- “Rachel Reeves refuses to rule out more hikes after £40 billion ‘tax bomb’” – Rachel Reeves warned her £40 billion “tax bomb” on businesses and the middle classes could be just the start as she refused to rule out further tax hikes, reports the Mail.
- “Families face 70% tax on pensions in Reeves’s inheritance raid” – Families could be hit with death taxes of almost 70% after the Chancellor changed the rules around inheriting pension pots, says the Telegraph.
- “Inheritance tax to hit twice as many families under Labour” – The number of grieving families being hit by inheritance tax will double by the end of the decade under sweeping reforms by Labour, reports the Telegraph.
- “Extra 7.8 million people will be dragged into higher tax bands by 2029, says OBR” – Almost eight million extra people will be dragged into higher tax bands despite Rachel Reeves’s commitment to raise allowances in line with prices, says the Telegraph.
- “Entrepreneurs break down on TV after hike in National Insurance” – An entrepreneur has broken down on live television over the hike in National Insurance which hairdressers say will force them to cut jobs, reduce salaries and put up prices, reports the Mail.
- “Treasury accused of peddling ‘untrue nonsense’ in Budget document” – The Treasury has been accused of making “nonsense” claims that are “clearly not true” in a document setting out Rachel Reeves’s maiden Budget, according to the Telegraph.
- “Well done Rachel Reeves, you’ve just obliterated the rental market” – The Government’s stamp duty rise will bring in more problems than it does tax income, says the Secret Landlord in the Telegraph.
- “Borrowing costs surge as markets turn on Reeves” – Traders are dumping U.K. assets amid fears that the tax-and-spend Budget will fail to boost growth, reports the Telegraph.
- “The OBR’s damning Budget verdict gives the Tories ammunition for years” – Labour pledged its devotion to the OBR, supposedly the guardian of fiscal rectitude. It is about to face the consequences, says Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph.
- “Why should we trust the IMF?” – Is the IMF biased towards Labour? asks Ross Clark in the Spectator.
- “Starmer and Reeves have surrendered control to the bureaucrats” – The effect of the Budget is a huge transfer of resources from the private sector to the public sector, writes Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Telegraph.
- “Starmer plots nanny state crackdown on milkshakes” – The Government has announced it is considering applying a sugar tax to milky coffee drinks and bottled milkshakes as part of a push to solve the obesity crisis, reports the Telegraph.
- “Private schools to sue Government over VAT raid” – The Independent Schools Council, a group representing 1,400 private schools, will press ahead with plans for a legal challenge against the Government’s introduction of VAT from January, reveals the BBC.
- “Will Keir Starmer get me banned from football games?” – Keir Starmer’s Football Bill threatens fan freedoms by enforcing strict “woke” standards on clubs, risking bans for those with dissenting views, writes Toby in the Spectator.
- “Britain is now a safe haven for the world’s criminals” – In the Telegraph, Guy Dampier presents three stories – all of which broke within just three days this week – that reveal just how broken our immigration system is.
- “Ministers should have known ‘within hours’ about ricin found in Southport suspect’s home” – Counter terrorism and biological weapons experts say that ministers should have been told “within hours” that the deadly toxin ricin had been recovered from the home of the suspect in the Southport killings, according to the Telegraph.
- “The strange silence around the Southport attacks” – In the Spectator, Douglas Murray discusses the trend in British public life to downplay or delay revealing the motivations of attackers, especially when cases might be linked to jihadism or immigration.
- “Girl, 16, threw rocks at police ‘to impress boy’ she followed to a riot” – A 16 year-old girl’s lawyer told the court she threw rocks at police after following a boy she had a crush on to a riot, hoping to impress him, according to the Mail.
- “Rioter who died in prison hanged himself, inquest hears” – An inquest has heard that a 61 year-old grandfather, who died in prison after being locked up for his part in the riots, hanged himself, reports the Mail.
- “Met officer who uploaded child abuse videos avoids prison” – A former Metropolitan Police officer who confessed to uploading child abuse images of young girls while at work has dodged prison, says the Mail.
- “Radiohead’s Thom Yorke storms off stage after being heckled by pro-Palestinian protester” – Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke stormed out of a show after clashing with an anti-Israel protester – calling the heckler a “coward” who should come up onstage and say it to his face, according to the NY Post.
- “‘Silent prayer’ breaches of abortion clinic ‘buffer zones’ will land offenders unlimited fines” – People who engage in silent prayer in protest at abortion face unlimited fines if they breach buffer zones around clinics, reports the Telegraph.
