Greg2607

He's our new number 10. Apparently. 😳

Here's an idea....maybe the UK Could increase it's tax take, by actually making a difference to people's salary..... Want to guess the growth of the AVERAGE UK wage between 2010 -2022???? 20%? 15% 10%?? It's 0.1% so essentially nothing EVERYTHING in that time has become more expensive but our tax take is going to broadly similar UNLESS.... Population grows.... Might give you an idea why we've relaxed migration so much.

Finished high school in 96, finished A levels in 2000 and left Uni in 03. feels both like a lifetime ago AND like it was yesterday.

Oh I totally agree, it's roughly what I earn and I don't feel "rich". It's just a good example of why when we talk about "rich" people, it's not about the go on £150k. It's the people we don't see, who are earning millions. EVERYONE on any kind of "salary", whether that's PAYE or a contract, are all in the same boat. A guy earning £25k a year, has far more in common with the £150k earner, than the £150k earner has in common with the person with £10m in the bank. But the papers will still call the £150k guy a "fat cat" and make out that they are rich. As an aside, I also genuinely don't know how people on £30k a year cope. Raising a family on that kind of income must be super tough.

"Modest" £60k salary would put them very close to the top 10% of PAYE earners in the uk. Its a very good wage for most people. I absolutely agree though, that ANYONE earning a salary in the UK, isn't the target of the wealth tax. It's a very clever ploy though isn't it. Get everyone angry about those people earning £125,000 a year, so that no-one is looking at the person with £25m in the bank, who's probably spending £125,000 on wine. The below is taken from the IFS website... based on a couple, earning £100,000 between them with two kids.... they would have more income than 60m people in the UK.......

I don't have the Range Rover or the Hot Tub... so I think i'm about 1/3 of the way to being rich! lol.

that isn't "Rich" in the Wealth Tax sense of the word though. I suspect we might see some sort of leveling of capital gains for things like Shares etc.... Income that is generated through that rather than through salary. Rishi Sunak "Earnt" his PM salary... but also saw his "wealth" increase by £24m in the same year.... ultimately as a country, we are living way beyond our means... so there are limited options available if we want to have a functioning infrastructure (and as an extension, society) - We either raise more tax... or have a step change in national productivity.... given that we are predominantly a service sector economy.... It's more likely to be the former.

I think people confuse a wealth tax with "higher rate tax"... in reality, we are talking about taxing the people who are super rich. Most of us don't see those people around us. I was in Harrods at the weekend and there were sofa's for sale at £80,000....... it's THOSE people who can probably afford to be taxed more on their wealth. I imagine it wouldn't affect anyone posting on this forum... (or very very very few)

The thing is, lots of people are saying that this is a "loss of freedom of speech" without actually realising what freedom of speech means. It isn't limitless and it isn't without consequence, especially if it's deemed to risk national security. it "may" be a stretch to say a 53 year old women is causing a risk to our national security.... but... the riots could have escalated much more and become much more insidious than they were, and it's those type of comments online that add fire to the flames.

I could be wrong... (I have no evidence to back this statement up) but I suspect that lots of people who think and act this way, and think that others are taking THEIR opportunities, probably come from a similar background. It's their own life choices and behaviour that have limited their life. Not other people.

I was literally in that spot Saturday night. Didn't feel threatened in any way at all. It could literally happen anywhere at any time.

So you're happy to build on green belt land as long as it doesn't affect the golf course is essentially what your saying. I don't have the answers either btw, but the long and short of it is that the UK population has grown by 10 million people since 2000 and we haven't built enough houses, normally because local people object to the building schemes. There is never a "perfect place" to build is there. The failure of our planning system is that we don't seem to do well at putting in place supporting infrastructure like schools, doctors, improved roads etc. I suspect if you told the people of blaby that the houses were buying built on the gold course, but they would get a 2nd doctor's surgery, a new community centre, a local supermarket etc and the roads would be updated to accommodate the extra traffic, I'm sure they would be less bothered. Planning laws need to transform in the UK to improve local infrastructure as well as make sure our kids will have houses to live in.

ok, so lets look at it another way... lets assume that there needs to be 250 new homes built in Blaby... where would you prefer they were built?

oh well that's great news then. If it's hugely profitable, they won't need to sell the land to the developers as they will be making enough profit from the customers and rentals from the other businesses to keep it on as a going concern....

the Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner episodes are a good listen... in fact, I'd argue any of the ones that are longer form interviewing a person are interesting. at least you get to learn abit about the character of the MP in question.

