@ChilcoSaint @tomw24 I'd like to make a suggestion with regards to the banning order for misdemeanours, unless you have already decided it's ok as it is. Why not try an incremental ban that increases for repeat offenders? It could start with 3 months or more and double each time for further offences. It would quickly build up into a hefty ban if Jabbo someone keeps ignoring it. I think a lifetime ban is too severe a punishment to be honest, even for Jabbo, although I still can't believe he's got Tom's red card after only 2 days. I appreciate something was needed and everyone was warned but I feel that for one emotional remark it would mean a lifetime of only being allowed to post about Saints. A double whammy.
Jabbo called Os a liar, and whatever anyone else thinks of the accuracy of the statement, it counts as a personal attack. Jabbo, and everyone else, was specifically and unequivocally warned about this sort of thing. Those of us who have had anything to do with the care or education of children know that there’s no point in threatening punishment unless you back it up with action, and this often seems the best approach to moderating the Politics Thread. Tom and I will certainly consider parole measures as time goes by, but let’s see how the new policy goes for a little while longer. It seems to have had a reasonably positive effect on this thread so far.
Welfare and taxation have gone up over the last 15 years. And it hasn’t made a difference. I am not defending the Tory party in any way. They were terrible. What I am trying to say is, we have actually become more “socialist” over this time. The money has just been wasted. The policies that destroyed the country are the ones that labour will send into over drive. I’ve said on here a few times, the country has a HUGE spending problem and not an income problem. Simply raising taxes will only make things worse. Labour are making everything worse; ‘Breaking: UK inflation rises to 2.3 per cent in October - the sharpest increase in two years’ The answer for working people is NOT higher taxes and welfare. It’s self responsibility, working hard and saving and investing diligently in a thriving economy that helps small businesses succeed.
We do have a huge spending problem. 55% of our social security spending is on pensions. We have and elderly population who are reliant on expensive NHS healthcare. We will spend £167billion on the old this year. What’s your solution?
The elderly have worked all their lives and paid taxes. They are the last people I would deduct benefits from. But essentially I would declare a financial emergency and immediately begin to put British tax payers interests first. I would stop spending so much on foreign aid, immigration & military aid. I would set up a DOGE like the one Elon musk is creating in the USA and evaluate the spending of every government department. I would start to charge for basic things in the NHS. Foreign nationals will be charged for using it immediately. But also things like missing appointments, wasting doctors time with repeat visits etc will be chargeable. Translators cost us £100mil per year - they would be instantly scrapped. If you’re in England, I expect you to speak English. Immediately evaluate all the reoccurring charges, contracts, rents etc that the NHS, MOD and all other government organisations pay. I would evaluate the public sector with a fine tooth comb as there are thousands of jobs which aren’t necessary or could be done more cheaply. There are hundreds of thousands of small steps that can be taken across the country to bring a sense of fiscal responsibility to the county tbh. Scrap net zero and build nuclear power plants. Also consider coal again as I believe energy costs are a national crisis I would do all of this before I considered more tax rises. We are almost at breaking point in terms of what people should be asked to pay for imo. We should be looking to reduce the tax burden on people so they can live without the oppressive state dragging them down.
Look again at your costs, just here. I just told you the bill to the UK of the old is £167billion. How is 100 mill on translators going to scratch that? Yes, old people have earned it, but the country cannot afford the bill. Foreign aid doesn’t touch that sum. Translators don’t touch it. I have no problem with reviewing costs - but all these reviews cost money and nothing ever changes.
Yep I agree, we need quick wins, not token cuts to please a narrative. I will give you an example of what I mean, recently at work I had to look at our AWS costs for one project - it was costing $50,000/month for the services. I could see that $35,000 of that was on the Database, but the powers that be were moaning at me that cloudwatch (logs) and S3 buckets (storage) were too high. They were $1,500 combined. Yes, I could potentially reduce logging to 30 days from 6 months and reduce storage retention, but would be better off looking why the database was costing so much.
sums up my feelings on most issues. Best way to get rich in this country is to be descended from one of William the Conqueror’s mates, like the Duke of Westminster, one of the richest men in the country. 50% of the wealth in England is owned by 1% of the population. An area of land in England the size of Greater London is reserved solely and exclusively for raising and shooting grouse. Farmers may well put food on our tables, but the rest of us do everything else.
I hate this nihilistic attitude For all its faults, England is still an amazing place to get wealthy if you work hard, save and invest. Just because there are some super rich that have it handed to them, doesn’t mean YOU can’t get ahead. There are many farmers whose farms are worth multiple millions on paper, but they’re just barely scraping by. It is beyond disgusting to tax their farms to death. You can have a farm worth millions on paper, and earn less than the minimum wage. If you have to sell it to pay IHT, the farm will go into the hands of massive corporate types. This reduces food production, harms the environment and is simply unjust. The hatred of wealthy people in this country, and the willingness to want to steal others wealth, is one of the reasons why we are stagnating
I think you underestimate how much could be saved with just a modicum of common sense applied to most areas of the public sector. I personally know many people who are paid a lot of money to sit and do barely any work whatsoever. (Project managers with nothing to manage etc). Add that to rents and contracts that are being charged at extortionate rates. The waste is absolutely mind blowing
Pretty much all the whining by the protesting farmers is complete made up nonsense, and the bandwagon jumping by Clarkson and the whole of the Reform Party is laughable. Brexit did infinitely more damage to British farming than the removal of APR, which has only been in place since 1984 anyway.
I don’t agree at all. We have seen wealth moving away from the poor and syphoning upwards faster than at any point in human history. There are more billionaires than ever, and more people eating from foodbanks. Social mobility is lower than it was for a Victorian pauper. I think society has totally lost the social contract and we both idolise and fear the mega rich.
For once, I think you are the one with ideological dreams of pie in the sky. I totally agree with you, but those cushy middle management jobs that serve no purpose are not going anywhere. They will lay off a few more workers first. The biggest crime is agency staff. Why is some agency skimming off so much public money that could go to nursing?
The real issue is that family farmers can’t make a profit from their farms, that’s what needs addressing not their desire to be exempt from IHT, which will benefit rich tax avoiders more than most farmers The family farmers that might be affected can start mitigating their situation immediately by starting the handover process Also, there is a suggestion that this will reduce land prices, which will result in less farms affected And, that it will also reduce rental prices, which benefits new farmers High land prices only benefit the tax avoiders or farmers who are selling their farms
Nail on head. The multinational supermarket chains are responsible for the inability of farmers to make a living. They have kept profit margins to a minimum while simultaneously making vast margins on the food we buy. They are also responsible for wasting enormous amounts of perfectly good food in the name of uniformity while thousands of people depend on food banks and millions of children go hungry.
