this week. The insanity of this party and govt has no bounds. It has no interest in the national security issues of this country- food, water, energy, steel, manufacturing. It wants to give UK sovereignty to foreign bodies like EU,UN,WHO,WEF.
November 19, 2023
Indeed. As Richard Wellings puts it in an X.
āThe fake-conservatives are turning the UK into a USSR-style centrally planned economy, where ministers and officials decide what will be produced and what we’re allowed to buy. The destruction of economic freedom is the hidden agenda behind radical environmentalism.ā
November 19, 2023
Correct LL.
November 19, 2023
Hunt rants on about inflation, Snake caused it and repeatedly accepted BOE false narrative it was transitory when sensible economists said the exact opposite. Bailey has repeatedly failed in his job and repeatedly has taken the wrong action. WHY is Bailey still in post? We cannot afford the idiot a day longer.
Snake accepts a dive from left wing socialist OBR and Bailey. Why has he not changed back to the former position before Brown and Osborne made changes?
Clue: anything Blaire did scrap it, change it and do the exact opposite.
November 19, 2023
@Hope – exactly
November 19, 2023
Indeed, get rid of employer’s NI. A tax to punish businesses for the audacity of employing people.
Yet businesses still employ people. The government needs to try harder to eradicate this scourge. Punitive taxes, bureaucratic burden and vicarious liability just aren’t doing the job.
November 19, 2023
This will be a Budget designed to win an election. It is political, and will be equipped with headline catching announcements to encourage Tory voters in the blue wall.
November 19, 2023
OMG – it will have to be throwing tax savings around like confetti on the church path after a full Saturday.
I think most churches ban it now – Hunt is convinced.
November 19, 2023
@Mark B – The UK and its Parliament didnāt āalignā, they were forced to obey by the unelected and unaccountable that ruled them. Democracy was never on the cards, hence the reason after 40years the UK Parliament, its MPs donāt and still donāt have a clue of their purpose and act as incidentals to this tragedy.
November 19, 2023
Ian B: “hence the reason after 40years the UK Parliament, its MPs donāt and still donāt have a clue of their purpose and act as incidentals to this tragedy …”
YES!
Generations of MPs who have had plenty of cash, expenses and never ending pay rises, but no responsibility. That is, in large part why our Parliament is such a bunch of gormless muppets.
November 19, 2023
Getting rid of Employers NI is indeed the priority.
No other country has this silly tax. It’s not just a “tax on jobs” as somne people put it, it’s actually a tax on employing British-based workers, which hobbles the UK in the global workplace and is the reason we see call centres and IT coding companies in other countries.
Most of the arguments around self-employed vs employed/PAYE (such as IR35) are about Employers NI because the self-employed under Sch D don’t pay it, it’s only the self-employed who are forced into a Ltd Co (usually by clients or more often by middle-men such as consultancies/agencies who protect themselves from other pieces of legislation) who do pay it.
It’s clear double-taxation, but the Treasury/HMRC, being the rapacious creatures that they are, don’t care as long as they have a soft target (one that has little sympathy).
One way to do this is to increase the Employment Allowance to a high level, such as Ā£250,000 (same as the VAT threshold should be). That way only the largest companies would pay it – for now. The aim would be to phase it out (the argument against it by the Treasury/HMRC in the past, unblievably, is that it’s too large a proportion of govt revenues, so it would cost too much!). As a justification for taxation, complexity and uncompetitive economic rule-making… that is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Oh and, currently the Emp Allowance only applies to companies with > 1 employee. So any single people can’t claim it, whereas those with a spouse/partner can easily do so.
Imagine all those silly “employment status” cases disappearing. Wouldn’t that be a good thing?
November 19, 2023
I always comforted myself by believing the Employerās national insurance contribution was half to the employees state pension [6%], didnāt people in final salary schemes and government schemes got a discount on their NI once? Then half to their healthcare and sick leave [7.8% remember Brown adding 1% specifically for the NHS] other countries do have those taxes on employment. BUT then the government passed all the cost of sick leave onto the employers plus the more expensive sick holiday pay, then they put an extra 3% tax from a much lower threshold (half the nI threshold Ā£6240) into a none guaranteed āworkplace pensionā with terrible investment returns. [Its the one our grubby little private pension stealing Labour Party have their eyes on]. NOW the governmentās saying national insurance isnāt a guaranteed pension after all, no that pension you thought you were paying for is a benefit (so they can means test it no doubt!), its only a benefit to anyone not paying PAYE all their life with a double dip of 20% Employee/Employer Health contribution. It was just a con ponzi scheme that people who work full time pay a lot of money for.
Can you imagine if theyād put Employerās NI immediately up to 17% instead, the employee doesnāt recognise or acknowledge that is the contribution business pays with no cap, nor does it stop at retirement age, + 3% from Ā£6240 to Ā£12570, instead it was disguised over several years.
November 20, 2023
Agree with much of what you say, although the Sch D self-employed do pay Class 2 and 4 NI which contributes to state pension entitlement. And many forced to work through Ltd Cos pay a salary/dividend combination where the salary pays NI (the dividends are to avoid the double taxation).
NI used to be a genuine “levy” not a tax because it produced a contractual entitlement to various benefits. Pension, out of work benefits and access to the NHS.
Now, anyone can use the NHS, even tourists. Those who don’t qualify for NI-based out of work benefits qualify for tax-based schemes. And the state pension has been eroded to be the worst in the developed world. So now it is a tax in all but name.
Few people understand or care about this – they fail to see that the total cost of their services to an employer is important and Employers NI reduces both job opportunities and their remuneration – with no benefit to the worker or their employer.
I also find it strange that people ask for self-employed “employment benefits” in return for paying extra tax and NI. It misses an obvious point – the government receives the tax/NI, but the benefits are paid for by the employer/client. What they are asking for is not fair not reasonable – the government would need to provide/pay for any such benefits, or they would be yet another drag on employment opportunities and employment costs – more reasons for UK companies not to employ people.
The whole system is not fit for purpose. The feeble attempt at tax simplifcation did nothing more than identify a few centuries-old laws that are no longer applied – that was certainly NOT what people wanted or expected of the manifesto promise which was made.
November 23, 2023
The dividends are double taxed anyway, you pay them out of taxed profits; the new rate of corp tax is 25% before you even draw a dividend; basic rate dividend tax = 8.75% (33.75%) paid over Ā£500 from April. The higher rate dividend tax is 33.75% (58.75% tax).
