When there's no access to NHS dentists, and 70% of the UK working population earn less than £30k pa (from HMRC stats)

Holding Govts to ransom William Hill owner Evoke considers sale/breakup after budget tax rises. Gambling companies do not bear the social cost of their operations. Society pays to deal with the mess. William Hill owner holed up in Gibraltar to avoid UK taxes. No one forced it to borrow £1.82bn.

Private hired guns The secretive Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) – the anti-state, anti-climate pressure group – received £640,000+ from fossil fuel companies & Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate between 1957 and 2005. The aim is to subvert public choices for the benefit of paymasters.

Corporate welfare is out of control. One example - Drax produces electricity by burning trees, most expensive electricity, UK's biggest single polluter. In 2024, Drax had £1.06bn operating profit, paid £100m dividend, £300m in share buyback. Received billions in subsidies for decades. Why?

Morning! Next in my week of dusk shots from Exeter Quay is this classic view of the bridge over the Exe, reflected in the river. It combines two of my favourite things: blue hour light and reflections. Hope you like it as much as I enjoyed shooting it!

Morning! Finally on my week of photos from dusk at Exeter Quay is another bue hour reflection shot - this time looking down river from the Quay towards Topsham Brewery. It's my favourite photo of the week - I hope you agree!

If every country is in debt, where's the money? youtu.be/Ki8QUa3oVF0?...

Truly embarrassing

Terrific column by John Crace, filleting the complicity and cowardice of our political class who go into hiding whenever Donald Trump and his administration say or do something that needs to be called out in defence of our values and our democracy. #r4today www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is really incredible. The government's battle to deport Abrego Garcia has apparently been based on a lie from the start. Not even the "gang affiliation" lie or the "human smuggling" lie, but the more basic assertion that he was ordered to be deported in the first place.

Labour plans to take money away from our NHS and give it to US companies to boost their profits - and they are doing it all just to please Trump Write to your MP and demand that they speak up against this

Ramirez to Noem: "You lied on the record and you lied to members of this committee. You violated court orders by not turning around deportation flights bound for El Salvador where we know that hundreds of people under your leadership reported they were raped, beaten, and nearly died."

I am torn, as certainly it's something of a contributor to public society than pure tax dodging and it lasts longer in a sense. But it's also giving away something that was probably unwanted anyway, is very London-centric and invests little into our people

Former Tory MP Ben Bradley has now defected to Reform. They really are taking all the worst people from the Boris era.

🔴Grenfell Fire: Up to a Million People Still Living in Tower Blocks With Flammable Cladding Eight Years Later A damning report by peers blames failings by regulators and the building industry to live up to the promises made to grieving families bylinetimes.com/2025/12/11/g...

For friends in the U.S., this is about the same as if the EU decided to pull apart the United States by actively supporting every loon in California, Texas, and any other state with any interest of leaving the union. Both overtly and covertly. It is what you do to enemies.

Martin Parr, absolute mensch. From Colin Wilkinson, founder of Bluecoat Press, on FB

The New York Times is an enemy of the people and "we should do something about it", says Trump, arguing that reporting his obvious decline may be treason. He's not inciting violence against the NYT, just as he didn't incite an insurrection and didn't commit treason by referring to 'Sleepy Joe'.

Taliban takes dim view of peaky blinders: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Amazon is making money off AI copies of books - and putting the onus on authors to prove they’ve been plagiarised. Honestly, just stop buying books from Amazon. Get them from an actual bookshop or order them from a reputable book supplier like bookshop.org www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

#SomeGoodNews A former Dyson engineer is rolling out a revolution for household chores in deprived communities after inventing an off-grid, flat-packable washing machine. The Divya washing machine operates a 30-min wash cycle where it completes a 5kg load needing only a few minutes of manual turning

Remind me what the definition of hypocrisy is. It wouldn’t be Richard Tice by any chance would it?

And no one is the least bit surprised. 'Earlier this year, the World Travel & Tourism Council said the US was the only one of 184 economies that it analysed that was expected to see a decline in international visitor spending in 2025.' www.bbc.com/news/article...

