Protesting Farmers garner Marie Antoinette levels of sympathy...

Got to admire farmers in their optimism ....coming to the centre of a town where everyone pays Inheritance Tax at 40% on any property over £325,000 (The price of a 2 bedroom flat in the suburbs) and whining about paying IHT at 20% over 10 years on over £1,000,000.  Surely this can only inspire Marie Antoinette levels of sympathy...

Over at the Telegraph the Landed Gentry who threw us all off the agricultural land during the Enclosure Acts have deployed a Duchess to tell us all how unfair this is.  I don't know why they didn't get Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in and be done with it.

But apparently they need to completely avoid IHT in order to preserve their way of life because they are "asset rich but cash poor" and need to leave their farms as indivisible entities to their offspring.  Matthew Stadlen asked the obvious question.  What happens if there's more than one child?  Surely then you have to divide the estate ... to which many protested that the leave the farm to only one child - presumably cutting the others out the will completely like it's 1730?  The problem with this would be that dependents can now put in a claim on any estate that unreasonably cuts them out.  

A memorable case was Heather Ilott who took her late mother Melita Jackson's executor to Court when she decided that she'd rather leave her £486,000 estate to the cats home than her own biological daughter who she had disowned for marrying the wrong gentleman.  I think she got £50,000 in the end.  A shame really as that's the plot of Pride and Prejudice can never happen again - where all 5 daughters have to get married because property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir and if they don't they'll be destitute.  I mean, if they wanted to preserve their way of life that much why don't they get Captain Swing back, break up the threshing machines and go back to the feudal system?  And no one else has their way of life preserved - the rest of us are left to Adam Smith's invisible hard ... but as ever the rich don't really want a free market either.  At least not one where everyone is subject to the same tax regime.  They've only had their IHT tax break since Thatcher brought it in in the 80s anyway ... alongside abolishing the rates for the Poll Tax and getting rid of tenants rights...

It's odd that we have a society where so many people are obsessed with IHT ... The average age of inheriting parental wealth is about 50 so what have these people been doing with their lives until then?  Are they all just sitting round waiting for octogenarian parents to kick the bucket of animal feed?  Presumably if the survival of the business as a unit mattered so much to these people they could gift if to their children 7 years before death or are they literally all working till they fall off their perches...?

Question for farmers protesting about inheritance tax.

Consider a farmer who has £5m of land. He has 2 children. One wants to continue with the family farm and the other works in a town.

How is the money handed down? Does the town son get any money or does the farmer son keep…

— Matthew Stadlen (@MatthewStadlen) November 19, 2024

Chinny rub of the Week

Apparently Essex Police turned up at the door of Allison Pearson on Remembrance Sunday to say someone had reported her for posting something "racist" the previous Remembrance Sunday.  They told Allison the exact date of the post but wouldn't tell her the words she used.  Allison didn't think to put in a Subject Access Request or check her own timeline but fortunately the Guardian have done it for her.

Update... The following press releases were put out by Essex Police...

Officers attended an address in Essex and invited a woman to come to a voluntary interview. 

They said it related to an investigation into an alleged offence of inciting racial hatred, linked to a post on social media.

We police without fear or favour and that’s why we respond to alleged offences which are reported to us by members of the public.

For clarity: a complaint of a possible criminal offence was made to the police and this is why we called; to arrange an interview.

Everyone was polite and professional throughout the brief conversation.

As this was a call to set up an interview, no extra details were given. That’s because we have to follow the law and make sure that everyone’s rights and entitlements, in particular to seek legal advice, were respected.

This is the right way to do things – it’s the correct procedure as set out by the Police And Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE).

Fuller details of an alleged offence are always provided prior to the commencement of a voluntary interview, under caution. That allows those present to seek appropriate legal advice and representation if they wish to.

As part of our investigation, we’re liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service regarding an alleged offence which was reported to us by a member of the public. This is an investigative stage review – nothing more.

Essex Police cuts crime. There were over 9,000 fewer reported offences in the last year and 20,000 fewer than five years ago.

Our officers and staff, some of which are military veterans, work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep the public safe and investigate crime.

We police without fear or favour and when a crime is reported, we investigate.

That’s what we do and that’s what the people of Essex expect.

There has been a large amount of false reporting about an ongoing investigation and the force has registered complaints with the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).

FURTHER UPDATE: 10.30am, Saturday 16 November:

Essex Police complained to Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) on a matter of factual accuracy.

The force has been asked to provide further factual information.

