George Peretz KC

@georgeperetzkc

KC (E&W) BL (Irl): public/constitutional law, competition, subsidies, tax, trade. Chair of the Society of Labour Lawyers. Views mine and not those of Monckton Chambers.

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George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· 4d

Anyway, the EU’s scepticism is manifested in the outline agreement for UK participation in the EU electricity market, which has this to say: -

10. Finally, the Electricity Agreement should ensure that the United Kingdom applies at all times State aid rules covering any aid that specifically targets the electricity sector or has a particular material effect on the electricity market, including existing aid but not affecting the validity of aid already granted to individual beneficiaries, for example in the form of legally binding commitments pre-dating the entry into force of the Agreement. The Agreement should guarantee that there are the same substantive and procedural State aid rules as the rules of the European Union. This should include providing for their dynamic alignment with the Union law, giving due regard to the United Kingdom's constitutional and parliamentary procedures.
The United Kingdom should ensure that State aid control is carried out by an independent authority which, in terms of State aid control, enjoys the same powers as the European Commission and that is subject to the same rules as those applying to the European Commission in that regard. This should include, inter alia, rules on transparency, investigation and evidence gathering, ex ante control of State aid, issuing binding State aid decisions and recovery of incompatible State aid (plus interest). The Agreement should establish an administrative cooperation between the European Commission and the United Kingdom independent authority allowing for exchanges of administrative practice, including on case practice. The agreement should provide for an adequate transition period for the implementation of the new rules in the United Kingdom.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· 4d

But IMO, as Peter records, the CMA isn’t doing even that very well.

George Peretz KC, a leading subsidy specialist and barrister with Monckton Chambers, said the CMA had taken a "very narrow view" of its duty to provide advice to granting bodies, stopping short of passing judgment on the merits of an award.
"At the moment CMA is like a teacher that says you could improve your homework in the following ways, but what they don't give you is a mark," he added.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jul 7

And this one.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jul 4

If anyone is in East London this evening and would like to go to a free concert, I’m playing (2nd clarinet) in this. (Dvořak 8 is particularly lovely.)

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jun 30

That recommendation recognises that the Basic Law isn’t a template that works in the different UK context: see the last paragraph (and footnote 7).

The German constitutional rule is constructed not as an obligation on central government but an additional
power available to it, because otherwise in the German federal set up, central government would lack the
powers to do so.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jun 30

Recommendation 4 is worth a look.

Greater economic equality across the UK
The UK is the most geographically unequal large country in the developed world.
Unbalanced economic development has profound economic and social consequences
with large differences in incomes, wealth, life expectancy and quality of life.
Ultimately, this reduces the growth of the country as a whole. A more balanced
economy is needed on grounds of efficiency as well as fairness.
One consequence is that tax revenues are concentrated in the South, and sustaining
the social union of public services and benefits involves substantial fiscal transfers
from richer to poorer regions. This is a key function of the central state and of the
purposes of the UK, securing not only social justice but also consent to government,
but in time rebalancing the economy will mean the weaker regions will need less fiscal
support.
Rebalancing the UK’s economy is a long term project needing consistent investment
and planning. We make detailed recommendations on how to achieve this elsewhere,
but here we propose that, consistent with the purposes of the UK, there should be an
overarching constitutional obligation on governments to address territorial economic
inequality.
Other constitutions deal with economic equality. In Germany, for example, the
constitution gives the federal government additional powers to promote equality of
“living conditions” or “living standards”. This has been the constitutional driver of
70
Commisson on the UK’s Future
substantial economic change in the reunited Germany over the last 30 years.7 The
former eastern Lander joined the united Germany with roughly 30% of the levels of
GDP of the West. In recent years they have reached 85% (which is equal to the UK
average). The Canadian constitution contains obligations on the Provincial and
National governments to promote equality of economic opportunity across all of
Canada, and to ensure reasonably comparable levels of access to public services. This
focuses more precisely on the …

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jun 30

The relevant provisions of the Basic Law are here.

