'We are all in it together.....'

Nop they see it as their money and the state having no right to take it from them - forgetting that it is the ordinary folk who police their streets, nurse the sick, help the government forge policy, protect their homes from flooding, etc. etc. and when these folk are sick or elderly or become unemployed for one reason or another need a safety net. You will find little compassion, or empathy amongst those who have it all.

And our dear chancellor is talking about taking housing benefit from younger vulnerable people. (who may well be working.) How dare he assume they have parents who are able to house them. But he might save a million or two there.
And demonising the feckless poor that who have too many children. A pretty rare breed these days, people having a large brood. Still he could save a few thousand by limiting their benefits. Never mind about the kids.
But where George are you going to find cuts of billions of welfare payments? Not by these examples.
And just to make matters worse, they are talking about merging the tax credit and benefit systems. This is a huge and difficult project. Some of us will have families who have suffered with the child tax credit system which struggled to cope with incomes that changed from month to month.

CEO's don't have pay or salaries. They have a compensation package with bonuses and tax cuts and all sorts of other goodies because it is so hard to be a CEO compared with being a midwife, a cleaner, a teacher, a call centre operative, etc. etc. who just gets paid (flat rate) for what they do.

One of the annoying things is that they give "business" and "management" a bad name. When it is only a few big companies in the financial sector and a very small group of other Uk companies where the senior execs get paid like this. To talk to some people in the private sector, you'd think everyone who worked in the private sector was raking it in.

I am sorry that there is not more interest in politics amongst our members. I feel very angry about the way the welfare state is being dismantled, even though it has no direct effect on myself. Theresa May said the Conservatives were seen as the nasty party. How right she was.
Cutting employees rights, slashing benefits, being in cahoots with big business (look at the register of members' interests) - I am waiting for the suggestion that workhouses be reintroduced.

Quite, Greatnan. That is why I am severing my connections with what is now neither a Liberal nor Social Democrat Party. What I heard of Osborne's speech yesterday made my blood run cold.

Greatnan Don't give them ideas. It's not just the welfare state, but the NHS and education system (up to and including tertiary education) that are being not just dismantled but irretrievably wrecked.

What absolutely puzzles me is why there is not more active protest at what is happening to the NHS. It seems to me that if the Drs. are worried, and they are not known for their radical tendencies than shouldn't we all be very concerned indeed? We need more examples of what is happening in the USA to be able to decide what it is we want from a health service, and to show what may happen to the poor in our "we are all in this together" society. The really worrying thing is that it may well not stop at the poorest, and that many on an average income will be adversely affected.

And the more people get fed up with state health and education, the more they will turn to profit-making organisations to provide them.
Some things are so basic to a reasonable life, that the profit motive should never have been allowed to creep in - I include health, education, prisons, children's homes, care homes, water, transport and fuel. It would not be so bad if the businesses had delivered fair and efficient services. When the big 'outsourcing' started, it is true that many local authority services were very inefficient, but surely the answer was to improve them, rather than just give up and hand over to the contractor offering the lowest tender, usually because they were employing poorly qualified and paid staff and cutting corners.
I could have a postal vote in British elections for another few years, but I feel totally disenfranchised and disillusioned - but I remember my dad, a lifelong socialist, saying that not voting was just handing control to the enemy. But how could I choose ? The Greens? Or an Independent candidate, if I could find one?

I too feel totally disenfranchised and it is a great relief to me that I shall be living in another country by the time of the next general election in the UK.

It would be interesting to read what each of you would do to get the country back on track. I think we can all talk about what should not be cut but what we need is good ideas about what can be cut. If we took the whole salaries of the people at the top it would only be a drop in the ocean.

I think we would all agree that we do need most of the people who run large companies and entrepreneurs and they do need to be paid well, but more importantly fairly, perhaps by some multiplier of the average salary within their company? This might then dispel the myth that they and the bankers are responsible for all the country's ills.

I do agree that the tax loopholes should be closed but for everyone, not just the rich. I include self-employed temps who work long term in the same company but are paid into their private companies to reduce their tax and the civil servants who also work this system.

Whitewave - I agree with most of your post, but I am very concerned about what happens to the poorest, as they are the least able to fight for themselves. The mark of a civilised society is how it cares for the most vulnerable. It would be a sad day if we only showed concern when our own welfare was threatened. There is nothing that the UK government can do to affect my life, other than freeze my pension, but I still care desperately about what this ghastly government is doing.

