Who will you vote for?

[Octopus]

IMO what we need is a government focused on prosperity, not austerity. One that will not punish the unemployed, the poor and sick for being unemployed, poor or sick

So you are happy for people to get £26K tax free when you are earning this, for 40 hours AND paying tax and NI??

600K+ people came to England, and found work. This means 600K brits have the excuse to do nothing.

If I was in charge, I would progressively reduce all unemployment benefits, over time until work paid.

 

[R G]

Its not just dole now , how many people are living on other benefits in form or another , ask yourself the question why have people became apathetic to politics and why is the turnout lower than it used to be many years ago , the answer is that they are not being listened to , old labour were at least for the people ,where now they are a mess , you can see why UKIP is gaining popularity and the price for doing so is to be ridiculed by the other parties....

 

[trev]

So you are happy for people to get £26K tax free when you are earning this, for 40 hours AND paying tax and NI??

600K+ people came to England, and found work. This means 600K brits have the excuse to do nothing.

If I was in charge, I would progressively reduce all unemployment benefits, over time until work paid.

No, of course I'm not happy to have people languishing on the dole, my point is though that the problem is much lower than our government would like us to believe. What I'm also not happy with is the demonisation of the people I mentioned.

 

[Octopus]

ha ha ha.

I heard Ming Campbell a short while ago, on the radio saying he thought that Nicola Sturgeon, last night, reminded him of Margaret Thatcher!

 

[plugsandsparks]

ha ha ha.

I heard Ming Campbell a short while ago, on the radio saying he thought that Nicola Sturgeon, last night, reminded him of Margaret Thatcher!

*********** WHAT !!!! - ONLY IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE, where NS is the anti-matter. Actually she could be quite good for UK politics , if I wasn't the crap content that she purports

 

[Octopus]

*********** WHAT !!!! - ONLY IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE, where NS is the anti-matter. Actually she could be quite good for UK politics , if I wasn't the crap content that she purports

In a perverse way I quite like her approach. No messing, no playing for the soundbites. What you hear, is what you always hear ...... unlike MOST of the others!

 

[Diddy]

Benefit culture does indeed exist. It is alive and well in my area in Scotland. BUT the area boasts high unemployment, Bad public transport and there are very few local jobs. Now what is the answer ? Do you want the guy to move to the south east of England to find work ? Plenty have done it (I worked down there for 13 years and had a great time.) Anyway so say the young eager bright all move south....What happens next ? Tons of empty houses up north and a housing and infrastructure crisis in the south. Sound familiar ?
So no im afraid the answers are not a simple "Get on your bike" - the fact of life is some areas of the country are depressed areas. These areas need government funding to attract businesses to the areas THEN we can say to the long term unemployed - get back to work lads.
Coupled with better education, apprenticeships, training programs ect ect ect...all this needs addressing before we start looking into telling people that there are jobs available for all.....will never happen of course.

 

[Octopus]

Benefit culture does indeed exist. It is alive and well in my area in Scotland. BUT the area boasts high unemployment, Bad public transport and there are very few local jobs. Now what is the answer ? Do you want the guy to move to the south east of England to find work ? Plenty have done it (I worked down there for 13 years and had a great time.) Anyway so say the young eager bright all move south....What happens next ? Tons of empty houses up north and a housing and infrastructure crisis in the south. Sound familiar ?
So no im afraid the answers are not a simple "Get on your bike" - the fact of life is some areas of the country are depressed areas. These areas need government funding to attract businesses to the areas THEN we can say to the long term unemployed - get back to work lads.
Coupled with better education, apprenticeships, training programs ect ect ect...all this needs addressing before we start looking into telling people that there are jobs available for all.....will never happen of course.

You will be pretty safe from the influx then.

The strange thing about this free movement around the EU, is that the "clever" people from the poorer countries will almost certainly move for work, which will inturn leave their homelands poorer.. meaning more people will leave the country......

Not sure how you can stop it!

 

[rapparee]

The ****less idle who live on the dole are a bit of a red herring. The fact is that most claimants of welfare are employees who recieve poor wages from greedy employers unwilling to pay a fair wage, the government is then forced to top up the low wage in the form of tax credits. If employers were no longer subsidised and made pay a fair wage then the welfare budget could be slashed.

 

[Diddy]

You will be pretty safe from the influx then.

The strange thing about this free movement around the EU, is that the "clever" people from the poorer countries will almost certainly move for work, which will inturn leave their homelands poorer.. meaning more people will leave the country......

Not sure how you can stop it!

Well I have hinted at how to stop it within the UK - Invest in the deprived area PROPERLY.
We need more schools ? Build them
We need more teachers ? Bloody well train more and make the position more attractive
Need more doctors and Gp's ? Train within our country
BUT BUT BUT all of that takes cash and we are in a recession....Well scrap HS" and scrap trident for a start.
We desperately need more power stations - Build them with government money funded by a super tax on the energy companies....As they don't seem to be using the resources given to them to do this.
All of that takes cash...Yes there is debt, There has ALWAYS been debt. Every western country runs on debt and have done for 100 years.
Ask yourself this. What would you rather leave your future generations ? A society that educates all to a acceptable standard. A health service that works and most importantly a future proof energy supply. If you leave them that you may leave them high tax's and debt - Or you could let everything decline to the stage where private companies and insurance industry control ALL of the above with the chance of insecure energy supply and low tax's. I think essentially the argument boils down to your outlook.
These things are not being discussed during this election..and they bloody well should be. But mark my words we will be discussing them in future elections.

