Scottish Tory living in London. Medical Entrepreneur. Angel Investor. Jewish. Libertarian.
London
Joined November 2010
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Robert MacKay retweeted
What I find very difficult is the calibre of “trained economist” Newsnight keeps trotting out.
“What I find very difficult… is the assumption you have to cut your way to be being fiscally responsible”
“There’s not a hope in hell that [Labour] are going to oversee any cuts to public spending”
Economics professor Mariana Mazzucato and Conservative MP Julia Lopez debate Chancellor John Healey’s spending plans.
#Newsnight
Robert MacKay retweeted
Thesis. We vote for goodies and ignore second-order consequences. We want a high minimum wage and complain about few jobs for young people. We love freebies and don't think about their cost. We imagine that taxes fall on others. We have just had exactly the budget we deserve.
Robert MacKay retweeted
This is horrendous for hard working sole traders just so this government can get its hands on your tax earlier! And give it all away.
The hidden tax measure in the Budget is huge for people paying tax under self-assessment - sole traders, partners, landlords, retired investors.
For 6th April 2028-29, you currently pay 50% of your income tax late in the tax year in question (in January 2029), 50% just after the year end (in July 2029) with any make-up payment in January 2030.
Under the new proposals you will pay your tax perhaps monthly or quarterly (TBC) from April 2029 onwards. A rough analysis suggests the impact is to draw about 50% of your tax bill forward, a huge cashflow boost to HMRC and a significant funding issue for the self-employed.
The Treasury recognises this, and expects to raise £1.3bn of additional tax in 29/30 as a result of this change.
The cashflow impact of the accelerated charge will send some businesses to the wall.
Robert MacKay retweeted
Putting an end to this would be the easiest win in politics. No more tax rises. Deficit down. GDP up. Popular with the public.
But they can’t do it because of their lunatic, benefits-obsessed backbenchers.
Robert MacKay retweeted
"UK announces further tariff suspensions on food, drink and fuel"
Not a big deal in the wider scheme of things but also, of course, not possible if the UK were still in the EU, or even just a customs union... 👇
gov.uk/government/news/every…
Robert MacKay retweeted
Oh FFS.
Is anyone else getting really sick and tired of our utterly useless government, who just keep giving away our stuff to whoever bloody asks???
Why should British taxpayers subsidise the education of European students???
Pay for your own kids!
thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
Robert MacKay retweeted
Always happy to rebut mendacious anti-semitic activism
Watch the full video here: youtube.com/watch?v=Cqf5dOvZ…
We got a furious response from the former Conservative minister Lord Michael Gove when we asked about his position on Israel at the Labour Conference.
Gove claimed he knew more about antisemitism than Zack Polanski, the only Jewish leader of a major political party in the UK. He also accused us of not being journalists and of an obsession with Israel, despite the Labour government's change in position on the occupation of Palestine being the key topic at this year's conference.
Gove now sits in the House of Lords and is editor of right-wing magazine The Spectator.
Robert MacKay retweeted
I don’t want to post the video. You’ve all seen it. But I do want to write a love letter…
Dear everyone in Britain, ( even you illegals)
Just so you understand. The poppy is for the boys who never got to grow old. For the boys who were still somebody’s baby, brother, uncle or father. More than 600,000 of them.
It doesn’t matter if you support war, hate your country, think you are a woman (even though you are a man). It doesn’t matter which God you pray to, or if you pray to none at all.
It doesn’t matter who you vote for, what climate narrative you believe, or whether you believe Israel should exist or not!
The poppy isn’t for you!
It’s for those who came before. Those who fought for your right to be weird, annoying or even foreign.
The poppy is how we say thank you. Thank you for giving us time, peace and choice.
And attempting to ban our poppy by declaring it politically divisive isn’t a move towards freedom. It is an act of suppression. Understand that.
The poppy is about love and loss. For you!
So stick your rainbow flags and every other flag where the sun doesn’t shine and just wear your poppy. Those boys did not die as symbols. They died for you!
Did you know that poppies grew across the battlefields where so many fell? As though even the land refused to forget the blood once given to defend it.
So the poppy is for them. For those who came before us and paid in youth, in hope, in breath, in blood, so that we might have the freedom to be arseholes.
So that we might even have the freedom to fight over the ridiculous, the inconsequential and the insane.
