New Tory Leader

[sonyc 5,519]

1 hour ago, Herman said:

Looks like they may have done a U-turn (U-bend or U-turd, your choice.)

Edit: worth opening the thread to read everybody's own poem!!😅😂

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by sonyc

[Well b back 3,207]

1 hour ago, Herman said:

Looks like they may have done a U-turn (U-bend or U-turd, your choice.)

See they were only joking and already had it all in hand

But Environment Secretary George Eustice has now promised to bolster measures by making them a legal duty.

He said the government already had plans in place to require water companies to act on sewage, but added: "We've listened to the debate in Parliament [and] we will write what was already government policy into [law] to give people the reassurance they seek."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59052995

[sonyc 5,519]

59 minutes ago, Well b back said:

Indeed and I hear the headline now ‘ just like with COVID we learn quickly from our mistakes ‘.

They've learnt quickly from social media or their focus groups or latest ratings (choose one or all) more like!

[Herman 9,765]

18 minutes ago, sonyc said:

Edit: worth opening the thread to read everybody's own poem!!😅😂

 

I got into that rhythm you do when reading poetry then got tripped up by a normal comment.😳😀

[Herman 9,765]

12 minutes ago, Well b back said:

See they were only joking and already had it all in hand

But Environment Secretary George Eustice has now promised to bolster measures by making them a legal duty.

He said the government already had plans in place to require water companies to act on sewage, but added: "We've listened to the debate in Parliament [and] we will write what was already government policy into [law] to give people the reassurance they seek."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59052995

Governance by school kid excuses.

[horsefly 4,300]

The reality lying behind the Tories "commitment" to levelling up revealed by the callousness of these Kent councillors:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/tories-spark-fury-with-council-meeting-sweepstake-on-cruel-universal-credit-cut/ar-AAPYfNg?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

Footage from a Kent County Council meeting shared on social media showed Labour councillor Karen Constantine complaining about hearing groans when she raised the impact of the £20-a-week cut to the lifeline benefit.

She said: “I can hear my colleagues groaning, but really this is about prevention being better than cure and what we do now stores up enormous problems for the future.”

Tory councillor Paul Bartlett, who was chairing the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, replied: “The reason why you heard collective groans is because some colleagues have lost the sweepstake as to when the £20 Universal Credit cut would be mentioned at this meeting.”

 

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

13 hours ago, Herman said:

Governance by school kid excuses.

Has anyone called them scum recently, they seem to be in need of a reminder?

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

2 hours ago, horsefly said:

The reality lying behind the Tories "commitment" to levelling up revealed by the callousness of these Kent councillors:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/tories-spark-fury-with-council-meeting-sweepstake-on-cruel-universal-credit-cut/ar-AAPYfNg?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

Footage from a Kent County Council meeting shared on social media showed Labour councillor Karen Constantine complaining about hearing groans when she raised the impact of the £20-a-week cut to the lifeline benefit.

She said: “I can hear my colleagues groaning, but really this is about prevention being better than cure and what we do now stores up enormous problems for the future.”

Tory councillor Paul Bartlett, who was chairing the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, replied: “The reason why you heard collective groans is because some colleagues have lost the sweepstake as to when the £20 Universal Credit cut would be mentioned at this meeting.”

 

Scum 😀

[Mr Apples 1,320]

27 minutes ago, Creative Midfielder said:

Has anyone called them scum recently, they seem to be in need of a reminder?

If scum is too offensive for their frail sensibilities, how about rebranding them as sewage? 🤔🤣

Apples

[horsefly 4,300]

37 minutes ago, Mr Apples said:

If scum is too offensive for their frail sensibilities, how about rebranding them as sewage? 🤔🤣

Apples

Or as Newman and Baddiel might have put it talking to a Tory MP on History Today, "You know that stinky froth that bubbles to the surface on a sh*t filled river, that's you that is, that's the creme de la creme of Tory Party politicians."

[Mr Apples 1,320]

I'm sure it was what people voted for...the Great British tradition of wallowing in our own filth and where possible exporting it too? 🤣

But at least it's our filth. 💩🇬🇧

Apples

[horsefly 4,300]

No idea where best to post this link but the responses to a RWNJ from Talk Radio making an absolute tw*at of himself is just too funny to miss out on. Enjoy!

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/the-funniest-memes-about-growing-concrete-in-reaction-to-mike-graham-s-viral-talkradio-interview/ar-AAQ0iYH?ocid=msedgntp

[Herman 9,765]

Funny thing was that Mike Graham doubled down on that. 

