New Tory Leader

[sonyc 5,519]

7 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

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?

 

I felt my post was self-explanatory. This spending is a (vain) attempt at trying to level up (the words used) the damage caused by the previous decade - exacerbated by the pandemic (even leaving aside Brexit here for a moment).

The levelling up (as its been called) is for many things that are actually hidden but tremendously important - hence the spending on new family hubs just to select one thing. 

We've trashed our house, not maintained it properly and now we are throwing money at it. The government is hoping people won't notice and are going for a context where taxes can then be dropped just before an election is announced. You can surely see this a mile off can't you?

It's very cynical, not long term, not about the people (in the north especially - check out mortality and inequality stats) and will heap on more debt and made worse from inflation (which I can predict now will be far higher than the 4% forecast and baked in to his budget). 

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

9 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

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.

The only way to make tax cuts for working people is to raise the threshold of course. And to take minimum wage earners out of taxation would mean raising it to over £20K. That would also raise a lot of pensioners out of taxation as well.

Its those in the middle that are suffering the most. We need to do more for those who are playing the game and being responsible. While there are many wealthy people evading and avoiding tax, there are many people on benefits who do not need to be. As far as I am concerned, both groups make me sick. And that is a socialist talking.

I think we can sustain a certain level of inflation but not a rise in interest rates. Families could not manage a hike in mortgage repayments and still maintain an income ready to sustain the economy.

[Van wink 2,994]

Public sector spending getting back to levels as % of GDP seen under Wilson and Callaghan, hard for anyone with a centre left view to be critical of that.

[PurpleCanary 5,562]

28 minutes ago, Van wink said:

Public sector spending getting back to levels as % of GDP seen under Wilson and Callaghan, hard for anyone with a centre left view to be critical of that.

[sonyc 5,519]

52 minutes ago, Van wink said:

Public sector spending getting back to levels as % of GDP seen under Wilson and Callaghan, hard for anyone with a centre left view to be critical of that.

I support the spending VW. Yet it certainly ought not to be considered a triumph of left wing ideas. That is a damning view imo. We ought not forget how we got to this place of increasing inequality over many years. I can think of dysfunctional family relationships where people are abused for years (let's say emotionally) and made to feel small and then showered with love later as if what really happened was never meant to hurt or injure.

Lots to be critical about for me.

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by sonyc

[Van wink 2,994]

2 hours ago, sonyc said:

I support the spending VW. Yet it certainly ought not to be considered a triumph of left wing ideas. That is a damning view imo. We ought not forget how we got to this place of increasing inequality over many years. I can think of dysfunctional family relationships where people are abused for years (let's say emotionally) and made to feel small and then showered with love later as if what really happened was never meant to hurt or injure.

Lots to be critical about for me.

 

Of course the history is laid bare for all to see sonyc, but  most must surely support much needed spending now.

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

4 hours ago, Van wink said:

Public sector spending getting back to levels as % of GDP seen under Wilson and Callaghan, hard for anyone with a centre left view to be critical of that.

That seems a very simplistic view to me, what they spend it on is rather more important than the absolute spend especially as this government already has a well established track record of extraordinarily wasteful and unproductive spending.

if they are going to pour billions of public money down the drain as they've done (and are continuing to do) with test, track and trace, or blow billions on vanity projects like HS2 then frankly I'd rather they didn't.

If they were targeting the money properly then that would be different but since we're still seeing next to nothing for social care, only a fraction of what the NHS requires, peanuts for local government/local public services which have been totally ravaged by Tory austerity and a totally pathetic response to the climate emergency - I imagine they must have brought in some very highly paid consultants to come up with that pile of sh*t, Mickey Mouse and Homer Simpson spring immediately to mind.

Cutting taxes on banks and domestic air flights whilst raising NI on all workers isn't something for just the left wing to be critical of, it is economic lunacy and completely reckless with respect to the climate emergency.

[PurpleCanary 5,562]

1 hour ago, Creative Midfielder said:

That seems a very simplistic view to me, what they spend it on is rather more important than the absolute spend especially as this government already has a well established track record of extraordinarily wasteful and unproductive spending.

if they are going to pour billions of public money down the drain as they've done (and are continuing to do) with test, track and trace, or blow billions on vanity projects like HS2 then frankly I'd rather they didn't.

If they were targeting the money properly then that would be different but since we're still seeing next to nothing for social care, only a fraction of what the NHS requires, peanuts for local government/local public services which have been totally ravaged by Tory austerity and a totally pathetic response to the climate emergency - I imagine they must have brought in some very highly paid consultants to come up with that pile of sh*t, Mickey Mouse and Homer Simpson spring immediately to mind.

Cutting taxes on banks and domestic air flights whilst raising NI on all workers isn't something for just the left wing to be critical of, it is economic lunacy and completely reckless with respect to the climate emergency.

And as my OBR chart shows, public spending as a percentage of GDP was relentlessly cut under Tory austerity. It will take vastly more than a year or two of an increased percentage to undo the ravages of the last decade. Probably best not to have drawn attention to it.

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

11 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

And as my OBR chart shows, public spending as a percentage of GDP was relentlessly cut under Tory austerity. It will take vastly more than a year or two of an increased percentage to undo the ravages of the last decade. Probably best not to have drawn attention to it.

Absolutely, and even if the Government genuinely intended to repair the ravages of austerity and to 'build back better' (which I don't think anyone other than the extremely gullible believes anyway) as @sonyc pointed out above they are not going to succeed.

They have neither the nous nor the resources to make good the damage that their uncaring incompetence has inflicted on the country over the last 11 years especially as they are simultaneously trying but completely failing to address all the new issues arising from Brexit, the pandemic and the climate emergency.

