Kettle, toaster (2)

Kettle, toaster

Politically Correct madness of the week

Wanted: blind air traffic controller.

Department of Transport launch additional consultation on third runway at Heathrow because "We also want to be sure, given the socio-demographic mix in the Heathrow area, that we fully understand how airport development might affect different groups in terms of race, disability, age or gender". (via Ian_QT)

National Children's Bureau: "Toddlers who say 'yuk' to spicy food are potentially racist". (via Ross and Snafu)

Mother required to undergo Criminal Records Bureau vetting in order to be able to accompany her disabled son to school. (via HH)

Dramatic graphs

The aforementioned article in The Daily Telegraph also featured this rather dramatic looking chart: There's not much you can add to that!

Dramatic headlines

As I said in my previous post ... hopefully we'll see an end to the boring and misleading comments about 'worst house price falls since the 1990s' and start hearing phrases like '... in living memory' or '... since records began' or, for that matter, '... ever'.

The Daily Telegraph has now gone for "Slide in house prices is the worst since the Great Depression"

Damn. I forgot that one *kicks self*. But out of interest, am I correct in thinking that '... since the Great Depression' isn't quite such a long period as '... in living memory'?

"House prices fall by £20,000"

... was the original headline to this article in the Daily Mail, which originally just summarised the Halifax June House Price Index.

The revised headline is "House prices falling at fastest rate for 50 years - and interest rates won't be cut until 2009", and the author Becky Barrow has actually done a few minutes research, as evidenced by the first few sentences:

The price of the average home in Britain has plunged £17,000 since January, devastating figures revealed today. House prices are falling at a rate not witnessed since records began in the 1950s, according to the report from the banking giant Halifax. This suggests the current meltdown is even worse than the previous house price collapse in the 1990s.

So hopefully we'll see an end to the boring and misleading comments about 'worst house price falls since the 1990s' and start hearing phrases like '... in living memory' or '... since records began' or, for that matter, '... ever'.

Lilies (2)

George W Bush makes a fool of himself (part 94)

Jonathan Pearce over at Samizdata commends GWB warmly for this parting shot:

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Nice try, George, but didn't you know that the USA have been overtaken by The People's Republic of China?

"Everyone looks the same in China"

This delightfully un-PC insight is from Lucy Liu's 60 Second Interview in The Metro.
Lucy Liu, you rock!

The penny has finally dropped...

I was advising a client* a few months ago about the likely capital gains tax bill, were he and his wife to sell a house which was standing at a capital gain of £1 million**. They bought it in 1991 and lived there until 1997, when they bought a new flat in London (for job related reasons). Since then they have lived in the new flat and rented out their old home. They intend to sell the London flat (also standing at a huge capital gain) when they take early retirement in 2010 and can't decide whether to move back into their old home, or sell it and trade down.

Well, say I, the capital gain on the new flat is nothing to worry about as you lived there throughout the period of ownership - you get the so-called 'private residence exemption'. Simple enough.

And, as to your old home, if you move back in in 2010 and then decide you don't like it and sell it a year later, the gain of £1 million is divided into twenty years of ownership. The first six are exempt because you actually lived there, the last three are exempt because you lived there at some time in the period of ownership, another four years' because the law says so and then another three years because you moved away for work reasons - but the last two chunks are only exempt if you move back in for a year (Motley Fool so a nice summary of this, or you can refer to the proper legislation).

Great, so sixteen-twentieths of the gain are exempt. That leaves us with a potentially taxable gain of £200,000. Split that 50/50 between husband and wife makes £100,000 each. Knock off the £40,000 letting exemption and the Annual Exempt Amount of £9,600 leaves you with £50,400 each taxable at 18%, gives a tax bill of about £9,000 each.

"Wow, that's great," says the client, "£18,000 tax on a £1 million gain! Why are the rules so generous?"

I didn't actually have an answer to that ... until the whole story about MPs and their taxpayer-funded second homes came to light.

So now we know. MPs don't just help themselves to our money to buy themselves second homes, they have bent and shaped the capital gains tax legislation to make damn' sure that they pay precious little tax either.

* I have simplified this a bit to illustrate the point.

** A bit less now, I think, but at the time the client refused to countenance the possibility that prices would tank.