Stive Pesley

Q/ What's the difference between Forest and a toothpick?
A/ A toothpick has two points.

Are you new here? ? We have a number of posters who will continue their campaigns to be proven right for as long as they are able to type.....I would however agree with @Stive Pesley (which is unusual in itself) that there is (and should still be) life in the thread...
I would, for example, expect there to be a discussion regarding vacine doses and whether the UK should be sending more to poorer nations rather than saving for booster jabs in this country - unfortunately some folk prefer to show off their knowledge of US politics or to highjack the thread with political point scoring rather than discuss the big issues....if they could control themselves, we might have a shorter but more engaing discussion with a larger number of posters (and therefore generate far more puns - which is what we're all really here for in the end.....)

I never called you all nobheads….not publicly anyway ?
The 7 pages were probably arguing as things went political, this is still the most reported topic on the forum. 
Having read it in batches, must say I’m surprised you see it as a way of processing anxieties and fears, see far more arguments over how stats are seen and source offs.
There was a dedicated topic created by @sage I believe that was for the purpose of members discussing how they are coping with the pandemic, mental health and finding new hobbies which soon dropped down the pages.
Guess how many reports the Mental Health topics have had…

I repeat, he hasn't saved anything, he may have reduced his tax burden by donating to charity but the net position is that he's given money away, not received money.
Unless you think the charity then distributes money back into Mel's pocket of course?
You're point is either disingenuous or completely lacking in understanding.
End of conversation.

I've just looked it up, and it appears I've done @Stive Pesley a disservice questioning his logic, apologies Stive.
Higher and additional rate taxpayers can not only add the tax onto their donation at 25%, in the same way as lower rate donees, but can receive a tax credit for  personal use on such donations.
The example below is taken from the HMRC website.
You donate £100 to charity - they claim Gift Aid to make your donation £125. You pay 40% tax so you can personally claim back £25.00 (£125 x 20%).
 
 

Q/ What's the difference between Forest and a toothpick?
A/ A toothpick has two points.

Q/ What's the difference between Forest and a toothpick?
A/ A toothpick has two points.

It's not unrelated - MM is a trustee. He started the charity and donated £12.5m to it
I was just saying that I didn't know he'd done that and donated so much
The bit about the accounts being overdue was tongue in cheek
It's his money that he earned, and if he wants to donate it to charity in order to not pay tax on it then that's his prerogative and we can but admire his philanthropy

It's not unrelated - MM is a trustee. He started the charity and donated £12.5m to it
I was just saying that I didn't know he'd done that and donated so much
The bit about the accounts being overdue was tongue in cheek
It's his money that he earned, and if he wants to donate it to charity in order to not pay tax on it then that's his prerogative and we can but admire his philanthropy

And plenty of time to work on submitting your accounts on time ?

Count me in for number 2.

How odd them being so long overdue when one would have thought they would be very easy to complete/submit. Not a complicated business given it is only paying out a few grants here and there. 

Absolutely - we're either all in it together or we're not. No qualms about paying an NI increase ring-fenced for NHS/Social Care if there was any evidence that the people (and their donors) making these decisions on our behalf weren't actively avoiding it
We can all accept that more taxation is needed to fund these public services, but imagine if there was a referendum tomorrow
Two options on the ballot
1. The NI increase as planned
or
2. The NI increase as planned PLUS a % windfall tax on anyone who has seen their personal wealth increase between March 2020 and July 2021 as a direct result of the pandemic
I think it might be a just a bit more a landslide than the last referendum we had
 

Of course you are spot on , whilst as a socialist at heart I can’t really complain about paying more for better nhs , social care and education it really comes down to if the money is used properly and if it’s collected fairly , it’s always the least able to pay who get the short end

April I believe.
It's sort of on-topic I guess, as the justification for breaking the manifesto promise on no tax/NI rises is that "no one predicted the pandemic"
If only there were another way to sort it though - like, maybe a windfall tax on the already wealthy who have vastly increased their wealth as a direct result of the pandemic.
There has been unimaginable mental, physical and financial suffering caused by this pandemic (and that's just on this thread!) so the fact that some people are laughing all the way to the bank as a result makes me sick
 
 

It won't take much to pay back the money allocated to track and trace. The government will be able recouped some of the money spent on track and trace, through the taxes paid by all the staff used to administer this wonderful scheme.
I'm sure millions of pounds wouldn't have ended up in offshore accounts via the pockets of the tory donors, who were given the job of setting up the system. Would it !?

Do show me the posts where people in favour of lockdown said there'd be no tax hikes to pay for Covid related issues.
Having said that according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies we did spend more on the military than any other country in the world other than the US, China and India in 2020 - even more than Russia.
So maybe we could move some of that into a Covid budget and top it up with a Covid tax on the super-wealthy and corporations who are directly profiting from it like Amazon.
Amazon usually hit their affiliates when this kind of things happen so they'll be ok and Jeff will remain able to feed himself.
I actually like the idea of a Covid tax because everybody will understand why it's needed.
And also, the tax rises aren't just because of the lockdown, I hear track and trace cost a few bob too.

Do you consider all people claiming benefits, has layabouts and scroungers or just a postion of those on benefits.
If its the latter then the money saved would be no way near the amount that could to raised by making companies like Amazon and Google pay the correct amount of tax warrented by their profits

So wise.
Let's see if all those people who were pro-lockdown come on and start moaning about tax rises then?
You are aware that this tax increase is supposedly to address the funding issue with social care right? Of which almost no plans have been mentioned, let alone scrutinised. Even though our leaders have been planning this for years.
But this money won't be going to social care yet, it will be used to reduce the NHS backlogs that have built up over the last 18 months as the hospitals were full of Covid patients. How much longer do you think these backlogs would have been without lockdowns? Oh, no details of course of how this money will be used. Robot nurses perhaps?
Glad you are happy with this pathetic state of affairs.

Is the 1.25% in addition to the "£350,000,000 a week" we used to give to the EU, (asking for a friend)?

April I believe.
It's sort of on-topic I guess, as the justification for breaking the manifesto promise on no tax/NI rises is that "no one predicted the pandemic"
If only there were another way to sort it though - like, maybe a windfall tax on the already wealthy who have vastly increased their wealth as a direct result of the pandemic.
There has been unimaginable mental, physical and financial suffering caused by this pandemic (and that's just on this thread!) so the fact that some people are laughing all the way to the bank as a result makes me sick
 
 

That slogan should be on a bus!

Give it a rest, we gave them a few rounds of applause last spring. What else do they want?
Anyway, nurses should be able to get a payrise now, paid for by the increase in their NI contributions. It's like a cheat code in a computer game that let's you level up!
 

The future of Social Care all sorted out after one day in Parliament. Impressive stuff.  Why did we waste so much time saying something needed to be done, when it was just so easy to fix?  Praise be for these times, when there is no need for scrutiny, or details or planning.