david george

Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away

[Richie Allen @BBGRichie]

Dr David Kelly was murdered by Mi5 because he exposed Campbell and Blair’s lies. Lies that led to the slaughter of at least a million Iraqi’s and the displacement of millions more. Campbell is a demon. He should be hanging by his ankles in the Tower of London.

[Steve Scrase @StevenScrase]

You were chief spin doctor for the government that introduced university tuition fees in the first place, saddling an entire generation of working-class kids with lifelong debt before they even earned a wage.

Then you redrafted intelligence dossiers to send hundreds of young British teenagers to die in the Iraqi sand for a lie.

Now, fresh off being called out to your face on national television, you roll out a glossy PR campaign claiming to champion the youth.

You do not back young people, Alastair. You taxed their education, used them as cannon fodder, and now you want to use them to rebuild your shattered media career. Shameless.

[Steve Scrase @StevenScrase]

For the Westminster bubble, Campbell getting challenged on BBC Question Time is treated like political pantomime and studio theatre.

For those who lived through the consequences of the 2003 invasion, there is nothing entertaining about it.
One hundred and seventy-nine British service personnel came home from Iraq in flag-draped coffins. Thousands more returned with shattered limbs, catastrophic brain injuries, and minds destroyed by blast trauma.

While New Labour spin doctors were massaged in Downing Street corridors and redrafted intelligence dossiers to manufacture a pretext for war, young British soldiers were sent into meat grinders like the siege of CIMIC House in Al-Amarah and the streets of Basra—patrolling in lightly armoured "Snatch" Land Rovers that ministers knew were death traps against shaped IEDs.

From the desert wastes of Iraq to the legendary brotherhood of the SAS—where British and Commonwealth operators like New Zealanders in 22 SAS fought and bled shoulder to shoulder, from the harrowing evasion of Bravo Two Zero to black-ops counter-terror raids in Baghdad—our soldiers fulfilled their oath with unmatched courage. They fought for the man on their left and the man on their right. They did not die for corporate reconstruction contracts, Downing Street vanity, or Blairite messianism.

For over twenty years, Alastair Campbell has enjoyed lucrative book deals, fawning media platforms, and podcast respectability lecturing the country on "integrity in public life".

Calling him to account on live television isn’t a political stunt. It is the absolute bare minimum owed to 179 dead British troops, their grieving families, and the generational destruction unleashed in our name.

@ZiaYusufUK said to his face what millions of veterans and citizens have wanted said for two decades. #bbcqt

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

WTF? A Prime Minister who has never run a business in his life demands answers because a private business fails? … let me help you, Andy & co.

A retail chain needs to stay in fashion, needs to go with the flow! … But you and successive governments don’t like their “tat” products (mostly sourced off shore to sell them at £1!!! That the whole point right?) anyway…

for free (without a taxpayer funded £MULTIMILLION enquiry I’ll tell you the problems… (you’re welcome)

▪️massively increased regulations and compliance costs.

▪️cheap tat sourced from abroad, with rising shipping and transport costs.

▪️Hit by increased minimum wages and employer National Insurance.

▪️Hit by rising rents and business rates.

▪️Hit by soaring energy bills and net zero costs.

▪️Hit by higher interest rates.

▪️Hit by consumers with less disposable income.

▪️Hit by the soaring cost of borrowing to buy stock months in advance.

▪️Hit by higher insurance premiums.

▪️Hit by shoplifting, organised theft and security costs.

▪️Hit by packaging taxes, recycling regulations and environmental compliance costs.( which you just throw into general taxation, non of it changes the weather)

▪️Hit by higher fuel, warehousing and distribution costs.

▪️Hit by increased employment costs, pensions and statutory obligations.

▪️Hit by competition from overseas online retailers operating with very different overheads.( duty free … for foreign businesses oops)

▪️And hit by the impossibility of passing those costs onto customers, who shop at Poundland precisely because they need cheap stuff! … which isn’t cheap anymore (see above)

Every single time you add something on … so do they!

And the idiot, deluded politicians who have made Britain more and more expensive and difficult to do business in, are demanding to know why businesses are struggling?

You are all moronic. My work here is done 🤡

[Matt Cartoons @MattCartoonist]

My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph

Buy a print of my cartoons at https://t.co/ADuWHWom7N

Original artwork from https://t.co/JYQe3UNSYB

[Alan Smith @AlanJLSmith]

Update:

In the 27 months since Labour came to power, we've seen;