Revere it, celebrate it and wear it. The very least you can do is that.
Best
The ordinary people.
Robert MacKay retweeted
Thank God he didn’t apply a Snapchat bugs bunny filter to make fun of a politician
Robert MacKay retweeted
Whether you are happy or not that the Prime Minister is opening up the Brexit debate again, there are two things we know for certain.
1. He lied about not opening up the Brexit debate again.
2. He wouldn't be the PM right now, if he hadn't lied about it.
Robert MacKay retweeted
Five more everyday fixes for you, Andy:
1. Red ends on Sellotape so we can find them.
2. Biscuits that survive being dunked.
3. Fitted sheets with THIS WAY UP printed on them.
4. Bins that put themselves out.
5. A smoke alarm that recognises toast.
Britain rebuilt. You’re welcome.
Robert MacKay retweeted
Thatcher was extraordinary in this interview (for the 1987 General Election). You watch it and by the end of it sit in astonishment and disappointment that Britain hasn’t found this quality of leader in the period since.
Thatcherism stands for sound finance; it stands for honest money, not inflation; it stands for living within your means; it stands for incentives, because we know full well that the economic strength of a nation comes from the efforts of its people, and its people need incentives to work as hard as they possibly can. All of that has produced economic growth.
It stands for something else: It stands for the wider spread of ownership of property, of houses, of shares, of savings; it stands for being strong in defence, a reliable ally and a trusted friend.
People have called those 'Thatcherism'. They are, in fact, fundamental commonsense, and having faith in the enterprise and abilities of the people.
It was my task to try to release those. They were always there. They have always been there in the British people but they couldn't flourish under socialism.
Robert MacKay retweeted
Good spot by Martina... 👇
In short, Andy Burnham's attempt to blame Brexit for the small boats crisis contradicts what his own Home Secretary has said 🤔
Interesting difference between the PM and his Home Secretary over Brexit and small boats.
Andy Burnham today blamed the crisis on Britain losing its EU returns agreement after Brexit but Shabana Mahmood has previously rejected that argument.
She told the Home Affairs Committee in February: "I am sure there are lots of other debates to be had about the rights and wrongs of Brexit, but is Brexit responsible for the boats? I do not think that is true...
“The idea that this has happened because we have lost the access to Dublin and the returns agreement with the EU - I think that is too much of a stretch.”
In September, she went further, arguing that under Britain's one-in, one-out deal with France “more returns have happened than ever was the case under the Dublin arrangements, when we were still members of the EU".
She also warned that it was “a mistake to see the EU’s new pact as some sort of new silver bullet” that would eliminate Britain's migration problems.
Robert MacKay retweeted
FYI, talking about Brexit yesterday, Angela Rayner claimed that...
“The evidence is really clear in terms of 20% down in exports to the EU, 16,000 businesses no longer exporting to the EU, it has been the red tape on the EU deal we got, has been damaging to the economy”.
But if this is indeed the evidence, it really is not clear!
Let's unpick it... 🧵
Number 10 clearly considers the PM to be a bit of a loose canon…. telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
Robert MacKay retweeted
We did know it. We knew, at the time, we were living in an extraordinary decade. We had the luxury of the 60s, 70s, and 80s to inspire us to create it.
We thought each decade would get together better. We were full of hope.
What we never realised is that 26 years later, we would be living in the dystopian nightmare of all the films we had been watching.
Robert MacKay retweeted
They just can't be this bad. They just can't.
1. The highest price they can command is determined by competition. If you increase taxes on everyone then all prices rise.
2. Taxing O&G so highly deters investment. This reduces supply. Reduced supply increases price.
Nope, that’s not how taxes and price works. The price is determined by demand and supply.
Companies charge the highest price they can given demand. A tax levied on *profits* does not affect a company’s cost ie supply.
Taxes on *windfall* profits (like oil and gas) are the most efficient kind of tax there is.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Corporate profit taxes do not directly shift marginal costs but empirical studies show partial pass-through into higher consumer prices. Windfall taxes on oil and gas have deterred investment and production in practice despite theoretical efficiency on rents.
dadun.unav.edu/server/api/cor…
ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps…
taxfoundation.org/blog/big-oil-p…
scottishfinancialreview.com/2025/09/03/win…
