Off Topic Political Debate

I don't see why they'd give such a bleak prediction? If anything their reputation took such a battering last time that they might be trying to prove they're on the ball this time round?

By the way Dave the Porker and Thicky George were calling for greater deregulation of the banking system around the time of the crash, you can't blame the bank bailout on either party, letting them crash would have caused mayhem.

 

I must say I cant trust any bank these days.... makes a change from my youth....

 

Does anyone on this board honestly think renewing Trident is a good idea? I've failed to yet see any decent arguments towards renewing it, except maybe that it'll create a bit of work for the companies in charge of making the replacement subs. Surely we have many better projects to spend the money on?

 

I vehemently disgaree with renewing it. You could spend money on conventional warfare if so desired and still have loads left to play with for other projects.

 

It's the deterrent part that gets me. I might try and get in touch with the MoD to sell them my multi-billion pound Dragon deterrent laser gun plans.

Trust me, no dragons will ever attack the UK if we have one of those

 

How do you intend to deter suicide bombers without renewing Trident?

 

Of course the ultimate deterrent

 

I can see little point in it... but keeps us in the big boys club.... mmm

If we are to have a nuclear deterrent and my goodness who would ever use it but a rogue state or terrorist group..... then keep one as a NATO or dare I say EU weapon..... share the costs etc etc

 

I was reading this article

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/17/photography-exhibition-planets-natural-history-museum

and found it hard not to be impressed by what we've achieved...

Then I followed it by this one

http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...onomic-crisis-world-economy-global-capitalism

and found it hard not to hate mankind...

 

From the Indy:


Just 62 people now own the same wealth as half the world's population, research finds
The world's richest are getting richer while the wealth of the poorest is being spread more thinly

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Slums in Colombia, one of the world's most unequal countries Rex features
Wealth inequality has grown to the stage where 62 of the world’s richest people own as much as the poorest half of humanity combined, according to a new report.

The research, conducted by the charity Oxfam, found that the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population – 3.6 billion people – has fallen by 41 per cent, or a trillion US dollars, since 2010.

While this group has become poorer, the wealth of the richest 62 people on the planet has increased by more than half a trillion dollars to $1.76 trillion.

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READ MORE
Richest one per cent 'as rich as the poorest 57 per cent combined'
The report, “An Economy for the 1%”, says the gap between the global richest and the global poorest has widened in just the last 12 months.

In 2011 388 people had the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity. In 2011 this fell to 177. The number has continued to fall each year to 80 in 2014 and 62 in 2015.

The research was released days ahead of the annual gathering of the world’s elite in Davos for the World Economic Forum 2016.

Oxfam GB chief executive Mark Goldring said a crackdown on global tax havens was a necessary step towards ending the rampant global inequality.

“It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world population owns no more than a small group of the global super-rich – so few, you could fit them all on a single coach,” he said.

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“World leaders’ concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action to ensure that those at the bottom get their fair share of economic growth. In a world where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night we cannot afford to carry on giving the richest an ever bigger slice of the cake.

“We need to end the era of tax havens which has allowed rich individuals and multinational companies to avoid their responsibilities to society by hiding ever increasing amounts of money offshore.

“Tackling the veil of secrecy surrounding the UK’s network of tax havens would be a big step towards ending extreme inequality. Three years after he made his promise to make tax dodgers ‘wake up and smell the coffee’, it is time for David Cameron to deliver.”

In November the Public Accounts Committee of MPs warned that HMRC had made "little or no progress" on measures to reveal the scale of aggressive tax avoidance happening in Britain.

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In addition, last year the Office for Budget Responsibility announced that George Osborne’s tax avoidance crackdown had missed its target by hundreds of millions of pounds.

But the report’s authors say the situation could be even worse in the world’s poorest countries. The researchers estimate that as much as 30 per cent of African financial wealth is held offshore, costing the governments of countries in the region $14 billion US dollars each year.

That money, if collected, might otherwise be destined for the world’s poorest.
Last year an investigation by the Independent revealed that the UK was paying millions of pounds to EU-listed tax havens in the form of international aid.

A significant number of tax havens are also British Crown dependencies and have Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state.


My question:

Surely no world view can support this?? Why vote for a system that supports such inequality??

 

Hmmmm...The standard answers are:

1. Communism doesn't work
2. Stop trying to take things off the rich, they deserve it
3. Taking money from rich people will stop them from helping you
4. Shut up you idealistic hippy

With a few variations but that's the gist

 

Yorkie, you have to be carefull with asking questions like this or you will end up being called a `loony leftie' by some on here. The problem is that there are so many people who still believe in the fairy tale that if you let the rich get richer that this will then trickle down. Or the idea that the proprietors of this wealth at the top are somehow 'wealth creators' I wonder how much of Africa's lost revenue (or that of Russia) has disappeared into that well known financial sink called the city of London. Yet suggest such a thing as a 'Rob in Hood' or Tobin tax and you are, once more, a loony lefty. How many people in Britain know that the city of London has its own laws, its own police, pays its own taxes, and even has its own Lord Mayor ? That it is, in effect, the biggest tax oasis of all.

 

And thank your lucky starts you're not living in the kind of country you wsh the UK to be as you wouldnlt have the freedom to post your nonsense on an internet forum....

 

It's true, if I'm not happy I could just move to <INSERT-NAME-OF-COUNTRY-THAT-TRIED-A-SOCIALIST-GOVERNMENT-BUT-GOT-INSTANTLY-HIT-BY-US-TRADE-SANCTIONS>, and look how unhappy they are.

If you're lucky you also get 'Capitalism is dragging millions out of poverty too, there are LOADS of stats to prove it', but there never seem to be any real stats to prove it...

 

We're not getting any reactions.......has the grouse shooting season started ?

 

Maybe he's counting his money?

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Venezuela anyone?

 

I think this is what is meant by post 3974 ie. ''Insert name of country that tried a Socialist government but got instantly hit by US. trade sanctions''.

 

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world and the country has continued to pump oil with no stoppage. If any US trade sanctions were in place, they have had little or no impact - most other countries, including the UK, continue to trade with Venezuela. In fact, I struggle to find where these US sanctions are listed - but I am sure it can be found in The Guardian. The US declared Venezuela as a Security Threat in 2015 - hardly an "instantly hit" considering how long a "Socialist" government has been in power.
In reality the root cause is another failure of State Socialism - trying to control an economy based on huge oil revenues whilst lining your own pockets and letting the masses starve - but hey, the price of petrol is really low.
Funny how Comrade Corbyn is no longer shouting out the praises of the Socialist paradise that is Venezuela.