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@MiketheSnow said in British Politics:
When are heads going to roll for these incompetencies?
Never. It isn't anything serious like mis-gendering someone...
A transgender police community support officer was left upset and embarrassed after abusive comments shouted by a teenager while he was on duty, a court has heard. Declan Armstrong, 19, was given a curfew requirement and ordered to pay £590 at Mold Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday after he was found guilty of making the comments to PCSO Connor Freel following an earlier trial.
Rhian Jackson, prosecuting, said Mr Freel "shouted very loudly: ‘Is it a boy or is it a girl?’.” She said when Mr Freel looked over at Armstrong he made the comment loudly again.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/teen-prosecuted-after-asking-whether-17651755
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Look, what we really want is less european workers, and millions of welfare dependent fake refugees with absolutely no skills. If you think that this is a bit off then you are a literal Nazi.
I do not want to just say it, but it really is a country of dullards. Disdain for education, knee-jerk adherance to newspaper opinions. Idiots all the way down.
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@Tim said in British Politics:
Look, what we really want is less european workers, and millions of welfare dependent fake refugees with absolutely no skills. If you think that this is a bit off then you are a literal Nazi.
Business leaders who value UK people and actually invest in training to increase skill and knowledge might be a good idea.
I recall the head of the Road Transport Association arguing Brexit would cause a shortage of HGV drivers, and then being asked how many UK drivers his members had trained in the last 5 years. Turned out to be less than 100. Probably thought it racist or xenophobic to train local people,
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More likely, why bother when you can (could) get fully trained euro drivers and pay them less. I’m guessing the only reason they trained any UK guys at all was to fulfil a quota and retain funding.
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Agree on your first sentence and that is/was the problem. The same people who created the conditions for Brexit were the same people who couldn't understand why people voted leave.
My last sentence was very tongue-in-cheek...like yours in fact...
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UK issues are rapidly heading into the unsolvable bin.
Sunak is about as Conservative as a box of donkey shit, and has basically spent the last year talking about small boats whilst actually doing nothing to the figures of them. It's a well conceived idea that immigration was the key cause of Brexit, but as pointed out, all that's done is move the migration figures from one column to another. A less desirable column. Or, we could at least acknowledge that the figures would likely be significantly higher as you'd have to assume that the boat numbers would be the same.
The welfare costs in the country are truly staggering, and show exactly where the problems lie. It's not a hardworking population, never has been. Too many got a taste of "the good life" through Covid and have elected to stop working whilst living a less fruitful life (according to Govt stats). Thing is though, with tax rules, people realised it wasn't really worth working as once you get into the well paid, 2/3 of what you earn is to support people who don't do an hours work, ever.
You can call this right wing, if you want, but it's the god damned truth. And if a Convservative PM isn't going to acknowledge it and work on it, then what hope we do have under Labour?
Yet, the real issue, is how the country could get 500k migrants in a year, but then be in a recession. Are none of these migrants actually working? Then wtf are they getting government assistance for? You come here, you work, you pay taxes. It's that simple. If you don't, then no NHS, no education, fuck off and I don't have give a fuck how you fuck off, but simply make sure that off you fuck.
As for the Telegraph headline ... Jesus Christ. 100bn a year in extra tax in 6 years isn't the end of the world. 2.5tn economy, 35% tax take .... means it needs to grow by about 10%. If you can't grow the economy from this foundation by 10% in 6 years, then you shouldn't be in power.
Country run by dullards, as Tim said.
@Tim said in British Politics:
I do not want to just say it, but it really is a country of dullards. Disdain for education, knee-jerk adherance to newspaper opinions. Idiots all the way down.
Outside your dullards comments, really not sure how you get the other points of view. Education is arguably the most revered commodity in this country (or perhaps thats the bubble I'm in) & I've never really seen anything change on the back of a column.
Difficult to argue about the idiots at the moment.
Don't blame Jews for leaving. Palestine shit is everywhere. Cars, signposts, flags .. literally everywhere. I'm starting to wonder if Tommy is right, and the Muslim faith does think it's staging a takeover. From the River To the Sea projected onto Big Ben and no repercussions? FFS.
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@MajorRage said in British Politics:
And the biggest elephants in the room are the unfunded pension liabilities from the public sector - which is going to get worse as people in Blair's explosion in public-sector employment start to come into pension age. Deficit was £1.2tn 10 years ago, now £2.3tn
Last year, the increase in public sector pension costs alone, was more than the entire education budget.
And yet we get more wound up over the cost of vaping...
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@Victor-Meldrew As a number itself it doesn't really mean anything.
Depends on what it costs on an annual basis, and for how long they are projecting. No doubt, they will pay it out for 30 years for some people who are dead after 10 though.
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Get the demographics argument, but it's the rate of increase in liabilities which is the issue.
