Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Daily Telegraph E Mail March 13 2025 Link After promising to cut public spending, rather than increasing tax, to pay for an eventual £13 billion uplift in the annual defence budget, Sir Keir Starmer has chosen to write for us to justify his decision. In recent weeks we have given Sir Keir Starmer due credit for his sensible approach to foreign affairs and defence spending, while daring him to show similar common sense on domestic issues. Today, he has written an article for us in which he promises to tackle the “flabby” state, which suggests he may have been listening. He and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, need to find £13 billion a year to pay for the much-needed uplift in the defence budget, and they have said they will find the money through spending cuts, rather than tax rises. The Prime Minister has rightly identified the Civil Service and Britain’s sprawling quangocracy as one area where savings can be made, and the language he uses is striking. The Civil Service has grown by 130...

Labour's plan to tax inherited pensions could generate an estimated £40billion for the Treasury over the next two decades according to analysis GB News - 09/03/25 Link Despite plans to introduce sweeping changes, including taxing unused pensions as part of estates, concerns are growing that the reforms will be delayed. The Government’s inheritance tax (IHT) raid on pensions is facing doubts, as experts warn the timeline for implementation may be unrealistic. With no draft legislation yet published and key details still unclear, critics argue that the Government is overpromising on a complex overhaul that could take years to implement. Some are urging caution, warning that rushing to adjust financial plans now could be premature if the reforms don’t materialise on schedule. Steve Bish, founder of S Bish Estate Planning said: "With the Government announcing changes to inheritance tax, it’s natural that many people are wondering whether they need to rewrite their Will. But right ...

Owners will be forced to give up fields to councils in latest attack on rural Britain Daily Telegraph  Link Farmers will be forced to sell fields for less than their potential value if they are seized to build new homes or hospitals, under measures in the Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Councils will be given greater powers to acquire land through compulsory purchase orders and to pay only its current value, rather than what it could be worth if developed, as in the current system. Landowners, including farmers, will see their fields purchased at a fraction of value they could expect under current rules if identified by local authorities as necessary for new homes, hospitals or schools. The plans will be seen as another attack on the rural economy from the Labour Government, after last year’s Budget hit farmers with a new 20 per cent inheritance tax. Other measures in the Bill, which will be introduced to Parliament on Tuesday, include paying households near new pylo...

 The film ‘Don’t Look Up’ chronicles the frustration of two scientists who agonise as political leaders ignore the perils of a meteorite hurtling towards earth until it is too late.  Landlord Today -08/03/25 Link While the Renters’ Rights Bill (RRB) doesn’t quite represent the same existential global extinction threat, the feeling of Government not recognising the warning signs of a looming crisis is unfortunately very similar.  Let’s make this abundantly clear – the RRB will lead to an increase in homelessness and will come at a cost to those it is designed to protect, tenants.  The warning lights are already flashing red and the Bill isn’t even on the statute books yet. A report by the London School of Economics, commissioned by Crisis, found that councils in England spent £732 million on temporary accommodation for homeless families in the year to April 2024, an 80% increase on the previous year.  The Ministry of Justice, meanwhile, reported that Section 21 n...

The liberal international order is crumbling under the weight of its own failures, hypocrisies and contradictions. Spiked 08/03/25 Link So this is how the so-called liberal international order ends. Not with a bang, but with a Trump. That, at least, is how Western and especially European elites perceive the crumbling of the Western alliance and the decay of assorted international conventions – as the world-destroying handiwork of the disruptor-in-chief and his gang of vandals. In the US’s new tariff-charged trade wars with allies and, above all, in the seeming abandonment of Ukraine and perhaps even America’s fellow NATO members in Europe, they see a US administration determined to ‘destroy the rules-based world order’ and replace it with one based on ‘might is right’, as one liberal pundit has it. The Trump administration is not so much ushering in a ‘brave new world’, argues another, as ‘reverting to a dangerous old one’, dominated by great-power rivalries. In one regard, they’re rig...

  The Expensive Car Supplement will impact vehicles priced over £40,000 GB News 08/03/2025  Link Drivers of popular models are set to see car taxes increase rapidly from April 1 with millions of motorists forced to pay new rates for the first time. It comes as the Expensive Car Supplement is set to impact millions of electric vehicle owners for the first time as part of sweeping changes to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) which were announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves last year. Electric vehicles had previously been exempt from paying the additional charge, which applies to cars with a list price exceeding £40,000. But from April this is set to change with electric vehicles registered after this date forced to pay an additional £425 supplement for five years from the second licence period. However, experts have argued that this extra payment is "no longer fit for purpose" as many mid-range family EVs still exceed the £40,000 limit. Jon Lawes, Managing Director at Novuna Vehicle So...

The police genuinely believe it’s their job to police our tweets, thoughts and feelings. Source - Spiked 07/03/25 Link When the police knocked on Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson’s door last year, it prompted a justified national outcry. She was told by two officers on Remembrance Sunday that she was being investigated for ‘stirring up racial hatred’ – all because of a nearly year-old tweet, in which she mistook some British Pakistani protesters for pro-Hamas protesters and railed against ‘Jew haters’. That Pearson promptly deleted it soon after apparently made no difference. When the police knocked on Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson’s door last year, it prompted a justified national outcry. She was told by two officers on Remembrance Sunday that she was being investigated for ‘stirring up racial hatred’ – all because of a nearly year-old tweet, in which she mistook some British Pakistani protesters for pro-Hamas protesters and railed against ‘Jew haters’. That Pearson promptly ...