Off Topic Great Britain General Election May 7th 2015.

Exactly, but they do it. The 50% tax rate is extortionate but creative accounting isn't fair either. Life's not fair and ever will be.

 

But they are still part of the UK, and despite devolution in certain areas, are still dictated to by Parliament in many crucial aspects.

 

Don't think you have an option to not remain on the payroll though (unless you own the company). So any employee (from your managers and high earning employees for any bluechip company/multinational) will be paying full tax.

Basically you want to live in a communism? . Just messing, the gap grows and you are correct that isn't fair.

With respect to your points i think what sir_red is saying is that:

1. hardworking - How hard you work and how much extra effort you want to put in to make yourself employable. Are you taking additional courses, learning stuff for yourself or are you just doing your day job 9-5.
2. Ambition - i'll skip this, but obviously if you're ambitious you will be striving to be better (i don't agree with treading on people)
3. Intelligent - you can't expect someone from Neil from the inbetweeners to be earning say what a Will would be. They might work as hard as each other but should a doctor earn more than someone stacking shelves at tescos? yea i think so

 

So do we give up on the whole concept?
No matter how far Labour drifts away from its principles, it's still more likely that it can regain them than the Tories will ever comprehend the idea of a fair and just society.

 

Put it this way, either Labour win in which case they would govern, or Labour have approximately even votes with the Cons and SNP can go into coalition with them and have their say. It's a no brainer to have SNP represent you and have as much leverage as they can if you are scottish and you care about yourself. I'm not saying its the right thing to do (you should do what you believe is best for your own morals/country) but humankind will typically look after themselves first. I don't blame the scots doing what they did

 

Would you rather have an equally poor society or an unequally rich society?

 

Or more than, say, a footballer?
The way wealth is distributed has nothing whatsoever to do with the value of people to society. It's what you can get- not what you're worth.

 

Tories need one more seat from the remaining nine

 

I agree. As I understand it. The current labour leadership is seen as more left of center than Blair's 'new' labour. The country have just roundly rejected them, so tell me how it's going to be possible.

 

Not a fair point.
If 5% of the people control 95% of the wealth, distributing it more evenly is hardly going to make everyone poor, is it?
I'm certainly no communist (as Bobby jokingly had a pop at me for), but there's no need to polarise an argument in this way. Things can be a lot fairer than they currently are without recourse to Marxism.

 

Election results: Conservatives on brink of majority

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Media captionElection 2015: The story of the night so far
David Cameron has returned to Downing Street with the Tories poised to defy polls and win the general election.

The Conservatives made gains in England and Wales and are forecast by the BBC to secure 331 seats in the Commons, giving them a slender majority.

Sources say Ed Miliband is expected to stand down after Labour was all but wiped out by the SNP in Scotland.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has already said he will quit, with his party set to be reduced from 57 to eight MPs.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage is also quitting after he failed to win Thanet South, losing by nearly 2,800 votes to the Conservatives.

In other election developments:

• The BBC forecast, with 635 of 650 seats declared, is Conservative 331, Labour 232, the Lib Dems 8, the SNP 56, Plaid Cymru 3, UKIP 1, the Greens 1 and others 19.
• The Conservatives are expected to get a 37% share of the national vote, Labour 31%, UKIP 13%, the Lib Dems 8%, the SNP 5%, the Green Party 4% and Plaid Cymru 1%.
• Ed Miliband is expected to make a statement about his own future later after what he said was a "difficult and disappointing" night for Labour which saw Ed Balls lose and Jim Murphy and Douglas Alexander losing out to the SNP
• Nick Clegg said he would quit as leader after a "crushing" set of losses, which saw Vince Cable, Danny Alexander, David Laws, Simon Hughes and Charles Kennedy among a slew of Lib Dem casualties
• George Galloway, who was reported to the police for retweeting an exit poll before voting ended, has lost to Labour in Bradford West
• Nigel Farage has quit as UKIP leader after failing to be elected - although he may stand in the ensuing leadership contest. Douglas Carswell retained his Clacton seat
• Conservative minister Esther McVey has lost Wirral West to Labour
• The Green Party is predicted to get one seat after Caroline Lucas retains the Brighton Pavilion constituency she won in 2010
• With 16 seats left to declare, turnout is expected to be 66%, marginally up on 2010
• Watch BBC election coverage and follow latest reaction
• Read more analysis from the BBC's experts

Mr Cameron is set to form a majority Conservative government, without the need for a coalition or the formal support of other parties.

The finishing line needed to form an absolute majority is 326, but because Sinn Fein MPs have not taken up seats and the Speaker does not normally vote, the finishing line has, in practice, been 323. In this election, Sinn Fein kept four seats.

