Tax
Mail
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has abandoned plans to reinstate Labour’s 50p top tax rate – but will still hammer higher earners in Thursday’s Budget by reducing the income level at which the 45p rate kicks in from £150,000 to £125,000.
It will be part of a raft of tax-raising measures to fill an estimated £50 billion black hole in public finances.
They will include hiking the windfall tax on oil and gas giants from 25 to 35 per cent, cutting the tax-free allowance for share dividends and dropping the requirement for councils to hold a referendum on tax increases above 2.99 per cent.
Cutting the threshold for the top rate of tax, and freezing income tax thresholds for two more years until 2027/28, will raise billions of extra pounds while technically sticking to the Tories’ 2019 manifesto pledge not to increase income tax, national insurance or VAT.
Moving the 45p rate to incomes of £125,000 and above will raise just £1.3 billion a year but will allow Premier Rishi Sunak to ‘detoxify’ the Government in the wake of Liz Truss’s disastrous attempt to cut the top rate to 40p – one of the measures in Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget which spooked the markets and handed political ammunition to Labour.
BBC News
Spending cuts of about £35bn and plans to raise some £20bn in tax in the coming years are expected to be set out in Thursday’s Autumn Statement.
None of Jeremy Hunt’s decisions have been officially confirmed, but it is understood most of the extra revenue will come from freezing tax thresholds.
The levy on energy firms is also set to rise and last for another six years.
Independent forecasts are understood to have identified a gap of around £55bn in the public finances.
While the government won’t confirm any of the decisions they have made so far, the shape of the building blocks are clear.
Evening Standard
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt steeled Britain for a wave of tax rises and swingeing spending cuts on Friday as new data showed that the nation was heading towards recession.
Preparing the ground for next week’s Autumn Statement, Mr Hunt warned that “extremely difficult decisions” were needed to restore confidence in the UK’s economy as soaring inflation bites into household budgets and rising interest rates choke off growth.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Mr Hunt said. “There are going to be some very difficult choices. I’ve used the word eye watering before, and that’s the truth.”
Express
It is being speculated that under the new financial plan, a quarter of a million more people will be paying a higher income rate which will cost them £540 a year.
On Thursday November 17, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will be delivering the Autumn Statement, which will announce new tax and spending plans under the new Government. The 45 percent rate of income tax for those earning £150,000 is expected to be lowered to those earning £125,000, meaning 245,000 more Brits will be paying more income tax.
Around 600,000 of Britain’s top earners who already pay the highest income tax may have their bills rise by £1,250.
Illegal migrants
Sun
MORE than 40,000 migrants have now crossed the Channel this year after these first arrivals of the month made the journey yesterday.
With the weather ideal for crossing after a recent spell of bad conditions, several packed boats arrived in Dover yesterday.
The crossings, thought to be the first since October 31, began in the early hours as Border Force staff brought the migrants ashore.
More then arrived throughout the rest of the day.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said: “These are shocking numbers of illegal arrivals.
“They show the small boat situation is entirely out of control.”
Mail
‘Hotel Britain’ must come to an end to deter migrants from ‘asylum shopping’, immigration minister Robert Jenrick today declared.
Mr Jenrick proposed switching luxury rooms for ‘simple, functional’ spaces in abandoned student housing, defunct holiday parks and even budget cruise ships.
He told The Sunday Telegraph basic accommodation could remove the ‘pull factor’ that’s encouraging so many migrants to risk their lives seeking a better future in the UK.
He claimed the nation’s ‘generosity’ towards refugees is being ‘abused’ by ‘queue jumpers’ – putting further strain on an already collapsing immigration system.
Mirror
Underperforming Pontins holiday parks, budget cruise ships and student halls could be used to house asylum seekers as part of a radical 10-point plan to end ‘Hotel Britain’.
The Home Office has a growing backlog of approximately 90,000 applications to work through while officials begin the process to empty the overcrowded RAF Manston holding facility.
Last week the Mirror exclusively revealed the extent of the squalid conditions inside the Kent migrant centre, with detainees sleeping on wooden floors and being held for weeks instead of the expected 24 hours.
