Starmergeddon: They Came And Ate Us

[Tichtheid]

They pay a surprising amount of tax still, tend to invest in the places they are resident to some degree or another and spend a fair amount of money because they have a lot of it to spend. Other countries are not trying to attract them because they’re lovely people to spend time with

There aren't that many countries trying to attract them, as I said there are one or two, but not that many. If I recall correctly, David Beckham donated all of his salary at a French club (PSG?) to charity because if he didn't he'd be subject to French tax, which includes world-wide income, he would have had to pay tonnes more to the French exchequer if he had accepted a salary in France - what a shitshow of a circumstance

I won’t pretend to have an exhaustive list (alas I am not in that wealth class). However, I know as a fact that France, Portugal and Italy are aiming to directly attract former British non-doms. Then factor in the Middle Eastern states and your more traditional tax havens (Switzerland, Channel Islands etc). Plenty of places to live really quite a nice life and not miss London too much.

I know for a fact that it's not that easy to switch tax havens that easily, not for me of course, but one of my mates is in that boat and there are deadlines to be met regarding doing so - are you absolutely sure about France because they must have changed their legislation since Beckham played there?

The stuff I read today indicated that Portugal and Italy were moving towards changing the non-dom and Golden Visa rules, the only one I saw that wasn't was Ireland, though I didn't look that hard into Ireland

The Middle Eastern countries tax via Switzerland as far as I can ascertain.

[Paddington Bear]

There aren't that many countries trying to attract them, as I said there are one or two, but not that many. If I recall correctly, David Beckham donated all of his salary at a French club (PSG?) to charity because if he didn't he'd be subject to French tax, which includes world-wide income, he would have had to pay tonnes more to the French exchequer if he had accepted a salary in France - what a shitshow of a circumstance

I won’t pretend to have an exhaustive list (alas I am not in that wealth class). However, I know as a fact that France, Portugal and Italy are aiming to directly attract former British non-doms. Then factor in the Middle Eastern states and your more traditional tax havens (Switzerland, Channel Islands etc). Plenty of places to live really quite a nice life and not miss London too much.

I know for a fact that it's not that easy to switch tax havens that easily, not for me of course, but one of my mates is in that boat and there are deadlines to be met regarding doing so - are you absolutely sure about France because they must have changed their legislation since Beckham played there?

The stuff I read today indicated that Portugal and Italy were moving towards changing the non-dom and Golden Visa rules, the only one I saw that wasn't was Ireland, though I didn't look that hard into Ireland

The Middle Eastern countries tax via Switzerland as far as I can ascertain.

Oh sure, and the gamble has always been that a lot of non-doms have set up their lives here and won’t leave. I think we’re running out of road on that for a lot of them. No one is replicating Britain’s old non-dom rules, there are numerous schemes out there though that are designed to pick people off from it.

[C69]

Lol

[JM2K6]

Rosie Duffield, the absolute worst of the labour MPs, has flounced on the excuse of how bad Starmer's gifts made her look.

Pretty sure her being a raging bigot was doing more than that but I'll accept an improvement in the party however it comes.

[C69]

Sleaze, back handers, cronyism taking money off the old and attacking the sick.
Who next students?

How to piss off all of the electorate. Fuck me Labour are really looking like a dour bunch of sleaze bags.

Alienating everyone is not really a good thing.

[SaintK]

Sleaze, back handers, cronyism taking money off the old and attacking the sick.
Who next student?

How to piss off all of the electorate. Fuck me Labour are really looking like a dour bunch of sleaze bags.

Yep
Things can only get better!

[C69]

Sleaze, back handers, cronyism taking money off the old and attacking the sick.
Who next student?

How to piss off all of the electorate. Fuck me Labour are really looking like a dour bunch of sleaze bags.

Yep
Things can only get better!

Indeed, what a nightmare.

[petej]

I won’t pretend to have an exhaustive list (alas I am not in that wealth class). However, I know as a fact that France, Portugal and Italy are aiming to directly attract former British non-doms. Then factor in the Middle Eastern states and your more traditional tax havens (Switzerland, Channel Islands etc). Plenty of places to live really quite a nice life and not miss London too much.

