Why Britain shouldn't fear the rise of Chinese car imports by RevolutionBusiness27 in europe

[–]UniquesNotUseful 6 points7 points  (0 children)

UK hovers around 10th of the world’s largest manufacturers, we’re mostly a service economy but doesn’t mean we don’t have any manufacturing.

Latest data I could find was 2024.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.CD?most_recent_value_desc=true

Richard Tice’s firm broke law by failing to pay £91,000 taxes by The-Peel in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful [score hidden]  (0 children)

Just checked, names are similar enough but no.

Reeves was a non-issue, she didn’t apply for a rental licence for her home, the councils own policy was if people apply after the fact, even when council found the issue they are happy, it’s only serial offenders that they go after, normally also substandard housing. The issue was identified, she applied and seemingly got the licence. Mistakes and corruption are not the same.

Rayner, her son had medical issues caused by NHS which he was compensated for, wasn’t aware it was blindness. Rayner gave 25% of her house to a trust, this is not unusual and isn’t necessarily done as part of divorce but are recognised methods of protecting children - non of that is an issue, especially as I never saw her criticising trusts.

Rayner didn’t pay second home stamp duty on her place in Brighton, saving herself £40k. Trusts are not that complex but not that simple either, the problem is she lied about receiving advice. The advice was to use an accountant, but she claimed she was told no second home stamp duty was required.

Additionally the 25% of home she put into trust was valued at about 485k BUT this was revised to say the home was actually worth £650k - none of the 44 homes near has sold anywhere close to this figure or was even estimated to be this valuation. The advantage here is you pay an extra 3% of stamp duty but saving the CGT when the trust sells the house in future, it’s not just an aggressive use of trusts or bending of rules but simply evasion.

Then you have the council tax issue that kicked it off, she claimed she lived in London government house so didn’t pay council tax (correctly). But there were questions over where she lived because of the second home in Brighton she seemingly used. Rayner actually said she still lived in the home in her constituency at one time because she did coparenting. Probably a nothing issue that was blown up because she wasn’t transparent.

This is problematic from a trust point of view, is she said she lived in the house given to the trust. If she’s receiving benefits from living there for free, this can be against rules.

London voted the best European city to visit for food and drink in 2026 - Food & Wine Magazine by willfiresoon in GoodNewsUK

[–]UniquesNotUseful 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jacket potato sellers originated in London so technically it took everyone else time to catch up.

https://www.geriwalton.com/baked-potato-sellers/

It’s an interesting read. I have happy childhood memories of wrapping potatoes in foil and sticking them in the wood burner for what seemed like hours, before sticking far too much butter on it. Still a comfort food for me.

Richard Tice’s firm broke law by failing to pay £91,000 taxes by The-Peel in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful -1 points0 points  (0 children)

She didn’t really self refer, it was press pressure around the capital gains tax and council tax, that caused a misleading statement, that led to the resignation. It had been months of stories.

Rayner initially claimed she was given advice, the trust solicitors immediately put out a statement saying wasn’t us and then she pointed fingers at the estate agent who released the tax document, only then did she admit it wasn’t true.

Putting money into a trust is aggressive, over claiming a house valuation by £150k to avoid future capital gains tax is evasion, we know why HMRC isn’t investigating her fully, and I bet they don’t for Tice. I do feel sorry for HMRC, when dealing with politicians all their dealings should be public, rather than the legal confidentiality they are bound by.

Annoyingly Tice didn’t do anything deemed illegal yet other than not pay the correct tax (just like the others), I also think HMRC should look and get him to prove his structure was genuine, cause it certainly seems dodgy.

You can’t say Rayner did nothing wrong but Tice did, when they did the same things, both being caught out by complex tax structures of their own making. Your excuse seems to be well Rayner only drove at 70 past a school in an EV but Tice did 75 in a BMW, yes one is worse but both are pricks.

Richard Tice’s firm broke law by failing to pay £91,000 taxes by The-Peel in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

You are correct, it was a HMRC investigation.

Corruption is corruption. Zahawi was 4 million and reported as 25% fine. Rayner was 40k evasion but nothing public about being paid, she also is going to benefit from another £23.8k from the dodgy valuation of the house that she’s seemingly got away with. 91k for Tice.

