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How about taxing investment income at the same level as employment income?

Drink Driving- I’d have a mandatory jail sentence, even if it’s just a week, then it will be seen as a proper offence.
Some of the reporting of Boris’s party used phrases like “it’s a FPN like parking and speeding” I think parts of society lump drink driving, speeding etc.with parking tickets as just a driving offence.

That too but it is harder as people play all sorts of games with offshoring etc.

Property is really easy as it is here and if you don't pay the state can record that on the deeds and recover at sale/transfer time.

If you are a multi-billionaire with a massive property in Mayfair you get to contribute a lot. If you are a little old lady living in a rented council flat you pay nothing. If you bought a house in Hampstead 60 years ago and can't afford the tax because you are now a little old lady with no income then no problem, it becomes due when you die.

Property might become a less attractive investment for many and be about providing homes first.

Drink Driving- I’d have a mandatory jail sentence, even if it’s just a week, then it will be seen as a proper offence.

Short jail sentences do nothing and if anything are harmful. Offenders are more likely to loose jobs and relationships to break up when sent to jail and those are some of the key things that prevent reoffending.

I'd remove licences for a lot longer but to enforce that we need some strong policing or black boxes with a licence slot.

Bans for life have been proved not to work. They used to be a thing but now are very rare. I would presume that it was government who decided that life ban was not a practical sentence as those who received it continued drive whilst banned. Setting a time scale allows banned drivers a ‘goal’ to get their licence back whether it is one year, five years or fifteen years.
I do appreciate that some people will drive whilst banned whatever the tariff.
Apologies if this reads badly, I am shattered.

I don't think you comprehend the gravitas of having a family member run over and killed.

Why on earth would it be a good idea to sentence somebody according to the gravitas of somebody losing a loved bed one, if it produced a worse outcome for society?

Because the increase would create more of a deterrent and improve society . Maybe i am just bias .

This is getting into the terrority of that proposed law which wants mandatory life sentences for anyone killing emergency workers, never mind the circumstances...

Sure but it better hit property investment firms too.

As we bought a house and sure we can offset this tax against mortgage going down over time if such a tax happens, but I'm pretty annoyed paying taxes while others can play games & there's a huge rent crisis even in Belfast.

I'd personally like to see an empty property tax that's going up for every year it's empty. Still a lot of empty land here.

On top empty properties renovation is expensive & you can't get a mortgage on an unliveable property. So those all end up in for-profit hands.

Renovation grants if you want to rent it for social rent rates like they have in France & being able to mortgage and renovate may also help.

Tldr happy to pay taxes, sort off. The fact so much is wasted and legally not paid annoys me though...

Because the increase would create more of a deterrent and improve society .

I think that's the main issue. Tougher sentencing doesn't tend to reduce incidence of a crime, or at least it's rare that it does. I appreciate that it's counterintuitive.

However, increased likelihood to be caught for a crime does reduce incidence.

I'd personally like to see an empty property tax that's going up for every year it's empty. Still a lot of empty land here.

A staright forward property tax would start to address that. Holding onto land and doing nothing with it currently costs you nothing. If you were paying x% a year you might be more likely to do something.

Tldr happy to pay taxes, sort off. The fact so much is wasted and legally not paid annoys me though...

I'm annoyed by people who avoid/evade tax and by fraud but I don't see a lot of waste, no more than in any large organisation anyway.

Yup. People don't consider the sentence, just how likely they think they are to get away with it. Motorists know they can speed in most places with a very low chance of getting caught. etc.

My memory is a bit hazy on this but I think in relatively recenty years there was an increase in sentences for assaults on emergency service workers but despite this the number of assaults increased.

Your memory is right, sentences were increased. But that isn’t the full story, perhaps, reports of incidents have increased. This skews the figures.
I’d be interested to see data which shows a reduction in an offence caused by increased sentences. My GUESS is there is no connection.
Government require police services to report to them using a system called the Home Office Counting Rules - that’s where the stats are generated. I will make a point that the government COULD, if they wished, modify the rules to skew data to suit someone’s agenda. I’m not saying they have or did but it could be done.

These are the HOCR - not easy reading

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counting-rules-for-recorded-crime

And in some cases they have the reverse of the effect intended - an old saying in England was “may as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb” - as very minor crimes had the death penalty you may as well go large as you were dead anyway, if caught.

As per my post above, this may be due to increased reporting as opposed to increased occurrences. Hard to tell though.

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Didn't we all do the "tax this, not that" thing not that long ago on here? I don;t remember the outcome (other than that Tories are a bunch of cunts, natch).

Why is The Guardian reporting on this twat as though he's not a fucking idiot?

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/jan/30/laurence-fox-has-coronavirus-and-taking-ivermectin

I think it's a given. Provide enough rope, etc.

If I didn’t know who he was and read that article, I’d think he was an idiot

Boris has the report.

Now we just wait for absolutely fuck all to happen with it...

It's still boggling to me that a report regarding his misconduct is reviewed by him before release.

Elvis has entered the building.

Billions pissed away on dodgy COVID contracts, nepotism & corruption all over.

Sure I accept there is always some of that in any organisation. Mistakes are made etc. But I think government corruption controls really need tightening.

We can give away pens at work during graduation fairs while they sell off things on the cheap to mates. Then there's RHI where meeting minutes were lost / not taken.

I think empty land/property needs taxed more severely as it contributes to the housing crisis.

Near me there's two plots which would hold 8 houses / 16 apartments but nobody is selling. One has been empty for 20 years.

There's another plot that could hold 60 houses.

Also not everyone has a house like London that gained tons of value and so calculating the true value of a lived in property is hard.

My parents live in a lower income part of NL selling their house won't get them anything in Amsterdam. Must be similar for north of England Vs London.

But wealth, property and land and tiny banking transaction fees must happen I think.

EDIT to clarify: The wealth of a property in London is super high if you look at the increase, but if you have to move to another place in London you haven't gained much. So the easiest thing is to just have x% of the house value as a tax, but that won't address that in some parts the house values jumped massively. But perhaps there's nothing you can do about that with a property tax.