Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

WordPress plugin quirk resulted in UK Gov OBR Budget leak [pdf]

obr.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–127 of 127 posts

Re: WordPress plugin quirk resulted in UK Gov OBR Budget leak [pdf]

#121

Post by dfawcus »

qcnguy wrote: post #103
louthy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t disagree with any of that, but the vitriol doesn’t match the disappointment imho. Especially as they’ve done pretty well in other areas. I realise “it’s the economy, stupid”, but still it feels like outsized outrage.

Starmer was already the most unpopular PM on record before the budget, and Labour's voting intention is the lowest it's ever been. It's just a really, really unpopular government so of course it gets a lot of attacks.

Well even at the GE, his party was less popular than the previous offer by Corbyn. Labour only really got in because of the collapse of the Tory vote.

2019 GE Votes

    Labour: 10,269,051   22% R  32% T
    Tory:   13,966,454   29% R  44% T
    LibDem:  3,696,419    8% R  12% T
2024 GE Votes

    Labour:  9,708,716   20% R  34% T
    Tory:    6,828,925   14% R  24% T
    LibDem:  3,519,143    7% R  12% T
Also % Registered, % Turnout

So that he got even more unpopular seemed a given, unless he managed to be competent and actually improve things for the people who elected his party.

Re: WordPress plugin quirk resulted in UK Gov OBR Budget leak [pdf]

#122

Post by toyg »

graemep wrote: post #116
toyg wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's designed to maximize what they can raise without pissing off too many voters. Even as it is, it's going to raise barely half a billion pounds, which is relatively insignificant in a budget worth hundreds of billions; but it's something, and something they (think they) can sell to their core electorate as a bit of token redistribution, when in reality it's just a cash-raising exercise. If they'd targeted the…

> because, when a tax starts being significant, the really rich have the means to find ways to avoid it Taxes on property are something they cannot avoid though. One of the reasons the rich are able to find means to avoid taxes has always been government reluctance to stop them. There are many deliberate tax breaks for the rich - think of how long it took to get rid of non-dom status, so I really do not think the gov…

> Taxes on property are something they cannot avoid though.

Yeah, definitely nobody ever "avoided" stamp duty... /s

There are plenty of loopholes and corner cases, you just need skilled accountants and lawyers (companies registered abroad, etc etc). That's why there is legislation about "ultimate ownership" and such: authorities are increasingly desperate about being able to prove who owns what.

Re: WordPress plugin quirk resulted in UK Gov OBR Budget leak [pdf]

#123

Post by cocainemonster »

hexbin010 wrote: post #79

Should have used S3 and a datetime-based access policy. Eg { "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "Statement1", "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "s3:GetObject" ], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::obr-leaky-bucket/myfirst.pdf", "Condition": { "DateGreaterThan": { "aws:CurrentTime": "2025-11-26T12:30:00" } } } ] }

should've dug a hole for tomatoes with an excavator

Re: WordPress plugin quirk resulted in UK Gov OBR Budget leak [pdf]

#124

Post by earl_gray »

lesuorac wrote: post #114
accoil wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does the Nobel Peace Prize figure into this? I seem to be on the other side that didn't hear about the award. Which is not surprising as I don't follow it, but also I haven't worked out query terms to connect it with OBR.

Somebody monitored the metadata on files to figure out who the winner of the nobel prize was prior to the official announcements by the candidate that was modified. Which they used to financially profit in betting markets. It relates to OBR because it's another scenario where people just by polling the site can figure out information that wasn't supposed to be released yet. And then use that information to profit. Si…

Thank you for answering that person’s question so clearly. I was also in the dark and this really helped.

Re: WordPress plugin quirk resulted in UK Gov OBR Budget leak [pdf]

#125

Post by hdgvhicv »

physicsguy wrote: post #38
louthy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it’s getting quite ridiculous now. Labour, for sure, have not done themselves any favours in their first 18 months in charge, but the level of attack and vitriol is exceptional and beyond any reasonable level. It makes me wonder what exactly is driving this.

The fact that they were elected as a 'change' government and have barely done anything that really faces up to the scale of the challenge the country faces? If you're below the age of about 55, then the budget did absolutely nothing for you except put taxes up, and not even to improve services. I appreciate things time but so far the government have enormously walked back their planning reform proposals, which was on…

It put up my taxes a little with the NI removal of pension contributions. It put my employers tax up a ton though.

The freezing of threshold just continued Tory policy.

While I’m annoyed the extra money has been given to those who don’t work, and marginal rates advice 60% still exist, I just see this as lost opportunity. They could have increased income tax and reduced NI, thus raising tax on non working people. But truth is all governments are beholden to the elderly for the next 20 years.

However the attacks on reeves have been vitriolic since the start and there’s a significant amount of misogyny in them.

Re: WordPress plugin quirk resulted in UK Gov OBR Budget leak [pdf]

#126

Post by hdgvhicv »

teamonkey wrote: post #83
physicsguy wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that they were elected as a 'change' government and have barely done anything that really faces up to the scale of the challenge the country faces? If you're below the age of about 55, then the budget did absolutely nothing for you except put taxes up, and not even to improve services. I appreciate things time but so far the government have enormously walked back their planning reform proposals, which was on…

They have done a lot of sensible, boring things that are objectively positive but are going largely going unnoticed (plus of course a few massive footguns that make the headlines). I keep recommending r/GoodNewsUK on Reddit. It’s often just a lot of press releases and government announcements, but there seem to be a continual stream of them, and it’s hard to hear about them by any other source.

It’s telling the outrage over the stamp duty cockup of Rayner (which had it been sold a couple of weeks later wouldn’t have been a problem), and near silence of the stamp duty evasion of Farage.

Farage’s mate - the leader of Reform Wales, was literally thrown in jail for 10 Years after he admitted she was a Russian agent. Barely anything in the media about it.

Due to the way FPTP works though it’s likely Farage will get a majority in 29 off less than 30% of the vote.

Re: WordPress plugin quirk resulted in UK Gov OBR Budget leak [pdf]

#127

Post by hdgvhicv »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #117
toyg wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's designed to maximize what they can raise without pissing off too many voters. Even as it is, it's going to raise barely half a billion pounds, which is relatively insignificant in a budget worth hundreds of billions; but it's something, and something they (think they) can sell to their core electorate as a bit of token redistribution, when in reality it's just a cash-raising exercise. If they'd targeted the…

Starmer does not really care about not pissing off too many voters. He already has but he is also safe from them as the next election is far away. On the other hand, he is at risk, high risk, from his own party so he does what placates them. We've seen it before with private schools, now again with the 2-child cap, for instance.

Farage evaded stamp duty by abusing loopholes in it.

I was going to see it replaced by a 1% annual tax, but that would seemingly be too hard.

Post reply on HN