Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

Starmer knows one apparently.

 

I'm sure they have a cunning plan which will be revealed in the budget ​

 

A knife wholesaler whose weapons have been used in several killings has surrendered more than 35,000 "zombie" blades.

Police said the knives and machetes were designed to "kill and maim".

Under a government surrender scheme Luton-based Sporting Wholesale will receive £10 compensation for each knife.

The company said it would not comment.

They should be arrested not blxxdy compensated!

 

Today's press indicates another possible "difficult decision" to come, removing the council tax discount for single person households. That will go down well with pensioners too .

 

That wouldn't surprise me, @Plantminded. What would surprise me would be a fairer system, with bands running from A-Z so a house worth £750,000 was not in the same band as one worth £5,000,000. That would impact the wealthy and is, therefore, off the cards. Better to take from a widow with slightly too much income to qualify for council tax benefit as she can't fight back or resind your next invite to Davos.

 

The system is a complete mess, @shiney, and needs a thorough overhaul.

 

It would be impossible to value individual houses and keep that up to date. Round here if you extend say a 3 bed to a 5 bed you don't pay any more council tax until it is sold. A neighbour of ours did that nearly 40 years ago and they are still here and paying less council tax than the 4 bedders.

 

I don't have a huge problem with removing it either, @Loofah, provided people with an income below £15,000 keep it, households with more than two adults pay a surcharge (unless any extra adults present are full-time carers), and the whole system is overhauled to remove the weighting in favour of the very wealthy.

 

So maybe they should bring back a poll tax.

 

It would have to be called something different.

 

Yes @cactus_girl . It seems far more logical to me that council tax rates should be based on the number of beneficiaries of council services in any one dwelling. A 3 bed house can be home to the afore-mentioned widow on a low income or 4 or more working age adults who create far more waste, use the roads more and so on and so forth.

The original "poll" tax was a great idea but they didn't announce, explain or promote it sensibly. Worth another try at getting it right.

 

Maybe they should rename Council Tax. What about "Rates"

 

@Loofah But surely Council Tax is meant to cover the services a council offers to it's residents ? I agree that basing the tax on the value of a property alone is pretty useless as values can change - up or down - as an area can alter over time due to all manner of things as @shiney points out.
Theoretically speaking, a household of 6 is far more likely to make greater use of the council's services than a household of 1 or 2 simply due to the number of people in that household.
Rubbish collections are a case in point - more people usually equals more rubbish. You could automatically assume that older residents may require more in the way of social services but that seems not to be the case in many districts these days - younger people being affected by mental health issues are on the rise. Fire and Police services - any one of us may need to call on these whatever our age, income or type/value of dwelling.
It does need a complete revamp as @ViewAhead says but again, this govt prefers the easy target rather than actually attempting legislation for a fairer system overall.
Same old, same old whatever the colour of the rosettes