UK Politics

[Neil]

1 hour ago, LJS said:

Not sure anyone is blaming old geezers, but why should they be the only ones with a triple lock? 

I am now of pension age (although still working) and am financially better off than I have ever been. 

Having some of that money when we were struggling to bring up 3 kids would have been great.

 

young people could blame old geezers like you  - for collecting a fat pension as well as keeping a (presumably) plumb job from those youngsters.

[steviewevie]

6 hours ago, LJS said:

Not sure anyone is blaming old geezers, but why should they be the only ones with a triple lock? 

I am now of pension age (although still working) and am financially better off than I have ever been. 

Having some of that money when we were struggling to bring up 3 kids would have been great.

 

child benefit?

[steviewevie]

ok...so state pension is currently 10k...that is just about enough to get by on. Many would have private pensions and/or savings to help them get through that, many won't. Those with a house could sell and be able to get somewhere smaller and more suitable as they get older and may have some money to spend from that, but then they might have kids who are desperate to inherit some of it because they can't afford to get a house and ever retiring is looking unrealistic for them.

But the thing with boomers, there's loads of them..it's in the name, and they are now all the old people who are filling  up hospitals and houses and care homes and f**king off the younger generations.

[steviewevie]

 

[fraybentos1]

8 hours ago, Ommadawn said:

I worked to give people like my Mum who struggled financially all her life, a decent standard of living when she eventually retired. The triple lock guaranteed her pension would keep up with the cost of living. Thanks to her efforts, I won't be needing my pension when I retire so will either refuse it (assuming that's an option), or give it away to people who do. However, there will still be folks (including some on here) who will have to rely on their pension and will be grateful for the triple lock. 

I’m not talking about getting rid of pensions, I’m just of the view that the triple lock is too generous compared to what working people have got over the last couple decades. Just link it to wage growth. 
 

If you’re at the point of being wholly reliant on the state pension then you’ll likely be eligible for other financial support too tho. Anyway I’m not saying 10grand a year is a lot on its own, I’m just saying a lot of people who get that are very well off. 

[Nobody Interesting]

8 hours ago, LJS said:

Sorry, a bit late with this...

"We continue to work for democratic reform too. We believe that the House of Lords is an affront to democracy and should be abolished. We will continue to call for the first past the post voting system to be replaced at Westminster with proportional representation, so that every vote and every part of the country counts. We have already extended the franchise in Scottish and local elections to 16 and 17 year olds and will use new powers to protect the voting rights of EU citizens too."

https://www.snp.org/our-vision/constitution/

Thanks for that, so only Labour and Tories then want FPTP - I am surprised that SNO wants PR as under that they will get 19/20 seats only!

[fraybentos1]

9 hours ago, Neil said:

all those are things achieved by the oldies, not your generation - your generation is getting the benefits from those oldies.

Completely irrelevant to the point I was making.

 

[Nobody Interesting]

If I were to put my cynical hat on I would say that pensions and how they are protected are simply because of the weight of voters it attracts rather than caring or wanting to do good for people - but of course no government or wanna be government would ever have policy based on holding onto part of the electorate now would they!!

If the youth started to vote regularly I wonder how many policies would appear aimed at looking after them more.


Politics, cynical, all about getting re-elected rather than the common good!?!?

Never

[steviewevie]

Immediate ceasefire or sustainable ceasefire? That is the question.

[Nobody Interesting]

23 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Immediate ceasefire or sustainable ceasefire? That is the question.

Describe 'sustainable'.

PS That is impossible as regards any war as all it takes is one person to do one little thing and it folds.

It is like the word 'reasonable' in many legal documents. Put there cos defining something precisely is impossible,

[steviewevie]

6 minutes ago, Nobody Interesting said:

Describe 'sustainable'.

PS That is impossible as regards any war as all it takes is one person to do one little thing and it folds.

