Brit into politics, tech, economics, strategic gambits, travel, food | Like myriad viewpoints | 🇬🇧🇺🇸
London | Dorset
Joined March 2009
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Gary B retweeted
Eight-year-olds are told in one classroom video prepared by HMRC:
“You can think of tax as one shared bank account that everyone in the country pays into. The government is then in charge of looking after this bank account and sharing all the money to help everyone in the country. This money is also used to pay for the things that your town or city needs. When you’re older and you get a job, or maybe even start your own business, the taxes you’ll pay will all be added into this shared bank account."
RT @an0n_Nic: Poor country with a rich region. You can’t tax your way out of poverty. The only way out is to growth, so there’s more for ev…
This quoted post is unavailable.
Gary B retweeted
No one likes rail replacement buses. But what’s worse than having to take one? Needing one and being told you’ll have to wait hours, or in some cases, not getting one at all. Why is this becoming increasingly common? Max Tempers investigates...
🧵
Gary B retweeted
England as a whole spends £1.25 in welfare for every £1 of income tax and National Insurance it receives.
For Wales, that number is £1.88.
Gary B retweeted
Manchester United is the United Kingdom of football clubs.
Never thought I would see my beloved football club at the bottom of the league.
Both the club and the country spent years coasting on reputation while tolerating weak leadership, short-term extraction, and an unwillingness to make hard structural choices.
The Theatre of Dreams and the UK both still draw crowds on the strength of what they used to be; both are now discovering that brand and nostalgia only postpone the reckoning.
Gary B retweeted
This idiot is easily, in a crowded field, the worst member of the plp. Possibly the worst member of parliament
Gary B retweeted
The most uncomfortable welfare report for Labour may not be the one Alan Milburn is about to publish.
It could be the one he wrote more than two two ago.
Back then, he warned tackling Britain’s worklessness crisis required immediate action.
Now the welfare bill is heading towards £431 billion, the OBR is questioning whether employment schemes will deliver the promised results and even the Tories’ proposed £36bn savings wouldn’t bring the bill below its current level.
My long read 👇
thesun.co.uk/news/40942373/l…
Gary B retweeted
I think salary disclosure in job adverts is probably OK in isolation, but my concern is that it's part of a greater govt pay transparency drive which will lead to issues. Some thoughts:
-- always remember that pay transparency works both ways, employers glean information too
-- If rules around salary bands are too narrow, this could snuff out employer flexibility to pay more for exceptional talent
-- it imposes greater inframarginal costs on employers, raising the cost of hiring (i.e. any recruitment premiums trigger demands for matching increases from existing employees)
-- will be abused for equal pay suits, especially within our present "equal value" framework, which is actually the primary justification for these sorts of drives
-- the above often results in men - who benefit from "haziness" in the job market - losing out & further pay compression (see effects of Colorado's pay transparency drive, which led to a reduced gender pay gap, but pay actually *falling* for men)
Gary B retweeted
"Just before it was nationalised 94 per cent of its [c2c's] trains arrived within five minutes of the scheduled time. The latest available data from this August showed this had dropped to just under 71.5 per cent of trains."
Gary B retweeted
Do politicians even like pubs?
@Matthew__Bowles considers.
thecritic.co.uk/do-politicia…
Gary B retweeted
Silly idea & will increase burden on firms at time of a job crisis.
Plus British people are squeamish re: chatting about their salaries - they'd rather discuss their sex lives than reveal what they earn.
Gary B retweeted
I have created a home for my long-form writing. My first article is on the primary lesson we can learn from the American midterm elections here in Britain. That lesson: don’t consistently make stupid decisions that nobody forced you to make. Easier said than done, apparently!
Gary B retweeted
Is there a world in which a forlorn prisoner, doing 14 years on the inside for evading the tourist tax on a weekend trip to Margate, watches as his cell mate is set free on the early release scheme for beating someone to a pulp?
Exc: Evasion of Angela Rayner’s new “tourist tax” will carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
The measures, set out in a bill published on Wednesday, target accommodation providers in England who evade the proposed overnight visitor levy.
The new legislation is also designed to prevent property owners offering “mates’ rates” to friends that would reduce the amount of tax paid on temporary stays.
Gary B retweeted
Would like to thank Octopus Energy for warning me via email that my Octopoints are about to expire, and I should spend them all now before it's too late.
Gary B retweeted
Exc: Evasion of Angela Rayner’s new “tourist tax” will carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
The measures, set out in a bill published on Wednesday, target accommodation providers in England who evade the proposed overnight visitor levy.
The new legislation is also designed to prevent property owners offering “mates’ rates” to friends that would reduce the amount of tax paid on temporary stays.