Who Will You Vote For?

[irie]

That's a particularly nasty little post, even for you. Belittling, self-righteous and patronising, all in one nasty little post.

And you are absolutely not apolitical. I agree that PFI was a disaster and we are still feeling the ramifications of it now. But on balance the Blair/Brown administrations got more decisions right than they got wrong. I can't say that for the current lot.

The only (major) blot on the legacy was playing poodle to George Bush and assisting in the illegal and unwarranted invasion of Iraq.

Oh, so playing poodle to George Bush wasn't after all the "only (major) blot on the legacy". Now who'd have thunkit, just gotta love the rise tinted spectacles. Confirmation bias in extremis.

I forgot about PFI. Simples. Does that make you feel better? You do sound in need of a hug. You should change your forum handle to 'irascible'...

Lots to forget about to maintain your rose tinted view of history, eh?

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

If there is a change of government there will be a change of priorities and of policies. The major problem is not these shadowy 'vested interests' but the godawful state the Tories have left the country in. The Tories have systematically undermined and underfunded all the institutions that make the country work and siphoned off billions into the pockets of their mates and themselves. When the answer to refugees arriving by boats is flights to Rwanda you know that most of the cabinet have been at the crack pipe.

Funny how memories of Blair, Brown, Prescott, Hain, Straw et al. have morphed into a rose tinted view of history.

NHS spending increased and waiting lists dropped significantly under their watch and the inequality gap narrowed, so I'll take that. There was nothing as batshit crazy as the Rwanda plan when they were in power either. The only (major) blot on the legacy was playing poodle to George Bush and assisting in the illegal and unwarranted invasion of Iraq.

The waiting lists dropping was a complete fiddle, my wife was a manager in Information at North Middlesex Hospital from 1996 to 2000, Labour changed the way waiting lists were counted to make the figures look better, no more people were treated after 1997 compared to 1996.

[mangocrazy]

I forgot about PFI. Simples. Does that make you feel better? You do sound in need of a hug. You should change your forum handle to 'irascible'...

Lots to forget about to maintain your rose tinted view of history, eh?

I guess you can add 'Total Recall' to your ability to be apolitical? I forget some things, especially when they happened best part of 20 years ago. But I have remembered two other things that Blair implemented that pissed me off. IR35 and the imposition of tuition fees. I'm sure there's more if I can be arsed to check.

[Cousin Jack]

The real problem with UK politics (and the economy) is that we have been living way beyond our means for the last half century. No politicians dare implement the stuff necessary to cure the problems, they just hope that something will turn up.
.

[MingtheMerciless]

Lib Dem, though only to boot out the Tory incumbent, I was in a swing seat (was Eastbourne) but now due to a boundary change its Lewes, so its still a swing seat and whilst the present Tory MP isn't too much of a swivel eyed loon, the whole Tory party need to spend a decade in the wilderness weeding out all the extremists.

Not sure Labour will be able to do anything (hopefully roll back some of the anti TU laws) due to the state of the finances but it's time to give the other lot a go.

If Colossus was on the ballot, that'd be the A.I. I'd vote for (The Forbin Project).

[mangocrazy]

The real problem with UK politics (and the economy) is that we have been living way beyond our means for the last half century. No politicians dare implement the stuff necessary to cure the problems, they just hope that something will turn up.
.

Something did turn up - it was North Sea gas & oil, but the profits were siphoned off into the City and the pockets of the wealthy using privatisation of the nation's crown jewels as the mechanism.

If you want to see how it could have enriched the nation (and not just a few), take a look at Norway.

[KungFooBob]

Pedro.

[irie]

The real problem with UK politics (and the economy) is that we have been living way beyond our means for the last half century. No politicians dare implement the stuff necessary to cure the problems, they just hope that something will turn up.
.

It will turn up.

But only when there is no other choice.

[irie]

The real problem with UK politics (and the economy) is that we have been living way beyond our means for the last half century. No politicians dare implement the stuff necessary to cure the problems, they just hope that something will turn up.
.

