Mr Burnham has said he wants to revive our High Streets. So far all he has promised is to cut Business rates on pubs and cafes , put up to business killing levels by Rachel Reeves. What about the shops and many other small businesses that enliven town centres? He says he will pay for this by raising rates on warehouses used by on line retailers, so shoppers will still have to pay the extra to feed the government monster.
We know Mr. Burnham has visited some High Streets. He seems aware of closed businesses and the tatty state of some of them. But where is the vision or thought out plan to right them? Where the concern about dreadful levels of unemployment for the young, denied jobs in hospitality, leisure and retail by the Labour tax storm?
He should start by reversing the huge damage Starmer/ Reeves did to employment and service levels in shops. The jobs tax or National Insurance surcharge, the higher Minimum Wages and the rip off business rate hikes all left many shops reeling. Many young people cannot get their starter or student jobs on the High Street anymore because government taxes have priced them out.
The government has failed to supply the police officers and the money needed to clamp down on shoplifting, graffiti and anti social behaviour, putting shoppers off going into town. They can buy on line instead.
The government attacks and blames some of our most successful shops, the large food retailers. It wants to blame them for the inflation the Bank and Treasury have unleashed.. The government seems unaware of the low single figure percentage margins the supermarkets make. It is oblivious to how competitive they are and what good service they provide.
Think again, Mr Burnham. Get the taxes and government imposed costs down. Back small business and independent shops. Introduce enough police to tackle the crimes on the High Street, making them safe and pleasant again.
August 29, 2026
Lord Redwood, you criticise Burnham’s policies as if he is patriotic and trying his best for this country. This is an entirely false premise. As Fabians he and his government hate sovereign nation states with controlled borders. They viscerally hate enterprising successful white people with conservative values. They hate private property, private capital and private enterprise. They hate accountability to the populace. Rather they believe the populace should be subservient to the state, to Their Socialist State. This is what they have in common with and allies them to Islamism, total subservience of the population to a state in which only the one ideology is permitted.
Everything you advocate here is anathema to them and they want it expunged totally and irreversibly.
August 29, 2026
David Starkey was not impressed by the organisational ability of Fabians and he did attend the LSE
(curiously not a Lifelogic target).
Fabians seem to have replaced Common Purpose as the popular dark force.
August 29, 2026
Oh the LSE has churned out some truly appalling lefty economists and this has done some vast harms Worldwide but then so has Cambridge and Oxford. My brother in law got a first there 50 odd years back and remained in academia (but he is actually quite sound politially – nowadays anyway).
Whenever I mention Oxbridge to him he tells me it is no longer referred to as “Oxbridge” but the Golden Triangle to included London Universities – Even the LSE and that place with Neil Ferguson (epidemiologist) director of the Jameel Institute and the School of Public Health at Imperial College.
August 29, 2026
All sensible stuff.
As you say “Where the concern about dreadful levels of unemployment for the young, denied jobs in hospitality, leisure and retail by the Labour tax storm? (and their moronic workers rights bill and minimum wage increases). This is surely one of the most evil thing they have done. The minimum wage law is a law that prevents some people from working even if they want to work and the employer want to take them on!
About 13%, or roughly one in eight, of young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are not in education, employment, or training (NEET) and rising.
Around 19% to 20% of adults (roughly one in five) in England are also estimated to be prescribed antidepressants based on recent NHS data tracking patient numbers against the adult population too. I wonder how many of these are actually swallowed and how many are just given out when patients are trying to justify benefit claims.
August 29, 2026
So you are happy to have people employed for £1/hour with the employer creaming off the extra saved with the rest of us paying tax to subsidise these cheapskates through the benefits system?
No thank you. We don’t need a race to the bottom.
August 29, 2026
Peter
Yes there are always people who will take advantage of the system, but the open market works both ways, you simply will not get anyone working for long if you pay low wages and have poor conditions of work, as word gets around fast, and customers also often find out and then spend their money elsewhere.
At the moment we are simply encouraging less work for young people, and denying them any sort of work experience and time discipline
Like many of my generation at 14 years old I did a paper round, had to get up at 6.00 in the morning to get washed, dressed, have breakfast, and complete my round before getting/walking one mile to school for the playground football match before School assembly (was never late) and that time discipline never left me all my working life.
I was fortunate that my parents also had the same work ethic, and encouraged self sufficiency, which we also practiced and encouraged for our own Children.
August 29, 2026
There is competition in the jobs market too. Aldi and Lidl ask a lot of its workforce so pay well.
An employer paying £1 per hour would get the dross and suffer
August 29, 2026
It does not force them to work for £1 an hour it is their choice. The law as it stands make it illegal for them to work (of even leant to work) at all – even if if they wanted too. They may well prefer to work at say a garden centre or cafe next door to home to working in a bar in town after a hours commute each way. The former jobs per hour might actually work out better after cost and travelling time anyway.
August 29, 2026
The only real protection for workers is lots of other jobs they can move to if they want to. JUST as the best protection for tenants is lots of alternative properties to rent. This governments workers right act and tenant rights act damages this and tenants hugely.