• Employer National Insurance increased from 13.8% to 15%.
• The employer NI threshold cut from £9,100 to £5,000.
• The freeze on Income Tax and National Insurance thresholds extended to 2031.
• Capital Gains Tax increased from 10% and 20% to 18% and 24%.
• Business Asset Disposal Relief increased from 10% to 14%, then 18% – and now its lifetime limit halved to £500,000.
• Investors’ Relief raised to 18% and its lifetime limit cut from £10 million to £1 million.
• CGT relief on sales to Employee Ownership Trusts halved.
• Carried interest taxation increased and moved into the Income Tax regime.
• Dividend tax rates increased by two percentage points.
• Savings-income tax rates increased by four percentage points.
• Property-income tax rates increased by four percentage points.
• VCT income tax relief cut from 30% to 20%.
• Most unused pension funds brought into the Inheritance Tax net.
• Agricultural and Business Property Relief capped.
• Inheritance Tax thresholds frozen until 2031.
• The non-dom regime replaced with a tougher residence-based system.
• VAT imposed on private school fees.
• Business-rates relief removed from private schools.
• The Stamp Duty surcharge on second homes and buy-to-let raised from 3% to 5%.
• The Furnished Holiday Lettings regime abolished.
• A new annual surcharge on homes worth £2 million or more.
• Pension salary-sacrifice NI relief capped at £2,000 a year.
• The bank surcharge doubled.
• Capital allowances for plant and machinery cut twice.
• Online gaming duty almost doubled.
• The Energy Profits Levy increased and extended, and its investment allowance scrapped.
• Vaping Products Duty brought in and tobacco duties increased above inflation.
• Vehicle Excise Duty increased for many new cars, with electric vehicles brought in.
• A pay-per-mile tax on electric and plug-in hybrid cars legislated for 2028.
• Air Passenger Duty increased.
• Making Tax Digital extended to more landlords and self-employed people.

Together they represent one of the biggest transfers of wealth from households and businesses to the Treasury in decades – with little to show for it in public services.

Whether you're a business owner employing staff, a parent paying school fees, a farmer planning succession, an entrepreneur building wealth or simply someone trying to save for your family’s future...

- You keep less of what you earn.
- You keep less of what you invest.
- You leave less for your family.

Death by a thousand cuts.

[GB Politics @GBPolitcs]

🚨NEW: A UK bank chief executive, reacting to John Healey's decision to raise the bank's profit surcharge said:

"Taxing the engines of growth to reduce VAT on gherkins is end-of-Rome level of stupidity"

[@FT]

[david george @davegeorge65]

I bet it fucking did ….. aunts

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: John Healey has announced Ukraine will receive £10bn in additional economic and military support

"We called him this morning... he told us we made his day"

#Budget

[bob mortimer @RealBobMortimer]

Brand new Gone Fishing series starts tonight on bbc 2 9pm... tonight's show is Teds last appearance... so sad

[david george @davegeorge65]

Absolutely spot on…. It’s not rocket science

[Alastair Hilton @London_W4]

I’ve just spent about an hour trying to find a pub that’s worth spending my money in. Pub after pub is cold. They have open fires but they can’t be bothered to light them. They have no comfy chairs; just rows of dining tables and chairs. They are not atmospherically lit but instead, they have ten million watts of lights on. I wouldn’t sit at home with any of those things, so why would I spend a fortune in a pub? Sorry, but if you’re a pub and that’s all you can offer, then dont be surprised when you go bust.

[david george @davegeorge65]

Just a tad

[Ian Larmer @Mister_Llama]

We were there ... bit chilly

[david george @davegeorge65]

This nutter and the northern idiot have got to be on a wind up…

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 WATCH: Ed Miliband and John Healey try Thai snacks while riding a Tuk Tuk around Bangkok

[david george @davegeorge65]

Ennio Morricone (not just the westerns)… he knew his onions 💪

[david george @davegeorge65]

Sounds legit 👀👀😂😂

[GB Politics @GBPolitcs]

🚨NEW: Andy Burnham directly chaired meetings approving funds for Man City owner Sheikh Mansour’s property companies while Manchester mayor

[@Telegraph]

[Liz Kershaw @LizKershawDJ]

"I know people are worried about FOOD prices. (Andy gets it.) You get to the till and watch the numbers climb and wonder why it costs so much more than it used to do.
The reality is that we now import half our food, global events are pushing up costs, and families here are feeling the impact.   But I won't accept that there's nothing I can do to help.   That's why from today, you'll be able to see on Google Maps where the food banks are, and find the free options to fill you up.  
It's a small change, but if there's a practical way to help people keep more money in their pocket, I'll do it.
Tomorrow I'll be helping to clothe you by recommending the best charity shops in Greater Manchester."

[david george @davegeorge65]

@SteadyTone Ledge

[John Lydon Official @lydonofficial]

The Lydon pizza. Pineapple, spicy sausage, pepperoni, double onion, anchovy, jalapenos,🤢washed down with a Margarita!

[david george @davegeorge65]

WAC

[Andy Burnham @andyburnham]

I know people are worried about fuel prices. And I get it. You get to the pump, watch the numbers climb, and wonder why it's costing so much more than it used to.

The reality is that global events are pushing up costs, and families here at home are feeling the impact.

But I won't accept that there's nothing I can do to help.

That's why from today, you'll be able to see petrol and diesel prices on Google Maps, compare nearby stations and find the cheapest option before you fill up.

It's a small change, but if there's a practical way to help people keep more money in their pocket, I'll do it.

[Polemic Paine @PolemicTMM]

End of an institution.
You knew you were going to struggle through the next day if the previous night had ended in the Lahore Kebab House.

#OldCity

[Guy Walters 🇺🇦 @guywalters]

Das boot.