Former Sun editor David Dinsmore is leaving his role as Permanent Secretary for Government Communications. The official release claims the decision was made “by mutual agreement” between Dinsmore and Louise Haigh (not Burnham), and his last day will be 30th September. The official release notes:
“Following the change of Prime Minister and administration, David and the First Secretary of State have agreed that this is an appropriate point to hand over leadership of the programme…”
As Guido reported when Dinsmore joined just a year ago, there was plenty of pearl-clutching amongst the left when Starmer brought in a Sun man to run his comms…
Home inspections are common in the United States. They are on their way to the UK…
This is a typical one, filmed by the City of Stevens Point in Wisconsin. Hence the funny accents…
HMRC is bandying around this non-denial that it will perform inspections:
“Our professional valuers use a range of freely available information sources to ensure valuations are based on the most up-to-date information. In the vast majority cases, we will be able to make banding decisions using existing information without the need to visit a property.”
Aside from big brother technology, manual clipboard inspections will be required. Shadow Housing Minister David Simmonds tells Guido:
“This is a sinister insight into what Labour’s council tax snoopers will be doing in your home. HMRC will be knocking at the door before you know it, intruding inside and finding whatever evidence they need to justify hiking your taxes.”
The taxman has already hired an army of new valuation officials and hundreds of thousands of homes are up for inspection after Labour’s tax grab. When is it ever not a slippery slope?
The taxman hired US big brother experts to review its latest valuation and inspection technology. Leaving no stone unturned…
The Valuation Office Agency, now part of HMRC, hired a Washington DC-registered non-profit, the Center for Appraisal Research and Technology, as “critical friends” on its latest ‘Automated Valuation Model’ to value properties. CART are experts in ‘mass appraisal‘ of properties. Which HMRC will be doing every five years…
The VOA paid the consulting arm of the International Association of Assessing Officers for a 93-page review of its valuation model. The IAAO’s ‘Standard on Mass Appraisal of Real Property’ says property data should be reviewed and updated at least every four to six years, with properties physically inspected and revalued in the same timeframe. Where inspections are avoided it suggests the use of aerial and oblique imagery, LiDAR, and software to detect and flag changes to properties. That big brother snooping is the “international best practice” HMRC was told to use…
In response to Tory queries last year Labour said it hired CART for:
The Valuation Office says most “Mansion Tax” assessments will use public data, third-party data and satellite imagery, with internal inspections to take place where a feature can be confirmed nowhere else. Refuse the inspector and get a £200 fine before it gets worse…
Gareth Bacon, Shadow Housing Minister, tells Guido:
“Labour never stop looking for ways to hike your taxes. Now they are pulling in snooping experts from overseas to help spy on properties for their Big Brother database. They will stop at nothing to get their hands on your money.”
The US pioneers these kind of valuations, where physical home inspections are still common. Get ready to open your door for the taxman – and look out for his drone taking photos of your house from above…
From 1st October, tax on factory-made cigarettes will jump from £353.50 to £394.09 per 1,000, an 11.48% increase, or RPI+8.22% (once HMRC’s own assumption is stripped out). Hand-rolling tobacco is due an even bigger hike, rising from £503.80 to £574.30 per kilo, up 13.99%, or RPI+10.73%. This represents the implementation of prior decisions and is now baked into the government’s revenue projections…
In practice this tax hike just makes legal tobacco even more expensive, while illicit tobacco – generally unenforced and widespread, as Guido has noted – will stay considerably cheaper. This is GCSE Economics: the bigger that gap gets, the more tempting the black market becomes, and the harder it is for legitimate retailers to compete. This does not help the Labour government, close to the public health lobby, reduce smoking rates…
Over the summer, in North Somerset, police seized counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco valued at £110,000 at legitimate retail prices. The week before in Walsall, officers found £52,000 of illicit cigarettes hidden in electromagnet-locked compartments built into shop counters, while a Trading Standards operation in Barking and Dagenham uncovered another £102,000 haul. Burnham insists he wants to support the high street, perhaps he can go and get his guitar…
The White House is following Labour on this one. US authorities believe that in promoting and sharing the “acts of terrorism” online, the group encourages copycats in America. One official told the Telegraph:
“The UK-based Palestine Action has supported numerous acts of terrorism since July 2020, including acts that have physically injured UK law enforcement personnel, as well as acts intended to intimidate lawful commercial enterprise and coerce the British Government.
Palestine Action has promoted its acts of terrorism on social media, encouraging the use of similar tactics internationally, including within the United States and along the US-Mexican border.
Violations of US sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on US and foreign persons.”
Visa bans are on the way as well as bank account freezes. However will Milly, Tilly, and Prilly get to New York for their regular holiday?
Lee Anderson sat down with the Sun’s Tom Scotson for some quickfire questions. Asked whether he’d like to go for a drink with Richard Tice or Zia Yusuf, the Reform chief whip said:
“God, that’s a good one. I might have to plead the fifth on that one. You’re going to get me in trouble whatever I say. I’d probably say to Zia, I’d go out with Zia – but Zia, keep off your phone for ten minutes. Stop tweeting.”
Impossible to unglue people from social media these days…
Lee Anderson, speaking to The Sun’s Tom Scotson, reveals the wokest thing he’s ever done: “I once had a vegetarian thought, about becoming a vegetarian. That was quickly dismissed when I had a bacon sandwich…”