I don’t mean to trivialise the issue, especially for those who are just over the threshold to get the WFA, butJunior doctors when qualified on £100k+ per year, train drivers on £70+ per year, my heart bleeds. How about the pensioners on £300 PW who've had their fuel allowance taken. Give your head a wobble.
The size of your wage packet isn't really an indicator of 'class'70k is the new working class! Unbelievable.
I don’t mean to trivialise the issue, especially for those who are just over the threshold to get the WFA, but
Most pensioners are on more than £300 a week.
26 months ago they were on £45 a week less.
We're short of doctors and train drivers. There's no shortage of pensioners.
Without being flippant, that last point is at the heart of it. How do we afford to pay people 20, 30 years pensions when there are three people paying tax for each pensioner?
What poverty wages would meet your definition of working class?70k is the new working class! Unbelievable.
I agree. We have an abundance of people who could but won't pay more tax.So if we have an abundance of something it's okay to shaft a % of them.
If we cant afford pensions then maybe that's something that needs discussing/solving.
Maybe the people in charge of the country could start. I don't remember any of this being in the manifesto though.
Erm.......
Maybe wrong but 35k is the average wage in the UK, minimum wage just over 20k. 70k for 'driving' a train is the stuff of dreams for 99% of the country.What poverty wages would meet your definition of working class?
Two’s already enough I would have thought.Any US beef I've eaten has been great and I've not grown an extra head or anything.
I agree. We have an abundance of people who could but won't pay more tax.
If we had a lot more poor people they could vote in a party that would tax the rich people. "For the many, not the few" might have worked for Corbyn but there were too few of the many.
Maybe wrong but 35k is the average wage in the UK, minimum wage just over 20k. 70k for 'driving' a train is the stuff of dreams for 99% of the country.
You can't really conflate the class system with earnings in this day and age. There will be many that consider themselves (myself included) working class despite earning comfortably above the national average; a lot of it comes down to an individuals societal roots and whether their job can be categorized as labour. The classic blue collar jobs.Maybe wrong but 35k is the average wage in the UK, minimum wage just over 20k. 70k for 'driving' a train is the stuff of dreams for 99% of the country.
Maybe the modern distinction should be between those who make money from work they do, and those who make money from what other people do.You can't really conflate the class system with earnings in this day and age. There will be many that consider themselves (myself included) working class despite earning comfortably above the national average; a lot of it comes down to an individuals societal roots and whether they're job can be categorized as labour. The classic blue collar jobs.
You won't find many train drivers that consider themselves middle class.
I think your first sentence is the fairest distinction. It's a simplistic starting point, but a starting point nonetheless when it comes to categorizing class.Maybe the modern distinction should be between those who make money from work they do, and those who make money from what other people do.
Anyway, I'm not sure it's worth yet another 40 pages of distraction on what "working class" means, just because one poster doesn't like Labour's settling pay disputes by going part of the way to restoring the workers' pay in real terms after years of Tory real pay cuts.
Maybe wrong but 35k is the average wage in the UK, minimum wage just over 20k. 70k for 'driving' a train is the stuff of dreams for 99% of the country.
The beef that would be exported would have been farmed to at least the same standard as the UK. Heard a farmers spokesman on the radio say that it’s a very good deal, for both countries.
Then it’s down to you whether you’d buy US beef or stick to what we have now.
Junior doctors when qualified on £100k+ per year, train drivers on £70+ per year, my heart bleeds. How about the pensioners on £300 PW who've had their fuel allowance taken. Give your head a wobble.
If £70k was the stuff of dreams, why is there a shortage of drivers?Maybe wrong but 35k is the average wage in the UK, minimum wage just over 20k. 70k for 'driving' a train is the stuff of dreams for 99% of the country.
To be fair - it was a bit of a communications gaffe but the fuel allowance thing was means tested.
Personally I don’t think it’s unreasonable for pensioners who can afford it, to not get the payment.
My Mum for example - took the payment and just put it towards holidays or shit from the garden centre. Doesn’t need the money at all.
Those who need the support are still eligible for it.
They should have found a better way to do it and done it a year later l,what I know about the less well off pensioners is they are good at planning ahead for bills as they have so little disposable income.
It was a cunts trick the way it was done especially when you look at the money saved, it was a statement of their economic prudence for the financial institutions as much as anything else.
I don’t agree it was a “cunts trick” but I do agree it wasn’t handled - or at least communicated- in the best way possible.
It’s frustrating because I can see what this govt are trying to achieve but they need someone in the room who is a better strategist and comms person. They are crying out for their Alastair Campbell.