The Budget

Can I just point out the reasoning behind the proposed PIP alterations.
If you take for example, a person who has had a leg injury. They are otherwise hale and hearty and capable of working.
They would score under the present system.
Need to sit to prepare a meal 2
Need a raised toilet seat or bar to help them rise from the toilet 2
Need a stool or long handled brush to help them bath or shower 2
Need an aid or to sit on the edge of the bed to dress 2
This gives them the 8 points needed for standard rate PIP.
A more severely disabled person would need more help with these activities and presumably help with more activities.
The halving of the points awarded for toileting and dressing would therefore not affect them.
Please note, mobility is scored separately and therefore not affected.

He only had a fifty/fifty chance of hitting his target, according to the IFS.
That was before the IDS debacle.

Something to cheer us all up.

games.usvsth3m.com/slap-george-osborne/

What a bloody mess.

Looks like BC is a shoe-in - God we will be the laughing stock.

I haven't got a clue, but there was serious doubts about how he was going to do that anyway. It will need someone to pin him down to expose the details. It's a very strange situation when the government is accused of having a black hole of billions of pounds and nothing seems to be happening.

I think GO will hang on as long as DC is there, but he could have his wings clipped. The Tories can't afford to remove him because almost every policy is connected to his austerity planning.

So hows he going to met his fiscal targets? Always assuming he will actually met one eventually.

He is going - he has to

I don't think it's been formally announced yet, but I think they have - 'kicked in to the long grass' is the phrase being used.

Did I read that the cuts to PIP have been dumped?

Well I am not clear how he can continue. Budget after budget has been a cock up. None if the fiscal targets he has set himself have been met. He is the most incompetent chancellor ever to grace the House.

Corbyn has suggested that Gideon should follow him.

Interesting his letter talks about the unfairness of the cuts just as Corbyn did in his reply to the budget speech.

If the budget falls will Gideon resign?

Iain Duncan Smith has resigned.

I think it deserves to be put on at least two threads.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/18/iain-duncan-smith-resignation-letter-in-full

Good points, Gracesgran :-) I guess it must have been similar trying to persuade people that the earth isn't flat and isn't the centre of the universe.

Thank you. You made me laugh out loud, and I am on my own, so it's not something I often do.
In fact, never in relation to this government.

I am all for PQE or - as I would call it - the normal way to run a business . I just didn't relate it to the initials. I had been talking to my daughter for about an hour prior to coming on here - she's a teacher - and I couldn't get passed the possibility of past qualifications excepted

Off to read your link.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/09/02/standard-poors-say-the-pqe-could-pay-a-250-return/

For those who think it could not possibly work, Standard and Poor think it will work brilliantly.

People's Quantitative Easing, Gracesgran.

It means printing money to give to builders, etc., to help with infrastructure, get people working, build houses, green energy, everything good, everything we need to put money back into the economy.

It was first thought of by Richard Murphy, and you will find lots about it on www.taxresearch.org.uk

Similar to Corbynomics.

This is by a woman who gets fed up of the way many people view the disabled.....Nothing to do with PQE. She probably would not have written it if it wasn't for the budget.

voxpoliticalonline.com/2016/03/18/woman-nails-the-tories-for-their-disability-hatred-in-epic-twitter-thread/

Why is there not edit button! there is an extra that - sorry

What is PQE stand for Jen? please.

It always amazes me that people can't see the bigger picture.

I understand your frustration daphnedill but most people will conform to the ideas of the group they feel comfortable with. Remember those awful experiments where the "teacher" shocked the "student" each time they gave a wrong answer or the simpler one where nine people were planted and the tenth - the last - was "real". When asked to count drum beats or similar the tenth would look more and more worried as each of the nine gave the wrong - but same - answer but in the vast majority of cases the "real" person gave the same wrong answer.

The good thing about conformity is that once you persuade a reasonable number of people that, for instance, that the Labour Party has never been as profligate as people have been led to believe the tide will turn very quickly. The difficult bit is getting the "reasonable number" to see, believe and feel it is worth accepting this or, we could say, that black is black and white is white. While they are comforted by accepting that black is white, etc., it is a very hard slog.

Equally, we need to keep questioning whether we are not accepting something because acceptance of it give us comfort by conforming to the group that is "ours"

www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/5_reasons_to_demonstrate_on_16_april

A good article here from the People's Assembly.

PQE, daphnedill.
We can repeat that til the cows come home as well, but there will still be those who think it's rubbish, even though Osborne is using QE qithout telling us.

This is scary.

breakfree2016.org/4-reasons-now-is-our-chance-to-break-free-from-fossil-fuels/

The latest Nasa report suggests that we are already at 1.5 degrees, which we were not supposed to reach for decades.
Yet the government in the budget gave tax breaks to fossil fuel companies, and is cutting subsidies faster for renewables.
So much for the greenest government ever.
Somehow I do not think this is considering future generations.

dj, I know, but I thought it was worth repeating. Surely there must come a point when people start to believe facts rather then the myths they've been fed (hopefully!)

It always amazes me that people can't see the bigger picture.

Not only is it untrue that the Labour Party has been as profligate as people have been led to believe, but a national economy just isn't the same as a household budget.

The UK is awash with savings. We just don't need any more. What we need is for money to be used to make 'stuff'. The obvious 'stuff' to make is housing, which puts roofs over people's heads, provides employment and gets money back into circulation, which also increases the tax take. That's what Corbyn is about, if people could be bothered to delve a bit deeper than tabloid headlines.