And you are such a snowflake! It's hilarious.
UK General Election - 12th December 2019 | Con 365, Lab 203, LD 11, SNP 48, Other 23 - Tory Majority of 80
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And you are such a snowflake! It's hilarious.
@Honest John nothing to say about the Tories already failing on housing? And losing 2.3 billion at the same time?
I think they've simply changed their mind and are looking at capex to stimulate growth.
CBI will like it and the unions should do to because it will create jobs.
As long as corporation taxes are not increasing that should be enough to keep business here.
Yes they failed. And they need to do something about it. As to whether they have lost the economic argument then I don't agree with you. Not to the point at least that we need to level the whole shooting match and usher in a socialist regime. Fix the baby. Don't chuck it out with the bath water.
This sounds potentially disastrous though, and again sort of accentuates my point: it's a policy which would potentially have a short-term benefit for cities insofar as it generating revenue is concerned but it would lead to a race to the bottom and would leave governments with much less to invest in rural areas where there's not going to be much of an incentive to invest for businesses if they can go to a city instead. And it only really works until it doesn't - as we saw with the financial crash a decade or so ago unfettered greed that's not regulated at all by the government can come back to bite you.
The results are in -
Never trust anyone with a beard.
Just because he's consistent doesn't mean he's consistently right. Hitler was also consistent.Alright, Mao and Stalin were (I think).
Also this gem
You really might want to give it another read, Colin.
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Aw it's a little mini echo chamber. What a luvly widdle echo chamber.
Despite them losing 2.3 billion in funds, the economy growing 0.1% despite 10 years of austerity - and many more damning indictments. You still suggest that the Tories haven’t failed on economic & fiscal policies?
Brexit has fecked everything up, we really have no idea where we would be if it wasn't for Brexit, but it is fair to say it has been a terrible drain on the economy. I would suggest that, if it hadn't been for this idiocy, then we would be much further along in terms of the real end of austerity, not this phoney vote winning end which is being bandied about, and growth in the economy.
I think this I'd the key point. There would be more Tory voting teachers if the Tories hadn't been squeezing them for 10 years.
Yay. An international race to the bottom. Which country can get there first.
I agree it's to do with tax disparity, but in a global world we're competing with other countries (like Ireland) who're far more competitive. Of course the UK has pull through access/skills/infrastructure but my belief is we should have pull through more competitive taxation also. Again I disagree with forecasts on all sides that merely equate reductions in taxation with equivalent drops in tax revenue. I likewise disagree with Corbynomics where you add to the tax % and come up with a perfectly proportional increase in tax take as if people's habits don't change dependant on tax policy.
As I said previously these tax and spend Tories aren't a party I've ever aligned with. They're partaking in Corbynomics Lite... Although even the "Lite" part is up for discussion.
The problem is we're competing against countries like Ireland (let alone tax havens etc), so having much higher taxes means we're putting off investment, growing at a slower rate and therefore have less to spend. Given that we're already spending more money than we can bring in through taxes and given that most people want to spend more on public services; I'm unsure how we square this circle.
The Tories are currently engaging in a law of diminishing returns. We're increasing taxes in order to increase public spending. The problem is increasing taxes is stifling our growth, so to fill the gap caused by stifled growth we're increasing taxes, which again stifles growth. We're like a business who's losing customers but instead of cutting our prices to encourage more business, were increasing our prices to maintain turnover. The problem with that approach is increasing costs causes a loss in more custom, which with the same process eventually causes ever fewer customers; as the aren't willing to pay the ever greater costs. In my view low tax and high growth is much more effective long term compared with high tax and low growth.
The question therefore is would you prefer to be Birmingham who in my example are a fast growing, prosperous region whereby spend/tax to GDP is low but long term spend itself grows quickly with the region; or would you prefer to be the other cities that see repressed investment, repressed growth and a continual cycle of greater borrowing, greater tax burden and repression of civil liberties to fund stagnant growth; due to people choosing Birmingham's competitive environment over their uncompetitive one.