I know for a fact that it's not that easy to switch tax havens that easily, not for me of course, but one of my mates is in that boat and there are deadlines to be met regarding doing so - are you absolutely sure about France because they must have changed their legislation since Beckham played there?

The stuff I read today indicated that Portugal and Italy were moving towards changing the non-dom and Golden Visa rules, the only one I saw that wasn't was Ireland, though I didn't look that hard into Ireland

The Middle Eastern countries tax via Switzerland as far as I can ascertain.

Oh sure, and the gamble has always been that a lot of non-doms have set up their lives here and won’t leave. I think we’re running out of road on that for a lot of them. No one is replicating Britain’s old non-dom rules, there are numerous schemes out there though that are designed to pick people off from it.

The thing is whether they are here or not won't make any difference to where they invest. They will invest where they can get the best returns. So it doesn't make much difference if we close these schemes or not at which point it is more of a moral issue, therefore, we absolutely should shut down these schemes.

[petej]

Sleaze, back handers, cronyism taking money off the old and attacking the sick.
Who next students?

How to piss off all of the electorate. Fuck me Labour are really looking like a dour bunch of sleaze bags.

Alienating everyone is not really a good thing.

Wasting too much time on a dying media that is never going to like them.

[Biffer]

I know for a fact that it's not that easy to switch tax havens that easily, not for me of course, but one of my mates is in that boat and there are deadlines to be met regarding doing so - are you absolutely sure about France because they must have changed their legislation since Beckham played there?

The stuff I read today indicated that Portugal and Italy were moving towards changing the non-dom and Golden Visa rules, the only one I saw that wasn't was Ireland, though I didn't look that hard into Ireland

The Middle Eastern countries tax via Switzerland as far as I can ascertain.

Oh sure, and the gamble has always been that a lot of non-doms have set up their lives here and won’t leave. I think we’re running out of road on that for a lot of them. No one is replicating Britain’s old non-dom rules, there are numerous schemes out there though that are designed to pick people off from it.

The thing is whether they are here or not won't make any difference to where they invest. They will invest where they can get the best returns. So it doesn't make much difference if we close these schemes or not at which point it is more of a moral issue, therefore, we absolutely should shut down these schemes.

Bingo. No one has ever explained the benefit of these leeches residing here. They don’t spend money here at a level that makes an economic difference, and they’ll invest wherever they get profit, regardless of borders. There is no benefit that I can see of having on dons resident in the uk.

[Hal Jordan]

Something something Wealth Creators something something.

[Slick]

Sleaze, back handers, cronyism taking money off the old and attacking the sick.
Who next student?

How to piss off all of the electorate. Fuck me Labour are really looking like a dour bunch of sleaze bags.

Yep
Things can only get better!

I genuinely wasn't sure how Private Eye were going to fill their pages with the new government coming in, but judging by the latest issue they are not having any problem at all.

[SaintK]

Sleaze, back handers, cronyism taking money off the old and attacking the sick.
Who next student?

How to piss off all of the electorate. Fuck me Labour are really looking like a dour bunch of sleaze bags.

Yep
Things can only get better!

I genuinely wasn't sure how Private Eye were going to fill their pages with the new government coming in, but judging by the latest issue they are not having any problem at all.

There will be more to cvome for sure.
They'll have plenty next week anyway if the Tory party conference carries on like it is. Particularly after Badenoch's maternity leave error of judgement, Truss's appearance yesterday and Jenrick's donors and SAS gaffe.
Oh and Houchen's cronies in Teeside have refused to renegotiate the 90% of the deal they got with no liabilities following the reccomendations of the review board Gove put in place. A full audit commission on that one can't come soon enough

[dpedin]

Yep
Things can only get better!

I genuinely wasn't sure how Private Eye were going to fill their pages with the new government coming in, but judging by the latest issue they are not having any problem at all.