[horsefly 4,300]

Perhaps we should only post on here when Johnson tells a truth:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-development-fund-level-up-b1946372.html

Almost £2bn slashed from ‘levelling up’ funding in poor areas, despite Boris Johnson’s pledge

 

Tory manifesto pledged to ‘match’ development spending lost with Brexit – but pot is just £2.6bn over three years, not £4.5bn

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

1 hour ago, horsefly said:

Perhaps we should only post on here when Johnson tells a truth:

 

Life's too short to wait for that 😂

[Rock The Boat 1,332]

Welcome to Boris Johnson's New Labour Party.

Tax increases: Sunak raised another net £16.7 billion a year, following the £31.5 billion grabbed in March.

Tax burden increased from 33.5 per cent of GDP before the pandemic to 36.2 per cent by 2026-27, its highest since the early 1950s. The OBR calculates total government revenues will hit 40 per cent of GDP.  In other words, of all the wealth created in the country in a single year the government will take 40% for itself.

Spending is on course for a new normal of around 41.6 per cent of GDP by 2026-27, the largest sustained share of GDP since the late 1970s. Some of us remember what happened then.

The Budget is therefore a huge victory for Left-wing ideas, even if the shift is being implemented by so-called right-wing Brexiteers who have forgotten that the economic case for Brexit wasn’t predicated on Britain becoming more like France or Spain. Blair and Brown couldn't be happier.

[Herman 9,765]

6 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

Welcome to Boris Johnson's New Labour Party.

Tax increases: Sunak raised another net £16.7 billion a year, following the £31.5 billion grabbed in March.

Tax burden increased from 33.5 per cent of GDP before the pandemic to 36.2 per cent by 2026-27, its highest since the early 1950s. The OBR calculates total government revenues will hit 40 per cent of GDP.  In other words, of all the wealth created in the country in a single year the government will take 40% for itself.

Spending is on course for a new normal of around 41.6 per cent of GDP by 2026-27, the largest sustained share of GDP since the late 1970s. Some of us remember what happened then.

The Budget is therefore a huge victory for Left-wing ideas, even if the shift is being implemented by so-called right-wing Brexiteers who have forgotten that the economic case for Brexit wasn’t predicated on Britain becoming more like France or Spain. Blair and Brown couldn't be happier.

But the Express says the opposite. Who to believe?🤔

 

[Herman 9,765]

I bet nobody had "gazebos" in the "where's all the bloody money gone" sweepstake.

 

[horsefly 4,300]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/budget-reveals-high-tax-weak-wage-economy-resolution-foundation-says/ar-AAQ2j6c?ocid=msedgntp

Budget reveals high tax, weak wage economy, Resolution Foundation says

Tax will reach its highest level as a share of the economy since 1950 by 2026-27 the study shows. This is equal to a £3,000 increase per household since Boris Johnson took office as prime minister.

 

It comes as weak pay growth will cause real wages to fall next year, accounting for inflation. This is even as the UK experiences its worst decade for pay growth since the 1930s.

The budget revealed, “not the high wage economy envisaged by the Prime Minister last month, or even the lower tax economy that Rishi Sunak said was his goal yesterday”, said Torsten Bell, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation. “Instead the Chancellor has set out plans for a new high tax, big state economy.

“Higher taxes aren’t a surprise given the UK is combining fiscal conservatism with an ageing society and a slow growing economy. But it is the end of low tax conservatism, with the tax take rising by £3,000 per household by the middle of this decade,” he added.

[Herman 9,765]

It's just one giant bloody con.

 

[How I Wrote Elastic Man 1,187]

Oh Rishi

Not easy having to learn which town is which up north....even if you do represent a north yorkshire seat!

Time for Dominic Raab to hand his crown over...

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

13 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

Welcome to Boris Johnson's New Labour Party.

Tax increases: Sunak raised another net £16.7 billion a year, following the £31.5 billion grabbed in March.

Tax burden increased from 33.5 per cent of GDP before the pandemic to 36.2 per cent by 2026-27, its highest since the early 1950s. The OBR calculates total government revenues will hit 40 per cent of GDP.  In other words, of all the wealth created in the country in a single year the government will take 40% for itself.

Spending is on course for a new normal of around 41.6 per cent of GDP by 2026-27, the largest sustained share of GDP since the late 1970s. Some of us remember what happened then.

