Wish list for Britain

I should like to see a dramatic reduction in the gap between the richest 10% in Britain and the rest. I suppose, first of all, I should like to see this gap cease to grow and then start shrinking. I should like to see chief executives of large companies earning no more than 10 times the median wage of their workers instead of more than 100 times.

And there goes another flying pig…

A couple just flew past my window, absent!

POGS

vampirequeen I think we probably all agree with you and want the same thing. Not sure about Ivanhoe!!!

Thank you vampirequeen for saying it as it is.

Immigrants make good scapegoats, and there is an awful lot of untrue propaganda out there, against them. Of course, some cause bother and use the system, and it is easy for the populist press to find such people and highlight them.

I'm an immigrant myself - to Australia - ( I'm a refugee from Thatcher the year she was elected - 1979) and I looked up the statistics about immigrants 'stealing' jobs. Over here, we create slightly more jobs than we take, and I suspect it is the same in the UK.

I read about the UK in the online papers, and have come to the conclusion that multiculturalism needs to be tempered with some assimilation, and to that end, English language lessons should be easily available to immigrants. It is OK for pre-puberty children: they pick up the local language as if by osmosis!

absent, This is the price we all pay for voting for free market capitalism since the 80's where the top always take a largest slice of the cake, and the ordinary people are means tested.

Its because the top create the wealth, and we are all meant to be grateful to them.

Now, I think we all know your political views whether or not we agree with them, Ivanhoe. Do you have a life?

Thank you for your explaining it all so clearly to my poor little old lady's addled brain Ivanhoe.

anno so you had to become personal! I think ivanhhoe has added to this debate and like us all has his views and maybe sometimes biased. BUT so are you and the others who object to him.

We who get pensions abroad have worked in the UK and paid into the system
When I worked in Stockport 20 years ago, and saw just how little NI contributions were, compared to what Germans pay out of their monthly salaries, it was obvious that the system must break down one day.

We had this argument in Germany about the Turkish population and it was found out that the workers among them had paid more into the system than the Turkish sick or unemployed, were receiving.

No government wants to pay for language classes but from what i have heard the Dutch give a lot of help. Their primary school system is the best in Europe.

I agree with the one who said it is wrong for us to poach medical staff from third world countries, they need them more than we do. I understand that we send people out to recruit them which imo is completely wrong. If however they approach us and want to come and live and work in the UK to improve their own standard of living I would not deny them that as long as their English is good enough to do the job.

i think there is a lot of misunderstanding/prejudice about the very rich. If they gave 100% of their earnings to HMRC it would only be a drop in the ocean of the UK economy.

It is attitudes we need to change. Those of the workers who only do the minuimum. Those of the people who use the services to stand up and refuse to accept sub-standard education, healthcare etc. Those of the people who can't be bothered to vote etc. However, when we get good service we should say so - loudly. When you tell someone you appreciate what they have done it not only makes them happy it also encourages them to continue their good practice. We need both carrot and stick and a lot less complacency.

There is only so much money to go round and throwing it at a particular section of public service is probably not the answer. We should be looking at ways of reducing waste and improving productivity. Why for example do we need televisions in hospital waiting rooms?

MargaretX. In the 80's the Thatcher Government cut income tax and NI contributions for all British workers, thus putting the onus on people to fend for themselves re- the private pension.

Margaret Thatcher also broke the State pensions link with British prosperity and then linked the State pension to inflation, and she brought in free market policies to lower inflation, so our pensioners have suffered a diminished State pension for over 30 years, yet most have spent their working lives funding for such a State pension, and they were lead to believe their taxes and contributions would look after them from cradle to grave.

Coming back to British workers, their contributions and taxes were cut in the 80's, but in my view the British not being politically interested or motivated, have taken this on the chin and enjoyed their tax cuts.

Now the British are paying the price for less NI contributions and taxes for over 30 years.

Mrs T again! It was so long ago that surely it is no longer relevant?

Movedalot , Mrs T's policies remain running this country. Mr's T's legacy is all around us.

David Cameron is finishing off what Mrs T started.

Ivanhoe The Labour party had plenty of time to change anything they didn't like of Mrs T's and so have the Conservatives. Any remaining legacy is down to all politicians since her time and they should take responsibility for it. It is a cop out to blame her.