Among the proposed solutions to the migrant crisis are popular holiday camps such as Pontin’s, Park Holidays, Warner Holidays and Butlin’s, which may be used to house people on the south coast and in Essex.
Independent
At least eight more councils are considering legal action against the Home Office over “unsafe” hotels for asylum seekers, The Independent can reveal.
Six have already sought injunctions against use of accommodation in their areas, with leaders raising concerns about the “health and safety of the people placed in these hotels”.
The Local Government Association, a representative group for councils in England, said the status quo was “not working” and called for “urgent conversations” with the government to tackle the issue.
It comes after the overcrowding crisis at Manston immigration processing centre, where asylum seekers were forced to sleep on cardboard amid reports of scabies, diphtheria and MRSA at the camp.
Mail
Worried residents who call 999 over suspicious behaviour and even alleged crimes by illegal migrants are being told it is a matter for Border Force – not the police, a leading MP has told The Mail on Sunday.
The revelation by Natalie Elphicke comes as more than 600 asylum seekers arrived in her constituency in Dover, Kent yesterday.
Residents of the town’s Aycliffe estate – by Shakespeare Beach, a major landing point for illegal migrants – have told the Tory MP they feel abandoned by police.
Ms Elphicke said her constituents have called officers to report suspicious incidents involving migrants, but have been told police will pass on the information to Border Force.
Telegraph
Large groups of frustrated migrants have clashed with police near Dunkirk, after French authorities prevented them from crossing the Channel.
The group, who were still wearing life jackets, hurled stones at tear gas-carrying officers after they were forced back from the beachfront on Saturday morning.
French police had chased the migrants away from a beach in Gravelines after slashing and deflating a number of rubber dinghies they planned to use for the crossing.
Video shows police, carrying CS spray, walking towards a large group of people who hurl rocks at the officers before retreating into nearby forests.
French authorities told The Telegraph that about 200 migrants were still believed to be hiding in the sand dunes around Gravelines, waiting for the chance to sneak past the authorities and take to the sea in inflatable rubber dinghies provided by smuggling gangs.
Mail
Migrants hurled stones at French riot police in anger after officers slashed and deflated dinghies being prepared for English Channel crossings this morning.
The group clashed with police in the village of Gravelines near Dunkirk after hundreds of migrants headed to the area on Friday.
Public officers from the French CRS – the general reserve of the French National Police – slashed and deflated at least two of the migrants’ rubber dinghies before they could launch, according to GB News.
Frustrated, migrants began to throw stones and tree branches at the officers, who used the riot control agent CS spray.
There are around 6,000 makeshift camps in the Dunkirk area, reported GB News.
Strikes
Telegraph
Nurses have voted for their first ever national strike, despite warnings that demands for a 17.6 per cent rise are “simply not reasonable”.
Workers at around half of hospitals have backed industrial action that would cause thousands of operations to be cancelled – including for patients with cancer and other deadly diseases.
On Wednesday, Downing Street said the plans were “deeply regrettable” and that the pay demand – which comes with a £9 billion price tag – was “not deliverable”.
Labour has also failed to back the strikes, with Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, unable to say that he would have offered such a pay rise given the current constraints on public finances.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which represents nearly 500,000 nurses in total, including in the NHS, said the vote in favour of industrial action signalled that “enough is enough”.
Sun
STRIKING unions will cause chaos at Christmas in an attempt to “drive the Tories out”.
Border Force officers will be among thousands of civil servants walking out.
It comes after the PCS union voted for action.
Their leaders said they will co-ordinate strikes with other unions in the run up to Christmas.
Last week, at a rally in central London, general secretary Mark Serwotka vowed to “drive the Tories out” as he supported a wider strike.
And president Fran Heathcote added: “Our key demand is to get this Government out so that we can have this sorted by a Labour administration.”
Express
HOME OFFICE officials have drawn up contingency plans for military police officers to be deployed at airports and ferry terminals as thousands of Border Guard staff prepare to strike.
