Unfortunately we are a soft touch - when folk get benefits, they even tell them how they work it out! The reason is that in 2020 it was the end of the EU transition period and introduction of the new immigration system which was introduced by the last government. It's irrelevant how many we take in comparison to others, it's about how much the public see that it costs, the public then look at who's had what cut and then look at the potential injustice of it!
A lot of the public seem to disagree - something to do with respect for the law, culture change, and needing to build a new city every year to accommodate the population increase. Certainly in a democracy you can't just dismiss the priorities of voters.
We aren't a soft touch. In comparison with other European nations, we take our fair share and are ranked in the middle both from a numbers and a financial perspective. And you're right, Brexit completely fcked it up. Well said. It meant that we handcuffed our own folk who wanted to live and work in Europe and we made it more difficult to perform the necessary background checks/admin on those coming in. More idiocy on the part of Farage, Johnson and the rest of them.
Absolute, unadulterated b.ollocks I’m no huge defender of the policies of the current government as they are as anti-socialist as I’ve ever seen from a Labour government but more damage to the vulnerable than the last 14 years? Have a word with yourself. If it wasn’t for the cruelty and ineptitude that made up their term in power, none of these things would have even been done. But the current policies aren’t scratching the surface in comparison to what went before. So don’t tell me - as a ‘disabled’ (though ambulant and in work) person, son of a now deceased severely disabled man, grandson of a very disabled grandmother, father of a daughter who is still awaiting assessment and diagnosis of ASD despite her gp essentially confirming it over two years ago, that the sitting government - in eleven months, after inheriting an absolute **** show, have done more damage than those who went before. They haven’t helped hugely, I’ll grant. But blind cobblers like that you’ve just spewed guarantees an even further right, more cruel and less progressive government in four years. Whether the rosette is Tory blue or reform light blue is neither here nor there. Judge again in another two or three years. If Starmer carries in as he is the party will have him gone before the next election. But to say what you have there, it really is idiotic.
I know what you mean. Them poor asylum seekers at the Holiday Inn at Manvers really got a taste of British Culture didn't they, and respect for the law. Our brave boys who set fire to the hotel, started charging at police and then went on a rampage destroying local property. It really brought a tear to the eye. Proper British Culture and Values.
I think if we could go back in time most of us would reverse the decision on the EU referendum. In my opinion (And I'm not for one minute thinking I'm right) but the public should never have had the vote - it should've been left to those privy to far more details/knowledge on the matter - one of the rare occasions where an MP could be seen to possibly serve a purpose. We were never going to undo years of red tape overnight and it seemed to unfortunately unveil a few undesirable opinions that had been closeted for a few years with all this rule britannia crap - some of it was embarrassing to watch and must have looked appalling from other nations' point of view. My main thing is that alot of people just see illegal immigrants coming across, draining the coffers, seeing their financial situation deteriorate yet the vast majority have paid/are paying into the system, and then apportion the blame to those not paying in - this plays into such as Reforms hands. You would probably hear less about it if the other cuts and business bashing hadn't happened This governments biggest mistake of all was to be so negative when they came into power - it's like a new Barnsley manager coming in and saying to the fans ' we'll be lucky if we stop up , so hold on to your potatoes boys/girls'. It was in most eyes seen as a fresh start, yet all that happened was doom and gloom - it hardly filled anyone with positivity - with the exception likely being the debt collection agencies
Thankfully that is a very small sample and not a true reflection of society in general in this country.