It's the same denialism you see amongst the Brexiteers who pretended we could be buccaneering, global Britain, when that makes absolutely no sense in a world of Great Power conflict.

Interesting what Crick notes. Farage like Mogg and Johnson are really just grown up versions of their teenage selves. Lots of public school boys leave fully formed - and armed with an entitlement and a sense of empowerment that takes them through the rest of their lives.

What traitorous dolts the British rightwing were to oblige Russia and the network of oligarchs who hate the power of EU collaboration and prosperity. Now we find ourselves isolated, the EU weakened and Ukraine being betrayed. Shame on all who paved the way… Farage, you’re front of the queue.

All fine and technical, but the key point is that there is nothing called "Customs Union" that is simply off the shelf instantly available next-day Amazon delivery, everything will need negotiation with the EU, and their top asks of the UK will be mobility and money.

HMRC is urging people to claim what they are entitled to

UK Govt bends to Trump's imperialism. NHS to pay 25% more (3bn) for drugs after UK–US tariff deal. Money will buy less, higher taxes or longer healthcare queues as Trump wants bigger profits for US companies. Build your supply chains or be blackmailed. Whatever happened to 'take back control'?

Why is the left still terrified of the state’s power to create money? youtu.be/7O_3wR87yvo?...

Maybe but she lies about the reviews. She basically “Jim Jordaned” her response by speaking quickly and then moving on. It’s all bullshit.

Why are Tories not being hauled over the coals about this. They said 350m could be saved and given to NHS. They didn't say how much the country would lose from lost trade, lost investment, lost EU grants, EU funding, lost knowledge (eg on sharing crime data) Yet Labour getting trolled at budget.

“A quick breakthrough on Erasmus would help ministers signal that they are making progress in their drive to improve relations with the EU after a setback last week, when talks over defence broke down.” #Brexit #RejoinEU www.theguardian.com/education/20...

NHS pays 25% more for US drugs to boost US pharma profit in trade deal. Another Brexit benefit 💰 Being blackmailed by Trump. UK vassal state of US as predicted www.theguardian.com/business/202... #pharmaceuticals #nhs #uk #trade #wto

Corporate manslaughter charges considered by police investigating the Post Office Horizon scandal. Nearly 1,000 postmasters wrongly prosecuted, lives and families destroyed. Culprits will prolong cases, escape justice. Govt must appoint a special court to speed up the process.

5. HMRC penalties: the impact on the poor Over the past five years, HMRC have issued around 600,000 late-filing penalties to people too poor to pay any tax. Far more penalties were issued to people too poor to pay tax than to those in the top income deciles:

Idea: whining about your taxes in the press comes with a *free* wallet inspection from HMRC just to make sure you're not over paying

But surely he’s still got all those Pizza Express vouchers to cash in?

"People will still find a way to gamble if they want to!" Ok, but people still find ways to buy meth but we still don't sell it at Boots and let the Sinoloa Cartel advertise on football uniforms.

She is so profoundly intellectually incurious that I find myself fascinated how she ever learnt how to *speak*.

"Attention passengers, we regret to inform you that the 08:47 service to..."

Just cancel your Netflix subscription and stop buying avocados. You'll be fine

The UK state pension, worst in the world.

After months of warnings about the state of the economy and tax rises – including from the chancellor herself – the story of the budget turned out to be rather different. The IfG's experts review the key things we learnt from the Rachel Reeves plans www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/autu...

We’ve mapped the mansion tax. You can see who's paying - which constituency, which postcode - and how many "mansions" are near you. Full interactive map here 👇

There’s one hidden treasure on Teesside that many people aren’t aware of. A feat of construction unmatched anywhere in the UK | Ray Casey northeastbylines.co.uk/region/teess...

A young Ian Hislop resurfaces.. @privateeyenews.bsky.social

For anyone under 30, that is "a fascinating look at the Border Agency/HMRC in sixties Britain."

Rachel Reeves is asked about how the 3p a mile electric vehicle charge will work for new cars, when they don't have to have an MOT for 3 years. So who will monitor the mileage in order to calculate the tax owed during that period? Reeves doesn't know.