Whats amused you (in the news) today ?

Should women get protection against “extreme misogyny” by the gov? Yes.

Is there any law to protect women against “extreme misogyny ” atm? Probably not, it’s not even recognised as hate crime.

What the Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) of the UK government think? Those men need mental health treatment.

Have those men got identified in the UK and received any treatment? A big no.

Why we have incel community? I don’t know, but it is believed they are “involuntary celibate” as they can’t form sexual and romantic relationships.

Could they sign up dating apps? Probably yes.

Would they get recovered with the dating app? Probably not, the chance is meeting someone (a real woman in the UK) for average men on Tinder is less than 0.01% unless they are the “top 3% “. Matching someone doesn’t mean meeting someone. let alone forming a real relationship.

Quite the opposite.  The minimum amount in the proposal recognises that lots of houses in poorer parts of the country are worth less than £200,000 (actually a bit less than that), and sets the minimum for those houses at £800.  To this extent, the proposal (like the existing Council tax) would remain regressive - albeit much less regressive than the present system.  

There's an article on the proposal (from a centre-right thinktank) here.  The proposed tax would actually replace both Council tax and stamp duty.  According to the article the proposed annual rates are:

0.44% on property up to £500,000 with a minimum £800
0.54% on the next £500,000
0.81% on the excess over £1 million.

The excess over 0.44% for houses over £500,000 would go to central government as a replacement for stamp duty, while councils would keep the 0.44%.

Without a minimum rate, councils' tax revenues in poorer parts would (in the absence of redistribution) go through the floor.  I suspect that, even with a minimum, councils in poorer areas would be worse off and councils in richer areas better off than under the present system. I think some redistribution would likely be needed.  There's no mention of redistribution in the article, but I've not been back to the source. 

If you were to accept the principle of redistribution, the proposal could be made less regressive by reducing the minimum and raising the other percentages to compensate.  If you got rid of the minimum altogether you'd basically be abolishing council tax altogether and going back to the old Rates.  I'd be OK with that but it's not something I'd expect a a tory think tank to suggest!

The CT banding *desperately* needs reviewing. It's still based on 1991 nominal values. House prices have not risen evenly throughout the country, so those areas with bigger rises have a big advantage over those with smaller.

We bought our last house, in the SE, in 1998.
Within a month or three, our predecessors in this house, in the Welsh borders, bought this one. They paid 8% more than we did.

When we moved eleven years ago, we sold that SE house for 50% more than we paid here - and our predecessors had built a bloody great big extension adding ~40% to the floor area.

TBH, I think that gap's probably evened out over the last decade. I'd guess here is now worth about 15-20% less than the old place is currently on the market for, with a larger £ increase here - and they've built an extension there...

After a long period of broad stability, the bands are going to be thrown even further off in the next 5 years as the number of houses getting built dramatically changes some areas and less so others.

continuing the Boeing theme:

SpaceX will return stranded astronauts next year

So a decision has finally been made. The Boeing Starliner will return empty at some point, and Nasa has resorted to hailing an Uber. Just happens to be a Musk shaped one, and it's going to take till February to arrive. 

Not been a great few years for Boeing, one has to say.