Off Topic Politics Thread

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10 years ago £50k wasn’t low. Nowadays so many have drifted into the higher bracket. I’m not saying £50k is low income, but a one earner family with 2 kids and a say sole £60k income isn’t ‘rich’ anymore.
??

Thats about £12k more than my 2 income with 3 kids household!. Don't forget I am (according to the government stats) officially in poverty.
 
Yep, astounds me so many people don’t know how tax & thresholds work.

This is a very common thing when people in my warehouse moan about tax, moaning about OT payments or a Covid bonus we got with the typical "looks nice but then tax takes it off you" and it is impossible to explain to them they will get that tax back through the year as tax is worked out cumulatively. NI on the other hand? Gone, that's lost. worked out on current not cumulative.
 
A small but useful to know issue is that if your income takes you above the 50271 threshold you can only 'earn' interest of £500 rather than £1000 before tax kicks in on traditional type savings. ISAs of course pay tax interest free but restrict your investment.

Hide it in Crypto ;)
 
Lol. So freesing tax thresholds...........that they vastly increased in their first term in (coalition?) from where they had been?

People ar zoning in too much on direct tax. IF they raise taxes on (example) a succesful business category that I work for, or make more levies etc. maybe I won;t get much of a pay rise next year if any.......or maybe my company might make redundancies or even move country. There are a lot more indirect effects to working people than raising taxes directly to take a few quid more a week out of your pocket! It ain't as simple as that! Maybe you should've all voted for Reform who said they would raise the tax free band to $20k? Seeing as you care so much about those of us close to the NMW.

Lol Reform. They had significantly more unfunded tax breaks and spending commitments than Liz Truss. It's time to let the grownups resume the conversation, the time of windbags rambling is done.

Name me one of these alleged indirect tax effects that exceed the effect of 7 years of fiscal drag.

The logical detachment it takes to defend the party raising your taxes whilst blaming it on the party not doing it is mind blowing.
 
Lol Reform. They had significantly more unfunded tax breaks and spending commitments than Liz Truss. It's time to let the grownups resume the conversation, the time of windbags rambling is done.

Name me one of these alleged indirect tax effects that exceed the effect of 7 years of fiscal drag.

The logical detachment it takes to defend the party raising your taxes whilst blaming it on the party not doing it is mind blowing.
Not defending any of them. they are all **** and do exactly the same as each other. I just get on with life with a smile ;)
 
It isn;t a desperation for them to fail. It is frustration that we were told (not just by salty Tories) they were gonna raise taxes that they denied and how quickly this is coming to fruition. There is a lot more to tax that affects working people than direct things like Income Tax, NI and VAT.

Also the fact they talk about a black hole, have rallied around their media pals to get it to be the narrative all the while independents like the IFS have asid it is BS. That you guys choose only to read or listen to sources that are pretty much their media wing is on you. It was predicted, it is happening. Simples. Not saying Tories would have done any better. they are all as bad as each other but Labour knew how the finances were, "fully costed" their manifesto based on it and even said the OBR would be able to chime in on policy costings atm. No-one hid anything from the OBR. Labour just overpromised based on numbers and now they;ve decided to up their promises their "fully costed" manifesto is no more. Politicians be politicians though :D
It's not even frustration for me. At this point I'm just amused. It's exactly what I predicted:

Although to be fair a new government can always resort to some variation on that old classic "Now we've been elected and had a chance to look at the books for ourselves it's all much worse than we thought so we're going to have to change our plans." I won't be at all surprised if we hear that in the next few weeks.
 
You're ineloquent post is based on what evidence? I doubt America would recognise a real Marxist given the political spectrum.
No - they are playing the same trick that some right wingers tried with Starmer. Peter Hitchens tried to claim in an interview that Starmer was further to the left than Corbyn in a frantic attempt to try and drive down the Labour vote. Trump has said Harris is worse than Bernie and Elizabeth Warren combined. Which is news to all three of them and the entire left in America and worldwide. The left’s reaction to Harris is thoroughly skeptical and lukewarm in the same way as it has been to Starmer. But the difference is they have a far closer contest so there are fewer obvious saboteurs in the vein of Owen Jones. Although they do seem to have a problem over the Gaza issue
 
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I am really hoping Labour are able to find money to start making some changes soon. I don’t have much money but they can tax me more if we can just start fixing the holes in society. Mental health care in this country is through the floor and it is costing all of us big time.

I am not going to hypothesise about this kid who committed the stabbings. However, I had a friend growing up who had mental health issues. He only didn’t do something awful because mental health services were there to pick him up and care for him.

All this blame and shouting and rioting. It is starting to make me so sad. Nothing ever got fixed by a rock flying through the air or by insulting someone for not being British enough. But spending a bit more on the mental health crisis facing our country would definitely fix a few holes.
 
