MARTINX9

So what is wrong with inflation below 2% - prices are still rising? Why not negative - to offset the massive 20% rise in the last couple of years?!

Before 2008 current rates were average rates for the previous 250 years. People have short memories - and many are too young to remember.

I have never been quite convinced of the merits of a terminus at Euston given the cost and poor connectivity once you get there. The Elizabeth line via Old Oak Common will give direct links to Heathrow, Paddington (one stop), the West End/Oxford Street, the City and Canary Wharf via a single service. No need to walk down and hop on a crowded Northern or VIctoria line tube or walk to Euston square tube to get anywhere you need to go - as hardly anyone to be fair wants to stop at Euston. Perhaps it would simply be better to invest in the Old Oak Common terminus and improve capacity and links with the Elizabeth line - than spend £6bn plus on the last bit.

In the end people talked about the end of the Labour Party under Thatcher when the SDP came along and after the 1992 election and after the 2019 defeat. Same with the Tories post 1997. They both seem to hang around however like a bad smell because our electoral system makes it almost impossible to dislodge them even after disastrous defeats. The Lib Dems nearly got there in 2010, the SDP/Alliance in 1983 and for a moment the Brexit party and LDs in late spring snd early summer 2019 in poliing - but it didn’t last long and they faded again. I expect people will get bored of Labour and decide to make a change in 2034 if not 2029 - when things haven’t really changed as our fundamental long term challenges need something a bit more radical than Rachel Reeves to fix. Who that alternative will be who knows - but if history is any guide it will almost certainly be the Tories again.

No sign of it this month at all. First cut now predicted for September - but that is four and a half months away and a lot can happen locally and globally before then. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/bank-england-readies-its-rates-steer-investors-cool-cuts-2024-05-01/

Reform have just won a seat on the London Assembly - but then it was the only election on Thursday that was conducted by PR and they exceeded the 5% threshold required to get one Assembly member. Only real benefit is the chance to ask Sadiq Khan an awkward question or two once a month for the next four years. Looks like the Tories are potentially imploding again though now Andy Street has lost the West Midlands Mayor and all the spinning that Susan Hall had won in London turned out to be total BS. So we will see what happens to the Tory vs Reform polling shares in coming weeks. The big problem for the Tories is that unlike Thursday where Reform stood in barely 10% of seats - in the general election they plan to stand in every single seat - and could well cost a lot of Tory MPs their seats. Andy Street only lost by 1500 votes - the Reform candidate got around 35,000 votes.

You can apply for a voter registration certificate for free from your local council which suffices. If you can't cope with that process no idea how you will get a degree anyway. What of course gets ignored is that 60% and more of people never vote in local elections (it rises to 75% in some deprived wards) and 30% never do in general elections. And that understates the position as not everyone is on the register. I expect those without 'photo ID' - weren't voting anyway because they are so disengaged more generally. In the North East Mayoral election the turnout was only 31% - same in Tees Valley. Even lower for the North Yorkshire Mayor. Shocking given how high profile those roles are! Its not photo id that is the problem - most people didn't turn out before it. But very few politicians seem interested in talking about the appallingly low turnouts! https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate

Actually London is potentially one place Reform will see candidates elected today - as the London Assembly is elected by PR. I doubt they will win many seats elsewhere - they are barely running in 10 per cent of the seats up.. If they get 5% of the list vote - they get an Assembly member - a mere 7-8% and they could get 2 seats. Perfectly possible given voting trends in zone 5-6. Given you gov is close to seeing a crossover between the Tories and Reform today - and events in Peckham suggest any efforts to move anyone to Rwanda will be frustrated - its a little hard to predict what will materialise in the next few weeks.

It was a little lower - £787million not £800 billion - as has been highlighted. . Tucker Carlson didn't really get into the Dominion stuff much - it was other fox anchors some of whom are still working for the company. The real reason he got dumped is because the Murdoch's weren't so keen on his political direction of travel - on Trump, Ukraine and the influence of big corporations (like the ones they run) on US democracy. He has now of course gone independent like Megyn Kelly and others - so is freer in what he can say and is making a lot more money as he is no longer just a paid employee. No need to have a linear tv show at a fixed time slots when people can watch online anytime they want via twitter, you tube, rumble etc etc.

What is the point of a tax cut in the autumn no one will get to see as the election will happen within weeks before it has any effect - an election the Tories will lose?! It won’t affect or benefit first time buyers either as their tax free threshold is £425k. Too late now and pointless! The only question is will Rachel Reeves reverse the changes in her first budget.

