The Politics Thread 2020

[Angry Ram]

15 hours ago, jono said:

Steve Hedley cements his political credentials as a top union leader and let’s us all know what he really thinks. 
 

This is why I am so disgusted by the extreme left and am too often out of character on this topic. 

And he stands by every word... I bet he is very proud of himself but this is symptomatic of the far left nowadays.. Disgusting human.

[ariotofmyown]

17 minutes ago, Angry Ram said:

And he stands by every word... I bet he is very proud of himself but this is symptomatic of the far left nowadays.. Disgusting human.

Just read about it. What a (p)rick.

Now I expect we'll get the usual free speech fundamentalists on here defending his right to say it.

[Archied]

52 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

Just read about it. What a (p)rick.

Now I expect we'll get the usual free speech fundamentalists on here defending his right to say it.

Very very much defend his right to say it , that’s how we identify What people are really about take that right away and we stop the brainless twxts identifying themselves

[Sith Happens]

Some people are just not very nice people....

https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/leeds-councillor-julie-heselwood-claims-18069869

[jono]

1 hour ago, ariotofmyown said:

Just read about it. What a (p)rick.

Now I expect we'll get the usual free speech fundamentalists on here defending his right to say it.

I am of the opinion that he should be allowed to say it. It makes him look exactly like the unpleasant oaf he is. Reveals his true colours. When in the future, those who spout like him on other issues it will be all the easier to know what they really are, their real agenda. Something they mask in their politics. In a sense he’s outed himself. 

[GboroRam]

Still sure the NHS is safe with the tories? 

[Phoenix]

11 hours ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

Yes, definitions of "final salary" vary widely as do "pensionable salary". 

Deducting an amount of the type you described was simply a device to reduce cost and not an HMRC requirement. 

What I meant, but put rather badly, was that I thought it was an HMRC requirement that your total pension, from whatever source, should not exceed your final salary. Probably just a myth out about by our rather autocratic boss at the time.

Pensions is fun, isn't it? ?

[A Ram for All Seasons]

2 hours ago, GboroRam said:

Still sure the NHS is safe with the tories? 

Quote

The actual control and commissioning of budgets should be delegated down to the lowest level possible - most likely to the patient themselves and the professional they trust most, the doctor.

In other words, your budget is limited, you decide what your're going to spend it on, and if you decide to spend it on expensive care for coronavirus then you pay or get private insurance for the extra on top of the budget or it's tough poo.

[Van der MoodHoover]

1 hour ago, Phoenix said:

What I meant, but put rather badly, was that I thought it was an HMRC requirement that your total pension, from whatever source, should not exceed your final salary. Probably just a myth out about by our rather autocratic boss at the time.

Pensions is fun, isn't it? ?

I think that's an urban myth mate, although the intricacies of all of the rules is a complete minefield.

You'll pay tax on any pensions you receive as though they were earnings but I'm not aware of any imposed maxima.

 

[i-Ram]

2 hours ago, GboroRam said:

Still sure the NHS is safe with the tories? 

I note that the sentence before the blue highlighting says: The easiest reforms to implement would be on the supply side of the NHS and would be an extension of recent Governments’s work.  Who was in power 1997 to 2010? I know the you argument is that they weren’t proper Labour, but you were no doubt happily voting for the reforms they were implementing. 

[FindernRam]

38 minutes ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

I think that's an urban myth mate, although the intricacies of all of the rules is a complete minefield.

You'll pay tax on any pensions you receive as though they were earnings but I'm not aware of any imposed maxima.

 

I seem to recall there was a hard  limit of 2/3. As contributions were tax free to the employee and deductible for the employer a limit was imposed to stop "abuse". When you reached 2/3 additional contributions got you nothing extra so top up contributions were a waste of money..

My ex company offered me 1/60ths, back in the 70's, the company put in £2 for my £1, which seemed a good deal. When the Unions negotiated pretty low annual increases this 2 for one was used as the excuse. Of course in those days people were less likely to move companies, and if you did boy did your pension suffer.

Many moons later 60ths became 80ths but fortunately not retrospectively so my personal hit was quite low, but irritating al the same.

 

[GboroRam]

1 hour ago, i-Ram said:

I note that the sentence before the blue highlighting says: The easiest reforms to implement would be on the supply side of the NHS and would be an extension of recent Governments’s work.  Who was in power 1997 to 2010? I know the you argument is that they weren’t proper Labour, but you were no doubt happily voting for the reforms they were implementing. 

It's great we got a Labour opposition that was making saving the NHS a fundamental. But we heard on here that there is no way the tories will try to privatise it. Yet here they are, literally writing the book on it. 

I bet the tories are pretty sad. All this coronavirus, all this opportunity to make money lost. 

I'm proud I voted Labour. If you voted tory, read that paragraph and tell me you are equally proud. 

[maxjam]

16 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

It's great we got a Labour opposition that was making saving the NHS a fundamental. But we heard on here that there is no way the tories will try to privatise it. Yet here they are, literally writing the book on it. 

I bet the tories are pretty sad. All this coronavirus, all this opportunity to make money lost. 

I'm proud I voted Labour. If you voted tory, read that paragraph and tell me you are equally proud. 

Writing a book on it nealy 10 years ago...

Meanwhile in the present day;

https://news.sky.com/story/boris-johnson-to-enshrine-34bn-nhs-spending-pledge-into-law-11887014

Nice to see we've turned the corner in the pandemic finally and we can now start turning on who to blame.

[ariotofmyown]

5 hours ago, Archied said:

Very very much defend his right to say it , that’s how we identify What people are really about take that right away and we stop the brainless twxts identifying themselves

Fair enough. Whilst his comment was crass and heartless, he is not inciting hatred or spreading falsehoods.

