Labour’s mansion tax is “unnecessarily complicated” and imply £16,000 charge on properties over £3m, says IFS April 28, 2015 Both Labour and Conservative plans for the taxation of property have come under fire from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) with Labour's controversial mansion tax being described as "unnecessarily complicated." The IFS says there is host of problems with the way property is currently taxed, not least the structure of council tax. The independent [...]
General Election 2015: David Cameron dismisses Russell Brand as “a joke” ahead of Ed Miliband interview April 28, 2015 David Cameron has called comedian-turned-political activist Russell Brand “a joke” and said the public should ignore his stance on not voting. Speaking at an event in North London, Cameron said he "profoundly disagreed" with Brand. "He says don't vote, it only encourages them. That's funny, right, it's funny. But politics and life and elections and [...]
IFS: Number of higher rate taxpayers could swell to 5m under the Conservatives April 28, 2015 The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has concluded that under the major parties' plans for taxation and benefits, in the next parliament households can expect their incomes, on average, to fall. The independent think tank found there were major differences between the parties, with the Tories planning small net cuts to tax and much bigger cuts [...]
General Election 2015: Statistician Nate Silver predicts Conservatives as largest party but an “incredibly messy outcome” April 28, 2015 The man who successfully predicted 99 state results out of 100 in the last two Presidential elections, as well as a host of House and Senate races, has forecast that the Conservatives will be the largest party after the General Election. Nate Silver, who participated in a BBC Panorama programme, thinks the Tories will capture [...]
Happy #EdBallsDay: It’s the fourth anniversary of *that* tweet April 28, 2015 Update: Ed Balls has made everyone's Ed Balls Day the best yet. https://twitter.com/edballsmp/status/593072495395282944 Crack open the champagne and settle down for hours of social media lolz. It's Ed Balls Day again. Ed Balls It's the fourth anniversary of what has become one of the finest tweets the political world has ever seen. Back [...]
General Election 2015: Icap CEO Michael Spencer wants a balanced immigration policy and an end to wealth creator persecution April 27, 2015 ELECTION COUNTDOWN: 9 DAYS TO GO Every day until the final week of the election campaign, we ask a business leader to say what policies would entice them to vote for a particular party. MICHAEL SPENCER: CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ICAP ■ Focus on the Economy Since 2010 the UK economy has done much better than [...]
Lib Dems: Blocking a BP takeover would be a massive Tory U-turn April 27, 2015 The Liberal Democrats believe it would be a huge shift for any future Conservative government to try to block a foreign takeover of BP. The party points to last year’s coalition row over a potential takeover of pharmaceutical giant Astrazeneca by Pfizer. Then, Vince Cable wanted to bring in greater restrictions to protect research and [...]
Greece’s golden boy Yanis Varoufakis and his tragic fall from grace. It all started with a misjudged Paris Match photoshoot April 27, 2015 It all began so well for Yanis Varoufakis. When he was thrust into the spotlight in January as the finance minister of a near-bankrupt Greece, the motorcycle-riding academic was acclaimed by media and academics alike as being a new voice for a new era. They dubbed him a rock star economist for his leather jacket [...]
Rent control plans: Breaking down Labour’s latest housing proposals April 27, 2015 Q What is Labour proposing for tenants and landlords? A Labour leader Ed Miliband says his government would cap rents so they could not rise by more than the consumer price index (CPI) during secure, three-year tenancies. Q Would all tenancies change to three years under the Labour proposal? A Labour says that from [...]
General Election: Only Scottish patients are getting the best new drugs on the NHS April 27, 2015 Terminally ill people in Scotland are being given the best new cancer drugs, while those in the rest of the UK are being deprived of them. This apparently unfair difference stems from the way drug provision by NHS England and NHS Scotland is regulated, with Scotland's drug monitoring body making it much easier for [...]