Well Starmer was useless in PMQ’s. I appreciate he is playing the long game and keeping his powder dry, but really he could do better. It is amusing to see how the Tory rags do not know what to do though! There is a limit to how often they attack Harry and Meghan. On strikes they know that the NHS workers deserve a large pay rise and have public sympathy; they know the NHS has been underfunded and that it is the fault of 12 years of Tory ineptitude (being kind), corruption (being honest) or maybe part of a bigger plan to privatise the NHS fully (probable). They do not like Sunak but he leads their party and seems to be playing to the tune of 55Tufton Street and the ERG. They seem not to trust Farage (rightly) and yearn for Johnson (who was brilliant for newspaper sales!) – one states that Johnson is doing a deal with Sunak to get a safe seat. There are not many of those left nowadays! It seems highly probable that Johnson would use his seat at the next election as he has been a shit MP for his constituency.
Strikes and wages and taxes. With inflation at 10% (falling) prices are going up. With inflation the BoE raises interest rates and cost of housing goes up. The obvious answer is to raise tax on the wealthy which this Government cannot do as it relies on extreme right wing elements for support. Tax revenues from petrol will also fall as electric cars become more common. One area which could yield profit for the government is a tax on property. I bought my house for £180000 in 2001 (figures approx.!) yet it is now worth circa £400000. Why should I be able to make £220000 profit. Inflation has been low in that period so either increase Council Tax or death duties would seem fair?
The other alternative is to increase VAT on luxury items – this would need to be carefully constructed to avoid extra tax on quality items rather than luxury. I am thinking white goods – a quality product may cost 10 times a cheap one but last 20x longer. The same is true of some clothing. But a 30% VAT on say cars above £40000 would yield lots and not impact sales. Introducing tax on aviation fuel would also seem sensible (with discounts for those carriers who provide travel of more than 5 million miles).
And what happened to the Robin Hood Tax? on City transactions?