I'm not entirely convinced he still has this for us at 37.... as painful as that is to say.

i'm not sure that a golf course does it either.

oh I agree with you there. I worked in London for 3 years, but commuted from Leicester. The experience of rush hour on the tube, in the height on summer, is enough to put anyone off. it was more that there is a wildly different world down there when you compare it to elsewhere in the UK. Mass Transit systems make a huge difference, as it's easy to get anywhere. But more than that, even those areas on the outskirts of the city appear to be thriving. I'm sure that's a really simplistic view, and no doubt there will be real poverty in certain places across the city, but I can't imagine that areas on the outskirts of Birmingham or Manchester, being quite such an attractive place to live.

depends which way you view it as "shafting the community". If they are providing accomodation for the local community, so that needed housing gives people the opportunity to own a home, then it's supporting the local community isn't it? all depends on how you frame it...... I'm 100% sure that if there was a cronic shortage of housing locally, then residents and those affected would be moaning about the fact that they can't find accomodation and are having to move out of the area.

I was in London this weekend. Took the kids away for a couple of days (i now need to sell a kidney due to the cost if anyone wants to buy one!!) - But there were a couple of things that I noticed. Firstly.... there was absolutely no feeling of fear, aggro or danger. Everyone was having fun. People of all colours, creeds and nationalities, getting on, mingling, being nice to each other. The other thing that I noticed is that the "london bubble" is a real thing. We stayed in the Angel / Islington area and travelled into the city each 10 (like, a 20 minute tube right) - Even though is meant to be one of the poorer boroughs in London, it is a magnitude of difference in terms of provision and amenities when you compare it to places elsewhere in the UK. No boarded up shops, no streets full of charity shops. Just masses of great looking bars, restaurants, grocers, butchers etc. I live in a relatively nice Market Town in Leicestershire and our High Street is an absolute shower compared to what was about in Angel. I appreciate that London is our capital, but I wasn't staying in an area that was particularly touristy. If the REST of the UK could look like that, then lots of this aggro and narrative of "we've lost our country" would go away. It shows just how much of our national wealth is concentrated into a very small area of the UK. It's like a different world in terms of provision.

Since 2000 we've built circa 5 million houses and population has grown by about 10 million. The "mix" of houses has generally been wrong though and obviously that 10m in population hasn't been evenly dispersed across the UK. A MAJOR problem has been wage stagnation and a reduction in living standards. If we are really simplifying all the current problems, that's it in a nutshell. People are horrendously worse off in general terms.

fair enough... I absolutely did take a 1 year position on the Net Migration figure. That's a fair challenge.... The average net migration into the UK over the last decade has fluctuated, particularly influenced by events such as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, looking at recent trends, net migration has seen a significant rise, especially since 2021. Over the past ten years, the UK has experienced an average net migration of approximately 300,000 to 400,000 people annually. This figure is derived from consistently high immigration numbers exceeding emigration, particularly with recent estimates showing net migration reaching as high as 606,000 in 2022 and 685,000 in 2023. This increase is mainly due to several factors, including changes in work and study visa rules, humanitarian protection schemes, and the UK's departure from the EU, which altered migration patterns from the continent. Despite some year-on-year variations, the overall trend has been towards higher net migration (Full Fact) (Office for National Statistics) (House of Commons Library). it's still a large number.

Ok, so clearly.... this is a very sensitive subject, fraught with dangers and pitfalls when discussing. Firstly, let me be abundantly clear. I absolutely abhor any kind of activity that relates to the violence we have seen over recent days. It's genuinely the ugly side of society that most of us would be glad to see the back of. Additionally, I am of the view, having grown up in and around Leicester, that multi-culturalism is a wonderful and enriching thing. However... I also don't think we can be entirely dismissive of the discussion. There are legitimate concerns around immigration levels into the UK. Now personally, the numbers of people coming in small boats, aren't the problem. The daily mail would like to make you think they were. Those numbers are immaterial. BUT....... as a country, we have almost criminally underinvested in our societal structures over the last couple of decades. We haven't built enough housing (so net positives in Migration only exacerbates this), we have underfunded ALL of our front line services, people's experience of the NHS, Police response, dentists, doctors, have all declined rapidly... alongside a real reduction in living standards. People want something ti blame and the last government did a hugely successful job of pointing the finger at one scapegoat. We can't sustainably have net migration at 600,000 a year. it's impossible. but we do need to encourage people to come and live in the UK, as our birth rates aren't replacing our death rates and as such, we won't have enough working people to support state pensions in 30 years time. this needs a thought out strategy and very very very effective communication. Political parties can't use it as a hot potato any more. it's going to take at least a decade to start to correct any of this. the problems are too big and the investment needed is eye wateringly large. It's likely that we will have to pay more taxes (even if it's not the main taxes) to support this regeneration. It needs a vision that the country can get behind. an "we are all in this together" approach. Communities need to come together, not be divided. Which is more easier said than done with all the mainstream media rhetoric that out's there around immigration.

if you read anything on Twitter about the US Election... half of them think that Harris and Walz are Eastern Plants, bringing in Communism, to start WW3 with Russia and China to establish China as the leader of the New World Order..... that platform is becoming increasingly bonkers I swear!

unlikely to have our wage bill though....