Current Affairs The General Election

[dholliday]

Austerity was a choice.

Agreed. It was in response to what is dramatically known as the Great Recession. In Germany wages stagnated, prices went up and banks were bailed out. In UK austerity was introduced. Perhaps Germany had the better idea, but the UK public has seen fit to re-vote the Tories in twice since the austerity measures were first introduced.

 

[dholliday]

And mate this isn't a nervous or tired tic reaction in the slightest. It's because he gets flustered over anything that isn't him just repeating his catch slogans over and over again. He's terrible when he has to deal with normal people, terrible at facing scrutiny and looks genuinely lost when he has to move away from a pre prepared speech.

Fair enough, you may have a point. But personally looking at that with my neutral goggles on he came out of that relatively ok: sure he looked under pressure but folk understand he's been under the cosh ever since taking the hotseat. Now he's being confronted with pictures of a poor suffering boy. I think I may agree with you here in that he doesn't have the emotional intelligence to deal with that situation more humanely, at least in a spontaneous public-eye moment.

I can't however see it losing many votes for him or his party.

 

[Seanjd]

Agreed. It was in response to what is dramatically known as the Great Recession. In Germany wages stagnated, prices went up and banks were bailed out. In UK austerity was introduced. Perhaps Germany had the better idea, but the UK public has seen fit to re-vote the Tories in twice since the austerity measures were first introduced.

Wrong. In the UK, banks were also bailed out by Brown and Darling, and without them being bailed out (which is what the Tories were crying for), things would have been ten times worse. By the time Cameron and cronies got into power, the important decisions had already been made by Labour to at least keep the UK afloat economically. Austerity was an ideological choice. The Tories saw the recession as a perfect smoke screen to cut, cut, and cut some more.

 

[OnlyBlueWillDo]

Jesus wept...he was part of a government which used Brexit as an excuse to divert people away from the punishing austerity agenda inflicted on this country...

Austerity was a moral crime on the British people, while the Tories implemented it they reduced corporation tax by 9%, 2% equates to 6bn removed from the public purse according to Boris Johnson because he’s just cancelled a further 2% cut.

9%, 27bn a year taken out of the public coffers and given to large corporations so they can award hideous obscene bonuses to their top brass while the rest of the country pays for it.

27bn, that is austerity right there.

And you know what the funny thing is, the Tories are going to get a thumping majority as a reward for shafting the country, the whole country is full of turkey’s voting for Xmas.

 

[dholliday]

Wrong. In the UK, banks were also bailed out by Brown and Darling, and without them being bailed out (which is what the Tories were crying for), things would have been ten times worse. By the time Cameron and cronies got into power, the important decisions had already been made by Labour to at least keep the UK afloat economically. Austerity was an ideological choice. The Tories saw the recession as a perfect smoke screen to cut, cut, and cut some more.

Why do you think the Tories won subsequent elections? Is it a mass case of I'm alright Jack or maybe is it because many folk see austerity as a necessary policy?

Perhaps a bit of both. Polls only tell us so much, but at least they tell us something, and generally it appears the majority of the public found the austerity measures as necessary:

http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2015/07/08/public-opinion-graphs-austerity/

 

[Minimeister]

Get Angela Raynor in.

 

[dholliday]

Austerity was a moral crime on the British people, while the Tories implemented it they reduced corporation tax by 9%, 2% equates to 6bn removed from the public purse according to Boris Johnson because he’s just cancelled a further 2% cut.

9%, 27bn a year taken out of the public coffers and given to large corporations so they can award hideous obscene bonuses to their top brass while the rest of the country pays for it.

27bn, that is austerity right there.

And you know what the funny thing is, the Tories are going to get a thumping majority as a reward for shafting the country, the whole country is full of turkey’s voting for Xmas.

Another perspective is a cutting of corporate tax encourages market growth. Tho' I'm also sceptical when we see the obsene wages/bonuses corporate chiefs get.

