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Further or Alternatively

@furtheror.bsky.social

A barrister who uses the other site too. Also at: https://furtheroralternatively.blogspot.com/

1423 Posts203 Follower424 Folgt
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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I don't think people dislike low-skilled immigrants. They're nice people! It's the prospect that low-skilled immigration might be a sign that *something* has gone wrong here that is the worry. Some thoughts on what might have gone wrong in the thread. (And these are not worries for high-skilled.)

FFurther or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Or manage a Premiership Club? But low-skilled jobs aren't like that. So if people are being imported to fill them, that's a sign that *something* has gone wrong. It could be: - locals are somehow shut out of the job market, by circumstance, illness, caring responsibilities, whatever. That's bad!

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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · 5mo ago

One thing to think about is this: a possible outcome of the next General Election is a Grand Coalition of Lab & Con. It happens in Germany; it can happen here. What would that look like? What policies would appear capable of agreement? This might not be the worst place to start looking.

FFurther or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · 5mo ago

There's much to like in this. I'm quoting some bits that seem v sensible: - cutting NI - low taxes on entrepreneurs - cutting back judicial review - more nuclear power

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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Fair to say that the Labour Growth Group's ideas are getting mixed reviews here on *BlueSky*. This is a shame. Something similar to this needs to become common ground in the sensible centre. You can't "share the proceeds of growth" without growth.

FFurther or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · 5mo ago

There's much to like in this. I'm quoting some bits that seem v sensible: - cutting NI - low taxes on entrepreneurs - cutting back judicial review - more nuclear power

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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · 5mo ago

There's much to like in this. I'm quoting some bits that seem v sensible: - cutting NI - low taxes on entrepreneurs - cutting back judicial review - more nuclear power

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Gaby Hinsliff@gabyhinsliff.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Whoever ends up leader, Labour needs ideas: this from @labourgrowth.bsky.social is an interesting riff on Abundance - basically, 1. make people better off by reforms that make basic goods (housing, energy, childcare) cheaper 2. reward work not sweating assets (graft not grift) www.labourgrowth.co.uk

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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I've been thinking more about this. I wonder if this is one of those areas where Right & Left talk past each other. Please can someone explain to me what major *policies* (not outcomes) the Blairite centre left wants that it has not got? I understand the further Left, but the centre Left?

FFurther or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · 6mo ago

What was reversed? Devolution? Minimum wage? Public-private partnerships? The world we live in, so the story goes, is the world created by Blair & maintained by Cameron as explicitly the heir to Blair. That's the Right's critique.

Alex Hern@hern.bsky.social · 11mo ago

From now on, when discussing the budget, please use “is this measure bigger than the cost to the exchequer of gen Z drinking less” as your metric for assessing whether something actually raises or costs a significant sum

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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · last yr.

Surely this is *good* welfare state design? Rich people can save money to insure themselves against ill-fortune - that's not taxpayer's job; the welfare state is there to provide a flat (but springy) safety net at the bottom. (This has got nothing to do with racism.)

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · last yr.

UK welfare state is v badly designed for this reason, but the difficulty with all these “it’s actually economics” is all of these things were true *in 2023* and there still isn’t a correlation with the people who say, do and believe racist stuff!

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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · last yr.

I don't think people believe quite how much the tax system shifted against landlords under the last Tory govt - but perhaps they'll believe it if it comes from @danneidle.bsky.social. It is really quite odd from a principled point of view.

Dan Neidle@danneidle.bsky.social · last yr.

But - thanks to an Osborne change - they don't get to deduct the mortgage interest. They get a 20% credit. Their tax is 40% of £1,200 minus 20% of £1,000 Their tax is £280 Hang on. Their net income is £200. They're paying £280 tax on £200 income???

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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · last yr.

My objection to this is that it is expressly intended to be retrospective: it's intended to "take chunks out of" wealth already owned. That wealth was accumulated when the rules were different - it's as unfair to change the rules now as to change last year's income tax rates.

Chaminda Jayanetti@cjayanetti.bsky.social · last yr.

The other thing I'd suggest is extending capital gains tax to primary homes. Labour people please hold on before throwing election-sized bricks at me. I think this might be doable. What you essentially want to do is take chunks out of that giant unearned boomer housing wealth.

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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · last yr.

I'm not disputing that weird things have happened to the generations, but it's worth being aware of what the past was like. In 92/93: - police sergeant £20,343 - £23,337; promotion -up to Chief Constable on £70k+. - junior hospital doctor £19,550; promotion - up to consultant on £50k. - GP £40k...

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Further or Alternatively@furtheror.bsky.social · last yr.

I have some sympathy with this position, but I don't think it's the final word. Some thoughts: (1) This is interviewing we are discussing, not merely factual reporting. That will often, rightly, involve putting a different view to the interviewee. That can be "many people say X, what do you say?"

Robert Saunders@robertsaunders.bsky.social · last yr.

The "he says, she says" model isn't just bad journalism: it's anti-journalism, because it abdicates the core journalistic responsibility to establish the facts & report them. And it feeds the model of politics as a spectator sport, in which the role of the commentator is just to describe the play.