BBC Breakfast saying prices have reached an all time high today. Whatever the case it's a terrible time when so many have lost jobs, through Covid, and the universal credit just stopped. Not blaming anyone mate, it's just rotten for people.
It does seem pretty bleak. Although there is some good news, such as the furlough scheme seemingly not leading to further job losses, so maybe a recovery is on the horizon.
I hope so mate, I always want whoever's in power to make things better for everyone. I expect I'm just a bit naïve.
Every country in the world has people dying from Covid, and we are no different. The disease is here to stay, so it’s about how you deal with it. Boris has dealt with it with the quickest and most successful vaccination roll out on the planet. Yes people are still dying, like they do with other diseases such as cancer, but we are slowing down the deaths whilst the country is able to operate again. Our economy has been hit by Covid and brexit, but house prices have risen and jobs are available. With such unprecedented challenges in the last 2-3 years, I’d say that things could be a lot, lot worse.
Good post. Our bills are about to rocket. There are politicians in the EU and civil servants who get on my tits but the fact is we have left a strong bargaining partnership with anti french gestures being seen as a vote winner so we’ve lost allies by making enemies and the strong partnership inevitably wins over the long term. Cooperation and strong relationships are inevitably a good thing. When has a damaged relationship ever benefitted anyone? Johnson’s cheap shots and war talk is about to hit us all in the pocket. We’ve actually lost a lot of control. Maybe we could have left the EU and still done well, but that required wisdom. Johnson and Raab are not wise men. Quite the opposite.
High energy prices, NI contributions and wage freezes ahead of tax rises on the richer are not levelling up
I don't believe I said they were. I was commenting on what the slogan "build back better" was supposed to mean. Not critiquing their financial policies.
No I’m just pointing out that all of their cheap slogans are complete bullshit. Build back better and the economy is regressing. Taking back control and we’ve lost loads of it. Protect the nhs - give the money and power to wealthy businesses. Levelling up, make things harder for the poor. People need a good shake man.
Disagree. I think you have to look at the outside factors that have caused the economy to regress. Yes, some of those are of the Conservative Party's own making but the main two, Brexit and Covid, would still have been major factors even if another party had won the last election. No political party wants the economy to be in bad shape and that certainly doesn't fit with Tory 'ideology'. Whether their slogans are meaningless or not, it doesn't mean that their intention isn't to run the country well. And they have implemented 'levelling up' policies already. The wisdom of those policies is another matter. What's said at party conference carries as much, or as little, weight no matter which party it is. Much of what any party promise will never happen and no matter who they are, they are not entirely in control of the economy, whatever they like to think.
A big reason people gave for leaving Europe is that they didn't want to be controlled by self seeking foreigners in suits shoving their noses in the trough ... ... so we end up with self seeking British men in suits shoving their noses in the trough. We're also now inextricably linked, some would say controlled, by the USA. Far from dictating our own destiny our foreign policy will be dictated by Biden and our economy by Putin. I'm going back into my little bubble, see ya ....
Any country will always end up run by self-serving twats, whatever the political system. Blair was Labour and now he's a multi-millionaire tax dodger. Is that worse than the Tories? Who knows? I think people voted for Brexit to get out of the increasing centralization of power in Europe. Simple as that. If you want a federal "United States of Europe", whether a formally constituted state or simply a de facto version run by the EU Commission, fine. But no-one in Europe has voted for that. Never been asked for fear they'll give the "wrong" answer. Like when France & The Netherlands rejected the EU Constitution. The EU simply cut it up and put it in the Treaty of Lisbon. It's going to take us several years to settle down after leaving the EU, but after that it's pretty much all upside, if you ask me. Italy achieved precisely zero growth for 20 years and people keep telling us about the economic benefits of membership. Bollocks. Anyone got a Chinese, American or Japanese product in their house? Are those countries in the EU? The Single Market is there to make trade easier; it's not there to make trade happen. Why can't we just do that without the endless regulation?
That sounds like the kind of grandiose statement Boris would come out with ... ... the fact is we're not even the best in Europe. Even Portugal, Spain and Italy, supposedly Covid basket cases, are ahead of us, France as well I think.. I keep seeing people claim Covid forced drivers back to Romania, Poland, etc, nothing to do with Brexit. Strange that people should go to a country, during an epidemic, where the vaccine roll out is greatly inferior to the UK.
They are now, but they got there more slowly. They made a big song and dance about it to mask the question of how many people got it whilst they were farting around. All just a pissing contest really. It's not as if our being ahead was any use if everywhere else was lagging behind.
So while things settle down who pays the rocketing costs ? The poor or the wealthy? Under this government the low paid share the biggest burden. As for people saying this lot are levelling things up. Absolute guff. The gap is widening. It’s about time we had a government that had the knackers to tackle disgraceful wealth and disgraceful poverty. Blair did some good but didn’t do it either.
Quite right Sid. I don't think we've that much to shout about tbh. How can the UK death rate be twice that of Germany when their measures were mocked by some here. Bloody Chinese!!!
It’s about time we had a government that had the knackers to tackle disgraceful wealth and disgraceful poverty. Blair did some good but didn’t do it either. Couldn't agree more mate and Blair trousered £300,000 into his back pocket so at least he got some good out of it
This is what's meant by 'levelling up' ... ... all the poor will be going to the same food banks. No party is up to much but it's sad to see how coldly dismissive some are about the genuine poverty we have. Rashford is rightly applauded and that's great, but our children shouldn't ever be hungry in 2021. It's sad that a football player was seen to make the government do such a massive U-turn ... .... surely they shouldn't need adverse publicity to push them into giving hungry children food.
Partly right and partly hot air. What do you mean by "wealthy"? Someone with more money than you? Someone with a lot more money than you? Richard Branson? Statistically (and this is pre-covid), the bottom 50% of earners in this country paid 9% of the total income tax the government collected. The top 1% of earners paid 27%. How do you square that? I agree that the poverty in this country is entirely unacceptable, but just pointing at the "rich", simply doesn't work. Taxation must be fair and when it isn't the system falls over. Back in the 70s Denis Healey said he'd tax the rich until their pips squeaked. He just raised taxes until the rich left and took their money with them. That's still being felt today as all that wealth ended up hidden in tax havens for decades. Better IMHO to take a look at what the government is spending our cash on. I'm a member of CND and we could save billions by not bothering to replace Trident and instead spending more on our conventional forces with plenty left over for other things? Boris's yacht? That can go. Stop giving local council members bigger salaries than the PM with gilt-edged pensions to come. Loads of things we could do, but whether or not we will...
