The Dame wants to know what her readers think of its claim to be able to change the political landscape.
Only intelligent and perceptive comments please.
Rough and rude comments are boring
Friday, 17 November 2023
CAN REFORM UK CUT THE MUSTARD?
PLEASE READ THE MISARA AUTUMN NEWSLETTER
On Tuesday 28th November at 7.00 pm it will hold its AGM at St Simon Zelotes Church.
One of the guest speakers will be Cllr Elizabeth Campbell.
She will no doubt answer an array of questions, especially on planning matters.
The Report is really exhaustive and well put together and well worth reading.
Please email the Dame for your copy: damesathome@gmail.com
A LABOUR SUPPORTER; EDMUND BURKE AND IHT
Burke was right in those days as his thinking is today.
Burke said, "Cutting the throats of the rich does not provide one bit of bread and cheese for the poor."
He was right of course. We no longer cut the throats of the rich but we tax their estates to the hilt when they die, claiming the authority for doing so is rooted in redistribution of wealth principles. Inheritance Tax does not bestow optimal social security benefit entitlements on the needy, (if it did I would not object) but the reality is the poor strive on meagre benefits with workhouse diets with IHT being charged on estates.
So the redistributive aspect of IHT achieves little in practical terms.
Marxists love theoretical policies like soak the rich but analysis of practical outcomes is not their strong point.
Thursday, 16 November 2023
A SMALL CUT WON'T CUT IT, FELICITY
give us yer home
Inheritance Tax is a hated tax.
If you are prudent and choose to invest taxed income into property or some other asset you get hit twice: it's a tax on wealth created in most cases by hard work. It hits the 'little people' not the really rich.
The Dame and others have been strident telling Felicity Buchan it should be abolished or, de minimus, the threshold raised or the 40% rate dramatically cut.
The government's hapless PR people are now softening the market by inferring that 40% will be reduced to 30% so when it goes to 25% everyone will cheer.
If Felicity thinks this will be something to crow about she will be very much mistaken.
A small cut won't cut it.
GIVE THE MILLIONS BACK, CAMERON
a couple of wise guys with desert friends
According to The Dame's friend, James Hurley on the Times, Cameron received $10 million for 2 years of work at Greensill Capital. What sort of work is worth $5m a year?Cameron also gave Lex Greensill, his boss, a Downing Street office.
Greensill is now being investigated by the Insolvency Service.....rather late in the day. Typical useless Insolvency Service.
If Lord Cameron had a sense of honour he would give the money back to help those defrauded by his friend.
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
FELICITY HARKENS TO THE DAME
It worked: here is Felicity at the head of the table giving Mr Hunt such an earful that he looks quite stunned.
Felicity...did you not bring up that business killer, Anti Business Rates?
"It was good to join several London Conservative MPs at a meeting with the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt MP, ahead of this year's Autumn Statement.
Some of the issues discussed included Inheritance Tax and Stamp Duty, as well as tax-free shopping and regenerating St Mary's Hospital.
I will be monitoring these issues closely, as well as the Statement itself, and will update residents in due course."
Monday, 13 November 2023
SUNK SUNAK APPOINTS FRIEND OF CONMAN
Lord 'Dodgy' Dave arrives
'Dodgy', Tory prime minister from 2010-16, was recently at the centre of the biggest lobbying scandal in Britain for decades when the Financial Times revealed he had secretly lobbied former colleagues in government on behalf of his employer Greensill Capital.
Friday, 10 November 2023
DENT COAD RETWEETS A LIE ON A PAR WITH HOLOCAUST DENIAL
Middle East Monitor reports that an IDF Apache gunship opened fire on Festival goers....a lie of such magnitude that it is on a par with holocaust denial.
Despite this, an ex-MP thought fit to re-tweet it without doing a modicum of research
Middle East Monitor is recognised internationally as an apologist for Hamas.
It supports Islamist positions within Palestinian politics and shares platforms with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In Israel Middle East Monitor is listed as a terror-supporting group.
It is also on the United States Treasury's list of specially-designated terrorist organisations.
Middle East Monitor is sympathetic to Hamas, and the Hamas website and social media accounts post and share material from the Middle East Monitor.
In 2011 John Ware of BBC News described MEMO as a pro-Hamas publication.
LET'S NOT BE NASTY TO HAMAS
Hamas and its anti-democratic funders...Qatar and Iran have scored a massive PR coup.
To use Armistice Day to hold the next demo was smarter still.
What useful idiots these demonstrators are to brutal regimes.
