Current Affairs The General Election

[neil999]

as the election is near christmas, will people full of festive cheer be more likely to vote labour or tory??

 

[tsubaki]

as the election is near christmas, will people full of festive cheer be more likely to vote labour or tory??

Vote Humbug!

 

[davids]

It’s not just Boris Johnson’s lying. It’s that the media let him get away with it | Peter Oborne

His serial falsehoods are mostly unchallenged. If this goes on, the integrity of our politics faces collapse, says journalist and author Peter Oborne

amp.theguardian.com

''Welcome to the Conservative party election campaign. I have been a political reporter for almost three decades and have never encountered a senior British politician who lies and fabricates so regularly, so shamelessly and so systematically as Boris Johnson. Or gets away with his deceit with such ease.''

The media in this country are rigging this election by not doing their job properly.

I think they are doing their job properly,the Right Wing press were always going to flood the media with anti-Labour.anti-Corbyn stories,it's why they exist.

 

[davids]

Excellent post, but while Interest rates under Labour would undoubtedly raise, so too will inflation. Now people with mortgages quite like inflation because the ratio of house price to mortgage debt grows. Those not on the property ladder however suffer accordingly. Inflation proofed pensions and payments are wonderful but again not everyone enjoys the same benefits and many will be left behind. I agree that there are pro’s and con’s but my initial comment was about the effect on pension funds investing in the likes of BT who will suffer.....

The Right Wing press are pushing the story as if Labour will just snatch back BT shares and shareholders will be left clutching fog,which is not the case.

 

[sbbefc]

In my group of mates, all 6 of us went to university and it´s pretty obvious none of us will ever pay the full amount back. I´m sure the majority of people are the same.

Shame here. I'll never pay it off despite now being in a £30k+ job. Took me 5/6 years since graduation to get to that point and I live in London so it doesn't go very far.

The system is completely broken. Wealthy families can just wipe it out after their kids graduate, the rest of us (working class- lower middle class) are left with student debt around your necks for pretty much the rest of our lives. A £30k job isn't a £30k job with student debts as they are.

 

[peteblue]

The Right Wing press are pushing the story as if Labour will just snatch back BT shares and shareholders will be left clutching fog,which is not the case.

Of course it’s not the case. They will pay by issuing bonds or whatever but at a price they will determine. The real problem is that the shares will be devalued before the sale and once transacted the U.K. will own a major part of BT where the government is giving away for free its product and therefore where does an income stream come from to pay down the loan or indeed pay the staff.....

 

[peteblue]

Shame here. I'll never pay it off despite now being in a £30k+ job. Took me 5/6 years since graduation to get to that point and I live in London so it doesn't go very far.

The system is completely broken. Wealthy families can just wipe it out after their kids graduate, the rest of us (working class- lower middle class) are left with student debt around your necks for pretty much the rest of our lives. A £30k job isn't a £30k job with student debts as they are.

It’s about the only policy that I agree with, get rid of all tuition fees for U.K. students and write off that portion of the debt relating to fees.......

 

[davids]

Of course it’s not the case. They will pay by issuing bonds or whatever but at a price they will determine. The real problem is that the shares will be devalued before the sale and once transacted the U.K. will own a major part of BT where the government is giving away for free its product and therefore where does an income stream come from to pay down the loan or indeed pay the staff.....

By taxing the offshore multinationals?

 

[Disgruntledgoat]

By taxing the offshore multinationals?

How can you tax something that's off shore?

 

[davids]

How can you tax something that's off shore?

By taxing what they earn in the UK at source?

 

[Lee Smith]

I have an interest in pensions.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have destroyed them.

You cannot have pensions without interest rates, and you cannot have interest rates without demand.

But the coalition, ignoring every macroeconomic expert, decided to deliberately weaken demand at the height of a historic financial crash - an unfathomably ignorant and destructive decision which haunts us still.

Ten years on, the BoE is %.75, far lower than inflation, and in the Eurozone rates are mostly negative.

For pension funds (where I used to work) this is an unprecedented catastrophe.

