Left them on red 🤘

The Laffer Curve strikes again. Rachel Reeves’s absurd increases to stamp duty have backfired after tax receipts from property sales above £5m fell by £541m in the 18 months following her 2024 budget when she raised the second-home stamp duty surcharge to 5%. Data from estate agents Knight Frank show that in the 18 months subsequent to the budget, the number of sales above £5m dropped by 14% from 2,569 to 2,208, when compared with the 18 months before the budget. Of course it is not just the stamp duty that is lost but also the economic activity that accompanies the property transactions. Reeves has just signed up to the Chartwell Speakers agency to sell speeches for money. Surely for anyone to buy a speech from her is a badge of idiocy?

Banks paid record amount of £48bn in taxes to the Treasury this year & are paying hugely more in London than other financial centres, PWC research has revealed. A London-based lender based faces a total tax rate of 46.2%, compared with 27.9% in New York, 39.1% in Frankfurt and 29% in Dublin. Yet Healey appears determined to make banking in Britain even less competitive. 1/2

Italians are out on the streets confronting leftists after riots and looting Legend says the sound of that slap can be still heard around Italy

The biggest, and stupidest, myth in European politics, particularly popular in France, is that Europe suffers the consequences of "austerity" and "neoliberalism". In the biggest 5 countries in Europe, more than half of the population makes its income from the state, less than half from the private sector. This is what makes the problem of reducing the welfare state so impossible: more than half of the voters are net recipients. No surprise that Italy's budget has not been balanced in 100 years, France's in 50 years (ooh la la, l'austérité!!): -France: 30 million from the state versus 21m private sector workers. State spending is 57% of GDP, taxes more than half the economy. The budget hasn't been balanced in the lifetime of most French (since 1974). - Germany: 35 million adults from the state, versus 34 million from the private sector. 10% of the population is registered as severely disabled. Public spending is over half of GDP. Germany has had a continuous budget deficit since 2019. -Italy: 23 million from the state, versus 20.5 million private-sector workers. Public spending is 51% of GDP. Italy has had a budget deficit every year since 1925, for 100 years. - Spain more people get their income from the state since 2024: 18.21 million from the public sector versus 17.9 million people working in the private sector. Since 2025, Spain also had more government employees than self-employed workers (autónomos) for the first time in history. State spending is at 45%, budget has not been balanced since 2007. - UK: 54% of households now receive more in state benefits than they pay in taxes. State spending is 44.5% of GDP, taxes (40%) are at their highest since 1950, the budget hasn't been balanced since 2001, and 1 in 5 new cars is paid by the government through a bizarre state disability scheme (Motability).

Back to the Future, but Elon is driving. 🚀

One of my favorite shows as a kid!

Looking at the metadata on @TheEconomist website, you can see the exact time the cover came out. Un. Fooking. Real. @biancoresearch

Jensen on why fixing Energy in the UK is crucial: “Without energy there’s no industry, without industry there’s no economic prosperity. With no economic prosperity social problems are hard to fix, national security problems are hard to fix, everything is hard to fix.” YES He said we need to import it or create it here and it could be “fusion, fission, solar, hydro, whatever technology you want to use”

What’s the best Datasoft game released on the Commodore 64? (Without saying Bruce Lee.)

Meanwhile in France. 🇫🇷 More third World Wonders leave home carrying chainsaws now, causing more damage, destroying homes, destroying communities. These are not students, these are leftists who support the idealology of Islam.

Labour-run Hammersmith & Fulham council is considering a 150% council tax rise on residents following sweeping cuts to its funding by central government. It would mean residents of a Band D property would pay £2,522.50 a year, an increase of £1,513. The council is losing 40% of its £222 million annual contribution from central government under Labour’s “Fair Funding” review. The basic premise of this Labour policy is that it is fair game to slash funding to councils which have succeeded in keeping council tax low. The other councils affected are all Tory-controlled.