It's a Pay as You Go scheme reliant on incoming contributions to fund, to a large degree, the pensions of the retired with the taxpayer making up the difference which has been affordable. (And might explain why it's so difficult for politicians to reduce the size of the public sector.)
That difference is growing and has increased by 148% in the last 3 years and will continue to increase according to the IFS. No discussion of course as to where it might lead..
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It is telling that measures put in place back in the 90s to force large pension schemes to monitor their liabilities more closely and more often, which has partially been the reason so many final salary schemes have closed down, has not been applied to the public sector. If the same measures were used, the scheme would be now and has been for years, in default.
Easy I suppose when there is no accountability and you’re spending other people’s money.
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An ordinary NHS nurse, retiring at 60, now gets a pension worth just over £1m in the annuity market.
What could possibly go wrong?
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Big takeaway from the Budget: Hunt wants to abolish National Insurance "as it's an unfair tax". Makes a lot of sense and would simplify no end of stuff, but just think it'd be pretty hard to actually achieve.
Besides, he won't be around in 6 months or so's time.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in British Politics:
Big takeaway from the Budget: Hunt wants to abolish National Insurance "as it's an unfair tax". Makes a lot of sense and would simplify no end of stuff, but just think it'd be pretty hard to actually achieve.
Besides, he won't be around in 6 months or so's time.
When you add up income tax, employees NIC and Employer NIC, that’s a hit of around 40% for a “basic rate” tax payer. Paradoxically Employee NIC reduced to 1% (I think) just as you get to higher rate income tax. So yeah it is unfair. However, his giveaway reduction in NIC does nothing for retirees who do not pay NIC after having paid it for 40 years to qualify for certain benefits which keep getting devalued. Would have been more equitable to reduce basic rate income tax, but that would either cost more or not be such a grandstanding figure as a 2% cut.
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@Catogrande said in British Politics:
@Victor-Meldrew said in British Politics:
Big takeaway from the Budget: Hunt wants to abolish National Insurance "as it's an unfair tax". Makes a lot of sense and would simplify no end of stuff, but just think it'd be pretty hard to actually achieve.
Besides, he won't be around in 6 months or so's time.
When you add up income tax, employees NIC and Employer NIC, that’s a hit of around 40% for a “basic rate” tax payer. Paradoxically Employee NIC reduced to 1% (I think) just as you get to higher rate income tax. So yeah it is unfair. However, his giveaway reduction in NIC does nothing for retirees who do not pay NIC after having paid it for 40 years to qualify for certain benefits which keep getting devalued. Would have been more equitable to reduce basic rate income tax, but that would either cost more or not be such a grandstanding figure as a 2% cut.
I like the ambition though. I can see NI and Tax being combined alongside some sort of over-60 tax allowance being put in place
For retirees, the link between contributions and benefits vanished years ago and people who paid into the State Second Pension have been royally screwed. Another Gordon Brown masterclass in short-term thinking.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in British Politics:
@Catogrande said in British Politics:
@Victor-Meldrew said in British Politics:
Big takeaway from the Budget: Hunt wants to abolish National Insurance "as it's an unfair tax". Makes a lot of sense and would simplify no end of stuff, but just think it'd be pretty hard to actually achieve.
Besides, he won't be around in 6 months or so's time.
When you add up income tax, employees NIC and Employer NIC, that’s a hit of around 40% for a “basic rate” tax payer. Paradoxically Employee NIC reduced to 1% (I think) just as you get to higher rate income tax. So yeah it is unfair. However, his giveaway reduction in NIC does nothing for retirees who do not pay NIC after having paid it for 40 years to qualify for certain benefits which keep getting devalued. Would have been more equitable to reduce basic rate income tax, but that would either cost more or not be such a grandstanding figure as a 2% cut.
I like the ambition though. I can see NI and Tax being combined alongside some sort of over-60 tax allowance being put in place
For retirees, the link between contributions and benefits vanished years ago and people who paid into the State Second Pension have been royally screwed. Another Gordon Brown masterclass in short-term thinking.
Oh for sure, however notionally it is still there, hence when you reach state pension age, you cease paying NIC.
Gordon Brown did so much stupid stuff with unforeseen and sometimes quite foreseen repercussions. Hated Advanced Corporation Tax so abolished it and in a stroke made pensions investment management into a taxable environment. Then altered the rules for liability managent. Cue overnight black hole in funding and the demise of the final salary schemes. Selling off a large chunk of our gold reserves and giving notice in advance that he was doing it. Huge dip and subsequent spike in gold price. The former before he sold, the latter afterwards.
Prudent my arse. Gordon Brown = one eyed scotch fluffybunny.
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@Catogrande said in British Politics:
Prudent my arse. Gordon Brown = one eyed scotch fluffybunny.
An economic charlatan with the real-world intellect of a 1st year LSE student. An utter tosser with the interpersonal skills of diseased hedgehog.
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