Derek Scully @Hackneyboy60

Interesting report from Policy Exchange proposing a range of tax cuts, including the abolition of stamp duty on property & shares, of inheritance tax, of tariffs & of the additional rate of income tax. They also propose the phasing out and elimination of national insurance, financed by a switch to application of the standard rate of VAT to zero & reduced rate items. They argue that the phasing out of employers' national insurance would have a massively positive effect on growth, which would also allow significant reductions in corporation tax due to the increased revenues. A thoughtful report which helps extend the Overton window on radical tax reform.

🚨 The future of #SaintsFC head coach Tonda Eckert remains uncertain as he waits to learn the outcome of a ‘lengthy and detailed’ Football Association investigation into last season’s Spygate scandal. It is understood he was interviewed ‘at length’ by the FA at the start of this month. [via @guardian]

@PolitlcsUK Another freeby.

@PolitlcsUK Have Cunard been notified that the Govt may require a few ships?

@PolitlcsUK How did you get this?

@PolitlcsUK Too much speculation going on.

The Norwegians have been brilliant. Love that US passport control even jumped on 😊👏👏 #ENGNOR

@PolitlcsUK Do we need this level of detail? Why has it been released and what purpose does it serve?

@UMG @RollingStones Mine arrived this morning. Thanks

@linadreaamy 98

@CutMyTaxUK He has a plan and it does not include Reeves.

@PolitlcsUK Please do not give him the ability to speculate.

‼️‼️🇷🇺🇺🇦 BIG | In a sharp escalation of hostile rhetoric, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov issued a direct nuclear threat while lashing out at Western military assistance, explicitly stating that the Russian Federation will deploy its nuclear arsenal if the existence of the state is threatened. Peskov sought to portray Moscow as a restrained global power, paradoxically claiming that Russia is too large and too responsible to spark World War III, while simultaneously framing Western security warnings as total brainwashing directed at European taxpayers. He firmly rejected the notion of Russia posing an inherent danger to the continent, rhetorically demanding if a greater evil than Russia could possibly exist on European soil. Turning his focus to the battlefield reality, the Kremlin spokesperson openly abandoned the state's long-mandated terminology, declaring that the conflict has officially evolved past a localized operation into a full-scale war. Peskov emphasized that Russia now finds itself in a direct confrontation with a unified coalition consisting of Ukraine, various European nations, and the United States, all of whom are funneling millions of tons of advanced weaponry to the frontline. See the latest updates with us: @visionergeo

Activist: "Farmers are millionaires sitting on land worth a fortune. They can afford the inheritance tax." Farmer: "How much did I earn last year?" Activist: "I don't know. A lot, surely." Farmer: "Twenty-two thousand. Before the tractor broke." Activist: "But the land's worth millions." Farmer: "On paper. I can't eat the field or spend it. The only way to turn it into money is to sell it, and then I'm not a farmer, I'm a bloke who used to have a farm." Activist: "So sell a corner of it." Farmer: "A corner doesn't work as a farm. You can't run a suckler herd on the bit that's left after the taxman's had his slice. You sell one field, then the next bill comes, then another field. It ends one way." Activist: "The land only costs that much because you won't sell it." Farmer: "It costs that much because a hedge fund three counties over wants it for carbon credits and a footballer wants it for the view. Neither of them has ever calved a cow at three in the morning. They set the price. I get the bill." Activist: "It's still an asset." Farmer: "It's a workplace that happens to be expensive. You've decided the value of the shop is the same as the wage of the shopkeeper. Come back in February and watch me not be a millionaire in the rain."

For the next two days, we will pause our satire and share clips celebrating Ann Widdecombe’s greatest moments. Ann was a fearless champion of free speech, and her words feel more relevant than ever. Please join us in paying tribute to her.

Very cool, entertaining and with high production values: if I were @Nigel_Farage, I’d consider dipping into that £5 million to try to get out a video that can compare to it.

Illegal Entry Should Settle the Question. A Court Has Just Reopened It. The High Court has ruled that Shabana Mahmood's Home Office acted unlawfully when it stripped Channel migrants of the right to challenge deportation decisions under the one in, one out deal with France. Britain's deal has just lost the one part of it that made deportation quick. What it never had, even before today's ruling, was a deal that actually moved the number of people arriving. Since the treaty came into force last August, 921 small boat migrants have been sent back to France. That is 3.5 per cent of everyone who crossed in the same period. In return, Britain has taken in 896 asylum seekers from France under the reciprocal side of the arrangement. Nearly one in, for every one out. A policy sold as a deterrent has, on its own government's figures, admitted almost as many people as it has removed, while leaving 96.5 per cent of Channel arrivals entirely untouched. That was the deal's real weakness, and it existed long before Mr Justice Sheldon ruled on anything. This week's judgment simply strips away the shortcut Mahmood built on top of it. Her change removed migrants' right to challenge a rejection of their trafficking claims, arguing the process was slowing deportations to France. The High Court disagreed, ruling that a five-day window gave claimants no realistic chance to gather supporting evidence. The underlying question the ruling does not address is the one that actually matters: these are people who entered the country illegally. That fact does not change because a legal process follows, or because rights attach to that process. A country that cannot remove people who entered in breach of its own border laws has already surrendered the basic purpose of having a border. The trafficking appeal mechanism the court has restored does not establish a right to remain. It simply delays, once again, the point at which the law is enforced. Denmark's asylum system works because it treats illegal entry as disqualifying by default and builds its process around fast, final decisions. Mahmood has tried to reach a similar outcome cheaply, by removing a right to challenge rather than by building a system where the underlying question, did this person enter illegally, settles things quickly and finally. Ministers will likely present this ruling as the reason the France deal isn't delivering. That gets the order backwards. The deal was moving 3.5 per cent of arrivals before a single judge intervened. What the ruling actually did was remove the one lever that let the Home Office pretend the machinery was working faster than it really was. Mr Justice Sheldon did uphold most of the Home Office's other decisions in the same case, including its power to certify claims as clearly unfounded. This was not a wholesale defeat for the government's approach to asylum law. It confirms only that the process for removing people who should not be here has to survive legal challenge, not that the underlying obligation to remove them ever went away. Andy Burnham inherits a deal that was failing on its own terms before this week and is now failing more visibly. He can build a system that settles the only question that matters quickly and finally, or keep announcing shortcuts and let the courts keep finding them. "A country that cannot remove people who entered in breach of its own border laws has already surrendered the basic purpose of having a border."

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@MetRyan96 School holidays are also approaching so rain will arrive.

@TheDeafTribe @JohnSimpsonNews Now about those rubber boats off the French coast. Deal or no deal?

@JohnSimpsonNews At least Rodney and Del are not dealing with the transfer