The 50p tax rate was introduced in 2009, so hardly just a few weeks before the May 2010 election. George Osborne, on reducing that rate to the 45p that exists today (and which isn’t going to be scrapped after all), conceded that the 50p rate raised £1 billion per annum; bearing in mind that this is the difference between 50p and 45p it seems safe to assume that the 50p rate raised twice that amount. Not a vast amount in the scheme of things, admittedly, but it could have prevented some of the swingeing public spending cuts that Osborne unleashed.
And in terms of political heat, Osborne reduced the 50p rate to 45p without picking up too much of that.
I suspect it would have raised significantly more, but for various tax avoidance schemes only the more wealthy can afford (accountants to advise and administer)…
Of course it’s all Gordon Brown’s fault, desperate stuff from Tory supporters who are in denial and refuse to accept they are being taken for fools. It’s all about taking from the 95% and giving to the 5%, it’s in their DNA, it’s what they do.
It’s pretty obvious what their game is here, it’s all about rewarding their party donors and cronies, they have utter contempt for the rest of us. Crispin Odey, a hedge funder/disaster capitalist who is the epitome of a wrong un, made millions last week shorting the pound, along with several other likewise parasites. Odey is Kwarteng’s mentor, Kwarteng’s loyalty is to him and his ilk first and foremost, the rest of us come a very poor second.
Short the pound, make a fuckton of money, go long on the pound, change the policy and hey presto, make a fuckton more. No doubt Crispin needed the weekend to shift the money before his close friend Kamikwasi made the announcement. This government is a criminal cartel, treating public money as if it were their own, and using it to reward their friends and supporters, handing it to the already super wealthy at the expense of us lesser mortals. Thankfully I suspect the penny is finally starting to drop, people have had enough and pitchforks are being sharpened.
If anyone had any reservations about the colossal stupidity of Mad Nad, then her calling for a General Election whilst 33pts behind in the polls must put them to bed
She’s off to the House of Lords by all accounts so she won’t give a toss, it won’t affect her. A job for life, legislating, making the rules and laws that the rest of us have to abide by. And never having to concern herself with anything as vulgar as democracy, it’s a win win for her. She’s still spitting feathers about Johnson’s removal, she would probably love to see them wiped out for their treachery as she sees it. Unrequited love is powerful medicine! Although I’ve got my doubts about the unrequited bit I have to confess, this is Boris Johnson we are talking about after all, by all accounts he would fuck a barber’s floor!
Yeah, we’re going to have world beating UK only intranet.
It’s what the majority of those who voted in the Brexit referendum wanted. Sovereignty and fuck the EU and Jonny Foreigner. Can’t go against the majority.
Based on the dismal performance of the Government over the last few years and how they’re running the country into the ground it’s been sunlit uplands all the way hasn’t it? (Sarcasm btw)
Perhaps if parliament had actually done what they’d been instructed to by the voters rather than block everything for three years and force practically every serious politician out of the tory party, there might have been a few vaguely competent tories left.
Initially, at least, they weren’t. The original deal to leave the EU, brought before parliament by Theresa May, was liked by nobody; however, had all Tory MPs voted for it, then it probably would have been passed, as there were a few opposition MPs who voted in favour, even though the DUP opposed it.
Instead, it fell to a heavy defeat, largely owing to the headbangers of the ERG voting en masse against it as it wasn’t hard line enough for them. But those Tory MPs who had backed staying in the EU, such as Kenneth Clarke and many others, voted for May’s deal - precisely because they saw it as their duty to vote for legislation that took the UK out of the EU, as the referendum result required.
She has also refused to rule out U-turning - my fear now is that she is more flakey that Boris
She abandons another policy then she is a dead duck
She would have been better off retaining the tax cut - it was unpopular,granted, but had she pushed it through she would have sent a message that she is not fucking about
Now instead of looking unpopular for favouring the wealthy, she looks weak, inconsidered and favouring the wealthy
She lost any ability to retain the tax cut when she blathered around on Sunday, saying that the rate cut was the Chancellors idea and not a collective Party policy. She did had a choice. Either say it was policy, however she forced herself into a corner and couldn’t do that as she fessed it wasn’t ratified by Cabinet. Or she could have got Crazi in over the weekend and said “you don’t announce policy without my say so - you’ve got half an hour to resign or i’ll sack you”. That would have been better - he would have been the fall guy. She’s weak, insipid and useless and wont last the year, irrespective of whether she carries out any u turns anymore.