Santhie Lau Goundar
@santhiegoundar.bsky.social
Tax reporter, editor, ex-tax accountant. Will work wherever has Wi-Fi & hot beverages. Loves good food, bad karaoke, QPR FC, travel & lifting weights. 中印人 / 华侨
This makes no sense at all: "While the dominance of the fiscal rules left them tied to pledges not to raise income tax or national insurance." Nothing in the fiscal rules stops the government from putting up taxes! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
As the PM’s fate lay in doubt, Labour MPs plotted the party’s future direction
Former ministers rounded on government’s fiscal rules and called for new policies on tax and the economy
theguardian.com
A detail everyone is ignoring or forgetting. Peter Mandelson masterminded Keir Starmer's reshuffle days before the scandal broke. That is, while he was the US Ambassador. This seems like quite an important detail!
Two weeks ago, Peter Mandelson told us he had no recollection of planning to buy a £2m apartment in Rio via a Panama holding company and a Brazilian company. Yesterday we found notarised incorporation documents for the Brazilian company, with Mr Mandelson's signature.
A round of applause from the same MPs who last week did not trust him to properly make a decision about national security.
Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social · 6mo agoRound of applause and cheers for Keir Starmer as he arrives to address Labour MPs at the PLP meeting Almost as loud as the response Theresa May and Boris Johnson got from Tory MPs before they were ousted
It is worth recalling that the position of U.K. Ambassador to the US was not vacant at the time the Prime Minister chose to appoint Peter Mandelson to the role. A highly competent and respected woman was replaced.
Definitely seems like they destroyed the country on purpose.
PRIVATE EYE NAMED IN EPSTEIN FILES In the latest files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein released by the US Justice Department, the Eye is denounced as “an absolute rag of a publication” by Epstein’s then lawyer, Paul Tweed… 🧵1/5
24% of people who voted Labour at the last general election now plan to vote Green or Lib Dem. 0% of those who voted Reform at the last election now plan to vote Labour.
This is interesting because when I went for my first Covid vaccination, Farage arrived and pushed straight to the front of the queue.
Adam Schwarz@adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 7mo agoFarage: "I believe in vaccinations when they're vaccinations. I don't think what happened with Covid were vaccinations. You have to keep having them every 6 months." Conspiratorial nonsense. Some vaccinations like Covid shots require multiple/seasonal doses because immunity fades & viruses change.
He isn't "losing" this money. This is called "paying tax like a responsible citizen and not hiding your money offshore" and we need to start recognising and applauding it.
"We would never tolerate a government that chose to defund 70% of neonatal services, gambling that charities would fill the gap. Yet this is exactly the situation for end-of-life care." Please read my piece on the travesty of NHS palliative care underfunding 🙏 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
As a palliative care specialist, I’ve witnessed the human tragedy of our end-of-life care crisis | Rachel Clarke
While the government debates assisted dying, palliative care is an afterthought. And many more people face death without the care and support they need, says Rachel Clarke
theguardian.com
The Telegraph had to correct its multiple lies about "illegal immigrants" in London at least three separate times.
Sam Bright@writesbright.bsky.social · 9mo agoIt takes an obscene amount of hubris to lecture the BBC when you have The Telegraph’s record on truth-telling. Some of the paper’s errors this year are so bad they’re almost laughable 👇🏻
The thing about the moment we are in is we have been here before. During the Brexit Referendum campaign, the Johnson years, and now with Farage's ascent. Our established press has played a role in why we have got to this point in British politics. What's happening at the BBC now was an inevitability
Notable that the supposedly “patriotic” wing of British politics wants to destroy / defund almost all of our national institutions
Alan Carr should legit be a spy. Not only did he win Traitors but just by taking his specs off and not smiling he transforms himself into a man with questionable views on Alan Carr
To be fair, I doubt Farage gets much pleasure from remembering that his side lost World War Two.
Alex Andreou@sturdyalex.bsky.social · 9mo agoGenuinely cannot stop laughing at this title and tagline.
this article really evidences my claim about the insularity of the british elite
Samantha's Silver Earrings@samanthasearrings.bsky.social · 9mo agoAll of this. And not only that, they are related by birth or marriage. Ofc the true Aristocracy are, but also the upper middle class to which the top journalists, politicians and think tank bods belong. See also thecritic.co.uk/on-british-c...
On Twitter I’m not the only millennial (& Gen Z) annoyed by this. Our generations already know we won’t get the state pension when we get old & there’s no final salary pensions for us either. But this govt seems to want those of us who are not rich but still trying to fund our futures, to get fucked
Peter Stefanovic@peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 9mo agoThe chancellor is expected to use the budget to limit a tax break on pension contributions for both employers and employees to raise up to £2 billion a year www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
🔴NEW🔴 Thread 🧵 @bylinetimes.bsky.social can now reveal that, during the crucial period when convicted Reform leader Nathan Gill was most active, working directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most senior ally in Ukraine, he was also one of Nigel Farage’s closest confidantes 1/12
‘Thick as Thieves’: Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage’s Putin Problem
Far from being distant from the Reform UK Leader, insiders told Byline Times that the former MEP convicted of bribery was one of Farage’s closest aides, while we reveal how Gill worked on the Kremlin’...
bylinetimes.com
This is the only coverage I’ve seen that highlights the disgraceful coverup of a leak that betrayed to the taliban a list of names of Afghans who risked their lives helping British forces. All other coverage focuses on immigration. WTF?!
John Healey and MPs bask in nauseating non-mea culpas over secret Afghan relocation scheme | John Crace
Commons remain tone deaf as superinjunction lifts lid on data leak and £800m Afghanistan Response Route
theguardian.com
Back in the good old days, we Brits would have just said "she's an idiot, ignore her"
The article is titled "your rights if a hotel refuses to serve English food on a foreign holiday", but the actual advice is buried low down in the article and will disappoint those who travel abroad but don't want to eat "any of that foreign muck". www.mirror.co.uk/travel/news/...
Your rights if a hotel refuses to serve English food on a foreign holiday
A consumer rights champion has explained the rules after one woman had to eat Greek food every day on her Greek holiday
mirror.co.uk
If we want nicer, more productive politics, we could start by getting rid of “briefing against”: a thing that doesn’t exist in other countries, as far as I know. Politics types use it to anonymously backstab, slander, wreck and undermine each other, with no rules except what seems fine to the hacks.
Reporter: Are you going to deport Elon Musk? Trump: We'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? The monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.
