Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

You need to read this again shortie!!


The Osborne reform of stamp duty is more revolutionary than it looks. By bringing its logic into line with income tax – in which you pay an increasing charge only on that proportion of the price which exceeds a given limit, rather than on the whole amount – Mr Osborne has significantly helped those at the lower end of the market while clobbering those at the highest end. That makes it very difficult for Labour to sustain the charge that the Tories are the "party of the rich". His policy is also eminently more fair than a mansion tax because it will not affect people living in houses that happen to have increased wildly in value over the decades, due to forces completely beyond their control. It will be a one-off charge on those who are purchasing, not a wealth tax which would fall on those who are staying put. It will free up the bottom end of the market thus helping first-time buyers and liberating the property-purchase chains in which many middle-market houses are trapped. Above all, it will give a great deal of trouble to Labour's campaigning pitch. That, presumably, was the whole point.

The Telegraph

i hope that that's a fair appraisal, notwithstanding that it comes from the fascist gazette :-)

i'ld still like to see a table with the % of sales across the country in each price bracket

England cricket team in another mess now, they need a good innings from Buttler or Root, or it's curtains.

Db4

You seem to c+P a lot from the same rag.

I thought one only saw that news paper in old fashioned toilets.

It would poison the fish if used to wrap fish and chips.

But I can see where you get your indoctrination from.

I read most newspapers online Fred. Isn't it generally accepted that the Guardian is left wing, Daily Mail is right wing, Times unfortunately charges to read online, Independent news seems to be a step behind the rest, Telegraph has some very good columnists - just my opinion. Newspapers like the Sun, Mirror, Express I don't generally bother reading.

The left wing rabble who were accusing George Osborne of being on crack a few days ago seem to have gone very quiet.

The telegraph is very right wing but good for news. It has easily the biggest percentage of straight news stories. You just have to ignore most of the editorials as with the Guardian, which has the lowest amount of straight news.

I wouldn't have said The Telegraph is very left wing Haystack!

Oops! Finger trouble.

LOL !

Stamp duty

:: How Much Cash Could I Save?

Property value:

- Up To £125,000 – No change: £0 to pay.

- £185,000 – Old system - £1,850; New system - £1,200. Saving = £650

- £275,000 – Old system - £8,250; New system - £3,750. Saving = £4,500

- £510,000 – Old system - £20,400; New system - £15,500. Saving =£4,900

- £2.1m – Old system - £147,500; New system - £165,750. Loss = £18,750

thank you
and if £3.5m presumably considerably more

sounds like excellent news for most home buyers

It's an ill wind....



Stamp duty change shows Osborne is addicted to rising house prices

Patrick Collinson


George Osborne revealed yet again that he is addicted to rising house prices. When the economy was tanking, he pumped it back up by Funding for Lending (cheap mortgages) and Help to Buy (easier loans). But in recent months the property market has been showing signs of flagging – and possibly going stone cold ahead of the election. So what is the centrepiece of the autumn statement? A plan to pump the market back up with an £800m cut in stamp duty.

It should come as no surprise that estate agents and mortgage brokers are busily issuing statements wholeheartedly supporting his “bold” move. Within seconds of the announcement, shares in giant property website Rightmove bounced.

The chancellor said the cut should be welcomed as a simplification to a deeply unfair and unpopular “slab” system. The old system (it expired at midnight) created bizarre anomalies in the market, where someone paying £250,000 for a home was liable for £2,500 in stamp duty, while someone paying £275,000 was being asked to fork out £8,250. Making stamp duty a slope, rather than a cliff edge, is clearly desirable. We can now expect many more houses to come on to the market in the £255,000-£265,000 price bracket.

But Osborne could have chosen to reform stamp duty while leaving the tax taken as revenue-neutral. Instead that person paying £275,000 for a house will now face a bill of just £3,750 for stamp duty - a cut of £4,500.

Hurrah for hard-pressed home buyers? Maybe for a day or two - until the ugly dynamics of the market assert themselves. A buyer who on Wednesday could afford a maximum of £275,000 will on Thursday be able to afford £280,000. Inevitably, they will bid more to secure a property - so the tax cut translates almost instantly into a house price rise.

As Prof Michael Ben-Gad of City University said immediately after the stamp duty cut was announced: “The short-run impact is likely to be a rise in house prices, because the immediate supply of housing is inelastic and sellers will pocket most of the tax reduction.”


More: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/dec/03/autumn-statement-stamp-duty-george-osborne-wants-high-house-prices

Not long now Hays before your Mansion Tax DEMAND, all written in red so that you cant see it ohhhh sorry believe it....................he he

Labour lead at 1

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 2nd December - Con 32%, Lab 33%, LD 7%, UKIP 16%;

Drop in economic confidence since March..................

https://yougov.co.uk/news/categories/politics/

Hays Hays Hays............

Populus – CON 32%, LAB 35%, LDEM 9%, UKIP 14%, GRN 5% (tabs)
Ashcroft – CON 30%, LAB 32%, LDEM 7%, UKIP 16%, GRN 6% (tabs)
YouGov/Sun – CON 32%, LAB 32%, LD 8%, UKIP 15%, GRN 6%
ComRes/Indy – CON 28%, LAB 31%, LDEM 9%, UKIP 18%, GRN 7% (tabs)

What about your smear campaign against Osborne saying he was on crack gf? Do you still think our Chancellor is on crack? He certainly seems to have Balls running around in ever increasing circles. Wallace and Gromit looked pretty sick this afternoon in the House.

The joke from Osborne was good. He said that the guy who does the voices for Wallace and Gromit was retiring. He offered a likely candidate.

What made the joke even funnier was that Miliband tried to laugh it off and in the process he made a silly wide grin making him look even more like Wallace.

Miliband's grins look as false as Brown's

Cleggy stayed away from the budget cos he don't want to be seen with call me Dave.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/