This morning, the following verbatim lines were passed to IPSO.

These lines are as spoken by an officer who attended an address in Essex on Sunday 10 November and were clearly captured on Body Worn Video.

Officer: "It’s gone down as an incident or offence of potentially inciting racial hatred online. That would be the offence."

Officer: "Because of what’s been alleged and the evidence that we’ve got, I need to just ask you some questions."

Officer: "It’s what’s been alleged and if there’s an offence we need to ask questions about then we need to do that."

Essex Police supports free speech.

It does not support inaccuracy. If an alleged crime is reported it is investigated. There is no public interest in falsehood.

Further note: (The verbatim statements above have been provided in this format as opposed to the Body Worn Video footage as it would be wrong to give any information in relation to any addresses visited).

Lest we forget...

It's sad that today so many young people don't remember what the Poppy symbol stands for, who introduced it and what it's all about.  The trouble is, of course, that all the British soldiers who died in the Opium wars of 1839->1860 have passed on now and no one remembers them.  Honestly Queen Victoria must be turning in her grave.
 

From Soup to Nuts

Perhaps this best exemplifies the disconnect between US voters and the US Judiciary over Trump's many legal cases.  Brian condemns a Trump henchman for threatening Ms James but doesn't seem to realise that she's actually in charge of the civil business fraud litigation for inflating real estate assets.  

Neither does anyone else caught up in the ensuing argument seem to realise that Trump's New York felony convictions actually come from a different New York case - the falsified business records hush money case brought by Alvin Bragg... 

Somehow it all seems to turn into noise... what the cases were actually about, who started them and what they mean or meant is lost is a circus of shouting and noise. Noise noise noise... not only does the truth not seem to matter, the facts seem to be muddled into a sort of soup...

James is responsible for the civil lawsuit for business fraud and is after Trump's money. Alvin Bragg is responsible for the hush money case. Please don't get muddled up everyone... https://t.co/n4D2dd2q9H

— Zhu Zhanji - parody - the Xuande Emperor died 1435 (@Zhu_Zhanji) November 9, 2024

There's no law for the rich...

So it seems Donald Trump has successfully run the clock out on his Federal criminal prosecutions for the January 6th riots and the documents he had stolen and stored in his bog.  Meanwhile the Georgia RICO case is stuck in the mud and the New York Hush Money / Election Interference case sentencing is pushed forward to the 26th of November by Juan Merchan.  

Will Juan commit career suicide and create a constitutional crisis by sentencing Donald to prison or will Juan not commit career suicide and create a constitutional crisis by not sentencing Donald to prison?

I pootled over to the Daily Mail whose comments threads and bombarded with nonsense from the Magaverse... much of it trying to conflate Trump's civil New York fraud conviction for inflating his assets with his criminal trial and conviction for paying off Stormy Daniels via Michael Cohen using falsified business records to conceal his actions...  and there was much vitriol and comments along the lines of the Judge would be stupid to actually sentence Donald.  But the Judge wouldn't be stupid.  He would be impartial.

Donald has made a mockery of the legal system but a number of loose ends remain to be tied.  Will Jack Smith resign or will Donald sack him?  What about Donald's co-conspirators who at the moment are not indicted?  Will they be immune from prosecution?  Will Trump prevent their prosecutions by interfering in the Department of Justice or will he, alternatively, allow them to go ahead and then pardon them at the end?  How many people can you plausibly pardon before it becomes a scandal?  Is there such a thing as a scandal anymore?  Richard Nixon must feel a right prune resigning over Watergate now which seems like very small beer indeed next to Donald's scandals.

Here we have the sight of Kemi&Co sucking up to the Don whilst David Lammy appears to pour oil on troubled waters which catches alight by trying to pretend the things he said about Donald don't matter and aren't true.  We look forward to NATO being dissolved and Europe being hammered with trade tariffs which will also hurt the US ... 

Oh well, Western Democracy.  It was good whilst it lasted ... but it looks like we need WWIII.

I'm off to drink some hemlock ...

Stellantis&You Mugs

 

I took in my car the other day and Stellantis & You as they laughably call themselves these days found a numberplate lamp bulb dead and proceeded to quote me £44 to change it.  Here's the replacement bulb (cost £3 for two) which it took me 3 minutes to change ...

