Off Topic Politics Thread

Shocked at what I heard on LBC - James O'Brien. - YouTube

 

This is just cruel. If someone is too ill, or too indisposed to attend an interview, they will, in all probability, have their benefits suspended.
My wife was on ESA, because the transition to Universal Credit hadn’t taken place in our area, but the thought of having to take a terminally ill person to a Job Centre in order to prove the illness was factual, and that she wasn’t fit for work, just turns my stomach.


Welfare Secretary Therese Coffey has changed rules so that even those with health problems must attend compulsory weekly sessions at Jobcentres from next month.

It will apply to those who are not in work or have poorly paid part-time jobs bringing in £494 or less in pay and benefits a month. Previously the threshold was £355.

 

All in it together. Nearly £5000 claimed for gas and electric expenses in her SECOND home. Absolutely obscene.

PRIME Minister in waiting Liz Truss has claimed £4,817 in taxpayer expenses on gas and electric in the last five years.

Yet she says she won’t “bung more money into the system” to help hard-up Brits facing fuel bills of £3,500 a year – and rising.

Ms Truss’s claim was for her second home in Thetford, Norfolk – where almost 30% of children are living in poverty.

 

Johnson in the Mail today:
"They were wrong. After becoming the first country in the world to approve an effective vaccine, we staged the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, the fastest exit from Covid.

“As a result, we had the fastest growth in the G7 last year and instead of mass unemployment we have about 640,000 more people in payrolled employment than before the pandemic began.”

If this is so why are we short of labour?

 

if Johnson is in the mail today, I hope it's with a first class stamp to Antarctica.

 

That is an appalling suggestion! Antarctica is a very sensitive environment and, I believe that the penguins, seals, sea lions, albatrosses or killer whales wouldn´t appreciate his company. On the other hand, Aldershot is rather una ciudad de mierda!!!

 

Mind you, there`s enough blubber on him to keep the whalers occupied for ages.

 

.....and no fish puns were used in making this post.

 

NASA are about to launch another Apollo mission. I vote we put Johnson, Truss and Rees-Mogg on that, one way obviously

 

What they deliberately ignore is employment for employments sake means very little, it has to meet the needs of the country and provide enough money per household for our economy to function.

We are not filling the gaps we need the most especially in health and social care and we are not offering sufficient incentive to train in these areas.

Equally if you work a zero hour minimum wage contract (the kind the government are relying on to inflate these figures), you are not going to make enough to have any disposable income. In fact you are not going to make enough to survive and will require additional support.

So effectively the taxpayer will end up subsidising low pay based employers by proxy, rather than pressure being applied to these employers to pay a living wage.

The government of course only cares about a throwaway headline figure for PR purposes.

 

Fair play

The Good Law Project (which the government is trying to shut down) is suing Energy regulator Ofgem over its 80% energy price cap hike.

Director of The Good Law Project, Jolyon Maugham, said their legal action was the ‘first of its kind’ against the energy regulator.

“Do not be fooled. This is a choice,” Mr Maugham said. “And the choice they’ve made is to let low income consumers and small businesses bear the brunt of this crisis,” said the QC.

“We believe Ofgem can, and should, do more. We intend to put the question before the High Court, and will ask for a fast-tracked timeline to reflect the urgency of this crisis.”

60% of households are going to struggle to pay their energy bills this winter whilst schools, care homes, hospitals and hundreds of thousands of companies are facing impossible bills and potential collapse.

https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/28/ofgem-to-be-sued-over-80-hike-to-energy-price-cap-17255992/

 

Patel should go too but it'd cost too much in rocket fuel to get her ginormous arse into space.

 

Credit where it's due. Nobody can possibly claim they didn't know. Truss is being crystal clear about exactly what she'll be like as Prime Minister...

 

The other day I heard someone suggest that Truss brings us the best of both Maggie and Boris.

 

Liz Truss has Boris' decisiveness, coupled with Maggie's wit and humour

 

I’d amend it to Boris Johnson’s capability with Theresa May’s personality and Thatcher’s wardrobe.

That’s being generous because I actually think Boris Johnson is the more capable PM, which is not meant as a compliment to either of them. Johnson at least took action against Covid (eventually), will Truss take action against the cost of living crisis?

 

Well, she’s going to cut taxes, which will more benefit the rich than the poor.
I saw a claim yesterday, that said if a person on £30k a year, didn’t pay tax or NI, they STILL wouldn’t save enough to meet the increase in their utility bills.
So, with that in mind, what sort of tax cuts is mistrust going to put into place that will ease the burden on the poor?