Beoptimistic

Supporting Trump and #Brexit despite being (former) Swedish in UK 🇬🇧and married to a woman born in Iran. No extreme views, just calm logic.

[Beoptimistic @beanop1imist]

Wanting to protect Europe, wanting to preserve our culture and way of life is not extremism or fascism. It is logic.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

Reform says abolishing inheritance tax is “morally wrong”. I think it is morally wrong to punish people for doing the right thing - spending a lifetime working, saving, building up a business or a home to pass on to the next generation.

That’s why I’ve asked my team to explore fiscally responsible ways to do address this burden. The people caught by inheritance tax are mostly home-owning middle-class families due to house price inflation, diligent savers, and small-business owners.

The super-wealthy can afford trusts and sophisticated tax planning or move abroad.

Reform claims to be the party of working people, but its financial backers like Christopher Harborne don’t need to worry about ordinary inheritance tax planning, because they keep money in crypto or out of the country. 

Unlike Reform, I want ordinary families to be able to build generational wealth, not just the super-rich who can do so now. But we won’t make any announcement till there’s a clear plan.

The Conservative Party has always drawn support from people who work, save, build businesses and acquire a stake in society. Yes, that will sometimes include wealthy people. I make no apology for that. But it also includes millions of people who have worked hard, paid their dues and want what they have built to benefit their children, their communities or the causes they care about.

We are on their side.

[Laura Trott MP @LauraTrottMP]

For me this is simple matter of principle, no young girl should be forced to cover her hair, least of all by an institution funded by the state.

These girls are only seven.

This is about the protection of the rights of girls.

[Cut My Tax @CutMyTaxUK]

Local Government Minister Jim McMahon has admitted that the Government has failed to carry out a formal national impact assessment of Andy Burnham's beloved visitor tax and its economic effect. They have no clue as to how many jobs the tax will destroy.

Ludicrously McMahon claimed it was up to individual local councils each to do their own impact assessment at public expense.

Emma Lewell, the Labour MP for South Shields, denounced her party's tax hike, saying “South Shields tourism is largely made up of families from neighbouring regions who have saved hard all year round to spend a few days at the seaside.

“They will not come, even if the increase is marginal. My constituents’ family-run B&Bs, caravan parks, hotels and wider hospitality industry have been unequivocal with me that they do not want this.”

[Charles Thyme @CharlesHThyme]

- Burn all private schools to the ground, says new Harry Potter star after traumatic experience

I once had a traumatic experience in an elevator. Never felt the need to burn them all to the ground, though. I think that would be a sign of mental illness

https://t.co/GaE7I7R8Av

[Laura Trott MP @LauraTrottMP]

It’s beggars belief that Labour are taxing education in our country while spending taxpayers’ money to subsidise private schools abroad. This is utterly absurd.

This is what you get from a government with no leadership & a terrible record on education.

[Charles Thyme @CharlesHThyme]

Wealth tax is state-sanctioned theft.

Hope this helps.

[Ben Graham @BenGrahamUK]

It's an embarrassment to see British police officers running away from Morocco fans rioting in the streets of London instead of tackling it head on.

My view is that if this were England fans tearing up the capital, we would be seeing battle lines drawn, with riot gear, shields and batons deployed.

The law should be enforced consistently, regardless of who's behind the disorder.

[William Jersey @EarlofJersey]

Anyone supporting VAT on education just had their argument exploded.

[Charles Thyme @CharlesHThyme]

Bridget Phillipson is a hard Left maniac who thinks that, if it wasn't for all those irritating children getting in the way, she could really get on with turning the DfE into a Marxist debating club.

[Cut My Tax @CutMyTaxUK]

Dim grifter Gary Stevenson has made an idiot of himself in a Times interview, declaring that “I’ll be totally honest with you, I think I am one of the best, if not the best, inequality economists in the world."

Further evidence that dopey Gary is self-obsessed & divorced from reality is his claim that his Youtube programme is "the biggest political show in the country." He claims that in his third year at the LSE "I didn’t even have to study and I still got a straight first,” and describes himself as the "most famous" person in the far-left so-called patriotic millionaires group.

Gary says that threats to leave the country if a wealth tax is introduced are "just scaremongering.”