Greatnan - an interesting list. As I am having a very slow start to my day I will take you up on "water, transport and fuel". While i drink the cup of tea that was supposed to be a cup of coffee to wake me up...
If you include them, you are advocating an almost communist state.
I don't believe if these were in state ownership that the state could afford to invest and run them well enough - at the same time as funding the other list.
I know from first hand experience that before water was privatised it was run very badly and that successive governments had failed dismally to invest in it. Result was a load of victorian pipes etc that were not able to deliver service up to EU standards of drinking water quality, continuity of supply, river quality and bathing waters. So much as I hate to admit it, that particular privatisation was a roaring success. (didn't happen in N Ireland and they are still in a mess. It may be a cheap mess but tell that to the people that were stuck with no water for days over the xmas break in 2010)
As far as transport and fuel are concerned there are pros and cons - but we certainly can't afford to nationalise them all! Or any of them.
Horses have not only bolted but have disappeared over the horizon.

Jess, I agree that the water industry was woeful in public ownership, but I am not sure how much it has improved. Big profits are made by most water companies, but they are still failing to stop leaks. (And, of course, the French are doing very well out of privatisation of both water and electricity).
Do I sound almost communistic - well, that is a fair comment. I think much was good and right about the communist ideal, but it has not worked so far because it failed to allow for human nature.
The break-up of the rail system was farcical - the managers made a killing and then the operators literally made a killing and were able to pass the buck for train crashes. Stagecoach forced many small coach companies out of business and now runs routes which are profitable. My sister has to rely on a little bus that stops running at 5 pm. making it impossible for her to attend any evening functions unless she can afford a taxi.

Perhaps potential MPs and Ministers should have an interview before being 'offered' for election. The interview panel would consist of real people ie people from all walks of life. These people would have to be articulate and have some knowledge of running something successfully such as a charity, a transport company, etc. Today's politicians seem to come from a privileged background and havent held a proper job in their lives, yet tell us how to run ours.

I campaign on many, many political issues.
Our MP is a Conservative millionaire. There is a local issue which is currently generating a great deal of heat amongst the populace and our MP is conspicuously absent as the issue is centred on a conflict between business development and concern for a local beauty spot which is to be built on. A letter in the local paper was penned by someone who was furious at the MP's lack of interest, his cronyism (with the developers), his disregard for local opinion etc. etc.........but then went on to say that s/he was particularly angry because notwithstanding all of that s/he would still vote for him at the next election because he was a Conservative. I despair!!!

I never thought I would give up on Labour - but Blair took care of that. I was very attracted to the LibDems and the various middle-way parties that preceded them, but now it has been proved that they just promised anything to get into power I have lost trust in them.
Do we have any Conservative voters here who are not dismayed by their present policies?

greatnan sorry for delay in reply been out with ancient mother (in the rain) - yes I expressed my self badly (as usual) I absolutely agree that the most vunerable should be cared for but what I was trying to say was that if the average bod is effected by the changes to the NHS than the poor stand not a cat in hells chance.

Point taken, whitewave.

I am horrified by this suggestion that workers should sacrifice hard-won rights for shares in the company for which they work. Talk about selling your birthright for a mess of pottage – mess undoubtedly being the operative word in this sentence. To make it worse, the suggestion is that those currently employed have a choice, but new employees would have to sign away the rights by compulsion or, presumably, not be employed. (Would that have a knock-on effect about their benefits' entitlement?) I am so beside myself with anger that I am typing in chords. Back later.

What is the excuse Osborne gave for introducing this bit of nonsense?

Leaks vastly reduced Greatnan. They can never be eliminated. But many thousands of miles (possibly millions) of miles of new mains have been laid replacing horrible old corroded leaky cast iron mains.
I agree rail privatisation was a mess. But some of the publicly owned industries were a mess as well.

If ever there was a time for the unions to come together, it is now. The workers are under threat more than at any time since the 1930's and they seem to be asleep. I am reminded of the story ' they came for the Jews, but I am not a Jew, so I said nothing..... etc.'
There is nothing like a period of unemployment to keep the workers in their place.

Watched a tiny bit of the news last night, and was amused [if that's the right word] to hear Boris praising 'Just call me Dave' whilst plotting to overthrow him. Shades of Julius Caesar I thought.