Class 2 Ā£3.45pw or Ā£179.40 pa I never understood what it was for, do you know? Class 4 was 9%, when an employee paid 12%, soon to be 8% – employee 10%; what is the 2% extra for the PAYE worker paying for, in fact, what is their 13.8% employer contribution for if it doesn’t GUARANTEE their state pension and they can no longer get an NHS dentist!
There are large employers in this Country that use self-employed contractors through agencies that flip-flop employees every 8 weeks onto new contracts with another agency. The incentives to do sh*t like this is ridiculous, punishing businesses for employing people, working out all their taxes and national insurance and pension, paying them when they’re sick, paying them sick holiday pay, holiday pay, an ever-increasing minimum wage will result in fewer employees and fewer businesses because Thatchers entrepreneurs have had enough and who’d have thought it was her own party that delivered the blows.
November 19, 2023
The Autumn Statement was introduced by an Act of Parliament in 1975, passed in Westminster by UK MPs.
November 19, 2023
ā A tax cut for a small group of well off families to receive more on death des seem an odd priority for now.ā
Inheritance tax now targets ordinary property owners in places like London – not small numbers of āwell off familiesā. The allowances have been frozen for years. So more folk are in scope. These are not the sort of people that have traditionally had arrangements in place to avoid IHT. It is widely known that this creeping stealth tax is particularly unpopular because of so many now fall in its net.
November 19, 2023
I live in a not that special mid terrace house not far from Sir John. That is in itself now worth more than the Inheritance Tax threshold. I question the statement that only 4% of estates pay it. Being single with no dependents to pass things to I am very limited in options to get round IHT. It is not the amount of money but the problems sorting out my estate it will cause, long delays to do so and the probable need for them to arrange a loan to pay it. Nobody should have to have this nightmare. If it is aimed a rich people an increase in the threshold to at least Ā£5 million should be the first priority.
November 19, 2023
The ways to avoid IHT are to invest in unquoted or AIM quoted trading companies and farm land rather than quoted companies and property this cuts in after just two tax years. Gifts for excess income can be exempt. To give the money away and live seven years (if in reasonable health you can take live cover to cover risk of an early death) or get married or a civil partnership, To move and become overseas Domiciled overseas and not hold UK assetsā¦ The main trap really is for people with most of their money in their sole main house that they do not wish to sell. Even rules on gifts with reservation to further trap them.
But note no CGT on death so not good to sell something pay CGT then end up with IHT on the balance when you die a few days later. This effectively prevents/deters old people from selling CGT liable assets. Another idiotic and damaging tax law.
On IHT they should abolish it as it is wrong in principal plus they ratted on the Osborne promise of 15 years back.
Reply
this site does not give investment advice .Take advice or satisfy yourself on these matters.
November 19, 2023
Reply to reply.
That’s number one covered.
November 19, 2023
That’s only valid if you have cash, most people don’t have a lot of disposable cash but only the value of the house.
If I were Davews with no dependents, depending on his age, I’d go for Equity Release and have a good binge, or keep it in mind for a comfortable retirement. The high cost of repaying the loan would probably knock out the IHT liability as the lender would have first call on the house. Anything left could go to charity. For Sir John, this is not investment advice, it is spending advice.
November 19, 2023
The priorities should be CGT indexation, massive reduction in business rates ( even labour claim they will abolish them) and higher tax allowance for self employed.
November 19, 2023
Well you could take on young wife, husband or civil partner perhaps with a protective prenup. Or you sell up your house etc. rent and put all your investments into an un-quoted or AIM trading company, farm landā¦ or gifts from excess income and usual allowances. Difficult to see how lifetime cash gifts to people can be taxed very easily. Where do you want your money to end up? Perhaps start a trading business with them? Or just spend it on yourself.
Reply This is not investment advice
November 19, 2023
Lifelogic: “Well you could take on young wife, husband or civil partner perhaps with a protective prenup.”
For god’s sake, Lifelogic, do you have no imagination? This is modern Britain, you could marry your son, you estate will pass to your ( new spouse ) on death.
November 19, 2023
A person cannot marry any of the following relatives: a child, including an adopted child. a parent, including an adoptive parent. a brother or sister, including a half-brother or half-sister.
Perhaps a civil partnership with your Sonās wife after a divorce?
November 20, 2023
Lifelogic: “A person cannot marry any of the following relatives:”
Just declare your identify as un-related. That should do the trick in this insane world.
November 19, 2023
make a donation willed to a Charity – thus avoiding IHT to your beneficiary.
November 19, 2023
Alas so many charities do so very little good so pick a good and honest one.
See āThe Great Charity Scandal: What Really Happens to the Billions We Give to Good Causes?
Book by David Craigā he has several other good books on the Universities Con etc. too.
November 19, 2023
then give to Heritage projects which are charities.
November 19, 2023
Peter, the left say that those people with million pound houses in London got a ridiculous capital gain on them from what they paid, there are not many other areas of the Country that properties went from Ā£30,000 to Ā£1 million without much being spent on them over 50 years.
I agree with davews I donāt believe the statement āit only affects less than 4% of estatesā it is predicted to rise to 7% by 2030. Between April and August 2023, HMRC collected Ā£3.2bn in IHT, around Ā£300m higher than in the same period last year. 10% higher in one year.
But I donāt think this is the right place to concentrate effort in the autumn statement, the left will only overturn it when they regain power and the 7% it affects would be mad to vote Labour when theyāre discussing, lowering the threshold and applying a lower % to more of it.
November 19, 2023
It will be more jam tomorrow as usual with the two Implants. You’d be better ringing Klaus for his ideas.
November 19, 2023
Klaus doesn’t give ideas …. he gives instructions.
November 19, 2023
āā¦.. ideas for the budget have been fluid.ā. It is more likely that the government is now desperate to spin things to obtain maximum favourable press coverage. So suggestions are put to journalists -particularly those in newspapers like āThe Timesā with a centrist, establishment viewpoint.
November 19, 2023
The Times cartoon supports this view. Hunt is portrayed as a magician with a top hat on the table interviewing various rabbits to be pulled from this top hat. A rabbit with an inheritance tax ribbon tells him āFace it. Iām all you can affordā. Presumably the trick would be an inheritance tax change that only kicks in after the general election has been lost.
