As an intellectual exercise I find it quite useful/interesting as a way of saying to those on the political right here is what a genuine program of cuts that would yield the tax cuts you want, do you feel confident in campaigning on it? (To which the answer is of course no)
In general Singapore News has a slight comedic feel to it compared to the rest of the world. Highlight is still a police investigation being launched for graffiti being discovered in the underpass near Kent Ridge MRT
Most obvious one that would net you circa 24B (but needs to be likely done in 4 lots of 6) is abolishing NI and raising IT by 8%, would mean retirees then paying the equivalent of what would’ve been NI on their pension incomes
Extreme example, in the mid 1950s there was 1 pensioner who lived for 5 years post retiring. There are now 4 pensioners who live for 15 years post retiring. So you’ve gone from 5 effective lived pensioner years to 60. Ie an increase of 1100%. Old age citizens quite rightly cost a fair bit more!
James is Dan Neidle and I claim my £5. I do in general think the political space to fix any of this is not opening up outside of another global financial crisis
The swapping NIC into IT seems both an inevitability and indeed a good policy outcome. Given that NIC is just IT with a moustache on retirees should not be paying lower levels of tax on pension income than workers are
The definition of something being a terror incident is it being done in the name of an ideology though, which is presumably why the police have said so far they’ve no reason to suspect it’s terror-related, that could of course change with evidence gathering
I think in general given what he’s managed at both Brighton and Union Saint Gilloise it bodes pretty well for your future even if you don’t make it over the line this season (though as a total neutral I’d love to see a team outside of the old firm winning)
It can be much less serious things as well, for example I’ve only ever known airports with the level of security they’ve had post 9/11, from my perspective that’s how they’ve always been!Even if I know verifiably that’s not the case, it’s difficult to imagine a time you’ve not actually lived through
But say when you’re looking at polling data of an entire cohort on whether they want a United Ireland there’s some usefulness to think about the lived experiences of that cohort as a whole.
Which is why I said there’s some usefulness to it at a cohort level but not individually? Random example, someone of my age in NI has no lived memory of the troubles, they’ve grown up after it, someone of my parents age can remember the whole thing. Now you shouldn’t then apply that to individuals
That pervades all parts of lives though! What colour are your Santa decorations? How much salary do you think someone should save for an engagement ring? Etc.In general I’d say at a cohort level there is some usefulness to understanding the time period it grew up in,but not particularly individually
It depends on the context it’s being used in. If I said my parents are boomers that would be simply true given that it encompasses their respective years of birth. It’s simply easier than saying they were born between certain years in the 20th century.
What is the point of Britain having so many abandoned overseas territories if they can’t be used as holding pens for people who play music out loud on their phones in public? We used to be a country Stephen 😔
How many election defeats do you think it’ll take the conservatives to get out of this intellectual rabbit hole? I mean of course the real problem is that the next defeat could be so large as to kill them anyway
It’s probably the sorts of places I’d go, not because I support the ideology! But just because places of historical importance are interesting. When I was in Taiwan I went around the preserved house of Chiang Kai Shek which was a bit eerie
Incredible that the chart runs up to what May 2024 and has them at just above 25%? Who’d have thought that they had another 10 points to go at that point in time?