The Budget is therefore a huge victory for Left-wing ideas, even if the shift is being implemented by so-called right-wing Brexiteers who have forgotten that the economic case for Brexit wasn’t predicated on Britain becoming more like France or Spain. Blair and Brown couldn't be happier.

Chancellor's are the only Ministers who have to please everyone. So the politics of being a Chancellor are not like any other who has one job to follow the manifesto.

So what would you do RTB? Make tax cuts? We were told by your wnak mag centrefold Thatcher that everything has to be paid for. And a grand a week on gazebos for just one test centre sounds like overspending. But I suppose if the money is going to fellow Tories its OK. And they can probably offset any rises.

[sonyc 5,519]

15 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

Welcome to Boris Johnson's New Labour Party.

Tax increases: Sunak raised another net £16.7 billion a year, following the £31.5 billion grabbed in March.

Tax burden increased from 33.5 per cent of GDP before the pandemic to 36.2 per cent by 2026-27, its highest since the early 1950s. The OBR calculates total government revenues will hit 40 per cent of GDP.  In other words, of all the wealth created in the country in a single year the government will take 40% for itself.

Spending is on course for a new normal of around 41.6 per cent of GDP by 2026-27, the largest sustained share of GDP since the late 1970s. Some of us remember what happened then.

The Budget is therefore a huge victory for Left-wing ideas, even if the shift is being implemented by so-called right-wing Brexiteers who have forgotten that the economic case for Brexit wasn’t predicated on Britain becoming more like France or Spain. Blair and Brown couldn't be happier.

I'm aiming to post a lot less but really feel I needed to bite here RTB.

I can see why you would say this is a Gordon Brown type budget. It is indeed high tax and high spend. Yet, the background to this budget is most pertinent.

Covid has also impacted on the country as we all know and Brexit (as we have all read) will be a greater negative influence on the UK economy ahead. This is not conjecture or personal opinion but the view of independent analysis (if ever there truly can be such a thing).

To say the budget is a huge victory of left wing ideas is disingenuous. It is a falsehood par excellence. Brown is far from happy. 

To be a witness to a budget as Sunak has presented ignores or rather glosses over a decade of sheer austere policies. There are silent crises going on all over the country RTB. You may need to look out or get out more. Sorry if this feels patronising but I'm guessing your circles are very limited or you live in great comfort, immune to lives of working people or unemployed? Tell me if I'm wrong.

Local authorities are struggling desperately. Bin collections have had to be rationed (perhaps not where you are?), local libraries closed (ours is open 3 days a week and run by volunteers)...800 of them have been closed in the last decade. Youth centres in so many towns have shut with funding ended (900 shut in many towns and more in cities). Good luck too if you've got a child with special needs because budget cuts have decimated special teaching assistants. The care sector (take my own LA just as one example) has been pared back. Care costs have had to be put onto the elderly and offspring (decisions now are heavily influenced by what can be afforded and less by physical or mental health needs). The Care sector will need £8bn by 2024/5 yearly just to stay at current levels. NI will be increased to pay for this. Carers face poverty because the increase in wages will be eaten up by inflation.

Local authorities resources have been cut by almost 50% in the last 10 years. Another example is that parks budgets have fallen by 97% in the same period. That's incredible.

What has happened is that the Tories appear to have been successful in the narrative to make people believe that local authorities have mismanaged financially. Not that they have been starved which is closest to the truth.

There has been very little alternative narrative by Labour too. Or none that has got through the mainstream media. Of course we know why.

Another example of a hidden problem (again I will take social care as the example) is that the social care precept is expected to pay for care through council tax.  I'm sure we will see 3 or 5 % increases in council tax around the country in 2022. They have difficult choices.

The social infrastructure in local communities is far more characterised by volunteerism. It's been a necessity. 

So much more I could add (typing as I am on my phone I'm worried it's getting to be a long post). My point though is that this situation is NOT, categorically NOT, a victory of left wing ideas! It is the culmination of a shocking ideology that has widened inequalities. Perhaps living where I do impacts on my worldview. I had a lovely break recently in Norfolk/Suffolk. It is another country compared to the metropolitan district I live in. Two very different worlds. Yet, the issues will be similar just not in the same proportion. 

Sunak's budget is indeed one of high tax, high investment but the benefits will be either marginal for very many and more likely negative (despite the spending) for a huge number too.

