Slugger O'Toole

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Profile for FuturePhysicist

I have a degree in a physics related area.
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FuturePhysicist has commented 890 times (36 in the last month).

  2. Comment on #G8: Taxation should remain focused on capital and employees not where sales are generated…
    on 18 June 2013 at 12:55 pm

    What is Sammy on about ? The Government of which he is a member gets not a loan but a £7.5 billion subvention every year so that living standards in Northern Ireland can remain at roughly 60% of those in the the South East of England .

    The problem for Ireland and Northern Ireland and indeed all those countries /states which want to attract FDI is that when every country becomes a low tax haven for multinational corporations then a race to the bottom ensues with revenue consequences which inevitably lead to cuts in basic services and an undermining of the social contract which many of us forget underpins what we call democracy.

    The other problem is that by trying to beat the Republic in this race to the bottom is that it does not directly incentive FDI. The leverage arguement is ridiculous that somehow Northern Ireland would reap the rewards if corporation tax in the Republic go up, in that regard FDI will simply move to the Netherlands and Luxembourg, you never hear this “bottom shifting” argument from a Unionist politician though, if you can’t grow your own economy it’s better to destroy someone else’s even when the net effect is an increase of a decline on your own, I would call it a Conservative arguement but it even attacks the very ethos of that ideology.

    The alternative of trying to “harmonise corporation tax rate” as you have mentioned is that the Laffer Curve gains may be complex or indeed limited, revenue from private infrastructure substitutes state investment and brings in more from indirect taxes and financial liquidity increases, providing in market revenue for small businesses, charities and workers, it provides enterprise and expertise generally not provided by the state. However these tax avoidance measures are not down to paying low levels corporation tax, as even that tax rate is avoided by shuffling the books creating pseudo-businesses investments to protect profits from the taxman. That is a Europe wide problem of dodgery which is essentially a battle between regulators and accountants etc.

    Maybe lowering income tax to accountants on provision of good compliance and raising taxes on the basis of regulation might promote tax avoidance avoidance.

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  4. Comment on G8 Youth Summit looks beyond Trade, Tax and Transparency to focus on Equality, Poverty, Health and Peace
    on 17 June 2013 at 5:25 pm

    If they want Trotskyism let them vote for it, I’d rather a United Left won seats and tried to argue the case than have the disenfranchised Trots become pub professors deterring people from representative democracy or any emancipation action.

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  5. Comment on For the sake of the future, the Assembly needs reform
    on 17 June 2013 at 5:19 pm

    The bottom line is we need to respect the will of the people, that will wants the DUP and or Sinn Féin at the head of government, our community here want the DUP and or Sinn Féin at the head of government. There has to be “swing voters” from these groups to opposition groups to change things or there has to be more voters going to the polls.

    This is what the majority of the people want, and with due respect to history and democracy here what ALL the people of this region deserve.

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  6. Comment on NI21′s chair Tina McKenzie on why she got involved, party labels and Alliance
    on 17 June 2013 at 5:07 pm

    in 40 years I think I have done more than they have

    I would probably advise her to stay away from these statements, criticising Alliance for failed potential is fair game, but for 40 years like it or not they’ve stayed in the political ecosystem here, they’ve gained voters, support and influence that NI21 have as yet had to. The Second thing wrong with the statement I think is that any business person or community worker who have claimed to do more outside the representative process of democracy than rival politicians invites the criticism that they are running out of steam in the business or community world and need to sink to the level of a politician rather than continue their work outside the system. That is not attractive to the voter.

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  7. Comment on Query: Why are the EU and Republic of Ireland flags at the Lough Erne G8 resort?
    on 17 June 2013 at 4:55 pm

    Has some idiot confused the Italian ‘tricolore’ for the Irish ‘trídhathach’ again?

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  8. Comment on G8 Youth Summit looks beyond Trade, Tax and Transparency to focus on Equality, Poverty, Health and Peace
    on 17 June 2013 at 4:49 pm

    Trade, Tax and Transparency would actually be good tools for achieving Equality, Peace, Universal Healthcare and Poverty reduction, so why on Earth should we look beyond them?

    Without Private Sector using trade, without Public Sector using taxes and without Community and Volunteer Sector using transparency of the problem to draw in helpers all the practical measures are dismissed for a talking shop scorning bad things.

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  10. Comment on For the sake of the future, the Assembly needs reform
    on 15 June 2013 at 7:34 pm

    With SDLP on 14, Alliance on 8 and NI21 on 2: total 24, you would need the most massive swing in parliamentary history to render that possible. In a room which contains two elephants and three sheep, a coalition to exclude either of the elephants is not going to work

    I think that the rise of Nazism and of Labour during the war years actually exceed this. 24 to 55?

    25 if you count alliance and 26 if McClarty joins NI21 for the next election.

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