Still, one assumes carrying a banner condemning Hamas yet supporting Palestinians would be an invitation to a beating up or worse.....
Tuesday, 7 November 2023
A DAME; A QUEEN & AN MP
PJ haberdashery
The Dame once had a luncheon with the Queen of Denmark at her home in SW France. (forgive the old thing: she is an inveterate namedropper)
HM, a very erudite lady, mentioned she always tried to visit Peter Jones's haberdashery department when in town.
The Dame recited what John Betjeman had said: "When the end of the world comes I want to be in the haberdashery department at Peter Jones as nothing unpleasant could ever happen there"
The Dame gets the same feeling when reading Felicity's Updates.
The UK may be going to hell in a handcart but nothing nasty ever intrudes into the Updates!
Monday, 6 November 2023
LET'S TALK ABOUT TAXATION TOO
Kensington 'forums' to discuss the environment are pointless.
Felicity Buchan needs to launch a meeting to get constituents' views on the three taxes that really hit them hard in the solar plexus.
The chief executive of Frasers Group described Business Rates as a disaster.
Michael Murray said rent bills were now equal to the rates the group pays for the buildings, adding: “It makes it almost unviable. You’re almost paying rent twice.”
Another tax you pay twice is Inheritance Tax: few other constituencies are so hard hit by this tax as Kensington.
Finally, Stamp Duty...at historically high levels it is a tax that freezes the property market blocking people's opportunities to move up or down.
In positioning these meetings as feedback opportunities Felicity won't breach the ministerial code but she can show constituents she cares about the pain these taxes cause constituents.
Labour has already said it will deal with the burden of business rates. We now need a similar commitment on all three taxes.
Saturday, 4 November 2023
A BALLY CHEEK FROM BALLYMORE
Ballymore is hoping that they can persuade Cllr Husband and the planning officers to approve a 2,500-unit scheme at Kensal Canalside without any proper infrastructural support.
It is time that Husband be removed from chairmanship of planning: he is unfit for purpose and a puppet in the hands of the planning department.
This is an extract from the THINK blog
"It is seriously impossible to see how 2,400 homes (for that is what Ballymore plans to build) can work there when there is no station close by and there is only one road in and one road out. We also are not terribly impressed with the designs and layout; we are far from convinced that even 20% of the homes will genuinely be “affordable ” (not forgetting that taller buildings have rather expensive maintenance upkeep) and we remain completely unconvinced that Ballymore is a socially responsible developer."
Thursday, 2 November 2023
GERRY ADAMS SUPPORTS HAMAS...NO SURPRISE THERE
a couple wearing paragliding images as used by Hamas to sail in and murder innocents
Looking at the Hamas-supporting hordes clogging the streets of London it is easy to get the idea that they don't actually have 'proper jobs'....you know the sort of job that gives you a taxable income in order to do your little bit for the country...like paying for education, healthcare et al. And what normal company would give time off in support to Hamas?
To put it crudely, they look like like a mass drag on the country.
Their main occupation seems to be Jew-baiting.
Without being discriminatory they don't look the sort you would give a job to.
How different from the Anglo-Jewish community who have made such a massive contribution to the British Isles in every field of endeavor...medicine, the law, business....the list is endless.
One cannot help but feel this hatred of Jewish people is in the greater part down to envy at their intellectual prowess and energy.
The Hamas supporters seem like a sad bunch of losers with nothing to do all day because they are unemployable.
They don't look too well washed either....
Some things never change. When the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem met Hitler in 1941 they both agreed the Jewish race should be obliterated 'from the river to the sea'
Monday, 30 October 2023
FELICITY NEEDS A WORD WITH HUSBAND
This is Cllr James Husband. As chairman of the Planning Committee, he voted for the demolition of the fit-for-purpose M&S building in King's Rd and the redevelopment of the site.
Michael Gove recently stopped the destruction of the M&S building in Oxford St on the grounds of incompatibility with the government's low-carbon future strategy.
Perhaps she should invite along Husband....
He seems not to understand government policy....or maybe he has been the subject of undue influence?
Sunday, 29 October 2023
SCOTT DYLAN AND HM GOVERNMENT
This weasel-looking fellow is Scott Dylan.... though that is not his birth name but did the Treasury ever do due diligence on this man?
Why did it not ask why he had changed his name?
Dylan is currently being pursued by Barclays Bank which has a global freezing order on his assets.
He admits to past issues and he and his company has been the subject of a mass of negative press comment.