Still times is hard down Stellantis & You with Peugeot & Vauxhall having different ends of the showroom.  I went down the Peugeot end to wait for my tyres to be changed because their seats were comfier.  I wonder how they upsell you which of their brands when their cars and engines are effectively identical to the point of sharing the same showroom... Are there invisible lines on the shop floor that salesmen are not allowed to walk over?  I believe new car sales have fallen off a cliff recently...

I don't mind using the local dealer for some jobs that are better done with a hydrologic lift or need removing the side the car for but come on...

You're 'avin' a larf, mate

Nothing to Declare

 I was watching "Nothing To Declare" the other day and apparently the Australians have very strict border security on stuff like food and old relics to stop parasites dangerous to their environment getting into their country and damaging their ecosystem.  Inevitably however some harmful parasites do get through these rigorous controls...

Budget

Things that according to the Press Rachel Reeves might be taxing/cutting to fill the black hole

Lightbulbs

Holidays 

Cheese

Electric Blankets 

Gift Aid

Band aids

Hearing aids

Herrings (Red)

Walking aids

AIDS treatments

Stuffed toys

Furniture 

Fishing Rods

Hydrogen 

Helium

National Insurance 

Frogs

Boats

Lighthouses

Shellfish

The Homeless 

Dogs

Cats

Rabbits

The NHS

Pensions

VAT

Inheritance Tax

Make up your own list...

When your hoover thinks it is the Andrex Puppy...

 

Visit Balmoral Urinals

Balmoral Castle has been the Scottish home of the Royal Family since it was purchased for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852 due to them having more money than they knew what to do with because they don't pay inheritance or income tax.

Enjoy a relaxing visit to the grounds at Balmoral. After your tour you can visit the Mews Gift Shop, where you will give the Royals money for lots of tat, both Scottish and Royal. 

You can also purchase hot and cold refreshments in the Restaurant, where the menu celebrates a wonderful range of local and Scottish produce.

We recommend that you set aside at least one and a half hours for your visit to Balmoral, to give you time to visit the grounds, gardens, gift shop and the custom made urinals with their specially liveried plumbing.

 

My flexible friend is feeling a bit flat

 

I was saddened to discover today that my new credit card is completely flat and therefore no longer compatible with a manual card imprinter.  It had always been a source of comfort to me that should the electric fail the man or woman in the restaurant or petrol station could whip out their zip zap machine and save me from terminal embarrassment as all my cards electronically failing is a nightmare that I am never free from.  I also liked the idea of someone somewhere without electricity still relying on mechanical technology... And I always liked the sound they made ... Another link with the past dissolved.

Amazon Fire Stick is doing important security things so don't press any buttons that might turn your TV on...

 

Once upon a time I purchased an HG Smart TV but despite the artificial intelligence revolution and its claims be Mensa level clever it doesn't seem to have learned anything since I installed it.

BBC IPlayer for example never really worked properly on it since it could never remember when I'd paused a program resulting in it automatically starting the next program whilst I was still watching the one I was watching.

Netflix worked okay on it and Amazon grudgingly worked on it with some prompting on a manual keyboard.

However, last month it started whinging like Lawrence Fox on a podcast and BBC IPlayer, Netflix and Amazon started warning me that they would all be stopping work on October 1st like a bunch of 1970s Trade Union leaders organising a general strike / illegal secondary action.  Faced with this outbreak of digital industrial action I called upon HG to ask them what to do and they suggested that rather than throw my Smart TV for which they do not offer software updates anymore in the dustbin, I could invest in one of these Amazon Fire TV sticks.  I would then be able to watch everything I used to watch but with the added inconvenience of using two remote controls instead of one. 

The Fire Stick TV remote however is a very important and busy device and often tells me that it too is stopping work to install important security updates and that I must not press any buttons whilst it is doing this.  It tells me this all the time so it is clearly stuck in some kind of processing loop but I've found if one broadly ignores its entreaties it works anyway.  Come too that I notice that Amazon and Netflix still work fine on my old TV interface despite their strong protestation that they were definitely down-tooling 4 days ago... I wonder how long that'll last.  Even BBC IPlayer is still struggling on but struggling is the word...  When run on the TV stick it's obsessed with collecting security numbers from my mobile phone.

I wondered if the security updates bug was something just affecting me but it seems not... apparently the solution to this is to install more dodgy Amazon software on my mobile phone...

Bit of a recursive loop?

Does Rudi have some shame...?

For a laugh I regularly change my Facebook profile photo to someone inappropriate.  No one's ever complained about this despite it probably breaking millions of copyright laws.  On the 24th of August 2023 I changed it to Rudy Giuliani's mug shot which was released into the public domain by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office...