August 29, 2026
A Heath today;-
“The council election results this week provide a devastating insight into the impact of the three-way split of the UK’s Right-leaning population. Constituencies where the Conservatives would have once swept to victory have now fallen to Labour.”
I suspect the problem here is that so many Tory voters are quite (or very elderly) and are always have, always will Tory voter (and likely to remain like that). This is a big problem for the right or slightly right. Right leaning voters need to be able to recognise who the best to beat Labour/Green/Libdim candidate is. Now that is usually Reform but will this get through to a 88 years Aunty Winifred or 86 year old uncle Alfred?
One would have thought that most of the Restore supporting voters would have grasped this though. Perhaps though some are cofused their (surely deliberately) rather similar party names.
Reply Insulting Conservative voters is a good way to damage your preferred Reform.
August 29, 2026
Reply – reply
Not an insult John, just a fact of life, many Labour and LibDem supporters/voters will do exactly the same and would never even contemplate voting for anyone else, no matter what the circumstances or policies.
August 29, 2026
I do not think it was an insult, merely an observation that some/many older people can become very fixed in their ways. My Grandmother (who always voted Tory) at about 80 needed a new cooker as the old one failed. After that she could never turn the right ring on pan on one ring but she switched on another one. For sweets she only ever had Foxes Glacier Mints rather fixed on those too. It goes for many Libdem and Labour voters too.
Clearly in Dover the only realisticly possible way to keep the Greens out was to vote for Reform rather than Tory or Restore. 389 Labour voters too.
Reform UK 733 votes
DODD Ingrid Helena
The Green Party 767 (Elected)
HAWKES David Arthur Local Conservatives 456
HERMER Jeremy Peter
Restore Britain 284
WANSTALL Graham Richard Independent 35
WISBEY Stephen
Labour Party 389
August 29, 2026
where is the concern for the graduate and native IT workforce replaced on an industrial scale by imported ( foreign ed)workforces allowed to work in the UK without paying any national insurance?
August 29, 2026
+1 an absurd competitive advantage and bias in the tax system. Blatant anti-UK worker discrimination.
The National Insurance (NI) exemption related to temporary workers from India was agreed upon by the Labour government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, as part of a bilateral trade agreement and Double Contributions Convention (DCC) with India
August 29, 2026
It already existed, but was one year only, so they would pair 2 up, one in India and one here and swap them every 12 months, so between the pair perpetually putting a local out of a job.
But Starmer increased it to 5 years. 5 years without having to pay employers or employees National Insurance. They are also allowed to claim for things as “tax free expenses”, for things that Brits working far from home within the UK are not allowed to claim. So, all in all, massive tax advantages to undercut the local workforce. So, of course, the locals get displaced and the imports take over.
It also leads to locals refusing to study or learn the occupations where this is dominant, as they can see all the jobs go to foreigners. So the immigration policies of the government cause skills shortages amongst the locals, they sure dont solve them.
August 29, 2026
+1
August 29, 2026
there is only one nationality allowed to work here without paying any national insurance, its pointless removing that nationality when there is only one such country
August 29, 2026
I am particularly struck by the Labour party deal with Sainsbury’s where they have laid off thousands of workers, and are replacing them with thousands of free workers as state endorsed supposed “work experience”. Without this state endorsement it would otherwise be known as slave labour enforced by the threat of removing benefits. I also think its hilarious to see Labour ministers wearing Sainsbury’s tops which are sourced via Dimensions from makers in the far east, and have replaced similar garments made in the UK. In the same way I have seen Labour ministers saying how great the imported Chinese buses in their area are, ignoring the destruction of the UK bus industry.
August 29, 2026
Lifelogic,
Don’t go down minimum wage route! By doing so you’re triggering people with memories of Victorian chimney sweeps … And so the parties on the right lose millions of votes to Labour / Lib Dems / Greenies. We don’t want that!
It’s a non-issue. Let’s keep it like that. The rest of our competitors in the Western world have similar minimum wage. Except USA.
But despite all our problems, living in the UK is about x 100 better than living in the USA (and about 10 x times better than anywhere else in the Western world).
Lastly, the one thing for sure we should be copying from the USA is doing our best to turn Cambridge-Oxford-London area into the world’s 2nd Silicon Valley. That would hugely boost and stabilise our economy.
And the most important thing we should be doing is reducing national debt (USA needs to do the same too).
August 29, 2026
the US is great in places, but like their weather its a lot more extreme than the UK. the bad places are a lot worse, and the great places are a lot better. by comparison the difference between the extremes in the UK is not that big.
August 29, 2026
Great point. Some of the best people I’ve ever met are American (but way more crazy people there overall than here). My favourite book and film are American. And some great wild country in the USA (and extraordinary how so often they are completely empty).
Overall, though, England much easier place to live.
August 29, 2026
Burnham will not reverse anything, as Sir John is well aware.
It could have been added that getting to the High Street is often an unpleasant journey and empty shop premises don’t create an incentive to do so. Kingston has lost two Poundland stores in quick succession. Like Wilko, Poundland was a useful store for inexpensive bits and pieces.
