UK votes to scrap indefinite leave and inheritance tax

The UK delivered a clutch of surprisingly firm verdicts on a quiet Bank Holiday Monday, with voters choosing to end indefinite leave to remain and scrap inheritance tax in back-to-back 59 percent wins. The country also came within two votes of declaring Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide, the narrowest and most tense result of the day.

The verdicts

Should indefinite leave to remain be abolished? Abolitionists carried the day despite the chamber’s most-respected argument warning that forcing long-term contributors onto perpetual temporary visas fosters precarity — a close verdict in which the losing side made the sharper case.

Should police officers lose the right to use tasers and pepper spray? Disarming the police was a non-starter; the country said no by more than ten to one, though the strongest No case still insisted that safety and civil liberties must work together.

Should inheritance tax be abolished? “It’s legalised grave robbery” proved a popular cry as the UK voted yes, though the chamber delivered a more measured verdict about fairness rather than pure tax policy.

Should any criminal conviction disqualify someone from serving as an MP? The country chose a blanket bar on convicted MPs even as most of the written debate warned against blanket bans; the tidy answer “there are sufficient competent people without convictions” carried the day.

Is it a problem that the Scottish Labour leadership contest has only male candidates? “Capability trumps DEI” captured the mood as the UK said no by four to one, while the Yes side warned that nomination rules can still shut women out of the top table.

Should each town and city have named local officers that residents know? The country voted decisively yes, embracing the argument that policing by consent only works when communities trust the officers serving them, despite fears of making those officers targets.

Do Israel's actions in Gaza amount to genocide? Yes prevailed by only two votes on the back of the refrain that international law must apply universally, even though the highest-respected argument in the room came from No.

Should the UK replace devolution with a federal system of four nations under a written constitution? The chamber chose to keep devolution, suspicious of power rather than enamoured of constitutional theory, despite the federal option being sold as a genuine partnership of equals.

Voting continues today on fresh questions ranging from the economy to foreign affairs.

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