I agree that Os is not a Nazi. It is impossible to do a salute when your right hand is holding Mr. Wobbly. Still no response about Canada,etc. Demonstration of how dire this season is that we are all more engrossed by the postings of a teenager than the football !
Away from all the madness of Nazis and sensationalism on this thread, a little closer to home. What is the consensus here on the proposed welfare changes? Needed? go too far? FWIW, I am against the freezing of disability allowances, but all for upping the criteria for getting it. 100% behind the if you have a disability you need help, but we need to avoid the scammers. Also behind the notion that you can get work and not lose the benefit for a short while to see if you really can stay in employment, without having to reapply for the allowance if it doesn't work out. Thoughts?
SpaceX’s Falcon9 docks at the international space station, ready to bring the stranded astronauts home. Excellent stuff which would have happened months ago if not for the intolerant leftist politicians
Definitely needs changing, but we have to protect the ones that definitely need/require help, they often get disbelieved because of scammers. I am sure everyone on here knows of people who claim but don’t really need it. One lad in my local aged 28 plays the anxiety/ mental health card so he doesn’t have to work. But he smokes, has the latest smartphone and goes to the pub quite often ……..but when cash in hand work is available, all his anxiety and mental health go away temporarily strangely.
Something needs to be done no doubt and it appears Wes Streeting is putting the right people in place to get on with it. Proposals are made to be discussed so what's actually implemented may and probably will be different to the original. It's reported that changes to disability allowances may be shelved and is being termed a humiliating U-turn. I don't know why a change of direction should be humiliating, admitting to mistakes and correcting them is commendable, as I posted before "if you've got a mind you must be able to change it".
I have been saying for years the system needs to change, it’s an absolute money pit, always has been. Regardless of what political power is in charge it needs looking at, and if labour fail, then I will definitely criticise them. Not a fan of Starmer at all but he’s got a chance to put it right, but he has to be careful he doesn’t cut off the genuinely ones in need….difficult task.
I don’t like the focus on the poor, disabled and long-term sick without any mention of tax loopholes and wealth disparity. Starmer is not a leftwing politician. He is a centrist. I don’t think it is wrong to find ways to cut waste and to help people back into work, but it is essential that he doesn’t just play into the old Tory trope of the lazy underclass. And on the point of the guy with anxiety who smokes and goes to the pub… that sounds like depression. Getting a job would help him, but depression makes you feel like you can’t do it. I don’t want to start undoing all the work we have done to listen to men’s mental health issues by then undermining those issues and saying they are just dodging work. In other words, it is possible that someone would be better off working and simultaneously find it very hard to do so.
Absolutely agree with closing tax loopholes and support funding of HMRC fraud investigators which would pay for itself many times over.
Hereditary and clerical members are dragging out their long overdue removal. "Last Monday was the first committee stage in the Lords (this is the stage of the bill process where peers can suggest and make the case for amendments to the legislation). This week sees two more committee stages where peers will debate the amendments tabled. The UK is highly unusual in sticking with a feudal combination of nobility and church for its second chamber, and only the UK and Lesotho mix appointed and hereditary seats without any elected element. Despite this, it seems that some peers would rather we retain our archaic second chamber and appear to be holding up its progress. No less than 116 amendments were tabled to the bill by the start of proceedings last Monday and just before the first stage of the discussions, a large number of these amendments were ‘de-grouped’ meaning they could not be discussed together, drawing out the debate. These tactics were described by the Leader of the House as ‘procedural shenanigans’." https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/procedural-shenanigans-as-peers-debate-their-own-reform/
Trump and Musk more lies and disinformation regarding an earlier mission to return the astronauts. "The crew-swap mission became entangled in politics when the US president, Donald Trump, and his adviser Elon Musk, who is also SpaceX’s CEO, urged a quicker Crew-10 launch. They claimed, without evidence, that Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, had abandoned Wilmore and Williams on the station for political reasons. One Danish astronaut, Andreas “Andy” Mogensen, who has twice flown to the ISS gave the claim short shrift, saying “What a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media.”
I agree with all of the above but I feel there are a few caveats with taxation on the ‘wealthy’. Unfortunately due to paper trails the easiest way to impose taxes is through PAYE and anyone on a half decent salary pays through the nose in tax, all the while those who are either self employed or company owners can hide behind ‘profits’ and dividends for the bulk of their income. What happens is that if you are stuck on PAYE you pay a disproportionate amount of tax to a company owner. An example is that I had to go PAYE when I went from working for a US company (I paid myself 12k a year and the rest as dividends) that got bought out by a bank, and a 30k ‘payrise’ meant I took home after all taxes £200 more each month. The question is was the limited company/dividend way the right taxation or is the PAYE. I would suggest that the first one is perhaps too little and the second too much. A happy medium is needed.
Absolutely. The more fudge there is around tax payment, the easier it is to fiddle. Most employees have no way to avoid tax - whereas the self-employed / business owner has many opportunities to find loopholes. So how do we fix it?
Whilst I am PAYE we need to drop the rates of tax and raise taxes on dividends. . If I ever go back to self employed/business owner, we need to increase PAYE and reduce taxes on dividends. Sound fair?
Enact legislation to close loopholes, increase rate of capital gains tax, lower undocumented expenses allowance, there's lots more. Making sure HMRC fraud investigators have the resources they need to squeeze the pips of the thieving arseholes.
