Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
note the point that we are the 7th richest country and yet the numbers resorting to food banks continues to rise.
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
Every person knows that this is not about reducing this nations debt or helping with its recovery, especially the people who are forcing this abhorrent cut upon our sick and vulnerable.
So who is going to stand up and tell us the real reason that this is being imposed upon us?
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
No, this is about more stringent rules and limits to our benefit system that makes it pay to work for those who are able to at least do some work.
Quite right too.
Brian - you really should read a more intelligent newspaper rather than that comic.
Howard what you say about '7th richest' is irrelevant when the economy was screwed up over 13 terrible years over which the deficit was increased over the period it should have been eliminated.
No Gary - the debt cannot be reduced until the deficit is balanced and there have not been enough real cuts to do that quick enough.
To get the economy 'fit for purpose' with a GDP of sufficient size to sustain the levels of public spending some of you want means a lot of difficult choices and in many ways going back before we can move forward.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
I fancy that we can all readily agree upon the making of difficult choices.
We seem to differ mainly upon the choice between 'whipping-boy' or 'actual culprit'.
Being in possession of an 'extra' room is an artificial crime, punishable by an actual fine of about £14 per week.
What is yet lacking is the option of having a choice at a General Election.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
No choice?
Of course there is.
RedEd's rebranded back to the 70's 'socialist' Labour that will drive us even deeper into the mire of tax and spend.
A Conservative Party that at least understands the economic issues involved even though they have not been bold enough in correcting those issues.
Or LibDem and another coalition that will again keep any recovery slow and fail to deal with fundamental problems.
Yes - there is choice, perhaps not the choice of an even worse left Communist Government to meet your desires Tom, but a choice nevertheless.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Yes, no choice.
I know of no deeper excavation into the circumstances of our present economic hardships than that which uncovered the headlong rush into the fantasy-land of ever-increasing fortunes, spurred-on by the greed of the innumerate and supported by a self-aggrandising Parliament.
Not one actor in this farce has been brought to book, this side of the Atlantic anyway.
And none of the Partys presently in the running to form the next administration seems willing, or perhaps able, to do other than propose that we re-run the exact same game-plan.
And, of course, were we to hanker after the 'Thatcherite' Conservative 70s we'd best first 'discover' VAST amounts of oil and gas we can exploit again?
In any case Barry, as you admit, there is not one Political Party that holds your views, so we two are pretty much in the 'same' boat.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,706
2.49m unemployed per the official stats and how many official vacancies?
There are not enough jobs to go round even if people are fit and capable of work - so it would appear the poorest and most disadvantaged are being penalised for the failings of capitalism...
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Strange Ross - an awful lot of immigrants get jobs...
Anyway - I note the care with which you posted. Lets have the rest of the employment news shall we and get the bigger picture from the Office of National Statistics just published....
Figures compared to last quarter incidentally - not annual.
Those in work has increased by 15,500 (to 71.7%)
Unemployment down 0.1% to 7.7% - that is 18,000 fewer
Economic inactivity rate down by 83,000
Youth unemployment down by 7,000 (when those in full time education are rightly stripped out, about level if not)
Long term unemployed down by 15,000.
All in 3 months.
If the government had been more bold with deeper faster public spending cuts, tax cuts and supply-side reform we would be seeing even better figures.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
barry,the article was carried in most of the papers including the one you read.so the question is yours a comic to.
toad fuel to fire,is those figures you quote are they right or is there something else you want to tell us.we all know that the government has 2 sets.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
You seem incapable of wholeheartedly accepting the figures you employ Barry. How else can your tortuous use of English be explained away?
"Those in work has..."?
'Romans go back the house!' [As John Cleese's centurion wouldn't have it.]
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
BarryW.
"No, this is about more stringent rules and limits to our benefit system that makes it pay to work for those who are able to at least do some work".
How will cutting housing benefit for disabled people, having an alleged spare bedroom, get people back into work?
