Current Affairs The next Tory (strong and stable) leader is Boris Johnson

[Xizor]

How would you like to spend your hard earned money? Would you like to decide for yourself? Or have the government take it off you and decide on your behalf?

Typical selfish Tory twaddle. Of course, given the choice, people aren't going to walk around commissioning repairs to roads. Or stuffing £20 into the pocket of a hospital porter so that working their shift lets them buy food. But most people agree that infrastucture spending, or spending on healthcare, or any number of other public services, is in general a good thing that leads to improved living conditions for all.

So what if there was some sort of scheme to organise this spending for the public's benefit that took the nitty-gritty decisions on how it was achieved away from individuals, so that excess money wasn't dumped in one place, leaving others underfunded? We could all pay into a public pool of money, each person according to how much they can spare. And then we could have some sort of vote to determine who works out how that money is divided up. If they're crap at it we can go again after a fixed period, say 5 years?

Does that sound like something that could work? It avoids me having to decide how much of my hard earned money to slip to the local copper this month so he keeps an eye on my house. I don't have to predict whether I'll get sick to know whether to pay my subs to my GP. And if someone invades the country it means we won't have to have a quick national whip-round to get some new camo gear for the troops.

 

[Aberblue]

Give me an example of a country where poverty has been completely eradicated.

The point is, though, that the use of food banks has increased dramatically in the last ten years, during which time the Conservatives have been in power.

 

[peteblue]

Ask the people dependent on the 2,000 food banks currently operating in the country with the sixth best GDP in the world.

5th...

 

[peteblue]

The point is, though, that the use of food banks has increased dramatically in the last ten years, during which time the Conservatives have been in power.

So what does that tell you. Have benefits been cut ? Have jobs been lost ? ... If Starmer came into power tomorrow would they suddenly disappear ?...Food banks have become a cottage industry in their own right, with good folk, Labour and Tory, contributing to them. This is more social than political.....

 

[Aberblue]

So what does that tell you. Have benefits been cut ? Have jobs been lost ? ... If Starmer came into power tomorrow would they suddenly disappear ?...Food banks have become a cottage industry in their own right, with good folk, Labour and Tory, contributing to them. This is more social than political.....

It tells me that the Conservatives' policies have failed a large section of the population.

 

[peteblue]

It tells me that the Conservatives' policies have failed a large section of the population.

It tells you what you want to believe, even your own chart a page back shows that Food Banks were introduced under a Labour government, what does that tell you.....

 

[Aberblue]

It tells you what you want to believe, even your own chart a page back shows that Food Banks were introduced under a Labour government, what does that tell you.....

I don't have a chart. I'm no Labour voter either.

 

[peteblue]

I don't have a chart. I'm no Labour voter either.

Ok, which policies....

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

How would you like to spend your hard earned money? Would you like to decide for yourself? Or have the government take it off you and decide on your behalf?

What like furlogh! Personally im happy, even with friends and family members being on furlough and myself working full time and still earning less than my furlough comarades.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

It tells you what you want to believe, even your own chart a page back shows that Food Banks were introduced under a Labour government, what does that tell you.....

Are you parroting Reece-Mogg here? lol Just for some context, food bank usage has risen exponentially since 2010. (Yes food banks did exist before this latest government ) The growing need for families requiring food parcels can be correlated directly with the massive benefit cuts experienced by the poorest and most vulnerable people. (Which by the way, despite the austerity is over mantra, are still in place)
No doubt you will say that these cuts were necessary. For me they were an all out assault on the poor and vulnerable.
Never met a Tory working in a food bank btw

 

[peteblue]

Are you parroting Reece-Mogg here? lol Just for some context, food bank usage has risen exponentially since 2010. (Yes food banks did exist before this latest government ) The growing need for families requiring food parcels can be correlated directly with the massive benefit cuts experienced by the poorest and most vulnerable people. (Which by the way, despite the austerity is over mantra, are still in place)
No doubt you will say that these cuts were necessary. For me they were an all out assault on the poor and vulnerable.
Never met a Tory working in a food bank btw

What specific benefit cuts have caused this...

 

[JimmyJeffers]

What specific benefit cuts have caused this..

Erm ok... well we had the benefit cap introduced in 2013 for starters. Tens of thousands of people had disability benefits removed with the transition from DLA to PIP. The PIP application and appeals process can be a particularly gruelling experience and is
We had Universal Credit rolled out which is basically unfit for purpose. As a claimant has to wait a month for the first payment, they are offered a loan which is subsequently deducted from their ongoing payments. Meaning that they are living off less than the calculated base-line amount.
I could go on here for quite a while longer into fairly technical detail but it’s not going to make much difference is it. You believe what you want. I have seen first hand what has happened

 

[Blues Harp]

Erm ok... well we had the benefit cap introduced in 2013 for starters. Tens of thousands of people had disability benefits removed with the transition from DLA to PIP. The PIP application and appeals process can be a particularly gruelling experience and is
We had Universal Credit rolled out which is basically unfit for purpose. As a claimant has to wait a month for the first payment, they are offered a loan which is subsequently deducted from their ongoing payments. Meaning that they are living off less than the calculated base-line amount.
I could go on here for quite a while longer into fairly technical detail but it’s not going to make much difference is it. You believe what you want. I have seen first hand what has happened

Abolition of crisis loans, and community care grants, benefits not uprated and frozen, pip decisions made on evidence fom "health professionals" a lot of whom were not necessarily doctors, consultants, or even GPS.
I had to deal with a lot of misery and hardship caused by the tory policies first hand so I actually know what I am talking about.
Cuts in dwp staff, introduction of harsh benefit sanctions, refusal of Duncan Smith to properly fund a decent computer system for the introduction of Universal credit.
There's quite a bit more as well.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

Abolition of crisis loans, and community care grants, benefits not uprated and frozen, pip decisions made on evidence fom "health professionals" a lot of whom were not necessarily doctors, consultants, or even GPS.
I had to deal with a lot of misery and hardship caused by the tory policies first hand so I actually know what I am talking about.
Cuts in dwp staff, introduction of harsh benefit sanctions, refusal of Duncan Smith to properly fund a decent computer system for the introduction of Universal credit.
There's quite a bit more as well.

Forgot about the bedroom tax also

 

[peteblue]

Erm ok... well we had the benefit cap introduced in 2013 for starters. Tens of thousands of people had disability benefits removed with the transition from DLA to PIP. The PIP application and appeals process can be a particularly gruelling experience and is
We had Universal Credit rolled out which is basically unfit for purpose. As a claimant has to wait a month for the first payment, they are offered a loan which is subsequently deducted from their ongoing payments. Meaning that they are living off less than the calculated base-line amount.
I could go on here for quite a while longer into fairly technical detail but it’s not going to make much difference is it. You believe what you want. I have seen first hand what has happened

I looked at the full list of benefit changes earlier and the costs associated with each of them, some of the big costing ones had been aimed at high tax earners and mortgage holders etc, which have no effect on food bank requirement. However many of the others were actually what I would regard as low cost (several hundred millions) and I agree that some are just penny pinching. However, if you really wanted to replace Food banks, which tend to be locally managed and assisted with some central expenditure, what would it be. It’s pointless saying undo all the cuts because quite frankly some should have been cut. But what would you put in place to achieve what you want.....