 

[Diddy]

The ****less idle who live on the dole are a bit of a red herring. The fact is that most claimants of welfare are employees who recieve poor wages from greedy employers unwilling to pay a fair wage, the government is then forced to top up the low wage in the form of tax credits. If employers were no longer subsidised and made pay a fair wage then the welfare budget could be slashed.

Yep this is a massive problem. One that needs deep thought to work out. Because you cant just stop the in work benefits without something in its place. Maybe a much higher minimum wage ? Some clever bod needs to work ot how much it costs region by region to "live". What it costs to eat/heat and shelter someone pluss 10% pocket money. Divide that up into a wage and go from there.
Obviously its not that easy but something has to give - will prices go up ? Probably. Will shareholder loose out ? probably. Will pensions be effected ? Yep. But we really will have to start looking at this stuff.
The answers to the worlds problems do not lie in big business leeching cheap labour and tax payers subsidizing them to turn a profit...if we are a market driven economy then do it properly - its time we stopped subsidizing multi national companies - If there is demand for a product/service then there will always be someone wanting to supply...time to stop the big tax breaks ect.

 

[trev]

The Kingfisher Group experienced a 7% drop in profits recently.
To put that in perspective, for every hundred quid they profited last year they ONLY (?) profited £93 this year (obviously the chronology is wrong but I'm sure you get the gist)
Their answer is to announce the closure of something like 60 outlets. How many jobs are going to be lost?
**** like this should be illegal

 

[Octopus]

The Kingfisher Group experienced a 7% drop in profits recently.
To put that in perspective, for every hundred quid they profited last year they ONLY (?) profited £93 this year (obviously the chronology is wrong but I'm sure you get the gist)
Their answer is to announce the closure of something like 60 outlets. How many jobs are going to be lost?
**** like this should be illegal

**** like this should be illegal.

Don't be so stupid

 

[trev]

**** like this should be illegal.

Don't be so stupid

Saint Margaret of Kesteven would be proud of you

 

[Octopus]

Saint Margaret of Kesteven would be proud of you

Illegal???? You are stark raving mad.

 

[plugsandsparks]

This is why I really don't understand socialists / lefties approach to dealing with business in a capitalist global economy. Anybody on here who is self employed / runs a business has exactly the same issues to deal with as a Kingfisher except a plc has one big disadvantage, it can be bought outright. I don't know about anybody else but I do make cuts to my costs every year, whether it be my energy costs, insurance costs, scam membership, banking etc etc. So as I cut my suppliers get less and also need to cut etc etc. This is necessary to keep me competitive and make sure I can generate a profit to keep Mrs P&S in the luxury she has become used to. If a Kingfisher has incurred a profits drop, then there will be a view as to whether it is run properly or not and ultimately the management can be replaced / or more worryingly it can be bought outright by a Carrefour for example. This is why business has to be supported and encouraged in the UK as its business that employs people and paying NI, pensions and CT and those employees pay tax, NI and spend money hence VAT.
Lefties kill this all stone dead, they should never be in power in a Global capitalist system, its a way too dangerous world for idealistic (wouldn't the world be great if)..... ideas that simply don't work. VOTE TORY its our only hope.

 

[Diddy]

This is why I really don't understand socialists / lefties approach to dealing with business in a capitalist global economy. Anybody on here who is self employed / runs a business has exactly the same issues to deal with as a Kingfisher except a plc has one big disadvantage, it can be bought outright. I don't know about anybody else but I do make cuts to my costs every year, whether it be my energy costs, insurance costs, scam membership, banking etc etc. So as I cut my suppliers get less and also need to cut etc etc. This is necessary to keep me competitive and make sure I can generate a profit to keep Mrs P&S in the luxury she has become used to. If a Kingfisher has incurred a profits drop, then there will be a view as to whether it is run properly or not and ultimately the management can be replaced / or more worryingly it can be bought outright by a Carrefour for example. This is why business has to be supported and encouraged in the UK as its business that employs people and paying NI, pensions and CT and those employees pay tax, NI and spend money hence VAT.
Lefties kill this all stone dead, they should never be in power in a Global capitalist system, its a way too dangerous world for idealistic (wouldn't the world be great if)..... ideas that simply don't work. VOTE TORY its our only hope.

Global capitalist system....what bull. So every year while you are busy cutting costs do you cut your prices to suit ? If you do not then the only person seeing the benefit of your cuts is "self". Thank goodness less than a third of those who can be bothered to vote are not silly enough to be taken in by the tories.
As I said above if we are using a pure capitalist model then we should adhere to it completely. No taxpayer subsidizing, No bailouts NOTHING. If business want to use OUR public services like road,rail,police,education....you know that stuff that actually enables business to operate, Then they should dam well pay for it along with the rest of us not just take take take and then eventually bugger off out of the country because they have bled it dry.
I actually realize that all the dream left wing policies are unachievable but I do know if they were achieved we would ALL be better off including businesses. If the right wingers continue to get their way then within a generation we will all be reminiscing about the times it used to all be "free" but now it is too expensive.
Time to get rid of the Tory scum, Its our only hope !!!

 

[Octopus]

CAVEAT*****

Source of information will be revealed later!


So everybody gets upset about the right to buy policy of the Conservative Government led by Margaret Thatcher of 1979 - but:

1. In what year was it first in a Party manifesto?
2. For which political party?

Have fun

 

[trev]

This is why business has to be supported and encouraged in the UK as its business that employs people

So would you be happy if your son/daughter/wife was employed on an exploitative zero hours contract and was reliant on top ups from the benefit system to make ends meet?
It's supporting a business after all

 

[Octopus]

So would you be happy if your son/daughter/wife was employed on an exploitative zero hours contract and was reliant on top ups from the benefit system to make ends meet?
It's supporting a business after all

Or if you are in Doncaster, subsidising your Council Tax