Whig; limited government; freedom of exchange, expression; personal liberty. Apologist for wheat. Pronouns: ‘Your Eminence’
South East, England
Joined September 2020
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Here’s a vision of the world under your rule, drawn from your posts: limited government, personal liberty, free exchange, simplified taxes, social-insurance healthcare instead of a command-and-control NHS, pro-housing development over NIMBYism, defence of private enterprise
🤖 Made with AI
This is fun. So much to cut!
I wanted to visualise Britain's state spending ahead of the Budget, so I've vibe coded an app which presents it as a disk drive.
Take a look at the tradeoffs and see if you can make the budget fit:
britains-disk.pages.dev
Whig retweeted
An increase to £13.20p/h equates to a minimum wage of £27,456, based on a 40 hour week.
Once you factor in employers NI and basic pension contributions, the MINIMUM cost to hire a 21 year old for a company would be £31,461.
This is before you factor in any overarching business costs like office space, laptops, phone, software, training, support staff, vehicles etc.
This is going to be devastating to SME's who cant put together a simple 12 month budget without the goalposts being moved & their margins squeezed.
It'll also be catastrophic to youngsters opportunities because businesses will simply not be able to afford to hire them.
What's also incredible is that anything above £50,270 is seen as 'high earnings' in the UK and is taxed at 40%!
We are governed by financially and economically illiterate morons.
This will not end well.
Whig retweeted
A wee stat ahead of Wednesday's budget, on a policy that almost certainly won't change:
In 2021, roughly 1 in 10 full-time nurses paid 40% income tax. In 2026, it's closer to 1 in 3.
That's the power of the "fiscal drag" tax. The term "high earner" has been quietly redefined.
Whig retweeted
Astounding Sunday Times investigation reveals new scandal in SNP’s Socialist Scotland:
800 NHS, central government, council and quango workers whose jobs no longer exist but remain on the public payroll because of the SNP’s ‘no public-sector redundancy’ policy.
Estimated cost of paying people to do nothing: £27m a year.
One NHS Highland worker has been receiving a full salary and benefits for 17 years despite not having a specific job.
The health board refused to say what the worker had been doing for almost two decades and how much they had been paid.
Likely cost to the taxpayer is expected to be far higher with several public bodies refusing to disclose salaries for hundreds of the workers awaiting redeployment.
Interesting that the Economist and the FT seem to be moving increasingly towards more sensible fiscal positions.
Signs of a shift in the centre?
Britain needs ‘chainsaw economics’ ft.trib.al/fRuz3RS
Whig retweeted
We can laugh at all the chips 'n' gravy I-love-Oasis-me professional northerner stuff, and the Gogglebox pandering, but there is obviously a constituency for it. Caring about relatively abstract stuff like the national debt & gilts & mortgage rates is unusual.
Whig retweeted
Brutal chart.
France and UK vs. Communist countries at their peak.
UK public spending as % of GDP is currently above Romania, Venezuela and China.
And France is a lost cause.
(HM Treasury/Rand Research)
Britain’s bloated charities are paying the price for corporate greed telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10…
Whig retweeted
If he was serious he’d scrap MTD, particularly the next threshold that hits in April.
Healey moves to slash red tape and save firms £800m a year bit.ly/3W5ZaYg
Privatise all schools now. Get them out of government hands
🚨 NEW: Teachers could be allowed to work a 4-day week under the Government's plan for greater flexibility
[@thetimes]
Whig retweeted
Can the UK honestly promise NATO a Strategic Reserve Company, let alone a Corps?
The collapse of UK military power is genuinely fascinating. A country of 70mn - with the world’s 5th biggest economy - collectively opted to just give up on meaningfully defending itself.
1/7
Two years late, minimum...
NATO SACEUR Commander asserted last week that NATO is "ready to fight tonight". The UK would likely be unable to fight past a few weeks.
Our tank fleet reduced by one third.
Two years late for initial batch of 8 CR3. IOC for 2027 now wholly unrealistic. No new date when.
Gvt silence on the delay.
UK armoured battlegroup in Estonia soon replaced by a Mobile Anti-Armour Force (light mech inf).
Questions now need to be asked - given the length of CR3 delays - whether the UK can fulfil its NATO commitments to provide a Strategic Reserve Corps.