National News Rishi Sunak

I'm not convinced at all that Labour should have allowed her to join them. Her views are to the right of the Tory party (and that is quite a long way towards the swivel eyed wing,!,). Perhaps Reform would be a better place for her to scuttle off to?
 
QR said:
I can only assume Starmer has calculated it will do the Tories more damage than it will Labour. He might be right but it's a bit bizarre.
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I can understand it as it supports the narrative that the Tories are a busted flush and they are jumping ship but I don't like it. She really isn't that pleasant but I did laugh at this when she tried to join the protest:

www.bbc.co.uk

Dover MP heckled by angry P&O Ferries protesters

Chants of "shame on you" are directed at Natalie Elphicke at a protest against the firm's mass sacking.
www.bbc.co.uk


At least she isn't standing at the next GE.
 
ZeroTheHero said:
I'm not convinced at all that Labour should have allowed her to join them. Her views are to the right of the Tory party (and that is quite a long way towards the swivel eyed wing,!,). Perhaps Reform would be a better place for her to scuttle off to?
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Probably where she'll end up in time with the other swivel-eyed Tories, or as an independent like that knob Andrew Bridgen who went to Laurence Fox's Reclaim outfit and then swiftly left when he realised even he wasn't a big enough bellend to be one of them.
 
I imagine that she was only accepted by Starmer because she's the MP for Dover.
 
Essexyellows said:
More bad news............

"It was a better performance in the first few months this year than most economists, including those at the Bank of England, initially expected, and growth more buoyant than in the major European nations."

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I though you argued that GDP is a poor indicator of how well Mr Average's finances are fairing and will also lead to the destruction of the world as we know it. You can't have infinite growth with finite resources and all that. It was the only common ground we had outside football.
 
QR said:
I though you argued that GDP is a poor indicator of how well Mr Average's finances are fairing and will also lead to the destruction of the world as we know it. You can't have infinite growth with finite resources and all that. It was the only common ground we had outside football.
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We still agree - I`m all for population control and the destruction of the "I want" rather than "I need" society.

Once we accept that the behaviour of human race will finish the planet we`ll be more at peace with ourselves.

Most of us will be carbon by then so won`t need to worry about it.

However, politics is judged on results and how the individual feels.... nobody, much as they may say, votes to make the bloke down the road better off.
 
Essexyellows said:
More bad news............

"It was a better performance in the first few months this year than most economists, including those at the Bank of England, initially expected, and growth more buoyant than in the major European nations."

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Good that there is growth but 0.6% is weak and hardly something to be excited or crow about. Especially with the base it is coming from.
 
Marked Ox said:
Good that there is growth but 0.6% is weak and hardly something to be excited or crow about. Especially with the base it is coming from.
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In the same way it was a technical recession, this is a technical recovery.

The economy is still pretty much flatlining. Productivity is still a big problem. It is still costing us more to export and import stuff. We still have significant skills gaps and a low wage low skill economy. People are still poor and are still poorer than they were before the cost of living went sky high. 1.5 million people will still get a huge shock when their fixed rate mortgage deals end in the next 12 months. The cost of everything is still going up. Public services are still in tatters.

Not much has changed, apart from a few Tories saddling up their unicorns, it would seem :)
 
Sheik djibouti said:
In the same way it was a technical recession, this is a technical recovery.

The economy is still pretty much flatlining. Productivity is still a big problem. It is still costing us more to export and import stuff. We still have significant skills gaps and a low wage low skill economy. People are still poor and are still poorer than they were before the cost of living went sky high. 1.5 million people will still get a huge shock when their fixed rate mortgage deals end in the next 12 months. The cost of everything is still going up. Public services are still in tatters.

Not much has changed, apart from a few Tories saddling up their unicorns, it would seem :)
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Your middle paragraph is the big issue - our lack of growth has a lot to do with real structural problems. It goes back to education, skills, training and again a chronic lack of investment.
 
Eric Blair said:
Your middle paragraph is the big issue - our lack of growth has a lot to do with real structural problems. It goes back to education, skills, training and again a chronic lack of investment.
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And the wanton desire to send every child to "Uni" rather than seeing practical apprenticeship skills as being on a level playing field - like electricians, plumbers, carpenters etc.

Which then means you end up with said Uni`s creating vacuous courses for non-academic people.

