Chairman & CEO of Deben Inns Ltd Running 8 busy pub/restaurants in and around Woodbridge, Suffolk.
Waldringfield, England
Joined April 2014
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- Following990
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Steve Lomas retweeted
Andy Haldane interview:
**The financial situation is precarious - the penny hasn't dropped in No 10**
'The penny has not yet fully dropped, including in Downing Street. You see that in us having the highest borrowing costs in the G7, despite not having the highest debts and deficits
'It’s the old [Ernest] Hemingway thing, isn’t it? How do you go bankrupt? First slowly, then very quickly.
'Keir [Starmer] lost the dressing room. Andy’s biggest risk is that he loses the dealing room. And then that’s an even more painful way to go, as Liz Truss would tell you.'
**Britain is at or close to being taxed out**
'The truth is, as a nation, we are at or close to being taxed out,” he says. “And we are at or close to being maxed out in terms of borrowing.
'So for me, the economics of this are very straightforward. We have a public sector, a government sector with a balance sheet whose productivity has failed to rise this century. And we have a private sector which is actually primed, its balance sheet is in good shape.
'If you want good growth in every postcode — dear God, I want that as much as the next man, probably just as much as Andy in fact — the root is by unlocking those animal spirits and that means a smaller state, lower taxes and that means lower government spending and tough choices around that'
**The economy could 'crater' without spending cuts**
“This is not a hypothetical risk. Look across the Channel, not just to what’s happening in France, but what’s happening in Greece or Italy or Portugal or Spain a decade and a bit ago. Avoid that like the plague
'Because when you are forced involuntarily into making much more draconian cuts to appease financial markets and get them back on side that will, one, crater the economy. And, two, almost certainly crater your popularity
'That for me is the peril that comes from prevarication on this front. The peril that comes from not using up political capital and making hard choices'
**A 'mañana' Budget does not speak to the urgency of now**
'The public finances dimension is of course a real concern for me. I feel the time to get on top of that is now because who knows what might turn up tomorrow. And a mañana budget doesn’t speak to the urgency of now
'The mañana choices will not be easier tomorrow. They’re going to be much harder. So backloading them, crossing your fingers and hoping that the weather turns, for me would not be the preferred course, would not be the prudent course, and risks next year being even more of a heavy lift than would otherwise be the case'
**Banking taxes are 'penny wise, pound foolish'**
'The point that actually weighs with me most heavily is that this isn’t just about the banks. If you are felt to be a country that is in the business of doing windfall taxes — if you earn profits, the taxman cometh — that is not a hospitable environment for investors.
'It means you mark down the value of UK businesses and mark up the cost of lending money to those businesses. And that is not a good growth strategy over the medium term. Penny wise, pound foolish'
**What does ending 40 years of neoliberalism mean?**
'Have you been to Manchester? You know it’s the embodiment of neoliberalism done well. Success is founded on being a magnetic attractor of capital, or people, of business and culture. That’s what the UK should become'
**What does public control of utilities mean?**
'From kind of full fat nationalisation, which would cost an arm and a leg, right through to tinkering with the regulatory rules. If you’re in the water industry, the energy industry, parts of the transport industry, investors are saying, ‘Hang on a sec, I’m not putting money in here.'
thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
Steve Lomas retweeted
Maybe Torsten and his @UKLabour colleagues need to urgently take a long hard look at themselves. Taxing jobs was always going to result in jobs being cut and sadly Torsten’s constituents are now discovering that firsthand.
Steve Lomas retweeted
THE @UKLabour GROWTH PLAN
Say the word ‘growth’ repeatedly.
The End.
Steve Lomas retweeted
Why would anyone invest in Britain, when the govt is busy taxing and regulating businesses into extinction - while claiming that ‘growth’ is the priority?
We’ll never invest in Britain again, says FTSE oil giant
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"CEO of one of Britain’s oldest energy companies has said it will never invest in the UK again because of the country’s “crazy” politics."
"It comes after Hunting, one of the London Stock Exchange’s oldest listed companies, shed dozens of staff and shut down 80% of its UK operations last year."
"Founded in 1874 as a shipping business, Hunting uses advanced engineering to make high-pressure pipes for subsea oil and gas wells as well as for warplanes and spacecraft."
"The company is perhaps best known for building the fuselages and tail frames for Britain’s Lancaster Bomber to help win the Second World War."
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"Four of the company’s five UK centres, including its main Scottish site, have closed in the last year, leaving a 30-strong London head office and a subsidiary in Newcastle."