The move follows a vote on Thursday in favour of industrial action by the PCS union, which represents 3,500 Border Force guards across the UK who are demanding an increase in pay.
Border force staff facilitate the legitimate movement of goods through major airports and harbours as well as customs checks, and are based at the UK’s 140 ports and 40 airports.
They also operate a coastal force to monitor illegal immigrants trying to get into the UK.
Telegraph
More than 70,000 lecturers and other staff at 150 universities will strike for three days this month in a long-running dispute over pay, working conditions and pensions.
The University and College Union (UCU) said that strikes on Nov 24, 25 and 30 will be the biggest ever to hit campuses and could affect 2.5 million students.
It said that disruption can be avoided if employers make improved offers, but warned that strike action will escalate in the new year, alongside a marking and assessment boycott, if the dispute is not resolved.
Union members will also begin action short of a strike from Nov 23, which includes working to rule, refusing to make up work lost as a result of strike action and refusing to cover for absent colleagues.
The strikes come after UCU members overwhelmingly voted in favour of industrial action last month in two national ballots.
The union is calling for a “meaningful” pay rise to deal with the cost of living crisis and action to end the use of “insecure” contracts.
Energy
Guardian
MPs have questioned whether the energy regulator, Ofgem, is fit to police the industry after it was blamed for costing British households billions of pounds as a result of suppliers going bust.
Politicians on the powerful public accounts committee said Ofgem had failed to govern the sector “at a considerable cost to billpayers” in a damning report into the regulation of energy suppliers.
The regulator was blamed for failing to prevent the collapse of 29 energy suppliers since July 2021, affecting about 4 million households. The failures cost consumers an estimated £2.7bn, or an extra £94 each, through a charge on their bills to recover the cost of managing customers’ transfers to a new supplier.
ITV News
Ofgem’s failures to effectively regulate energy suppliers as far back as 2018 have “come at a considerable cost” to households, the spending watchdog has said.
Despite problems with the financial resilience of energy retailers emerging in 2018, Ofgem did not tighten requirements for new suppliers until 2019 or for existing suppliers until 2021, by which point wholesale gas and electricity prices had increased to unprecedented levels, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said.
Some 29 energy suppliers have failed since July last year, affecting around four million households.
Customers have been left to pick up the £2.7 billion cost of the failures at an extra £94 per household, a cost that will “very likely increase”, the PAC said in a report.
The committee concluded this was due to “Ofgem’s failure to effectively regulate the energy supplier market”, adding that the regulator “did not strike the right balance between promoting competition in the energy suppliers market and ensuring energy suppliers were financially resilient”.
Independent
Consumers have been forced to pay almost £100 more for their gas and electricity due to Ofgem’s failure to regulate the energy supply market properly, a new report has found.
The report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee found that the collapse of 29 energy suppliers as prices spiked over the past year cost a total of £2.7bn – or an average £94 for every household in the country.
The government has already budgeted a further £1.9bn to keep Bulb Energy running, with the final cost to taxpayers unknown until the company is sold.
Between the autumn of 2021 and the summer of 2022, wholesale prices for gas and electricity soared to as much as 10 times their normal level. The surge in prices was unsustainable for a number of suppliers, whose charges to customers were capped by Ofgem.
Farage
Telegraph
More than a quarter of British voters would consider voting for a new party led by Nigel Farage.
A new poll shows that 12 per cent of the public would be very interested in backing a new venture if it were launched next year, while 16 per cent would be quite interested.
Mr Farage refused to rule out the possibility of creating a new party and said he had been “overwhelmed” by requests to do so from voters who have emailed him and approached him at the supermarket.
The former UKIP leader stood down as head of the Brexit Party, which has been renamed Reform UK, in March 2021.
At the time, he declared his mission to leave the EU had been accomplished and that Britain was “seeing the benefits of Brexit and the EU itself turn into a laughing stock”.
But the poll, conducted for The Telegraph by Public First, found that 38 per cent of Conservative voters would consider supporting a new party led by him, with 43 per cent of Brexiteers saying the same.
