It’s déjà vu this Monday as the UKSA slaps the government again, this time for its claims on tax. Labour have complained about a November statement from Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott that “taxes for the average worker have gone down by £1,000.” Egregious spin…

UKSA chairman Sir Robert Chote has rebuked the Tories over the statement: “I suspect that the public are more likely to have been misled – or at least confused – by Ms Trott’s statements, both of which would probably suggest to a typical listener that the average worker’s overall tax bill has fallen in cash terms.” The Tories’ claim comes from the Treasury’s calculation that the Autumn Statement NIC cut, combined with some tax threshold changes since 2010, will result in an average-income worker paying £1,000 less than they would have done if those changes hadn’t been enacted. Mental gymnastics required on that one…

The combined effect of previous stealth tax rises and actual tax rises is a tax hike of £1,200 per household. Almost everyone paying income tax or NIC is shelling out more in tax overall. Meanwhile, 3.3 million extra Brits are expected to pay income tax this year as the 6-year personal allowance freeze has lowered its real value to its 2013 level and the additional rate is frozen. Making it impossible to claim that the overall rate of tax is going down…

The government has today announced even more regulations on short term lets in England which will force property owners to apply for planning permission if they want to run one. A mandatory national registration scheme is also coming in to get properties on a state register. Stretching the broken planning system over the only dynamic part of the industry is absurd…

Short Term Accommodation Association CEO Andy Fenner has come out all guns blazing. He says “the holiday let industry is doomed to continue being unfairly regarded as tourism’s problem child, second-best to hotels, and unjustly taking the brunt of the blame game surrounding housing supply and affordability, despite the lack of a proper evidence base. The presumption is that, if you shut down all short term rentals tomorrow, the housing crisis would be solved but that is naive in the extreme. Short term lets are the modern, dynamic face of the tourism industry and we can’t force people into B&Bs and hotels through legislation.”

Maxwell Marlow, Director of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, argues “the government’s war on hospitality has taken a further step. Small family enterprises choose to use their limited resources to give space to tourists to visit their communities, and those community businesses respond well to this market. We must ask, who decides how one can use a property? Is it the owner as has always rightfully been the case, or local government?” The bloated hand of the state choking even more of the economy…

The Institute of Economic Affairs’ Matthew Lesh says “the government is scapegoating holiday lets for the housing crisis. A national registration scheme and requiring permission to use one’s own property for holiday lets will not fix anything. But it will add to Britain’s red tape nightmare and could end up doing more damage to local communities by hurting their tourism economy“.

The Centre for Policy Studies’ External Affairs Director Emma Revell points out that “the housing crisis has reached such a peak in some parts of the country that the government is resorting to making it more difficult to go on holiday. Airbnbs, short-term lets, and even second homes account for a tiny fraction of properties in England. Local frustration is understandable but ire should be focused on the problem – a lack of building – not the symptoms. Restrictions on Airbnbs will not touch the sides when we need over 5 million homes in the next fifteen years to keep pace with population growth.”

New controls on short term lets in Scotland have already pushed listings off a cliff – making it more difficult to register a property Airbnb or will just make holidays more miserable in the UK. To suggest it will have any impact on housing is laughable. The government is intent on these counter-productive spasms instead of letting more houses be built…

Ofcom is having a field day today, their latest probe into their favourite target GB News and their panel with Rishi Sunak. They’ve announced that after over 500 complaints, they are investigating GB News‘ People’s Forum: The Prime Minister. They say they’re investigating a potential breach of:

Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of its Broadcasting Code, which provide additional due impartiality requirements for programmes dealing with matters of major political controversy and major matters relating to current public policy.”  

Ofcom urgently needs to clarify their regulations as the political broadcasting landscape changes. Channels are still in limbo about what exactly will be allowed during the election campaign, in terms of politicians appearing on news channels…

The investigation announced today focuses on impartiality – arguing that no alternative view was offered during Sunak’s recent town hall appearance on GB News. The best way to balance it would surely be for Keir Starmer to accept their invite…

It looks like the public still has faith in the power of the pint. Polling reveals that 41% of the British public are more likely to view politician as in touch with the local community if they frequent the pub. That’s good news for Nigel Farage. No wonder Sunak and Starmer are so keen to be seen pulling pints…

A majority of the public agrees that pubs “bring people together who have different political views and provide a space for them to be discussed openly” while 31% feel they will play a key role in influencing swing voters in the election – time for politicians to head to get to work. Guido, for his part, has had many a frank and robust debate in Westminster’s watering holes…

This comes as new research reveals 7,248 pubs are expecting to go out of business in the next 12 months – that’s a whopping 16% of the total in the UK. Four fifths of pubs say a cut to alcohol duty would boost business and increase their chances of survival. On top of that are the 13,000 jobs the UK Spirits Alliance says are dependent on the industry. More pressure on Hunt to ease up on local pubs come the budget…

It’s no secret that Meta has no love for free speech, The Speccy being just one victim of being de-platformed. Now Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of Global Affairs has let slip how much effort goes in to sanitising the platform. Speaking to CNBC on Friday, the former Deputy PM proudly asserted that a whopping 40,000 of their 67,000 total global workforce work on “safety and integrity on our platforms.” I.e. censorship…

Clegg went on to say that Meta has spent $20 billion on policing narratives, his goal of removing politics from the platform almost becoming as successful as his mission to remove it from his own life. You can hear the shock from the presenters as they realise 60% of Meta staff are used to deploy censorship. No “I’m Sorry” from Nick though…