u/The_Inertia_Kid

She's posted about it on her Twitter account here: https://x.com/LeftieStats/status/2090037047016685674

Also just a reminder that the pinned post on the StatsForLefties Twitter account says "🫡 Glory to the Iranian resistance, whose courageous fight against the imperialist dogs of the USA has utterly humiliated the Great Satan✊. Inshallah Iran will fully repel US imperialism, Palestine will be freed from the bloodthirsty Zionist entity and Israel will be abolished✊."

Another normal day in Green Party land then

I'm not an Ipswich fan but I thought I might share a little scouting report on Somto Boniface, the left back from your u21s who is on loan at Leyton Orient for the season. I was at Brisbane Road for Orient v Oxford on Saturday and Boniface was very deservedly man of the match. If he maintains this level he's clearly far too good for League One.

He's quick and really gets up the left flank. He can go past a man and get into crossing positions quite comfortably. What really impressed me with his play going forward is that he got his head up and made the right choice for the cross once he got in position. He knew when to go near post, far post, cutback. He only had one real shooting opportunity but snatched at it.

The coach at Orient also trusts his defending. He left him as the deepest man on attacking corners as his pace allows him to cover breaks. When tracking long balls back towards his own goal and pursued by an opposing forward, he's very calm. He pulled off a couple of very tight and skilled 180 turns to leave his man in the dust in those situations. He needs to work on not over-committing to challenges though, he dived in once or twice and got beaten.

The main negative I took away is that he is very one-footed. He had a good opportunity on the edge of the box to either take a shot or slide in a teammate but he didn't have the confidence to take it on his right foot. The delay on switching back to his left meant he got his pocket picked.

He picked up a knock in a challenge that got him subbed off mid second half but it didn't look serious, he was moving fine after the final whistle.

My thought is that depending on if he maintains this level of play, Ipswich might want to think about cutting his loan short in January and sending him back out to a Championship team.

I hope he develops well because he's got the raw qualities to be an excellent player relatively quickly.

Best of luck for the season ahead!

Those of you who are unfortunate enough to have paid attention to my fevered rantings on this sub may recall that for a long time, I have been in favour of completely overhauling the UK's tax system. As I repeat endlessly, we all want Scandinavian-style public services, but we also want US-style income tax rates.

As far as I'm concerned, all the time people spend talking about weird, off-the-wall new taxes is simply avoiding dealing with this fundamental mismatch of expectations and funding. No wealth tax is going to bridge this gap. If we want a better Britain, whether that means new hospitals, free dentistry, scrapping tuition fees, greater defence self-reliance, improved care provision, or something else, we're going to have to pay for it.

I by we, I mean all of us, not other people. Not just rich people. Everyone. Like in Denmark and Sweden.

I often criticise others for handwaving away policy detail like it's a minor thing, and I realise I have done some of that when it comes to taxation.

So here's the detail of what I propose, and how much I assess it would raise in extra tax per year. My estimates actually have upper and lower bounds, but I've just presented the central estimate here.

I'm viewing this as a starting point for a more detailed Unabomber-style manifesto for which I will be remembered and feared.

Income Tax

• Reduce tax-free personal allowance to £3,500 per person. Extra tax: £50bn
• Increase basic rate of income tax from 20% to 30%. Extra tax: £69bn (nice)
• Increase higher rate of income tax from 40% to 45% Extra tax: £8bn
• Increase additional rate of income tax from 45% to 50%. Extra tax: £700m

These changes would raise an additional £127.7bn per year in tax.

Capital Gains Tax

• Equalise CGT rates with the new Income Tax rates (30/45/50%).

This change would raise an extra £7.5bn per year in tax.

Inheritance Tax

• Scrap the nil-rate band for IHT entirely, making all estates liable to IHT.
• Scrap all other IHT reliefs.
• Introduce new progressive rate bands for IHT: 20% under £100k, 30% for £100k to £500k, 40% above £500k.

These changes would raise an additional £35bn per year in tax.

Corporation Tax

• Increase the headline CT rate from 25% to 30%. Extra tax: £12bn
• Scrap the small companies rate, all companies to pay 30%. Extra tax: £3bn

These changes would raise an extra £15bn per year in tax.

TOTAL

These changes combined would raise between £181bn (lower estimate) and £205bn (upper estimate) per year in additional tax. My central estimate for additional tax is £195bn per year.

I am explicitly not taking into account the electoral implications of doing this - it is a pure thought exercise for what a better, more progressive, more sustainable tax system for the UK would look like.

Sabine Mairey was arrested last week for saying that attacks on synagogues were ‘revenge’. Yesterday she was out on the doorstep for the Green Party in Lambeth with former party co-leader Jonathan Bartley. They even had a brand new leaflet with her face on it.

Turns out total party democracy and decentralisation plays very nicely into the hands of the racists, because if their local party likes them, they get to stay. Even if Zack says they’re not in the party any more!