The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Blue 1]

Why ? The acre of land doesn't get supported by council services and that is what council tax is supposed to be about. Personally I think all houses of whatever size/value should pay the same council tax........

Thatcher tried something a bit like that, did she?

 

[Eggs]

...we have to accept that political leaders live in a different world to the majority of voters. Milliband might well have 2 kitchens, Cameron is part of the that rich set. Milliband might well sell his house for millions, I dare say Cameron could do the same. It doesn't matter, what does matter is which one has the ideology which is the most decent and proportionate. I know which of the two I will choose.

 

[Jib in lad]

It's become a joke of a paper since its new owners got into bed with HSBC, though. Sad, really.

Dan Hodges writes for it says it all really.

 

[roydo]

It's become a joke of a paper since its new owners got into bed with HSBC, though. Sad, really.

TBH mate, dont read it for the news. I am addicted to their cryptic crossword. 5.00 pm every day. Or on a train/plane etc.

 

[Clint Planet]

You know me, I'd rather not have the tax at all, or if you must tax property have a land value tax instead, but none of the parties have proposed anything remotely akin to that. I just think the mansion tax is a blunt weapon in the class warfare that this election appears to have become. Both parties have become almost cliches of each other.

One way of putting it. Another is that it is a (perhaps clumsy) attempt to redistribute some income back to the least well off from the better off. As we've noted many times before, wealth is continuously being diverted from the poor to the rich in this country and yet i never see you complain about it travelling in that direction.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

One way of putting it. Another is that it is a (perhaps clumsy) attempt to redistribute some income back to the least well off from the better off. As we've noted many times before, wealth is continuously being diverted from the poor to the rich in this country and yet i never see you complain about it travelling in that direction.

By and large, I think people should keep as much of the money they've worked hard to earn as possible, and they can do with it as they please. That applies to rich or poor. I accept that's unlikely to ever happen though.

 

[Clint Planet]

By and large, I think people should keep as much of the money they've worked hard to earn as possible, and they can do with it as they please. That applies to rich or poor. I accept that's unlikely to ever happen though.

Even when the dice are loaded in favour of the rich and against the poor?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Even when the dice are loaded in favour of the rich and against the poor?

As we've discussed before, I don't think they are as loaded as you do.

 

[Clint Planet]

As we've discussed before, I don't think they are as loaded as you do.

Ah yes, you blame to poor for being poor. I'd forgotten.

 

[daylightrobber]

By and large, I think people should keep as much of the money they've worked hard to earn as possible, and they can do with it as they please. That applies to rich or poor. I accept that's unlikely to ever happen though.

Hope you don't fall on hard times when your utopia exists.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Ah yes, you blame to poor for being poor. I'd forgotten.

Despite your frequent use of that phrase, that isn't what I think at all. Certainly not the children anyway.

Hope you don't fall on hard times when your utopia exists.

Firstly, I never said that people couldn't use their own money to help those around them, which is something millions do all the time. Secondly, I'm a freelancer so get diddly squat from the government in terms of protection against hard times. As I've been diligent and saved throughout my life I'm not sure I'd even be given any unemployment should income dry up. Funnily enough, none of the main parties seem to really care about the 4.6 million of us that are in this boat.

 

[daylightrobber]

Despite your frequent use of that phrase, that isn't what I think at all. Certainly not the children anyway.



Firstly, I never said that people couldn't use their own money to help those around them, which is something millions do all the time. Secondly, I'm a freelancer so get diddly squat from the government in terms of protection against hard times. As I've been diligent and saved throughout my life I'm not sure I'd even be given any unemployment should income dry up. Funnily enough, none of the main parties seem to really care about the 4.6 million of us that are in this boat.

For hard times read destitution, abandoned by all those around you and demonised for being in the gutter.

 

[roydo]

Funnily enough, none of the main parties seem to really care about the 4.6 million of us that are in this boat.

True. Well, to a degree.

Wouldnt swap it though.

 

[Goat]

Funnily enough, none of the main parties seem to really care about the 4.6 million of us that are in this boat.

I think thats probably cos you dont need any help, I mean what do you want from them, courses on how to train your Butler?

 

[Clint Planet]

You can choose to be offended at anything if you so desire, it's a purely personal choice. Your comment (and that of Tubey) seem to assume that I'm expecting the child from Kirkby to achieve the same as the one from Eton. I don't, any more than I expect me to be as good a cyclist as Bradley Wiggins. A whole manner of things suggest that isn't ever going to happen, but by training well, eating properly and various other things, I can be as good a cyclist as I can be, and certainly a lot better than had I not bothered at all.

The thing is, that child from Kirkby can still make the best of their life by going to their local school, trying hard and doing the best that they can, and it wouldn't surprise me if the children from poor backgrounds that do well in life don't do just that. You can't choose many of the things you have in life, but you can choose how you respond to them.

So no, I don't blame the poor for being poor, but being poor doesn't mean you don't work hard or try your best given the opportunities you do have. If someone chooses to abuse the fantastic opportunity afforded to them as a British citizen and doesn't try their best in school, then yes, I do blame them for that.

Feel free to take offence.

Despite your frequent use of that phrase, that isn't what I think at all. Certainly not the children anyway.

Here's a question for you, Bruce. Why are the rich getting richer and the poor poorer?