Russia
Express
Ukrainian forces have bombarded a series of key targets, devastating Russian forces while they press the attack.
Ukrainian forces struck two Russian command posts, killing more than 80 Russian soldiers, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Two Russian helicopters and several ground vehicles were also reportedly destroyed in yesterday’s strikes. “In the area of the city of Energodar [Ukraine’s armed forces] hit an enemy control point – more than 50 invaders were killed and more than 40 were injured. [A] Ka-52 helicopter was also destroyed,” the General Staff said in a Facebook update.
Energodar is a city near the occupied nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia which became a flashpoint earlier in the conflict, prompting fears of a nuclear disaster.
Ukraine also reportedly struck a Russian headquarters in the Kherson region, killing more than 30 Russian soldiers and destroying two tanks and four trucks.
Express
Russia is adding to its horrifying arsenal of destructive weapons that could tend tensions with the West soaring even further.
Vladimir Putin has ordered dozens of terrifying hypersonic Zircon nuclear-capable missiles that can travel at eye-watering speeds of 6,700mph, it has been claimed. The Mach 9 weapon, known as ‘Tsirkon’ in Russia, could reportedly come into service before the end of this year. Putin is continuing to spend huge sums on the development of new nuclear-capable missiles, which he claims are “unstoppable” by Western air defences.
The new order of the Zircon nuclear-capable missiles has not been officially announced, but reports of it were carried out by Russian state news agency TASS.
Sun
A SECRET army of 1,000 Russian agents is spying in the UK, intelligence chiefs believe.
They are embedded in high levels of Government, school staffrooms, universities and hospitals.
An intelligence source said Russia had “extensive and sophisticated networks” of spies operating in all walks of life.
The source said: “I’m talking about students, trade unions, protest groups, teachers, Uber drivers, politicians, the civil service and police.”
Ex-military intelligence officer Col Philip Ingram said: “The numbers involved could easily be over 1,000.
“Russian intelligence teams have networks all over the UK.
“They use the old skills compromising people, infiltrating organisations.”
The Home Office said: “The actions of the Russian state pose an acute and direct threat to the national security of the UK.
“We have made huge strides to increase our resilience and that of our allies to Russian malign activity.
Star
Russia potentially has 1,000 agents posing as ordinary workers in the UK, new information has revealed.
Mad Vlad’s spooks obscure their identities by doing normal jobs here, working as anything from black cab drivers to baristas, so says new intelligence analysis.
The analysis found that the spies are handled by the SVR, Russia’s version of MI6, and says some have even infiltrated right to the top of the UK Government.
The findings have caused concern, with calls being made for greater education to be given to employers about the threat – in a similar way to how threats from IRA infiltration was treated at the height of the Troubles.
Seaweed
Express
Seaweed farmed out in floating paddocks in the deep ocean can play a key role in removing carbon from the atmosphere and mitigating climate change. This is the argument of Seafields, a UK-based company that is looking to domesticate and grow sargassum, a type of large, brown, free-floating algae. After using robots to harvest this seaweed for its useful resources — which can be used to make products from fertiliser and organic concrete through to cosmetic emulsifiers and the raw material for alternative plastics the rest of the crop will be compressed and sealed into special bales and dropped into the ocean.
O.M.G. my new neighbour is a Russian spy !!
Oh, wait a moment – wasn’t there something a few years back, about Chinese spies?
Pauline………and ‘reds under the bed’ as well. Have you checked there as well?
Interesting article on the dire state of our country from Neil Oliver:
https://www.gbnews.uk/gb-views/if-enough-people-believe-in-the-existence-of-britain-and-are-prepared-to-give-their-all-to-maintain-britain-then-britain-prevails-says-neil-oliver/387347
Another on the fabricated climate change data:
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/11/04/u-s-warming-over-last-50-years-exaggerated-by-up-to-50-new-evidence-shows/
There are lies, damned lies and government propaganda; far too much of the last category supported by too many believers or the uninterested.
Even Babylon Bee couldn’t make this up.
Thousands of Albanian nationals invaded the streets of London to protest against Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s “invasion” comments.
