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Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb
The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog. We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).
What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are
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Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
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Labour?s ?Mission-Driven? Government is the Antithesis of Liberty Tue Jul 23, 2024 17:30 | Dr David McGrogan
Labour is "mission-driven", says Keir Starmer. But the last thing anyone should want is a Government with a mission, says David McGrogan. That's because a Government with a mission needs conscripts. That's you and me.
The post Labour’s “Mission-Driven” Government is the Antithesis of Liberty appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Victory! Hospitals That Brought Back Mask Mandates Backtrack After Complaints Tue Jul 23, 2024 15:30 | Dr Gary Sidley
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The post Victory! Hospitals That Brought Back Mask Mandates Backtrack After Complaints appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Read it and Weep: The BBC Journalists Taking Home Six Figure Salaries Courtesy of the Licence Fee Pa... Tue Jul 23, 2024 13:45 | Will Jones
Read it and weep: the list of the BBC journalists taking home six figure salaries courtesy of the licence fee payer. Disgraced presenter Huw Edwards came top with £475k despite being off air for nine months of the year.
The post Read it and Weep: The BBC Journalists Taking Home Six Figure Salaries Courtesy of the Licence Fee Payer appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
David Lammy: The Foreign Secretary Who Called Trump ?a Racist KKK and Nazi Sympathiser? and Refuses ... Tue Jul 23, 2024 12:43 | Peter Harris
Britain's new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is on record calling Donald Trump "a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser" and has refused to apologise. This is clearly going to be a problem, says Peter Harris.
The post David Lammy: The Foreign Secretary Who Called Trump “a Racist KKK and Nazi Sympathiser” and Refuses to Apologise appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Catching Covid Does Not Lower Your IQ Tue Jul 23, 2024 09:00 | Noah Carl
Headlines earlier this year proclaimed that catching Covid may knock up to 6 points off your IQ. A new study punctures this claim: there was no decline in cognitive test scores after Covid infection.
The post Catching Covid Does Not Lower Your IQ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6Private sector workers have already had their taxes raised and their pay cut because the businesses they are employed by will simply go to the wall otherwise in a shrinking market.
The public sector exists soldely because it is funded by taxpayers, the majority of whom are also working people who do not have secure employment because of the recession.
The government simply does not have income from taxes to continue its current spending and its ability to borrow is restricted.
If it does not cut taxes it must borrow to make up the shortfall or else the IMF will step in and make the decisions for them.
At the moment when the cost of living is falling it is simply unrealistic to expect the government to be able to maintain its current spending the majority of which is public sector pay and social welfare.
No amount of rhetoric about class struggle so going to alter the cruel of facts of life that government spending in all areas must be cut one way or another , sacrificing many services, laying off workers and cutting social welfare and other payments.
Realist, the governmnet has many other options to make up the shortfall. Most of the richest people in Ireland don't even pay a penny tax. That could be changed. And they could take back control of the huge oil and gas reserves off our coast that have been just given away. No public service pay or social welfare cuts are neccesary.
All workers have had the rate of tax they pay raised.
Beyond that
A 90% tax on earnings over 100k would raise 2.1 billion
A cap on public sector wages at 100k would raise 450 million
A 5% wealth tax which excludes farming land would raise 8 billion
In the longer term there is the equivalent of 10 billion barrels of oil off the Irish coasts. This is almost been given away to Shell and other companies at the present. If the government took 70% of this, the rate Russia, Angola and Nigeria among other countries do, this would see 294 billion coming in as these fields are developed.
''If it does not cut taxes it must borrow to make up the shortfall or else the IMF will step in and make the decisions for them.''
These are classic scare tactics. As a previous commentator pointed out, there is plenty of revenue in Ireland, its just not FOR Ireland. There is over €500billion worth of oil&gas here. Why cut, when we can raise taxes for the wealthy and tax Shell to good heavens.
'We are going to use your money to help out our friends in the banks who helped facilitate this economic crisis. While we do that, we're going to attack the people who had nothing to do with the crisis, and/or actually got nothing from the Celtic tiger era. If you don't bow down and take it... we're going to call the IMF (we wont really)'. - Brian Lenihan's Diary
"These are classic scare tactics. As a previous commentator pointed out, there is plenty of revenue in Ireland, its just not FOR Ireland. There is over €500billion worth of oil&gas here. Why cut, when we can raise taxes for the wealthy and tax Shell to good heavens."
Are you an economic illiterate?
Government revenue is gathered from business profits and from the wages of workers.
Do you think that you can raise endlessly raise taxes to "good heavens" without any impact whatsoever on businesses and without any knock on effects on government tax revenue?
Money is invested in businesses including Shell for profit. No other reason. That is why economic activity exists. People are investing in enterprises which will increase the amount of money they invested. When enterprises cease to be profitable or lose money they collapse and are broken up to retrieve what money the investors can still get back from their failed investments.
If investors find that too much tax is taken from their profits with the result they do not make the profits they wanted, they do not make any profit or they end up with less money than they initially invested, they will be less likely to invest in Irish business enterprises and they will invest their money elsewhere.
Raising taxes and borrowing to cover public spending is the road to ruin.
Banks borrow money because they know that the debtor will pay them back plus interest. That is why it is profitable to lend money.
If the government does not have the ability to raise the revenue to finance its debts then the borrowers will no longer lend the money.
When profits dry up and businesses go to the wall then tax revenues will plummet and there will be less money for public spending.
Do you think the deal oil companies like Shell get in this country is good for the people?
The only chance the state has to get revenue from the resources is through the very low 20% tax rate. And the corporations can write all their expenses off against it, so the exchequer will probably get nothing.