The apprenticeship levy is a great idea........ but.... you then end up with employers desperate to "get out what they put in" so you end up with 50+ year old folk doing degree level apprenticeships that will make little difference to them, or many others, barring a little bit of upskilling, shortly before you jack in the work game.

Equally the suppliers of said apprenticeships are not used to dealing with old folk who have many years of experience under their belt and try teaching them like they are 18-20 year olds.

Sorry its one of my many irks. :)
 
Essexyellows said:
And the wanton desire to send every child to "Uni" rather than seeing practical apprenticeship skills as being on a level playing field - like electricians, plumbers, carpenters etc.

Which then means you end up with said Uni`s creating vacuous courses for non-academic people.

The apprenticeship levy is a great idea........ but.... you then end up with employers desperate to "get out what they put in" so you end up with 50+ year old folk doing degree level apprenticeships that will make little difference to them, or many others, barring a little bit of upskilling, shortly before you jack in the work game.

Equally the suppliers of said apprenticeships are not used to dealing with old folk who have many years of experience under their belt and try teaching them like they are 18-20 year olds.

Sorry its one of my many irks. :)
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Got to agree with you, the Tories have really fkd it up.
 
QR said:
Got to agree with you, the Tories have really fkd it up.
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Not necessarily - tis the game of unintended consequences.

Pay out 0.5% of your payroll in an organisation that employs 17,000 people and its insanity not to try and get it back.

Problem being you are then looking for people willing to take on the extra workload.

Although the suggestion is you get 20% of your working time to do it the reality is far different, because your employer can`t "lose" people for a 1/5th of their working week.

So you have to use work based experience as evidence in your portfolio and the employer counts that as the 20%. You still have to find/make space for the other 80%!

And, of course, they can`t say its just for young/younger people....... as thats age discrimination. So old farts get to do degree level qualifications 3 or 4 years before they plan to retire. :)

The levy as a whole is a great idea - its how it is used on the ground that lets it down.
 
I’m not so sure the Tories can rely on the over 66 vote with the so called triple lock. With the tax threshold set at around £12500 and potentially unchanged until 2028 many will feel cheated as they are dragged into paying tax.
I was actually worse off this month when my private pension is taken into account.
I’m not sure what the Labour policy is on pensions part from saying they are thinking about retaining the triple lock. If they agreed to raise the tax allowance to around £15000 that would take a lot of low earners out of tax and allow less well off pensioners to live a bit more comfortably than at present
 
Peterdev said:
I’m not so sure the Tories can rely on the over 66 vote with the so called triple lock. With the tax threshold set at around £12500 and potentially unchanged until 2028 many will feel cheated as they are dragged into paying tax.
I was actually worse off this month when my private pension is taken into account.
I’m not sure what the Labour policy is on pensions part from saying they are thinking about retaining the triple lock. If they agreed to raise the tax allowance to around £15000 that would take a lot of low earners out of tax and allow less well off pensioners to live a bit more comfortably than at present
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Freezing tax thresholds and a couple of other tweaks has increased HMG receipts by roughly £29.3 billion a year.

That`s about the equivalent to a 4p increase in the basic rate of income tax.

So if there was something like an election coming up there is the ability to promise "tax cuts"...... or even deliver them a few weeks before...............
 
I can’t see this government doing anything as sensible as that as I think a lot of older voters would see that ruse.
To me it is as if the Tories have decided they’ll embark on damage limitation knowing that the next election is already lost
 
Peterdev said:
I’m not so sure the Tories can rely on the over 66 vote with the so called triple lock. With the tax threshold set at around £12500 and potentially unchanged until 2028 many will feel cheated as they are dragged into paying tax.
I was actually worse off this month when my private pension is taken into account.
I’m not sure what the Labour policy is on pensions part from saying they are thinking about retaining the triple lock. If they agreed to raise the tax allowance to around £15000 that would take a lot of low earners out of tax and allow less well off pensioners to live a bit more comfortably than at present
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Excuse my ignorance, but how are you worse off?

PA is the same as last year and you have had an 8.5% uplift in state pension?
 
MC Yellow said:
Excuse my ignorance, but how are you worse off?

PA is the same as last year and you have had an 8.5% uplift in state pension?
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If the amount that hits his bank accounts hasn't gone up by at least inflation he is worse off.
 
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