Zoiks. Energy price cap expected to rise by £830 in the autumn says OFGEM. https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-...to-2-800-in-october-says-ofgem-chief-12620359
Anybody wondering what the point of politicking and bickering over Johnson’s dishonesty is, the answer is about £400 to each of us. Shamed into throwing us a bone to protect ‘Big Dog’ Sunak announces that the previous £200 loan will be doubled and will not be required to be paid back. It won’t be enough for many, but keep the pressure up everyone. You don’t get anything because of some nice guy at the top. You get it by exercising political power. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61584546
It's our money anyway. Partly funded by taxpayers, us, which we will have to pay back eventually, partly funded by a windfall tax on the energy companies, money which would have been spent on infrastructure (which we'll eventually have to fund) or dividends paid into our pensions. The fact that it's a flat rate is silly. As I understand it, I'll get the £400. Single occupancy household on a price fix until 2023, it'll fund my energy for 5 months. Yet a family of 4 or 5 on the price cap will also get it and it'll probably fund a month. Just cut tax on energy whilst the crisis is going on. simple cheap to administer and fair. I'd also suggest returning VAT to 15%. The increased prices mean that the government is raking more in at the moment anyway and wasn't the rise from 17.5 to 20 meant to be for an emergency only? Two simple & cheap to administer ways to help with the cost of living crisis.
Sunak desperate to call the windfall tax anything but a windfall tax, even though it is clearly a windfall tax.
Blimey, the magic money tree has appeared! It really does feel like an economic collapse is just around the corner doesn't it?
The Tories are absolutely awful with the economy. The sheer waste of resources like track and trace or the fraud in procurement and furlough, the awful distribution of resources, with what to show for it? Rampant debt, inflation and taxation. Stunning. There is one thing they are peerless at and that is lining their pockets and those of their friends.
I saw something the other day that said 14% of global wealth has been eliminated since January. 18% of global wealth was eliminated during 2008. Recession ahoy!
Less of it for Labour to tax then. In all seriousness Labour doesn't have a good track record with the economy either. Yes the Tories profit by it, but generally the country as a whole is better off under their management. Granted The Tories are doing badly with it at the moment but there are a few extenuating circumstances currently. Labour have a chance to take over the reigns and do a good job. They just need to ditch the tax out of envy mentality.
What is the evidence for the Country being ‘better off as a whole under (Tory) management’? Monetarism and unemployment? The ERM crisis? Austerity and food banks? The wholesale mismanagement and fraud we see now? It’s been an extraordinary 40 odd years of mismanagement for self-interest while the global economy has soared. And as for ‘tax out of envy’ the tax take is at its highest right now.
The stats and analysis have shown that there is very little difference to the UK's economic prosperity whichever party is in office. Labour tend to be better in times of recession when spending on infrastructure is particularly helpful. Conservatives tend to be better in times of growth when government spending and paying down debt is desirable. https://theconversation.com/amp/lab...economy-than-voters-think-new-research-162368
This is what happens when you shut down the global economy for a year and print loadsamoney to pay for it. Giving away more of tax payers' dosh is only going to make the situation worse I'm afraid. Things are going to get pretty grim, I think. Luckily for Rishi he had the great foresight to marry the daughter of a multi-billionaire, so he should be ok.
Always found it interesting that anyone is surprised when Tories & Labour are both as unequally inept as each other. They live the same lives, went to the same private schools, one wears a blue hat with a certain "history", one wears a red hat with a certain "history", in the end they're all as crooked as each other. Why who they represent has any bearing on their skills has always made me laugh.
It's the ultimate whammy of Brexit and especially Covid hitting supply chains, businesses being shut down and trying to make back some of their losses, coming off the back of horribly low interest rates, which have killed productivity, efficiency and led to too many job vacancies, and the Ukraine Russia crisis making absolutely every part of the supply chain more expensive (as the whole world economy and pretty much every good made is impacted by oil prices). I also have a theory that inflation is massively influenced by Moore's law and the development of semi-conductors which hugely drive down cost of more-efficient technology. The UK govt is powerless to do anything about it at all really, other than support the most vulnerable and invest heavily in cheaper, more efficient and local forms of energy production, conservation and transport. Give it a year or so, and hopefully supply chains will be running more efficiently, OPEC will have agreed to boost the production of oil and the numerous new semiconductor fabrication plants around the world will be up and running, and hopefully this wont be too painful.
