The Conservative Party

[Chippy_boy]

They will spend the next 2 years encriching themselves and their buddies until the next election, then passing on the omnishambles to Labour

Oh the fucking irony. You've forgotten the last Labour government's parting note, clearly.

By the way, I think the budget was economically pretty good and in some ways, I admire Truss for having the balls to go with it.

BUT, and it's a HUGE but... I think it was politically idiotic. As I've stated, I could not give a toss about bankers bonuses, but removing the cap, LOOKS bad. Ditto lowering the top rate of tax, again it LOOKS bad. She should have used the money to give the poorest a couple of grand off their heating bills and maybe 2p off the basic rate of tax. That would have been just as effective as a stimulus to the economy, but instead she's given Labour all the ammo to beat up the Tories with the usual complaints.

I think barring miracles - like the war in Ukraine ending damned soon and their being a massive upswing in confidence and the economic outlook - then the Tories will get kicked out as a result of this at the next general election. The red wall won't vote for them again, which clearly from a Tory perspective is a right fucking balls up.

 

[hampshireblue]

Bluethrunthru

I hope people don’t ever fully lose sight of what a duplicitous cockwomble this excuse for a man is.
From the earliest days of the pandemic when he appeared on National TV to claim that the gvmt was working closely with the major supermarkets to ensure essential supplies would be available. This then refuted by all the supermarkets the next day. Through to his cosy arrangement with his pub landlord for covid protective goods Etc etc.

This twat will crawl back into a position of power one day.

In the vid you posted the way he bristles on challenges against the Tory hospital pledge is just typical. The fat oaf changed the definition of a new hospital when pesky Reporters started asking about progress against election pledges.

I really wish the interviewers would produce the election pledge document more often. And remind those being interviewed that Truss and co are not a new party with fresh manifesto.


Lest anyone forgets here are the pledges from the last election.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/parties-pledges-health-care-2019

Interesting how it's sensible for us to try to ensure Doctors are not allowed to leave the NHS, but at the same time recruit fully qualified doctors from around the world. He doesn't seem to realise that our worldwide recruitment causes retention issues elsewhere which is just the thing he's moaning about over here. Talk about contradictions!

 

[domalino]

By the way, I think the budget was economically pretty good and in some ways, I admire Truss for having the balls to go with it.

You might, but the fact the pound absolutely tanked immediately after suggests everyone else thinks it was a terrible budget.

 

[Chippy_boy]

Another one eh Bill!! ‘nobody has given me a thing’?? I assume you were born in a hospital or at home with NHS nurses in attendance and been to the doctors during your lifetime, been to school at all? Or maybe onto university? All free; all roads, pavements etc are all free to use, I could go on but you get the idea. None so blind eh Bill, Bungalow Bill we call people like you - nowt upstairs.

Your lack of "upstairs", doesn't seem to have considered whether Bill paid more than enough tax to fund all of the above, and then some.

 

[domalino]

Not trawling through this thread, but the left's objections to the removal of the cap on bankers' bonuses is deeply flawed and the media coverage of it, pitiful.

It's as if the left think the government pays the bankers. They do not; the banks do.

Removing the cap isn't the government "giving the rich" anything, because they aren't giving them anything in the first place. In fact, if the bankers get paid more and since 99.99% of them, if not 100% are on PAYE, then the government will receive more tax, not less.

All this change is about is the government saying (quite rightly), "how much a company wants to pay its employees is fuck all to do with the government, and it is entirely wrong for the government to be meddling in companies' affairs by setting wage caps".

If wage caps on bankers' bonuses are OK, then why not caps on footballers pay? So we could encourage all the top talent to fuck off out of the UK and play abroad. I am sure that would be popular, NOT. So it seems people are quite happy for us to attract the best footballers with attractive pay packages, but that's not OK for our banks? That's a ludicrous position for the lefties to take. Many are bitter and resentful idiots though, so not unexpected.

Someone pretending to know what they’re talking about should probably know that the cap on bankers bonuses was not to do with capping how much bankers get paid.

It was about stopping irresponsible decision making to try and get bigger bonuses.


If banks wanted to pay their employees more money, they just had to give them a bigger salary, that wasn’t regulated at all.

You saying the government was setting wage caps is at best completely ignorant and at worst completely dishonest.

 

[Fred_Quimby]

Your lack of "upstairs", doesn't seem to have considered whether Bill paid more than enough tax to fund all of the above, and then some.

You earn it, you pay it. I have paid enough in my lifetime as well but do not mind it going in services for others. That’s the difference. I recognise that we have been given a huge amount ‘free’ in our lifetime. Anyone who thinks that they have been given nowt is short of a few brain cells.

 

[Chippy_boy]

You saying the government was setting wage caps is at best completely ignorant and at worst completely dishonest.

Or perhaps neither. It might not have been a hard cap but it was certainly meddling and putting downward pressure on pay, because no company is going to change from paying say £100k basic and up to £900k in bonuses for outstanding performance, to saying OK you can have £1m in basic pay for just turning up and doing a dreadful job.

For someone pretending to know what they are talking about, I would have thought you might have considered that.

 

[hampshireblue]

Honestly, I don't care, and I put it to you, neither should you. It's got bugger all to do with us.

Government should be about providing a safe environment for the able to maximise their potential and a safety net for the less able so they can manage. Fundamentally, that's it. The rest is bollocks IMO.

Saying "we won't let company A pay Fred more than X" is needless - and IMO counter-productive - meddling. Fuck all do with anyone other than the company and Fred, and if necessary, his union if he's in one.

I'll tell you why it matters...10 years ago there was no limit to how much people could save into a pension, and so action was taken to limit both how much one could save as well as taxation introduced if you were above the new limits. This was done mainly because the bankers bonuses were going straight into their pensions, fine so far. Except, once the limit was introduced it became fair game for successive chancellors to reduce the limit and now to have frozen it until 2026. This is now one of the main reasons that so many doctors are leaving the NHS. This is a direct result of bankers and city bonus greed.

Personally, I am now facing a £500k tax charge when I get to 75, for doing nothing other than paying into a pension at 8% since the age of 18 admittedly on reasonably good salaries and only one employer, but still just doing the right thing. And the really stupid thing is that might well just be the time that I will need social care and won't be able to afford it.

Oh,and if you think it's nothing to do with how much a CEO is paid, my ex employer which is still part owned by HMG, the CEO just took over £1m in salary and the bonuses you don't give a toss about.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

BUT, and it's a HUGE but... I think it was politically idiotic. As I've stated, I could not give a toss about bankers bonuses, but removing the cap, LOOKS bad. Ditto lowering the top rate of tax, again it LOOKS bad. She should have used the money to give the poorest a couple of grand off their heating bills and maybe 2p off the basic rate of tax. That would have been just as effective as a stimulus to the economy, but instead she's given Labour all the ammo to beat up the Tories with the usual complaints.

I agree with this bit - astonishing failure to read how it would go down.

Out of interest, do you have an opinion for why the exchange rate changed so much?

 

[Chippy_boy]

You earn it, you pay it. I have paid enough in my lifetime as well but do not mind it going in services for others. That’s the difference. I recognise that we have been given a huge amount ‘free’ in our lifetime. Anyone who thinks that they have been given nowt is short of a few brain cells.

Depends how you define "free"? The benefits I've received from the state are pitiful in value compared to what I have paid the state. In that context, NOTHING I have received has been "free".