The austerity and affects on lives can never be reversed. Too late. To hear Sunak (by the way he is one of the more impressive Conservatives imo) talk of the first 1001 days was also disingenuous. If he really believed that then what has his party's policies all been about this last decade? So many third sector organisations have attempted to fill the gaps of public sector provision. Many have gone by the wayside. Funding has stopped. I dare say you will be someone who hates such community provision or see it as lefty, woke, socialist or whatever other insult you may have, rather than accept that it's local people (very often) trying to help out those who have less because they are caring and because actually the State has abandoned them.

Apologies for being so forthright but your comment felt cheap, misguided and lacking any kind of compassion by characterising such a budget as a left wing victory. I know your politics but sometimes you would do well to look underneath your political principles and test them to reality by looking more widely into society.

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by sonyc

[BigFish 1,987]

What is striking is that Sunak repeatedly blames Covid for his budget. Yet, according to the OBR, the hit to the economy of BREXIT is double that of the virus. On that, he says nothing.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

11 minutes ago, BigFish said:

What is striking is that Sunak repeatedly blames Covid for his budget. Yet, according to the OBR, the hit to the economy of BREXIT is double that of the virus. On that, he says nothing.

Its those bleddy French. If only the Russians could help.

[Rock The Boat 1,332]

11 hours ago, sonyc said:

I'm aiming to post a lot less but really feel I needed to bite here RTB.

I can see why you would say this is a Gordon Brown type budget. It is indeed high tax and high spend. Yet, the background to this budget is most pertinent.

Covid has also impacted on the country as we all know and Brexit (as we have all read) will be a greater negative influence on the UK economy ahead. This is not conjecture or personal opinion but the view of independent analysis (if ever there truly can be such a thing).

To say the budget is a huge victory of left wing ideas is disingenuous. It is a falsehood par excellence. Brown is far from happy. 

To be a witness to a budget as Sunak has presented ignores or rather glosses over a decade of sheer austere policies. There are silent crises going on all over the country RTB. You may need to look out or get out more. Sorry if this feels patronising but I'm guessing your circles are very limited or you live in great comfort, immune to lives of working people or unemployed? Tell me if I'm wrong.

Local authorities are struggling desperately. Bin collections have had to be rationed (perhaps not where you are?), local libraries closed (ours is open 3 days a week and run by volunteers)...800 of them have been closed in the last decade. Youth centres in so many towns have shut with funding ended (900 shut in many towns and more in cities). Good luck too if you've got a child with special needs because budget cuts have decimated special teaching assistants. The care sector (take my own LA just as one example) has been pared back. Care costs have had to be put onto the elderly and offspring (decisions now are heavily influenced by what can be afforded and less by physical or mental health needs). The Care sector will need £8bn by 2024/5 yearly just to stay at current levels. NI will be increased to pay for this. Carers face poverty because the increase in wages will be eaten up by inflation.

Local authorities resources have been cut by almost 50% in the last 10 years. Another example is that parks budgets have fallen by 97% in the same period. That's incredible.

What has happened is that the Tories appear to have been successful in the narrative to make people believe that local authorities have mismanaged financially. Not that they have been starved which is closest to the truth.

There has been very little alternative narrative by Labour too. Or none that has got through the mainstream media. Of course we know why.

Another example of a hidden problem (again I will take social care as the example) is that the social care precept is expected to pay for care through council tax.  I'm sure we will see 3 or 5 % increases in council tax around the country in 2022. They have difficult choices.

The social infrastructure in local communities is far more characterised by volunteerism. It's been a necessity. 

So much more I could add (typing as I am on my phone I'm worried it's getting to be a long post). My point though is that this situation is NOT, categorically NOT, a victory of left wing ideas! It is the culmination of a shocking ideology that has widened inequalities. Perhaps living where I do impacts on my worldview. I had a lovely break recently in Norfolk/Suffolk. It is another country compared to the metropolitan district I live in. Two very different worlds. Yet, the issues will be similar just not in the same proportion. 

Sunak's budget is indeed one of high tax, high investment but the benefits will be either marginal for very many and more likely negative (despite the spending) for a huge number too.

