Sanguine

[Dr. Eli David @DrEliDavid]

Thank you Germany 🇩🇪 and UK 🇬🇧 for heroically sacrificing your economy to save the planet 💪
_

[Owen Shroyer @OwenShroyer1776]

Income tax is slavery.

Property tax is theft.

We pay ~30% of our life in taxes.

Yet, we're stuck arguing over a foreign conflict in a foreign country, instead of uniting to release ourselves of the shackles on our arms, our legs & our minds. The ones trying are attacked.

[Rupert Lowe MP @RupertLowe10]

Small business is one of my passions. I’ve watched in horror over the last couple of decades how our high streets have depressingly decayed away, and nobody in Westminster seems to care.

We need a complete overhaul of how we approach business and the high street. The rot is so deep and so embedded, meagre reform is not enough. We need total, radical and decisive change.

There’s no point just moaning and criticising. We need detail. We need policy. We need solutions.

Some thoughts on how to restore the British high street…

Clean streets:

Give councils more power to tackle derelict high street properties
Back community schemes - flower beds, art displays and so on
Increase fines for littering (show some respect!)
Bins, bins and more bins - and actually empty them
Brutally crack down on graffiti - increase specialised removal teams
A cleanliness council league table - name and shame
Use community service teams, and non-violent low level prisoners, to remove graffiti
Crack down on fly tipping, absolute zero tolerance

Tax/business relief:

Abolish business rates for small high street businesses
Shift the tax burden to online giants
Tax holiday for small businesses - don’t pay for three years
Scrap IR35 (awful bloody regulation)
Double the VAT threshold
Tax relief for apprenticeships
Rectify the mismatch between Government rhetoric and HMRC brutal tax collection

Parking:

Introduce time-limited free parking zones in select car parks to reestablish footfall
Abolish extortionate parking charges that push people to out-of-town retail parks
Public transport discounts to bring shoppers into town centres (encourage park and ride)

Red tape:

Slash planning bureaucracy for retail/hospitality
Simplify licensing laws (treat people like adults)
Overhaul health and safety laws, especially for small businesses - PLEASE show a modicum of common sense
Introduce fast track permits on outdoor seating for eating/drinking
Publish a council ‘red tape league table’ to drive accountability (show average response times)
Ease laws around closing times - if people want to stay out late and responsibly enjoy a drink, I say go for it
Save the British pub - cut beer duty, treat pubs as community assets, slash VAT, reward responsible pubs, force councils to treat landlords with some respect

Safety:

Massively increase police presence in town centres
Brutally crack down on shoplifters
Deport illegal migrants (goes without saying)
Create zero tolerance zones for street drinking, drugs and aggressive begging
Enforce proper permits on street musicians - yes to talented individuals who are adding to the atmosphere. Absolutely no to annoying and infuriating beggars/‘musicians', who let’s be honest are often here illegally (immigration checks required)
Crack down on loitering and intimidating mobs of young males

Property use:

Use compulsory purchase to reclaim long-vacant/derelict units
Enable fast track change of use for properties
Empower local traders/business associations or community groups to use empty space
Boost local markets - cut fees, local trader loyalty scheme, partner with colleges for apprenticeships, licence reform
Create shopkeeper mentoring schemes to support new business owners
Establish national task force for high street fraud detection
Massively increase on-the-spot trading checks - especially for high risk businesses (vape shops, new barbers, etc)
Immigration checks, and lots of them - aim for premises with no visible custom
Brutally crack down on fraudulent ‘skilled visas’ by suspicious businesses

Community:

Proudly celebrate our British culture across our high streets
Our national flags, everywhere - get the bunting out!
Give military veterans priority access to high street business grants
Support charities that help people to help themselves (King’s trust, DofE)
Restore high street architecture with national heritage funding
Involve pupils in town clean-ups and other community events
Ring-fenced funding for cleaning, guarding, and restoring war memorials
A national competition for the best high street regeneration
Force the public sector to buy from local businesses where possible

Go to your local high street and look around - the current approach is NOT working.

Yes, all of this may cost money in the short term. But I guarantee that the economic boost will pay for any investment multiple times over. Councils/Government manage to waste enough of our money on utter nonsense - they can find the money for national high street renewal.

Government doesn’t drive growth - businesses do, individuals do. Incentivise them!!!

Because let’s be honest. Most high streets are filthy, unsafe and just not a pleasant place to shop.

If we do what we’ve always done, we’ll get what we’ve always got.

Our establishment goes after decent hardworking Brits, but ignores the crooks! It’s backwards.

All very depressing, but it’s not too late.

We need a radical plan to restore Britain’s high streets - they are worth saving.

[Rothmus 🏴 @Rothmus]

💯

[The Rabbit Hole @TheRabbitHole]

Be wary of the censors

[The Rabbit Hole @TheRabbitHole]

Strangulation by Regulation

[Toby Young @toadmeister]

Today's Daily Sceptic update is here. Why did excess deaths not drop after Covid? asks Nick Rendell; Starmer's more unpopular after 5 months than any other PM; and Chris Morrison on Dale Vince's eco-ed Ministry preaching the climate crisis to 7 year-olds. https://t.co/P8mKXn4jWu

[Konstantin Kisin @KonstantinKisin]

So that a bunch of middle class people can feel justified and moral about further impoverishing poor people.

[Dr Lawrence Newport @lawrencenewport]

We left a bike with GPS trackers somewhere we assumed it would be safe...

Right outside Scotland Yard.

It was quickly stolen.

Police didn't check CCTV, couldn't go to a "moving" GPS signal or one at an address

Government has given up and police can't focus on rampant theft.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

A significant % of people don’t even know that there is such a thing as a national debt!

Those that do often don’t know how big it is or that our interest payments now exceed what we spend on our military.

Only a small % understand that government overspending causes inflation.

[VeryBritishProblems @SoVeryBritish]

How to drink a glass of tap water:

1. Run the tap for a bit to get rid of the “bad” water and get to the fresh, cold stuff
2. Half fill a perfectly clean glass, swill water about a bit, pour down the sink
3. Cleansing ritual complete. Only now can you fill the glass and actually drink (keeping your hand on the tap while you do so, of course)