I would imagine a £340k flat in zone 2 is pretty grim - £500k wouldn't get you anything decent in zone 3.

Yes - and he was later made a UK trade envoy to Colombia (as well as Peru, Argentina and Chile). Someone must have been 'avin a larf when they made that appt.

I feel sorry for his 78 year old former campaign manager - she apparently got a call at 3.15am one night saying Mr Menzies needed £5,000 immediately 'as a matter of life and death' so he could pay off some 'bad actors' who were entrapping him somewhere in a flat while he wasn't wearing any clothes. Poor woman had to take the £6.5k out of her own bank account (as the price went up) and transferred the funds - she later got reimbursed by party donors. This £6.5k was apparently for 'cleaning up' the flat after he was sick. I thought I have seen it all.

Compared to this Mark Menzies scandal this now rather pales into irrelevance. If you look at his track record it is absolutely hilarious that he was made a trade envoy to Colombia - a role he has now been removed from!! https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/lucy-powell-anneliese-dodds-labour-police-conservative-b2530784.html

Surely she should be aware of all that? Seems the latest area of focus is on single person discount for council tax - at least according to the Telegraph. No evidence as yet she claimed SPD at her own or her husband's house - so its merely speculative. Should take half an hour with the Stockport council tax team to investigate that. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/17/angela-rayner-council-tax-fraud-claims-manchester-police/

Amazing thing is we have tubes, buses and trains - you don't actually need to live in the west end to perform or work in it. Without the basic core infrastructure and people who keep a city moving and functioning there would be no west end for them to function in? They artists can get public transport in - like every one else.

We need doctors, engineers, shopworkers, paramedics, nurses and cleaners more than artists in London. What is so special about artists being priced out - they can produce their art elsewhere?!

I was more referencing the error in the title - as he isn't the Mayor of the city of Brussels just of one municipality in the Brussels city region.

How many useful jobs could be paid for by cutting taxes in other areas - instead of this taxbreak which adds zero benefit to society!

Apparently the request to shut down the event came from the local Mayor Emir Kir - who according to his wikipedia profile was expelled from the Belgian Socialist party for his links to the Turkish far right, evicted children and families squatting in an empty convent, apparently used intimidation and fraud to get re-elected last time and has denied the Armenian genocide during WWI (where over 1.2 million Armenians were murdered by the Turkish Ottoman empire) ever took place. Sounds a right charmer. You really couldn't make it up - he is probably more 'far right' himself than anyone attending the actual conference! https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emir_Kir#cite_note-2

Seems to me all the police need to do is spend a couple of hours reviewing Stockport councils housing benefit, right to buy, council tax and electoral registration records and systems. Almost all they need to know - including dates and forms completed. The council is run by the Lib Dems - so they will I am sure be keen to help. Been a busy couple of weeks for Stockport related 'scandals' - William Wragg is also one of their local MPs.

There ought to be more focus on the lifetime costs of course - not the costs over 2 years. Over 25 years a £500k mortgage at a rate of 1 per cent will cost you £565,000 in total to finance and repay. The same mortgage at a rate now of 4.5 percent over 25 years will cost £830,000. So that £500k house will now cost you £265,000 more to buy over 25 years than befor Now rates will go down and up - but that is surely a huge reduction in profit relative to costs than under the previous close to zero interest rate environment. In a sane world it ought to have led to bigger price drops too.

Yes - seems you are correct! https://www.cityboroughhousing.co.uk/renting-your-right-to-buy-property-all-you-need-to-know/ Did she tell Stockport council she was renting it out - if indeed she did in fact rent it out to her brother? Maybe he was just housesitting - and no rent changed hands. Its all a bit messy!

I wonder if they will end up having to do a sequel to Mr Bates vs the Post office! Seems this is going to go on for some time yet! You could probably do a mini series just on the whole public inquiry. Angela van den Bogerd - so convincingly turned into an evil Cruella de Ville type character by Katherine Kelly in the drama - is appearing on Thursday next week. Popcorn at the ready for that one! Surely she can't be as evil as Ms Kelly played her?

Isn't it partly your third point - as you reference repaying the discount to the council? Are you referring to her capital gains tax there on the profit - not her right to buy discount (i.e. repaying part of her profit back to the council to offset the discount she was not eligible for due to 5 years post purchase not having elapsed)? Sorry if I misunderstood that point? It all seems incredibly messy - has a council house right to buy resale ever been so closely scrutinised?