Current Affairs 2017 General Election

[hullefc]

She seems to look quite good by rarely appearing in the media and rarely saying anything.

She seems quite difficult to read because of this (and yes even her opinions seem to change a lot - the only thing she seems really passionate about is grammar schools) almost like the style of acting where the actor does nothing or remains blank and everyone projects what they themselves think onto them.

There is more scrutiny on GOT than May gets from the media. There is more scrutiny on here than the Tory party gets from the media. Take her statement, 'the people are coming together'.

"She said: "This year, after a period of intense debate over the right future for our country, there is a sense that people are coming together and uniting behind the opportunities that lie ahead.

"For at heart, this country is one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future".

The is no evidence whatsoever that 'people are coming together' except in her head. Dealing with reality has always been a Tory blind spot. They are able to carry on with such delusions because they are not laughed out of court by a media, that is too compliant to their ideological bedfellows in the Tory party and elements in the Labour Party and LibDems.

Last night on Newsnight the Tories were given 25 minutes to propagate their ideas - more akin to a Tory Party political broadcast. The Labour party was slagged off for 5 minutes and the LibDems were given 20 minutes to broadcast their views - another party political broadcast. Not once were the Tories taken to task for their budget somersaults and May changing her mind virtually every day. Not once was there a demand that the Tory explains why May has cut and run if 'the people are coming together' as she says.

The media during this election will give the Tories a free ride and promote the LibDems. The media will constantly put the boot into Labour and shout from the rooftops that Labour are 'unelectable under Corbyn', in conjunction with the same rallying cry of the Blair's, Kinnock, Benn's, Cooper's, Eagle's of the Labour party to launch the 'we need to replace Corbyn'. There is no way they will get behind the Labour party but will snipe from the sidelines.

The Tories are all over the place because they are being hammered over the Brexit negotiations which are making them look weak, divided, indecisive and inadequate and therefore not up to the task. It appears that is why the Tory 'Grandees' stepped in and told her to have an election because she wouldn't get elected in 2020.

 

[hullefc]

It has been a disastrous night for Labour in the Polls. Of the 10 people asked 50% Labour, 10% LibDems, 0% Tories, 10% undecided - shifted from Labour but now 30% they are all the same. A big drop for Labour down 30% in the Poll.

 

[evilwebby]

It has been a disastrous night for Labour in the Polls. Of the 10 people asked 50% Labour, 10% LibDems, 0% Tories, 10% undecided - shifted from Labour but now 30% they are all the same. A big drop for Labour down 30% in the Poll.

10 is not a meaningful sample.
But yes, Lab will get drubbed.

 

[evilwebby]

TBH I think the whole question of who pays most tax (either in real terms or in terms of % of income) is a bit moot. There are going to be "rich" people who are massively overextended (ie: young homeowners down here) and there are going to be very secure "poor" people (ie: people coming to the end of their working lives who own their own homes back home).

What matters is that the state takes only a fair amount and doesn't waste it, something which I don't think could be said of any government since 1979 (at least).

Well I some more digging, and the figures show that indeed the poor do spend more of their income in taxes.. something like 45% vs about 36% for the high income, so that's put me in my place.

I personally don't see a problem with this, and there is plenty about the tax system that is very unfair on high earners.. the band between 100k-122k the marginal rate of tax on income is >50% as the personal allowance is withdrawn is VERY bad and catches a lot of relatively well-off but not filthy rich people.

But yes there are plenty of overextended people from all income brackets, which should not be a surprise to anyone. It's hypocritical to expect the people to live within their means when all your macroeconomic policies destroy the any incentive to save and encourage endless borrowing and debt.

 

[evilwebby]

don't be so envious of the 6-figure salary:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...s-leave-professionals-paying-60-per-cent.html

 

[orchard]

I think May got off lightly with my comparison with Erdogan:

In 1918, the Bolsheviks dissolved Russia’s democractically elected constituent assembly on the grounds that it was a front for the bourgeois counter-revolution. “All power to the Soviets!” Lenin declared. “We shall crush the saboteurs.”

Be very wary of her power-grab, and the hardly disclosed policies she'll use a re-election to justify.