Pension fund managers want nothing more than safe, stable, long term growth - which the coalition destroyed in a fit of ideological fervour.

So now fund managers are, with great reluctance, forced to chase returns in increasingly risky places - private equity, corporate leveraged loans, real estate bubbles and tech moonbeams.

The fact that even the grown-up money has been forced into investments which it knows are nonsense will be the story of the next financial crash, and it is going to be far, far worse than the last one.

‘Their house is on fire’: the pension crisis sweeping the world

The plunge in interest rates since the financial crisis is wreaking havoc on funds

www.ft.com

If interest rates do not recover, we can expect banks, especially in Europe, to start coming up against it in the next few years - possibly just as the great global omnibubble starts to give way.

Meanwhile, 'responsible' politicians are coming out with punch lines like this:

Liberal Democrats say government should run permanent spending surplus

Deputy leader Ed Davey laid out the Lib Dem economic policy during a speech in Leeds.

inews.co.uk

Probably the most illiterate, demagogic, and disastrous campaign utterance yet, in an election where Boris Johnson is a candidate.

The intellectual emptiness of our liberal political class is breathtaking.

So I will be voting for Labour, because I know a little bit about how pensions work, and because Labour is the only party that understands macroeconomics.

There will be grumbles about Labour phasing out PFI scams and other low-hanging fruit, but anyone in the pension industry with a bit of longer-term pespective and nous would crawl over hot coals for the chance to fund Labour's remodernisation of the economy, and the return to sane interest rates that this will entail.

Interesting post this, but I suppose it all depends on how your pension is managed and where the funds are placed.

I started my private pension (Scottish Widows - Mixed Series 2 fund) in Feb 2010, when the unit price was 120.7p. It has seen continued steady growth over the last ~10 years and is currently sitting at 230.0p a unit. Which is a fantastic performance.

 

[peteblue]

The Right Wing press are pushing the story as if Labour will just snatch back BT shares and shareholders will be left clutching fog,which is not the case.

I see McDonnell has gone further today with all companies employing over 250 having to put in 1% chunks of share into an employee pot that then builds to a max of 10%. So too right I can hear you say, but what about the poor schmucks who work in companies of less than 250, do they get nothing ?, If a company employs 260, why would they not just sack 11 ? He’s said that companies bidding for government contracts cannot pay a CEO more than £350k, or the same as the weekly wage of a footballer. These companies sometimes employ tens of thousands and the guy at the top is responsible for £Billions.....what planet are these people on ?......

 

[catcherintherye]

It’s about the only policy that I agree with, get rid of all tuition fees for U.K. students and write off that portion of the debt relating to fees.......

I know there are some difficulties (not withstanding students going abroad) but I've always been surprised the UK hasn't looked at the graduate tax option. To me a scaled graduate tax would seem the most sensible way to have got around the problem.

 

[catcherintherye]

I see McDonnell has gone further today with all companies employing over 250 having to put in 1% chunks of share into an employee pot that then builds to a max of 10%. So too right I can hear you say, but what about the poor schmucks who work in companies of less than 250, do they get nothing ?, If a company employs 260, why would they not just sack 11 ? He’s said that companies bidding for government contracts cannot pay a CEO more than £350k, or the same as the weekly wage of a footballer. These companies sometimes employ tens of thousands and the guy at the top is responsible for £Billions.....what planet are these people on ?......

I suppose on the first point, there is always going to have to be a cut off somewhere.

On the 2nd, even though you may have ideological disagreements it's a pretty smart move not just for his base, but in terms of re-orientating the state. Essentially such companies would be unable to bid and it would allow others an opportunity. In terms of de-centralising capital it would be quite an effective measure. As you say though, not without significant losers.

 

[peteblue]

I suppose on the first point, there is always going to have to be a cut off somewhere.

On the 2nd, even though you may have ideological disagreements it's a pretty smart move not just for his base, but in terms of re-orientating the state. Essentially such companies would be unable to bid and it would allow others an opportunity. In terms of de-centralising capital it would be quite an effective measure. As you say though, not without significant losers.

How can ‘other companies’ build nuclear submarines ?...