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telegraph.co.uk/business/202…
Steve Lomas retweeted
‘Cost of business crisis’ as government drives up overheads by 70 per cent in a decade bit.ly/4za3GUv
Steve Lomas retweeted
Keir Starmer — ever a man of his word til the end.
In June 2023 he explicitly ruled out ever indulging in a resignation honours list (BBC Radio 4 Today).
Today he’s marked his resignation with 21 peerages, overwhelmingly public-sector/legal jobsworths. Barely a single wealth creator among them.
Classic line up of the New Establishment which has run the country under Labour and Tory governments for the past three decades and is now firmly in control. Largely (if not entirely) with the following characteristics:
*Career almost entirely in public sector, often taking salaries from several sinecures at once as they work up the greasy taxpayer-funded pole.
*Associated with various ‘right-on’ causes.
*Largely middle class, London chattering class, Oxbridge well represented (of course).
*Fashionable left but not too left. Good mainstream Labour links.
Thus is the antediluvian House of Lords perpetuated by the Left as well as the Right as a comfortable state-funded retirement home for the well-connected ‘good and great’ past their sell-by date — when it should simply be abolished.
Steve Lomas retweeted
It would be an act of total madness. It would drive out significant investment in the UK & without question instead of raising more tax it would see a material decline in revenues.
How can anyone in the UK plan with a Labour government constantly talking about more tax burden.
Capital gains tax could be 'brought closer to income tax rates' in blow for investors under new proposals
gbnews.com/money/capital-gai…
Steve Lomas retweeted
There is only one “change” that will work for Burnham. A genuine, relentless focus on growth.
Two decades without earnings growth. That’s why electorate is fed up.
Only growth will repair contract between generations and allow social ills to be tackled
thetimes.com/article/f5b0402…
Steve Lomas retweeted
‘Tipping point’: CBI boss slams £345bn business tax burden amid ‘cost of doing business’ crisis bit.ly/4e4Fbyy
Steve Lomas retweeted
Hospitality has so much potential - to create jobs, to drive high street regeneration and economic growth. But it is held back by tax - the most highly taxed sector of the economy
Now the sector is united that #VATsTheProblem. A new sector-wide campaign, spearheaded by Tom Kerridge, is calling for hospitality VAT to be reduced from 20% to 10% - the single biggest lever the Government can pull to unleash potential. So let’s make the Sunmer’s VAT cut the start. Sign the petition today 👇
vatstheproblem.co.uk
Steve Lomas retweeted
The glass bottle tax threatening to shatter Britain
thetimes.com/article/9ec2f62…
Everyone is talking about the “glass bottle tax”, but very few people have even heard of EPR – Extended Producer Responsibility.
For many businesses, particularly pubs, bars, restaurants and hospitality operators, EPR has already become a huge cost. In many cases, these businesses are effectively paying twice for waste collection and recycling.
And if you think that’s bad, wait until the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) arrives.
Under DRS, consumers will pay a 20p deposit (plus VAT) on every eligible can and bottle purchased, regardless of the size of the container. To reclaim that deposit, containers must be returned through reverse vending machines or collection points.
Consumers will be pushed towards larger containers to minimise the number of deposits they pay.
Hospitality businesses will face additional administration, storage and handling costs.
We and other drinks manufacturers are already reconsidering their packaging formats
These policies were conceived under the Tories by figures such as Michael Gove, and have since been enthusiastically adopted by Labour
#Hospitality #Pubs #Restaurants #DRS #EPR #Recycling #FoodAndDrink #BusinessCosts #Packaging #UKBusiness
Absolutely this 👇
Further to Blair. Literally every honest sensible person in all the main parties privately agrees with all these propositions:
- welfare spending is too high and is throwing good people on the scrapheap
- defence spending is too low
- the triple lock is unsustainable
- without cheap energy we cannot exploit the AI revolution
- we should be investing in EVERY form of energy: renewables, nuclear and the North Sea
- migration needs to be controlled to boost social cohesion and because the boats look like a huge failure of the state
- any new relationship with the EU will be imposed on us until we are stronger and cannot involve the closeness some desire without freedom of movement
- we are deeply embedded with America in ways which the public does not understand and cannot be told and however joyous it makes us feel to hate Trump, disengagement at the deep state level is not only wholly unrealistic but also undesirable
- Whitehall needs a total overhaul so specific project expertise and political appointees can be brought in quickly
Blair basically says all that.