It's called dealing with the realities of the world, rather than believing in rainbows and unicorns. In the real world I'd prefer the UK to be a dynamic and fast growing country attracting global investment resulting in salary increases across all deciles via competitve taxation (ala Singapore and Ireland) rather than a poor stagnating one ideologically driving itself into the ground through onerous taxation (ala France with the UK not far behind).
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Not really, because before Brexit the peak GDP growth we saw under Conservative rule was 3.1%*, that's after 5 years of austerity cuts which (according to Cameron & Osborne) were necessary to boost growth, yet our peak, was lower than under Blair. Right now we're growing at a rate slower than post-recession.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/281734/gdp-growth-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/
This is supposed to be the party that promotes fiscal growth.
Brexit will make the economy worse, yes, but it was hardly in a position of strength to begin with. And we can blame the Tories for Brexit too.
*edit- it was 3.1% not 3.4
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He is right in a sense, if you're looking at just GDP growth then the UK under the Tory government 2010-16 was performing well against other similar economies. After the Brexit vote we went from the best performing economy in the G7 (GDP growth) to the worst. They have brought the deficit under control too, although it took them longer than the pledged. Looking at other economic markers like real wage growth etc, the UK performed very badly in the same period, however.
The Brexit project has already cost us hundreds of billions and will continue to do so. In the absence of that I think they'd have a much better case for arguing that they are the party of fiscal responsibility. Brexit should have really killed that idea but general global prosperity since then has kept us afloat with poor growth but not at a level where it has noticeably hurt enough of the electorate to have a real impact politically.
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In the light of what happened in 2008 what measures do you think would have been the correct ones? How would you have addressed the deficit and what evidence to you have that it would have worked?
As I see it now we have less than 4% unemployed (that's virtual full employment by most peoples reckoning), inflation at 1.5%, Interest rates are 0.75%. The deficit is down. Wage growth is at an 11 year high at around 3.5%. Yes austerity hurt and hopefully that will now be addressed. But I would be interested in a proper summary of just how any other method would have addressed the biggest financial issue to hit the country since the Wall St crash.
Blair presided over the longest sustained period of economic growth since, what, the 1920s? Despite that, when the inevitable crash came (remember no more boom & bust?) there was nothing in the coffers to cushion the fall, leading to austerity.
No doubt you are going to bleat on about it all being the bankers fault, but it still remains that, there was an opportunity to put some money aside to cushion the inevitable bust, whoever's fault it would turn out to be, and that opportunity was not taken.
Nope
And millions like me - by the latest reckoning the vast majority of voters in the UK.
Something has changed in the atmosphere on social media. Corbyn is suddenly not getting anywhere as much stick as he has over the past few weeks. I read the comments in the news pages and up to this point it will always be anti corbyn, today it just seems different.
Your reply to my post on the subject was "Nope".
800,000 people on zero hour contracts. Great success.
More kids going to university is a good thing but standards do have to be maintained. I'd like to know where all the fees are going though.
Simple, investment.
You need money to invest we had none.
Yeah I was just being flippant to be honest.
Look, I don’t particularly agree with everything corbyn says or does, but at the end of the day as a voter I will decide between party manifesto and previous voting record. Based on that alone indicates that I could never vote Tory.
Not only that, but as far as I can tell most of the usual narrative that is used to condemn corbyn In particular is sensationalist rubbish that is relatively easily disproved in terms of his character. Although I’m happy to admit that he does tend to leave himself open to attack and I find that very frustrating at times.
At the end of the day, it’s up to the individual voter to decide where their vote goes on December 12th. As it stands mine will be going to Labour, but it’s up to you to choose who you vote for and why. I have no problem with you voting Tory (or whoever) that is your democratic right mate.
Do you have any data on how many of those are happy to be on those contracts. It does actually suit a lot of people.
Zero-hours work takes huge physical and mental toll
Flexible contracts suit employers but many workers pay the price with their own health
https://www.ft.com/content/d8d82ebe-9cbc-11e8-88de-49c908b1f264
The deficit is just one measure used as a reason for austerity - most economists actually agree that in order to boost economic growth you need to allow the deficit to expand. The tories hid behind the deficit as a means to cut down on public spending & welfare cuts, to pay for banker bailouts. https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2015/apr/29/the-austerity-delusion
Also it wasn't just that 'it took them longer than they pledged", that implies they simply missed a deadline. Osborne said austerity would end in 2015, the latest estimates are that it will end in 2025, that's a gross miscalculation - especially when you consider that the poorest in society are dying & being forced out of their homes because of cuts to their benefits, as a result of austerity measures.
