#BBCBreakfast
CS: Where have blanket 20mph speed limits happened?
MH: Well, in Wales...
CS: That's not the case, because not all 30 mph zones have become 20. That's just not true.
MH: It is...the default position in Wales now is that all those 30 zones have moved to 20...
'It's across the public sector - there's an addiction to luxury and it's the rest of us having to pay for it.'
Conor Holohan from the Taxpayers' Alliance reacts to a report that Keir Starmer spent £250,000 of public money whilst at The Crown Prosecution Service.
🗣️We have today released plans for five new railway stations in South East Wales and more cross-border services.
The proposed new stations are:
🚉Cardiff East
🚉Newport West
🚉Somerton
🚉Llanwern
🚉Magor & Undy
ℹ️
Council tax was first introduced in 1993 by the Major government.
30 years on and the average band D council tax bill in 🏴 has increased by 79% in real terms.
🧵
🗞️I've written about net zero in The Times today🗞️
In 2018 the UK produced just 1.1 per cent of global carbon emissions.
We should dismiss calls to achieve political net zero targets on the backs of the poorest.
Very sad to learn Lord Lawson has died.
A man with an ambitious vision for this country who rolled back the frontiers of the state and started a fiscal revolution.
His legacy will continue to stand the test of time.
The Window Tax was introduced in 1696 and long predated the first permanent income tax in Britain.
It applied to buildings with more than ten windows (later creeping to more than six)
Some homeowners had windows bricked up to avoid the tax.
🎩The HAT TAX was introduced 1784 and ran until 1811
Retailers had to buy a licence to sell hats, and hats had to have a revenue stamp inside
Failing to wear the stamp could lead to heavy fines, while the death penalty was reserved for people who forged hat tax revenue stamps
I’ve written for
@CapX
on
@the_tpa
’s dynamic tax modelling on the planned corporation tax rise
💸£30bn in lost growth
💸£12bn in lost investment
💸£6.70 lower weekly wages than if rise scrapped
The CX knows the damage the rise will do👇
If you’re at Conservative Party Conference and want to hear more about bonkers experiments like the four-day week in local councils, come to the TPA/IEA Think Tent on Tuesday at 9am, where we have local government minister
@Lee4NED
joining the panel.
EXCL: I sit down for news-packed interview with Michael Gove. He reveals:
4⃣ Plans for law banning councils doing 4 day weeks
💰 Bets me £100 the Tories will win election
🚨Admits taxes & immigration are too high
🏘️Floats tax on foreign home owners in UK
South Cambridgeshire District Council have hailed their trial of a four-day working week a “success”.
Conor Holohan, TaxPayers' Alliance: “South Cambridgeshire residents are being told the trial is a success, but you won’t be able to reach your council on the phone.”
@JuliaHB1
🚨NEW CAMPAIGN🚨
🤯 Could your local council be the next to give their employees a fully paid four day working week?
🚀 Today
@the_tpa
launches the campaign to stop the council clock off.
Sign our petition👇
The Welsh government wants to fund journalism and then call it 'independent'.
A media bought and paid for by government is bad news for taxpayers and bad news for democracy.
🚨 One hundred and forty *thousand* great British pounds!
That’s the going rate to be deputy chief executive of Caerphilly Council.
For context, that’s about £25k short of the *Prime Minister*, who runs a G7 country of nearly 70 million people. 🫠
TPA verdict 🚨
🎙️
@the_tpa
chief executive
@jjpoconnell
reacts to the chancellor's speech:
“The chancellor’s pledge to make Britain the most competitive tax regime in the world may ring hollow after years of punishing tax hikes. (1/3)
Taxes aren't just too high. Changes in the way we live have rendered them out of date too.
Every missed opportunity to recalibrate our tax system for the modern world will mean lower growth, lost investment and fewer jobs.
👏Bare minimum well and truly surpassed as the chancellor ABOLISHES the lifetime allowance for pension pots.
💥I said this morning that the chancellor should go further than the £1.8m allowance that was reported and move us closer to a single income tax, and he's done just that
Ahead of
#Budget2023
...
Raising the lifetime allowance for pension pots is a welcome move.
But we should remember that the allowance has been gradually cut down for years. Restoring it to previous levels should really be the bare minimum.👇🧵
Ban thing I don’t like because:
1. People are littering
2. They are being sold to children
It may shock people to discover that both 1 & 2 are already illegal.
Hard-pressed taxpayers in Wales expect their cash to be focused on key services, not on an in-house team of race and gender campaigners.
Exclusive
@the_tpa
data shared with
@GuidoFawkes
on woke Welsh Government jobs👇
"Ash Sarkar is a libertarian communist, a tradition which stands in direct opposition to the totalitarianism of big 'C' Communism. always helps to read a book"
Ridiculous handout. What’s next, send them some some cash for transfers?
Officials trying to jump on the bandwagon shouldn’t be using taxpayers’ cash in their fawning over Wrexham.
Joined
@MartinDaubney
to chat about bankrupt Birmingham.
The largest local authority in Europe is bust because the council ignored the warning signs.
Now local residents are facing huge council tax rises.