November 19, 2023
That’s got to be correct. Whatever Mr Hunt returns to the tax-payer, it will be underwhelming and change voting intentions not a jot. It’s the character of this PCP.
November 20, 2023
So he may as well keep it all, or increase taxes?
November 19, 2023
+1
Dead Cat strategy ….. look at this and ignore what we’re doing whilst you’re distracted.
November 19, 2023
Indeed the Times yesterday had William Hague going on about Cameronās decency! Now Lord Cameron of Greensill China & Libya is it. Famous before his ācast ironā ratting (first election throwing), his lies about being ālow tax at heart Conservativeā and a Euro sceptic, his green crap pushing, his failure to prepare for a leave referendum result (in an act of gross or even criminal negligence), his Ā£1m IHT promise ratting, his tax payer funded referendum lies and propaganda and his abandoning of the bridge like a petulant child, – after he promised not to.
Sure his outstanding ādecencyā William that is what we all remember!
November 19, 2023
And of course his pitiful record on Foreign Affairs, but hey-ho, he’s only the Foreign Secretary, having got everything foreign wrong in his time. Rishi really has a judgement problem.
November 19, 2023
Hunt will deliver a defeatist ‘rich man’s’ budget for a remain committed Labour party. Tory leaders want us back in the EU and view a racist, liberty hating, Marxist Labour government as the best way to achieve that irrespective of the damage they will inflict upon the indigenous majority and our culture. We are dealing with people never seen before in British politics, politicians on both sides of the Commons who actively want to destroy this nation.
To see Cameron, the so called ‘Heir to Blair’ walking into No.10 was odious, repulsive and utterly sickening. Cameron may as well turned around at the door and revealed a t-shirt saying ‘**** Brexit and all those who voted for it’
November 19, 2023
They just love to rub our noses in highly unpleasant things.
Be it diversity or defeat.
But THEY are the ones who have broken all the rules.
Disregarded their ādemockwacyāā¦lied, cheated, turned themselves into dictators.
We just played by the rules, believed them and dug deep into our pockets.
I have read that they wanted someone at the FO who could address the ācurrent thingā.
Remember Libya?ā¦I do.
November 19, 2023
Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton jumped ship after nailing his false blue colours to the EU revealing why he got weasel weak gruel. Now feted as a “steady pair of hands” welcomed back by side door shenanigans and cannot be scrutinised in Parliament as he’s not an MP. Unbelievable naive by those we voted to represent us.
The autumn statement is a window dressing diversion by the Remain cabal who try to take credit to cover their track record of failure.
November 19, 2023
Cameron became leader only on the back of one speech to the Tory Conference because it was considered better than the Davis one. How shallow politicians are.
November 20, 2023
Actually I remember friends saying āIām not going to. It vote for him because he went to Etonā. I always replies āoh not because he went to Etonā but they fell for the line that he was being discriminated against because he was educated at a good school anyway – although they did a lousy job!
And he is married to an Astor too of course.
November 19, 2023
‘This implies that the ideas for the budget have been fluid.’ Good – they needed to be, because Sunak and Hunt lack the political skill and commonsense to make sound decisions. If they’ve been bullied into adopting some CONSERVATIVE policies, and have been roughed-up by MPs fearful for their seats, then that’s excellent news. There’s a lot I want to see in the statement, but top of my list remains tackling the fiscal-drag being inflicted on 20% and 40% income tax-payers. If Hunt doesn’t do that, while reducing IHT, then he’s off his rocker.
Asset sales? Channel4Filth should be sold.
November 19, 2023
One other point: the government should NOT call an early general election. They have time to squeeze in 2 Autumn statements and a budget before going to the country – and should.
November 19, 2023
Indeed and that is what will happen as with the moronic disaster John ERM still no apology Major they will hold on to the bitter end.
Some wind farms are claiming an installed generation capacity of 3.6GW and will be capable of powering up to 6 million homes annually. How do they get to this? At a circa 25% average output this is just 150w average consumption per house about enough for a large fridge and freezer. So these would have to be very small and electrically very efficient houses indeed and ones using gas or oil to heat and provided hot water and not charging an electric car or cars or heat pumps either. So the electricity is just doing lighting, fridge/freezer, tv, computer, wifi, charging the phone, alarm, washing machine (one a week if you are lucky) and nothing else much at all. Even at that you struggle with 150 watts especially if you have a family. Looks dishonest to me. Best not buy an EV bike or lawn mower either.
November 19, 2023
LL :
To start with, renewables cannot POWER anything because no-one yet accepts their power to be chaotically intermittent, although DSR (Demand Side Reduction) is the final plan because the storage of electricity is totally uneconomic.
The Government press releases on renewable energy auctions also make this false claim.
I wrote to the ASA on this point. They agreed I was correct but said they could not act because the claim was not used to elicit retail sales.
Renewable energy is worthless because it cannot provide either reliable power or dispatchable power and hence requires a parallel hydrocarbon energy system for grid stability and backup. It is debatable as to whether there is any savings in CO2 emissions as the gas plants run far less efficiently having to ramp up and down their output to match the differences between demand and wind output. Of course, running two energy systems will make electricity more expensive, cause inflation and run manufacturing out of the country.
Not that there is any need to curb emissions of CO2. Happer & Wijngaarden have shown that there is no global warming caused by increasing levels of CO2 (natural or anthropogenic) because of IR saturation. Their calculations on the real atmosphere, including water vapour (omitted in the IPCC models), fit perfectly with the measured data above the equator and at Mediterranean latitudes and fit so well that they even show correctly that CO2 COOLS rather than warms above Antarctica:
https://youtu.be/CA8elCE75ns
November 19, 2023
Well you can debate almost anything but it is true that a gas powered power station almost invariably will have optimum efficiency at one power output, just as most car engines do. Ramping the. up and down decreases efficiency quite significantly. Also far more capital expense is needed for the same output of electricity PE. Other costs involved in making it ramp up and down sufficiently quickly and reliably too.
November 19, 2023
Don’t worry LL, there won’t be any electricity at the rate we are going. Investment advice – buy firms making candles.
November 19, 2023
Wind up LED torches are rather better than candles nowadays, longer lasting, cheaper & rather safer too. Warms the winder up too.
November 19, 2023
and thick socks and woolly jumpers!
November 19, 2023
The Conservatives will go into an election promising the UK leaves all the various out of date international treaties stopping the removal of illegals immigrants.