It is like the word 'reasonable' in many legal documents. Put there cos defining something precisely is impossible,

I guess in context of Israel/Palestine it means it would be part of a peace process. But at this point it is all absurd, the vote isn't going to pass whatever labour does because Tories won't vote for it, SNP know this...and whether Labour vote for immediate or sustainable ceasefire will make f**k all difference to what is going on in Gaza, but could make a big difference to Starmer's authority...which is the main thing.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Neil said:

that's one hell of a statement, with unfounded assumptions, whether they need or not is dependant on a whole range of factors including living costs,.

I didn't actually post that.

[steviewevie]

Who's telling the truth, Kemi Badenoch or Henry Staunton?

BET NOW!

[LJS]

1 hour ago, Nobody Interesting said:

Thanks for that, so only Labour and Tories then want FPTP - I am surprised that SNO wants PR as under that they will get 19/20 seats only!

We have a sort of PR for Holyrood elections and another sort for local elections in Scotland.  I don't think the SNP is massively bothered about what system is used at Westminster  - it makes little practical difference if they have 20 MPs or 50 MPs: they can never win a majority there anyway!

Ideally they would like to have no MPs at all there 🙂

It never seems to occur to people that some politicians are capable of supporting something because it is right & not just out of self interest.

[steviewevie]

Apparently council taxes will have to go up almost everywhere.

[fraybentos1]

31 minutes ago, LJS said:

 

Ideally they would like to have no MPs at all there 🙂

 

I wish they'd done a Sinn Fein so I didn't have to look at Ian Blackford for 5 years 

[fraybentos1]

18 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Apparently council taxes will have to go up almost everywhere.

Not in Scotland, due to the SNP's ludicrous council tax freeze f**king over already cash strapped councils

[LJS]

21 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

Not in Scotland, due to the SNP's ludicrous council tax freeze f**king over already cash strapped councils

Some may be surprised to learn that i  agree with you on this - there is of course a dispute over whether ScotGov is giving councils enough money to cover the freeze  - councils were always going to say its not enough.

 

But even if it is enough, it is not the best way to achieve the aim of supporting " people struggling with the effects of high inflation" which is the claimed purpose behind it.

[fraybentos1]

2 minutes ago, LJS said:

councils were always going to say its not enough.

and they would be correct. Even before this they were in a dire state

3 minutes ago, LJS said:

it is not the best way to achieve the aim of supporting

the real aim is an attempted bribe to the affluent voters that helped put the SNP in power and are now abandoning them for Labour in droves. The Greens as ever just totally pathetic and accept it so they can keep their 2 ministerial posts.

[Nobody Interesting]

1 hour ago, LJS said:

We have a sort of PR for Holyrood elections and another sort for local elections in Scotland.  I don't think the SNP is massively bothered about what system is used at Westminster  - it makes little practical difference if they have 20 MPs or 50 MPs: they can never win a majority there anyway!

Ideally they would like to have no MPs at all there 🙂

It never seems to occur to people that some politicians are capable of supporting something because it is right & not just out of self interest.

This is a valid point - and at nearly 59 years old the cynicism is now so high when it comes to politics I do forget some might actually be like this.............................. some, but very few

[steviewevie]

Woohoo another by election on the way...this time Blackpool South. Have to see how big the swing from Tories to Labour is and how well Reform do and how low the turnout then we can all argue how the results prove definitively whatever our pov is.

[steviewevie]

last time..

[fraybentos1]

Another massive Labour swing incoming. Probs a good result for Reform too. 

This is ridiculous now, just call a general election and let Labour win instead of dragging it on till october

[Nobody Interesting]

7 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Woohoo another by election on the way...this time Blackpool South. Have to see how big the swing from Tories to Labour is and how well Reform do and how low the turnout then we can all argue how the results prove definitively whatever our pov is.

I wonder how long the Tory majority will last at this rate? If we keep going at 5 or 6 by elections a month they could be out without a GE at this rate.

GE NOW
Enough of this sh*t

[SalviaPlath]

I'm concerned about Wes Streeting. Over the last few days he's been saying sensible things (citizens assemblies are good and Israel has gone too far in killing civilians) and appearing vaguely likeable. This is very out of character.