And, of course, all those Albanian protesters were treated like British Citizens? Kettled, photographed and detained by the Met?
Airport strikes: what a convenient way of making a military presence everywhere routine in everyday life.
I think UK Column had views on this: part of Fusion Doctrine: fusing the military and the police with other aspects of Government like NHS and schools? I seem to remember a wagonload of army personnel turning up outside a school to test the children 2 years ago?
Illegal Migrants
While our Parliamentarians busy themselves with important issues, such as Dominic Raab throwing a tomato, the invasion continues with with another 900 arriving yesterday. The level of humiliation being heaped on this country is increasing, with a demonstration of thousands of emboldened Albanians blocking Westminster Bridge and the Albanian flag being planted on Churchills statue. A particularly insulting act on Remembrance weekend. We are expected to pay for the upkeep of these invaders … and ultimately to our own demise.
Albanians Plant Their Flag:
https://youtu.be/2WchfSoCJfw
I’m getting reports that one of the major crypto exchanges has filed for bankruptcy while others are stopping people withdrawing their money. A lot of hedge funds are invested in these crypto exchanges including the likes of Blackrock; there will be serious knock on effects to this. Cryptos are tanking across the board with Bitcoin now in the sixteen thousand range and falling.
Things could get dodgy in the coming days and weeks.
The Democrats have now claimed the Senate but we should not be surprised, there was always a reason for delaying the vote counts by days. I’m also getting reports of something brewing in the US, I don’t think the results of this election are going to be accepted.
We live in interesting times.
I have no background to judge, but I thought I read that it was the likes of Blackrock withdrawing support from FTX, for example, that had sparked this. You can see why; there can be no successful CBDCs whilst there are digital havens.
Flyer, If my friends across the US are anything to go by, this result is completely nonsensical. The peasants are revolting!
Never forget that Farage praised Tony Blair’s call for vaccine mandates.
And it wasn’t Farage who first brought attention to the invasion along the south coast but a painter & decorator called Steve Laws (who joined UKIP not Reform UK), initially by twitter but now with a website https://stevelawsreport.co.uk/
Ofgem may well be as useless as MPs now claim, but it is being used as a cover for the real cause being 12 years of Tory rule.
As to the secret army of Russian spies in the UK I doubt, so far as true at all, that it compares to China.
The media have become propaganda outlets for the establishment. In the old Soviet Union there was Pravda and Izvestia about which the joke was no truth in ‘the news’ (Izvestia) and no news in ‘the truth’ (Pravda). Under our free market system there are far more Pravda’s and Izvestia’s.
Are you saying people cannot learn and change their minds? Surely one of today’s problems, and not just in politics, is that people are so wholly invested in their views that they see any change of view as a weakness. I am not talking about the dogma- or agenda-driven folk we know and love, who have mission, but even the run of the mill time servers and free-loaders. I don’t care who pointed out what or when. I am concerned with what they are saying or doing now, and surely those who have shown they can react and redirect are the ones to watch.
Whether Keynes, or Churchill or whoever, said this, it stands:
‘When the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir?’
Regarding the media, I was in Malaysia when Reagan was shot, more years ago than I care to remember, and the blanket censorship was stifling. At the time I thought how lucky we were to have free media. Now ours is not just as stifling but wholly warped to boot.
Where have I suggested people cannot change their minds or from what do you infer that?
Fair point. You don’t say people cannot change their minds, but you do say, in what I took to be a pejorative way, that we should never forget Farage was initially wrong about vaccines, and was late to the party on migrants. I was clumsily trying to say that it doesn’t matter who first pointed out the migrant problem, or was wrong about other issues, rather who is saying what about what now is the important thing.
I note that after advising Trump to stop banging on about the 2020 steal, Farage now says, after the latest elections fiasco, that their system is looking more and more corrupt, so catching up again in what he feels able to say on TV. Better late than never.
I just don’t trust Farage. Is he a dangerous “decoy duck” ? to lead people up blind alleys. He appears to have form on this.
