Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Sir Keir Starmer’s confusion of the causes of the crossings will lead him to repeat the errors of the Conservatives Daily Telegraph  Link Sir Keir Starmer has evidently taken a shine to Lancaster House, the imposing mansion in London’s St James’s district. It has hosted two Government summits in short order, its lavish interiors offering a distraction from the paucity of the achievements. It is so ornate that Queen Victoria remarked to the owner on visiting: “I have come from my House to your Palace.” A few weeks ago it provided the backdrop for the Prime Minister’s efforts to cobble together a “coalition of the willing” to send peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, an initiative that has foundered on the rocks of Russian intransigence. On Monday, Sir Keir was back to launch a 40-nation summit aimed at curbing illegal immigration. A more incongruous setting for talks about how to deal with the flow of people from Africa and Asia desperately seeking a new life in Europe is hard to imagine...

Ballooning welfare bill outpaces other developed nations despite Labour’s reforms 31 March 2025  Daily Telegraph  Link Britain has seen the fastest rise in people claiming health and disability benefits in the rich world, analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) shows. The share of Britain’s working-age population claiming welfare because of sickness or disability rose by more than a quarter between 2019 and 2023. This follows official projections that indicate Labour’s reforms will not be enough to reverse a post-lockdown surge. The increase in claims has been much faster than in other developed nations, including Denmark and France, where overall government spending is much higher. The cost of those claims has surged even faster, with official data showing the cost of these benefits has climbed 50pc from £37bn just before the pandemic to £56.9bn in the current financial year. Health-related benefits now account for 40pc of all spending on working-age welfare, up fr...

Matt Goodwin Mar 29 There are some images that come to symbol a much wider crisis. And in the years ahead the image you can see above will become one such symbol. What does it show? It shows six police offices in the county of Hertfordshire, England, approaching the front door of a house to arrest two parents. And what was their alleged crime? Did they assault somebody? Did they steal something? Were they shoplifting? Did they ram their car into a crowded market? No. They complained about their local school in a parents’ WhatsApp group. I’m not joking. I’m deadly serious. Prior to being arrested by no less than six police officers from Hertfordshire Constabulary —which, like other police authorities across England, is struggling to solve burglaries, stop shoplifting and end a surge of violent crime—the parents had dared to question the process through which their local school was recruiting a headteacher and appeared critical of school governors in a WhatsApp group. All this, apparentl...

Rachel Reeves’s decision to raise rates dramatically backfires as investors sell up Daily Telegraph  Link The Chancellor’s decision to raise capital gains tax will leave a £23bn hole in the public purse, the budget watchdog has warned. Rachel Reeves increased the top rate of capital gains tax by 4 percentage points in her maiden Budget last year while stripping back relief offered to those selling companies or shares. However, analysis of official forecasts suggest the tax raid has backfired as investors raced to sell up their assets before the new rates come into effect. Following Wednesday’s Spring Statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility downgraded its forecast for capital gains tax intake for every year for the next five years, wiping £23bn off the projected tax intake by 2030. Immediately following the announcement in October, the main rates of capital gains tax rose from 10pc to 18pc for basic-rate taxpayers, and from 20pc to 24pc for higher-rate taxpayers. There will ...

The Chancellor’s tinkering this week will do nothing to allay the growing threat of an economic crisis David Frost Daily Telegraph  Link What to say about Wednesday’s Spring Statement? The truth is that it barely matters. The Government has achieved its primary aim, which is to match one very large predicted number, ie, that of taxation, with another, spending, in 2030. It’s all guesswork. No one really believes in the welfare savings, the growth figures, or much else. But the numbers add up somehow. One side gives it ritual support, the other ritual opposition. And the world moves on. The event is meaningless, not because things are going well, but because they are going very badly indeed. If they are honest with themselves, Starmer and Reeves will be staring in alarm at what their stewardship has done so far to the British economy. They remind me of nothing so much as two incompetent magicians – the Incredible Starmo and his glamorous assistant Rachel – who have been doing the Sm...

Retirees approach ‘bizarre tax cliff-edge’ as thresholds remain frozen under Rachel Reeves Daily Telegraph  Link Almost three quarters of a million more retirees could be forced to pay income tax from next year, analysis suggests. Around 8.5 million people aged 66 and over already pay tax each year, but this could rise to 9.2 million from April 2026, Sir Steve Webb, the former pensions minister, said. The figures come after a new forecast, released this week by the Office for Budget Responsibility, suggested that the state pension will rise by 4.6pc next year in line with the triple lock. Anyone on the full new state pension would start paying tax after just £46 of additional income. The benefit itself is on course to become taxable by 2027 – a phenomenon the Conservatives dubbed “Labour’s retirement tax” in last year’s general election campaign. The state pension rises each year by the highest of wages, inflation or 2.5pc under the triple lock. According to the Office for Budget R...