The Conservative Party

[The Future’s Blue!]

Can we trust in anything they say or do?

 

[Vic]

Neil Parish, Tory chair of EFRA committee says the Tory government just isn't taking food and farming seriously. And it's Patel again....

Actually he said it last year and he's still saying it. “I really don’t know why don’t you take it more seriously, rather than just having your blasted processes that you have in the Home Office that take forever and you prevaricate and prevaricate and the situation gets worse."

More food to be imported, and that's before the schemes kick in to grow trees rather than food.

From the latest EFRA Report (Covid and Brexit to blame):

• Crop picking/harvesting—The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) reported that 24% of the UK daffodil crop was left unpicked at the start of 2021 “due to a staggering 33% shortage in seasonal workers”,15 while Lea Valley Growers’ Association noted that “10% of cucumber growing members didn’t plant a third crop” in July 2021 due to a lack of workers.16 Riviera Produce Ltd reported that it “left over £500,000 of produce to rot in the fields” due to a lack of staff,17 and Boxford Suffolk Farms Ltd said it “had to waste approximately 44 tonnes of fruit this year” due to labour shortages.18
• Meat production and processing—Nick Allen, Chief Executive of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), said that its members were around 15% to 16% short on staff.19 The National Pig Association (NPA) reported approximately 10,000 vacancies across all processing sector roles, with vacancy rates in pork processing plants of 10–15% on average.20 They reported a “desperate lack of skilled butchers” but said pig farmers were also “struggling” for labour.21
• Poultry—Graeme Dear, Chair of the British Poultry Council (BPC), said that of the 40,000-workforce needed, his members had vacancy rates of 16%, which equated to 6,000 empty positions.22 The BPC reported that due to labour shortages many members had been “forced to cut back weekly chicken production by 5–10%”, reducing the range of poultry products offered to UK customers.23
• Food processing—Ian Wright, FDF, explained that labour shortages were having a “big impact” on food manufacturers’ capacity which was causing “something like one order in five not being fulfilled on time” for supermarkets and in hospitality.24 Mr Wright said this threatened to undermine the food supply chain’s long-standing just-in-time model.25
• Hospitality—Kate Nicholls OBE, Chief Executive of UKHospitality, said there had been a 10% vacancy rate within the hospitality sector since the end of lockdown in July 2021, which equated to around 200,000 workers.26 Ms Nicholls said that labour shortages in the sector, and broader supply chain issues, were suppressing revenues by 15 to 20%.27
• Logistics—Tom Southall, Policy Director at the Cold Chain Federation, said that there was a “staggering” shortage of between 70,000 and 100,000 HGV drivers compared to the 300,000 employed in total before the pandemic.28 In addition, warehousing had shortage rates of 10 to 20%, which was causing considerable delays at distribution centres.29

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmenvfru/713/report.html

 

[Fred_Quimby]

After this 'non dom' loophole has been highlighted I assume that this lot will work to close it immediately? Ha ha ha.

 

[Len Rum]

Come on BoJo, time to form a circle round the Rishter!

 

[joe123]

After this 'non dom' loophole has been highlighted I assume that this lot will work to close it immediately? Ha ha ha.

was unsurprised to learn that this loophole isn’t available in almost any other comparable country. Think Portugal and Malta might be the others (could be wrong).

hopefully Tory incompetence and arrogance will cost them in the next GE. Not holding my breath tho. When you’ve got people springing to Sunak’s defence over something that is clearly wrong just because he’s a Tory, you realise how fucked we are.

 

[Fred_Quimby]

Looks like we are stuck with Johnson for the foreseeable future.

 

[Vic]

was unsurprised to learn that this loophole isn’t available in almost any other comparable country. Think Portugal and Malta might be the others (could be wrong).

hopefully Tory incompetence and arrogance will cost them in the next GE. Not holding my breath tho. When you’ve got people springing to Sunak’s defence over something that is clearly wrong just because he’s a Tory, you realise how fucked we are.

And then, like every Tory MP called to breakfast interviews to defend liars and cheats, finding by noon they've been defending the indefensible.

 

[Chris in London]

Ok, slightly different topic but I get where you are going now. I’d go slightly further, his wife is retaining non dom status - implying she plans to return to India full time. He is setting tax laws that will last long after he has [likely] left the UK. Now I’ve not seen anything he has done that would imply he doesn’t give a shit but it raises uncomfortable questions and does make his position awkward.

She doesn’t have to intend to return to India although that would do. An intention to end her days in say the USA would be good enough. The key thing is that she doesn’t have a fixed intention of making the U.K. her permanent home.

 

[Chris in London]

Of course she pays tax in India - she may do so efficiently but that sounds like a problem for the Indian government and its citizens. But… you lived tax free in the US as a foreign national? Not a criticism, good on you, but you used tax rules to your personal benefit yet are now pissed about someone else potentially doing the same? Pot kettle and all that.

Anyways they obviously got wise to that as was different when I lived in US and had to pay taxes from day 1, only choice I had (IIRC) was to pay resident state taxes monthly or yearly and you had self declared discounts such as mortgage. As I earned in one state and lived in another I think earning state and federal tax were deducted at source.

The USA has its own tax rules that depend, unusually, on nationality and residence. It is one of the reasons why people subject to U.K. taxes can benefit from double-taxation agreements. That is nothing to do with non dom status, though, it is quite the opposite.

 

[Chris in London]

They won’t have to jump through the same hoops as you I suspect. It’s not a tax break in this specific case exactly, but maybe the answer to non dom is - after a specific period - you pay the greatest tax on where you live or where you earn it - there is an inherent fairness in that. So specifically on dividends - India is 15%, UK is (for her) 39.35%. She would pay 15% to Indian treasury and remaining 24.35% to UK in return she is freely allowed to bring the money in to the UK. She absolutely shouldn’t pay best part of 55% in tax, that’s unfair.

Hope you managed to get on your masters course mate.

You are either domiciled here or you aren’t. Double taxation only comes into it if you are, it doesn’t apply to non dom. Generally speaking HMRC will challenge the non dom status of someone who has lived here permanently for 15 years. However 15 years is a rule of thumb, not a rule of law. In each case the commissioners would be required to make a determination of whether a taxpayer had become domiciled in the U.K. or not. That will depend on the specific circumstances of the case.