Article 107
[Distribution of tax revenue - Financial equalisation among the
Länder - Supplementary grants]
(1) Revenue from Land taxes and the Land share of revenue from income and corporation taxes shall accrue to the individual Länder to the extent that such taxes are collected by finance authorities within their respective territories (local revenue). Details regarding the delimitation as well as the manner and scope of allotment of local revenue from corporation and wage taxes shall be regulated by a federal law requiring the consent of the Bundesrat. This law may also provide for the delimitation and allotment of local revenue from other taxes. The Land share of revenue from the turnover tax shall accrue to the individual Länder on a per capita basis, unless otherwise provided in paragraph (2) of this Article.
(2) A federal law requiring the consent of the Bundesrat shall ensure a reasonable equalisation of the disparate financial capacities of the Länder, with due regard for the financial capacities and needs of municipalities (associations of municipalities). To this end, additions to and deductions from the financial capacity of the respective Länder shall be regulated in the allotment of their shares of revenue from the turnover tax. The conditions for granting additions and imposing reductions as well as the criteria governing the amount of these additions and deductions shall be specified in the law. For the purpose of measuring financial capacity, it shall be permissible to consider only part of the revenue from mining royalties. The law may also provide for grants to be made by the Federation to financially weak Länder from its own funds to assist them in meeting their general financial needs (supplementary grants). Irrespective of the criteria specified in the first to the third sentence of this paragraph, grants may also be made to such financially weak Länder whose municipalities (associations of municipalities) have a particularly low capacity to ge…

Article 106
[Apportionment of tax revenue and yield of fiscal monopolies]
(1) The yield of fiscal monopolies and the revenue from the following taxes shall accrue to the Federation:
1. customs duties;
2. taxes on consumption insofar as they do not accrue to the Länder pursuant to paragraph (2), or jointly to the Federation and the Länder in accordance with paragraph (3) or to municipalities in accordance with paragraph (6) of this Article;
3. the road freight tax, motor vehicle tax, and other taxes on transactions related to motorised vehicles;
4. the taxes on capital transactions, insurance and bills of exchange;
5. non-recurring levies on property and equalisation of burdens levies;
6. income and corporation surtaxes;
7. levies imposed within the framework of the European Communities.
(2) Revenue from the following taxes shall accrue to the Länder.
1. the property tax;
2. the inheritance tax;
3. taxes on transactions, insofar as they do not accrue to the Federation pursuant to paragraph (1) or jointly to the Federation and the Lander pursuant to paragraph (3) of this Article;
4. the beer tax;
5. the tax on gambling establishments.
(3) Revenue from income taxes, corporation taxes and turnover taxes shall accrue jointly to the Federation and the Länder (joint taxes) to the extent that the revenue from the income tax and the turnover tax is not allocated to municipalities pursuant to paragraphs (5) and (5a) of this Article. The Federation and the Länder shall share equally the revenues from income taxes and corporation taxes. The respective shares of the Federation and the Länder in the revenue from the turnover tax shall be determined by a federal law requiring the consent of the Bundesrat. Such determination shall be based on the following principles:
1. The Federation and the Länder shall have an equal claim against current revenues to cover their necessary expenditures. The extent of such expenditures shall be determined with due regard to multi-year financial pl…

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jun 30

A quick note on this paragraph of Andy Burnham’s speech yesterday. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news...

Now get this - No 10 North will be the nerve centre for a rewired Britain. It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK. It will coordinate all parts of government, at national and local level, to agree a long-term economic strategy and help all places set new growth ambitions.
It will be given a mission to strive for equivalent living conditions in all parts of Britain - borrowing from the German Basic Law.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jun 20

Not quite right, here, by @rachelsylvester.bsky.social. Obviously, having > 1/2 the MPs of the governing party call for the PM’s resignation is likely to have all sorts of political consequences. But it *doesn’t* mean that the PM doesn’t have the confidence of the House.

His supporters claim he has now secured the support of more than 201 Labour MPs to challenge Starmer for the leadership if the prime minister does not step down voluntarily.

This is a critical number because it represents more than half the Parliamentary Labour party and means that Starmer can no longer tell the King that he is able to command the confidence of the House of Commons.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jun 6

The real “civilisational decline” here is the deliberate spreading of lies and contempt for the bereaved by the government of a once great democracy.

Nowak's family, who met Starmer on Thursday, asked that his death not be used to create further division, hatred or tension. But since the conviction, rightwing US figures have made several remarks about the case. The US state department, run by Marco Rubio, portrayed the case as an example of the UK's "civilisational decline"
In a post on X, the department said: "Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline. They must be rejected across the West. The United States sends our condolences to the family of Henry Nowak and the people of the United Kingdom at this troubling time."

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jun 1

Similar analysis by @nixonsimon.bsky.social to mine of why Tony Blair is wrong about Europe. open.substack.com/pub/georgepe...