Something did turn up - it was North Sea gas & oil, but the profits were siphoned off into the City and the pockets of the wealthy using privatisation of the nation's crown jewels as the mechanism.

If you want to see how it could have enriched the nation (and not just a few), take a look at Norway.

Loving the theory that conspiracy theories are responsible for all the shit that goes on in the world.

[MyLittleStudPony]

Nice and Brexity.

Because it's all going so well.

[mangocrazy]

Loving the theory that conspiracy theories are responsible for all the shit that goes on in the world.

That's your theory, not mine. How the receipts from North Sea gas & oil were used to enrich a tiny part of the population is historical fact. A very similar playbook was used during Covid, but this time the money was simply borrowed and funnelled to a select few. But it doesn't tie in with your (apolitical) views, so it's a conspiracy theory.

[Count Steer]

The party taketh, the party giveth away again. The latest wheeze to raise the tax threshold so pensioners don't pay tax on the state pension (from about 2027) wouldn't have arisen if they hadn't frozen the threshold in the first place.

Silk purse/sows ear comes to mind.

[Yambo]

The real problem with UK politics (and the economy) is that we have been living way beyond our means for the last half century. No politicians dare implement the stuff necessary to cure the problems, they just hope that something will turn up.
.

Weren't we in the EU for most of those years?

[Mr. Dazzle]

The party taketh, the party giveth away again. The latest wheeze to raise the tax threshold so pensioners don't pay tax on the state pension (from about 2027) wouldn't have arisen if they hadn't frozen the threshold in the first place.

Silk purse/sows ear comes to mind.

Still seems weird to me that you pay it at all.

"Here's some money.....

.....I'll just take some it back thanks"

[Jody]

As far as I can see the two main choices are a variation on a theme.

Labour just want to give all your money away to immigrants and work shy lay-abouts.

Tories just want to give all your money to their already fantastically wealthy mates.

[Count Steer]

The party taketh, the party giveth away again. The latest wheeze to raise the tax threshold so pensioners don't pay tax on the state pension (from about 2027) wouldn't have arisen if they hadn't frozen the threshold in the first place.

Silk purse/sows ear comes to mind.

Still seems weird to me that you pay it at all.

"Here's some money.....

.....I'll just take some it back thanks"

State pension is paid 'untaxed' because it is lower than the bottom tax threshold but then you pay on any other income/pensions. So the state pension goes up and the tax on your company pension goes up so, in a lot of cases you're right - here's some more money and we'll just take some back - from over here. Which is fair enough but the lower tax earnings limit is pretty paltry. The problem is, if you increase the lower limit, everyone pays less tax inc. those on lots of ££s. The result seems to be that they have to sub people at the bottom end through benefits. If they could raise the bottom threshold and lower the next one it might balance things but nobody is going to even think of such a thing in the run up to an election, never mind suggest it.

PS They're probably also bricking themselves at the idea of having to modify the pension system to make the necessary tax changes too.

[irie]

State pension is paid 'untaxed' because it is lower than the bottom tax threshold

The personal allowance threshold is £12,570.

My state pension of £1,032.64 every 4 weeks (£13,461/yr) is higher than the personal allowance threshold.

So I pay tax at 20% on £891 of my state pension.

Crazy.

[Cousin Jack]

The real problem with UK politics (and the economy) is that we have been living way beyond our means for the last half century. No politicians dare implement the stuff necessary to cure the problems, they just hope that something will turn up.
.

Weren't we in the EU for most of those years?

True, but the EU had little to do with it. We did the damage ourselves. Even I can't blame these problems on the EU.

[Horse]

If the blame is going back to PFI, how about we consider selling off council houses, privatisation of water, railways ...

Re post-Labour austerity, wasn't that supposed to be over, back to good times, five years?

[Timmy]

I'm not voting for anyone, definitely not Keir "some wimmin have penises, BLM are aces, wet weekend" Starmer or Rishi "I spunked £400 billion on a heavy flu" Sunak. Shower of shite the lot of them.