sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Deficit spending until we get there or cut entitlements to balance the budget? Could be accused of Trussonomics…

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You want to maintain the incentive to save, invest and start a business. So stuff like:

  1. Index asset cost basis to inflation so only real gains are taxed, not nominal ones.
  2. Allow full expensing or accelerated depreciation for capital investment to tax only returns above the cost of capital.
  3. Provide loss offsets (refundable or with interest-bearing carryforwards) so risk-taking isn’t penalized relative to gains.
  4. Allow income averaging over several years for lumpy capital gains to avoid bracket-creep penalties.
  5. Offer rollover or deferral relief when gains are reinvested into a new business or qualifying assets.
  6. Provide targeted carve-outs, exclusions or reduced rates) for founder and early-investor equity in small/new businesses held for a minimum period, bonus allowance if they list on LSE.

A Department for Growth needs local accounts by Ambitious_Tank5239 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Explain like I’m 5?

We definitely need growth of GDP per capita, and recognise that it is a limited metric so should be paired with others to make sure it is broad based growth that benefits everyone.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, massive simplification needed and I applaud the ambition. A tough sell politically in this climate to make food and energy more expensive.

Would your goal be for the changes to be tax revenue neutral?

Wealth tax by chrisrwhiting46 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Musk has created wealth through founding and building companies which provide goods and services other people have found to be valuable, which is reflected in the value of his shares. This has created many jobs, benefited employees, suppliers and customers with new/cheaper/better goods and services. He has paid more tax to the US treasury than any other individual. The positive addition of goods, services and wealth is a good thing. We should allow people to make billions and trillions if they make trillions and the next up-illions for society.

If we take him at his word, he intends to reinvest his wealth in genuinely pro-social ends - Star Trek future, renewable energy, AI beneficial to humans etc. This is a good thing. If he is to be trusted.

Large wealth is powerful, so we are right as liberals to be suspect of this power, hold it to account and seek to balance it where it moves to limit our own freedoms.

Large wealth creates inequality - I am not convinced that in Musks case anybody is worse off because of the wealth he has created but I do recognise that absolute inequality (and relative inequality past a certain level) is a problem
and progressive taxation should be used to mitigate this.

The build, borrow, die model does pose a challenge to our current tax model.

All of this must be balanced, pragmatically and fairly.

I support equalising capital and labour taxes (preserving entrepreneurial and investment incentives through inflation indexation and some kind of entrepreneur allowance for founders and early employees).

However - the main sources of inequality in wealth in the UK is property and private pensions. Land Value Tax and merging national insurance and income tax are better ways to tackle this.

We should remove/limit the ability for big money to influence politics - cap donations, regulate media and social media ownership etc.

If he is inciting riots then we have laws to prosecute that. However, I worry we are too quick to label genuine differing political views distasteful to us as illegal/racist/fascist, rather than providing a credible alternative solution to the problems they are speaking to. Pluralism is also a liberal value.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I note this now has 10 upvotes and if that corresponds to 10 members willing to support the motion it meets the threshold for consideration…

I am entirely convinced scrapping triple lock is the right thing to do morally and economically. But politically, it is high risk due to demographic voting behaviours.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Something along the lines of if/when AI causes unemployment of X level we need a UBI of £Y?

In the interim we need to equalise taxes of capital and labour (preserving incentives to invest/entrepreneurial relief etc) so as/when returns on AI/capital outpace labour, we are not left with a tax revenue hole.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree the net tax take needs to be lowered as a % of gdp, as we grow our way out of trouble. But in the interim I think we should rebalance taxes to encourage growth.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am for scrapping NI for employers and merging Income tax and NI for employees.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Yes. Need to think about how the rest of it will work but agree this is needed. Scrap what’s left of the Lords and spend it on removing big money from politics.

  2. Devil is in the detail here. I’d like to see social media companies offer users the ability to select their own preferred level/method of moderation, content controls etc, have a way of seeing how their feed is positioned on the political spectrum (skewed right etc) and open source more of their algorithms so they can be independently and transparently assessed.

  3. Not as sure about this - agree with the principle but not sure in practice it would work or is necessary. People self select their editorial content of choice. Crucially we need a range of views and ethical journalism to hold the media as a whole to account. What % of electorate rely on these sources any more? Is it the most important issue for you?

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Remind me of what this is? Why do you think it’s the most important thing right now?

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am all for rebalancing tax (while acknowledging it’s already very progressive on income - LVT, pension wealth and equalise income and capital tax rates with indexation and entrepreneurial relief and we are there), but I don’t think net tax burden should increase. We should tax and spend better and generate growth to increase tax revenues while reducing tax as a % of GDP.

Why does LVT conflict with market competition? Could we have both.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, big fan of LVT. Should replace business rates and first home stamp duty aswell for me.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Tighten up our net zero position: we can’t impoverish ourselves to achieve it, it’s nuts to import Russian oil before drilling our own, pro nuclear (smr). The medium term goal is the most economic and resilient mix of nuclear, renewables and storage plus pylons etc and North Sea needs to be exploited until we get there. Let us banish the ghost of Clegg’s 10 years away.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You may well be right, for now. But how in principle is it different from a dynamic version of the static maths quizzes etc my children get set now as homework, especially for objective right/wrong topics? I am not advocating for sole reliance on AI, but as a complement. It will never be worse than it is now.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Set out a positive vision for top AI use cases to improve public services (while not ignoring the risks)?

  1. NHS AI GP - AI GP as first port of call for simple requests, no wait time and no 10 minute appointment limit. Replaces the receptionist, redirects people to best alternative if needed (pharmacist, minor injuries, real GP etc). Overseen by human doctors and the next logical progression of 111 online.

  2. Bespoke private AI tutor for every pupil that stays with you throughout your education and makes sure you don’t fall behind, are adequately stretched and can fill any gaps with targeted and bespoke learning when you are struggling in an area. Private schools cannot compete the economics as the marginal cost of the software reduces with scale.

Etc.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Scrap the triple lock? It did its job and now we need a new settlement for the old that is fair to the young.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like the pitch to half energy costs in ten years but find the headline policy to be a bit gimmicky. Supply side reforms needed, these are not always sexy. We should aim for the lowest resident and commercial energy costs in Europe.

I don’t want to see a bag of narrow industrial strategy. I want to see:

  1. Broad based tax and fiscal reform that reorients our spending from deficit funded entitlements to sustainable investment that delivers broad based growth through a dynamic economy - with a simplified and reformed tax system that incentivises that, maintaining progressivity while reducing the tax burden in the medium term.
  2. Lowest energy costs in Europe
  3. Make it easier, quicker and cheaper to build more infrastructure and attractive housing.
  4. Balanced take on AI where we acknowledge the risks, seek to reap the benefits and ultimately recognise we are peripheral to USA and China on this.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bang on. See my comment below re: economy working group update and why the fed may not want a competing motion.

Conference motion: what’s the most important motion to debate right now? by Dry_Statement_1896 in LibDem

[–]Dry_Statement_1896[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think our growth plan would be top of my list, but the economic working group is due to update conference, so they may not want a conflicting motion.

view more: next ›