[1967Ram]

6 hours ago, Angry Ram said:

And he stands by every word... I bet he is very proud of himself but this is symptomatic of the far left nowadays.. Disgusting human.

He's totally out of order. IMO it's symptomatic of stupidity and intolerance which is shown by the extremes of the left and the right. 

[AndyinLiverpool]

Nice to see the holier-than-thou types out with the cheap shots again, a mere days after blubbing about name-calling (again)

[i-Ram]

1 hour ago, GboroRam said:

It's great we got a Labour opposition that was making saving the NHS a fundamental. But we heard on here that there is no way the tories will try to privatise it. Yet here they are, literally writing the book on it. 

I bet the tories are pretty sad. All this coronavirus, all this opportunity to make money lost. 

I'm proud I voted Labour. If you voted tory, read that paragraph and tell me you are equally proud. 

I am sorry, but I am struggling to take this reply seriously.

A few Tories write a book 9 years ago, and you use that as evidence of Tories wishing to privatise the NHS. 9 years on, has it been privatised? In fact, 9 years on have the Tories implemented a policy anything as fundamentally flawed as the round of PFI funding the Blair/Brown administration oversaw? 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwii8-yF2-DoAhVgSBUIHZumBC8QFjAAegQIAhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2019%2Fsep%2F12%2Fnhs-hospital-trusts-to-pay-out-further-55bn-under-pfi-scheme&usg=AOvVaw1wsM3rYBHRjz9m6m8hpoGg

I am a middle ground guy when it comes to politics. My favourite comedian is Stewart Lee, and he often says “we play the cards we are dealt”.  In 1997 and 2002 I voted Labour, but since 2007 I have voted Tory. I couldn’t vote Labour in 2007 as it was already clear they were screwing-up the economy, and obviously Blair (and many in his administration) were effectively war criminals. In 2010, I had “no more boom and bust” Brown as my option.  Then the Labour party offered me Ed Milliband as my Leader option. He didn’t seem to me to be the best option in his family, let alone in the shadow cabinet. And then I am offered Corbyn, who perhaps was the most ineffective opposition leader in a good few generations. He offered nothing but Marxist dogma, and even in his political dying days his input into the Coronavirus debate was limited to suggesting that he was right all along that there was money available for a huge stimulus. Hopefully Starmer will prove a very effective opposition leader, and hopefully come 2024 I might have a decent choice again as who to vote for. Obviously we already know who you will vote for. If Labour put forward a Donkey wearing a red rosette that would get the ✔️ in the ballot box.

Am I proud of that paragraph in the 2011 book? Nah, but never been keen on books written by Tories. I got through one chapter of Jeffery Archer once and decided one chapter was quite enough.

[Van der MoodHoover]

1 hour ago, maxjam said:

Writing a book on it nealy 10 years ago...

Meanwhile in the present day;

https://news.sky.com/story/boris-johnson-to-enshrine-34bn-nhs-spending-pledge-into-law-11887014

Nice to see we've turned the corner in the pandemic finally and we can now start turning on who to blame.

Present day? That article's 4 months old......seems like a lifetime ago! ?

Did they achieve that, or has it now all been spent coping with Covid-19?

[maxjam]

32 minutes ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

Present day? That article's 4 months old......seems like a lifetime ago! ?

Did they achieve that, or has it now all been spent coping with Covid-19?

Lol yeah, if all we still had to worry about was Brexit...

Pretty sure it was passed, I seem to recall the Guardian giving grudging approval at the time.  As for whether or not its already been spent coping with Covid-19, I think we've spent that and everything else that we, our children and our children's children will ever earn ?

[Gritstone Ram]

1 hour ago, i-Ram said:

I am sorry, but I am struggling to take this reply seriously.

A few Tories write a book 9 years ago, and you use that as evidence of Tories wishing to privatise the NHS. 9 years on, has it been privatised? In fact, 9 years on have the Tories implemented a policy anything as fundamentally flawed as the round of PFI funding the Blair/Brown administration oversaw? 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwii8-yF2-DoAhVgSBUIHZumBC8QFjAAegQIAhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2019%2Fsep%2F12%2Fnhs-hospital-trusts-to-pay-out-further-55bn-under-pfi-scheme&usg=AOvVaw1wsM3rYBHRjz9m6m8hpoGg

I am a middle ground guy when it comes to politics. My favourite comedian is Stewart Lee, and he often says “we play the cards we are dealt”.  In 1997 and 2002 I voted Labour, but since 2007 I have voted Tory. I couldn’t vote Labour in 2007 as it was already clear they were screwing-up the economy, and obviously Blair (and many in his administration) were effectively war criminals. In 2010, I had “no more boom and bust” Brown as my option.  Then the Labour party offered me Ed Milliband as my Leader option. He didn’t seem to me to be the best option in his family, let alone in the shadow cabinet. And then I am offered Corbyn, who perhaps was the most ineffective opposition leader in a good few generations. He offered nothing but Marxist dogma, and even in his political dying days his input into the Coronavirus debate was limited to suggesting that he was right all along that there was money available for a huge stimulus. Hopefully Starmer will prove a very effective opposition leader, and hopefully come 2024 I might have a decent choice again as who to vote for. Obviously we already know who you will vote for. If Labour put forward a Donkey wearing a red rosette that would get the ✔️ in the ballot box.

Am I proud of that paragraph in the 2011 book? Nah, but never been keen on books written by Tories. I got through one chapter of Jeffery Archer once and decided one chapter was quite enough.