Remaining stores are often of little use. Multiple barbers and fast food options. Even traditional markets are being take over by street food.
August 29, 2026
well we could level some playing fields. the pub trade pays way more tax serving the same beer that the supermarkets can sell with far less tax. bricks & mortar shops pay way more tax than online delivery outfits do selling the same thing. the radically different taxes are social engineering by the state, and the social engineering has gone too far, and looks really bad. instead of more social engineering we should simply strive to tax everyone the same for selling the same stuff, it would not be hard to achieve. then once there is equality of tax treatment let the market sort it out. the planning system does need fixing in town centres, and the Quangos which councils have often setup to administer day to day running of town centres could do with a lot more consistent profesionalisation.
August 29, 2026
I wonder what % of a pint of beer in a pub goes directly tax in total – with alcohol duty, vat, tax, NI, employers NI for the staff and council tax on the pub, insurance taxes, licence fees, carbon taxes on the heating… must be heading towards 80% + of it for many pubs.
If you brew it at home virtually no tax – so perhaps 40p a pint rather than £7. From a shop and drunk at home perhaps just £1.50 so the pubs close.
August 29, 2026
50 years ago Home Brewing was very popular. I can see this having a resurgence due to the ridiculous prices in pubs.
People will start to socialise more at home which is considerably cheaper.
This will suit the new cohort as the pubs can be repurposed as Mosques.
August 29, 2026
Ah – Home Brewing! Which (in my case) produced very mediocre results, although my white wine was more drinkable than my beer – about on par with the cheapest white you can buy today. In fact it was bottled & labled as ‘Chateau Plonk’. A friend became quite a good brewer however and I enjoyed quite a bit of his output (as did his neighbours). I’m not tempted to take up Home Brewing again though, far too much effort for a barely drinkable end result. Times and tastes have moved on I suspect.
August 29, 2026
Not at all home brewed bear can be very good indeed and is rather simple too, though tastes now have moved more towards lagers than bitters.
August 29, 2026
Indeed and it could often be rather better beer I found very easy to do. But drinking at home is rather different especially if you want to get a break from the wife or partner! A man shed at the bottom of the garden perhaps?
There used to be clubs where you could use there semi-professional boilers, fermenting and bottling facilitues etc. in some places. Perhaps a self cooking, wine making and brewing club is needed?
DIY and Barter is another big tax avoidance plan, I will fix your car if your daughter babysits for us or you paint my windows. Saves on VAT, NI, income tax, accounting and reporting costs, insurance taxes…
August 29, 2026
Buying inexpensive alcohol from shops is more of a threat to pubs than home brewing. People now consume more alcohol at home than they used to and it hits the pub trade.
August 29, 2026
yes cheap beer in supermarkets is often a loss leader, sold very cheap
August 29, 2026
Been informed that beer at this years Reading Festival is selling on site at £14.00 per pint !
Also informed you cannot take in your own drink other than water/water type dinks.
Thus Captive market, captive profiteering for either the stall holders, or the organisers..
August 29, 2026
I paid £20 the other day for two drinks. One was a large glass of wine which was £12 but £8 for a pint….
August 29, 2026
£8 + a pint is common in London.
August 30, 2026
I suspected that but then that becomes a treat rather than a regular escape
August 29, 2026
I was in Acton High Street yesterday – what a dump !
Acton has the most rail stations in London bearing its name and the High Street still has decent Victorian architecture, but it has Somali restaurants and people walking around in pyjamas after visiting the mosque. It was like being in Mogadishu or Islamabad. A real shock when approached from Ealing Common which still has a ‘Queen of the suburbs’ feel left over from earlier decades.
August 29, 2026
London is still the best city in the world though. And that’s not me being patriotic (which I am). Walking along the Thames alone from Hampton Court to Greenwich and everything off this, and then heading into the city north of the Thames all the way up to Hampstead Heath and beyond and even lots of interesting places south of the Thames. My friend and I recently went for a long walk, getting lost on purpose, and discovered this kind of beautiful lake thing with reeds everywhere. It was quite magical. There are magic spots like this all over London. Great city (including for shopping, of course).
August 29, 2026
Peter,
Stopped off at Ealing Broadway a few months ago for a reminicent stroll as had a couple of hours to spare, what a change from the days of the 1960’s and 70’s. I recognised the road layout and Walpole Park (with its now broken trees) but that was about it, graffiti, garish shop fronts spilling out over the broken pavements, litter strewn streets, hardly welcoming and in short a bit of a dump, unfortunately just like many areas of London and its outskirts now !
August 29, 2026
BA,
Walpole Park used to host good Summer festivals before lockdown when canvas tents were not so readily available and the council started charging more for the area. The Common is still quite nice. West Ealing onwards it gets worse.
August 29, 2026
BA,
I still have fond memories of Ealing and the indoor swimming pool in the town hall building. The pool near me was outdoor and unheated – not great for learning to swim. Then indoor pools became more common. There were a magnificent three pools at Swiss Cottage with quality diving boards. Next door was a first class library. Sadly those pools are gone now. Many Indoor pools were poorly constructed and took expensive to run. Additionally outdoor Lido facilities became fashionable again.