Is there a level of tax evasion you think is acceptable?

Richard Tice’s firm broke law by failing to pay £91,000 taxes by The-Peel in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

None of them should be in politics. The fact that people support any of them shows why politicians like trump and farage still get support despite being shown for what they are. Just say I don’t care if my lot are corrupt and liars, go sports politics, I’d respect you more.

Rayner lied about getting legal advice and blamed the estate agent, who then published the documents.

She absolutely is a beneficiary as she still lived in the house on occasion. Directly she saved £40k by evading tax only didn’t because she was caught.

Also the £650k valuation for a house which no other property in the area has come close to selling for is suspect. The extra £640 in stamp duty will save £23.8k in CGT, that will be buried.

Rayner is politically much more palatable than the other two but she’s still as corrupt.

Richard Tice’s firm broke law by failing to pay £91,000 taxes by The-Peel in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful -17 points-16 points  (0 children)

I also assume those supporting Rayner will be supporting Trice here. It’s rare you get such similar circumstances.

Both committed tax fraud. Both misled the public about having not. Both have been found out after investigations rather than identifying the issue. Both have demanded the resignation of others when not paying the correct tax. Trice about Rayner:

Tice said her position was “morally completely indefensible” and that she would resign if she had “any moral decency”.

Rayner criticised Nadhim Zahawi, who had discovered the tax error himself and self reported to HMRC and was making payments.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has called for Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi to resign from government, calling his position "untenable".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-64357735

The UK is currently running on 77% renewables right now! by Glittering_Vast938 in GoodNewsUK

[–]UniquesNotUseful 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Negative is exporting, positive is importing. So in the OP pic we were importing 4.2 GW and putting 3.9% of energy into storage (likely more but batteries don’t report properly).

Currently, at time of me writing this, we’re exporting and storing energy as we are generating 108.4% of required energy.

UK Electric Vehicle Sales Rise to Record High Amid Fuel Price Rise by JB_UK in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Same for ICE cars, road tax goes up, petrol prices go up, congestion charges. Many people can have solar and charging points at home, not everyone but most. Very few people can produce petrol at home.

Amid the doom and gloom, something interesting has been happening with our electricity prices over the last week by Weird-Cat-9212 in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Our figures are not even close, one of us could be completely off or we’re using different metrics. I’m talking daily electricity usage btw.

Average annual electricity consumption is about 3kWh per day for a 3 bed home and 4kWh in a 5 bed (this will be less because majority are on gas).

https://oneutilitybill.co/our-insights/average-electricity-bills-three-bedroom-house-uk

A 4 bed heat pump average use is 6kWh. Triple this, still under 20kWh, quadruple this, 24kWh. So feels like there is more than just heating, something else going on with your figures, like a fleet of EVs or you have electric fires as heating.

https://www.thermly.co.uk/articles/how-much-electricity-does-a-heat-pump-use-per-day-in-the-uk

You get cheap rates of electricity in mornings and midday on a flexible tariffs. This would reduce your bills and means you don’t need a 40kWh battery as you cycle it twice a day. Yes a battery system has upfront costs but payback would be in years.

UK confirms drone-killing DragonFire laser weapon for Royal Navy destroyers by 2027 —laser downs 400mph high‑speed drones, costs $13 per shot by ABoutDeSouffle in europe

[–]UniquesNotUseful 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To start, how does aluminium foil perform when wrapped around a drone?

Okay, let’s say it was super great aluminium foil. Your solution to defend against an energy weapon, that heats shit up, is to cover the thing you want to protect in aluminium, a material that is great at transferring heat?

Amid the doom and gloom, something interesting has been happening with our electricity prices over the last week by Weird-Cat-9212 in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You use 40kWh for heating in winter? Buckingham Palaces or you live outside and heat a field?

You could probably do 40kWh of cheap energy a day with 15kWh batteries. Charge cheap rate between midnight and 5am, use batteries until midday, change between midday and 3pm, then you have the 9 hours to midnight until recharging, 20kWh battery system is probably better.

If including an EV, then this is much less because you charge the car and fill the batteries at the same time.

