The Political Thread

[Professor Bear]

Doesn't matter - plenty more tax-dodgers to (pretend to) go after in the run-up to the election to chase that working class vote.

[ZenArcade]

In spite of our rage we're still just rats in a cage.

[Professor Bear]

I'm up for violent murder-based revolution even if the rest of you commie hippies aren't.

[ZenArcade]

Possible bloody revolution meet next week man. This week me and Dreamflower are birthing some pulses from amongst the busom our earth mother. So like do we need to bring like swords or stuff, or some dandelion wine and cus cus ok? Z

[Professor Bear]

Bring petrol and a lighter.

[ZenArcade]

Ah fuck it! Ok Bear, we meet up outside Augher and head North. We'll come back as fire; burn all the liars and leave a blanket of ash on the ground! Z

[IndigoPrime]

Obviously, Ed Balls is right and pursuing non-doms will end up costing the treasury money rather than making any, but as a piece of "fuck the rich" populism it's quite a good policy.

Possibly. But really if there was a major overhaul of how tax was dealt with, the treasury would likely benefit. Companies make idle threats, but they're hardly going to quit the UK if forced to pay taxes. The same's largely true for individuals. Some will flee. Fuck them. As previous negative to the rich changes in the tax system have shown, most don't go—they just threaten to.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Possibly. But really if there was a major overhaul of how tax was dealt with, the treasury would likely benefit. Companies make idle threats, but they're hardly going to quit the UK if forced to pay taxes. The same's largely true for individuals. Some will flee. Fuck them. As previous negative to the rich changes in the tax system have shown, most don't go—they just threaten to.

Well, I agree that multi-national companies that dodge tax with their various scams need to be brought to heel, and that they would simply cough up if push came to shove.

Non-doms, however, are individuals that pay a large fee in order to have their non-UK earnings excluded from UK tax. Many aren't actually British at all and will leave rather than pay, which will cancel out any gains from those that stay. This is why Balls was opposed to abolishing the non-dom status in January, before other political considerations came into play (i.e. they needed a populist left-wing policy, quick).

To actually raise any serious tax money, we need to go after Google, Apple, Vodafone, Amazon, etc. I'm not seeing a lot of movement from anyone on that front, sadly.

[Professor Bear]

If these bloody immigrants are using non-dom status to dodge paying tax but are still using our emergency services and enjoying the security of living in a first world nation, how is their being here not a drain on our economy?  How much caviar or Lamborgini petrol do you think they're buying from the local Tesco?

If they want to leave, then fuck 'em.  Let's call their bluff and hire a minibus to drive the lot down to Dover - they like free stuff, after all.

[Jim_Campbell]

To actually raise any serious tax money, we need to go after Google, Apple, Vodafone, Amazon, etc. I'm not seeing a lot of movement from anyone on that front, sadly.

As I said earlier, there are well over 100,000 non-doms estimated to be saving at least £90K each. If they all stayed and paid their proper tax, the Treasury benefits by £9bn. If 90% of them fuck off, the Treasury still benefits £900 million quid. Knock off the £300M they currently pay for their exemption and there's still a fairly tidy extra half-billion in the bank.

That's not to say the tax avoiding companies shouldn't be targeted aggressively, but the non-doms are dodging a non-trivial amount of tax.

Cheers

Jim

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I'm not saying I don't support abolishing nom-doms, just that I don't think it will be very lucrative.

Let's try it and see!

[IndigoPrime]

If it comes close to breaking even, great. It shouldn't be one rule for the fraction of the one per cent and another for everyone else. As for the payments they make, that kind of thing doesn't sit well with me. Same with Google, which tried to play the 'Look how great this company is' card when paying a 'voluntary' donation, having somehow made zero money in the UK, due to funnelling cash elsewhere.

Still, I'm surprised Labour's even gone this far. It seems pretty craven on the whole.

[Famous Mortimer]

Non-doms, however, are individuals that pay a large fee in order to have their non-UK earnings excluded from UK tax. Many aren't actually British at all and will leave rather than pay

Ah well.

To actually raise any serious tax money, we need to go after Google, Apple, Vodafone, Amazon, etc. I'm not seeing a lot of movement from anyone on that front, sadly.

Agreed. That Vodafone were allowed to negotiate how much tax they paid is a disgrace.

[Professor Bear]

The Tories know they poll good on defence (despite Labour waging more wars whose stated or strategic goals were accomplished) so have decided to accuse Labour of maybe thinking of perhaps not spending billions on those nuclear weapons Britain won't ever use.
I'm sort of in two minds what the strategy is there, because Labour have rather infamously done more wars and stuff than the Tories to the point it was a deciding factor in a lot of people taking their voting business elsewhere and letting the Tories slither in under the door with a hung parliament last time, and making people think they'll dispense with a huge drain on public funds seems more like something that's a good - if not great - thing for Labour, especially considering their big weakness last time was arguably with anti-war sentiment in the voting public.  There's also the additional factor of older voters probably not even remembering that Trident was even a thing anymore, yet here the Tories are drawing attention to it and the huge fucking cost involved and saying "we're going to protect this thing you don't like and don't need" - no matter how much Rupert Murdoch and his chums with holdings in media and defence companies try, people don't view Russia as a Cold War-level threat anymore, so what Trident is supposed to be apart from an albatross escapes me.



I have been reading about the Letters of Last Resort that successive PMs have signed and which are to be opened - in the event of their being killed in a nuclear strike - by the captains of Britain's Nuclear Ballistic subs.  They're written by the PM and destroyed when they leave office, and they're identically-worded and contain four distinct options as to what the captain and their crew must do next - ranging from a retaliatory strike to ending hostilities and finding a safe harbour - and while PMs like Gordon Brown, John Major and Tony Blair have supposedly chosen to sign the "do not retaliate and instead take your crew and find a way to live" option, Maggie T and Call Me Dave have chosen to sign the "Bomb The Bastards and then wait to die" one.

[Banners]

Maggie T and Call Me Dave have chosen to sign the "Bomb The Bastards and then wait to die" one.

Just like Dredd.