August 29, 2026
Peter
Ah yes Pools, Brentford had an indoor Pool (where I leaned to swim), Chiswick outdoors, Richmond indoor and outdoor, went to all of those in the 1960’s
Aware of Ealing pool but never went. Not many outdoor pools left now, although we actually had one in Wokingham when we moved into the area, had an underground nightclub in the grounds as well.
The owners left it to the Council for the use of the community, when they died.
The Council then sold it off for housing, after saying it was too expensive to maintain. !
August 29, 2026
used to have an old girlfriend there, such happy days
August 29, 2026
The advent of online shopping has affected traditional High Street shopping.
I should imagine one of the main reasons is choice.
Every town centre has the same parade of big chain shops, but online you can find many independent makers and sellers of all sorts.
In the small Fenland Market town where I grew up in the 1970’s, there were many independent shops selling all sorts of things. These shops had been in families for generations.
Enter the big chain retailers and they disappeared.
It seems now the only independent shops are owned by Asians or the ubiquitous Turkish barbers, fast food outlets etc. How they can stay afloat with hardly anyone seeming to use them, while small shops owned by English people struggle with the costs and red tape, raises my eyebrows.
They always look grubby too which doesn’t help a High Street already struggling to look inviting with boarded up shops.
As for our youth being unemployed, well when people from elsewhere are being brought in and given the opportunities of training etc. what chance have many got. They are not only up against chasing fewer jobs but DEI as well.
All the big stores local to me have security guards, all are foreigners (yes I said it) many with poor English language
skills.
So who paid for their training? How do they get training when often our unemployed have to wait ages for a course?
August 29, 2026
Indeed, who would pay high car parking charges to visit the areas you describe when out of town shopping centres with free parking exist.
Such a shame that so many buildings of real character have been destroyed/modified with countless signage of poor quality.
August 29, 2026
David Cameron was ‘seduced’ by Mary Portas to do the same thing and singularly failed.
There is almost nothing in any high street apart from pubs, restos etc that will attract me to them.
A typical day yesterday. Amazon wider choice than any high street can provide, competitive pricing, customer reviews, delivered today.
‘Out of town German’ supermarket, cheaper than any high street,
Round corner massive Tesco, then M and S.
The large footfall says it all.
Politicians seem to have some emotional attachment to High Streets but the world has moved on. Instead of ineffective tinkering that wastes more money they should leave well alone.
King Canute like trying to beat the market. Doomed to fail
August 29, 2026
There used to be decent greengrocers, bakers, butchers, fishmongers on High Streets – independents as well as Dewhurst and MacFisheries.
Aldi/Lidl are not great for that. Meat is often sold with a sauce applied instead of basic cuts. Processed food creeping into the butchery section.
M&S was never much good for basic food stuff. They were the leaders in processed stuff – chicken Kiev etc.
Tesco is a bit better, but if you want, say, decent aubergines you have to go the Asian shops as they have cornered the market. The big stores just get the leftovers.
Even proper markets are disappearing and being replaced by so called ‘street food’. Home delivery is completely useless for fresh food.
August 29, 2026
There’s some truth to that Nigl and it’s not only the customers who have moved on. If I was interested in setting up a small ‘Retail’ business, I’d certainly not be thinking of a traditional High Street ‘Shop’ but of an eBay (or similar – Etsy etc) online outlet. I have a number of hobbies and although I do sometimes buy direct from China for some specialist bits, I prefer to use UK based specialist sellers who ship the same day and only change a small markup, simply for the convenience of quick delivery. I know some of these (maybe all) are one man bands who buy in bulk and sell on in smaller quantities probably from their garages
Both eBay and Amazon host these companies these days and even larger companies (that operate their own websites) offer their products via eBay as well, I assume for the ‘online’ footfall. The future of the High Street is going to be a mix of social centre and ‘convenience’ shopping I feel. I was in Wokingham yesterday and purchased Birthday Cards, Donuts, Stamps, some AA Batteries and (the actaul reason for going in) – for my wife, the local newspapers. Everything else is normally from our supermarkets (we have a good choice) or online. Times change and it’s very hard to put the clock back…
August 29, 2026
The single biggest change that is needed to save and even reinvigorate the high streets is to allow easy people access to the shops. Government needs to remove the anti traffic doctrine it has installed in every council up and down the country. The death of parking freedoms and the rise of costs associated with personal motor travel is what is killing the high St. The graffiti,, the crime the squalor and the boarded up shop scene, is simply the governments policy to stop car use. They wanted to stop freedom of car use via no parking zones, penalty charges, congestion charges, restrictions to road width, then they added closures and low traffic zones plus aggressive camera charging for the slightest indiscretion along with 20 MPH limits, they have successfully destroyed the desire for people to use the High St.
Why are they doing it? Where is the upside in destroying a functioning social good?
