In all this, there is a personal challenge. Do I give up, cower in the corner, and admit that I’ve been promoting something that people do not want, even though, by definition, if 30% of people are now supportive of neo-fascism, 70% are not? Alternatively, do I take a risk and continue to fight for what I think is right?
Who rally would send the bully boys around to an end terrace in Ely?
So, err, what risk?
And then I wonder just who those economists the Telegraph is talking to might be. The claim in the related article is that HMRC’s own data shows equalising capital gains tax rates will reduce yield, but those are Treasury numbers, and they got us into this mess, so I put little weight on their belief in the Laffer curve.
Empirical reality might send ’em ’round, true.
Neo-fascists, eh. What’s Murph, a neo-socialist? Or a neo-imbecile?
Got it! A neo-village idiot.
Less of the neo, please.
“neo” has become an intensifier, meaning something like “especially nasty”.
I reckon it’s the influence of the term “neo-Nazi” that’s done it.
Is Burnham a neo-Starmer? Is Angela Rayner a neo-slag?
Paleo-slag I’d say.
Classic slag
“Classic slag”
Yes, she’s just the sort of Council employee you used to see loads of in Manchester, out with a bunch of her girlie workmates, in Yates’ Wine Lodge getting sloshed on Kangaroo Juice spritzers on a Thursday evening.
Oi!
I’ve invested money that I’ve already paid about 50% income tax on. Now they want 50% of the gains with no inflation allowance? The company also paid corporation tax. And if I use the money left over to buy a house they want stamp duty as well. It’s a mystery why people are leaving isn’t it?
The rest of the post is inadvertently one of the most hilarious he has ever written:
There is not really a choice in that, but I am aware of the divisions, hostilities, and sometimes straightforward nastiness that pervade this country now, and it is precisely because I am so worried that our lacklustre neoliberal politicians cannot see the responsibility that falls upon them to address the resulting crises that we face that I feel the need to keep working on things like a necessary alternative budget, as well as the book that I am writing.
Says the man whose commitment to open debate includes blocking nearly 30,000 people on X alongside myriad thousands of commentators on his own blog. As for ‘straightforward nastiness’, perhaps the Tax Justice Network, GERS Scotland, or dozens of other organizations could attest to it from the pen of one man in Ely
I worked on both yesterday and enjoyed the writing process. The urgency, however, feels very high to me right now. I fear we are near a tipping point, where the acceptance of fascism, racism, misogyny, prejudice, and intolerance is becoming normalised.
I’d agree – thousand of pro Palestinian demonstrations have led to a febrile atomsphere where overt anti-semitism is s given official sanction by vast swathes of the Hard Left.White people also feel menaced by grooming gangs, two tier justice, active discrimination across most aspects of life and many other challenges, often abetted by people who in more enlightened times might be called ‘overt fifth columnists’.
The BBC appears to me to be at the forefront of this, and that is something new, and we all have a duty to resist it. The alternatives are too horrible to imagine, for everyone, including many of those who now think such things are a solution.
I think anyone who thinks the BBC is anything other than Ultra LEft wing is so far removed from reality as to need sectioning – for their own good as much for that of the wider society
The reality can be expressed in a new way:
Yes because of course bringing over ISIS recruits really proves one’s moral superiority.
My God, he is a cretin.
I have to agree with him. The lefty Establishment has given Muslims a free pass for fascism, racism, misogyny, prejudice, and intolerance, so naturally these have grown. Now the Greens have actually joined forces with the religious fascists.
I think it’s time we collected the whip around to employ the black SUV to follow him. Or a few guys in balaclavas to stand outside his house
The guy has absolutely no self-doubt. Treasury says increasing rates won’t bring in the amount claimed, so they must be wrong as they’ve been wrong before. No need to read their analysis and find the flaws in it if there are any, no need to check if other countries have tried his ideas out, no curiosity about where the Laffer peak might be as there isn’t one. And when it doesn’t work it’s well I don’t care if entrepreneurs leave or give up, we don’t need their kind anyway.
I’d like to empty a giant tin of biscuits over him.
He’d only eat them and then complain of being fat.
If there is no Laffer curve, then because at 0% tax they raise nothing, at 100% tax they raise nothing, so clearly, thusly, at all rates in between they raise nothing, because there is no curve between those two points. Where do I collect my Nobel?
There is no Laffer curve and 100% tax does not raise nothing. Humanity has had a long history of imposing 100% tax on groups of people – it’s called slavery.
One reason why there is no Laffer curve is that there is no single mapping from tax rate to rtax raised.
A 0% tax rate raises nothing. If any tax rate raises more than nothing then the so-called “Laffer curve” exists since there is a maximum value to any function that is not a constant throughout the whole period.
Someone with the brain of an average rabbit would understand that.
Also by definition of the word “mapping” there is a mapping from the tax rate to the amount of tax raised in every single real or imagined circumstance. To say that there is not a *single* mapping to cover every possible real or imagined circumstance is specious, disingenuous and suggests that you are trying to hide the knowledge that you are wrong and attempting to deceive.
0% doesn’t raise nothing either. A few strange people voluntarily pay tax – though the amounts are, as you might expect, very small.
In one sense you are right. See Rolle’s theorem. You say “any function”. But a function must map each input to exactly one output. If any input needs to be mapped to two or more outputs, then it’s not a function. For example, if a tax rate of 30% raises one amount if the rate went from 25% to 20% and a different rate if it was 35% and then went to 30%. This is highly likely for the real world as people’s behaviour depends on all kinds of factors and their personal history is a strong one.
There’s also the issue that the function must be differentiable. This is not guaranteed for tax. You can see the tendency for humans to behave in a discontinuous way by the prevalence of prices like $9.99
Who rally would send the bully boys around to an end terrace in Ely?
I have some good contacts on the far right. I’m sure they could be convinced Spud’s a threat. Though some contributions to the cause might be appreciated. When do you want it done?
If you want bully boys you need to talk to the hard *Left*
It’s something I’ve been saying since the Referendum result ran into opposition. The left has always used the extra-democratic in parallel with the democratic successfully. If politics doesn’t work intimidation will. Why the right* doesn’t grasp this is beyond me.
*Of course, part of he right does. But for it they get monstered.eg Farage’s reaction to the Dover demonstration. Superbly orchestrated & very popular with the public.
It’s something I’ve known about from the age of five.
Actual ones who have actually studied and understood economics, rather than a fat narcissist in Ely who thinks that he can discover it all himself from scratch whilst waddling between coffee shops.
Yes please.
The difference is that 30% know what fascism means. 70% of the remaining 30% support unlimited state interference in private-ownership.
Also that 30% think their country is actually pretty good. That 70% of 70% are defined as ‘socialist’ rather than ‘fascist’ because they think their country is shite.
And they’re both totalitarian.
Literally the only difference between fascism and communism is ‘my-nation’ vs ‘world nation’.
He thinks that the only choice is ‘neo-fascism’ or whatever he’s offering;)
No Dick, the 70% don’t want want what you are offering either – which is the worst parts of fascism without any upside.
Italy had il Duce, Ely has ill Dookie.
It’s so sad that a lovely place like Ely is associated with this clown