The UK–EU food deal ends the £200 health certificates and vet fees that Brexit created. The prize is up to 0.14% of GDP, about £5.1bn a year by 2040. The price is following EU food rules we no longer get a vote on.
Aesop's wolf, offered a fat dog's dinner, spots the collar mark and walks away: "Better to starve free than be a fat slave."
Brexit: Tell Them Again. The UK Must NOT Rejoin the EU — add your name: greatbritishpac.com/campaign…
America's big three carriers warned the FCC of "real consequences" if satellites got their airwaves. The FCC voted 3–0 to consult on it anyway. The newcomer is SpaceX, and AT&T and T-Mobile shares are already down 8%.
The Dhammapada: "All conditioned things are impermanent."
Every cosy market comes apart. The carriers are still clinging, while their shareholders have already let go.
Budget: every home in council tax bands A to D gets £100 off energy, about 80% of households in England. It's paid for by the same taxpayers and bill payers who receive it, and it's handed out by band rather than by need, so a millionaire in a band D cottage gets it and a struggling family in a band E flat doesn't.
Aristotle, writing on generosity 2,300 years ago: the generous person "will give from the right source; he will not take from wrong sources."
His point is that generosity isn't measured by what you hand out, but by whose money it was. Take from people, give some back, and call it support? That isn't a gift. It's a partial refund with a press release.
The government says it's ending the Carer's Allowance cliff edge. Now every £1 earned above the limit takes £1 off the allowance.
Zen: "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."
On minimum wage, that's 7 to 8 extra hours a week before a single extra pound is theirs. All this for people who already care for someone at least 35 hours a week.
Ministers say they're "putting a stop to" rip-off parking charges. The BBC put the new code next to the old one and found the same grace periods, the same £100 cap and the same £20 appeal discount.
Leibniz: "There are never in nature two beings that are perfectly alike."
If you can't tell them apart, it's one code. The only new thing is who enforces it.
from one sign to the other.
Shan retweeted
In solidarity with the young 15 year old lad arrested for sharing this image of a politician.
You know what to do people. Let’s flood X with this.
Ten years of going cashless, paperless and digital by default. The new emergency plan is cash, paper copies and a wind-up radio. Zhuangzi: "Everyone knows the usefulness of the useful, but no one knows the usefulness of the useless." Turns out the backup was the system we binned.
Burnham wants standing charges off gas bills. The pipes still need paying for. Parmenides: "Nothing comes from nothing." Take it off the standing charge and it turns up in the unit rate, or in your tax bill. Same money, different line.
Chancellor rules out raising CGT because the wealthy would leave or just sit tight. Ibn Khaldun spotted this in 1377: "At the beginning of a dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end, it yields a small revenue from large assessments." Capital gains only get taxed when someone chooses to sell. Raise the rate and nobody sells. Six centuries on and the Labour is still discovering it.
Cornwall puts a premium on second homes. Owners switch them to holiday lets, pay nothing, and claim refunds going back 30 years. £10m gone, and up to 19,000 low-income households may now lose their council tax support. The tax hit the people it wasn't aimed at.
"Trust in God, but tie your camel." (Sufi saying)
🤖 Made with AI
BBC News is now live on YouTube, to reach people where they already watch. Fair enough. But the licence fee stays at £180, and YouTube can't check whether you've paid. The audience has moved and the funding model hasn't.
"No one steps in the same river twice." (Heraclitus)
Exempt the family home from inheritance tax, and selling it becomes the taxable act. So the big house stays put, the young couple keep renting, and the cost may be closer to £11bn than £6bn.
The dog in the manger can't eat the hay and won't let the ox have it. (Aesop)
IFS: A 35bn of spending pressure, no plan for it. Hold the totals flat and you've chosen cuts without saying which. A Budget that only adds up if nobody checks.
"Let us calculate." (Leibniz)
