Josh Simons, newly elected MP for Makerfield and close ally of Starmer, is continuing his new campaign against Elon Musk’s Twitter. Simons complains that Musk’s tweets are too visible to people and claims that letting consumers who are disattisfied leave voluntarily is not enough:
“Waiting for Westminster to voluntarily quit X risks a very long wait… it’s a mistake to focus on individual choices… the question has to be: What do we expect of this platform?
Rising star Simons, who headed up Starmerite think tank Labour Together before his election and is now trying to get himself onto the Technology Select Committee, complained on Politics Live: “I do not want any man or woman to have that kind of power over our public debate.” Helpfully ignoring that Twitter closely managed reams of content before it was taken over by Musk…
He went on to spell out his personal dislike of Musk:
“Musk is a problem. I don’t like him. But Musk is symptomatic of the fact that he has this power… Think of the algorithm like a newspaper editor. Newspaper editors have values, they have standards, they have integrity. The people who build the algorithms should have the same values and integrity and professional standards.”
The key difference between a democratised social media and the legacy dead tree press is, of course, that editors and hacks operate in collusion with politicians. Now that information is no longer so closely controlled authoritarian politicians are itching to regulate a free social media to exctinction…
Bad news for fans of economic growth this week as the US-based Tax Foundation releases their International Tax Competitiveness Index, which ranks 38 OECD countries on how pro-growth their tax systems are. The UK ranks a shameful 30th place, now lagging behind the likes of Hungary (7th), Czechia (8th), and even Germany (15th). So much for lofty promises of making Britain an “attractive” destination for investors…
Since 2021, our corporate tax competitiveness has nosedived 18 places, thanks to Sunak hiking it to 25% – a rate that’s set to stay. Things are poised to get worse, with the Tax Foundation and Centre for Policy Studies sounding the alarm that Reeves’ upcoming budget could see the UK tumble even further down the rankings to 35th place if hikes in capital gains tax, dividend tax, or the dreaded wealth tax materialise. Just four spots from the bottom, alongside France, Italy, and Colombia. Hardly a prelude to growth…
Daniel Herring of the CPS warned:
“In short, there is a real danger that we could end up with the least competitive and most anti-growth tax system in the OECD. The UK’s ranking shows that the way we raise tax is damaging incentives, getting in the way of innovation and undercutting productivity.”
Right on the money…
Meanwhile, capital is already streaming out of the country, and businesses are fleeing in droves. These latest figures aren’t the siren calls that will bring investors flocking…
25-year-old Victoria Thomas Bowen previously denied the charge of assault by beating after throwing a McDonald’s milkshake at Nigel Farage in Clacton. She has now pleaded guilty…
Farage was leaving a Wetherspoons at the time while on the campaign trail. Bowen has now also pleaded guilty to causing £17.50 of damage to a Nigel’s bodyguard’s jacket. She will be sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in December….
Taxpayers might wonder what exactly they’re paying for when HMRC tries to shut down its phone line and designs even more diversity training courses. The situation has got so bad that 89% of business owners now say poor levels of service from the taxman are negatively impacting their ability to work…
Apart from buying half a million pounds’ worth of new furniture, Guido can reveal that the UK’s tax overlords have been racking up an eye-watering bill on planes and taxis since the election. In July and August alone HMRC spent £490,700 on plane travel. It says “the most cost-effective means of travel is always considered prior to bookings of this nature.” That’s reassuring…
At the same time the taxpayer is coughing up about £6,000 a week on private taxis for the taxman to use, running up a £65,703 tab since July. Public transport is for thee, not for me…
Reform is stepping up its campaign to take down the Tories, reportedly preparing to unveil a “high-profile” candidate should Rishi Sunak step down. Though sources close to Sunak insist they’d be “surprised” if he steps down, his recent absence from the public stage is raising eyebrows. Reform sources claim Sunak and his deputy, Oliver Dowden, are gearing up to resign their seats. Sunak’s still eyeing the sunny shores of the Golden Coast…
Meanwhile, a Reform insider says that Nigel has “two former Tory MPs and one current Tory MP ready to defect’” and contest any forthcoming by-elections. Reform’s momentum is growing: they’re now more popular than Labour, and Labour aides are reportedly worried the party could surpass them in voting intention polls by the time of the local elections in May. With over 100 local branches launching soon, Reform continue to position itself as the real opposition…
Care Minister Stephen Kinnock was asked a pretty simple question ahead of the budget this morning: “Are six-figure earners working people?” No response – six times in a row…
Kinnock eventually said Labour hadn’t worked out what a “working person” was yet: “Obviously the definitions have to be seen in the round and that’s what’s going to be put on the table.” Rachel Reeves made it clear, though, what the party’s definition of working people was during the election campaign: “Working people are people who get their income from going out to work everyday, and also pensioners that have worked all their lives and are now in retirement.” Which obviously includes those who receive a large salary…
Kinnock just said: “our manifesto made it absolutely clear that we will not be raising National Insurance income tax or VAT on working people.” A cynical combination of two entirely different sentences in the manifesto…
Streeting said yesterday that Labour’s “focus” when it came to not hiking taxes was on “people who are on lower or middle incomes.” It only took a hundred days for Labour to give up its growth-friendly façade…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”