The Labour Government

hampshireblue said:
It's down to schools to apply to have a BC. Surely it's a good idea for 2 hard working parents but on a low income to know their kids are getting fed before classes start. Or maybe you'd prefer no help to those that really need it?

If cheap labour is killing us, I assume you want it gone. So do I. But fortunately I can afford to absorb higher prices for stuff,can you?

Imagine being on a fixed income and suddenly it costs £50 to get your windows cleaned instead of £25. Sustainable?
Click to expand...

It appears you’re happy with a low wage, high costs economy?
 
hampshireblue said:
It's down to schools to apply to have a BC. Surely it's a good idea for 2 hard working parents but on a low income to know their kids are getting fed before classes start. Or maybe you'd prefer no help to those that really need it?

If cheap labour is killing us, I assume you want it gone. So do I. But fortunately I can afford to absorb higher prices for stuff,can you?

Imagine being on a fixed income and suddenly it costs £50 to get your windows cleaned instead of £25. Sustainable?
Click to expand...
Easy, clean your own windows, doesn't cost anything.

While we all want children to be fed properly it's not up to the state via the tax payer to feed them. If people choose to have kids then they should support them.

Presume you'll want the 2 child cap scrapped.
 
Just out of interest I looker up the minimum wage when it was introduced in 1999, it was £3.60 per hour.

It's now £12.21. The last 2-3 years have seen pretty significant increases.
 
moomba said:
Just out of interest I looker up the minimum wage when it was introduced in 1999, it was £3.60 per hour.

It's now £12.21. The last 2-3 years have seen pretty significant increases.
Click to expand...
if my maths is right it evens out to roughly about 2.8 percent per year even with the big increase in latter years when inflation was near/above double figures.
Not sure what the average inflation is over this time but think this would be slightly higher than that .
edit quick google says 2.5 to 2.8 percent average inflation over the last 25 years
 
Last edited:
blueinsa said:
It appears you’re happy with a low wage, high costs economy?
Click to expand...
No, far from it. But you have to be mindful that high wage in all areas = high price in all areas and in the process of getting there higher inflation = higher state pensions = higher taxes and on it goes.

What we need is a more even economy where low salaries paid by muti nationals don't require an effective state subsidy to help people get by.
maxwellblue said:
Easy, clean your own windows, doesn't cost anything.

While we all want children to be fed properly it's not up to the state via the tax payer to feed them. If people choose to have kids then they should support them.

Presume you'll want the 2 child cap scrapped.
Click to expand...
FFS, it was and example of how prices could rise across the whole economy. Tell that to the over 70s(ish), infirm, disabled.

Have you got kids, and if so didn't you get help bringing them up?

I wouldn't scrap the 2 child benefit cap actually apart from multiple births and the present exeption that apply. But the fact is we have an ageing population that will require youngsters to pay NI and taxes to pay for our pensions. So having a declining birth rate is really not a good outcome for the likes of us.
 
Last edited:
moomba said:
Just out of interest I looker up the minimum wage when it was introduced in 1999, it was £3.60 per hour.

It's now £12.21. The last 2-3 years have seen pretty significant increases.
Click to expand...

coupled with huge overall wage increases - it's little surprise things go up.
 
blueinsa said:
Minimum wage going up happens regardless of who is in power.

Breakfast clubs? What, we will feed your kids because we know you can’t afford to? It’s also not in every school so don’t claim they have done anything of note here.

UC doesn’t encourage work either, it allows folk to not work and more and more are going into it as they no doubt say fuck it, what’s the point in working 40 hours for fuck all when I can get the same for working 20 and have the state prop you up.

Cheap labour is killing us ffs.
Click to expand...
The government raised minimum wage.

So you would rather no breakfast clubs ? It’s going into more and more schools and it’s a direct result of new government policy and funding.

You keep saying the opposite of what UC is the old work benefits etc was big cliff edges as you upped your hours you lost more in benefit. UC has reduced these cliff edges so you can earn more and still keep some benefits. Don’t know why we keep going over this
 
We've got Guardiola said:
Fairer prices just means higher consumer prices though doesn't it in reality?

Consumers don't care about fairer prices for farmers, they want cheaper stuff and in reality that can only be achieved by pressing suppliers/farmers to lower their costs or by controlling other costs such as staff wages. The supermarkets could choose to make less profit and pay farmers fairly, reduce the prices of food and also pay staff properly but that never happens.

It's unfortunately just a consequence of the society that we live in nowadays. We want cheaper stuff and convenience and that has led the big supermarkets to monopolise the food supply. That means now they can name whatever price they want even if it means making obscene profits and not paying people or suppliers properly.

The ultimate benefactors are those who do not supply the food, aren't a customer who buys the food and certainly not the employees who put it on the shelves, it's ridiculous but that's what we're signed up to.
Click to expand...

The ultimate solution is higher wages and people spending those wages on home built product to grow the economy so their wages go up even more all the while more taxes improve our public services. Simple eh? Except it isn’t simple.

One of the arguments you see for growing the economy is about taking money off the wealthy to give to the less wealthy as they will spend it versus the wealthy who horde it and that will help the economy - but it’s not a lot of good to our economy if they spend it on stuff from Alibaba or Shein.

We do have the option of putting tariffs on products we want consumers to use home grown products on (eg milk) but we aren’t a power house like the US so we are going to have to find a way of balancing it all.
 
Kompany Car said:
They do have social value requirements in most contracts, which includes "a local jobs for local people" element plus the use of SMEs. The problem is that in most contracts its about 10% or at most, and very rarely, 20% of the score that tenderers are assessed on, the majority 50% or more is price, the rest made up of programme and quality of the submission.

What they need to do is accept that costs will be higher but have clauses that prevent significant offshoring of design work. Doing so ensures that the money stays within the UK economy.

Similarly mandating a higher percentage of work being performed by UK based SMEs for both design and construction with more favourable commercial terms (e.g. not contracts that have liabilities of £20m when they are only doing 200k of work) would help. For reference TfGM are a nightmare for doing this and not willing to negotiate more reasonable commercial terms.

Whilst I dont advocate trying to have an insular economy, as we do need international trade, which in turn requires some quid pro quo, we dont give our home grown businesses a leg up, unlike every other country. If you believe the Brexit nutcases, it was European legislation stopping us doing this, which 10 years on is clearly not the case.
Click to expand...

You clearly have a better understanding of this than me mate, appreciate the reply and I’m somewhat encouraged that it is at least recognised and good be improved.

You’re spot on about the quid pro quo element and that’s a huge challenge for us if we want to grow - we need to export.
 
Kompany Car said:
As i mentioned previously, government and public sector procurement is run by idiots. They provide unrealistic budgetary figures often based upon not much more than guesswork. Knock 25% off and then you get businesses going in at zero margin. Once won and in contract, on day one they stick in loads of change and point out all the things that the government procurement missed or forgot about.

Result is that the outturn ends up more expensive than it would have been if they started with a realistic price.
Click to expand...

Honestly mate it’s not just the government that gets fucked over, it might be incompetence but that isn’t just the reserve of the public sector!!!
 
mosssideblue said:
Kind of expected and reaffirms why you’re seen as a joke on here. Your posts are just childish.
Click to expand...
You think my posts are childish when your precending one asked me which parties I think are better than Labour? What a dickhead, obviously baiting question that was, and you suggest I am childish? That's really quite funny.

By the way, I am 100% certain there's many morons on here who think I am a joke. That's expected when people are too dim to understand basic economics.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top