Not long ago the Dame drew Felicity Buchan's attention to the activities of Dylan and his confrere, Jack Mason. She pointed out the two government-backed institutions were renting office space from the duo. Nothing has been done!
It is symbolic of this awful government that despite warning Felicity Buchan the Treasury has done nothing to cease its lease arrangement with this very dodgy(that is being polite) company
Is it really right that HMG should be dealing with a BVI company owing hundreds of thousands to HMRC and where connected people are subject of Global Freezing Orders on their assets.
It seems with the government anything goes.
MISS BUCHAN? PRIORITIES....IT'S ABOUT PRIORITIES
THIS IS NOT A PRIORITY
Several ministers....more senior to Felicity Buchan, suggest Inheritance Tax needs reform.
Miss Buchan says the ministerial code silences her and is unable to give a view.
It sounds as if she is making herself out to be a special case!
Rampant property price inflation impacts Miss Buchan’s constituents yet the payment point has remained unadjusted for many years: IHT is a classic example of double taxation.
Numerous surveys suggest it is one of the UK’s most hated taxes.
Stamp duty is another tax in need of drastic reform.
Payment thresholds have never been adjusted to reflect property price inflation.
Patrick Bullick of Chelsea based agency, Stanley Chelsea opines:
"The progressively higher Stamp Duty hits her constituents harder than most. She should be fighting for Stamp Duty to be the same % whatever the value of the property. Lower Stamp Duty on the higher value properties would mean a more fluid market allowing properties to be bought by those who really need them.
Felicity Buchan should also be aware that the 28% CGT on investment property (vs 20% on other assets) again restricts fluidity and keeps prices higher than they need to be."
Finally, Kensington businesses- large and small, struggle with business rates.
Business rates are calculated on rental values.
Inflation has forced up rents over the last two decades yet no adjustments have been made.
If your rent is £40,000 a year you can expect to pay nearly half of that in (anti) business rates.
The MP’s current obsession appears to be running a Kensington Environment Forum.
The Dame would prefer Miss Buchan to hold a Forum on these taxes that hit her constituents hard.
She needs to sort out her priorities.
Running a Kensington Environment Forum is not a priority.
Thursday, 26 October 2023
ANOTHER KILLING AND A POINTLESS STATEMENT
This above is for whoever cannot understand what a bladed weapon is. Frustrating for the police to recover this and know the carrier will get a derisory sentence
Elizabeth Campbell wrote the below about the killing in North Kensington...not terribly confidence-inspiring and really quite pointless.
This blog has consistently pointed out that the only way to stamp out knife crime is to impose the very heaviest penalties.
Carrying a bladed weapon in a public place should carry a mandatory sentence of 8 years.
Using a bladed weapon a minimum of 15 years.
Over the lives of successive Conservative governments, crime has soared.
Campbell should be backing harsh sentences rather than boring us all with her meaningless statements.
Leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, Cllr Elizabeth Campbell said:
“I have been shocked and saddened by the news that a man was stabbed and killed in our community last night. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
“Council officers will be working alongside the police today to provide an increased presence in Kensal Road and the surrounding area to support and reassure residents.
“There is no place for violence on our streets. I would like to reassure residents that we hear and understand their concerns over safety. We are working every day alongside the Police to make people feel safer with more visible on street uniformed presence and collaborative working with other authorities.”
Sunday, 22 October 2023
CLLR MONA ADAM SAYS BRITAIN NOT DOING ENOUGH FOR REFUGEES
Some of us might mind her inference we are not doing enough quite insulting.
Britain can be proud of its history of helping refugees settle into this country.
For a country close to bankruptcy we are doing more than our fair share.
We are now full to bursting.
Perhaps it is time Cllr Adam told us why rich Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are doing so little to assist their co-religionists fleeing oppression and war?
Both countries are rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
When they do invite in the dispossessed treat them callously.
Cllr Adam is a very irritating person....
JEREMY AND TERROR LEADER HAVING A CHIT CHAT!
Cllr Mona Ahmed's hero chatting to terror leader
According to today's Times the stupid leader of Barnet Council sold a discounted council house to a wanted Hamas terror leader, Muhammad Qassem Sawalha. We even gave him British citizenship despite the Home Office barring citizenship to those supporting terrorist activities.Barnet has the highest concentration of Jewish people of any London borough: must be reassuring if Jewish to know you have someone living amongst you who wants you dead.
Barnet's Labour leader is going to investigate but if a picture is worth a thousand words don't get too excited about the outcome!
"A Hamas fugitive who “ran the group’s terrorist operations in the West Bank” and served on its ruling body lives in London in a council property he recently bought with a £112,000 discount.