- “Race to build Britain’s first mini-nukes delayed again in Budget” – Ministers have delayed the competition to build Britain’s first mini-nuclear power plants, amid “tortuously slow” decision-making in Whitehall, says the Telegraph.
- “Ozone layer hole is the 7th-smallest since 1992 and may close by 2066” – Scientists say the hole in the ozone layer above the North Pole is at the seventh smallest size since CFCs were banned in 1992, according to the Mail.
- “Demand to return to office is ‘dismissing our humanity’, say Amazon staff” – Hundreds of Amazon staff have complained that executives are “dismissing their humanity” by demanding they return to the office five days per week, reports the Telegraph.
- “Donald Trump overtakes Kamala Harris in final Daily Mail election poll” – Former President Donald Trump has overtaken Kamala Harris in the final DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners national poll before Election Day, with a three-point lead over the Vice President.
- “ABC accidentally declares Kamala Harris has won election in Pennsylvania” – An ABC station ignited a flurry of conspiracy theories after it aired what appeared to be official election results for Pennsylvania that showed Kamala Harris easily winning the key swing state – more than a week before Election Day, according to the NY Post.
- “‘I cried when Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 – but here’s why I’m now voting for Trump’” – “Trump’s 2016 victory shocked progressives like myself – but after digging deeper than media narratives, I learnt why we were so wrong,” says Meghan Murphy in the Telegraph.
- “Joe Biden bites babies at White House Halloween party” – Videos of President Joe Biden playfully biting several costumed babies at the White House Halloween party have gone viral on social media, reports Newsweek.
- “Javier Milei sacks Foreign Minister for backing Cuba in UN vote” – Argentina’s President Javier Milei has sacked his Foreign Minister after he voted in favour of lifting the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba at the United Nations, says the BBC.
- “Justin Welby accused of ‘abandoning Church of England doctrine’ over same-sex relationship comments” – The Archbishop of Canterbury says that he now believes “all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship… whether it’s straight or gay”, reports the Telegraph.
- “King believed only one sect of Christianity ‘not corrupted by political correctness’, letter reveals” – A newly uncovered letter reveals that the King once praised the Orthodox Church as the only Christians “not corrupted by loathsome political correctness”, says the Times.
- “National Trust blocks referendum on voting system which ‘stifles debate’” – The National Trust has blocked a referendum on its controversial voting system which has been blamed for “stifling debate”, reports the Telegraph.
- “Deference overdone” – Cultural kowtowing to indigenous groups has turned respect into ritual guilt, sapping dignity and sense, writes John Macnab in the New Conservative.
- “They are scrubbing the internet right now” – Archive.org has stopped taking images of content on all platforms. We have gone a long time since this service has chronicled the internet, says the Brownstone Institute’s Jeffrey A. Tucker.
- “‘We will not raise tax on working people’” – On X, political commentator Alex Armstrong has compiled a montage of Labour bigwigs insisting they won’t raise taxes on working people – only to do exactly that.
If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Thursday Morning Norreys Drive
& Shoppenhangers Rd Maidenhead
Ministers should have known ‘within hours’ about ricin found in Southport suspect’s home
Errr……Ministers would have been told within hours about ricin in Southport…….
‘There are three widely-documented malicious uses of Ricin: in the assassination of Georgi Markov in London in 1978, and in two other cases (one in Paris and one in the US)’
‘Ricin is indeed ‘Macavity The Mystery Cat’: it virtually disappears in the body. This ‘vanishing’ characteristic is its unique quality’
‘Arrests in London – January 2003 In this case, we have is persons with suspected Al Qa’ida links carrying a material that is useful for covert assassination. We do know that Ricin was found in caves in Afghanistan formerly occupied by Al Qa’ida……one of those arrested was a chemist and would probably have understood Ricin and its benefits and limitations…….Using Ricin would give them a better chance of getting away than if they used more open methods such as guns……would-be assassins wanted to disguise the killing of someone as a natural death. If no one had talked about Ricin for over a decade, and if the assassins had managed to get the Ricin into the victim undetected (as in the Paris attack), it may well have worked. But who and why? Perhaps extremists wanted to kill moderate Muslim clerics and avoid the blame?’