It's hard to know what Blair is arguing for here.
He appears to be calling for negotiations with Europe on rejoining in some form but with Keir Starmer's red lines dropped in favour of a new red line on technology regulation. That smacks of the same kind of delusional cake-ism that has infected British policymaking towards Europe for 80 years (see The Overwhelming Case for Rejoin).
But it's also historically illiterate: the last time Britain entered a structured relationship with Europe, it certainly was not from a position of economic strength.
Nonetheless, Blair's identification of technology regulation as the key red line is important because technology regulation is also the central focus of US policy towards Britain and Europe - and yet the impact of Blair's tech carve-out would be to leave the UK even more vulnerable to US coercion than it is already. That is not a trade-off that seems to concern Blair since he remains convinced that Britain should continue to stick closely to America come what may: "America remains the indispensable core of Britain's security alliance. But staying with it means even when it is difficult or unpopular." But it should concern the rest of us.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· May 29

Pope Leo trolling Peter Thiel here. (From his encyclical on AI: Magnifica Humanitas. www.vatican.va/content/leo-...)

213. The twentieth-century Catholic author J.R.R.
Tolkien, in the words of a protagonist in one of his novels, described our responsibility in this way: "It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till." [187] The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization. For this reason, it is worthwhile pausing to reflect on some aspects of how we, each in our own way, can cooperate in building the civilization of love. Without presuming to exhaust this theme, I would like to propose five paths toward daily and public responsibility: the need to disarm words, building peace through justice, adopting the perspective of victims, cultivating a healthy realism and reviving dialogue and multilateralism.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· May 29

By coincidence, I was reading Leo XIV’s thoughts on AI just after reading Blair’s essay. This passage rather leapt out.

92. In his Encyclical Laudato Si', Pope Francis denounced the growing dominance of a technocratic paradigm [119] in our globalized world: the tendency to let the logic of efficiency, control and profit alone shape personal, social and economic decisions. This makes it clear that technology is not simply a tool. When it becomes the standard by which everything is judged, it begins to dictate what matters and what can be discarded, reducing creation to an object of exploitation and human beings to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.
93. This paradigm has spread rapidly in recent years, fueled in part by the expansion of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, nanotechnology, robotics and biotechnology. In themselves, these innovations can greatly serve integral human development and the care of our common home.
Yet precisely because of their power, they can also hasten the expansion of the technocratic paradigm and therefore require a new spiritual, ethical and political framework. More power does not necessarily imply something better. In this respect, the words of Romano Guardini remain relevant:
"Contemporary man has not been trained to use power well." [120]

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· May 20

Paragraph by @henrygjeffreys.bsky.social neatly explaining why I (so far) haven’t found any role for AI in my writing (professional or non-professional). (From open.substack.com/pub/henryjef...).

Writing is thinking. If you're not writing and researching an article yourself, you are not really thinking about it.
When I'm writing a piece, I have the bare bones in my head but I don't really know where it's going to go, or
what thoughts it is going to spark. I tend to arrive at my own insights, such as they are, in the act of writing.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Apr 13

Mind you, Vermeule seems to be wavering on the Trump support …

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Apr 13

Not the only reason why today is an uncomfortable day for Trump-supporting Catholic theocrats …

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Apr 13

Again from Nelson - wise caution against liberal triumphalism. I probably don’t agree with Nelson’s answer, but the challenge he identifies is the right one.

The real lesson is not that Orbanism doesn't work
- it plainly does, for a while. It is good at arousing tribes, at winning elections. The neverending wars, the mass-production of enemies, is custom-made for the social media era. And in Orban's defence the problems he pointed to were real.
People do want to see borders protected; they do look to the nation state for protection. They do worry about globalist elites. All populists need to succeed is for centrists to obsess about them -
and not the voters. Hungary had this for too long: dire alternatives to Orban.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Apr 13

A good piece by Frasier Nelson large parts of which I would agree with - and, I suspect, Yuan does too. Give me that type of conservative over Orbanism/Faragism any day, open.substack.com/pub/fraserne...

of conservatism. As I argued in my Times column, the corruption and cronyism that has ended up engulfing Hungary is not a strange malfunction of Orbanism but its inevitable result. If you attack the guard rails of democracy - then infiltrate the media, judges and business - this is what you will always end up with.

This is why the Reform cronyism - the cosiness with the crypto barons, the way it attracts convicted criminals and tax-dodging spivs - is worrying. This is Orbanism and it only leads in one direction. The sociologist Balint Magyar called it a 'mafia state' - not kleptocracy exactly,
but a state that reaches out and grabs whatever happens to be available in the economy.

• Even his Christian nationalism was failing on its own terms: the share of Hungarians

identifying as Christian has been in freefall. It

turns out that when religion is conscripted by

politics, people are repelled by both.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Mar 12

It isn’t just his conduct of the litigation that raises professional regulation issues. As @danneidle.bsky.social says, this - about his relationship with the promoter of the hopeless tax avoidance scheme - is also seriously concerning.