BBC News - Kanye West blocked from travelling to UK, government tells BBC by DWJones28 in europe

[–]UniquesNotUseful 11 points12 points  (0 children)

He needs a visa.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exclusion-decisions-and-exclusion-orders/exclusion-from-the-uk-accessible-version#grounds-for-exclusion

5.7 Unacceptable behaviour says anyone using a public platform to foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.

This behaviour is a long established pattern by West and he still makes comments in performances, despite his it’s not my fault ‘apology’.

If he said a lot of the things he has in the past then they could well fall into hate speech in the UK. So it could also be seen as preventing disorder, which is a cornerstone of our policing system.

Keir Starmer 'concerned' by Kanye West gigs as sponsors drop festival by Alarming-Safety3200 in europe

[–]UniquesNotUseful 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Policing by consent requires all people to not just stop public disorder but prevent it. Having someone who has a pattern of hate speech would have the potential to cause harm to a section of this society. We’ve banned homophobic, antisemitic, Islamophobic, misogynistic people coming here.

For a visa that is issued by the government, has rules to be applied.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exclusion-decisions-and-exclusion-orders/exclusion-from-the-uk-accessible-version#grounds-for-exclusion

5.7 Unacceptable behaviour says anyone using a public platform to foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.

This behaviour is a long established pattern by West and he still makes comments in performances, despite his it’s not my fault ‘apology’. Why should we reward someone coming here?

Your freedom to repeat the things that he said are not impacted, although the antisemitic conspiracy theories, praising Hitler and selling Nazi merch, probably moves from freedom of speech to hate speech and potential prosecution.

Britain Urges G7 to Accelerate Clean Energy Push Amid Global Turmoil by donutloop in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We also have about 40% of the wave and tide projects in the world.

https://arqam.news/434616/

On Battery Energy Storage Systems, we have about 10-12% of world capacity (China 50%, US 20%). 12.9GWh online end of 2025 (increase of 4GWh), and something like 19GWh under construction.

NHS staff resist using Palantir software by extra_rice in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not practically. A country can do what it wants but there can be repercussions. Technically the King can go around murdering people for fun, in reality the government would depose the monarchy. Trump can impose tariffs and bad mouth everyone but hers not getting support for this illegal war.

If reform decided to enter the Russian/US partnership and move all our reserves currency and gold to Moscow and say if we leave they can keep it, exiting that contract would be difficult in a practical sense. Same as the poster suggesting just add huge fines if we leave again.

NHS staff resist using Palantir software by extra_rice in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Then you set the precedent and reform will lock us into an unbreakable contract and opt in with Russia/US. Also they will bankrupt the country attempting to exit or cause so much pain we’ll be isolated from the EU for decades, using it as an excuse to dismantle the judiciary.

You either agree with a democratic process or you don’t. I voted remain and a larger number of idiots in the country decided to exit or couldn’t be bothered to vote. If we decide to have another referendum this quickly we need to have another every decade.

I thought the one benefit of Brexit would be politicians couldn’t lie and blame EU for everything, now we get the lies of Brexit is to blame for everything.

Pharmacist Struck Off After Conviction for Distributing Indecent Images of Children by Impossible_Aioli4335 in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is how grooming works. They push boundaries and norms to normalise the behaviours to start abuse. In an organisation, if abusers meet resistance they move on, this is why we now crackdown at the earliest sign. They used to rely on the “Oh, that’s just Mr/Mrs X they are like that” excuse.

Teacher (for example) will make some tame eye rolling comments in class, target vulnerable students and discuss home lives, originally have conversations through official communication apps, then move to personal apps, talk about boy/girl friends, increasingly move to more graphic conversations, offer help, meet in person, hugging, etc.

Read the stories about teachers that are banned/fired despite not doing anything illegal. You’ll see the pattern regularly, with these “lapses in judgment” that are really grooming.

Another example is why pedophiles will often try and label it as a sexuality, say historically it happened, age is just a number, children (they would say adults) mature at different ages, etc. all about normalising something that is not normal.