The Times pointed out that "Statistics from the recent Sunday Times Rich List suggest they’re not: one in six people on the Rich List just two years ago do not appear in the 2026 list; almost a third (111) of the UK citizens who appear in the main list of 350 individuals no longer live on the British mainland, and at least 15 foreign nationals who appeared in last year’s Rich List have been removed because they now live elsewhere".

Asked if he gives away some of his wealth, Gary admits “I don’t, no".

He argues that his contribution to humanity is producing videos calling for the state to confiscate other people's money.

So sad.

[Charles Thyme @CharlesHThyme]

There are so many comments I want to make...

But in Starmer's Britain, every one of them would get me arrested.

[Charles Thyme @CharlesHThyme]

Comrades!

Please stand for this important announcement from the Department for Bridget Misinformation.

[Laura Trott MP @LauraTrottMP]

Bridget Phillipson’s priorities are all wrong. She’s quietly axed PE Premium, the Latin Excellence Programme, computing & physics, denying opportunities to disadvantaged children, but can still find hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money for social media influencers.

[Victoria @vickygrayson_]

Ruthin School, founded in 1284, is closing.

“This is the second independent school closure in North Wales in recent weeks… we cannot ignore the financial pressures…as a result of Labour's introduction of VAT on school fees nor can we ignore the economic impact”.@DarrenMillarMS

[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."

[Beoptimistic @beanop1imist]

@romuluseast @CharlesHThyme 😭

[Charles Thyme @CharlesHThyme]

Labour delivering as expected.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

Just before PMQs, at the despatch box, she called one of my MPs a racist. She’s just said it again on Radio 4.

The hordes of Labour MPs rushing to twitter to whine about me calling her “spiteful” are just exposing their own hypocrisy.

They love to dish it but they can’t take it.

[Charles Thyme @CharlesHThyme]

Grown men on Twitter calling children "scum" based on which school they attend.

[Cut My Tax @CutMyTaxUK]

Burnham has no good options to hike taxes.

Although Labour are desperate to increase tax revenues, there are no realistic options left on the table. New property and asset-based taxes take so long to put in place that they would raise no more funds during the rest of this Parliament. Other taxes are already maxed out or would require a political death wish to hike.

Here's our tax-by-tax analysis of Burnham's options:

Replacing council tax with a proportional property tax: This would take about 4–6 years from a firm government decision to first bills, with 3 years possible only for a rough-and-ready version, and 7–10 years if a fully robust low-error, low-shock system was the objective.

Introducing a land value tax: This is a massive administrative exercise which would take some years to accomplish. A sensible estimate for introducing a proper land value tax in England is 8–12 years from firm political decision to full first-year operation. Moreover no other country has a land value tax that raises any significant amount of revenue.

Introducing a wealth tax: apart from the fact that wealth taxes in other parts of the world have raised insignificant amounts and led to the departure of wealth creators, a wealth tax is administratively complex and it would take about three to four years before the first receipts came in. Implementing a linked exit tax is akin to hoisting a "Britain is closed for business" sign.

Hiking Capital Gains Tax: HMRC says this will reduce revenues. Previous UK and international experience shows that indeed it will.

Income Tax, National Insurance, VAT or Corporation Tax: Labour has committed not to increase these taxes. Further betrayals of its manifesto will make it just even more hated.

This also goes for further extensions of the income tax threshold freeze, which Reeves said would contravene the Labour manifesto.

Increasing fuel duty: Labour is already committed to doing this in 2027 which will make the party unpopular enough.

Increasing inheritance tax: this is already Britain's most unpopular tax, set at absurdly high levels. Increasing it further or adding the 10% surcharge Burnham talked of would force more people out of the country and create a significant backlash.

Alcohol and tobacco duties are already above the Laffer inflection point. There's no money to be had here by hiking those.

Increasing business rates: Labour has already done this to howls of protest and has backtracked to some extent in specific cases such as pubs. The economic and political damage has been considerable and further increases to business rates beyond what is already planned are not viable.

Hitting gambling again: the huge increases in gambling taxes forced through by Reeves are already shifting activity to the black market. This is a non-starter.

Hiking bank taxes would threaten one of Britain's few successful sectors, which is already taxed hugely more than competing financial centres in other countries.

Attacking the 25% tax-free pension lump sum and/or pension contribution allowances was ruled out by Labour during the election campaign and would cause a massive fuss if tried. Also contrary to Labour's supposed desire to increase investment