There will be more to cvome for sure.
They'll have plenty next week anyway if the Tory party conference carries on like it is. Particularly after Badenoch's maternity leave error of judgement, Truss's appearance yesterday and Jenrick's donors and SAS gaffe.
Oh and Houchen's cronies in Teeside have refused to renegotiate the 90% of the deal they got with no liabilities following the reccomendations of the review board Gove put in place. A full audit commission on that one can't come soon enough

Having failed with Currygate, Savillegate, Rayner's Housegate and Ibizagate the right wing press are delighted to have found something to sink their teeth into now - Suitegate! Even a blind squirrel will find the odd nut! They are also going all in on Sue Gray who they despise bitterly for controlling No10, sacking a few of their mates and cutting off all their insider sources. They are desperate to whip up press hysteria about the exact same things they ignored with their Tory Chums when in Government, ignoring the suits and glasses pales into insignificance when compared to the dodgy multi million PPE contracts, Blonde Bumblecunts trips to ex KGB parties in Italy, dodgy Russian oligarchs wives paying mega bucks to play tennis with BB, free holidays and lunches etc from tax avoiding JCB family, etc. This will continue ad nauseam from the likes of the Express, Mail, Torygraph, etc so we might as well get used to it. The likes of Private Eye will do a much better job holding the Gov to account on the important issues. Unfortunately the likes of the BBC etc chose to let the papers set the daily agenda and amplify the nonsense they write instead of doing their journalistic jobs properly ie where is the reporting of Dodgy Bob's £75k donation or Badenough running her leadership campaign from her dodgy right wing donors house?

[Hal Jordan]

Labour promising to spaff 22bn (OK over 25 years) up the wall that is Carbon Capture Systems, a dead end that does almost as well as Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars in its ability to dazzzle the powers that be for grant money, yet produce nothing of any value whatsoever.

[Paddington Bear]

It is possible just to spend large amounts of money on nuclear power to reduce our carbon footprint dramatically, whilst ensuring our energy security and bringing down costs to consumers and businesses. No idea why this has eluded politicians for so long

[Slick]

It is possible just to spend large amounts of money on nuclear power to reduce our carbon footprint dramatically, whilst ensuring our energy security and bringing down costs to consumers and businesses. No idea why this has eluded politicians for so long

It's getting really tedious now. Just build nuclear.

[Paddington Bear]

It is possible just to spend large amounts of money on nuclear power to reduce our carbon footprint dramatically, whilst ensuring our energy security and bringing down costs to consumers and businesses. No idea why this has eluded politicians for so long

It's getting really tedious now. Just build nuclear.

100%. A government that tells NIMBYs to piss off on this and builds a new fleet of power stations will have huge fiscal room to manoeuvre once they’re up and running and can then use the proceeds to stay in power for yonks.

[Slick]

It is possible just to spend large amounts of money on nuclear power to reduce our carbon footprint dramatically, whilst ensuring our energy security and bringing down costs to consumers and businesses. No idea why this has eluded politicians for so long

It's getting really tedious now. Just build nuclear.

100%. A government that tells NIMBYs to piss off on this and builds a new fleet of power stations will have huge fiscal room to manoeuvre once they’re up and running and can then use the proceeds to stay in power for yonks.

I read something at the weekend about the Koreans being the new masters of this and have offered to build a few here for a cost of about 1/100th of what our French friends are busy fucking up and fleecing us over.

[Sandstorm]

Nuclear is still expensive, requires highly skilled people and produces horrible waste. Just go for a million wind turbines and solar panels on every new property (by law) & let those with solar on any house sell the surplus back to the grid without limits.

Really we should be sorting out and modernising the grid with 22bn a year, then you'll "protect the UK's energy future!

[epwc]

Nuclear is still expensive, requires highly skilled people and produces horrible waste.

Which we still haven't got a sensible home for

[Raggs]

It really doesn't produce horrible waste these days. New plants would produce barely anything in terms of radioactive material.

[epwc]

It really doesn't produce horrible waste these days. New plants would produce barely anything in terms of radioactive material.

It's irrelevant how much it produces if we haven't got a safe repository. If we start taking nuclear seriously then step 1 has to be dealing with the existing waste and ensuring that we have a startegy and facilities for the safe storage of whatever waste is produced. Decommissioning costs should also be factored in at the start

[Raggs]

It really doesn't produce horrible waste these days. New plants would produce barely anything in terms of radioactive material.

