Companies taxes Social contributions Capital Roaming t'World _and lobbies of doubtful "think tanks" _And, Yes Brexit

EU demanding potential veto on Britain's post-Brexit laws, regulations - The Times Reuters Reuters5 September 2020 EU demanding potential veto on Britain's post-Brexit laws, regulations - The Times A small toy figure is seen in front of a Brexit logo in this illustration picture (Reuters) - The European Union is demanding a potential veto on Britain's post-Brexit laws and regulations, The Times newspaper reported on Saturday, citing senior government officials. The British daily reported that EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, is said to be insisting that London must agree not to implement any change to UK legislation that could distort trade with the bloc without first consulting Brussels. Barnier's UK counterpart, David Frost, has rejected the approach, The Times reported. EU diplomats said earlier that Barnier went to London on Tuesday to tell Frost Britain must move on state aid, or there will not be a Brexit agreement. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/eu-demanding-potential-veto-britains-030517594.html The chances of Britain leaving the European Union without a trade deal have risen sharply as negotiations have been threatened by London's insistence that it have full autonomy over its state aid plans. --------------------------- High rates of economic growth in the mid-20th century – the reference point for any politics that seeks to restore economic growth in the present – were premised on a historically exceptional period. The restoration of stable international trade following two world wars made possible the largest growth of economic productive capacity in human history, not just in Europe and the United States, but worldwide. By the 1970s, rapid expansion had given way to worsening global overcapacity, resulting in rising competition and falling rates of investment in internationally traded goods. People were left scrambling for work in the growing service sector, where the potential for labour productivity growth, and hence economic growth, is significantly lower. Workers’ inability to find stable employment is thus not the result of recent advances in automation technologies, which, like driverless cars, have mostly failed to pan out. Their plight results from an everyday reality of low profitability in economies saturated with capital, and insufficient opportunities for its reinvestment, such that dividends and share buybacks have increasingly become the norm for surplus cash holdings. With shrinking opportunities for investment, enormous pools of capital have rushed into highly speculative ventures such as Uber and Lyft that have little capacity for demonstrated profitability. All hail the California court that put the brakes on Uber and co ..... • Aaron Benanav is a researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin. His first book, Automation and the Future of Work, will be published by Verso in November https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/24/gig-economy-uber-lyft-insecurity-crisis -------------------------- https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/joe-biden-breaks-record-for-fundraising-with-365m-in-a-month-drqfjr72l -------------------------- Some of the world’s biggest companies pay relatively little UK tax, because the digital services they offer, such as advertising and fees for connecting buyers to sellers, technically take place offshore. That allows them to keep their tax burden low in major economies, and book the majority of their revenues in low-tax environments such as Ireland and Luxembourg. ... The 2% levy on the British revenues of search engines, social media services and online marketplaces, first announced in the 2018 budget, was an attempt to keep some of the economic value created by technology companies in the country. And developments since writing his letter ... The chancellor, who announced the tax in the budget in March, had said big global technology firms must “pay their fair share of tax”. However, the Mail on Sunday reported that Sunak is preparing to drop the tax following pressure from US companies and politicians. The UK government is preparing to drop a recently introduced tax on global technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, due to fears that the so-called “Facebook tax” could jeopardise a post-Brexit trade deal. https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/uk-drop-facebook-tax-favour-112305280.html Sunak’s apparent decision to drop the tax comes just weeks after he wrote to the US Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, to demand that big tech firms pay more tax to help fund the recovery from the coronavirus crisis. --------------------------------- More recent information regarding present UK government's preoccupation with 'lobby' style "think tanks" ... This lobby group has called for the prime minister’s office to have greater powers “to develop and direct policy change” through the civil service, and to appoint leaders of public bodies whose “culture and values” align with government’s aims. It has led the public attacks on what it calls the “chilling effects” of leftwing views in academia. Its recent report on academic freedom was brilliantly eviscerated in the Guardian by Jonathan Portes, who found it riddled with basic statistical errors and mistaken assumptions. What purports to be a campaign for intellectual freedom looks more like a McCarthyite attempt to suppress left-leaning ideas. It’s an effective weapon in the government’s gathering culture war. [...] Last year, Policy Exchange published a polemic that claimed Extinction Rebellion is led by dangerous extremists. As usual, it was widely covered by the media. Less discussed was the report that the lobby group has received funding from the power company Drax, the trade association Energy UK, and the gas companies E.ON and Cadent, whose fossil-fuel investments are threatened by environmental activism. These are among the few funders whose identities we know. Policy Exchange is listed by Who Funds You? as among the UK’s most opaque thinktanks. It might seem remarkable that without having to reveal its funders, while promoting shifts that could harm civil society, Policy Exchange remains a registered charity. [...] Conservative governments clearly attach great importance to the way charities are overseen. In 2018, a parliamentary committee sent the government an unprecedented letter, pointing out that the government’s preferred candidate as chair of the Charity Commission, the former Tory minister Baroness Stowell, was “unable to demonstrate … any real insight, knowledge or vision”; could not be seen as neutral; and had failed to withstand the committee’s scrutiny. The government appointed her anyway, and she remains chair today. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/01/no-10-lobby-groups-democracy-policy-exchange?utm_term=3f41eb88c163f9c64be76e7fa0018564&utm_campaign=BestOfGuardianOpinionUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=opinionuk_email ------------------------------------ Substandard deals: Boris Johnson taking part in a videoconference call at 10 Downing Street, 15 June 2020. Photograph: Andrew Parsons/DOWNING STREET/EPA Tue 1 Sep 2020 16.32 BST 244 3,020 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/01/boris-johnson-brexit-deal-political-cost-eurosceptic?utm_term=3f41eb88c163f9c64be76e7fa0018564&utm_campaign=BestOfGuardianOpinionUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=opinionuk_email The only trade deal that Boris Johnson can agree with the European Union is a flimsy one. It will be a rickety bridge to the continent, much looser than the old one but still tethered in ways that Brexit ideologues hate. That doesn’t mean the prime minister won’t sign. He has a record of doing substandard deals and pretending they are great. Tory hardliners have a record of going along with the charade. ... Some Tories hanker for a bonfire of labour protections and environmental standards, but that is not Downing Street’s main reason for rejecting “level playing field” provisions. The fear is that Brussels will thwart UK plans to subsidise its way to competitive advantage in fledgling sectors of the economy. The vision, theorised by Dominic Cummings, is of a hyper-adaptable British state, crucible of a new industrial revolution in artificial intelligence, genomics and hi-tech wizardry yet to be invented.