The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[roydo]

No good deed goes unpunished. Subsistance living will always be there, keep lowering the bar, great, but please dont be surprised when very bad things happen - to the vulnerable, to the weakest in society. When you breed enough hunger it is you that's responsible for the cannibalism that follows.

I said a few pages back, and I repeat it again. The benefit system in the UK does not work. Just trying to reduce it bit by bit, is as you say, unfair.

It took us a generation to get to the current mess it is in, and it will take a generation to sort it out. So I would draw a line in the sand. Ringfence all those on the current system. But develop a new, fairer, (for everyone) system from a specific date that new claiments will be on.

It will take years, but penalising those who are in the system now is not fair, and it isnt right.

 

[Coach]

LOL at Gideon's abolition of the 55% 'death tax' - which he introduced.

 

[roydo]

LOL at Gideon's abolition of the 55% 'death tax' - which he introduced.

You are talking absolute codswallop mate. Sorry, but you are.

Well mainly.

 

[Coach]

You are talking absolute codswallop mate. Sorry, but you are.

Well mainly.

Really? Who introduced the 55% pension tax then? I'll give you a clue - it was in 2011.

 

[Eggs]

I said a few pages back, and I repeat it again. The benefit system in the UK does not work. Just trying to reduce it bit by bit, is as you say, unfair.

It took us a generation to get to the current mess it is in, and it will take a generation to sort it out. So I would draw a line in the sand. Ringfence all those on the current system. But develop a new, fairer, (for everyone) system from a specific date that new claiments will be on.

It will take years, but penalising those who are in the system now is not fair, and it isnt right.

.....I think you are describing Universal Credit but whether it works is another discussion.

 

[Coach]

Taken from elsewhere:

Osborne today

The past or the future - that is the choice Britain faces. And we in this hall have no doubt - we will choose the future.

I recognise the speech writer

 

[rascal]

I said a few pages back, and I repeat it again. The benefit system in the UK does not work. Just trying to reduce it bit by bit, is as you say, unfair.

It took us a generation to get to the current mess it is in, and it will take a generation to sort it out. So I would draw a line in the sand. Ringfence all those on the current system. But develop a new, fairer, (for everyone) system from a specific date that new claiments will be on.

It will take years, but penalising those who are in the system now is not fair, and it isnt right.

There's only one aspect of the benefit system that annoys me most and it is child benefit. I would like it to be restricted to only two kids per parent.

 

[L4Everton]

I said a few pages back, and I repeat it again. The benefit system in the UK does not work. Just trying to reduce it bit by bit, is as you say, unfair.

It took us a generation to get to the current mess it is in, and it will take a generation to sort it out. So I would draw a line in the sand. Ringfence all those on the current system. But develop a new, fairer, (for everyone) system from a specific date that new claiments will be on.

It will take years, but penalising those who are in the system now is not fair, and it isnt right.

The legal bill fighting for and against a two tier system would be massive. The squeeze is on and the battle lines are drawn, rooting out entrenched mickey takers is providing a lot of pain and bad press. It simply seems that there is not enough work to go round, or if there is certain people aren't feeling too keen being consigned to a lifes career of scrubbing toilets, or digging ditches.
Means tested pensions are literally around the corner, I don't see how pursuing big business for avoided tax will work, they'll pay the best legals the money to get around it before handing it over to the tax man. Maybe the charm offensive (and oh boy is it that!) with the Chinese is in line to pay off. I just don't see enough wealth created to address the deficit - its a mortgage on the country and will swallow two maybe three generations - and when people get their heads around that the sets of politicians duking it out ten, twenty, and thirty from now will see it as a line of credit that people have been used to having to be paid off.

I despair.

 

[peteblue]

There's only one aspect of the benefit system that annoys me most and it is child benefit. I would like it to be restricted to only two kids per parent.

So is that 4 kids for the pair......(did you see what I did there).........

 

[roydo]

Really? Who introduced the 55% pension tax then? I'll give you a clue - it was in 2011.

Oh sure, he raised it from 40% on Treasury guidance. Which is why I said mainly. But the main beneficiaries of the pension changes he has made will not be his millionaire pals mate.

It will be the sort of folk I deal with daily. Normal, working people who have managed to end up with a few bob in a pension.

 

[rascal]

Must be said Gideon's figures today were plucked from thin air

 

[L4Everton]

There's only one aspect of the benefit system that annoys me most and it is child benefit. I would like it to be restricted to only two kids per parent.

Thats 4 kids though, couples wont marry and so cohabit to work the system. There are real clever people churning these changes over, they think countless moves ahead - problem is all solutions have massive repurcussions and no matter what system is setup there will be gaps and issues to address. I'd sack foreign aid off to wealthier countries than ours, but that'll just get orphanages closed down and unwanted babies left on streets.

 

[rascal]

So is that 4 kids for the pair......(did you see what I did there).........

I was just thinking about the modern family. A lot of people, my step-mother included, have 6 kids from two previous marriages!

 

[roydo]

The legal bill fighting for and against a two tier system would be massive. The squeeze is on and the battle lines are drawn, rooting out entrenched mickey takers is providing a lot of pain and bad press. It simply seems that there is not enough work to go round, or if there is certain people aren't feeling too keen being consigned to a lifes career of scrubbing toilets, or digging ditches.
Means tested pensions are literally around the corner, I don't see how pursuing big business for avoided tax will work, they'll pay the best legals the money to get around it before handing it over to the tax man. Maybe the charm offensive (and oh boy is it that!) with the Chinese is in line to pay off. I just don't see enough wealth created to address the deficit - its a mortgage on the country and will swallow two maybe three generations - and when people get their heads around that the sets of politicians duking it out ten, twenty, and thirty from now will see it as a line of credit that people have been used to having to be paid off.

I despair.

Difficult to disagree with a word.

 

[roydo]

There's only one aspect of the benefit system that annoys me most and it is child benefit. I would like it to be restricted to only two kids per parent.

Again, its a system that was introduced for all the right reasons, but some who get it, (my sister for example) see it as much as an entitlement as those trapped in the benefit system at the other end of the spectrum.