Without a thought to those who are not...some poor buggers can't even bend down to put their socks on never mind start considering to uproot and move house and dispense with their possessions.
I’m still not sure what your aggressive tone is about? The point you’ve made here I agree with however that wasn’t your initial post I responded to have a good one eh.
The people for whom it matters most will have their entitlement preserved via pension credit eligibility.
If the govt ensured companies paid the immigrants a proper wage, which in turn would mean taxes etc the argument wouldn’t even be being raised. Instead companies often take advantage of the system which results in the immigrants not contributing as a result. Not specifically aiming that at Labour as has been around for ages, Tories were due to start addressing but postponed because of Covid and has never restarted.
Absolutely this. Migrants are blocked from arriving legally. They are effectively treated as pariahs awaiting decisions on status that to now have lasted years and years. They could be working, they could be part of society, they could be helping, they could be compensating the treasury through taxes. Instead, we incur cost by denying them basic human rights and opportunities. It's truly ridiculous. And to add to it, the media and the right wing blame the migrants for trying to live their life, rather than blaming the system in place that inhibits it. The world is in for a big shock when the climate crisis pushes mass migration for civilians who won't be able to live in the land they've called home for so long. I wonder what inhabitants of an island nation will do when the waves wash over our homes, when our fields and remaining forests regularly burn through the summer? Expect Scotlands highlands to have open arms?
As opposed to funding them to maintain that wealth as they can’t maintain it themselves - until their death, when their kids inherit the property? Are you against inheritance tax as well? It isn’t just a simple equation. I’m all for supporting those who need it - but where is it paid from? People are against cutting winter fuel allowance, against inheritance tax, against working tax increases, and resoundingly against economic migration. So what is the solution?
I know you're a decent person Orsen....but this Govt is attacking the easy targets ....they can't be trusted anymore than the Tories. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.c...-mps-four-times-in-23-minutes-about-pip-cuts/
Why you would ask me if I'm against inheritance tax?....it's an irrelevant smokescreen question. You're making an assumption that you perhaps think has an answer that will validate your case, or invalidate mine...just for the record I am not against inheritance tax. The same place it was paid from when Starmer promised to retain it..then removed without any form of impact assessment as to people's vulnerability or the consequences of it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce808nyry3do.amp
I’m not trying to argue the implementation was done correctly. But what is the better solution? What should he have done? Kept it as a universal benefit to all oap’s? How is that right in the current climate? My grandmother doesn’t get it now. She isn’t and never has been rich. She is one like has been described who can’t bend over to do her shoelaces: in fact she needs help to do a lot of things in her old age. For this reason, as well as her old age pension, she is entitled to PIP; and formerly DLA. As would all other pensioners who you describe with such infirmities. The loss of the £300 to her was a minor inconvenience and made very little difference. She used it in previous years to buy Christmas presents. Everyone has a horse in this race. We are all either old, have older relatives, or are getting to that point. It affects us all. I am not suggesting all pensioners are turfed out of their homes, I’m not suggesting none of them can be helped (and I also accept the flaw in pension credit - but where else is the line to be drawn?), but I am accepting that a universal benefit costing billions each year, which it did, when millions of recipients didn’t have the real need for it, which they didn’t, was not sustainable. Not one person has made a viable alternative suggestion. Lots of gripes and moans - but no actual plan. Wealth taxes on bigger companies, I could support that - but what cost to the overall economy would occur if we drove companies out of the U.K.? I am left leaning. I am a socialist. I want those in need of protection to be protected. But there are sections of needy that aren’t pensioners that get little to no support in a similar way, there are pensioners that are much more wealthy than the average working adult - in fact a fair proportion of them - and the state of the country’s economy is dire. It is clear that is the case - so a universal benefit couldn’t continue.
Starmer’s approval ratings are horrendous. Apologies it’s from twitter, sent to me by a friend. I’d have screenshot and posted but it’s a thread and I’m out and about. https://x.com/yougov/status/1923284836455743525?s=46&t=q8_2SlIRcRsMjwLKtdfedw
The question is: is the welfare system as it stands sustainable, especially with the rapidly-increasing number of working-age adults reliant upon it? If you think it should be supported unamended, then you surely have to say where the growing cost will be funded from, and how we then improve productivity and growth? For what it's worth though, the vibes suggest that there may well be some negotiation forthcoming between the government and backbenchers to try and mitigate the cuts in order to make them at least partially acceptable. I think the WFA removal was right, being an untargeted benefit, but I'd have done it from next Winter - after another Triple Lock uplift.
I think he should very much worry now, as we saw with the tories, long periods of poor ratings seem to get ingrained and after a while, people just stop listening. He's definitely pitched right and as we're seeing, and did see at the GE, some of that pitch has seen voters move to Lib Dems and moreso Greens. The left will gladly give up any hint of power for political purity that not enough people can agree on. And if the tories don't regain some vote share back from Reform, we have big problems. Granted, come the election in 4 years time, people who have voted Labour, Lib Dem and Green have a huge decision. Do you again vote to block the right and far right, or do you vote with your heart and risk a genuinely fascist government that would enact some horrendously damaging things on people and place. It is telling though how absent commentary is of undoubted positives. NHS improvement, waiting lists down, interest rates down, pay outpacing inflation, inflation only just above target consistently, significant investment announcements, very good GDP growth for Q1 against a difficult global backdrop. Yet the media, and much of the public don't focus on any of that. The media much rather devote half of their news hours to following the daily trump circus.
Its a very complex society and economy we live in so there are no easy answers. However, fundamentally, many people simply do not have enough money and struggle. Many institutions /services are struggling. So, basically there needs to be a more equitable distribution of wealth and state investment/control in/of major services and industries/institutions. Won't happen though as the deflection is always about other issues like immigration which, whilst important, is not the crux of the decline of the country. Political parties also dont like the idea of further taxation as a principle because we've lived in an age of low-tax mantra ever since Thatcher. Its more complicated than I've explained but I believe that the above is the basic problem. Society needs a more equitable reset. That's my view anyway
It seems to me that the last election was won - as much as anything - on Labour not being the Tories. That will not get them home next time. There will need to be visible results that make people feel better off. Keir's government are fixed at the moment on difficult policies that are designed to bring about longer term benefits. Time will tell whether they succeed. I totally agree though that the media is viciously negative. More so than during Corbyn's leadership. Corbyn wasn't really perceived as a likely threat. The conservative (small 'c' ) electorate would never have voted him in. Keir was perceived as more of a threat from the outset - justifiably so, given the stunning victory he achieved last July. When left-leaning folk abandon him they are gambling with the prospect of a lunatic Farage-led government. Repent at leisure, eh?
I think it's reasonably likely that no generation that has ever lived, or will ever live, will have it as good as the people who are currently pensioners have had it.
I think or will ever live is a bit of a stretch.Who knows what it will be like in a hundred years,never mind a thousand
