Goat

In some respects May has done the Labour party a favour by calling this election, whether they'll make use of it or carry on with Corbyn or another loony left leader is another matter. Pathetic stuff whining about the "elites" and "tax cheats and greedy bankers" that all really comes down to shaking the magic money tree some more.

Indeed, the SNP's plan seems to be to generate as much grief and aggro as possible in the hope that eventually everyone will be happy to see them go, god knows what would've happened if Cameron hadn't won a majority last year. Paradoxically I think you can argue that the SNP have brought us where we are today. The fear of Sturgeon holding the balance of power in a hung parliament undoubtedly scared a lot of voters away from Labour, thus keeping Cameron in power, thus ensuring that the referendum could go ahead.

Was Eight the cause of the moderators sense of humor failure or did he just get caught in the crossfire?

Just moved out of a property and was rather shocked to be handed a cleaning bill for £400 for a 1 bed house, to put this in context the monthly rent was £600. The property was cleaned to the best of my ability (the better part of a whole day), possibly the kitchen needed a bit more work but I really struggle to see how this amount of time can be justified. What do people normally expect to pay?

Don't think so IMO, the political fallout would be so immense I can't see how any party could even think about it. Think about the flak they're taking over ~ £1,500 of tax credits - imagine what would happen if you were taking £10,000+ off "hard working families".

Any chance you could precie that? It is rather long. From a brief skim that appears to be levied on residential properties only based on house prices, which is great if you want to hit pensioners but will do nothing to the BTLers or large landowners. Being cynical I'd say that amounts to nothing more than a plan to tax the South East.

Can anyone tell me what a LVT would look like in practice? What would it raise, how would it be calculated, what taxes would it replace, who would win, who would lose?

Not quite true, he managed to get 49.6% of the members and 51.4% when the affiliated supporters are included; no doubt even if the latter were excluded he would've picked up enough 2nd preferences to get over the line. What's important about the registered supporters is they have turned a narrow victory into a thumping one.

Although it does show what's necessary for such an arrangement to work, i.e. two closely intergrated economies with a common language, real freedom of movement between the two countries, one dominant partner and the ultimate ability of the junior partner to break the link if necessary. None of which are present in the EZ.

Only if his aim is Grexit. I can't see a 3rd bailout happening, the IMF have said they won't be involved without a w/off, the EZ say that this is impossible due to the treaties in place, stalemate.

Yep, the big problem is that he wasn't prepared to leave the Euro, the EZ saw this, called his bluff, at which point he was f***ed. I also think he fundamentally misjudged his bargaining position, he thought that the EZ would be desparate to avoid a Grexit, they weren't (although Grexit may be much more catestrophic for them than they realise).

A devaluation would sort out that trade deficit (although it cuts both ways by making imports more expensive) and give them a chance to grow their economy, the losers are those with substantial Euro denominated holdings within Greece. Personally I think staying in the Euro is about nothing more than national pride.

But is that true? I don't understand why people think leaving the Euro would be a calamity, these countries have all had their own currencies in the past so why would it be a disaster to return to that situation? The Greeks are already running or close to a primary surplus, what's killing them is the interest on the debt. Outside of the Euro they could repudiate their EZ debts and survive with help from the IMF, they'd probably see a 30% devaluation and an associated spike in inflation but this needn't be the end of the world. To me the supposed costs of Euro exit sound like propaganda from pro-EU enthusiasts.

Another article from AEP: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11739985/IMF-stuns-Europe-with-call-for-massive-Greek-debt-relief.html Essentially IMF are saying they want no part of a further bail out, EZ are insisting that IMF is involved in any rescue package. I can't see the point in the Greeks bothering to enact the preconditions unless they want to pin the blame for Grexit on the EZ, there doesn't appear to be much likelyhood of the EZ agreeing a new bailout so anything the Greeks do is for nought.

Well, that £25bn for the bank recapitalisation will likely be in their pockets as cash or transferred abroad within about 10 days of the banks re-opening.