August 29, 2026
save our men
why are suicides so high amongst men after being subjected to the divorce system in the UK?
why are so many children left without access to their dads?
why does the state encourage money grabbing females to destroy family units?
why are family courts subject to so little scrutiny?
fathers4justice are basically correct, and most of the men I know agree with them, yet not a single politician is prepared to speak on their behalf, presumably in fear of the woke party machines they all work within.
August 29, 2026
+1 it is very unfair – the wife invatiably get the house and the children and then she needs all your money too. Plus she can easity make it almost impossible for you (or your parents) have have real access to the children that you are paying for.
August 29, 2026
Lord JR. If you want to see a perfect example of the destruction of our ‘high streets’ Google photographs of Gravesend Kent (if you would rather not name this town, remove the name but google it whatever)
Find photos from the sixties/seventies and compare them to photos from today. It’s absolutely horrifying.
August 29, 2026
The problem with our high streets is that they’ve been ruined, to an important degree, by ugly/naff signage, ugly/naff shopping malls, ugly modern concrete buildings, run-down buildings, global brands as opposed to independent shops with charm and the personal touch, and a lot of people hanging about with tattoos and not up to much good. People now are well travelled and better educated and want a more charmed experience when they go shopping – or else they will just shop online.
And God rest Dolly Parton. She was never shy to express her Christian faith. And always combined this with charm, humour, hard work, kindness and humility.
August 29, 2026
The reason Dolly Parton was so beloved was that no one knew what she didn’t like only what she liked. She knew that if you don’t have something good to say you don’t talk.
If only voters were given a choice between good candidates rather than the least worst.
August 29, 2026
Dolly Parton: “I’m not offended by all dumb blonde jokes – because I know I’m not dumb—and I’m not blonde either.”
August 29, 2026
I’m not saying she’s a saint but she certainly maintained a lot of her youthful charm. Which I think is part of her Christian belief. Sadly so many people misunderstand Christianity. They think it is really dour on one hand or happy clappy on other. Shouldn’t be either. Rather, it should be a lot what Dolly embodied: making people laugh and feel warm and safe and comfortable and alive inside. That you make them feel they are at home in your presence. And inspired. And valued. And all that. That you try and draw out the fun and humour and sense of adventure and spontaneity and personality in others. For me, Dickens does this brilliantly in the character of Sam Weller. That is key to neighbourly love (sure, giving money and time and attention to the poor and needy and vulnerable is a key part of it too – but soo much of the Good Samaritan is also just about loving others those around us in a human way – those who feel dry and empty and unloved etc – it’s unbelievable how soooo many people feel unloved from one degree to another, all the way from people in the aristocracy to people living on the street – and challenging them too in an encouraging way – not just soft love).
August 29, 2026
Good morning.
The nature of shopping is changing, from the high street, to on line. The consumer is leading the way, not the government. No amount of subsidy is going to save it.
August 29, 2026
Car parking charge isn’t a subsidy, its a direct tax revenue for local government and business rate charge isn’t a subsidy, its another direct tax revenue for government
August 29, 2026
We have no use for most of our high streets. If they didn’t already exist we would not create them. Property companies are lumbered with them and are forced to rent out to cheap vape shops, barbers, charity shops. Locally a few old established firms own the land and cling on. But eventually they too will give up.
Locally our ‘proper’ Post Office closed and transferred to a flogged off ex newsagent/bookshop place. Now the slowest lousiest Post Office you could ever find. Parliament made no requirement for service standards – Parliament said ‘make it as sh^&y as you like’. Parliament does not care about British people.
Business rates and rates and taxes of all kinds have to go up to keep our armies of not-very-useful people going. The alternative is mass riots or total lawlessness. Essentially government and Parliament has become an expensive overpaid boondoggle. Keeping itself going and nothing else. Burnham or Badenoch – the economic facts of life deliver the same.
Over the years the big pension funds have got out of the High Street. The better shops are owned by foreign chains. But lower down the chain local councils own some. Estates Gazette tells us the problem is highly fragmented ownership. A classic picture of ongoing decline.
August 29, 2026
There was a time when local planning office dictated the number and type of business in the high street …..now they don’t care if 90% are takeaways, nail polish or turkish barbers
August 29, 2026
they would prefer almost anything to an empty unit.
indeed one of the best charity activities I ever saw was a free 2nd hand book distribution setup, which would get free shop units from councils, and use them to distribute (and collect) free 2nd hand books. was an all round great idea. staffed by volunteers. books came in as donations. books could be taken by anyone who wanted. helps literacy. becomes a great social meeting place. only seen it in Essex though. one of those great ideas that could be spread nationwide to help lots of people. kinda depends on councils making empty shop units available though.
August 29, 2026
‘Politicians seem to have some emotional attachment to High Streets but the world has moved on. Instead of ineffective tinkering that wastes more money they should leave well alone’
– Well said. I spend a lot of time in Hampshire. Old market towns such as Basingstoke and Andover have been ruined beyond repair. If people are going to go ‘smart’ shopping in Hampshire, they’ll go to Winchester or Alresford or Stockbridge (or to Marlborough etc). And will only nip into the ‘ugly’ places to do a quick food shop. And then will go shopping in London as a special treat. And buy cheap stuff online.