It's irrelevant how much it produces if we haven't got a safe repository. If we start taking nuclear seriously then step 1 has to be dealing with the existing waste and ensuring that we have a startegy and facilities for the safe storage of whatever waste is produced. Decommissioning costs should also be factored in at the start

We're talking as much radiation on the old florescent watches in a ton of soil. If not less these days. The volume of waste also isn't that huge I don't believe.

[Paddington Bear]

Nuclear is still expensive, requires highly skilled people and produces horrible waste. Just go for a million wind turbines and solar panels on every new property (by law) & let those with solar on any house sell the surplus back to the grid without limits.

Really we should be sorting out and modernising the grid with 22bn a year, then you'll "protect the UK's energy future!

Renewable energy is more expensive, less reliable, takes up way more space and also requires lots of skilled people. There’s one route to cheap clean energy, and that ain’t it

[petej]

You need nuclear and renewables. This has always been the case for net zero. Bare minimum you need to replace the nuclear generation from plants that are near the end of their life or have already shut down which means you need 2 more Hinckley C type plants worth of generation in addition to Hinckley C.

[Sandstorm]

Net zero is silly. Net 80% is fine.

[Guy Smiley]

Nuclear is still expensive, requires highly skilled people and produces horrible waste. Just go for a million wind turbines and solar panels on every new property (by law) & let those with solar on any house sell the surplus back to the grid without limits.

Really we should be sorting out and modernising the grid with 22bn a year, then you'll "protect the UK's energy future!

Renewable energy is more expensive, less reliable, takes up way more space and also requires lots of skilled people. There’s one route to cheap clean energy, and that ain’t it

Renewables... wind and solar, are by some margin cheaper than every other option. With different storage modalities coming into the mix, it's pretty much a lay down misere and the market reflects that. Look at where the investment money is going.

[Biffer]

Nuclear is still expensive, requires highly skilled people and produces horrible waste. Just go for a million wind turbines and solar panels on every new property (by law) & let those with solar on any house sell the surplus back to the grid without limits.

Really we should be sorting out and modernising the grid with 22bn a year, then you'll "protect the UK's energy future!

Renewable energy is more expensive, less reliable, takes up way more space and also requires lots of skilled people. There’s one route to cheap clean energy, and that ain’t it

You’re fifteen or twenty years out of date.

[C69]

Nuclear is still expensive, requires highly skilled people and produces horrible waste. Just go for a million wind turbines and solar panels on every new property (by law) & let those with solar on any house sell the surplus back to the grid without limits.

Really we should be sorting out and modernising the grid with 22bn a year, then you'll "protect the UK's energy future!

Renewable energy is more expensive, less reliable, takes up way more space and also requires lots of skilled people. There’s one route to cheap clean energy, and that ain’t it

Hmmm

[_Os_]

This multiplied over the whole UK economy has become crippling imo. The net impact is a less developed country, which means more expensive transport and housing.

I reckon most people in the UK are oblivious because they don't deal directly with these processes often, and the ones they do use (renew a passport etc) are deliberately made efficient precisely because they're used by a lot of people. But if you're an immigrant or running certain types of businesses, you're fighting this sort of stuff regularly. I've personally spent months of my life compiling masses of information to meet some requirement in some process (that in all cases I've encountered were significantly more straightforward/simple in the recent past), that surely no one anywhere is ever going to read. The worst is when you somehow fail or are rejected and no one can explain why (because why would anyone read literal ring binders of superfluous information?), you then enter a kind of never ending form filling doom loop.

It's mad that a system has been made whereby some bad things appear nearly unregulated (pumping shit into every waterway), while comparatively innocuous things (building any structure) are regulated so heavily they're being actively supressed.

It cost £297m to produce the Lower Thames Crossing's 359,866 page long planning application.
That's more than it cost Norway to build the world's longest road tunnel.
The Department for Transport was meant to decide whether to approve it today. Instead, we got another delay.
There have been 7 (!) consultations on the Lower Thames Crossing.
This suggests the delay is just one week.
I'm a little confused as to why Parliament needed to be sitting for the decision to be made. (Not a legal requirement as far as I'm aware.)

