Post Match Thread: Election 2017

[robbieh]

For me the issue is not so much whether the super rich pay their taxes or not. The big issue is whether they spend enough of their money.

If you redistributed all Branson's money to the poorest million in the country they would probably spend all of it. In pubs, shops, restaurants etc

This is good for the economy. Branson has so much money he can't spend even a fraction of it. The super rich stockpiling money is not good for the economy and this is why the sort of inequality we are seeing now is counterproductive.

 

[robbieh]

Another problem with having an elite of mega rich individuals is that they create parallel economies. Theoretically a member of this elite could employ all the top medics in the world to solve the rare illness affecting his sick daughter. Which while understandable on his part is obviously not in the interests of society at large.

 

[sir baconface]

So, billionaires who happen to pay millions in tax are to be revered? The numbers don't even matter, it's relative. You hear this 'those with the broadest shoulders should take more of a hit' stuff a lot. Billionaires... billion.. aires. Are we so mind-fucked to believe that these people are doing us a favour? That everything would fall apart with them?

Who mentioned "revered" or "doing us a favour"?

One thing the Left never seem to comprehend is that wealth has to be created in order to fund their largesse. As always, they are fixated with redistributing what others earn. Tax, spend and regulate. Same old mantra.

Loose change in this case. Sugar's £58m cheque would have enabled Corbyn to write off a mere 2,148 students' fees.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I find it hard to believe that Lord Sugar writes a cheque out to pay his tax in 2017.

 

[Bigga]

Well she's so good that she's going into medical accademia in the long term, so yes, no private practice for her.
As an asside why can't doctors and surgeons do part time private practice?
They will have done at least 16 years hard labour working all hours learning to be a specialist doctor or specialist surgeon at a salary that is a pittance compared with their piers at university got in other fields in the the private sector.
Allowing consultants to do part time private work saves the NHS a fortune in paying the correct rate for the job.
It's a win win situation as far as I'm concerned which if changed would dramatically lower the standard of medical care in the NHS and/or dramatically increase medical salaries in the NHS.

It would be far more practical for a private firm to stump up for the years of training of whomever they employ from the NHS BACK to the NHS.

That way the system wouldn't be drained and/ or it would force the private firms to hire from abroad, themselves.

I think NHS should be specially protected in this manner.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

It's interesting that you, SWP's Back and Gelson's Dad, all of who are telling me I'm talking rubbish, aren't resident in the UK and haven't been for a while. At this moment, there can't be any "centrist policies". Austerity hasn't worked, growth is slowing, public services have been cut, real wages are going down, etc. One party is promising more of the same to reduce the deficit and the other is promising a very radical left-wing agenda that they claim will eventually reduce the deficit but will raise taxes, inject vast amounts of money into the economy and (supposedly) vastly improve public services.

So UN that context, what is a "centrist policy"? It would have to be something like "Well we won't take any more money out of the NHS but we won't put any more in either". On Brexit it would have to be a very soft Brexit, which Labour & Lib Dems are promoting anyway.

I still maintain that while Corbyn ran a brilliant campaign, there are still too many people who are turned off by him. Another leader, one with less baggage, might well have won this election with the same policies in my opinion.

I don't recall even suggesting you were talking rubbish. We are clearly in politically turbulent times and the whole notion of what it takes to win has been turned on its head recently, even within the last few months.

I don't live there, as you pointed out. I will not presume to suggest you know nothing of what is happening in the United States when you discuss that issue. May we live in interesting times!

 

[Vic]

Seriously....the BBC? Maybe the Mail, or the Torygraph, but you're way off with the BBC.

I didn't write it so I didn't edit it. I think the BBC problem is that somehow it feels obliged to report uncritically what the Tory press is saying even when it's obviously not news but propaganda.

 

[Vic]

SDSR 2010 came about because of the need to update our security policy which had become a bit stale under Blair/Brown stewardship and also to address a £38 Billion overspend in the MOD budget; again under Blair/Brown.



Again, Blair and Brown. Going to war in Iraq (based on lies) wasn't in the least cheap but for some reason "Trust me Tony" wanted his war. Brown had the purse strings as chancellor when the MOD were pissing money up the wall.

LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) signed the contract with G4S for the Olympics in London, 2012. The contract was signed by their Director of Security and Resilience Ian Johnson; Nothing at all to do with the Government initially until they had to step in and sort out the mess.

For "update security policy" read make drastic cuts. The biggest cuts to the armed forces have been under the Tories in the late 50s, mid 90s and since 2010. Now I expect a peace dividend from the end of the Cold War and I've got no problem with a policy of not always going to go looking for wars to fight but don't pretend that it's Labour governments who have "decimated" the armed forces.

 

[BlueAnorak]

It would be far more practical for a private firm to stump up for the years of training of whomever they employ from the NHS BACK to the NHS.
That way the system wouldn't be drained and/ or it would force the private firms to hire from abroad, themselves.
I think NHS should be specially protected in this manner.

Many hundreds will go and work abroad if that is the case. Hell the way Jeremy Hunt treated the Junior Doctors many are already considering just this.

Seriously though, do you have any idea how much work a junior doctor does? They put in extra hours to make sure patients get good treatment and treatment notes are written up for the next shift - well above and beyond what they should do by law. This article says it all though my daughter would say she does between 55 and 70 hours a week on average.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/hea...100-hour-weeks-despite-European-laws-BMA.html

And all this for a pretty poor salary for their qualifications and intelligence. All my daughter's piers have been on twice the Salary she's on for nigh on 8 years. It's clawed back a bit now she's a top grade registrar but it won't get any better till she's a consultant (though she will probably never earn as a consultant as she will go into teaching at med school).

 

[Vic]

LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) signed the contract with G4S for the Olympics in London, 2012. The contract was signed by their Director of Security and Resilience Ian Johnson; Nothing at all to do with the Government initially until they had to step in and sort out the mess.

I'll give you that. Maybe I wasn't playing all the notes in the right order but there's no doubt about the ideology and its irrational belief that private is best.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/sep/06/home-secretary-police-outsourcing-g4s

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....s-fined-100-times-since-2010-prison-contracts

And in here the extent of Tory donor implications

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the...even-though-they-made-a-balls-of-the-Olympics