The public will not believe them because they lied and lied and lied and lied about Brexit.
Iām thinking that the Reform Party will be nicknamed the Replace Party as this is what they will do to the Conservatives.
November 19, 2023
Good point. If ‘True Blue’ me won’t believe a single Conservative promise then I doubt that anyone else will. Yes, a manifesto has to be written. But only action and results between now and the election will matter. So no promising, for example, to leave the UN’s Migration Compact – just do it!
November 19, 2023
They won’t leave anything. They have already signed up to the new WHO treaty which will give our health sovereignty plus billions of extra pounds in funding to an unelected foreign entity. No doubt certain people have been promised future high-paying roles once they lose the next election. Theresa May signed us up to the UN Migration Compact, why would they ever vote to leave it? Nearly all of our parliament is socialist which has been carefully planned via the candidate selection process. Only a shift to a new party like Reform can save this country now.
Reply The WHO Treaty does not have an agreed final text. I and others are pressing the government not to sign it.
November 19, 2023
The Government’s response to the Petition confirms that the Government WILL sign it and will never leave the WHO.
But we will, supposedly, retain Sovereignty when the whole point of the Treaty and the IHR is to transfer it to the WHO. Reminds me of the “assurance” Heath gave the country that joining the EEC wouldn’t transfer Sovereignty to the unelected of the EEC/EU.
November 19, 2023
Donna: “Ā£But we will, supposedly, retain Sovereignty.. ”
It’s like a diabolical game of wackamole. You hit the EU on the head, and up pops the WHO treaty.
November 19, 2023
Reply to Reply – Did you not listen to the response from Penny Mordant who thinks the new WHO treaty is a good thing? This WHO treaty change was championed by Sunak. If he doesn’t sign out of it by December then we are locked into it including a commitment to giving a huge amount of taxpayers money. Hands up anyone here who thinks he will pull out of it. He would look even weaker than he already is if he did this. You and a few more like-minded MPs have no influence to change the course these traitors have set us on.
November 19, 2023
This WHO treaty is truly appalling, how can anyone remotely sane think otherwise?
November 19, 2023
Reform has failed to demonstrate traction with the electorate, judging by their showing at by-elections. When it comes to general elections, the pollsters regularly underestimate the Conservative vote. I suspect there are a large number of people who, when asked who they will vote for, reply “Mind your own business”. These are likely to be Conservative voters rather than left wing activists.
November 19, 2023
Reform gets virtually no coverage in the media and this will not change, so very few who do not follow politics will even know about it. All part of the plan to continue the musical chairs between Tory and Labour.
November 20, 2023
Very true. I’ve spoken to several people who have never heard of Reform.
November 19, 2023
A first past the post system plus a more multi cultural younger socially aware electorate means a right wing party has no chance but the threat of it splitting the traditional right means it has influence, (Farage on Brexit) so as we are already seeing there is push back (Braverman) against One Nation centrists and I expect more maybe starting with the Autumn statement?
November 19, 2023
@Javelin +1 How many lies can one small group keep telling and expect to get away with it?
November 19, 2023
If the Tories donāt do it while they have power, why should we believe they will do it if we give them power again? Between now and the election they need to cut to the bone and every action needs to be deep and true.
Else they are looking at a virtual whitewash. Might have the same number of MPs as the DUP.
November 19, 2023
Clearly, there is a great deal of pressure on Hunt to cut taxes. Unfortunately, there are many vested interests pulling him in all sorts of directions; whichever way he goes, somebody will be unhappy.
I think Hunt and the Treasury are aware of just how dangerous the UK fiscal situation is – more so than us mere mortals. It is said that the current high inflation has increased the VAT take, giving him some leeway. If so, any money available should be applied to reducing government borrowing. That would impress the markets far more than political tax cuts just before an election.
Nobody can foresee what is going to happen this winter. Black swan events in Ukraine, the Middle East and Taiwan are entirely possible. Hunt might want to hold back some money in case gas prices quadruple again. Caution is warranted.
November 19, 2023
Hunt has only 12 months left to try to stop the appalling prospect of a huge Starmer Majority.
He says not going into detail on his plans, Mr Hunt told Sky News: “what I will give you is a general view about tax. It is too high, the Conservative government wants to bring it down because we think that lower tax is essential to economic growth.ā
So has the party after 13+ years only just realised this? Why did Osborne, Hammond, Javid, Sunak and now Hunt just put taxes up to the highest for 70+ years? Then pile the insanity of net zero, endless misguided red tape, tax over complexity, restrictive planning, motorist mugging and employment laws on top of this too.
Why Hunt have you done nothing to reduce you vast government waste. Much is even spent doing positive harm.
November 19, 2023
Tax is too high, a dim view. Who got it to the historic record high, low tax Dave!! Liars who fail to accept responsibility. A bit like Hunt making out inflation high nothing to do with Sunak. Unbelievable dishonesty.
Anyone voting Tory needs their head examined.
November 19, 2023
Yeah, When inflation was going up it was nothing to do with them, just world events. Now it is coming it’s ‘us wot did it’. Lying doesn’t begin to cover it. They have no honour.
November 19, 2023
Not a chance, the NHS is already overrun, without adding appointments for psychiatry.
November 19, 2023
If taxes are ‘the highest for 70 years’ why are public services such s***?
In just one small area, read the books by ‘the Secret Barrister’, as I have done since the first one appeared. S/he sets out at length how the criminal legal system has descended into chaos in the past decade. Legal aid was not just abolished for civil cases but for many criminal cases it’s so means-tested as to be unavailable. That’s not justice.
November 19, 2023
Why does the UK need so many lawyers? About 10 times the number as Japan per 100k. I suppose endless NHS negligence explains some of it. Can we not have a system that is designed to need far fewer of them.
November 20, 2023
Many are unemployed. Others string out cases when they get them. Settle your disagreements amicably if at all possible. Else be a litigant in person – the Judge has to help you with the minutiae of the law. You are the expert in your own case.
November 19, 2023
Excellent. If only there wasnāt an election to win!!
November 19, 2023
I doubt the markets would be impressed with the small amount of money Hunt has to play with. With debt of 2.5 trillion, a few billion would go unnoticed and not make a dent in it.
November 19, 2023
Lets wait and see, I am not inclined to waste a lot of words on speculation.