Markov: ‘Mr Markov told him that a well-built man with a foreign accent had pushed him in the leg with the point of his umbrella and said “I am sorry” and disappeared into a taxi…..Markov….was murdered, Scotland Yard said yesterday. Evidence to back this comes from the discovery of a tiny metal pellet in Mr Markov’s leg which is identical to a pellet removed from the back of another Bulgarian exile earlier this week. The second pellet, which is now being examined at the Metropolitan Police laboratory, was taken from Mr Vladimir Kostov, former head of the Paris Bureau of the Bulgarian State Radio and TV network…….Mr Kostov said that as he was leaving the Arc de Triomphe Metro station on August 27 he heard a crack which sounded like an airgun report and felt a sting on the right side of his back. Although the wound became inflamed he quickly recovered. The existence of a pellet, found by doctors on Tuesday and in the presence of two Scotland Yard detectives, strengthens suspicions that the umbrella with which Mr Markov was injured was a sophisticated gun……brought in experts in bacterial warfare agents from the Ministry of Defence establishment at Porton Down, Wiltshire, was told to a coroner in London. After two hours of pathological evidence, Mr Gavin Thurston, the Inner West London coroner, said that under new investigation he was prevented from returning a verdict of murder or manslaughter.
“Mr Markov has died of toxaemia caused by the implantation of a metal pellet containing ricin, and that it is quite impossible that this was done by Mr Markov himself.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2020/sep/09/georgi-markov-killed-poisoned-umbrella-london-1978
‘A tiny pellet that had two small holes drilled in at 90 degrees to create an X-shaped cavity. This cavity would have been able to hold a very small amount of poison, which led people to believe Markov did not die of natural causes and that this pellet may have been plugged up with a coating that was designed to melt at body temperature. The pellet was likely shot into Markov’s thigh, the coating melted and allowed the toxin to be absorbed into his body.
‘Ricin: …..as little as 0.5 milligrams can kill an adult. The symptoms of ricin poisoning often occur within eight hours of the initial exposure and they include vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, and high temperature – all of which Markov suffered with.
Years after the assassination on Waterloo Bridge, a Dane of Italian origin called Francesco Gullino was identified by a Bulgarian journalist as a renowned Soviet-era assassin. It is believed that Gullino came to London to neutralize Markov.
‘The murder weapon is now believed to have been a smaller hand-held weapon.’
Why would Government Ministers have been informed immediately?
‘….the probability that Markov was shot not by a lone individual wielding an umbrella, but that his death was the result of the concerted action of a larger team.’
But that is, of course, also the reason why that information would not have been made public.
They knew & still they doubled down on the indigenous who also knew !!!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/clyr4kz18dyo
This bloke should be in the Cabinet:
‘In New Zealand when we perform the haka to someone it’s a sign of respect. It’s performed at 21sts, and at weddings. Yes, it’s about laying down a challenge, and it’s up to the opposition how they would like to perceive that challenge, but to us it’s a sign of respect.’
NZ head coach, Scott Robertson
‘Its meaning has changed since tribes used to fight each other 200 years ago, but it’s the older interpretation that was adopted by our All Black rugby team who perform a haka just before the start of a game as a kind of challenge to fight.
According to the New Zealand government’s own promotional website, the Haka traditionally “served to invigorate warriors as they headed into battle”.
So should this bloke:
’Sorry to any New Zealand fans I upset with my poorly articulated tweet earlier in the week,” Marler posted on X. “I meant no malice in asking for it to be binned, just want to see the restrictions lifted to allow for a response without sanction.
‘I’m grateful for the education received on how important the haka is to the New Zealand culture and hope others have a better understanding too.’
Hopefully someone here can explain about the pensions inheritance. I thought a pension was for the use of a worker in retirement, with a side obligation for the pension provider to continue to pay a deceased worker’s widow. Why should non dependent children and beneficiaries get it? Isn’t the point of pensions a “some you win, some you lose” thing, because pensions cannot be funded if they all pay out to the max in every single case?
Can you only pass on annuity based pensions or does it apply to final salary pensions as well?
I get the ‘government shouldn’t grab your money’ argument but people have had tax relief on those pension contributions. You’re in a good place if you are wealthy enough to not need to touch your pension pot.
Search for “pension inheritance rules” if it is not clear what can be done. It is possible in many schemes to nominate a potential beneficiary if, or when you die.
“You’re in a good place if you are wealthy enough to not need to touch your pension pot.”
Not necessarily, some people have less extravagant lifestyles and if you have invested your earnings in your home and savings then you will not have rent to pay from your pension, which makes a significant difference.
Sadly this government seems to think spending every penny you earn is a virtue and punishes prudence.
This government is wholly committed to stripping wealth and savings from normal working people, the type I suspect who post on DS. The wealthy will be ring-fenced.
Everything this government does has at heart the aim of depopulation and control and once that view is understood all government actions make sense.