August 29, 2026
Online shopping with their associated warehouses only happened because high taxation was closing down the high street. Burnham will not help anybody by taxing the warehouses, far from it, he will force online shopping facilities to wither and die as well!
Our host is spot on with his suggestions but tax cuts are something labour do not believe in – watch the hard left MPs go Apoplectic at the very idea.
High streets are an indicator of how well or how badly the UK is doing economically. By this marker the economy is being boarded up and ready to be shut down fully.
August 29, 2026
a lot of the warehouses are in tax havens, like the channel islands, and similar with the company structures used by online retailers. taxing UK warehouses more will just result in more of that.
August 29, 2026
High taxes on High Street, low tax on Amazon (09/06/2026 ‘Amazon’s main UK arm handed £7.6m tax credit as profits soar to £355m’).
Amazon has 28 warehouses (‘fulfilment centres’) in the UK. Do you really think Amazon, giving the tax advantages they were given by successive governments (in the UK and obviously also the EU27) is going to wither?
mirror.co.uk 01/06/2023 ‘Anger as Amazon avoids millions of pounds in corporate tax thanks to Rishi Sunak scheme’.
telegraph.co.uk 03/03/2021 ‘Amazon to be among winners of UK tax ‘super-deduction’’.
bbc.co.uk 05/09/2020 ‘Amazon pays &290m in UK tax as sales surge to £14bn’.
In 2020 the UK tax was 2% on digital sales.
Reply Never a good word about a successful company serving millions of us well, creating a lot of jobs in the UK.
August 29, 2026
Not at all, but as usual you advise a decrease of the taxation for the small High Street businesses without seeing (I guess you are absolutely blind to it) that Amazon et al. benefit from advantages the smaller fishes can only dream of.
What about, for once, starting to consider a ‘level-playing’ field between the huge companies and the SMEs business decreasing a bit the charges of the SMEs and putting similar levels of taxes on the behemoths?
Reply By trying to do that we have lost billions of digital business to Ireland which has much lower business tax.
August 30, 2026
and the channel islands
August 30, 2026
So despite today’s call to decrease taxes for small businesses you’re quite happy with Amazon UK being able to compete with these SMEs on a very slanted playing field.
Amazon (global): revenue…. Gross profit .. net profit margin
2026 …………….. $775 bn …. $393 bn …….17.4%
2025………………$716 bn …. $360 bn ……..10.6%
2024………………$637 bn …. $311 bn ………7.8%
2023………………$575 bn …. $270 bn………..3.0%
macrotrends.net ´Amazon Gross profit 2012-2026’,
As for thé RoI’s 15% corporate tax rate for multinational enterprises with revenues in excess of €750m this is in line with international norms (Pillar Two of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting). The UK has always been unable to get such a rate, the best ever for multinational companies was 19% between 2017 and 2023. And it moved to 25% under PM Truss confirmed by PM Sunak.
So to me you seem to be all over the place …
taxpipe.co.uk 21/02/2026 ‘UK corporation tax rates: Complete history’.
Reply Amazon has high margins now thanks to the exceptional growth of Amazon web services. It does not have such high margins on retail where the market is very competitive.Lower CT rates deliver more investment and more companies locating to the lower tax rate country. Why not do that? I did not support the Sunak CT rate rise
August 29, 2026
I have has amazing service and value from Amazon and excellent after sales service too. It tells me I have bought about 2,600 items over 20+ years.
August 29, 2026
Well my family rather.
August 29, 2026
One of the inherent failures of business rates is the lack of correlation with the ability/earnings to pay. Tax in the UK keeps compounding its imbalances, it is now so far distorted it has gotten beyond being unreasonable. As such I would suggest that the administration of tax its assessment and collection itself consumes a great big chunk of the revenue collected – self defeating.
Just on high street business rates, no one occupant is treated equally to any other. Just as with income tax it starts being manipulative becomes convoluted and then overbearing, then it tries to roll back on the imbalances created with suggesting those trapped should go cap in hand and plead for relief. Each failure to think ramps up more costs and a downward spiral.
In a right minded civilised country ‘tax’ should be the element that is the cost to provide the structures and services for enterprise to flourish. It is different in the UK ‘tax’ is used to manipulate, bend situations to achieve a win at the next election – its taken in the first instance to blackmail everyone with their own money. That is just embedding failure
As for the High Street, the thriving High Street having tax simply equated to turnover would cause more to flourish instead of just surviving. Means more earning, more paying for everyone’s future from real earning.
The same could be suggested to our Politburo Socialist Parliament, if tax was equated to what is being earned by the country and the people, then the expenditure budgeted accordingly, against real earnings, we would be in a far better place. Of course I am dreaming the ‘rot’ is so far entrenched that our ‘overlords don’t see practicalities or a future beyond the next election
August 29, 2026
Yes, business rates could be converted to a local business income tax. Then there would be incentive for councils to help with footfall.
August 29, 2026
My own local authority seems to think that turning city centre shops and carparks into flats is the answer.