For sure it will set the tone of what it means to think as a consocialist or possibly at a stretch a conservative, but I would be surprised if it comes near real Conservative thinking. I also doubt there will be any serious move towards a serious reduction in government spending. Government are the real elephant in the room. Imagine walking into your bank, assuming you still have one, and saying my Ā£100,000 income is all spent, but I would like one of those magic bonds for an extra Ā£50,000 which I might sell back to you for a lesser sum if it suits me. You might hear the raspberry throughout the High Street before they foreclose on your home and business. Laughable, but that is what government expect to be able to do with impunity.
November 19, 2023
Indeed.
Yet another change that has entered into the lazy way that HMG now operate. There have been too many others, all designed to make parliament less effective.
Isn’t it time to roll the clock back and reinstitute procedures and offices as they were designed, when parliament did a proper job and HMG were really kept on their toes?
Liberalism, ignorance, a destruction of morals and the removed safeguards within the unwritten constitution will be the death of us yet!
November 19, 2023
Finkelstein and Paris gilded drawing room elitists in cahoots with Osborne/Cameron etc, all looking down their noses with distaste at us know nothing voters, good once every five years, then to be ignored, are well embedded in Tory policy making so it is no surprise the Times gets the inside track, nor that the Tories are so,out of touch.
November 19, 2023
Nigel,
The Times does have Rod Liddell – the broadsheet Jeremy Clarkson:-
āJust look at what theyāve been up to recently. First, the cancellation of the second leg of HS2 ā the bit that deals with the north ā so that money can be spent filling in potholes in Guildford and Weybridgeā
ā Anyway, no more talk of levelling-up. No more kowtowing to flat-capped old men with no teeth on mobility scooters. No more āthe north will rise againā. It wonāt.ā
Etc. Etc.
November 19, 2023
Indeed, these two ājournalistsā are consistency wrong on nearly everything – neither is remotely Conservatives. Paris can at least be amusing sometimes.
November 19, 2023
On this site there is much confusion among posters about the pricing of renewable electricity and how the CFD regime works.
CfDs incentivise investment in renewable energy by providing developers of projects which have high upfront costs and long lifetimes with direct protection from volatile wholesale prices; they also protect consumers from paying increased support costs when electricity prices are high.
The recent adjustment in support prices for offshore wind projects, from Ā£44/MWh to Ā£73/MWh, is part of government efforts to encourage investment in the nationās world-leading clean energy sector following the failure of the 2023 energy auction.
What this means is that if the spot price for electricty on the European energy market (to which we are linked by the interconnectors) falls below Ā£73/MWh, the government supports the price by payments to the producers. In return, should the spot price exceed Ā£73/MWh, the producers pay the difference to the Treasury.
For comparison, last Friday 17Nov2023 the average UK spot electricity price was Ā£97.38 MW/h. The all-time high was in Sept 2022 at Ā£580.55 MW/h.
November 19, 2023
So “investment” in intermittent, unreliable energy is encouraged by hiking up the price …. because otherwise it won’t be installed.
In other words, so-called green energy can’t compete in the real world. It requires subsidies and artificial pricing and ultimately, consumers paying far more for their energy ….. and that’s before we get onto the necessity of paying for RELIABLE sources of energy when the wind doesn’t blow/blows too hard and the sun doesn’t shine.
When it comes to confusion, the Eco Nutters win hands down.
November 19, 2023
If clean energy was that good why would support be required- produce it and sell at market demand rates.
November 19, 2023
If the prospects for renewable energy were any good, governments shouldn’t have to make “efforts to encourage” investment in it. I don’t recall governments making efforts to encourage car production in the 1960s or mobile telephones in the 1990s. Both very successful growth areas in the economy. And if you go back, coal-mining in Britain expanded enormously in the 19th and early 20th centuries without any help from governments as far as I know. The difference is that “”renewable energy is an international political agenda with no commercial viability of its own.
November 19, 2023
SG :
Firstly, when discussing the price of wind energy it needs to be stressed that wind energy is neither reliable nor dispatchable unlike both nuclear and hydrocarbon energy. It is parasitic energy always requiring a parallel system for grid stability and back-up. This makes its energy far less valuable, if it actually has any value at all, and effectively doubles our electricity costs, especially when costing in also the necessary grid upgrades.
Secondly the prices you quote of Ā£44/MWhr increasing to Ā£73/MWhr are ā2012ā prices and Ā£73/MWhr is today around Ā£105/MWhr. This ā2012ā pricing is designed by the Government and the wind industry to confuse everyone else as to the real prices.
Thirdly wind farms, particularly offshore wind farms, do not have a ālong lifetimeā economically. Perhaps just 15 years, a quarter of the lifetime of hydrocarbon and nuclear plants. This means wind farms just completed in 2020 will require complete replacement by the 2035 decarbonisation date. Furthermore, and this is important considering the short lifespans, offshore wind requires 1000 times more concrete and steel than nuclear per unit of power and 2000 times more than for hydrocarbon plant.
Fourthly, CfDs are not the only source of income. Wind farms also receive constraint payments which also allows wind farms to sell the same electricity twice by receiving constraint payments whilst selling the same electricity off-grid.
Fifthly the CfDs are not binding contracts and wind farms have not been taking up their contracts and have instead been selling on the free market. For instance, Moray East, had a CfD of Ā£57.50/MWhr at 2012 prices, now, Ā£74.49/MWhr, has been selling its electricity at an average of Ā£234/MWhr since it started generating in June 2021, well in excess of the average of Ā£168/MWhr for gas generators during the same period :
https://www.ref.org.uk/ref-blog/377-moray-east-windfarm-the-benefits-of-deferring-cfd-uptake-a-remote-location
So the CfD was of no benefit at all to the consumer. The cheapest offshore wind being sold currently via CfD is Triton Knoll (AR2) at Ā£97.82/MWhr, a far cry from the Ā£37.65/MWhr claimed for AR4 bids which will never be built.
Nuclear is the only sensible way forward to provide low CO2 emitting affordable, reliable, abundant and secure energy.
November 19, 2023
At 19% in the polls, the Autumn Statement will have nothing to do with the economy and everything to do with “Saving the LibCONs” from complete obliteration by a furious electorate.
November 19, 2023
@Donna +1 that means 290 so-called Conservative MP’s have consigned themselves to losing their jobs – by choice.
November 19, 2023
From the MSM – “According to Electoral Calculus even that scenario would see Sunak lose his Richmond seat with the party left with just 63 seats.” from the PM he has created a strong unified cabinet – united about what?