This is a government that would have been well out of its depth governing the country in 'normal' times, and as we are in very abnormal times they are drowning in their own ignorance and incompetence - an 19th century government (well the forward thinking elements of it anyway) trying to run a 21st century country.

[Van wink 2,994]

22 hours ago, sonyc said:

I support the spending VW. Yet it certainly ought not to be considered a triumph of left wing ideas. That is a damning view imo. We ought not forget how we got to this place of increasing inequality over many years. I can think of dysfunctional family relationships where people are abused for years (let's say emotionally) and made to feel small and then showered with love later as if what really happened was never meant to hurt or injure.

Lots to be critical about for me.

 

One for you butty 😉

 

[Van wink 2,994]

Dodgy French ref

[Herman 9,765]

 

[Well b back 3,207]

8 minutes ago, Herman said:

 

Shame his red nose dropped off, would have made a lovely picture.

[horsefly 4,300]

2 hours ago, Herman said:

 

Isn't that a page from the new book "Where's The Wally"?

[Herman 9,765]

1 minute ago, horsefly said:

Isn't that a page from the new book "Where's The Wally"?

The easiest book in history.

[horsefly 4,300]

Just now, Herman said:

The easiest book in history.

Indeed! It was designed for Tory and brexit voters.

[horsefly 4,300]

So, the man who likes to present himself as something of a classics specialist shows himself yet again to be an absolute dunce. He actually described the fall of the Roman empire as resulting from a failure to control immigration. So, nothing to do with Rome overextending itself by INVADING other countries. What a thick tw*at! It no doubt explains his racist views expressed when he said Africa's problems were caused not by exploitation of the British Empire but by the fact that we weren't still in control. I look forward to his explanation of why the decline of the British Empire was caused by our failure to keep immigrants out of Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, etc, etc, etc. 

Watch his astonishing stupidity from about 44 seconds:

 

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

On 31/10/2021 at 07:20, Herman said:

 

Bag of siht tied up in the middle.

[horsefly 4,300]

1 hour ago, keelansgrandad said:

Bag of siht tied up in the middle.

Sounds like the title of Tracey Emin's latest art work (Maybe Boris is her living exhibit, that would explain a lot).

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

On 31/10/2021 at 07:20, Herman said:

 

 

1 hour ago, keelansgrandad said:

Bag of siht tied up in the middle.

^ This, and the embarrassing bit - surely even an idiot like Johnson could get a speechwriter for important occasions, well ideally all occasions when he addresses adults really, so that every now and then our PM could deliver a speech that contained a little more than some very tired cliches and feeble jokes. The odd promise that he actually intended and knew how to deliver wouldn’t go amiss either. 

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

1 hour ago, Creative Midfielder said:

 

^ This, and the embarrassing bit - surely even an idiot like Johnson could get a speechwriter for important occasions, well ideally all occasions when he addresses adults really, so that every now and then our PM could deliver a speech that contained a little more than some very tired cliches and feeble jokes. The odd promise that he actually intended and knew how to deliver wouldn’t go amiss either. 

 

I reckon he had been to the Tuck Shop and bought some Flying Saucers and Everton Mints.

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

More pork barrel politics from our Government, or as we normally call it over here - corruption.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/02/levelling-up-funds-awarded-to-local-councils-of-tory-ministers

Edited November 2, 2021 by Creative Midfielder

[horsefly 4,300]

16 minutes ago, Creative Midfielder said:

More pork barrel politics from our Government, or as we normally call it over here - corruption.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/02/levelling-up-funds-awarded-to-local-councils-of-tory-ministers

Tax payer's money being used to advantage Tory politicians, who would have thought it!

[Herman 9,765]

 

[Herman 9,765]

Banana Republic Part XVII.

 

[horsefly 4,300]

11 hours ago, Herman said:

 

When I was a first-year undergraduate (long ago) we were explicitly warned against using analogies in our essays. It was explained that they were by nature a very weak contribution to a case because they tempted individuals to substitute genuine argument based on reason, logic, and empirical evidence for mere illustrations and gestures that inevitably break down upon scrutiny. It thus comes as no surprise that analogies constitute Johnson's main stock in trade. Alas, his football analogy is a distracting trivialisation of the horrific future that climate change threatens. Is it really beyond him simply to relate the stark message of impending calamity demonstrated in the evidence scientists have been collecting for the last three decades?

Edited November 3, 2021 by horsefly

[Well b back 3,207]

You just couldnt make it up

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59143727

[horsefly 4,300]

This government no longer even attempts to hide its promotion of corruption to the status of normality in UK politics:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/boris-johnson-accused-of-sleaze-as-no-10-backs-bid-to-save-tory-mp-from-suspension/ar-AAQgvlK?ocid=msedgntp

[Herman 9,765]

Got to chase these corrupt feckers out of power. Absolutely bloody disgraceful. 

[horsefly 4,300]

It's one thing to attempt to change the rules on parliamentary statndards through the introduction of a bill. None of us are surprised that the serial offender Johnson would seek to defend himself and his Tory mates from any level of serious independent scrutiny.  It's an altogether new level of corruption to smuggle into that proposal an amendment to exonerate an MP previously found guilty of an "egregious" breach of the rules by a cross-party committee on parliamentary standards. The fact that the government is also enforcing a three-line whip to force this amendment through represents a fundamental attack upon the very principles of parliamentary democracy that was once the pride of this country's reputation throughout the world. What a very sad day that we have a government prepared to plumb to such depths of corrupt self-interest without a flicker of shame on their faces. Truly disgusting contempt for every voter in the country.