Agenda 2030.
‘This government is wholly committed to stripping wealth and savings from normal working people’.
I too, have reached this conclusion. This government cannot stomach the idea of a mostly independent citizen.
The situation is different with a personal contributions based pension (SIPP). There is no guaranteed payout level and employer contribution levels are usually pretty low. It is also often managed by the pensioner themselves.
Not really.
SIPP’s are Self Invested Personal Pensions and were introduced to benefit the self employed and small businesses. There are not two sources of contributions – Self Invested.
The PM, government, CPS, judicial system and the police are a fu#@ing nest of snakes over this Axel Rudakubana debacle!
Heads should roll, all the way to the top
I hope the whole lot of them rot from the inside with infighting and finger pointing
And all those falsely imprisoned should be immediately released!
Something stinks with this story even with the recent “news.”
How did a 17 year old lad get hold of Ricin? Assuming he did then others are involved and this issue is way bigger than we are being told.
I believe the whole story is gaslighting. All fiction but why?
Apparently it’s made from castor beans (as in the oil) but I suspect you’d have to know how to refine it
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/10/30/ten-fundamental-climate-questions-the-media-and-climate-alarmists-cant-or-wont-answer/
The Observers Book of Climate Change: a handy guide
Today’s quiz for those expert ‘climate scientists’:
What is the correct global mean surface temperature (GMST) for life on Earth and why? Numerical answer required, with workings.
What is the correct atmospheric CO₂ level for life on Earth (in volume percentage)?
What exactly makes CO₂ “pollution”?
How was the climate less dangerous in the 17-19th centuries, the end of the Little Ice Age?
What have been the observed benefits of The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that President Biden signed into law in 2022 so far?
By how much will decarbonization of the economy by 2050 reduce the Global Mean Surface Temperature?
Who are you expecting to pay for the $275 trillion cost of global net zero by the year 2050?
Are China and India combating climate change (submit numerical costed evidence)?
Given that currently, 200 ships are nuclear powered, what is wrong with nuclear power?
If humans are the problem, why don’t you personally embrace change and “nut zero” yourself?
Superb
Driving you off the road
As some of the links above note, many of the budget announcements will have their effect over future years. This seems to include the effect on motoring, they avoided making any headling grabbing changes on fuel duty but if you unravel the budget announcements it seems to me to be quite an insidious attack on motoring for the hoi-polloi.
This link explains what is happening to the car tax on new cars;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FfAHUegoIw
Of course many of us would not think of buying a new car, many of us look to pick up an 3/4 year old bargain ex-lease car. But of course for there to be any secondhand cars someone has to buy the new ones in the first place. These budget changes look to be pushing to limit the number of new petrol/diesel (ICE)l cars that are sold. If that is the case then there will be very few ex-lease ICE cars coming up for sale in 3 years time. Other commentators have said they were surprised there were no big subsidies announced for people to buy EVs. This could lead one to think that there is an underlying message here of the end of private motoring.
At the same time the car insurance industry is changing they way they calculate insurance premiums with risk being a key factor. The insurance industry is increasingly giving EVs a high risk rating. The effect of this is that increasingly EVs are being ‘written-off’ for what in an ICE car would be minor damage. The insurance industry increasingly rates the slightest damage to an EV battery as high risk, even if repaired the risk of a subsequent fire is too high and so the car is written off.
And so we have a clear attempt to limit the number of secondhand ICE cars coming to the market in a few years time. Whilst EVs are increasingly being seen as one user disposable commodity items. Even if there was a secondhand EV available would you risk buying it? These policies are being ‘driven’ through by urban elitist politicians who seem to see no need for the hoi-polloi to have cars. It will have a major impact on rural areas. Is this the thin end of the wedge leading to the end of private motoring?
Thanks for saying it for me. I had worked out that the tax on new cars would impact on second hand stocks but you have summarised this very succinctly.
There is no question that private motoring is to be eliminated. I expect further tightening within six months.
“Rioter who died in prison hanged himself, inquest hears”
Any more news about the TEN MUSLIM RIOTERS GIVEN SUSPENDED SENTENCES after pleading guilty to the exact same “violent disorder” charge that Peter Lynch was thrown into prison for, and died there?
David Atherton on X: “
Outrageous two-tier Justice
Lawyer Akhmed Yakoob is at Birmingham Crown Court defending 10 of his clients. They were charged with conspiracy to commit wounding & violent disorder. The conspiracy charges were dropped, but they pleaded guilty of violent disorder. Suspended https://t.co/BnvteMmWgI” / X