Off Topic GENERAL ELECTION CALLED - 8th JUNE 2017

And that reaction shows the real problem in our lop-sided society, people are not interested at the mega-rich tax avoiding cheats, so they will allow a crooked and lying Tory party to punish the poor and disabled and sell off the NHS to their billionaire chums!

<yawn> right back at you!

 

I'm by no means a rich man far from it, but I am a hard working man on a modest wage which is precisely why I can't afford to vote Labour.
The Labour Party is not what it was when it first came into being, these days it's the Tories who look after the working masses.
Because of their wipeout in Scotland, Labour have now had to resort to try and reduce the voting age so children with left wing ideals forced upon them by the Marxist teaching profession can put them in power. That and handing out benefits for votes of course.
With regard to the NHS no party and that includes the Tories would dare to dismantle the health service as they would lose power and never gain it back, they ain't stupid.
The thought of Corbyn, Abbot, McDonald, Lewis et al trying to run the worlds sixth largest economy fills me with dread yet there are still those who can't see the wood for the trees and will blindly vote for them.
You know the type, "My Dad voted Labour as did his Dad and his Dad before him, so I will always vote Labour as I can't think for myself"

Oh and in case you were wondering my roots are in the Mile Cross housing estate where you'd never find a Conservative voter, reason ? See above.

 

Sorry KIO I have no wish to fall out over this, I like you as a football contributor but just take a mental pace back and smell the coffee. It's failing badly already (look at waiting lists, nurse shortages and cancelled / postponed operations) and when they get it in again anyone without private healthcare insurance may as well just rot in hell. That's if they can't afford said healthcare.
Which includes me, as I have permanent renal failure and am dependent on the NHS for my survival.
If I could afford BUPA or similar, I would, but myself and millions of other 'ordinary' people can't.
So we'll just rot and hope nobody in the upper echelons trips over us in that gutter as they gather for their next f***ing fox hunt

 

..... and I have no wish to fall out with you mate the fact remains that despite this Government pumping billions more into the NHS than the previous one it's never enough.
We could argue all day as to why but it never used to be like this. We have more and more people living longer for a start thanks to the advances in medicine, this in turn has led to a surge in dementia whereby it costs an absolute fortune to look after these patients. I speak from experience here as my father is in a dementia care home.
Whether you like to admit it or not the NHS has also been stretched beyond it's means due to uncontrolled immigration from Europe and beyond (thank you Mr Blair) and then we have money being wasted on too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Granted the Government needs to be held accountable for this.
Another fact that is not common knowledge is that there are many UK citizens who would like to train to Nurse and be Doctors and Surgeons but rather than spend money on training them the NHS brings in staff from abroad because short term it's cheaper.
Now don't get me wrong, I had a short hospital stay earlier this year and the foreign Nurses and nursing assistants who cared for me were wonderful but surely it would be better to train our own?
Has anyone tried getting a Doctor's appointment recently? Good luck with that too. What's the answer? Should we just throw in more money? We'd all like the Government to but it's become a bottomless pit because our population continues to grow and grow. It has to stop our Public services just cannot cope.

 

Can't actually disagree with too much of that, to be fair.
Yet nurses get a 0% pay increase (again) whereas MPs award them selves circa 10 / 11%?
Sorry, but I'm not accepting that regardless of who is supposedly running this country.
Some make life saving decisions - the others make life destroying decisions (unless you're well heeled of course) for the poor, disabled and disadvantaged.
Let's leave it there - but I will continue to post things I see on twitter which I find valid, relevant or
'postworthy' without having a dig at anyone on the forum
As in Maylien earlier today

 

KIO, you talk an awful lot of sense but at the end of the day, the big companies avoiding tax would go a long way in improving our NHS but Tory policy is to scrape a few pounds from benefit cheats instead of hammering the large Tory-donating corporations!

 

No-one in their right mind would condone tax avoidance Dave, but with regard to big business it really is a 'catch 22' situation.
If you tax these big companies to the hilt all they're going to do is move their businesses elsewhere thus thousands of jobs are lost.

 

Can't argue with that Rich, there must be some middle ground where they could at least make a reasonable contribution!

 

But it needn't be with Brexit. We can become far more protectionist to our tax interests. We could demand companies; Manufacture, pay tax and obey our rules or we'll find another company who wants to trade in our country. A risky strategy that could increase prices and limit choice. But if Starbucks don't want to pay I'm sure other chains will happily take over or better still independents working for themselves not a corporation. Corporations have too many advantages in the modern world, big business won't cease and eventually will kill all choice and stamp out the little man.

Bah!

 

"Protectionist"? I thought we were free trading buccaneering Brits open for business?!


Seriously though, we've either got to be protectionist or free trading, we can't be both.

Anyway, we're the ninth largest economy by the important measure: purchasing power parity.

 

I think you can have both. Anyone can trade freely with us, as long as they pay a fair tax rate. (I would hope that our companies would reciricate in the external markets that they trade) We are a big market that people will want to sell to, why not dictate the terms, not completely punitively, but corps get off to lightly yes they pay wages and the subsequent income tax, but so does a smaller comany and they get mullered for tax, I'd like to see the playing field leveled (Even if some goods increase in price). But it can be balanced. For example, if europe want to tax our exports, i.e Nissan cars made in this country, we can do the same for all imports. Not a great solution for the consumer as it will risk a reduction of choice and/or increase in prices. But it will also likely ensure that companies will maintain their presence here.
edit: Just to add to that. I do believe we need to actually look to home grown companies and staff to develop and complete major projects in this country. To continually farm out tenders for power stations, football stadia etc to foreign companies, perpetuates our external dependance, we should be training our own Engineers, Doctors, nurses et al. Our people should come first. Unfortunitely Brexit, nor the Tories will help with that. And Labour think they might, but will just decimate the economy. We're all doomed!

Bah!

 

That's not free trade. Sorry. That's protectionism. And protectionism is the direct opposite of free trade. It's not about having your cake and eating it, this is about two polar opposite concepts. You can't be both protectionist and free trading in the same way as you can't be both male and female: you can be one, the other, or neither.


I'm not saying either is better necessarily as both have big drawbacks (though obviously I am a proponent of free trade).

 

Rob's hate filled rant against the Intersex gender fluid and hermaphrodite community.

 

Why not that's how the EU single market operates.

 

Of course being ripped to shreds by a bunch of baying hounds is quite humane!

 

One of Mrs May's policies that I do actually disagree with

 

B1oody Hell I've got two 'likes' on the GE Thread !

 

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news...ompletely-certain-of-labour-victory-1-5018196

 

Labour have announced a swinging increase in Corporation TAX rate up to (26%) to pay for some of their nationalisations. Back to the Tax and Spend failed policies of the 1970s if Corbyn gets elected.