[Paddington Bear]

Nuclear is still expensive, requires highly skilled people and produces horrible waste. Just go for a million wind turbines and solar panels on every new property (by law) & let those with solar on any house sell the surplus back to the grid without limits.

Really we should be sorting out and modernising the grid with 22bn a year, then you'll "protect the UK's energy future!

Renewable energy is more expensive, less reliable, takes up way more space and also requires lots of skilled people. There’s one route to cheap clean energy, and that ain’t it

You’re fifteen or twenty years out of date.

Nope. Let’s see prices of renewables vs a nuclear run system *without* our crazy financing and planning systems. Renewables have got better but they still have major flaws if you want to base your whole system around them, they’re part of the mix not the base

[Guy Smiley]

Renewable energy is more expensive, less reliable, takes up way more space and also requires lots of skilled people. There’s one route to cheap clean energy, and that ain’t it

You’re fifteen or twenty years out of date.

Nope. Let’s see prices of renewables vs a nuclear run system *without* our crazy financing and planning systems. Renewables have got better but they still have major flaws if you want to base your whole system around them, they’re part of the mix not the base

I'm guessing you're trying to compare the cost of power from an existing nuclear infrastructure against new build renewable delivery... which is nonsensical but the only semi logical way to explain your stance.

[Paddington Bear]

You’re fifteen or twenty years out of date.

Nope. Let’s see prices of renewables vs a nuclear run system *without* our crazy financing and planning systems. Renewables have got better but they still have major flaws if you want to base your whole system around them, they’re part of the mix not the base

I'm guessing you're trying to compare the cost of power from an existing nuclear infrastructure against new build renewable delivery... which is nonsensical but the only semi logical way to explain your stance.

Pretty much the exact opposite of what I’m doing

[Guy Smiley]

Renewable energy is more expensive, less reliable, takes up way more space and also requires lots of skilled people. There’s one route to cheap clean energy, and that ain’t it

uhhh... this IS your comparison to nuclear, right?

Because.... um, I don't know how to break this to you but...

yeah nah, fella. Yeah nah.

[Biffer]

Renewable energy is more expensive, less reliable, takes up way more space and also requires lots of skilled people. There’s one route to cheap clean energy, and that ain’t it

You’re fifteen or twenty years out of date.

Nope. Let’s see prices of renewables vs a nuclear run system *without* our crazy financing and planning systems. Renewables have got better but they still have major flaws if you want to base your whole system around them, they’re part of the mix not the base

So you want to do a comparison for an imaginary legal and finance situation that’s idealised for nuclear.

Yeah, we’re not doing that.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the love for nuclear is four times higher than renewables.

[I like neeps]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/ ... dApp_Other

Boris Johnson tightly controlling access for interviews makes Laura's "just an accident" claim even less believable.

[C69]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/ ... dApp_Other

Boris Johnson tightly controlling access for interviews makes Laura's "just an accident" claim even less believable.

Only a fecking idiot would believe that LK pays with a straight bat.
FFs she has been a Boris cheerleader for years

[SaintK]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/ ... dApp_Other

Boris Johnson tightly controlling access for interviews makes Laura's "just an accident" claim even less believable.

He's got enough lies and falsehoods on record already.
It's ok though he's got an in-depth interview with the Telegraph's Camilla Tominey on GB News tomorrow. I'm sure she'll give her colleague a full hard hitting interrogation.

[dpedin]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/ ... dApp_Other

Boris Johnson tightly controlling access for interviews makes Laura's "just an accident" claim even less believable.

He's got enough lies and falsehoods on record already.
It's ok though he's got an in-depth interview with the Telegraph's Camilla Tominey on GB News tomorrow. I'm sure she'll give her colleague a full hard hitting interrogation.

The Fat Slug was getting rattled by Tom Bradby on ITV interview, there were a couple of times I thought he was going to lose his temper completely. He seems to expect that folk will bow down to him and take what he says as true whereas Bradby showed little respect and called him out on a number of issues. He is nothing other that a duplicitous, racist, misogynistic, crooked charlatan trying to rewrite history ... he is running Truss close for one of the worst inept PMs in history, and there are a good few contenders.