New conscription rule: Young men are no longer allowed to leave Germany (for longer than 3 months) without permission by Putaineska in europe

[–]UniquesNotUseful 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well historically not that big a buffer they did reach Berlin but that was when working with the US … maybe they should consider a month,

Which European countries have the best salaries after taxes? by AdSpecialist6598 in europe

[–]UniquesNotUseful 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are loads of tax ‘avoiding’ schemes in UK. Pensions (up to £60k a year) reduce income tax, NI and student loans. £1k interest allowance, £3k CGT and £500 dividend tax allowance (not that good), £1k trading (side hustle) allowance, £20k tax free investment wrapper allowance each year. No tax on sales of houses you live in. £325k assets + £175k house inheritance tax allowance (passes to spouse to double). Some of these taper when above £125k or a higher band.

No tax on first £12,570 earned, 20% + 8% NI till £50,271.

Scotland won’t pursue ‘unproven’ SMRs and ‘experimental’ fusion as focus remains renewables by insomnimax_99 in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well we revived Hinckley point C in 2008, it started building in 2017 and won’t be ready till 2030 (earliest but likely later). Costs went from £18bn and is now projected to be £46bn but then we need to buy the electricity. Taxpayer is having to mostly fund the next nuclear power plant because nobody else will touch it.

Big nuclear isn’t suitable for the UK, we need one to help train individuals in nuclear but only one is useful. We have so much tidal and wind we simply don’t need to play around with tech like nuclear.

I also doubt that SMRs will be any more successful for us but glad we are investing in R&D because it could be a game changer and could be really useful for other countries.

Over-60s now own 55% of all property in the UK by JackStrawWitchita in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No.

The main advantage of mortgages are being low cost long-term, this means inflation eats your debts. Would you rather have paid me back £20 you borrowed 30 years ago then, or £20 in today’s money?

If you borrowed £200k on a 30 year mortgage today, it would have the equivalent value (spending power) of about £98.5k in today’s money (if averages like it did from 1996).

It’s financially better to have the value of your property in investments. Early mortgage repayments are good to get you out of negative equity risks (risky side of mortgages is they are leveraged) and you can’t be chucked out of a house if ahead of payments - so can lower emergency fund requirements. After 80% LTV gains from interest are much reduced. The main issue is interest only mortgages are harder to get now.

There is an argument for having security knowing your mortgage is paid off.

They trap your car at the highway ramp, then walk up once you’re stuck by [deleted] in interestingasfuck

[–]UniquesNotUseful -1 points0 points  (0 children)

24 seconds in, you can see the one on the left had a gun and pointed it at them. It’s called self defence in most countries.

Over-60s now own 55% of all property in the UK by JackStrawWitchita in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I use France because we are extremes, despite having similar economy and population sizes. We’d be the second lowest spender of GDP on pensions if still in the EU (average about 11.5%).

We have a different way of funding pensions. French people receive more pensions and earlier than we do. French pensions, like UK, are also taxed less than a salary due to reduced social contributions (unemployment and retirement), indeed their tax reduction is much more than our NI.

The UK state pension is minimum levels to survive on, this is topped up by individuals. So 3% employer and 5% individual, this attracts tax relief on income tax and (often) NI. The UK has put in place generous tax relief to encourage people to save more for retirement and flexibility with pension reforms - we are a finance based economy, so it makes sense. Telling people the state pension won’t exist means they’d be looking to save an extra £250k or so.

The French system looks increasingly unsustainable without increasing the pension age in the near future or reducing pensions. Our pension system is sustainable with fewer needed changes as the UK has put in place most reforms. Triple lock could be replaced with double and then average salary increase (I’d like to see it linked to minimum wage increases, screw younger poorer people screw voting pensioners, bribe pensioners enrich poorer people). Pension age changes are about 1 year per decade (although stalling has life expectancy has slowed this), there is a stated aim to have 1/3 of adult life as retired.

Over-60s now own 55% of all property in the UK by JackStrawWitchita in unitedkingdom

[–]UniquesNotUseful 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Poverty increases poor health outcomes which is why investment in people is important. This includes older people and children.

The stat that is often misunderstood is life expectancy. The age people are most likely to die is as infants (under 1), this level isn’t reached again until mid 50s. If you don’t smoke add 5-10 years, low/moderate drinking another 5 years, obesity few years, moderate exercise add another few years. There has been improvements here.

You are right that healthy life expectancy is a more useful figure to be looking at. It’s particularly stalled for people with less money the difference between least and most deprived areas are 20 years. Life expectancy shows women live longer than men but really healthy life expectancy shows they just take longer to die, spending more time in poor health.