The Summer Budget

Give it time, grannyonce!

expected a lot more reaction to the facts
have to agree with you roses

I thought it was a very good and balanced budget.

Well it's £1 per hour more than Labour was promising!

Whilst in no way opposed to companies paying a proper rate of pay rather than tax credits topping up low wages when the very people receiving them are sometimes paying for them, I do notice that the minimum wage, newly branded by the Conservatives as the "living wage" is not actually as much as the living wage called for by all those bodies who have researched what this should be.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/07/corporate-welfare-a-93bn-handshake

Wouldn't need a summer budget if this was stopped.

One of the US presidential candidates has backed the Green new deal.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/07/07/us-presidential-candidate-backs-the-green-new-deal/

Do you remember Cameron hugging a husky and saying vote blue, get green? That didn't last long. I wish they'd get rid of the tree symbol, too, considering they still want to sell off our woodlands and forests and frack beneath the national parks.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/07/07/what-would-i-do-tomorrow-my-2015-budget/

Quite like to see this budget. We can but dream.....

Exactly, Gracesgran. They thought there would be a coalition government, and they would not have to go through with it. However, all the main parties supported a cap, so it will be interesting to see what happens when this comes before Parliament, if it does.

I'd still be interested to see how many voted for the Tories because of that.

This petition has been handed in to Downing Street now. It has over 440000 signatures, and they hope to have over half a million before the recess.

www.change.org/p/david-cameron-stop-the-11-pay-rise-for-mps-salaries

They do like their pauses don't they. Doesn't they really mean they promised something they were never going to be able to carry out.

How many of you voted Tory because of the promise of putting a cap on the cost of care home fees?
The government promised more integration between health and social care. It pledged that nobody would have to sell their home to fund care in old age, and is committed to a cap of £75000 on care costs.

I have just read that they are thinking of putting a pause on that cap, before the summer recess. It was supposed to be made law for next April.

Living wage, gracesgran.

This is interesting, a petition to ask Cameron to overrule Osborne.

secure.avaaz.org/en/punishing_poor_uk/?bkHcnjb&v=61550

I do not suppose it will work but it might give them a fright.

Have you noticed how often these days Cameron, or Downing Street more often, overrules his ministers? He's done it with IDS, Osborne and Hunt.

Our county tried the joint working of SSD and NHS for several years and then it fell apart. I am not sure why - but I do know that a massive amount of money was wasted on this experiment, including window dressing like logo design and printing etc.

So, we are now two days away from the Emergency Budget. If you could insist on just one item being in it what would it be?

For me it would be funding care services and the NHS jointly.

Durhamjen

Too ruddy true I listen alright to bonkers comments.

Yes I have heard of the minimum wage.

As for your other comment yes I know there are both poor and wealthy parents who are alcoholic/drug addicts. The same as there are poor and wealthy parents who neglect their children. The same as there are poor and wealthy parents who physically abuse their children.

Minimum wage, POGS. Have you heard of it?
There are quite a lot of well paid alcoholics and drug abusers.

Been trying to tell you for ages that the world has gone bonkers, but you just will not listen.

"Children are much more likely to be in poverty because they have a parent who is a security guard or a cleaner than one who is an alcoholic or drug abuser'.

Ye gods , is it just me!

If that sums up the criteria for assessing poverty then the world has gone bloody bonkers.

If food banks are there, people will use them. Although the number of users bandied about is £1m it's actually around half that, as figures gathered take the number of people in the family into account.

This isn't a problem unique to the UK, many other countries are providing food banks for the poorest among their citizens.

As for the CPAG blog, what is their definition of a child being 'in poverty'?

This is a question no one seems to be able to answer satisfactorily.

www.cpag.org.uk/content/london-our-child-poverty-capital

37% of London's children live in poverty. No wonder they want to change the way statistics are collected.

"Children are much more likely to be in poverty because they have a parent who is a security guard or a cleaner than one who is an alcohol or drug addict. Nearly two thirds of poor children live in working families. All this is pretty inconvenient for a Government reportedly eyeing up tax credits for more cuts.

As it stands it looks like these children will no longer figure in government measures. At a stroke, the Government is about to abolish the concept, if not the reality, of child and working poverty. Lacking money or being in work will mean you no longer count as poor.

This is public policy going through the looking glass. Nothing will be quite what it seems."

An important quote from the CPAG blog. The rest of it is worth reading, too.

www.cpag.org.uk/blog

CPAG do not agree that IDS is right.

Anyone else been collecting food for foodbanks this weekend? That's all we need isn't it, lots of food banks to make people feel good!

Okay then, income doesn't matter. Is that okay?

For my parents it was the Grammar School for both of them that was the gateway to a better life, particularly my father. His parents were not particularly interested in education, (my mother's were) and his scholarship was invaluable to him. Unfortunately he didn't survive the Hitler war, so who knows where life might have taken us. Good education is a very important factor in a childs life, in fact it is the key. I don't like or dislike IDS, as I don't personally know him, but I certainly do think that he has a very difficult job which isn't just a question of black and white.