Of MPs elected in 2019, more than twice as many Tory MPs went to fee-paying schools as Labour (44% versus 19%). So this is simply not true. Overall, less than 1/3 of the Commons attended fee-paying schools. https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7483/CBP-7483.pdf#page19
Not really sure that's fair when looking at the current cabinet, although appreciate both Boris and Cameron were very posh. Starmer: Son of a toolmaker who went to a grammar school. The school turned into a private school during his time there but his fees were paid by the local council. Went to Leeds Uni to study law, then did a post grad at Oxford. Rayner: State school in Stockport. Left school at 16 with no qualifications after becoming pregnant. Miliband: Son of holocaust surviving immigrants, although they lived in Primrose Hill (not sure what Primrose Hill was like when they bought it). Went to a comprehensive, although if PH was as nice as it is today, then that wouldn't be the same as a comprehensive in the rest of the country. Went to Oxford to study PPE. Reeves: All girls state school in South London (now an academy). Went on to do PPE at Oxford then an Economics Masters at LSE. Streeting: Grew up poor in a council flat in London. Went to a state school, then studied History at Cambridge. Nandy: Manchester comprehensive, before going to Newcastle Uni and doing a post-grad whilst working at Birkbeck. Boris: Very privileged. Eton, Oxford Sunak: Son of GP and pharmacist immigrants. Went to Winchester (expensive private boarding school, although waited tables in the summer) and then went to Oxford to do PPE. Gove: Adopted. Went to state schools and a fee paying college, although later had to apply for and won a scholarship when his family fell on hard times. Then went to Oxford. Javid: Famously son of Pakistani immigrants. Went to a local comprehensive in Bristol, then to a technical college when the comprehensive told him he could only take 2 A levels and his Dad paid for him to take Maths. Then went to Exeter uni. Patel: Daughter of Indian immigrants. Went to Watford Girls and then to Keele Uni. Raab: Son of immigrant parents fleeing Nazi Germany. Grew up in Gerrards Cross and went to Dr Challenors. Went on to study law at Oxford. Overall the number of fee-paying educated MPs in the Conservatives does significantly outweigh the national average, but many are surprised it is less than half.
Saying this, I appreciate that some MPs who mask themselves as going to state/ grammar schools are essentially attending private schools, as their parents are paying for more expensive houses to live in the best catchment areas.
I never quite got my head around the fact that she (or whoever did her press) felt that they had to 'big up' their schooling to 'WAGS' - WAGS actually spent years writing to her office politely asking them to correct this mistake - surely its an excellent example of Tory "...brought herself up by her bootstraps..." to come from a comp to her position.
If you have to apply for it in this digital age, the people most in need will have the most trouble getting it.
Patel did not go to WGGS. She "let that stand uncorrected" in her Wiki entry. She went to Westfield on Tolpits lane.
I’m fairly young but the last Labour leader I remember partook in what was two illegal wars wasn’t it? Hardly a man of morales. I just think they’re mostly all repulsive and out of touch with society due to the lives they themselves live. I know nurses who have to spend £10 a day or parking but MP’s expensive ******* Snickers bars for lunch! Disgusting.
And your issues with: Kier Starmer Lisa Nandy Yvette Cooper Wes Streeting Angela Rayner Chris Bryant are?
Fair enough. Is/ was that a fee paying school? Iraq was illegal and immoral. Kosovo and Sierra Leone were successful humanitarian interventions. Afghanistan was legal and successful in its immediate aims but an absolute car crash in its long term ones.
Tarring everyone with a single brush because Blair lied is a bit too broad of a stroke, I reckon. Take that attitude and you'll never vote for anyone again. There might be plenty of talentless, feckless politicians around, but they're not all like that. A big part of our civic duty is learning to tell the difference and not vote for useless candidates. Unfortunately too many people treat it as a sports event rather than taking a serious look at the candidates for their area.
It is whatever the polar opposite of a fee paying school is. You'd have thought she'd celebrate her achievements in coming from such humble beginnings, but she's an inveterate snob. Even her accent channels Alison Steadman in Abigail's Party.
We’re paying their salaries and they turn around and ass blast us?! Let’s up pull our bootstraps, oil up some asses and do a little ploughing of our own.
POPBITCH really went to town on this a while ago, even quoting the head of WAGS who said that they had contacted her (office) asking her to correct this on numerous. It took about three weeks of digging to get the name of where she actually went (famous alumnus from the place was a, not very famous, dub/grime star). The Patel/WAGS meme is so strong that I was arguing with my oncologist (ex-WAGS) who was adamant that Patel went there - it was only when one of the observing students, who had a paid-for POPBITCH account (full access to the archive), looked it up. The consultant was flabbergasted and said that this knowledge would certainly liven up the 'old-girls' meeting she was going to that weekend...
Kier Starmer - Attended a school that costs £20,000 year. How can he relate to the struggles the population faces? Chris Bryant also privately educated. I don’t know who the others are. Are you telling me you seriously relate to those in power making decisions? My last post meant to say *expense
Kier Starmer was at that school before it became fee paying, and was allowed to continue after it did - his parents certainly couldn't afford the fees. Either you didn't know this - in which case you are welcome - or you did know this and effectively lied by omission. Why would you do that?
