The Night Mail

[Oldddudders]

I pay my taxes in France, but my two pensions are paid - untaxed - in the UK, although one is paid in euros directly into my French bank account. I therefore pay a fixed sum in tax each month, and a reckoning after I file my annual return then determines what needs to happen next - pay the shortfall/receive a rebate. The next year's monthly sum is based on the outcome. 

 

As a resident of France, EU law requires me to pay my taxes here - but I remain convinced I pay less than I would do in the UK. 

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, NHY 581 said:

Footage has emerged onto social media of HH in the bath.......

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CotofUOA4xs/?igshid=MGU3ZTQzNzY=

 

I think somebody, no names no packdrill but his first name has an H in it, has nobbled it as its not coming up.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Winslow Boy
It is hobbled with a N not an H you stupid piece of software.

[Winslow Boy]

37 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I pay my taxes in France, but my two pensions are paid - untaxed - in the UK, although one is paid in euros directly into my French bank account. I therefore pay a fixed sum in tax each month, and a reckoning after I file my annual return then determines what needs to happen next - pay the shortfall/receive a rebate. The next year's monthly sum is based on the outcome. 

 

As a resident of France, EU law requires me to pay my taxes here - but I remain convinced I pay less than I would do in the UK. 

 

That's what they want you to think. Mind you the way things are going at the moment there might be more than a grain of truth in your statement.

[Happy Hippo]

Don't forget that today is 'Great British Spring Clean Day'.

 

I'm going to get the carpet cleaner out...

 

... Whether I actually use it is a different matter.

[Dave Hunt]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Some years ago in the old US of A I followed a car that had a bumper sticker that read, "Fight organised crime, disband the IRS"

 

One of the best (IMHO) bumper stickers I saw in America was at Pier 39 in san Francisco; it had a cartoon figure of  woman and read, "I'm out of oestrogen and I have a gun - BACK OFF!"

 

Dave

[Winslow Boy]

43 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

Same here. "No taxation without representation" was, after all a slogan coined by men who regarded themselves as subjects of King George, and if Westminster had been able to come up with some coherent reply, there would probably never have been a Revolution at all.

 

That said, Georgian England wasn't a place where personal taxation was practiced. Taxes were levied on transactions, in those days; the point was that there was no provision for those early "Brother Johnathans" to VOTE on them. 

 

 

Oh I think they would have come up with a good enough reason to cast off the shackles of the imperial yoke, I believe that's the correct modern inturpretation. Mind you it does raise the interesting thought that as slavery was abolished in 1820, might be wrong with that date but it was circa that period, in the Empire would the America civil war had occurred and if it hadn't would the USA exist or would it be a series of small/medium sized states?

[Winslow Boy]

7 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Don't forget that today is 'Great British Spring Clean Day'.

 

I'm going to get the carpet cleaner out...

 

... Whether I actually use it is a different matter.

 

Oh Big H that's posh. You actually have a carpet cleaner. Uuup orth we just hang the piece of carpet over the scullery wall and head butt it- as weer' 'are uuup 'north yah c.

[Compound2632]

57 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

That said, Georgian England wasn't a place where personal taxation was practiced. Taxes were levied on transactions, in those days; 

 

Not quite true, The Window Tax was an attempt at progressive taxation of property. This had a precedent in the late medieval Hearth Tax. Was the Window Tax raised in the American colonies?

 

 

[Compound2632]

10 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

as slavery was abolished in 1820, might be wrong with that date but it was circa that period, in the Empire 

 

In 1833. (The Slave Trade having been abolished in 1907.) The government made no provision for the emancipated slaves but the owners were compensated to the tune of £20 million over the years 1837 - 1844, which, curiously enough, coincides with the first boom in railway promotion. 

[TheQ]

10 hours ago, BR60103 said:

What % of income do they earn?

 

From what I can find 14 % of national income.

 

While looking for that I found the top 10% pay 60% of all national income tax.

[TheQ]

58 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

In 1833. (The Slave Trade having been abolished in 1907.) The government made no provision for the emancipated slaves but the owners were compensated to the tune of £20 million over the years 1837 - 1844, which, curiously enough, coincides with the first boom in railway promotion. 

Effectively the government bought the slaves and then set them free. 

Had they not done it that way it's pretty certain the thin red line would not have had the manpower to enforce a straight ban. So slavery would have gone on much longer..

[polybear]

3 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

Footage has emerged onto social media of HH in the bath.......

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CotofUOA4xs/?igshid=MGU3ZTQzNzY=

 

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK...............😱

 

You could've warned us it involves Big H and a full frontal shot........

Bear is scarred.......

 

 

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

'Great British Spring Clean Day'.

When I dismantled the small food mixer a couple of days ago I cleaned the spring that operated the switch return. It was made in the Netherlands though. 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Tony_S

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

In 1833. (The Slave Trade having been abolished in 1907.) The government made no provision for the emancipated slaves but the owners were compensated to the tune of £20 million over the years 1837 - 1844, which, curiously enough, coincides with the first boom in railway promotion. 

