J

Centrist. Investor, writer and analyst. Any fund I tweet about is not an endorsement or recommendation. All opinions are my own

[Joe Armitage @joe_armitage]

The profit margin of Sainsbury’s is 1.17%. Even for the more premium Waitrose it’s 3%. This is simply uninformed populist nonsense from the government. The government should steer well clear of their incredibly delicate operating models.

[J @ETHanalyst]

@StephenFlynnSNP There’s nothing worse than politicians refusing to take responsibility for their actions. The SNP are a disgrace.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

The SNP supported a supertax on energy companies in North Sea. Norway didn’t.
The SNP opposed any new licenses to explore/drill for oil/gas in North Sea. Norway has continued to issue new licenses — and we now import oil and gas from Norway’s North Sea fields adjacent to our own, which we won’t exploit.
Scotland runs the biggest budget deficit in Europe (about 12% GDP). Norway doesn’t.
A huge chunk of UK oil revenues have gone to cover this Scottish deficit over the years. Norway didn’t have a budget deficit to finance. So it was able to save revenues in a sovereign wealth fund
End of.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Your party backed a supertax on oil companies in the North Sea.
Your party opposed new licenses in the North Sea.
Why are you surprised BP has decided to pack it in?
Nauseating hypocrisy to affect to be now concerned about jobs and communities.

[Michael Hill @Michael_J_Hil]

UK political parties only have two modes. Something must be banned or it must be legally required.

[Ian @brodders_be]

We paid £43,000 of Stamp Duty when we bought our house. I presume this would be refunded with interest otherwise we’re paying Stamp Duty again on a property we’ve already bought.

[Cut My Tax @CutMyTaxUK]

Scottish Ballet has cancelled five performances in Edinburgh, warning that touring to the city could become “unsustainable” due to the increased cost of digs caused by its new tourist tax.

Scottish Ballet warned that the newly introduced tax on overnight stays in Edinburgh "risks empty stages and fewer artistic voices".

"A visitor economy that becomes too expensive for both the artists who animate it and the audiences who come to see them risks undermining the very thing that makes Edinburgh worth visiting.”

Labour-run Edinburgh Council rejected the criticism. Scottish politicians seem pretty determined to tax the Scottish economy to death.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

The SNP runs into the Laffer Curve: its 48% top rate of income tax (NICs on top) results in £22m LESS in tax revenues.
Don’t they teach economics in the land of Adam Smith any more?
Or does left-wing virtue signalling — I’m ‘taxing the rich’ more than you — trump everything?

[Times Politics @timespolitics]

Scottish tax hike for high earners backfires with loss of £22m https://t.co/2O0EfjtwPB

[J @ETHanalyst]

@CutMyTaxUK There’s such little value working in the UK today

[Cut My Tax @CutMyTaxUK]

Gary Lineker fought a long legal case against HMRC to try and prevent them from taxing him another £4.9m.

(We supported him at the time although he did nothing to help others who were targeted by the same unfair tax regulations).

So if he now is so desperate to pay more money to HMRC, why did he fight this case over many years?

[Dr Philip Kiszely @KiszelyPhilip]

Gary here is fast approaching 40 and yet displays the intellectual dexterity and emotional maturity of a slightly below-par 15-year-old.

He’s representative of so much that is wrong in our culture. Indeed, he is a product of bad ideas, bad teaching, institutionalised spite, and lazy greed.

We don’t teach subjects any more.
We teach activism — bloody silly activism.

Graduates enter the workforce with precisely Gary’s mentality. Some grow out of it pretty rapidly, but many don’t — and that’s a worry for us all.

The truth is, we’ve stunted them. And we should be ashamed of ourselves.

[Daniel Priestley @DanielPriestley]

On X we feel like we’ve thoroughly debunked wealth taxes. We’ve seen the experts rally together and explain clearly why it would be a total disaster for the UK.

Out in the real world, @garyseconomics is winning. About 75% of Brits are taken by the idea that we are just one more tax away from fixing the UK.

I say this with a heavy heart but I think we are genuinely toast. At this point the inevitable will have to happen - socialists take over, implement a wealth taxes, destroy what’s left of the economy and impoverish a generation.

The UK will be the next example of a nation that is crushed by socialist ideology. It will take 25+ years to recover from the damage. Gary will go down in history like Marx or Lenin but first he will be a national hero for a few years.

As much as we think we are winning the argument inside this bubble, I assure you we are not. The country is months away from wealth taxes and a subsequent economic collapse.

Socialism is the economic hot stove that countries seem to have to touch for themselves.

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

I don't usually write personal stuff, but a few words about my experience of being interviewed by Gary Stevenson.

It started with a nice chat, comparing taste in hoodies... then the tone changed. He demanded to know why I'd deleted a tweet criticising him.

[Samuel Leeds @samuel_leeds]

Gary Economics has just ruined its credibility and proven that it clearly knows very little about economics.

The absolute tax legend @DanNeidle destroyed Gary in his own documentary.

The very documentary just a compilation of Gary being proven wrong time and time again about his "solution" to economic inequality.

Let me know if you have watched it.

The Dan Neidle debate has gotta be one of the best moments in the show!!

#garystevenson
@Channel4 @garyseconomics

[Cut My Tax @CutMyTaxUK]

The Times highlights the growing tax burden on a Walthamstow bakery run by Jenny Moseley. Increasing taxes are making the business uneconomic.

Moseley’s business rates bill now is 219% higher than the amount she paid in 2024-25. The rises in the minimum wage & the London living wage, & the increase in employer national insurance have put up staff costs by 16%.

"Electricity bills have gone up a lot as well. ” said.

“We get to the end of each month and it’s like, are we going to be able to pay everyone? In January I had to take money out of my personal savings to pay my team because the costs have just become incredibly high and we’re not making any profit."

[Merryn Somerset Webb @MerrynSW]

urgh..."British families have suffered the biggest fall in wealth in the rich world since the pandemic. The average Briton’s wealth has fallen by 23% (both mean and median) over the past 5 years, in real terms, UBS calculates."

[J @ETHanalyst]

@peter_bolster @itvfootball This was the best analysis I’ve seen in years. She nailed it and both goals in the second half came from this.

[Al Carns @AlistairCarns]

This week the most advanced AI model on the planet got switched off by a foreign government. British researchers were studying it. British companies were testing it. British hospitals were piloting it. Not any more.

This isn't an AI story. It's the story of every industry we used to lead.

Britain has some of the best AI talent in the world. DeepMind was built here. Our AI Safety Institute writes the rules other countries follow. We have the researchers, the universities, the standards.

What we don't have is the power stations to run the data centres, the planning system to build them, or the industrial base to make the chips. So the work happens here and the value lands somewhere else. We invent. Others build. Others decide. Then we read about it on Saturday morning.

Same story as the kit our soldiers don't have. Same story as the factories we used to.

I spent nine months in government making this argument inside the room. I'll make it louder from outside.

[J @ETHanalyst]

@RacingTV @nevisondave A ridiculous decision