The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[rascal]

Boggles the mind where on earth they find some of these people from, and what's more, what makes them think they would make even remotely sensible candidates.

It's that type of logic that makes people think UKIP are nothing more than the British answer to the Tea Party. Great entertainment for every rational human being in the country, until you realise they're actually influencing national policy

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Just saw this (on the subject of welfare). Taken from a study of welfare recipients in Norway.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/qje/qju019

It basically underlines the cultural loop families can get into. It shows how a parent being on welfare raises the odds of the child ending up on welfare when they enter adulthood.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It's that type of logic that makes people think UKIP are nothing more than the British answer to the Tea Party. Great entertainment for every rational human being in the country, until you realise they're actually influencing national policy

At times I wonder if it isn't all a big joke and they've yet to let on that they're on a wind up. I mean a lot of the people they seem to attract make Farage look sensible. Sad to think that there are people actually out there like that.

 

[Clint Planet]

Just saw this (on the subject of welfare). Taken from a study of welfare recipients in Norway.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/qje/qju019

It basically underlines the cultural loop families can get into. It shows how a parent being on welfare raises the odds of the child ending up on welfare when they enter adulthood.

Which comes back to my point about every child's right to equal ops in society and how they shouldn't be punished for their parents' circumstances. And yet, effectively, they are.

 

[Mrtallywacker]

Proverbs 22:2
The rich and the poor have a common bond, The Lord is the maker of them all.

 

[rascal]

At times I wonder if it isn't all a big joke and they've yet to let on that they're on a wind up. I mean a lot of the people they seem to attract make Farage look sensible. Sad to think that there are people actually out there like that.

D-Cam was right when he called them a party full of fruitcakes. (It's here that I would make the snide remark that was the only time he's been right about anything...)

 

[Joey66]

I'll let you all pick the bones out of this one...

Ban the jobless from driving to ease congestion, Ukip candidate says

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...g-to-ease-congestion-Ukip-candidate-says.html

So basically he wants everyone who claims some sort of benefit to be banned from driving. It's quite ironic that he's almost of pensionable age.

Not aUkip policy, but the silly so is one yearfrom liming benefit ie his old age pension the bigs tout lay in benefits what a dipstick he really just is!

 

[Joey66]

D-Cam was right when he called them a party full of fruitcakes. (It's here that I would make the snide remark that was the only time he's been right about anything...)

D camisole never right - just a Billy Liar from the posh jet set from Etonian - I see Boris is paying back tax he owes us from his time in the USA - something he alwYs stated he would not pay the uk Government!

 

[L4Everton]

Greece - would you let it default and is it possible to stop that infecting the rest of the Eurozone?

 

[Joey66]

Greece - would you let it default and is it possible to stop that infecting the rest of the Eurozone?

The main worry is if Greece leave the EU under the new left/communist parties, and ditch the Euro, and revert to the Dracma - If the Greece economy then takes off other Euro countries struggling should few suit showing the E U Eurozone has been a disaster!

 

[L4Everton]

The main worry is if Greece leave the EU under the new left/communist parties, and ditch the Euro, and revert to the Dracma - If the Greece economy then takes off other Euro countries struggling should few suit showing the E U Eurozone has been a disaster!

That was the risk when bailing them out the first hundred times. Greece has become the European whipping-boy and funnily enough the people on the street that had no part in those decisions or the decisions that placed their economy there don't like it.
Will Germany or anyone else put a Greek passport embargo on its/their borders as and when Greece goes pop and the weasel is out of the bag.

There are some very nasty far right problems on the menu, and that goes specifically for 'scapegoats' whereever a gutter press can provoke the mindless into criminal action in whichever respective countries.

 

[Chang Elephant]

Just saw this (on the subject of welfare). Taken from a study of welfare recipients in Norway.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/qje/qju019

It basically underlines the cultural loop families can get into. It shows how a parent being on welfare raises the odds of the child ending up on welfare when they enter adulthood.

You might as well just say your point, which is that welfare should be cut for the good of those using it. We could then use the money saved to cut taxes for the higher earners (those that bother paying it) so we can benefit from their hard work.

 

[The Esk]

Greece - would you let it default and is it possible to stop that infecting the rest of the Eurozone?

Answer is no to default but allow Greece debt relief in a structured way. Greece's debt burden is over 170% of GDP which is unsustainable for Greece but a relatively small amount for the EU as a whole to manage. Remember Greece accounts for less than 2% of total EU GDP so whilst painful for the Greeks on a pan European basis is insignificant.

The Germans have short memories to their shame. It was debt relief granted in 1953 and partially funded by both Spain and Greece which allowed Germany to get back on their feet.

Default and removal from the Euro will cause much greater problems than the cost of debt relief.

 

[L4Everton]

Answer is no to default but allow Greece debt relief in a structured way. Greece's debt burden is over 170% of GDP which is unsustainable for Greece but a relatively small amount for the EU as a whole to manage. Remember Greece accounts for less than 2% of total EU GDP so whilst painful for the Greeks on a pan European basis is insignificant.

The Germans have short memories to their shame. It was debt relief granted in 1953 and partially funded by both Spain and Greece which allowed Germany to get back on their feet.

Default and removal from the Euro will cause much greater problems than the cost of debt relief.

There is growing concern they are pushing for the exit option, when a group are made to suffer to the point they have nothing else to lose is it any surprise they opt for the 'exit' option. As legal or otherwise as 'exit' is, there is concern foremost not that a domino effect could begin but that a scrabble to not be the next whipping boy will ensue. Then it's political favours between Spain and Portugal (amongst a couple of others) to cash in/buy a few favours so that toxicity isn't dumped on them to the extreme a la Greece.

In my simplistic view, this is progressively becoming a battle to draw the line between the haves and have nots and then to enforce that line very literally, very physically so as to keep the poorest out of the social cares and mechanisms so that the have's no longer have to support them as well as the millions allegedly on their own doorstep they have no means to ostracise.

If I was a Greek, I'd be hounding the politicians and economists that played Russian Roulette with the gun at my head instead of their own but were drunk with the power of it instead of being focused on the winning of it. IMHO there is a sizable revolt coming in Eastern Europe that will result in a lot of harm, the Russia Ukraine standoff is the tip of the iceberg.

 

[L4Everton]

Kryst they are laughing, actually laughing on 'this week' on BBC1 about the German paper front pages of tomorrow.