Resolved: Angela Rayner Is An Idiot

To insist upon something we've already tried that has failed is indeed idiocy

So, why did we stop doing something? Because it didn’t work. And what is that definition of insane? Doing the same thing again and expecting a different outcome? But we must not accuse the Deputy Prime Minister of being insane after all.

As to why we should not accuse the D-PM of such a failure is illustrated by the last time I did accuse a Labour Party D-PM of something. That led to Google actually changing its algorithm.

No, really. Way back when it was fairly simple to create a “GoogleBomb”. You set up a few links, using anchor text of your preferred word, and if you did that enough times then the first Google result for that anchor text would be the page you’d linked to. Thus: fuckwit. This will not work for Ms. Rayner these days but back when it did:

The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom some time back was John Prescott. He had a plan called Pathfinder. The U.K. was short of decent and cheap housing. Therefore, to solve this problem, Prescott’s Pathfinder plan was that we should knock down a few hundred thousand decent and cheap houses. Yes, knock down, not knock up.

I thought this was a very silly idea, the work of a — well, a word unsuited to a family publication.

Still, after I launched the Googlebomb (by linking my nasty word to the target webpage with a few friends adding their own such links), something interesting happened. If you went to Google and entered the word “fuckwit” then as the first answer, and the “I feel lucky” answer, up came the webpage of John Prescott, deputy prime minister. Contrary to some reports, this wasn’t about his being ill-educated — far from it, I admire his ability to have risen so far. It was purely about this particular plan of his.

Certain people weren’t too happy about this, and Tony Blair is thought to have complained to Google directly. Well, yes, “fuckwit” is a little close to the bone for a senior politician, I agree, and so seemingly did Google. Changes to the algorithm in 2007 made it all very much more difficult to do such a thing again.

But enough about me, Ms. Rayner:

Angela Rayner sent a secret memo to Rachel Reeves pushing for a new tax raid on savers, The Telegraph can reveal.

In the document, seen by our reporters, the Deputy Prime Minister proposed eight tax increases including reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and changing dividend taxes.

Eh?

One idea was reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance, which had placed a limit of just above £1 million on how much could be saved in a pension without incurring higher tax charges.

When he was the Conservative chancellor, Jeremy Hunt abolished the allowance and it ended in April last year.

So, why was that limit dropped? Because £1 million is a usual - and I do mean usual - NHS pension pot for a doctor in their 50s. The tax rates on greater pension contributions, plus the normal income taxes, were such that people could end up with less cash in hand for working an extra or emergency shift. Thus not only did people not put all hands on deck when necessary, doctors were starting to take ever earlier retirements. Senior doctors retiring in the late 50s is a serious drain upon the NHS. And also - obviously - a money loser for the taxman.

So, why did we stop this taxation of “excessive” pensions pots? Because it lost revenue. It took tax rates well over the Laffer Curve peak if you prefer.

So, what’s Ms. Rayner, Labour’s Deputy Prime Minister, suggesting today? That we reimpose a policy that we already know fails.

Idiot’s a bit mild really, isn’t it? Also, it’s rather a pity that Googlebombs don’t work these days.