One of the current tax breaks is the ability to consider R&D spend as a corporate tax deduction, some facts around how effective this tax relief is, and whether it’s corporate welfare, or investment in the future would be helpful.
The New Statesman now has a responsive look and feel. Hooray.
Finally, Vote for Diane Abbott for Mayor and give Sadiq Kahn your second preference. This is an odd one, there’s little to choose between the candidates on policy, although Gareth Thomas is for Heathrow Runway 3 and all the others oppose it. Jobs vs. Air Quality. I like Sadiq Kahn’s commitment to planting trees and buying up London’s Hospital’s debt, although there may be issues of ultra vires and I like Abbot’s bravery in pursuing rent controls, which should be Labour policy. With few exceptions, I expect each of the candidates to nick the best policies from each other, so it’s important to hear from them using their own words. Certainly at the South London hustings, Christian Wolmar was congratulated by several of the candidates for his transport policy initiatives and there’s little doubt that many of his ideas will make it into the manifesto.
The issue here is heart and commitment and I am supporting Dianne. She has a record of getting the big questions right. …
We must all be aware of the vulture capitalist raid on the HIV treatment #Daraprim. This just raises so many issues, not the least being TTIP, intellectual property law reform, the extra territoriality of US Law and the struggle for affordable health care in the US and their providers drive for super-profits in the rest of the world. There’s a blog article here, but its a bit close to a general theory. Less a blog article, more a book. …
That was a mistake, while looking up the harmless “trump” in order to join an a US political debate, I noticed urban dictionary’s rising trend words. A word from the wise, there is stuff that does not improve your life. …
The validation of the new members by the Labour Party is a mess. You’d think with the number of Lawyers and Trade Unionists on the NEC that they would understand the principles of natural justice and the law. I don’t think it’s bent, and I think there’s a large number of people of good will working on this but the lack of transparency is worrying and its a story that won’t go away.
I have instructed those who’ll listen that there must be evidence, it must be recent, it must be evaluated by two people. (It must also be legally obtained, this is so obvious that I didn’t bother to put it in writing. I have now. )
To become a registered supporter, one needs to sign a declaration that one supports the aims and values of the Labour Party and not support an organisation in opposition to it. This needs to be done truthfully, otherwise it’s fraud.
The £3 fee is an administration fee, we are not transactionally selling the vote. It’s the signature of the commitment that gets the vote, not the payment of the fee.
Perhaps the Labour Party should consider suing organisations and individuals that participated in a conspiracy to commit fraud by suggesting signing the declaration without commitment.
We have high profile rejections like Mark Steel and Jeremy Hardy, both of whom are making a hell of a lot of noise, but I can’t see what evidence there exists to suggest that they support an organisation in opposition to Labour and the danger exists that less well known people with weaker voices are being excluded unjustly.
To the best of my knowledge Labour are not using canvass returns as evidence for excluding supporters from the leadership election. …
For various reasons considering why Labour lost and whether it was because we were too Left or too Right. I am reminded of a speech I gave to LPYS Conference in 1979, where I said that it wasn’t the right wing manifesto during three weeks of the campaign, it was the four year record of a right wing labour government! This was a Government that nationalised things. Right wing? We were mad! The rest as they say is History.
I shall be voting for Tom Watson for Deputy and ask you to do so too. He is a long term campaigner on the side of the good. He has shown he stands up for what he thinks is right and has Government experience having served in the last labour Governments in Defence and the Cabinet Office. In 2010, he took the citizens position and opposed the Digital Economy Act, and during the last Parliament he opposed the Governments repeated attempts to introduce and legalise mass surveillance, most recently 15 months ago when he led the opposition to DRIP, an opposition he took to court and won, with the unique result that the courts have put a judicial sunset clause on the Act. He has also taken the government to court to have their information sharing with the USA declared illegal because of the military use the American make of it. He led the majority on the Culture Media and Sports select committee on phone hacking and media plurality …
In the light of arguing what the definition of the national current account deficit is, student finance is an investment! …
