Contractors: Been paid via an umbrella company? Later had HMRC say the scheme didn’t work? When you didn't know there *was* a scheme? We’d love to hear from people ths has happened to. DM me or email MYNAME @ taxpolicy .org.uk - and please share with others.

"Couldn't have put it better ourselves."

Off to London for a beer or two with a friend I haven't seen since before COVID. We should have worked out what to do with the world by about 9 tonight. I'll keep you posted.

Commenting as Govt launch a road safety strategy. Every death on our roads is unacceptable. We need a Vision Zero ethos: no deaths or serious injury. Change driving culture, reject speeding, use speed-limiting tech, strengthen sentences, end ‘accident’ language. Driving is a privilege, not a right.

NEWS! Elon Musk to address the issue of sexualised deep-fakes by monetising it newsthump.com/2026/01/09/e...

Death, Taxes and Reece bursting into tears. #TheTraitors

So, since I have a few weeks off, in the spirit of "don't knock it until you've tried it", I tuned in to GB News for an hour or so. F*ck me. It's like an end of term parody show.

After 24 hours I almost sympathize with Starmer. The UK is isolated, thanks to Brexit. Even he probably recognizes that Trump and the USA are no longer allies. But then he turns to Europe and they can't even work out how alarmed they are. Putin is probably enjoying a long lunch.

For anyone wondering why Nadine Dorries was on Laura Kuenssberg this morning, it's because that's the only time Nadine is sober.

I will spare you the resolutions and predictions. But my hope for 2026 is that #Trump treats himself to a motorcade and that they drive past a book repository .

Just heard Gary Davies on BBCRadio2 or Gary Helium as we now call him.

All sockeye salmon comes from Alaska 🇺🇸 Alaska voted 55% for Donald Trump Alaska's senators are both Republicans Buy Scottish 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 salmon instead

Our first Christmas without my xenophobic, Farage Lite brother. He disowned me during 2025 because of woke and GB News. Don't ever feel obliged to indulge and look after someone simply because they're blood. Best Christmas I can remember.

So, adieu Brigitte Bardot. Good actress and a solid campaigner for animal rights. On all other fronts, an absolute shit of a person.

Hectic Christmas is over. Back to the normality of watching my dog bark at Gordon Buchanan making wolf noises.

I am under the weather. I've been treated to lunch in bed. Suddenly, I have company.

Hitting the Talisker late on Christmas Eve wasn't my smartest move. Anyway, Happy Christmas.

Very sad to say goodbye to #ChrisRea today. I will never begrudge someone their hits but some of Chris's lesser known stuff was sublime. Water Sign and Shamrock Diaries will be in the turntable tomorrow. Adieu Benny.

Having a conversation on speaker on a train should be a capital offence.

Also, I can't think of anywhere else in life, other than on a train, where I am told I can or cannot alight. I've never alighted from a car or an aircraft . So why trains?

Why do people queue to get off a train which hasn't even entered the station yet?

Oh the joy of getting up early to do a 6 hour journey to go to the team's Christmas Party hosted by a boss who has made the last 18 months a misery. Stay sober Alastair, stay sober.

Oh how I wish Great British Railways had chosen comic sans for the new logo just to watch the train nerds on here having a total melt down. (Apparently the lower case L is "wrong").

Watched #Strictly results show. If anyone has spare tickets to Titanique, the musical, please send them to me so I can burn them.

Brazil v Scotland on next year's Football World Cup. It will be art. Like ballet in grass.

Getting the title of the Chess competition you won, aged 14, slightly wrong. This government must go. Going around school aged 15 making gas chamber noises to Jewish kids. Nothing to see.

#JeremyVine doing his Monday show direct from Conservative Party Head Quarters.

Gotta love the next door neighbours going on holiday for a week and spending their evenings ordering stuff on Amazon for next delivery to my house.

Feeling myself getting more socialist by the hour as Bluesky fills with sob stories from people in £3Million homes that they bought for a sixth of that but can't think of a way to find £4k in tax. My heart bleeds.

Any political “leader” still selling the obviously false choice between #ClimateAction and “the economy” is just reminding us that they clearly don’t understand either the climate crisis OR the economy. Or they’re cynically hope that WE don’t understand the difference. Or both.

The most shocking thing so far on this year's I'm a Celebrity is Ant and Dec's wardrobe.

People submitting their comments about songs on internet radio stations, clearly using AI. Is it me?

This is pretty niche but it really gets on my wick. When will people like Starmer learn that going tieless isn't just a case of taking your tie off. You need a shirt that sits right with an open neck. He just looks scruffy.

ELECTRIC CAR DRIVERS, dodge the per-mile tax by simply checking your manual for the process to switch your vehicle to working in kilometres.

#Mamdani looks like an intelligent ,competent, talented man. I'm sure he will make a great NY Mayor. I look forward to the day when nobody feels the need to define him or his successors by his religion, whatever it is. One day.

This is yet another example of how you beat the far right. By beating them, not trying to be them. By having your own agenda, not aping theirs. With courage and conviction - and humour - not fear and timidity.

I'm an irregular listener to #R4Today but I can't help feeling they are giving far more time to talking about Rachel Reeves' minor rent agreement oversight than they have to #Farage blatant fraud.

Anyone coming on this platform and giving away the outcome of the latest Traitors before we have all had a chance to see it should be, well.. banished from Bluesky.

This is not an equitable relationship.

Arrived in France yesterday. Turned on #R4TODAY for some reason and over here it seems to be broadcasting Radio Tel Aviv instead .

French electricals shop just called me to ask if they could deliver my new tumble drier early. EARLY? In France? I may have to go for a lie down.

France moving inexorably from unchangeable to ungovernable.

#BBCNews giving airtime to a member of the Israeli Government in Manchester as she occupies the moral high ground isn't a great look.

Take the usual caveats as given but funny how all the white dudes in suits who flew to Epstein's island are being protected but the black rapper got 4 years in jail.

Arrested/not arrested:

Remonstrated with a close passing driver today. He foamed at the mouth yelling "Look, I didn't hit you ". So, that's all fine.

Reform membership relieved to hear that the higher language requirements proposed by the leadership will only apply to forriners.

UK takes the brave step of recognizing Palestine as an independent State, having first given Israel enough time and ammunition to bomb it into oblivion.

Dutch late night TV has its take