But there is a reason why folk keep voting the Tories back in. And it's not because they support fat cats buying more yachts.

 

[monty]

I'd love to know why so little has been made of Doris's (his actual first name is Alexander) dual citizenship both here and the USA where he was born. He claimed to have renounced the American title following a court argument IRS over capital gains tax from the sale of property in the USA said to be worth several million dollars claiming he was resident in the UK at the time of sale, he lost and had to pay the tax bill. It is also interesting to note his claimed oversight when making a legal declaration of earnings to parliament, somehow was so penniless his missed out £50,000 income for writing a weekly newspaper column. The ordinary person would have found themselves with hefty bills for such an oversight he simply got his hand slapped which shows what a toothless tiger MP's have to face. Johnson will stoop to any level to gain pecuniary advantage including deceit, malpractice, and fraud but the Tory party grandees saw fit to elect him leader. God help us all if this charlatan wins the election and no wonder many decent Tories have left that corrupt party, some voluntary others on his orders.

 

[OnlyBlueWillDo]

Another perspective is a cutting of corporate tax encourages market growth. Tho' I'm also sceptical when we see the obsene wages/bonuses corporate chiefs get.

But there is a reason why folk keep voting the Tories back in. And it's not because they support fat cats buying more yachts.

That’s the lie the Tories told, cut it and it encourages market growth which generates more income for the country.

load of bollocks, Johnson just cancelled a further 2% saying it would put 6bn back into the kitty, so cutting it is bad for the country, according to Johnson.

Germany 29%, France 34%, Italy 27%, Spain 25%, UK 19%

You look around yourself now and tell me things weren’t better under Labour from 97 into the 2000’s when they had a higher rate inline with other countries and the NHS and public services weren’t on their arse like they are now.

 

[dholliday]

That’s the lie the Tories told, cut it and it encourages market growth which generates more income for the country.

load of bollocks, Johnson just cancelled a further 2% saying it would put 6bn back into the kitty, so cutting it is bad for the country, according to Johnson.

Germany 29%, France 34%, Italy 27%, Spain 25%, UK 19%

what are those percentages, mate?

 

[OnlyBlueWillDo]

what are those percentages, mate?

The levels of corporation tax in those countries, and the Tories wanted to reduce it further to 17%.

 

[Minimeister]

Refreshing watching the debate tonight. Young people in the audience, asking sensible questions and not jeering or cheering the answers. No tory gammons wanting to press the button and nuke Scotland.

 

[PITA]

Another perspective is a cutting of corporate tax encourages market growth. Tho' I'm also sceptical when we see the obsene wages/bonuses corporate chiefs get.

But there is a reason why folk keep voting the Tories back in. And it's not because they support fat cats buying more yachts.

Possibly because 90% of the English media prop up the Tories. You should understand the power of propaganda better than most of us.

 

[dholliday]

The levels of corporation tax in those countries, and the Tories wanted to reduce it further to 17%.

I've lived in Germany since 2005, and have been running business since 2009. There's a very complex tax system (I do my own taxes) which isn't directly comparable with UK, however corporation tax can broadly be compared with Körperschaftsteuer, of which the percentage is 15% (plus 5.5% on that 15% amount solidarity-tax). This is for larger businesses (corporations). I only have a small modest thing going, so I pay a business-tax called Gewerbesteuer, but only if I hit a certain amount of profit (which I rarely do). However corporations also have to pay this Gewerbesteuer, and if they post mighty profits, this could run the total tax-due percentage (including the Körperschaftsteuer) to around 30% maximum.


Gewerbesteuer could be translated as commercial tax, or trade tax. Or simply business tax. is there such a thing? I'm not familiar with the UK tax system...

 

[dholliday]

Possibly because 90% of the English media prop up the Tories. You should understand the power of propaganda better than most of us.

I do understand it very well. Hence my particular contributions in this thread.