'Birmingham Council ignored the signs and it's taxpayers who are left to pick up the pieces.'
Conor Holohan reacts to Birmingham City Council's emergency budget meeting which could result in a tax hike for residents.
🔓 Become a GB News Member:
Reports today say the government is planning to cut income tax next year.
Households grappling with falling living standards and a 70-year high tax burden need tax cuts today, not more empty promises.
Check out the full response from
@the_tpa
👇
💥Following the Town Hall Rich List,
@the_tpa
chief executive John O’Connell writes in the Mail.
🔎“The annual cries of outrage from the councils featured gives some idea of how they feel about transparency over the pay of their senior officers.”
Acton, half an hour ago.
Popped into a cafe for some baklava with the kids and our Ukrainian friends.
People have been brutally murdered, kidnapped and there are people in London dancing.
Just had a reassuring call with the police, if anyone is scared, please call them.
Ahead of
#Budget2023
...
Raising the lifetime allowance for pension pots is a welcome move.
But we should remember that the allowance has been gradually cut down for years. Restoring it to previous levels should really be the bare minimum.👇🧵
It’s not affordable to keep the retirement age at 62 in France.
Have to admire a leader for taking on such an unpopular move, but it’s the right thing to do for le taxpayers 🇫🇷🥖
The wallpaper tax was introduced in 1712 following a boom in the wallpaper trade thanks to technical improvements in the block printing process.
It taxed wallpaper at a penny per yard, rising to a shilling by 1809.
It was abolished in 1836.
A Playing Cards Tax was charged from 1588, was dramatically raised in 1710 and was only abolished in 1960.
Manufacturers were responsible for paying the tax and the Ace of Spades carried a tax stamp. As with the hat tax, forging an excise stamp carried the death penalty.
🚨TaxPayers' Alliance on Labour's GPC files🚨
@the_tpa
chief executive John O'Connell says:
“Taxpayers will be shocked by the examples of waste uncovered in this investigation. (1/3)
🚨 John O'Connell gives
@the_tpa
's verdict on Michael Gove’s announcement that Croydon, Thurrock and Slough councils will be able to increase council tax by above the referendum threshold 👇
1/3
It’s also the case that over a third of EU countries don’t levy occupancy taxes at all, such as pretty much all Nordic and Baltic countries and some in Western and south-eastern Europe.
Why give up our competitive edge?
Check out my blog for
@the_tpa
👇
Local government job ad: Up to £162,375 for Cornwall's next Strategic Director for Children, Families and Schools.
That's about £2.5k less than the Prime Minister.
1⃣ The government has followed the Nigel Farage agenda for the last 7 yrs, so it's not STATE political persecution.
2⃣ He deserves jail more than most prisoners for the damage he's done, but the "system" will never get him. So if he can be PEACEFULLY hurt outside the system...🥳
Westminster council has yet again topped
#TownHallRichList2023
. 🔍
In their accounts for 2021-22, they list 11 specified individuals receiving over £100,000 of total remuneration - including the chief executive, who received £276,962! 💷
But the actual number is much higher...
In the last 30 years, there have been nearly 9,500 individual council tax rises, compared to about 400 freezes and 360 cuts.
57% of councils have *never* cut council tax.
We’ve written to all the council leaders in the UK asking them to sign a pledge not to introduce a four-day week.
People pay through the nose for high quality services, not a part-time council.
12 per cent said they would choose to go somewhere else, 5 per cent said they would take a day trip instead, and 4 per cent said they would not take the trip at all.
So together, 21 per cent would decide not to take an overnight trip to Wales as a direct result of the tax.
Connor Holohan from the Taxpayers' Alliance joins Leo Kearse to discuss whether the public pushback against ULEZ could force a policy change or cause a rift between Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan within the Labour Party.
Local government job ad: £98,795 to be the ASSISTANT director for integration and partnerships at Doncaster Council.
"There's never been a more exciting time to join Doncaster Council"
Bust up between
@piersmorgan
and Jeremy Corbyn, who can never complain again about being misinterpreted when he had about 97 chances to call Hamas a terrorist group and took precisely zero of them.
Astonishing.
Lots of things are appealing to children but bad for them.
So we set age limits for things like gambling and fruit-flavoured alcohol. We don’t ban them for everyone else.
There’s already an age limit on buying vapes.
Enforce it.
BREAKING: The Sun is reporting that the Government is set to clampdown on highly addictive fruit-flavoured vapes to stop children getting hooked on nicotine products.
@KateEMcCann
|
@MrHarryCole
No word yet out of HMT on income tax thresholds.
As wages rise, our frozen income tax thresholds drag more and more people into paying higher rates.
So while the income tax rate stays still, the proportion of your taxable income across the rates rises.
It's a stealth tax.
The HEARTH TAX was imposed by Parliament in 1662 until 1689 to support King Charles II's household.
Hearths were taxed because it was considered easier to establish the number of hearths than the number of people in a dwelling.
One shilling was payable for every hearth.
@motormaggedon
How polite. It is blanket. They’re presumed 20. I don’t have a message - I just don’t understand why people are losing their marbles over ‘blanket’