I agree with you guys that it is harsh on these people who are already born ‘different’ that they can’t compete, but also that it is not okay for them to be in combat sport.

I am just tired of people trotting out the culture wars every two minutes. Just feels so 2021. Let it go.

Probably a good reason to trot this out again is because a bloke hitting a woman in the face is now regarded as an Olympic sport.
Even now you are only conceding it's not ok in a combat sport. Just because a woman isn't going to get her head knocked off, it doesn't mean it's ok in other events.
We are in this ridiculous position because activists and apologists like yourself have looked at this solely from the perspective of the man. You appear to be more concerned about them than (1) a woman who has failed to get Olympic qualification because a man has been given a place before her. (2) a woman who has trained for years leading up to the Olympics only to lose out on a medal because a man has beaten her. (3) a woman who is competing in a physical sport such as rugby and is totally overwhelmed (but not injured) by the superior strength and stamina of a male in the opponents team. Yet you think it is harsh that these men can't compete.

I'm tired too, I'm tired of listening to the self righteous. But I won't let it go and will continue to point out their ridiculous ideology every time something like what has happened today occurs again. The self righteous are wholly responsible for that woman being punched in the face by a man.
 
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Probably a good reason to trot this out again is because a bloke hitting a woman in the face is now regarded as an Olympic sport.
Even now you are only conceding it's not ok in a combat sport. Just because a woman isn't going to get her head knocked off, it doesn't mean it's ok in other events.
We are in this ridiculous position because activists and apologists like yourself have looked at this solely from the perspective of the man. You appear to be more concerned about them than (1) a woman who has failed to get Olympic qualification because a man has been given a place before her. (2) a woman who has trained for years leading up to the Olympics only to lose out on a medal because a man has beaten her. (3) a woman who is competing in a physical sport such as rugby and is totally overwhelmed (but not injured) by the superior strength and stamina of a male in the opponents team. Yet you think it is harsh that these men can't compete.

I'm tired too, I'm tired of listening to the self righteous. But I won't let it go and will continue to point out their ridiculous ideology every time something like what has happened today occurs again. The self righteous are wholly responsible for that woman being punched in the face by a man.
You don’t know my views. You are just clinging on to this whole ‘everyone else is wrong’ schtick as you don’t have the patience to read what others are saying.
Life is complicated. Sometimes things take a while to work out. New things happen and people go back and forth on them. The immature ‘this view is evil’ stuff is so tiring. I have told people who use the word ‘terf’ it is pathetic, and I will tell anyone who uses hyperbolic language about trans people they are pathetic too.

The vast majority of people - me included- are against women’s sports being taken over by trans people. But that isn’t what this is. This is women, who have spent their lives as women, who have no penis, who discover they are very complicated in their gender. And even though I still air towards agreeing with you, I am put off by your simplifications and crude insinuations that most people want men beating women up, stealing their medals and abusing them in their toilets.

Just keep building your straw men and then chopping them down.
 
I spend a lot of time on here pouring scorn on conspiracy theorists, and I realise this might sound like I am espousing one, but hear me out.

There is a campaign of sorts going on to destabilise the country. The riots are being stirred up by key individuals like Andrew Tate and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon through their influential social media platforms. At the same time Farage pontificates, draped in Union Flags, pretending to be statesmanlike, and calling for the nation to rid itself of irksome bureaucracy like, er, our entire human rights legislation.

Those of us who have studied 20th century history to any extent will recognise all of this only too clearly. It’s all happened before, and it ends very badly indeed.
 
I spend a lot of time on here pouring scorn on conspiracy theorists, and I realise this might sound like I am espousing one, but hear me out.

There is a campaign of sorts going on to destabilise the country. The riots are being stirred up by key individuals like Andrew Tate and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon through their influential social media platforms. At the same time Farage pontificates, draped in Union Flags, pretending to be statesmanlike, and calling for the nation to rid itself of irksome bureaucracy like, er, our entire human rights legislation.

Those of us who have studied 20th century history to any extent will recognise all of this only too clearly. It’s all happened before, and it ends very badly indeed.
Andrew Tate one of the few people I have blocked on Twitter. So I don’t know what he is saying

But as far as I understand he is now a Muslim? And he is an immigrant to another country (Romania). And you are saying he is stoking up riots that are primarily target at…hang on a second! It’s bonkers

I’d just like to think the current government has far more interest in shutting this down. Both by stopping the violent riots and by trying to deal with the underlying cause. The previous government had no interest. They wanted the support of the types who were rioting and wanted them politically motivated. I don’t think they ever dreamt farage would resurface and steal them away
 
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