August 29, 2026
All part of the 15min cities plan ….you don’t need transport and food is delivered
August 29, 2026
its one of the only financially viable ways they can generate funds for regeneration. as the money from residential property purchasers is significant. the problem with inner city flats like this (I lived in one for a few years) is that the late night licences will be given to the nearby bars, which leads to noise in the middle of the night, which means people with normal jobs cannot sleep. so over time more people like drugs dealers and brothels move in, as businesses not so bothered about late night bar noise. also the local GP’s you will be allowed to use, by NHS catchment areas, you will find the waiting rooms full of drug addicts and dealers too. and of course once you have kids there is no way you could send your kids to an inner city school, so if you want a state school catchment areas will force you to move. so although the idea of attracting well off people into the inner city/town in plush apartments sounds good, and could be if done better, the way state catchment areas and chaotic licensing changes work means that within a few years most decent people move out.
August 29, 2026
Convert the empty shops into housing. Better than ripping up more of England’s green and pleasant land.
Services are already in place.
Better still, clear the site and let it return to nature.
August 29, 2026
The incapable of listening UK Parliament with its selected Socialist Government, keeps confirming as individuals they are all about ‘self’ and they will fight out of hate those that are against them
The village of Piddington in Oxfordshire population 358, without discussion just a bombastic attitude by the Socialist Overlords in the UK Parliament are set to receive up to 1,250 asylum seekers.
Working with or fighting against those that empower and pay?
The Villages quite rightly upset have had a referendum to leave the UK, 98% voted leave! Now as part of their campaign against a Parliament that refuses to listen, hear or engage preferring to fight the Nation and its People have produced a battle hymn ‘Battle for Britain’
“This is not just a song. It is a rallying cry.
“It is the sound of neighbours standing shoulder to shoulder. The sound of a community refusing to be ignored.
“The sound of people demanding transparency, accountability and the right to have their voices heard.”
We have a UK Parliament engaged in a ‘fight against the country and its people’
“https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4iGLlzA2Y&pp=0gcJCYsCo7VqN5tD ” As an aside, this shows the capabilities of AI
August 29, 2026
Of course Starmer’s government crippled small businesses the life blood of our towns and villages. Metropolitan Labour will continue this flawed philosophy because they’ve abandoned people who are the lifeblood of our British way of life. Other cultures have been forced upon us without consultation or debate. As to policing, the rot at The College of Policing by embracing DEI, has completely changed the nature of policing. They no longer patrol our streets, they no longer patrol our roads and highways and it’s obvious to all who care to look carefully to see the change in attitude by so many people. There is less courtesy, a more aggression and clearly a ‘me me’ behavioural shift and it’s very unpleasant. Yes funding policing is important but changes to personnel with more female officers completely changes the dynamics of operational uniformed policing. This important subtlety is constantly overlooked by policy makers. I have little confidence a Manchester Metropolitan Burnham will make any difference and depressingly decline will continue.
August 29, 2026
I dont have a problem with female cops who are just as capable as men, or indeed tiny male cops who unusually are just as capable as an average sized male cop. but that is not what we have. we now have entire shifts staffed by tiny female cops who wouldn’t even be able to break up a fight in the local junior school. with sometimes the odd tiny male cop too. it is laughable, the local crims just laugh.
Reply Breaking up fights is a small part of the police workload. Send the right police with right kit to each crime scene.
August 30, 2026
The main thing the police and judicial system should do is to deter crimes. Criminals (real ones) need to know they are likely to be caught and punished. Alas they have totally given up on this in so many areas especially shop lifting, mugging, phone snatching… but if you do 23mph or park 2 mins after the limit…
August 29, 2026
4 foot 8 inches was the record for the shortest cop, a record which has probably been broken by now. DEI gone mad. an absolute liability in a town centre on a Saturday night at pub closing time.
August 29, 2026
a bit like forcing females into the marines, it sounds good among the ruling classes apparently, but an amazingly bad idea in practice.
August 29, 2026
I see the PM needed to be told to wear a suit to represent our country
Healey can’t stand by his own defence budget now he is Chancellor
Starmer / Reeves were extremely damaging to SME “s and the future of young people
The country would be better served if they stick to running the bus service
August 29, 2026
I see our new Chancellor has shown his true colours now, raise taxes and keep spending on welfare, and to hell with the armed forces and the Defence of our Country..
Still I suppose we can perhaps save the odd £1.00 on bus fares if you are lucky enough to have a route near you, and if it’s convenient to use.
August 29, 2026
Burnham is in a caretaker role until Reform UK kicks him out.
In the meantime he is all take and lacks care.
August 29, 2026
All Burnham has to do is get out of the way, reduce all taxes to a sensible level, and let the people free to do what is necessary to regenerate the high streets. Add to that proper policing so people feel safe, and he might get somewhere. But he won’t because he is a dreamer, not a doer!
Off Topic – How sad that when John Healey resigned, we thought he was a politician with principles. Now he is in a position to move defence spending to £3% by 2030; he chickens out. The desire for office is greater than his pretended desire to defend the UK properly. Even more concerning, the 3% may not be enough. Healey now has the power to cut government spending to fund defence, but won’t do it. How can he have accepted the job of Chancellor without getting agreement to the 3% by 2030 as a minimum?