November 19, 2023
united by all hanging on with their fingernails?
November 19, 2023
The obvious one is to reset the Personal tax allowance to allow for inflation whilst it has been frozen, then almost everyone benefits, even state pensioners.
In reality it’s all too little too late, Hunt overtaxed everyone a few years ago in a huge money grab because Sunak spent wildly during his tenure as Chancellor.
Thus we have had constant moving of the goal posts, where no one can make sensible decisions to plan for the future, in particular with regards to business investment.
Yo-Yo politics !
November 19, 2023
Budgeting twice a year now shows how misguided budgetary decisions are.
Correct decisions last, without needing corrective changes following twice as frequently.
November 19, 2023
Correct decisions would be a nice change. It took them 15 years to work out that Lord Adonisās moronic HS2 project was pissing money down the drain, Now the NHS wants to waste Ā£75 million on making ambulances ULEZ compliant. Load more doubtless spent by people pointlessly on horse boxes, camper vans and other vehicles too.
November 19, 2023
If the Government have really not, at this late stage, made their minds up about what is to be in the Autumn Statement, it clearly shows what a state of chaos they are in, and have no philosophy or principles whatsoever on which to base their actions. Something many of us have long suspected.
November 19, 2023
Cutting taxes when it is too late to benefit the economy before the election will be seen as a naked ploy to buy votes and will show comtempt for the People.
They will see through this and vote out these socialists.
Time for proper Conservatives to rid themselves of these people and prepare for the government after next.
November 19, 2023
Reducing inheritance tax would be a good thing for my family, but my wife and I are not planning on dying for at least another decade or more so it can wait !
Lifting the 40% tax threshold is a very good idea but rather than take more people out of tax altogether by also lifting the starting figure for the 20% rate, I would re-introduce a 10% starting rate. People who pay no income tax at all, have no stake in keeping personal taxes low.
Our host’s oft-repeated call to raise the VAT threshold to Ā£250,000 would be a real game changer for small businesses as would throwing out the penal IR35 rules.
Finally, help landlords stay in business by restoring proper tax relief on BTL mortgage interest payments. Landords are the only business whose legitimate business costs do not get tax relief.
November 19, 2023
All good points though NI employer and employee is just poorly disguised income tax that nearly everyone working has to pay. Higher than income tax for most people too.
November 19, 2023
So … the BBC says that Hunt does not rule out tax cuts.
BBC News – Hunt does not rule out tax cuts in Autumn Statement
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67467116
Maybe Mr Hunt will be taking advice from Ms Truss ?
November 19, 2023
Can we please get away from the statement that Liz Truss and Kwasi Karteng crashed the economy; in 40 days, absolute bovine scatology. It was trashed by what Sunak did, probably in good faith, as a consequence of government collective decisions on how to navigate the Covid crisis. It was further exacerbated by actions of various components of the Blob , yes that same malign grouping who cut their teeth on scuppering Brexit, who hated in detail the thought of a real Conservative government that would not tolerate the consocialist close to EU playground they were more comfortable in. All the political shysters grab at the lifebelt of those 40 days as if it will save them from the consequences of their last 30 years, or any future years of their ruling, total hypochrocy.
November 19, 2023
+1
November 19, 2023
agricola “Can we please get away from the statement that Liz Truss and Kwasi Karteng crashed the economy … ”
It was a political hit job, a coup d’etat. Run by MPs in the commons under the influence of the WEF, and the WEFs own piggy bank Blackrock.
Liz doesn’t seem to mind much, as a consolation prize she’s been running around the world on the now obligatory speaking tour.
November 19, 2023
Does the OBR sign off his statement before the HoCs
Reply The OBR costs and forecasts from being told the budget measures in advance
November 19, 2023
Reply to reply
So the people that have habitually got things wrong get to mark the Chancellors homework.
You’ve gotta laugh.
November 19, 2023
Correct – If the OBR is just a ten year old quango, how come its wangging the governments tail …..just disband the OBR (”And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out” Matthew 5:29)
November 19, 2023
Sir
You say: “The National Insurance proposal is the least attractive.”
My concern is that there is an effective tax/National Insurance marginal rate of around 40% even for modest earners.
For example:
113.80 gross wage cost to employer
( 13.80) employer National Insurance
100.00 gross wage payment to employee
( 12.00) employee National Insurance
( 20.00) employee Income Tax
68.00 net wage received by employee
A reduction of the basic Income Tax Rate from 20% to 19% would, of course, make a small improvement to an employee’s position.
November 19, 2023
and then the employer will pay Corporation tax, the employee will pay tax on just about everything he/she does except maybe breathing.
November 20, 2023
Mikey Taking: “except maybe breathing”
That’s what the ‘Carbon’ ( CO2 ) tax is for.
November 19, 2023
Oldwulf, not quite, you are forgetting the personal national insurance free allowance.
The employer workplace pension contribution starts from Ā£6250 pa from Ā£120. per week.
But employerās national insurance doesnāt start until someone earns Ā£241. per week.
Income tax doesnāt start until someone earns Ā£241.per week.
November 19, 2023
@a-tracy
Sorry I was not clear.
I was intending to refer to the marginal tax and NI rates for modest earners, once they have crossed the various thresholds.
November 20, 2023
We are all āmodest earnersā now. If you want yo āget moneyā you have to go into the gutter, there is plenty there – ask Farageā¦
November 19, 2023
+1
November 19, 2023
āTime was when the Autumn Statement was an annual reviewā Time was when we the electorate didnāt have to endure successive weak PMās and Governments
All that has happened is it has been confirmed the previous short-term PM, with her Socialist upbringing and remain voting, along with her Chancellor was right in what was needed for the Country. It needed shaking up, rebalancing and a strong economy. This caused fear in the āfreeloadersā of the Establishment, the collective āBlobā who knew they were the problem and set about briefing and fighting the needed changes to the way the UK is run. So, after wasting time, bowing to the wasters and their Lords and Masters in the āBlobā it is beginning to dawn on the Conservative Party that Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng were 100% correct all along. All and any of the changes needed will rock the boat amongst the unelected unaccountable whom have been allowed to thing they run the Country and the UK is not destined to be a democracy
The Conservative Party have now realized all the UKās ills can be solved with a thriving economy. With 350 Conservative MPās sitting in Parliament, it is dawning on by latest prediction that 290 of these MPās are destined to lose their seats. A weak PM and out depth Conservative Government is the only problem
The same 290 MPās could limit how many of them get to lose their jobs (or maybe they donāt care), but just like a ārabbitā caught in the headlights they are paralyzed, frozen and brain dead ā they are refusing to redress the problem.