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
It is in the overall package of reform GaryC.
Tom - nothing actually to say about the figures then. You must be so disappointed.
Ross Miller- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,706
I agree Barry that those are indeed the full figures supplied by the ONS, however it still does not detract from the fact that 2.49m people are officially unemployed (i.e. claiming JSA)
Immigration is tiny by comparison:
From the governments own published stats for the same period
There was a 2% fall for work visas issued to 144,554, accounted for by lower numbers for (Tier 1) high value individuals following the closure of the Tier 1 General and Tier 1 Post Study categories to new applicants, partially offset by an increase for skilled workers (Tier 2). However, work visas issued were slightly (2%) higher than in the year ending March 2013 (141,772), due to increases for skilled workers and for youth mobility and temporary workers.
By contrast there was a 9% increase in work-related extensions to 145,855, largely explained by higher numbers of grants for skilled workers (Tier 2), offset partly by lower numbers in the high value workers' route (Tier 1).
This is approx 10% of the numbers unemployed
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
This is getting silly now. It is not a bedroom tax. Tax is monies paid on monies earned or profits made. This is not a drill. It is not a bedroom tax.
As for unemployment there is not one single country in the world who does not have a proportion of their population unemployed. Not one.
Other well known facts are that Labour bang on about freezing energy bills. This is pure madness. Actually no it's the only response they have to the extremely serious damage they have done to not only our energy sector but our economic outlook over the next few decades which is very bleak. It was labour who passed the climate change act, egged on aggressively by both other parties which is the sole reason (besides the wholesale rise in gas and oil) for the massive rise in energy bills.
Another fact - this will get far worse as more green taxes and subsidies kick in over the next fifteen years.
All self inflicted and all pointless.
As far as the mansion tax is concerned (remember it's not a tax) feel sorry for those who are cramped into small flats and houses who are unable to move because of those smaller households rattling about in large flats and houses.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#13
Those in work has increased by 15,500 (to 71.7%)
Unemployment down 0.1% to 7.7% - that is 18,000 fewer
Economic inactivity rate down by 83,000
Youth unemployment down by 7,000 (when those in full time education are rightly stripped out, about level if not)
Long term unemployed down by 15,000.
What does any of this mean, when a job can be 0-hours and an increasing proportion of them are short-term contracts;what is this 'in work' other than a statistic?
Turn-over too is an increasing aspect of employment:when the numbers go down, they are left 'stark', when the numbers go up, all of a sudden we hear, over and over, that life is ever 'cyclical'.
Economic Inactivity Rate, this has an eerie ring to it. Has somebody somewhere found a pound, but no-one has lost one?
Youth unemployment will tend to go down as 'youth' turns to 'adulthood', but these will not become long-term unemployed straight away. Is there anything other than the ageing process at work here?
And likewise with this statistic. What proportion of the population is turning 65 over any three-month period?
Who among those that are cheered by these be-numbers has the least interest in the balancing of the books? This fixation with accounting for the up-side only is a large part of what has brought us to where we are today, but while there are poor people to blame (and they are forever with us?) such irrationality is pushed as rationality. More Toon-Town economics.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Ross Miller- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,706
So if as Philip P says a tax is "monies paid on monies earned or profits made" what then is "Value Added Tax" or "Council Tax" as people who have not earned money have to pay these too....
No one has suggested that there should be full employment or have I misread the posts on here?
Of course there needs to be a sensible method to ensure we make the best use of social housing stock, but penalising people is draconian and not the best solution - incentives always work better than punishments.
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the way i have been reading the situation is that smaller properties are not generally available for people to downsize too but they still get punished.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Indeed Howard, that is the one aspect of this that makes it a Tax rather than something else. You pay irrespective of your willingness to act as encouraged.
Imagine stopping your car in traffic on the High Street only to be told that you have to pay a parking fine. After all, you may be told, you did come to a halt and you were not that far away from the kerb.
There's money to be made in that game.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.