August 29, 2026
“Think again, Mr Burnham. Get the taxes and government imposed costs down. Back small business and independent shops. Introduce enough police to tackle the crimes on the High Street, making them safe and pleasant again.”
Hear, hear!
August 29, 2026
Simple – Remove business rates and provide free parking …..everything else is PR
August 29, 2026
122 illegals arrived yesterday
August 29, 2026
Just as kinetic warfare has been changed by the use of small drones so invasion has changed with the use of small boats.
August 29, 2026
no invasion has been changed by a ruling class that actively want massive immigration, and dont want to stop invasions
August 30, 2026
Its now quite evident
August 29, 2026
my historic coastal town with 37000 inhabitants has no local policing.The nearest are 8.8 miles away
drive time (if speed limits are obeyed) 20+ minutes assuming no roadworks.Hopefully a prowl car
may do it more quickly and assuming one is available.The service is in a very very busy port with
lots of local and access roads to deal with. Shoplifting here is not a priority
.
August 29, 2026
I live in the biggest town in the country with no local ambulances, nearest one is usually 30 minutes away. the local hospital is “nurse led” with no doctors available to see patients. there is a police station but it is usually empty. such is our fantastic public sector.
August 29, 2026
”The number of police officers in the United Kingdom increased each year between 2003, when there were just under 155,400 officer” https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn00634/
Where are they all …..I never see any
August 29, 2026
Well rather than tackling real crime they go for the easy target to fine them or for political hate crimes they disapprove off. So much easier and more profitable that way.
Anarcho-tyranny – a political concept where the government fails to even try to enforce basic laws and protect citizens from real crimes, while simultaneously using heavy-handed rules to control, fine, licence and punish essentially law-abiding people. For putting a tyre in an empty bus lane or doing 23 in a 20mph area or for attempting to hold or deter any shoplifter.
August 30, 2026
TRUE
August 29, 2026
Working from home patrolling the internet.
August 29, 2026
An example of the anti-social behaviour that makes high streets unpleasant.
I took my elderly mother to visit the eye clinic in Watford yesterday. On the way out of the shopping centre we watched as a young child (toddler) came towards us head down not looking where he was going on a scooter. I waited assuming his mother or whoever was accompanying him would grab him or call to him to stop or look where he was going but nothing happened. Not even when I gave him a warning shout that he needed to look up. We had to take avoiding action.
The mother, of course, was pushing a pram on her phone.
Unfortunately eye appointments can not be sone online.
August 29, 2026
I saw a young child torturing a wild bird in the middle of a city centre the other day. I was going to intervene but they were being actively supervised by adults who looked like recent illegal immigrants. Some things still shock me.
August 29, 2026
I think trying to save our high streets is now a King Cnut operation and shops should be repurposed for all the additional accommodation our Uniparty Parliament needs for their planned mass immigration of the third world into the U.K.
August 29, 2026
First of all he needs to understand the reasons why the high st has failed.
The most obvious is on line shopping ,
which I dislike as I have been sold poor quality goods again and again.
Another factor is difficulty in parking and accessing stores due to parking restrictions and badly planned one way streets and pedestrianisation.
It is cheaper to close many of the larger stores and partly work on line .My local town has closed Debenhams ,a store which sold good quality middle of the rd goods.
Primark stores are owned by a British food conglomerate and these are doing well by starting at the inexpensive end of the spectrum,yet many items are better quality than say M&S.
Smaller stores are going to go bankrupt as people become more savvy with their money looking at quality rather than labels.There are exceptions to this though particularly in children’s sportswear where parents who are still labels and appearance orientated, compete for their children’s recognition as bigger as and better.
.
August 29, 2026
I’ve been playing Chess (far from well) today, so I am late commenting on something I know something about as landlord of a considerable number of shops.
The high streets have over time suffered from many changes that have damaged it – ever larger supermarkets, especially out of town, internet shopping, habit changing Covid shutdowns, shopping precincts and the fact that the high street is not suited to a car dominated society.
Then there is the nonsense that most people while buying meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and bakery products (as I do) at supermarkets complain about the number of hairdressers, hot food takeaway shops, vape shops (though vaping is hugely less dangerous than cigarette smoking but people ignore that) and microbars, the sort of things that are usually personal service things rather than items on the supermarket trolley that people actually still go outside supermarkets for.
However the biggest factor that is presently destroying high streets is that people don’t have that much money to spend after essentials nowadays. It is very notable that high streets in wealthy areas (such as Bispham, the wealthy suburb of Blackpool and Thornton Cleveleys where I was yesterday) are usually in very much better shape than high streets in economically poorer areas.
So the decline of high streets is a symptom, not a cause of present economic problems and government should concentrate on genuine economic growth and more household wealth and not throw taxpayers’ money away on cosmetic changes to high streets which cannot succeed for long unless most people get more money to spend!
September 2, 2026
Burnham is giving his donor Sainsbury’s free staff during the Christmas peak season, yet thousands of non-donor small shops get no trainees. He who pays the piper calls the tune.