[Crabcakes]

I think what is notable about this is that any and all of these 7 could have quite easily decided to stand as independents at the GE if they were unhappy with what was going to happen with the cap, seeing as they already knew, but funnily enough they were perfectly OK in using Labour resources and the party name to secure (re)election.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Well, they could have done but it's never been the case that every MP is bound by the manifesto. The mainstream MPs wouldn't have considered themselves bound by Corbyn bollocks like handing out £58bn to WASPI if he'd won. They ran as Labour MPs, just like these MPs did.

There's a big constituency of Labour voters (not the majority) who very strongly oppose the cap. I think it's better to look like there's a debate going on than not. I absolutely supported the whips' threats to these same MPs on Ukraine, but I don't support it here. As I say, that's why you run up a big majority. You can afford to lose the whole Campaign Group and then some.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Reeves is doing this "looked under the bonnet, uh oh" stuff well. Of course, stuff was in the media about how bad this blackhole was (and it's likely to be a lot more than £20bn), but she can legitimately point out that the Government was telling them there wasn't a black hole and that there were going to be more tax cuts.

Of course they could have run on all these tax rises, but the public doesn't tend to like politicians who put stuff in too much fucking perspective. She'll doubtless get it in the neck from all sides, but I don't think the Tories should be too much of a nuisance. More likely the "just do a £100bn wealth tax now!" people are more of a nuisance. That's another reason why I wouldn't have isolated those 7 MPs as fast as they have.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Looks like good news,

This post was previously held by Bozo campaign manager, James Wharton.

[Andy McDandy]

The Tories tried to put Toby Young in there. Turn everything into an attack position.

Glad to see the fucking free speech act get trashed. It was never necessary, just a license to be a cunt.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm not a comms expert, but this tweet should be better, Quite right to suspend that "free speech" policy- see the mess Michelle Donelan got into when it was put to her that she was proposing to protect Holocause deniers- but better to explain it. This tweet will get massively shared as "Labour abolishes free speech in universities", and will look worryingly plausible.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Tories tried to put Toby Young in there. Turn everything into an attack position.

Glad to see the fucking free speech act get trashed. It was never necessary, just a license to be a cunt.

Yep. And justified by a fake example about Germaine Greer in Cardiff- her event went ahead.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/ ... university

[Youngian]

Hate to quibble but you’re an accountant
https://x.com/richardjmurphy/status/181 ... 18875?s=46

[Abernathy]

Wasn’t Murphy in the Corbyn fan club ?

[Tubby Isaacs]

In The National, naturally. The SNP have been rather blindsided by the possibility that Reeves might raise taxes via cutting reliefs, and went full on for "£18bn of Unionist cuts". Reeves can also shift the fiscal rules back a year or two in time with no great political problem, The Tories were supposed to balance the budget in 2015 and never did.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Wasn’t Murphy in the Corbyn fan club ?

Corbyn liked the People's QE idea and brought Murphy in, but they clocked him as a liability and he didn't last long. Wrote a highly critical article about Corbyn in the Guardian, which he later recanted, but by 2020 was seemingly recanting that too.

[Youngian]

More the other way round, McDonnell was mendaciously misquoting Murphy’s work on tax avoidance for the Tax Justice Network.

[mattomac]

All very welcome.

The bill didn’t know its arse from its elbow.

Very few are cancelled and at one point it wasn’t clear where the complaint could go.

Anyhow it’s wasted the sector’s time for about a year. But I don’t think we are too bothered. This stuff could be strengthened through the charity commission. Which all student unions are now I believe.

[Tubby Isaacs]

More the other way round, McDonnell was mendaciously misquoting Murphy’s work on tax avoidance for the Tax Justice Network.

I hadn't heard that. I thought McDonnell liked Murphy's tax stuff.

[Yug]

This is good.

MPs have backed a plan from the new Labour government to tighten rules on what they can do in an outside job.

They approved changes to get rid of exemptions allowing them to advise employers on "public policy" and how Parliament works in general.

Commons leader Lucy Powell said the move would get rid of a potential "loophole" and ensure MPs focused on their constituents.

She said the rule tweak would help “turn the page" on standards after a series of controversies in the last parliament...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ng448xy7wo.amp

Bring it on. It's about fucking time, the Tories have been getting away with murder for decades.

[Watchman]

Although I’m given to understand they can still hold onto their TV presenting gigs!

[Tubby Isaacs]

They can indeed. I don't see how that's all that different to writing articles and getting paid, so probably the right decision.

[Youngian]

More the other way round, McDonnell was mendaciously misquoting Murphy’s work on tax avoidance for the Tax Justice Network.

I hadn't heard that. I thought McDonnell liked Murphy's tax stuff.

Murphy estimated that overseas tax evasion by the corporate sector was around £120bn. At a push with some tough legislation £20bn might be recoverable. McDonnell touted the 120bn figure as to what a Labour government could net back.
People’s QE was a promising idea and Mario Draghi at the ECB ran a similar version but it’s a one or twice off event. Hugo Corbyn thought it was a magic money pump.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ah right, yeah.

The £120bn was the whole tax gap, not just corporates. Loads of that is going to be outright villainy and cash in hand small trading. The estimate is way larger than HMRC come out with and sounds much too high. But as you say, Murphy did to his credit point out that a much smaller sum of £20bn was receoverable, but that sounds too high as well.

I didn't know McDonnell misused the figures, but Corbyn definitely did in his leadership pitch. An immediate sign that he wasn't up to the job.

[Philip Marlow]

I should stop reading this stuff - like prodding at a rotten tooth - but I can’t help wondering how on earth Collier, the Labour Against Antisemitism crew et al have failed to understand that we now live in the post-Corbyn time, and that 90% of their former media friends consequently have no interest whatsoever in what they’re selling.