Mr Cameron all but declared victory in a speech after being returned as MP for Witney, in which he set out his intention to press ahead with an in/out referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union and to complete the Conservatives' economic plan.

please log in to view this image

David Cameron is to have an audience with the Queen later as he begins to form his government
"My aim remains simple - to govern on the basis of governing for everyone in our United Kingdom," he said.

"I want to bring our country together, our United Kingdom together, not least by implementing as fast as we can the devolution that we rightly promised and came together with other parties to agree both for Wales and for Scotland.

"In short, I want my party, and I hope a government I would like to lead, to reclaim a mantle that we should never have lost - the mantle of One Nation, One United Kingdom. That is how I will govern if I am fortunate enough to form a government in the coming days."

Mr Cameron has returned to Downing Street with his wife Samantha and is expected to hold an audience with the Queen later on Friday.

Chancellor George Osborne said the Conservatives had been "given a mandate to get on with the work we started five years ago" and would follow the "clear instructions" of the British public.

However, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith acknowledged that governing with a small majority was difficult.

"Whatever else we now do we keep it simple, we keep it focused and we absolutely stick to our manifesto commitments," he told the BBC.

He said the party would deliver an EU referendum as it was a "red line".

please log in to view this image

Analysis by Nick Robinson
Not since the fall of Thatcher or the Blair landslide has there been a political moment quite like this one.

Personal triumphs for David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon will not just reshape British politics but could perhaps reshape the future of the United Kingdom itself.

Bitter disappointment for Ed Miliband and a political disaster for Nick Clegg may lead to both men quitting, and is sure to lead to months of soul searching for their parties as they mourn the loss of some of their most famous faces - felled by a brutal electoral firing squad.

If UKIP's Nigel Farage fails to win his seat, as many expect, he promised too that he would resign. His party amassed millions of votes in England, more than the SNP in Scotland, but they have struggled to convert them into seats.

The future, though, belongs to David Cameron who defied all those - including at times himself - who doubted that he could ever increase his party's support.

Read Nick's analysis in full here

please log in to view this image

Although it won a number of seats in London, Labour failed to make the headway it wanted in the South of England and the Midlands, failing to take its top target seat, Warwickshire North, back from the Conservatives.

Speaking in Doncaster, where he retained his seat, Labour leader Ed Miliband said; "Clearly this has been a very disappointing and difficult night for the Labour Party.

"We haven't made the gains we wanted in England and Wales and in Scotland we have seen a surge of nationalism overwhelming our party."

He said the next government had a "huge responsibility" and a difficult task to "keep our country together".

After his own defeat, one of the most surprising results of the night, Mr Balls said he had a "sense of sorrow" about his party's disappointing performance but he was "confident that Labour would be back" as a "united and determined" political for

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Media captionEd Miliband reflects on a disappointing night for Labour


Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Media captionNick Clegg: "This has been a cruel and punishing night for Liberal Democrats"


Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Media captionDouglas Alexander spoke after losing his seat to 20-year-old Mhairi Black

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Media captionEd Balls describes "sense of sorrow" at election result

 

If everyone had equal money that things would become more expensive to buy as there would always be someone that wanted it more. Therefore, in essence, we would all be poor.

 

In fairness you do have to consider that only Scots could vote for SNP, whereas UKIP are spread all over the country.

28% of Scotland voted for SNP (going on total population)
6% of UK voted for UKIP

So OK, there's not a 56:1 ratio, but the figures look much more off than they really are.

 

Its currently 12.6%

 

Think you might have to spell that one out to me.

 

I'm just not sure what you feel the solution is - how do you propose greater redistribution when you acknowledge that 50% tax is punitive?

It is the governments remit to:
i) clamp down on tax evasion, it isn't fair for those with the most to skimp on paying a fair tax amount
ii) make sure that the billions they receive on taxes is spent in such a way that creates a society with equal opportunities and facilities that protect the most vulnerable in our society.
iii) Invest in infrastructure
iv) Foster talent and entrepreneurship to ensure the country always grows

Progress is slow, but I don't think we've taken a backwards step on any one of the above points by in large over the last century?

 

Well, like I said it was on total population as I cant be arsed finding exact voting population figures.

 

If everyone had the same amount then there would bidding wars for certain things such as houses and cars and there would always be someone willing to spend more on said item than you are. Therefore, things would become expensive anyway. There would be another rich/poor divide in no time, it would be like playing monopoly in real life; speculate early to accumulate later.

 

Wasn't questioning (or agreeing with) what you said, just pointing out the UKIP percentage was higher

 

Cameron eating lots of jelly and ice cream in number 10 watching the resignations of losers Clegg and Miliband.