I agree Moved

Absolutely.

I am put in mind of the AA prayer (I think, and forgive me if I mis-quote it)

Grant me the courage to change the things I can change
The fortitude to bear the things I cannot change
And the wisdom to know the difference.

Movedalot , The Labour party ditched their core values and embraced Thatcherism to suit the middle classes who had ditched Labour and voted Tory.

I don't think the Labour Party embraced Thatcherism. The country they inherited after Maggie was a totally different place. Maggie had privatised our nationalised industries, our mines and heavy industry had collapsed, the NHS and education had been 'reformed' and capitalism was much more ingrained than it had been.

The Labour Party has changed. It's not the revolutionary party it used to be but then the world has changed too. People have different ideas and expectations nowadays and, much as it pains me to say it, Old Labour would be unelectable.

vampirequeen , Tony Blair took Labour to the right in 1997 and embraced Margaret Thatcher's free market ideology.

Following the Thatcher Major 18 years in Government, Labour changed to suit an up and coming middle class vote that ditched Labour prior to the 80's and voted for Thatcher.

I for one, never believed any political party should ditch its core values, most of all to take on board a fickle British middle class electorate.

Values are values, and political parties should stick to their values or we end up with a bunch of political parties all the same, which is what we have now.

phoenix, """Grant me the courage to change the things I can change
The fortitude to bear the things I cannot change
And the wisdom to know the difference""

Or, Grant me the courage to step out of my comfort zone if I ever had one, and suffer the ridicule of others because I'm saying what I believe""

The party didn't ditch it's core values it simply adapted to the prevailing situation. People didn't and don't want a revolutionary party anymore. If Labour hadn't changed it would have been unelectable and we would be looking at it being the third party.

Imagine that a revolutionary party had got in and renationalised the energy, transport and telecommunications industries. Where would they have got the money from to compensate the shareholders? It would have meant raising taxes to raise the money or not paying compensation. You might say why should they compensate shareholders? Well many shares at that time were still held by individuals who were encouraged to invest. These were not people with lots of money but those on modest incomes and even pensioners. Other major share holders were the pension schemes. How would you justify taking their money and reducing the pensions they could pay out. Either way would destroy the chance of returning to government.

Can I ask what you have against the middle classes? In fact can you explain to me what makes someone middle class.

I'm a bus driver's daughter who went on to be a teacher and is now on benefits. What class am I?

vampirequeen , New Labour did indeed become the new Thatcherite Government, just to get into power.

I dont know what class you are, but Labour lost it's core working class vote in 2010, which is why it didnt win, and we got this dreadful coalition.

I became a Labour party activist in 1987, but when when Labour took on right wing policies like privatisation, my local Labour party dissolved.

I never believed in privatisation of our railways or our utilities, prices have rocketed in both.

Working class girl, became teacher VQ! We know where it's at, and what life is really like, unlike those who simply preach. I am reminded of Chaucer's parson:

"But first he wroght, and afterward he taught."

That is what I believe at my best, but I would extend it to humanity, unconfined to these islands.

Well said, Ariadne.

Ivanhoe please remove your blinkers. Whilst the Blair government had moved over to the centre it was in no way like the Thatcher government. They inherited a host of problems and had to function in a totally different world to that which existed when they were previously in power.

The electorate would simply not have elected a truly socialist parliament.

There was no hard core working class labour vote in 2010 and there hadn't been for a long time. The hard core working class vote was found in the industrial heartlands. Most of these were destroyed to a great extent in the 1980s when Maggie decided to break the hold the workers had on society. She said she would put us in our place but most didn't realise she meant on our knees until it was too late.

Blair inherited a nation desperate for change but not a nation desperate to return to the past.

I was born into the party. Some of my earliest memories are playing with other children at the local party headquarters whilst our mams put leaflets in envelopes. I've done my time canvassing and knocking out. I went to my first count when I was 14. I didn't want to change but I saw the way the world was going. It was a case of adaptation or extinction.

We live in a democracy and as such we need to appeal to the maximum number of voters. We can't do that if we only offer them hard line socialism. By softening our approach we can ensure that the NHS, education and welfare is protected as much as possible. Yes, it may be a rearguard action but at least we're still in there fighting.