Interesting Links for 13-07-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Starlink satellites took evasive action 25,000 times in the last 6 months (that's once every ten minutes)

(tags:space Spacex )

2. Doctor Who: Should Russell T Davies Acknowledge The Timeless Child?

(tags:drwho TV )

3. Important UK political question - which of these objects from the parliament gift shop is the most horrific?

(tags:UK politics craft awful wtf )

4. Deep in a Highland glen 155 years ago the world's first golden retrievers were born.

(tags:dogs history scotland )

5. Council tax rises of up to 22% proposed for Scotland (sliding scale, ours would be 7.5%)

(tags:tax scotland housing )

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

I know someone who would love (tolerate) the Clem Attlee Toby jug.

2

[danieldwilliam]

Russell T Davies should punch Chibnall right in the happysacks. We'd all be happier, even Chibnall, who on some deep cosmic level must know he deserves it.

Re: 2

[andrewducker]

I do really really wish that they hadn't given him the job.

[dewline]

2. I was and still am cool with "The Timeless Child" stuff. If Davies wants to focus on other stuff for now, that's fine.

3. Not pursuing that question.

5

[channelpenguin]

We have just had the equivalent here. Not done since the 60s! The total for the area isn't allowed to rise, just a redistribution. My house was assessed to be a bit more than I paid for it nearly 3 years ago. The apartment in Berlin could be a shocker though, as it's easily worth 3 X as much as I paid 9 years ago. But on the other hand, so is everything else... So I'm not sure yet.

[aldabra]

I notice that only the Maggie Thatcher one doesn't say it's a limited edition.

[fub]

I noticed that too. Maybe it's popular as a chamber pot, which keeps it "in print"?

[yalovetz]

And only the David Cameron one is out of stock.

[calimac]

1. Whenever I read a story like this, I wonder if anybody has ever seen this movie called Gravity.

3. What's most horrific is how little most of these jugs look like their purported subjects. If I had had to guess which PM the Anthony Eden jug was, I'd have guessed Harold Macmillan. The John Major jug looks more like James Callaghan. For others I'd have had to give up politics. Theresa May = Diana Wynne Jones? Ramsay Macdonald = G.K. Chesterton? Rishi Sunak = Christopher Lee as Count Dracula??

[cmcmck]

The worst?

I'd say a toss up between Bojo and Truss!

[ng_moonmoth]

Agree with you about Bojo. But I'd rank him neck and neck with Chamberlain -- excuse me, Chamberpot.

5

[penta]

Completely insane to an American, to be honest, that properties aren't re-assessed for tax purposes more often and on a regular basis. At least in New Jersey, properties have to be re-assessed for tax purposes every time they're sold (this is standard across the US - the price you sell your real estate at becomes the value the property tax is based off of, obviously, until the next re-assessment); they also have to be re-assessed every 5 years at maximum. When local governments try to not do it on a regular basis, the lawsuits never go well for them.

Re: 5

[andrewducker]

I completely agree.

It seems to be one of those things whereby everyone is terrified that doing so would cause negative newspaper headlines.

Re: 5

[penta]

Which is exactly why we have it automatic. Nobody needs to make any calls about when to revalue a property, only the tax rate.

Re: 5

[bens_dad]

I once saw a newspaper article claiming that, at the top end (20million), NY property taxes were a hundred (or maybe a thousand) times what they are in London.

Most of our local expenditure comes from income taxes, so the value of our property tax is low and the relative cost of a revaluation high.

We abandonded property taxes altogether in 1989/90. Scotland was a year ahead and proved that the "poll tax" was a disaster, with a widespread boycott, but England&Wales went ahead anyway ... and may even have brought down the Prime Minister, before we went back to property taxes in 1993.

Re: 5

[bens_dad]

... found the article - from 2019. Property tax in NY is nearly 100 times that of London, but it was on properties of 100-200 millon:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/08/london-mansion-new-york-local-council-tax-billionaires

[movingfinger]

Thank you for the golden retriever article! I do love seeing their party pictures at the big reunions.

[pseudomonas]

Only the Blair one looks grotesque enough. It's the Cheshire-cat grin.

(and I have just the right ceramic-politics icon for the occasion!)

[andrewducker]

What does it say?

[pseudomonas]

ΘΕΜΙΣΘΟΚΛΕΣ ΝΕΟΚΛΕΟΣ ("Themistocles [the son] of Neocles"). It's an ostrakon, so contextually the name is a vote to exile Themistocles from Athens.

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AGMA_Ostrakon_Th%C3%A9mistocle_1.jpg

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[anef]

I would happily vote to exile Boris!

[pseudomonas]

Here in Belgium we have a local income tax on residents, plus an annual property tax on owners based on a fixed % (I think about 4%) of rental value of a property, plus fairly hefty stamp-duty-approx-equivalent (in Brussels, 12.5% of property value if you own any other property or the property costs >€500k; 12.5% of the portion above €200k otherwise)

Property prices are somewhat lower than in the UK, possibly as a result of these; I suspect a lot of that is also due to rent controls and general tenants' rights making renting less of a bad option and making landlording somewhat less lucrative than in the UK, so buy-to-let isn't such a huge fad here. [insert here also the "ha ha it's because no-one wants to live in Belgium" jokes]

[andrewducker]

Yeah, UK stamp duty is lower than that, unless you're spending over a million. I think that the property tax works out similarly for me. No local income tax, of course. Except for the Scotland-wide one.

[pseudomonas]

There's variations between the regions here (it's really federal, yay)