So even by their own misguided measures, they have failed - miserably so.
That's before we even get into the fact that they have admitted to losing £2.3 billion and have nothing to show for it.
Austerity might not be "hurting enough of the electorate" but it's killing thousands of people, and just because the majority of us are in a privileged position to not have to rely on benefits & food banks, doesn't mean we should put faith in a party that hides behind dated terms of fiscal responsibility, with no recent results to show for it.
The unemployment rate is pretty misleading, considering 2/3's of the recent 3 million hired are self-employed or on zero-contract hours because there's not enough jobs - so yes they have a job, but they have no stable or reliable income. This, plus an increase in state-pension age thus forcing people to work while they're much older, added on to the fact that a large amount of migrants make up for recent job hires, plus many people living longer, thus working more - you should have the comprehension that a simple 4% unemployment rate doesn't even begin to tell the whole story. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/03/record-job-figures-hide-true-story-of-uk-economy
So yes, unemployment is down, but 6 million jobs pay below the 'living wage', therefore 6 million employed are classified as in poverty, and rely on foodbanks - this includes many Teachers, Nurses, Firefighters etc.
It's all well & good stating numbers, but wage growth affects the privileged, most public workers have had their wages stagnated, but CEO's, MP's, C-level executives have seen their wages double in the same time period, when you take that average of course you'll be led to believe that wages are increases - in reality, for most people they are not - not at the rate to keep up with cost of living.
https://fullfact.org/economy/pay-rises-how-much-do-nurses-police-teachers-and-mps-get-paid/
Nurses, Police Officers, Teachers etc have actually seen their wages go down on average in the last 10 years when you take inflation into account.
If you don't think there are alternatives to growing an economy than austerity, then I really don't feel like revisiting my A-level economics books - these are things which are easily researchable online. My point remains that the Tory being the part of fiscal responsibility is a delusion.
See above.
As I've said a million times on here, the opinion always seems to be the current level is the highest acceptable to business. Then it gets lowered and that becomes the only acceptable level to business. So on and so forth from 28% to 18% (think that's right).
It makes it look like the Tory base don't actually have an opinion on taxation levels beyond a blind "they shouldn't increase it" mantra. If this cut had gone ahead then a return to 20% would be deemed armageddon for our country. It's always the same mantra.
Whenever I hear the idea of spending more money to reduce the deficit I always think of the "dig up, stupid" Simpsons meme.
The Tory base, like most bases though, are just acolytes of the current leadership.
Anyone who talks about corporation tax in isolation is either being intentionally disingenuous or unintentionally dense. Corporation tax currently being lower is against a backdrop of other (often stealth taxes) being higher such as SDLT, Insurance Premium Tax, VAT, Business Rates etc.
You can abolish corporation tax entirely but you'll still be taxing businesses too much if other taxes are aggressively increased to compensate (as they have been over the last decade).
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I won't be putting faith in the Tories don't worry. I have never voted for them and never will. I used to have some sympathy with their idea of being more fiscally responsible than Labour but no longer.
Exactly the same as me
I have no intention of voting Conservative in the election, as that means I am condoning the madness of Brexit. May is my MP, so whoever I vote for will only be a protest vote, as she is getting in anyway.
That’s not the whole picture though. We have occasional staff who pick up shifts to cover staff sickness and holiday. They’re on zero hours contracts technically speaking. In our case they’re mainly students doing social work or similar courses who can’t commit to fixed hours all year. Suits everyone to pick and choose when they work. They get paid £12.50 an hour, more than the living wage round here, and get sick and holiday pay. Hardly exploitative. We’d have a big problem if we couldn’t use them.
Besides, exploitative places like Sports Direct will just switch to one or four hour contracts.
This means I live close to you, what a horrifying reality.
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