November 19, 2023
Those 290 MP’s have all but given up.
Serves most if them right anyway. Especially my Tory MP !!
November 19, 2023
Sir John
I do appreciate and applaud the efforts and themes you keep presenting with your āDiaryā
You are clearly a Conservative, but you are a Conservative in a Socialist WEF Government that have no interest in the UK. So each and every time you present or ask reasonable questions that are then followed up by your well informed audience, its all for nought. Yes, you have tested Conservative thinking, by the responses you have like me a large Conservative following. Everything then hits a brick wall, your Party has put in place all the characters that are wasters, freeloaders but never in a million years Conservatives. Self-interest, egos and self-gratification are the only results from them to date, the sound-bite is more important than the job, more important than doing anything ā managing.
Its now coming up for 10 years since the then PM, now unaccountable foreign secretary promised to stop illegals descending on the UK. There has been a total refusal of the Conservative Government to manage this.
Never forget the ECHR is not compatible with being a democracy, they(the Bureaucrats the unelected, the unaccountable) granted rights that in a democracy would never been taken away. They have sort to nullify a reason to have an elected democratic Parliament
November 20, 2023
Ian B: ” a Conservative in a Socialist WEF Government … ”
With it’s fixation on ‘right speech’, the ‘online harms bill’, which isn’t at all concerned with vulnerable children, if they were they’d be putting police on the streets in ( known ) areas where children are at high risk, but for forty years, successive governments have ignored known risks to children in those areas.
And, all the other repressive measures implemented to ‘protect us’, which are actually intended to repress the population and deny it the ability to discus issues and topics among ourselves.
This is not a Socialist government, it is a fascist oligarchy. Both party machines have inverted ( perverted ) the control of the selection mechanisms so that only ‘the right’ people get slotted into Parliament.
Thus, we get people like Matt Hancock, who was exposed during the COVID coverup, sorry, I mean COVID enquiry, as a incompetent liar. That is the type of individual that gets promoted into government these days.
Do you recall each time there was a terrorist outrage, the Prime minister any Prime Minister would go on Television to say, ‘We must not allow terrorists to change our way of life’, then promptly pass the most repressive ( to date ) piece of legislation into law?
Thus changing our way of life for the worse, for ever.
November 19, 2023
So “I have no idea what the PM and Chancellor will decide” – that makes three of you then!
As Mr. Osborne might admonish, they did not repair the roof when the sun shone for a brief interlude. You have shown what we could have instead and so we know things do not have to be the bad way they are under Mr. Hunt’s tenure.
November 19, 2023
You three could play ‘paper, scissors, stone’ to decide who chooses?
November 19, 2023
Iām with Hoyle on this. Deliberate leaking to the press prior to a budget is a contempt of Parliament. The FCA could also investigate it as it enables what could broadly be classed as insider dealing.
November 19, 2023
Hoyle should demand a meeting with the Times to ask if this is someone working in the Treasury leaking otherwise its speculation that itās deliberate.
November 19, 2023
I’m confused. Getting down inflation is a priority? How?
The BoE has been accused of setting and holding interest rates too high for too long by our host, saying that the job is already done since the effect takes a while to filter through.
So perhaps that proposal needs a little more explanation? Is the proposal to reduce tax rates and increase thresholds to stimulate growth and thereby reduce inflation?
To me the real priority is getting rid of Employers NI (see my response to the first post in this thread) – or setting the level it kicks in to a very high threshold, beyond the earnings of any self-employed worker.
Reply No confusion .Higher rates for longer will get inflation down at the price of no growth. pushing inflation down quicker would allow lower rates and some growth sooner.
November 20, 2023
Reply to reply – but my question was “how?” (if it’s *not* via higher rates).
Presumably the BoE are holding rates high for as long as they think will get inflation down as quickly as possible, so your view (it seems) must be either:
1. Even higher rates for a shorter period (would that really reduce inflation faster?)
2. The job is already done, so reduce rates immediately.
Or… something else that’s not obvious.
I’m simply asking to know which it is, since you *seemed* to be suggesting option 1 but that would be against your previously-stated view that the BoE was already raising rates too high. If it’s option 2 that wasn’t clear to me (but I would agree wholeheartedly).
November 19, 2023
I take The Times but overall there is a lot of rubbish in what it publishes . The predictions made in The Times about the Autumn Statement are simply a means of filling up space ; I consider what Sir Johns’ views are about the economy as something based on a proper and deep understanding . Conservative voters would support him if he was the Chancellor because his approach would bring about the changes necessary to re-create stability and growth . Sunak would be wise to follow his judgement and put him in charge .
November 19, 2023
There should be two priorities, economic and it being so close to an election, political as well.
Economically, the priorities to promote growth should I think be cuts to Corporation Tax and Capital Gains Tax (especially after the abolition of index linking) and reform of V.A.T. to abolish the ‘cliff edge’ at Ā£85,000 turnover by giving a reduction of Ā£10,000 per year off V.A.T. liabilities.
Politically, it is essential to replace Sunak as people won’t trust his u-turning or promises because he has broken too many promises and engineered the highest tax burden on people for 70 years. Nothing will work unless Sunak is replaced by somebody articulate who has consistently and genuinely believed in tax cutting and has the will and resilience to see it through. The most electorally impactful tax cutting is Income Tax – a cut to to 19p standard rate (and 39p higher rate and 44p top rate), not next April but now (to show real intent) and a further 1p cut in all rates of Income Tax promised for each April for 5 years beginning with a cut to 18p (38p-43p) next April with cuts in public expenditure to match (freezing disability benefits, pending tightening eligibility criteria for them would be a start, as would be reducing railway expenditure and a recruitment freeze on most public employees) or else it won’t be credible.
Those are my suggestions, the most eletorally critical of which is replacing Sunak now.
November 19, 2023
“There is a suggestion in the press that the latest figures give the Chancellor more scope to cut taxes as the outlook is better again than OBR forecasts.”
Does it ever occur to the Chancellor that he has personally reduced the number of Conservative MPs to a trickle in the next parliament, all for the sake of believing a serially misleading ‘advisory body’, the OBR, whose ‘advice’ is always totally contrary to classical Tory economic policy?