 

When I was in Mauritius some 25 years ago I was told by a local history buff that although slavery may have been abolished in 1833 it effectively carried on in the sugar cane plantations there for a good many years after that .

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

3 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

When I dismantled the small food mixer a couple of days I cleaned the spring that operated the switch return. It was made in the Netherlands though. 

 

And the little light that illuminated it came from the Dutch bulb fields?

 

Dave

[Winslow Boy]

34 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

And the little light that illuminated it came from the Dutch bulb fields?

 

Dave

 

Not nowadays as the Dutch have 'diversified' into nitrate reduction and the easiest way to do that is to close down farms.

[rockershovel]

3 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Oh I think they would have come up with a good enough reason to cast off the shackles of the imperial yoke, I believe that's the correct modern inturpretation. Mind you it does raise the interesting thought that as slavery was abolished in 1820, might be wrong with that date but it was circa that period, in the Empire would the America civil war had occurred and if it hadn't would the USA exist or would it be a series of small/medium sized states?

I really wouldn't put money on that. The East India Company passed from effectively uncontrolled free enterprise, to the full pomp and circumstance of Empire. The real question is whether Westminster could have adapted to what, in effect was Universal Suffrage several decades before Chsrtism? 

[Winslow Boy]

38 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

When I was in Mauritius some 25 years ago I was told by a local history buff that although slavery may have been abolished in 1833 it effectively carried on in the sugar cane plantations there for a good many years after that .

 

Dave

 

It was much the same in the Good Old US of A. Although the slaves had been freed with Abraham Lincoln proclamation they were so poor and the plantation owners kept them tied to them economically they couldn't afford to move.

[Winslow Boy]

3 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

I really wouldn't put money on that. The East India Company passed from effectively uncontrolled free enterprise, to the full pomp and circumstance of Empire. The real question is whether Westminster could have adapted to what, in effect was Universal Suffrage several decades before Chsrtism? 

 

Yes I can see your point. However the example of the east India company is more a case of 'keeping it off the books' and greed. The difficulty came into it due to the fact that government and business were often done by the same person/official. 

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK...............😱

 

You could've warned us it involves Big H and a full frontal shot........

Bear is scarred.......

 

 

 

That will teach you not to watch such things my young bear.

[Winslow Boy]

Il Dottore is a bit quiet today. You don't think those negotiations between credit Suisse and UBS are taking up to much of his time do you.

[Tony_S]

11 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Il Dottore is a bit quiet today. You don't think those negotiations between credit Suisse and UBS are taking up to much of his time do you.

AditI’s cousin’s wife is a wealth advisor for Credit Suisse, I suspect she may be available for consultations soon. 

[iL Dottore]

I see that TNM posters are now dabbling in what they term “alternate history“, not just a subset of science fiction, but a unique genre in its own right. (the Wikipedia entry on this topic is quite fascinating). It even has its own historical subset of serious study amongst historians where it is termed “counterfactual history“, where historians endeavour to determine what would have been the outcome if “A“ hadn’t happened and “B” did. Apparently, this is a serious discipline as it looks at the impact of various events in various combinations on potential outcomes - thus providing a better understanding of how the historical event actually did proceed.

 

Whether “alternate history” or “counterfactual history”, it really can be quite fascinating. Of course, the more chronological distance between your pivotal, historical event, and the time of your ultimate history narrative, the more implausible (that is not to say not enjoyable), the resulting story.
 

So, a story set in the 20th century in a world where either the Roman Empire never fell or the North lost the American Civil War, would be more or less plausible, but mostly fictive. Whereas a story set in 2023, featuring a very recent, alternate, pivotal event (such as where @Happy Hippo has developed a cake allergy in 2019, or @Winslow Boy got a grant from the council to build two sheds or @polybearbeing smitten by a young lady in 2022 and has learned to cook properly for her) would be mostly factive with only a few things changing due to the alternate pivotal event. So, to take one of the illustrative examples above, where Happy Hippo develops a cake allergy, it is likely his life would not change much, except that instead of having a single-minded devotion to the pursuit of cake, he could have a single-minded devotion to the pursuit of cream buns. And so on…

 

Speculating “what if?“ might be great intellectual fun, it’s still - nonetheless - not something you should unhealthily focus on (as J. K. Rowling ably pointed out in the first Harry Potter book with her “Mirror of Erised” creation).

Edited March 20, 2023 by iL Dottore
Damn Autocorrect: changing alternate to ultimate

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I see that TNM posters are now doubling in what they term “ultimate history“, not just a subset of science fiction, but a unique genre in its own right. (the Wikipedia entry on this topic is quite fascinating). It even has its own historical subset of serious study amongst historians where it is termed “counterfactual history“,

 

Old hat. But have you considered what posters could have been doing if they hadn't been posting.

[iL Dottore]

44 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Il Dottore is a bit quiet today. You don't think those negotiations between credit Suisse and UBS are taking up to much of his time do you.

iL Dottore junior came to me this morning and asked me if he could buy Credit Suisse.  I told him he could do what he liked with his pocket money….