Muhammad Qassem Sawalha evaded Israel’s security services using a relative’s passport and fled to the UK in the 1990s, later obtaining British citizenship.
Upon arrival, Sawalha, 62, continued to work for Hamas, holding secret talks about “revitalising” terrorist acts in Israel and helping to launder money to support activities in Gaza and the West Bank, according to a US Department of Justice indictment in 2004.
As recently as 2019, he took part in an official Hamas delegation to Moscow, where he met Vladimir Putin’s deputy foreign minister, and served on Hamas’s politburo between 2013 and 2017. The father of four was pictured with Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, in 2010 and 2012.
Saturday, 21 October 2023
SUNAK AND TEAM PROMISE JAM TOMORROW
This is the same government that promised to reform the strangulating anti-Business Rates....nothing happened there!
The small print is that the promise will be within the GE manifesto.
No one believes this government will win or keep its promises.
If Rishi wants to get some traction he will need to make the changes well ahead of the election.
We all remember Osborne's empty promise to lift IHT levels to £1million.....
And whilst on the subject what on earth does Sunak think he is doing careering around the Middle East playing the international statesman.
We are a small country beset with serious problems. He will add nothing by this posturing.
Stay at home and get on with your job here.
Friday, 20 October 2023
A PLAGUE ON ALL THEIR HOUSES
Alistair Strathern MP on time out from rate setting at the Bank of England
The Dame's 'higher education' was an exclusive Swiss finishing school.
The new MP for Mid Beds, Alistair Strathern(yes, one of the Perthshire Stratherns) is a young Oxbridge man with a PPE and a £120k a year job at the Bank of England.
Al went to a £37,000 a year public school, Bedford, and then to Oxford. How has he managed to acquire this hideous faux estuary accent? Ironically, he now wants to remove the charitable status of his alma mater! Such hypocrites these politicos. It got him to Oxford but now he wants to close the door to fellow middle-class people.
One supposes he feels the lower orders are more comfortable doing a 'one of us'
The cheeky rascal decided to take a couple of hours from bean counting at the Bank to do a Greenpeace demo in Whitehall.
That time out cost the taxpayers £400
Nadine Dorries who Al beat was eccentric but the voters now need a bit of maturity.
Thursday, 19 October 2023
COMMENTS ABOUT CLLR LARI
Can whoever is posting silly stuff about Cllr Lari and Hezbollah cease. It is irritating and untrue
Wednesday, 18 October 2023
CLLR AHMED HAS A MOAN ABOUT STARMER
She has decided to leave the Party but still wants to hang on in there as an Independent.
In all her ramblings it should be noted that not once has she condemned Hamas.
That's fine but she needs to resign and let the electorate decide.
Why she ever took the Labour whip is a great mystery as it seems she has always been deeply in love with Mr Corbyn.
Tuesday, 17 October 2023
THE DAME TAKES A TUMBLE ON A GIN BUYING EXPEDITION
The dear old Dame was pottering up to Harrods to collect her weekly bottle of Gordons when she tripped up on a huge pile of rental bikes. It seems they have been abandoned.
This really is taking the piss on the part of the bike rental companies.
This looks to be a job for Streetline as they are clearly no longer required....or perhaps they could be impounded and the Council could then make Tier et al pay several thousand pounds for their return.
Monday, 16 October 2023
TOO MANY COOKS NOT COOKING
shirkers
The case of the absentee Colville councillors raises the question as to whether three concillors per ward is ever necessary.In the case of Colville, one councillor carries the entire workload because of the absences of Benton and Issie.
Cllr Bakhtiar is now left doing all the case work.
But this is not just a Labour issue.
Other wards suffer with one councillor carrying the workload.
Cllr Marshall at Courtfield Ward rarely turns up for work!
Another is the traditionally indolent Mary Weale of Brompton and Hans Town ward.
She has even forgotten where the ward is!
Still, the hefty allowance helps maintain her 'chateau' in Tarn et Garonne...courtesy of K&C taxpayers,
Soon the Dame will be taking a closer look at the shirkers...so beware!
Sunday, 15 October 2023
CLLR ISSE SERVES THREE MASTERS!
Unless she is able to teleport herself it is difficult to see how she manages to be effective as a RBKC councillor.
Taxpayers suffer in two ways: having to fund her £13k a year allowance and not having her to do her job representing the people.
The Dame has terribly eyesight but cannot seem to see these two jobs in Mogadishu declared. Is that not something that Cllr Ali should be berating her for? Tribal politics?