• The company paid Kamal £50,000 up-front for the scheme, plus 0.6% of the turnover of the company, and 0.4% for turnover over £8m. The nature of the scheme meant that Kamal was effectively receiving a percentage of the tax avoided.

This may have consequences for Kamal, but there's a much more important point. Tax barristers (and Kamal is not alone) are entering into contracts
which are pure conflicts of interest. There is no
"independence" or "integrity" to an opinion that a tax scheme works, when the barrister is paid per pound that goes into the scheme. I find it hard to believe that such contracts are permitted by the Bar Standards Board - if they are, it's a disgrace, and if they're not, action should be taken.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jan 20

As Mark puts it:-

In a constitutional system in which so much power is concentrated in the executive branch, the ECHR-HRA model stands as an important — albeit ultimately circumnavigable - constraint. At a time when the extent of executive power is being pressed as never before in other mature democracies, this point assumes particular importance.

It is well over half a century since Lord Hailsham warned of the dangers of an 'elective dictatorship', and it would be naive in the extreme to assume that such dangers have receded in the intervening decades. In the absence of a codified constitution that defines and limits legislative and executive power, the ECHR-HRA model is an important - even if imperfect - safeguard against the dangers that rightly exercised Lord Hailsham. Moving away from that model in the context of a thoroughgoing programme of constitutional renewal and reform that sought to replace old safeguards with new ones would be one thing.
But the prospect of such reform in the foreseeable future is, in reality, vanishingly small. And that political reality must surely inform any evaluation of the existing system of human rights protection and of any arguments that advocate its abolition.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jan 6

⬇️

Diagram showing use of tu and vous in French.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jan 2

There have been a couple of thin answers to written questions put by Lord Pack. The point that X is not used for paid advertising appears to suggests that the SAFE Framework is being said not to be applicable, but she doesn’t actually say that (and it’d be hard to articulate a principle, there).

Question for Cabinet Office
X Corp
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish the review of the X social media platform carried out in April 2023 under their SAFE
Framework.
Asked 16 October 2025
Assessments under the SAFE Framework are regularly carried out on channels to ensure compliance. These assessments are not routinely published in the public domain.
This question is grouped with 1 other question:
HL11085
Answered 30 October 2025
By Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour,
Life peer)
^ Hide answer
JIN HL11086
Answered
Lords

Question for Cabinet Office
X Corp
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to carry out their next review of the X social media platform under their SAFE Framework.
Asked 16 October 2025
Assessments under the SAFE Framework are
regularly carried out on channels to ensure compliance. These assessments are not routinely published in the public domain.
This question is grouped with 1 other question:
HL11086
Answered 30 October 2025
By Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour,
Life peer)
^ Hide answer
UIN HL11085
Answered
Lords

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Jan 2

For example

F - Freedom of speech
HMG encourages freedom of speech and high-quality journalism online for a healthy and flourishing democracy.
Essential to this is safeguarding the rights and protections of individuals and minority groups online.
User-generated content unfortunately has the potential to be abused, and such content can be harmful, violent and offensive.
To support respectful and constructive environments for public interaction, HMG must advertise where there are clear:
• guidelines for user-generated content that set out appropriate standards and a code of conduct that protects individuals from harmful content
• active monitoring of the user-generated content, and/or that users are able to report inappropriate content
• the actual implementation of removing content that breaches the guidelines

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Dec 31

A less happy precedent is Suella Braverman’s decision to conduct the appeal in R v Long www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWC..., where the court described her submissions as “striking” and “unusual”.

83. As to the length of the custodial terms, we note a striking feature of the submissions. When applications are made by the Attorney General for leave to refer to this court sentences which are said to be unduly lenient, it is frequently on the basis that the judge fell into error by failing to follow a relevant guideline. In this case, however, the argument advanced by the Attorney is that the sentence of Long, and therefore the sentences on Bowers and Cole, were unduly lenient because the judge erred in failing to depart from the relevant guideline.
84. That is, to say the least, an unusual submission. It involves the proposition that in the circumstances of this case, a sentence within the guideline offence range was not within the range properly open to the judge, who was instead required to pass a sentence outside that range. We think it regrettable that, in advancing that submission, the structure and ambit of the guideline were not addressed. Nor was any sufficient explanation given why it is contended that the judge was not merely entitled to depart from the guideline but positively required to do so.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Dec 27

Another is the proposed State aid regime for electricity - see para 10. This regime looks very like the regime that would have operated under the May Government “backstop”. This regime will be quite different from either of the current UK subsidy regimes.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Nov 8

But also note the fact that various UK/3rd country air services agreements also prevent the UK from taxing fuel supplied to that country’s aircraft (and vice versa). See eg Article 9 of the UK/US Air Transport Agreement. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60ae4a...