November 19, 2023
Distinctly better than ‘tax cuts’ would be a rise in the tax threshold and harmonisation of the rules for ‘NI’ and ‘income tax’. Rich people, incl. over-66s, should pay full NI. It was sneaky to use ‘fiscal drag’ to covertly raise taxes and not to raise the tax threshold, a reversal of what the Conservative-Lib.Dem. government had done.
I was not amused by the press rumour that the state pension may fail to rise in line with the ‘triple lock’. Please would the government either a) openly abolish the triple lock, and face the public outrage, or b) confirm that it accepts the principle and that it will continue.
Its purpose was always to re-establish the link between the state pension and average earnings that had existed in the distant past. I believe the pension had then been about two-fifths of mean income (not of the median income). Forgive me if my figures are slightly out but my impression is that the 2023 pension is about one-third of mean income. It hasn’t quite returned to where it perhaps should be.
November 19, 2023
Robert the overall tax threshold was increased by Ā£3000 last year? Giving most people (all those earning between Ā£9570 and Ā£12570 or more an extra Ā£300).
November 20, 2023
and their basic living costs increased by…?
November 23, 2023
I agree but that would have happened without the threshold increasing and people would have been even worse off.
Newspaper journalists keep lazily writing that all thresholds were frozen when this is incorrect.
I am pretty depressed that Hunt didn’t take off Osborne’s sneaky removal of child benefit for those earning over Ā£50k. It doesn’t affect me but it stinks, especially for one-earner households, when one family can earn Ā£98k and the one next door loses their benefit at Ā£50k it is grossly unfair.
November 19, 2023
Daily Mail has a video of a teacher pushing transgenderism to young children. This must be Government policy because nothing is being done to stop it. Why are the MPs who represent ordinary people not challenging Ministers on this issue?
November 19, 2023
Not until Donald J Trump is rightfully restored as the PRESIDENT of the US will anything happen. Then the SHTF and panic will ensue and the rats will be scampering if not trapped. Bring it on.
November 19, 2023
What a price the USA has paid for allowing the usurper free rein for a few years! Lost the Petro-dollar. Aboit yo lose the Reserve Currency – Trump will not be able to do anything about that. All he can do is retrench and bring all the jobs back to the USA. That leaves Europe neck deep in it!
We need to retrench too. Bring everything home – look at what a massive boots the āsanctionsā gave the Russian economy. 3% growth, short of workers, unbelievable building and manufacturing programme.
November 20, 2023
LA – . Throw away your TV set and think again. The Globalist EU along with many other so-called “humane organisations” is corrupt so the sooner it collapses the better. Do not concern yourself with Russia think about the Infiltration from Within inside the UK.
Why did Cameron suddenly rush off to Ukraine – panic ensues.
November 20, 2023
And yet the resolution foundation via the Guardian asks us ‘should we envy Americans’?
‘Purely on economics’ they claim, ‘millenials…should be green eyed’. US Millenials have staged a recovery from the crash of 2008. incomes of those in their 30s 21% than their predecessors the same age in 2007. British peers still have lower incomes today then 30 somethings in pre-financial crash Britain. Graduate pay dropped in the UK for 30-34 year olds by 16%, 2007 to 2023. US incomes grew 17% between 2007 and 2021 -v- just 2% in the UK.
I also suspect the NMW and Working Time Directive we adopted has something to do when comparing pre 1998 incomes to today as hours of work have dropped, holidays have increased, more breaks and rest periods. The Americans didn’t get that and also didn’t have the same minimum floor of additional wage costs. I wonder when the Resolution Foundation compare if they compares healthcare costs, pension costs and the rest.
November 19, 2023
The Autumn Statement is simply a distraction, a re-arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic, whilst those in control continue to destroy our countryās economy through Net Zero and our national cohesion and stability with the massive immigration of alien cultures.
November 19, 2023
To my mind a welcome tax cut would be (without cutting any tax) to restore inflation-indexed allowances, not just for the BR, 40% and 60% income tax rates, but also do something to revive business and the stock market by increasing ISA allowances and undo the miserably draconian cut in CGT allowances and dividend allowances.
Inflation has been caused by the government and BoE – politicians and central bankers do not suffer from it, why make the worker and (already taxpaying) saver pay for this fraud?
IHT is a windfall tax on unearned wealth – the alternative is a wealth tax. Nobody wants that. So IHT it must remain, until we all become a lot richer as a nation (if ever).
November 19, 2023
I would favour:
(1) Taking those earning Ā£20,000 out of personal tax and NI altogether
(2) Raising the 40% threshold to Ā£70,000
(3) Reducing corporation tax from 25% to 12.5%
Public expenditure would need to be reduced as much as – and preferably more than – the reduction in tax revenue.
Item (1) could be balanced by reducing benefits, in particular the Universal Credit benefit cap.
Item (2) could be balanced by removing the cap on Council Tax which the banding system has caused. Band H currently covers a huge spectrum of property values.
Item (3) might be self financing as a result of some international paying tax in UK rather than in the Irish Republic.
Public expenditure cuts could include:
– Unnecessary NHS overhead jobs such as Equality and Diversity Officers, more than half of the Senior Managers, and some non-clinical jobs not supporting clinical staff
– Surplus railway jobs not needed because of reduced demand for rail services
– Payments for legal aid made to Lefty immigration lawyers
– Eliminating attendances at COP conferences and instead holding meetings by Zoom
– Scrapping the OBR
– Ceasing payments to hostile international organisations such as the IMF
– Paying less to our self indulgent monarch and his bloated family
The list of possible cuts is more or less endless.
November 20, 2023
IMHO I am convinced that car insurance premiums have rocketed in recent years due to the rise of Ā£30k ++++ EVs and new hybrid vehicles coming out as you cannot buy anything mainstream under Ā£20k anymore and they further bloat the cost of living. It also explains why most new private car sales have been dominated by PCP due to unaffordable prices of new cars, amongst other things.
November 20, 2023
Sorry O – missed it. comment was posted.
November 21, 2023
“The National Insurance proposal is the least attractive” ?
When you talk about NI, you are talking about Employers, as well as Employee, NI.
Of the two sides, a cut in Employer NI would reduce the cost of Employing someone, so making investing in the number of staff more profitable, so a direct boost to Business activity?
?
BR
RDM.