This week the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport accidentally published a consultation proposing to hike Gambling Commission licence fees for companies by 30%. An embarrassing gaffe that instantly sent the industry into meltdown…
While the quango plots a chunky fee rise for an already-battered sector (fresh from Reeves’ November tax raid – including increasing the tax rate for remote gaming from 21% to 40%), co-conspirators might ask where all that extra cash would actually go. The Commission’s latest accounts show that in just one year:
Meanwhile the leaked consultation admits the Commission still needs to find £3.2 million in efficiency savings even after slapping on a 30% fee rise. They might want to start by looking in the mirror…
Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns told Times Radio she would have put a precondition on a China trip if she were PM:
“I would have put a precondition that I was not going to go if I was prime minister, unless Jimmy Lai was coming home with me. I would also put a precondition in the six months leading up to the visit that I wanted a reduction in hostile acts against our country. But that’s not what we saw. And actually, in contrast, what we saw was clearly the Chinese Communist Party did put a precondition, which was that the new embassy in London had to be signed off. So why is it okay for China to set preconditions and to make very clear red lines about what they require for a visit, but we go without having put any ourselves?”