National politics

[DaveR]

I would love to go to my MP with a problem.....But I just cannot afford the air fare to Israel 

   

[DaveR]

Nice guy - and very bright.

Here's some interesting - if depressing  - facts about the election:

0.8% more people voted Tory this time than in the last election, so how does that equate to them suddenly getting a majority of the seats in Parliament?

Meanwhile, Labour got 1.5% more votes than last time (up to 9,347,326), yet lost 26 seats.

UKIP got 3,881,129 votes (12.6% of the total) and got one seat.

The Lib Dems got 2,415,888 votes (just 7.9% of the total votes) and got 8 seats.

The SNP received 1,454,436 votes a 4.7% share and got 56 seats.

And the Greens got 3.8% of the total votes (1,157,613 in total) and also got just one seat.

That's the truly democratic effect of our lamentable FPTP voting system.

How many votes did the Conservatives get? You seem to have missed that one out. 

[Merddin Emrys]

This article is spot on!
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/im-a-proud-tory-but-with-the-left-this-belligerent-and-selfrighteous-is-it-any-wonder-that-so-many-of-us-are-shy-10236544.html?fb_action_ids=941757749179242&fb_action_types=og.shares

[Ian]

How many votes did the Conservatives get? You seem to have missed that one out.

Unintentionally.  They got 2m more votes than Labour, and it makes an interesting comparison. Ukip got nearly 4m votes, and secured one MP. The entire system is skewed to favour Tory or Lab.

This article is spot on!

Well, it's primarily about university campuses and the ones who shout the loudest there are normally far left. But the assertions he makes are suspect in terms of generalisation. And the very name conservative harks back to the maintenance of the status quo, from a time when only the wealthy were allowed to vote to keep the wealthy in power.

It's sobering when you realise that it was less than a hundred years ago (1928) that ordinary (not wealthy) men and women were allowed the vote. We should keep Burke in mind.

[Hugo]

It will be interesting this time around to see how the Cons do on their own without the Lib Dems  allegedly "holding them back"
There are a lot of important issues coming up, but will they deal with them efficiently:-
Immigration
Tax avoidance
Benefit capping
NHS   etc  etc

Immigration            Cameron's "negotiating skills"  with Europe will be tested to the limit as last time he lost    26 - 2
Tax avoidance.        Don't expect anything here as it is their ilk that benefits from these loopholes
Benefit capping       No more excuses here to ensure a fairer society by ensuring that it pays to work
NHS                        What have the Cons ever done for the NHS apart from drip feeding sections of it to their Tory backers?     

There's a lot of work to be done and only time will tell if the Cons have conned the British public.   

[Ian]

Yes;  it's the NHS that concerns me most, I think.

[born2run]

It will be interesting this time around to see how the Cons do on their own without the Lib Dems  allegedly "holding them back"
There are a lot of important issues coming up, but will they deal with them efficiently:-
Immigration
Tax avoidance
Benefit capping
NHS   etc  etc

Immigration            Cameron's "negotiating skills"  with Europe will be tested to the limit as last time he lost    26 - 2
Tax avoidance.        Don't expect anything here as it is their ilk that benefits from these loopholes
Benefit capping       No more excuses here to ensure a fairer society by ensuring that it pays to work
NHS                        What have the Cons ever done for the NHS apart from drip feeding sections of it to their Tory backers?     

There's a lot of work to be done and only time will tell if the Cons have conned the British public.   

It would pay to work if we had voted a party in that got rid of zero hour contracts and increased the minimum wage.
Benefits is a separate issue - and the only one in any way applicable to 'working' is JSA which is
£57.90 or £73.10 a week if you're over 25

NOBODY is working for as little as that so clearly it already pays to work.

[Hugo]

I agree with you about zero hours working and the minimum wage but benefits is an issue.    I don't mean JSA  where an able bodied person is actively seeking work but a benefit system that discourages people from seeking work when they can get more on benefits.   A system where people can go through all their adult life without a days work and still be entitled to an OAP.    A system that allows women to have a career out of getting pregnant and never paying anything into a system that the are happy to get the benefit from.
If Cameron can put a stop to that type of thing then the sooner he does it the better.   He's got no excuses now that the Cons have a majority so no more U turns and the like.

[born2run]

How can you put a stop to it?

Do you take the housing benefit away from the mother and put her and her babies out on the street?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-expected-live-judge-slams-5682582

How are people to live if there is no work?  They have to scavenge for food or turn to crime.

People are going to die because of poverty not experienced in the last 70 years.

I don't want this done in my name.

[Hugo]

No one wants that type of thing but people should take responsibility where they can.  Housing benefit used to be paid directly to the landlord but now it doesn't and that creates a problem in itself if the people don't manage their own economy properly.
As for the number of children that they have , then that's up to the parents but don't expect others to pick up the bill.  My Grandparents had 12 children but then he worked all his life and didn't have the benefits or expectations that they have nowadays.
I don't want to see that type of poverty in my name either but I don't want to see people on benefits receiving more money than those who are in full time employment
At the opposite end of the scale,  if Cameron says anything about doing something about tax avoidance take it with a pinch of salt because it won't happen.    His cronies and supporters are too far entrenched in it to rock the boat

[Hugo]

UK not bound by EU migrant quotas http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32705615

[DaveR]

How can you put a stop to it?

Do you take the housing benefit away from the mother and put her and her babies out on the street?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-expected-live-judge-slams-5682582

How are people to live if there is no work?  They have to scavenge for food or turn to crime.

People are going to die because of poverty not experienced in the last 70 years.

I don't want this done in my name.

Other news articles quote the DWP as saying that Mrs Barker is currently in receipt of Benefits?

[DaveR]

The Minimum Wage is an interesting issue. On the face of it, increasing it to, say, £10 an hour would produce massive benefits for those working at the lower end of the jobs market.

However, it's never quite that simple. As the price of employing staff rose, prices in shops/pubs/restaurants etc would have to rise to follow suit, because its not just the lowest paid that would receive a rise, the pay differential would have to be maintained up to Manager level and the cost of the pay increases would inevitably be passed on to the consumer.

The real question is, would an increase in the Minimum Wage produce enough of a net benefit to those receiving it?

[Ian]

The Minimum Wage is an interesting issue. On the face of it, increasing it to, say, £10 an hour would produce massive benefits for those working at the lower end of the jobs market. However, it's never quite that simple.

I rend to agree. And the other side of the coin is that so long as a 'minimum' exists, employers have no incentive to pay deserving staff any more, so you get this curious situation where a huge number of staff are on minimum wage, then there's usually a large step up to the salaried staff and not a lot in between. I suspect the better solution is to raise income tax thresholds.

How can you put a stop to it? Do you take the housing benefit away from the mother and put her and her babies out on the street?

I think intervention has to start a lot earlier than that. But I'd only ask one thing: is having a baby a right or a responsibility?

[DaveR]

The Minimum Wage is an interesting issue. On the face of it, increasing it to, say, £10 an hour would produce massive benefits for those working at the lower end of the jobs market. However, it's never quite that simple.

I rend to agree. And the other side of the coin is that so long as a 'minimum' exists, employers have no incentive to pay deserving staff any more, so you get this curious situation where a huge number of staff are on minimum wage, then there's usually a large step up to the salaried staff and not a lot in between. I suspect the better solution is to raise income tax thresholds.

Yes, I agree. I think the threshold for paying Income Tax should be around £15,000. It's essential that people feel rewarded for being in work.