The one thing he doesn’t say and which the same group of people agree on is this and it’s something Blair left behind:
- judges and quangos have too much power, are unaccountable and without redressing the balance in favour of parliament it is very difficult to do anything big fast
- the bare minimum that needs to change in this regard is to reform judicial review and planning law so we can put building and economic growth ahead of newts and NIMBYs
None of that above really ought to be up for discussion. It is all common sense but not one of our politicians will publicly say all of it
Whatever you think of Blair, engage with what he’s saying not how he makes you feel. The bare minimum we should expect from any leader is that they have an analysis of the current situation and a plan to deal with it which is as coherent and realistic as his intervention. Pretty well every critique I’ve read so far has failed to meet this requirement.
Over to Andy and Keir and Kemi and Nigel and Zack and all the others
Steve Lomas retweeted
"I once spent £400,000 of other people's money on jewellery, cosmetics and a campervan and my wife didn't know anything about it."
Steve Lomas retweeted
It’s almost beyond belief, but yes, Labour’s energy policy is to shut down our own domestic oil and gas industry whilst directly funding Putin’s war machine instead.
On Tuesday, while Labour MPs were voting to ban new British oil and gas licences, behind the scenes the Government quietly announced that it was easing sanctions on Russian oil.
Why? Because by shutting down British production, Miliband and Starmer are making us more reliant on foreign imports.
As Kemi Badenoch rightly said at Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour think oil from Russia is acceptable, but oil from Aberdeen is not.
We are in the extraordinary position of Ukraine’s sanctions chief criticising our country, whilst UK officials brief out that the fault lies with Starmer and Miliband for being asleep at the wheel as UK energy supplies have been put increasingly under strain.
Here’s the problem. Production is not the same as consumption.
If you shut down our means of making fuel, it doesn’t mean we need any less. All it does is make us more reliant on foreign regimes for that very same fuel.
What’s worse is that this fuel will almost certainly have lower environmental standards and produce more emissions as it is shipped across the world to get here.
We lost a third of our oil refineries last year. We have just four left. By the end of the Parliament we could have zero as they are being forced out of existence thanks to an onerous Carbon Tax and high energy costs.
Some of our refineries are spending more on the Government’s Carbon Tax – which doubled last year under Ed Miliband – than on their entire wage bill.
Guess who doesn’t face this crushing tax? The Indian refineries which are at the centre of the current storm.
That’s what lifting the sanctions is allowing in: jet fuel and diesel from these refineries which, unlike our own, use Putin’s oil and have twice the emissions because, unlike our own, they are powered by coal.
What kind of climate leadership is this? Where is it leading to? Bankruptcy?
We have to face up to reality. The world is getting more dangerous and other countries like the US, the Middle East and Asia have not put punishing carbon taxes on their own industry.
They are not shutting down their oil and gas industries – in fact, they are doing everything they can to maximise their own energy supplies.
However, this is the logical conclusion of Ed Miliband’s plans. If you place higher burdens on our industry than other countries, then British production will decline.
That does not mean we will need any less oil, gas, jet fuel, chemicals or plastics, we will just become more reliant on foreign regimes over whom we have no control.
There is an alternative. But it requires a government prepared to abandon Ed Miliband’s zealotry and back our own domestic production instead.
We need to repeal the Climate Change Act, axe the Carbon Tax, Get Britain Drilling, double down on nuclear and make electricity cheap. That’s the plan that the Conservatives put forward on Tuesday - but the one that Labour MPs rejected.
Steve Lomas retweeted
🧵The "Energy Independence Bill" just mentioned in the King's Speech is something of a bombshell.
Why?
Because it compels the govt to rally Parliament behind fresh legislation to ban new North Sea oil/gas licences (this has NOT been written into law yet).
This is a v big deal!
Steve Lomas retweeted
British Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton tells the Guardian that he's opening restaurants abroad to subsidise his UK venues because of high UK taxes.
"The UK is tough," he said. “I have restaurants that are losing money. We are not asking for handouts, we are asking for a fair chance to stay alive.”
“The tax on hospitality in the UK is the highest in Europe. Ireland VAT is 9% we are 20%, hospitality in Ireland is booming,” Atherton pointed out.
Steve Lomas retweeted
Norway just announced 70 new blocks of oil and gas exploration, including in the North Sea.
Meanwhile, just over the border on the British side of the North Sea, Ed Miliband tells us we’ve got nothing left so he HAS to ban new licences.
Same basin. Same geology.
Madness.