ARTICLE 9
Customs Duties and Charges
On arriving in the territory of one Party, aircraft operated in international air transportation by the airlines of the other Party, their regular equipment, ground equipment, fuel, lubricants, consumable technical supplies, spare parts (including engines), aircraft stores (including but not limited to such items of food, beverages and liquor, tobacco, and other products destined for sale to or use by passengers in limited quantities during flight), and other items intended for or used solely in connection with the operation or servicing of aircraft engaged in international air transportation shall be exempt, on the basis of reciprocity, from all import restrictions, property taxes and capital levies, customs duties, excise taxes, and similar fees and charges that are (a) imposed by the national authorities, and (b) not based on the cost of services provided, provided that such equipment and supplies remain on board the aircraft.
There shall also be exempt, on the basis of reciprocity, from the taxes, levies, duties, fees, and charges referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, with the exception of charges based on the cost of the service provided:
aircraft stores introduced into or supplied in the territory of a Party and taken on board, within reasonable limits, for use on outbound aircraft of an airline of the other Party engaged in international air transportation, even when these stores are to be used on a part of the journey performed over the territory of the Party in which they are taken on board;
b
ground equipment and spare parts (including engines) introduced into the territory of a Party for the servicing, maintenance, or repair of aircraft of an airline of the other Party used in international air transportation;
fuel, lubricants, and consumable technical supplies introduced into or supplied in the territory of a Party for use in an aircraft of an airline of the other Party engaged in international air transportatio…

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Oct 29

Another judgment confirming that the ECHR is no barrier to interference with property rights that strike a fair balance, with a wide margin of discretion. As I argued here, attempts to claim that the ECHR is incompatible with democratic socialism are hapless. ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/07/10/g...

Theoretical concerns about the potential impact of Article 1 of Protocol 1 or other ECHR provisions on such matters as nationalisation or taxation are not grounded in much, if any, case-law. The recent judgment in ALR and others v Chancellor of the Exchequer dismissing attempts to secure a declaration that the ECHR is inconsistent with the extension of VAT to private school fees - an attempt that no expert that I am aware of thought had any real chance of success - demonstrates how implausible such concerns generally are. It may also be noted that the main practical objection to nationalisation with no or inadequate compensation, the concrete example that tends to be provided, is not so much Article 1, Protocol 1, of the ECHR as the fact that it would amount to a huge "do not invest here" signal to the foreign investment on which any plausible UK economic strategy depends: and that even the concern, also sometimes raised, that the ECHR would prevent the abolition of private schools - a point which, as the High Court observed in ALR, at [591, is likely to be right in relation to a legal prohibition
- does not as a matter of practical policy survive the empirical observation that, in many European countries, private education has largely withered away as a result of other social democratic education policies that run into no ECHR objections.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Oct 28

Those who wonder what the policy point of this distinction is have their answer.

23. It was noted that no previous Tribunal or Court has identified a discernible statutory purpose for the Excepted Item (see consideration in the Innocent judgment regarding accepted social policy underpinning Item 1 but the absence of a policy for the exceptions generally, paragraphs 20 - 21 and 23).
As a consequence we are required to interpret the everyday language in context.

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Oct 28

Fans of VAT food and drink cases will enjoy this decision, where the Tax Tribunal was entertained with two days of argument on whether Ferrero Nutella chocolate biscuits (pictured) are “covered in chocolate”. caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukftt/tc/202....

40. We agree with the Appellant that the test cannot be one which is determined by whether the chocolate like substance is visible. However, having considered the detail of HMRC's case we do not interpret HMRC's case as one founded only or materially on the visibility of the Ring despite the language used in the Decisions and the review of them.
41. We have carefully considered the arguments put to us and consider that the statutory test requires us to examine the outer surface of the finished product as a whole (see in particular the approach adopted in
BN Tartelettes) to determine whether chocolate or a similar substance has been laid over the surface of the finished product so as to thereby form the outer surface of that finished product. In so concluding we do not strictly impute a purpose test for the cover, rather it is a test which can be objectively discerned by the informed consumer by asking: is the chocolate like substance laid over the other elements so as to form, in whole or in part, the outer surface of that finished product viewed sensibly?

George Peretz KC@georgeperetzkc· Oct 22

Some important guidance yesterday from the Competition Appeal Tribunal for crowdfunded litigation and - many BlueSky users will want to note - for those who donate to such litigation. www.catribunal.org.uk/sites/cat/fi...