...14 months later in time for the November 2024 election I received a notification from a company called "Imagn Content" that I have violated their copyright by using it.  I have not.  If I have violated anyone's content it that of the Fulton County Sheriff's Office... but I'm pretty sure they don't care and I was under the impression that almost all official photos taken by the US Government became public domain when officially released to the public...

Perhaps after all Rudi, Donald and his mates really do feel some shame or embarrassment to see these photos circulating despite seemingly having skins as thick as rhinoceros hides.

Although it could be entirely coincidental that this copyright dispute coincides almost exactly with the US Presidential Election...  It isn't as if you'd see this image if you clicked on my profile - you'd have to scan down a year's worth of previous posts to find it ...so one wonders if a macro is seeking out such mug shots on an industrial scale and flagging them all as copyright violations in order to industrially suppress damaging information before the November Election...

If anyone's thinking of exploiting this situation my advice is...

Whatever anyone's views on the Israel/Gaza/Palestine/Lebanon/Iran situation I think we can all agree that ... Any Western political leader still saying "We must stop the region escalating into all out war" sounds like a clown still trying to drive a car whose wheels have fallen off whilst it's engine exploded.  40,000 dead in Gaza in the past year says the horse of peace has bolted, mate.  One remembers at the start Joe Biden saying "If anyone's thinking of exploiting this situation... Don't".  Absolutely no one took a blind bit of notice of him... I don't know what the solution is but they say stupidity is doing the same thing multiple times and expecting different results.  And simply telling everyone to play nice and not to escalate things seems the dumbest policy available.  Its really a way of politicians avoiding taking any side or position and of washing their hands... It sounds earnest but means nothing.  Still we've done our bit shooting down missiles aimed at Israel.  Will we be shooting down retaliatory missiles aimed at Iran as well?  I suspect not but we'll sure expect them to believe we haven't picked a side...

 

Friend Requests

Some interesting friend requests recently.  However, if you claim to be studying at Cambridge University and your mobile phone has a Nigerian dialing code that seems unlikely.  It seems particularly incongruous too when your profile pictures (which are all else that remains of your profile) depict you as both a young black man and a young white man.  That said it is quite an achievement for a young 20 year old of any ethnicity to be driving a sports car and working as a manager at a top UK share trading company since 1980 when he would have been minus 20.

I would remind you all that if you want to be my Facebook friend you are up against some pretty stiff competition including senior programming managers at Facebook who never talk about code and young ladies who cordially invite me to visit third party websites to show me photographs of themselves.

The world's smallest violin plays on...

This week I have mostly been enjoying the people on twitter arguing about how VAT on school fees is wrong or immoral.  The arguments advanced to defend the public school fee VAT exemption are hilarious.

Firstly, they argue that the Institute of Fiscal Studies report is wrong because it underestimates the number of children who will leave for the state sector.  By my back of the fag packet calculations about 40 per cent would have to leave for HMRC to lose money.  Then they argue that the cash raised will be minimal – but a profit is still a profit. 

However, according to these Tories all these people who spend all their hard earned money on improving their children’s education are somehow going to become complete misers if they have to take their children out of private education and will not spend the money on any other commodity – squirreling it all away in private pensions and high interest Cash Isas…

As the IFS observes: “The share of pupils across the UK in private schools has remained around 6–7% for at least the last 20 years (or about 560,000–570,000 pupils in England). This has occurred despite a 20% real-terms increase in average private school fees since 2010 and a 55% rise since 2003”

I’m sure we all remember the 2005 Fees Fixing Scandal (see here)

But, the wingers opine, what about the effect of people who are “only working to pay school fees” stopping working because they don’t need to.  One would suspect that those at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs would have other motivations for working than just paying school fees or indeed just spending…

Another whopper that’s wheeled out is that not all private school parents are rich and that many are in fact working two or three jobs in order to pay the fees.  To send one child at the headline average price would cost £18000 (see here)

In order to pay this on the National Living Wage of 11.44 you would have to work 1573 hours a year or 30 hours a week and that would leave no money to live on.  Therefore you would have to work another 37 hours a week to make your normal living expenses.  A single working parent with one child at public school would have to work a 67 hour week… and for two children 97 hours a week.  Psychologists and Doctors recon that we psychologically and physically deteriorate if we regularly exceed 50 hours a week.  As one progresses to a 70 hour week the chances of strokes and heart disease become high.  If such individuals do exist it’s likely that taking their children out of public school would be good for their health… etc

The next argument advanced was all the children with SEND needs in public school.  I was thrown out of public school at 16 for being dyslexic and dragging all the exam results down but it seems these days public school is where all the SEND kids hang.  Apparently they cost the state lots of money these days as things have moved on from being told you’re “Remedial” and made to play with plasticine.  There’s some quite decent wonga state schools can claim for having SEND children but that doesn’t mean they ALL claim it ALL.  Many SEND people are just mildly affected like myself… There may be something in this argument but it’s still most likely HMRC will turn a profit.