Mary…………sorry, but I don’t agree with you one iota on this. Nigel Farage whether you and others like it or not, is the most influential outside of parliament and would go one step further than that in that he is more influential than a substantial number of politicians within parliament especially the House of Commons, and more especially within the morally bankrupt remains of the Conservative Party which must surely be in its death throes. He, without doubt has a much broader depth of knowledge of economics and how the country works than most government ministers and has the capabilities, strength of character, and personal charisma to put together a winning formula that would appeal to a wide cross section of the electorate, and as such represents the best chance of spearheading a new right of centre party into the House of Commons, providing of course he is leading it, and not Richard Tice. Reform UK might well be on an 8% poll rating at the moment for not doing terribly much other than to intermittently talking about cutting government waste etc, but we need someone of Farage’s ability to form and lead a new challenger party. He has got what it takes, but Tice does not, and never will have in my opinion. Farage is wasted on GB News, and we need him at the forefront of politics not shouting from the sidelines from the comfort of a warm studio because he talks about subjects which are of most concern to the public. I am excited to read that at last, he may be thinking of setting up a new party. And not before time….
It would be odd for Farage to set up a new party when he is a 50% shareholder in Reform UK and its honorary president. A new party around him would require a split with Tice. Possible given that the history of UKIP is the history of people he as fallen out with. It would make more sense for him to become active in Reform UK except Tice does not want that. Tice fears “ukippy types” joining Reform UK and an active Farage again might encourage that. Farage himself has said that he would only consider returning to the front line if a “heavyweight” left the Tories to join him. Ain’t gonna happen.
It is true as Colin says that only Farage has the profile and charisma (of sorts) to make inroads on the establishment parties, and also true that he would be better than Tice whom he rightly says is gaining (modestly) by not doing very much. Reform’s 8% or 9% is a long way from break through.
On the single issue of EU membership Farage was supreme, but not so much on general election issues performing poorly in 2015. And while his standing down after 2016 – permanent fear of threats the police said they could not guarantee to protect him from was good reason – he failed to secure a proper succession, just abandoning UKIP’s supporters that had fought so hard for him. He even snobbishly referred to the NEC (who gave their time for free) as “people who bring their own sandwiches”. That was a revealing moment of disdain for common people. They were used.
He gave an excellent speech at a Freedom Association event last February, a consummate one man show on stage that few politicians can emulate – Johnson in his hey day perhaps. His private life is as chaotic as Johnsons and they have similar flaws of demanding blind loyalty and turning on those who question the leader, no matter how probitive the questions. Both are poor at management. I really cannot see him leading a party into Westminster.
In a GE a credible cabinet line up matters. I do not think the UK electorate will elect a one man show supported by people they have never heard of or seen in action anywhere. If the blob can defenestrate Johnson and put in Sunak they can blunt Farage – again.
Nonetheless, he could put pressure on the Tories by attracting some of their voters. For now, he is trying to do that with mere hints, but I doubt he really wants to come back and end lucrative work with GBNews.
Mary, I was deeply disappointed and let down when Farage first dumped UKIP with a slur on the foot soldiers who achieved Brexit, even though we are still waiting for it, and then dumped his Reform organisation on the pretext that “Labour might win” the election. I don’t trust him any more either.
Stout. When did Farage praise Tony Blair’s call for vaccine mandates?
Mrs Yeoman showed me the tweet a while back. I’ll ask her when she gets back. I can assure you he did support Blair (on that at least)
Stout Yeoman……I think you are right Farage did support Tony Blair with something to do with the vaccines 18 months ago, but since then I believe he has had a change of mind because he is on record by saying that he has not taken a third booster or even the latest fourth booster on offer because he is not convinced that they work etc. Anyone can make a mistake and Farage isn’t perfect and is just like everybody else. One cannot hold this against him forever and a day, however we do him on the frontline of politics. My view is that he could do both his GB News programme and lead a new challenger party.
Pauline. Not just agreement but praise for the Blair creature as someone who gets things done.
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news-westminster-news-nigel-farage-covid-lockdown-video-twitter-6882932/