 

[JonS]

I think May got off lightly with my comparison with Erdogan:

In 1918, the Bolsheviks dissolved Russia’s democractically elected constituent assembly on the grounds that it was a front for the bourgeois counter-revolution. “All power to the Soviets!” Lenin declared. “We shall crush the saboteurs.”

Be very wary of her power-grab, and the hardly disclosed policies she'll use a re-election to justify.

I don't disagree mate but isn't she just doing what lots of PMs have done in their time - call an election when it suits her and try and consolidate her power as much as possible.

I've lived through a lot of PMs and don't find her more dishonest than most of them

 

[orchard]

No it's not the same mate.
The great repeal bill will give her the ability to create law without parliamentary scrutiny; she intends to cherry-pick what laws we retain from the EU without debate; to re-define what our rights as citizen's are, presumably again without scrutiny; and to limit the power of the HOL to scrutinise too, and that's just what we know now.
It's not about her winning an election, it's to ensure a total power-grab.

I don't disagree mate but isn't she just doing what lots of PMs have done in their time - call an election when it suits her and try and consolidate her power as much as possible.

I've lived through a lot of PMs and don't find her more dishonest than most of them

 

[edge]

I don't disagree mate but isn't she just doing what lots of PMs have done in their time - call an election when it suits her and try and consolidate her power as much as possible.

I've lived through a lot of PMs and don't find her more dishonest than most of them

Nailed it there she has seen a chance to win and gone for it, something Brown should have done when everything was lined up for him.
If she had left it as it was the GE would have been around the same time as we were leaving the EU leaving her vunerable on lots of fronts.
On the plus side it leaves us only five yrs of Tory rule instead of 7 if the Labour party can get its act together or whatever party replaces it by then.

 

[evilwebby]

I don't disagree mate but isn't she just doing what lots of PMs have done in their time - call an election when it suits her and try and consolidate her power as much as possible.

And lest we need reminding.. this is precisely what Brown DIDN'T do and look how that turned out for him and his party.

I think it's great that she has called this GE. Opportunistic? Of course - she's a politician, after all. But that said, I'm pleasantly surprised with May as PM. I think she comes across well, and is more old school and traditionalist - less presidential - than we have been used to in more recent years.

 

[JonS]

And lest we need reminding.. this is precisely what Brown DIDN'T do and look how that turned out for him and his party.

I think it's great that she has called this GE. Opportunistic? Of course - she's a politician, after all. But that said, I'm pleasantly surprised with May as PM. I think she comes across well, and is more old school and traditionalist - less presidential - than we have been used to in more recent years.

I do prefer her to Cameron's Eton Mess. Still won't be voting for her mind...

 

[Old Blue 2]

don't be so envious of the 6-figure salary:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...s-leave-professionals-paying-60-per-cent.html

Of course we should not be! We know the whole country, after tax, is left with £40,000 pa before NI and personal-choice deductions from salary.

Get real... Do you REALLY think the ordinary person sheds a tear over people on £100,000+ gross a year? REALLY???

 

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

don't be so envious of the 6-figure salary:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...s-leave-professionals-paying-60-per-cent.html

Yep, they withdraw your tax allowance pro rata at a rate of £1 for every £2 earned once you hit £100k, and if that happens in a tax year where it's already been allocated from the start, you get a nice bill on the mat.

So all this does is encourage anyone who falls into that bracket to do, is to stick the excess over £100k into their pension pot and save the 60% penalty, so the revenue get nothing.

 

[Sarnia Kevin]

I do prefer her to Cameron's Eton Mess. Still won't be voting for her mind...

Do you live in her constituency then?

 

[evilwebby]

Of course we should not be! We know the whole country, after tax, is left with £40,000 pa before NI and personal-choice deductions from salary.

Get real... Do you REALLY think the ordinary person sheds a tear over people on £100,000+ gross a year? REALLY???

I don't think they give a crap if other people have sympathy for them or not, but 100k will barely gets you a 2-bed terraced house in most parts of the country within commutable distance of jobs that pay that much. Do YOU really think that people on 100k don't have their own money worries or look at people making 300k/year and think exactly the same about that group as you think about them?