Another odious argument is that parents of private school children shouldn’t have to pay VAT because “they’ve already paid twice”.  This is a lie.  I have no children at all – where’s my tax rebate for not using the service?  Actually payment for state school provision is spread throughout the entire taxpaying population using simple Income Tax collection mechanisms.  Therefore if you’re Boris Johnson with 9 or more children or Anthony with 0 you pay the same tax percentages banded by earning power…?  As the single person who has been in the 40 per cent tax band if anyone’s going to be put out by this it should be me…

Then there’s the question of VAT on school services.  Now I remember that when my mum was a teacher the private schools could buy equipment tax free.  But, the defenders of public schools told me, when public schools buy things it’s just like when I buy things after going into Sainsbury's.  But it isn’t – that’s a business to customer transaction.  VAT has to be charged.  If I was in charge of buying Eton’s food or pencils I’d be darn stupid to be buying them from Sainsbury’s or W H Smith … I’d buy them from a wholesaler and then it’d be a Business to Business transaction.  There are different rules depending on whether you’re supplying services to consumers B2C or business B2B and they are complex……now I’m not saying public schools are actively avoiding VAT at the moment but it isn’t clear what they do or don’t pay particularly given the different statuses of different institutions? … some being for profit businesses and others declaring themselves charities… knock yourself out…

According to VAT expert Steve Chamberlain (the kind of man who makes you realise why tax returns have to be so painfully complex) "Other “closely related” goods and services other than boarding (i.e. goods and services that are provided by a private school for the direct use of their pupils and that are necessary for delivering the education to their pupils) will remain exempt from VAT. The note gives examples of school meals, transport, and books and stationery."

Paying VAT is the least one could expect public schools could do given the charitable status many enjoy… These schools will of course pass all the increased expenses onto parents directly despite that fact that, for example, Eton has a reserve fund of £542million according to that loony left publication The Telegraph.  Clearly they’ve got the raising money part of being a charity right …just not so good on the giving it away part.  

Even the Whitgift Foundation has reserves running to £197 million… I believe

I could go on but you get the idea…

Sharpener...

Today I attempted to buy a pencil sharpener in the Whitgift Centre.  Sainsbury's closed ages ago.  Flying Tiger has lots of pencils but no sharpener.  So I tried Poundland but whilst they also had a lot of pencils I drew a blank there too.  I tried the Card Factory but no luck there either... I had almost given up when I remembered WH Smith... The upstairs is closed due to the roof leaking but the downstairs was open.  The electric sliding doors juddered open to reveal a dimly lit cluttered space.  I couldn't find them straight away but two mature ladies were stacking the shelves and pointed me in the direction of the sharpeners ... There was a wide selection from functional to novelty which almost made up for the dingy feeling of the remnants of the store.  Of course there was no one at the desk only self service machines so I served myself and went.  It made me wonder how many pencils that are perfectly serviceable are thrown into landfill because only 1 in 5 pencil retailers sells a sharpener.  The search took me half an hour which cost £2.60 in parking fees.  It would've been cheaper to order one on Amazon.... but I got one... I suppose...
 

The Black Hole

As it is returning to Earth, the Labour Party discovers a black hole with the apparently abandoned and long-lost UK economy nearby, the same economy that Gordon Brown was aboard when it vanished 14 years ago. Commander Starmer decides to investigate and finds that there is a mysterious null gravity field surrounding the economy that allows it to defy the massive gravitational pull of the black hole called false accounting. The economy briefly strays outside the field and is damaged by the intense isolationism , forcing it to emergency dock with the EU, which it long ago abandoned.  

A subsequent media storm and the explosion of the economy's overstressed NHS cause the economy to fail. Without its null-gravity bubble, the UK quickly starts to break apart under the black hole's huge financial forces.  Within the black hole, the economy completely breaks apart. 

Bless Mr Tyson, always the perfect gentleman ...

 

...except for that one time in 1991.