Thread 2 Burnham : Coragem e Esperança.

[DuncinToffee]

Welcome to our long running thread for political discussion, general chit chat, a friendly hug and taxes in kind

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New PM, new thread title, the discussion continues.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5556659-thread-1-burnham-esperanza-en-cada-corazon?page=40

The high street is being decimated by the fact people have stopped shopping there and therefore the nice normal businesses struggle to earn enough through sales to stay open

This is exacerbated by the fact that a lot of local councils charge very high rents for shop fronts. They do this because council revenues are otherwise very restricted (there are tight limits on how much you can raise council tax) and costs are increasing (social care etc)

The only businesses able to pay the higher rates are vape shops and barbers. Since selling vapes isn't that profitable it's reasonable to assume they can afford this because they are making money through dodgy means. Eg drugs under the counter. Barber shops are a good way to launder money because they offer a service not a product. If they were selling chips it would be easy to see they were claiming to have made X amount profit but hadn't bought enough potatoes for that to make sense but barbers only need combs. It used to be tanning salons for the same reason.

There is a suspicion that in some cases councils are happy to turn a blind eye because at least the shops are open and they are taking in revenue. If the shops are facilitating drugs or money laundering then thats a bad thing. However proving this and shutting them down takes time and police attention (this does happen). But while not all barber shops are linked to criminal gangs it's not a myth that some are.

That article suggests she’d be anti new drilling (hoorah!) but I thought Burnham had already said something about allowing it? Or have I misheard?

Wales and Scotland, tick.

Birmingham, Liverpool, London and suburbs, Luton, Manchester and suburbs.

There used to be around Tyneside but I don't know if that's still the case.

I quite like the idea of taxing vape shops and barbers, a bit of an Al Capone solution. It's a shame they can't stop the money laundering in a proper law enforcement way but at least the taxpayer benefits.

I agree with you but taxing them out of existence is win/win.

The barber shop in our road is fully bone fide as is the corner shop..

The higher rents are linked to the Tory changes to council funding from the 2010s.
Lower funding from central sources (26% reduction) which was only partially made up for by increasing revenues. Deprived areas were hit hardest.
On top of that increased statutory responsibilities which meant they were required to spend more from a depleted pot.
The reversal in the 2019 & onwards budgets came far too late.

@placemats I think local people know which ones are legit? In our village there's been a barber for donkeys years and everyone uses them. However the two spanking new ones that opened on the same street last year are definitely dodgy.
You would hope there could be a way to differentiate?

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-high-street-unit-set-up-in-nationwide-blitz-on-dodgy-shops

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqj1rkqqrgro

Watched the many reports about this on the BBC

You left out Glasgow ! 😀

Its not all throughout Scotland. Specifically the West around Glasgow, likewise Italians.

There's a dodgy barber shop across from me. They also own the chippy.

Glasgow is in Scotland, last time I checked. 😂. My mother was born there.

Yes, I realised midway through posting, hence me saying it's not the whole of Scotland that has Irish folk in it. I wasn't aware of many in Wales,must say. South is chock a block with Italians, though.

Shouldn't that be Italian folk?

One of my cats eats spiders. I also have one that noshes on moths. I'm in London, DS is in surgery right now. I tried to go to the National Gallery but they've evacuated it due to a fire alarm so I'm now lurking happily in Trafalgar Square.

Cat tax and bonus tax attached. Fettuccine looks so graceful in this pic 😂

If you like.

Thanks for new thread @DuncinToffee, rainbow tax seemed appropriate. I have to confess to not be a fan of anything four-legged (please don't kick me out!) so my taxes will likely be flowers or inappropriate/funny signs that I screenshot to send to DC. Although if a cat ate spiders like @pointythings I'd be tempted. Love the owls, millionaires from the last thread and good news @itsgettingweird.

I love that Edith Cavell quote.

More holiday tax. This time from Colditz.

I haven’t seen this on the news today but how is it decided what shops aren’t “positive”?

And transparently.

A few years ago there was a minor ding dong when it emerged the Home Office had instructed the police to harass legal business(so called "head shops") as they were promoting literature that disagreed with Home Office policy

Also true! I was trying to briefly summarise the problem with vape shops.and the high street. People blame "greedy" councils.putting up rent but, also they are skint.
The UK is ridiculously centralised in terms of how much overall tax revenue is available to local government to spend but those local government still have spending responsibilities. I kind of hope that some of Andy Burnham's plan to shift things out of London will involve fixing this a bit. But in the short term really the dodgy vape shops need dealing with.

(I mentioned tanning salons because money laundering on the high street didn't start with those awful foreigners)