The problem is all logic prior to the vote should have told us to remain. All evidence since shows that leaving was idiotic. But if they repeated the referendum this year, Nigel would whip up the pink faced army into an even bigger frenzy and the vote to stay out would be an even bigger majority. I really believe that. I have zero faith in the ability of the electorate to see the bigger picture, and to see beyond the comparatively tiny numbers of migrants arriving by boat and without paperwork - or to see that the immigration ‘problem’ hasn’t improved by being outside the eu - nor has literally anything else. From an economic point of view it has been suicidal, but the Brexit vote was won on one issue only and we all know it. The fact that there has been no better control on immigration whatsoever since we ‘took back control’ wouldn’t even be a consideration. We have electorates voting in Reform majorities on local councils and even as elected Mayors. That elected mayor suggested putting migrants in tents in her first speech. She was broadly applauded for doing so locally. We are currently a million miles away from having a majority of people who accept and believe we should still be in the EU.
100% the public should never have been given the option. David Cameron did it for selfish reasons not the benefit of the country but bizarrely seems to have got away with being taken to task over it.
Judging by the performance of Reform in recent elections and the posters on here who support Reform without havinylg the balls to admit to it, I would suggest it's on the increase.
I think the WFA decision was the right one. It's immoral to hand scarce taxpayer funds to a group many of which do not need that allowance, simply for political gain at the ballot box. However, the better course (with hindsight) would have been to say they would pay it for one last time last winter, but it would be abolished thereafter, by which time pensioners would have received another triple lock uplift (4.1%, i.i.r.c.).
Dismiss and patronise all you want, but it doesn't win elections, and hardens rather than changes opinions.
The threshold remains too low at £11,500 and the means test mechanism are broken, with govt accepting 700,000 pensioners (its own data) on under £11,500 income won't get WFP.
Whilst I agree with the general thrust of this post, I think the last paragraph is simply not true. On a ladder of 10 appalling steps to arrive where we are, the Tories took 9 of them and Labour the last one. I'm not excusing Labour, what they should have been doing is reversing some of the 9 Tory steps.
A quarter of UK pensioners live in households with a total net worth of over a million pounds. There was no justification whatsoever to continue to dish out state benefits to the 25% of WFA recipients who are millionaires.
Around 700,000 of the most vulnerable pensioners, already earning under £11,500, don't get Winter Fuel Payments because they don't go through the long process of claiming Pension Credit. They miss out in both the important support that brings and on Winter Fuel Payments.
You say it's idiotic and b*llocks to say what I've said there and then done a huge paragraph but in reality actually said nothing to disprove my point. I know how bad the PIP assessment is, I've gone through it myself and it's horrific but the changes that Starmer has made is only making it even worse. The fact you can score 3 points on everything in the assessment and not get anything from November next year is barbaric. Starmer had such a low bar to clear to make things better for disabled people and he's still messed up. Dreading even more going for my next assessment in 2027 thanks to what Labour has done.
Given we are now on Page 7 of discussion about immigration, it seems to be very light on facts and heavy on feels. Every year, roughly 7-800,000 people retire and leave the workforce. Of the 6-700,000 that die, around 5-600,000 are pensioners so the number of pensioners increases by about 200,000 every year and has done for the last decade or so. At the same time ~500,000 almost emigrate (~100,000 British, ~200,000 from the EU and ~200,000 from outside EU). Some of these will be the same people, but every year, discounting maternity leave (who balance out) and long-term sick, we lose around 1-1.2 million workers. At the same time, we have around 6-700,000 school leavers joining the workforce. Now, I know what we think of many politicians, but every year we are gaining 200,000 pensioners and have somewhere around 4-600,000 fewer workers based on the native population. That is unsustainable without tax rises. So, that leaves politicians 4 options: 1). Raise the pension age... again! - which is political suicide. 2). Have immigration of about 4-600,000 workers plus an extra few to offset the cost of the extra pensioners - which is unpopular. 3). Cut back on benefits to pensioners - which is unpopular 4). Oversee the economy collapsing - which would be used to beat Labour with forever (the media would be less critical of the Tories/Reform for some reason). 5). Tax rises every year - which is unpopular. 6). Logan's Run - which is probably going against all kinds of laws. So what do we do? We don't want immigration, we don't want to work longer, or cut benefits, or see the economy collapse, or pay more taxes, or kill granny...
