Stive Pesley

It won't take much to pay back the money allocated to track and trace. The government will be able recouped some of the money spent on track and trace, through the taxes paid by all the staff used to administer this wonderful scheme.
I'm sure millions of pounds wouldn't have ended up in offshore accounts via the pockets of the tory donors, who were given the job of setting up the system. Would it !?

Do show me the posts where people in favour of lockdown said there'd be no tax hikes to pay for Covid related issues.
Having said that according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies we did spend more on the military than any other country in the world other than the US, China and India in 2020 - even more than Russia.
So maybe we could move some of that into a Covid budget and top it up with a Covid tax on the super-wealthy and corporations who are directly profiting from it like Amazon.
Amazon usually hit their affiliates when this kind of things happen so they'll be ok and Jeff will remain able to feed himself.
I actually like the idea of a Covid tax because everybody will understand why it's needed.
And also, the tax rises aren't just because of the lockdown, I hear track and trace cost a few bob too.

Do you consider all people claiming benefits, has layabouts and scroungers or just a postion of those on benefits.
If its the latter then the money saved would be no way near the amount that could to raised by making companies like Amazon and Google pay the correct amount of tax warrented by their profits

So wise.
Let's see if all those people who were pro-lockdown come on and start moaning about tax rises then?
You are aware that this tax increase is supposedly to address the funding issue with social care right? Of which almost no plans have been mentioned, let alone scrutinised. Even though our leaders have been planning this for years.
But this money won't be going to social care yet, it will be used to reduce the NHS backlogs that have built up over the last 18 months as the hospitals were full of Covid patients. How much longer do you think these backlogs would have been without lockdowns? Oh, no details of course of how this money will be used. Robot nurses perhaps?
Glad you are happy with this pathetic state of affairs.

Is the 1.25% in addition to the "£350,000,000 a week" we used to give to the EU, (asking for a friend)?

April I believe.
It's sort of on-topic I guess, as the justification for breaking the manifesto promise on no tax/NI rises is that "no one predicted the pandemic"
If only there were another way to sort it though - like, maybe a windfall tax on the already wealthy who have vastly increased their wealth as a direct result of the pandemic.
There has been unimaginable mental, physical and financial suffering caused by this pandemic (and that's just on this thread!) so the fact that some people are laughing all the way to the bank as a result makes me sick
 
 

That slogan should be on a bus!

Give it a rest, we gave them a few rounds of applause last spring. What else do they want?
Anyway, nurses should be able to get a payrise now, paid for by the increase in their NI contributions. It's like a cheat code in a computer game that let's you level up!
 

The future of Social Care all sorted out after one day in Parliament. Impressive stuff.  Why did we waste so much time saying something needed to be done, when it was just so easy to fix?  Praise be for these times, when there is no need for scrutiny, or details or planning. 

Soon to be replaced with 2 new charges... ? 

yeah in the case of the UK it's just been pure incompetence and a lack of useful opposition!

Could someone confirm that this discussion is still about Covid and hasn't morphed into a new politics threaad?

Congartulations - you have taken step 1 on the path to learning not to waste time arguing with @G STAR RAM ?

Congartulations - you have taken step 1 on the path to learning not to waste time arguing with @G STAR RAM ?

Jeez.
Biden never talked the vaccine down.
NEVER.
And if he did talk the vaccine down, which he didn't, and people listened to him, which they didn't because he didn't say it, then you'd have Democrats not getting vaccinated, not the Republican Trump supporters who currently make up the overwhelming majority. 
In 25 years of using message board I'm not sure that I have ever come across anybody so attached to a singular viewpoint and so utterly incapable of accepting facts.
Much of this thread is subjective and just people's opinions, but this isn't.
You're arguing on a topic that you clearly know very little about and I'm confused as to why.
Even though I loosely followed UK politics I rarely got involved in debates on here because I knew I didn't know enough.
I'm not sure you realise when you're out of your depth.
Or you're just a brilliant wind-up merchant. 
One or the other.

I know this is off topic and into the forbidden land, but I still find it hard to square such grand statements about caring so much for our kids' futures - with stuff like you know...voting Tory , voting to leave the EU, shrugging shoulders at climate change etc etc

So that's how you square it. I think you've answered my question ?

I know this is off topic and into the forbidden land, but I still find it hard to square such grand statements about caring so much for our kids' futures - with stuff like you know...voting Tory , voting to leave the EU, shrugging shoulders at climate change etc etc