The austerity and affects on lives can never be reversed. Too late. To hear Sunak (by the way he is one of the more impressive Conservatives imo) talk of the first 1001 days was also disingenuous. If he really believed that then what has his party's policies all been about this last decade? So many third sector organisations have attempted to fill the gaps of public sector provision. Many have gone by the wayside. Funding has stopped. I dare say you will be someone who hates such community provision or see it as lefty, woke, socialist or whatever other insult you may have, rather than accept that it's local people (very often) trying to help out those who have less because they are caring and because actually the State has abandoned them.

Apologies for being so forthright but your comment felt cheap, misguided and lacking any kind of compassion by characterising such a budget as a left wing victory. I know your politics but sometimes you would do well to look underneath your political principles and test them to reality by looking more widely into society.

 

 

 

This is the spending figure I quoted

Spending is on course for a new normal of around 41.6 per cent of GDP by 2026-27, the largest sustained share of GDP since the late 1970s. 

If things are so dire as you say, then please tell me where the 41% is going?

 

[Rock The Boat 1,332]

12 hours ago, keelansgrandad said:

Chancellor's are the only Ministers who have to please everyone. So the politics of being a Chancellor are not like any other who has one job to follow the manifesto.

So what would you do RTB? Make tax cuts? We were told by your wnak mag centrefold Thatcher that everything has to be paid for. And a grand a week on gazebos for just one test centre sounds like overspending. But I suppose if the money is going to fellow Tories its OK. And they can probably offset any rises.

I think we are well on the way to a repeat of the 1970s. Not only are we ramping up government taxation and spending as a % of GDP back to 1970s levels, but we have had several years of quantative easing (and since the 2008 financial crash, massive bailouts of banks) that will lead to inflation taking off again. Interest rates will soon start rising (I read today that four major building societies have already increased borrowing rates in the aftermath of the budget) and the economy, which has run for the past few years on negative to zero interest rates, will take a hit within the next couple of years. So yes, I would make tax cuts now for working people to protect incomes and encourage private spending while holding the rate for business at current levels. I would allow supply-side measures that encourage wage rises (eg. not bringing back cheap foreign labour) so that rising wages plus low personal taxes will take more people out of in-work benefits. Its totally wrong than government has to make up wages that companies should be paying.

The alternative is 1980s style monetarism and forcing up interest rates to cool inflation. High interest rates kills business and is dangerous medicine. Not a road we want to go down again.

[Herman 9,765]

Is it slowly dawning on Rocky what populism actually is??

A small tip. None of them have beliefs in anything. They'll do and say whatever is needed to stay in power but do nothing that will be for the long term benefit of this fine country, your family or friends.

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

On 28/10/2021 at 00:39, Rock The Boat said:

Welcome to Boris Johnson's New Labour Party.

Tax increases: Sunak raised another net £16.7 billion a year, following the £31.5 billion grabbed in March.

Tax burden increased from 33.5 per cent of GDP before the pandemic to 36.2 per cent by 2026-27, its highest since the early 1950s. The OBR calculates total government revenues will hit 40 per cent of GDP.  In other words, of all the wealth created in the country in a single year the government will take 40% for itself.

Spending is on course for a new normal of around 41.6 per cent of GDP by 2026-27, the largest sustained share of GDP since the late 1970s. Some of us remember what happened then.

The Budget is therefore a huge victory for Left-wing ideas, even if the shift is being implemented by so-called right-wing Brexiteers who have forgotten that the economic case for Brexit wasn’t predicated on Britain becoming more like France or Spain. Blair and Brown couldn't be happier.

The idea that this even vaguely represents a 'Labour Party' budget or 'Left wing' ideas is so utterly ridiculous that it scarely merits a response, but if you look at who is having to pay the extra taxes and what the Government are doing, and more importantly what they are not doing, with the additional spending it is very obviously an entirely Tory budget presented with all the smoke and mirrors that you would expect from a Tory chancellor with his focus on the next GE rather than the national interest.

Edited October 29, 2021 by Creative Midfielder

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

1 hour ago, Herman said:

Is it slowly dawning on Rocky what populism actually is??

A small tip. None of them have beliefs in anything. They'll do and say whatever is needed to stay in power but do nothing that will be for the long term benefit of this fine country, your family or friends.

Absolutely spot on - not sure that the penny has dropped with Rocky though as he seems to have completely lost the plot.

Maybe the total shambles that the populist, RWNJs that he supported and voted for have made of Brexit (well not just Brexit actually, everything they touched including the economy) is all a bit too much for him. He doesn't seem to know whether he's coming or going at the momemt, which I guess can happen when you spend years believing in lies and myths and then they all fall apart 😂