Should I vote Labour

Defence

Labour supports the renewal of Trident.

Suspend the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.

Committed to a two state solution in Israel-Palestine

Housing

1000000 houses -council and association houses every year for 5 years

Building private homes will become a national infrastructure priority.

4000 homes reserved for homeless.

I absolutely do see what you mean daphnedill DH and I can't always pay ourselves anything. Depending on how cash flow is we often have to live a month or two on credit cards and overdraft. DH works the hours of two people most weeks and gets paid less than any of our guys (with the exception of the apprentice who gets living wage £7.50 plus O/T) The business couldn't afford to pay DH for the hours he works or what he is worth.

gg oh I hope I haven't put my foot in it re training providers

I cannot (and do not) speak for all training providers GGmk2 only the ones I have come across in my business. The problem I have is that you are often (like in the case of apprenticeships) forced to use them. These ones do not "provide training" at all they simply act as a well paid broker.

I appreciate what you're saying gilly, but I just don't see that the Conservatives have the answers. As far as I can see, they don't really care about anybody outside the leafy stockbroker belt with enough money to invest in property and other assets.

Me neither daphedill but who has?

Successive governments let small businesses down. We are a cash cow. Easy to pick on, and we do not have the big accountants or the ability to do sweetheart deals with the tax man.

Welfare

Scrap bedroom tax
Scrap the punitive sanctions regime and reinstate housing benefit for under 21s.
Repeal cuts in support to disabled people .

Analysis

There appears to be no plans for serious reforms to the welfare system

Health/social care

£6bn extra pa raised by increasing the top 5% of earners and increasing tax on private health insurance.

18 week maximum wait
A&E 4hrs maximum wait
Scrap NHS pay gap.
Suspend hospital closures

£8bn into social care
£1bn immediately

Analysis

The one area where extra cash really will be the answer
The BMA responded by saying the NHS needs 10bn not 6
Simply focusing on the top 5% is unlikely to bring in the money needed.

It sounds like the company I had the interview with. My role would have been to go into schools and colleges and persuade young people to register as being interested in an apprenticeship. I would have been paid expenses and for the number I managed to sign up.

The con was that there weren't actually any apprenticeships for them. The company wanted a list, so that if employers showed interest, we had a list of potential apprentices ready.

The company was acting exactly like employment agencies do, but wasn't registered as an employment agency, so didn't have to follow the laws applying to agencies. It also received government funding for its start up costs and for every apprentice who was placed plus a fee from employers.

I got through to the second round of interviewing,but didn't want anything to do with it, because I felt it was unethical.

Best of the rest

Fund burial fees for child burials

Plant 1 million native trees

Lower voting to 16

Free wifi in city centres and public transport

Laud inquiry into Orgreave, blacklisting and contaminated blood samples

Ban third party sale of puppies

Well whitewave, I do know one very nice young (she would dispute that) person who, along with all her colleagues has fought the good fight within FE to raise the standards of 'training' provision. She is now looking at private companies as many are looking for assessors at advanced level which, I think, does tend to be better set up. I think these are better (if they are) because of the input from the companies.

Even with everyday teaching in FE colleges everyone is now being short-changed and that includeds assessors and lecturers/teachers. However, I would put this squarely at the door of our now government which sees it as more important that teachers become managers of a business clone of a college rather than professional academics who understand what education is. Education and training is fast changing as it marches with the changes to the new work patterns but there are many good people doing their best in a very challenging environment.

Why manifestos matter.

theconversation.com/a-beginners-guide-to-election-manifestos-and-why-they-really-matter-77576

If it's in your manifesto, the Lords can't challenge it.

dj!!!! I didn't know that. That is really interesting.

fitz -free education- don't know but it's in the manifesto - don't shoot the messager

Fitzy From what I understand, owners of small businesses (which often don't have shareholders) can leave money in the business rather than take an income. They then take dividends or pay into pension schemes,so avoid income tax and NICs.

Ireally am not an accountant, but I did do some investigation of my ex-husband's accounts. He was claiming that he had no income, so I never received any maintenance for the children. I didn't believe him, because he has frequent holidays and has a generally comfortable life. He also owns millions of pounds of property.

It turned out that all the profits were being kept in the company (some offshore) which owns the property and his partner/wife and mother were being paid an income, which they gave to my ex-husband. The company apparently pays some corporation tax, but at a much lower rate than combined income tax/NICs. It's all perfectly legal and there was nothing I could do about it.

It might turn out to be the only good thing about Brexit from my point of view, because he was intending to become non-dom and live in his house in Spain. I hope his plans have been scuppered. Ha ha!

I expect there are other ruses too. HMRC probably know about them, but there's nothing they can do either, unless laws change.

Yes, you should vote Labour.

For the sake of your children's future, for the sake of pensions, and for the future of our country you should vote Labour.

I would advise the person you know to look very carefully at private companies. My sister worked for two of them as an NVQ care work assessor. One closed down overnight, because it ran out of its government funding. The other, which she stayed with for nearly a year, paid by results and seemed to care more about how many were signed off than the quality of the training or the trainees. According to my sister, who had worked in the NHS for years, some of them definitely didn't come up to the standards required in the NHS.

It is not based solely on tax rises for the richest 5%. It is also based on increased revenue from a growing economy, which with more people in work will generate greater tax revenue for the Treasury and hence more money to spend on the items pledged in Labour's manifesto.

More people in work means that they have more money to spend, which means, at existing rates of tax for the majority of people, an increase in sales of goods and services which means greater VAT revenue too.

Fitzy If young peole stopped doing degrees, where do you think future teachers, doctors and nurses would come from?

Teacher training (degree plus PGCE) is four years, so is it right that teachers should take out a loan of nearly £80,000 for their own training?

Sadly I cannot comment, I have had a ticking off in another thread and told Wales has twenty five labour MP's in Westminster , seems Wales has to say what a little englander tells us to say.

Do you use trains or gas/electricity? I do and haven't noticed any improvement in service since privatisation. I certainly have noticed the massive price increases.

annie when has that stopped you!!!

Support for Labour policies.

71 per cent support banning zero-hours contracts
74 per cent support keeping the pension age 66 and no higher
65 per cent support increasing income tax for those on salaries above £80,000
54 per cent support requiring local councils to build an additional 100,000 new council houses per year
53 per cent support bringing back conductors on driver-only trains
49 per centsupport renationalising the energy industry while only 24 per cent oppose
52 per cent support renationalising the railways, while only 22 per cent oppose

I tried to explain we have serious problems in Wales whitewave, we are in danger of losing several labour MP's, . We are fighting the election as Welsh Labour and pushing Carwyn Jones as leader of Welsh Labour, I have started telephone canvassing and getting negative feed back, I have agreed to canvass in some constituencies , I fear loss of Wales to the Tories. But we only have twenty five Welsh labour MP's so we don't count with one Middle Englander , so I will not voice my opinion among all you English voters .

I doubt I will get an apology for being calling a liar when I have said Corbyn is not a pacifist, seems he is going to say the same today,

Well DJ if that is the true level of support it looks like we'll have a Labour government!
To be honest I wonder whether that's just we need. There are too many people around who simply have not been through a left wing government to realise how problematic it is.
Daphne - obviously we need people to go to university. I'm sure you realise I was not suggesting otherwise.
If the railways etc. are nationalised they will either be just as expensive, or there will be less investment, or they will be subsidised from taxes. I see no point at all in spending tax money on buying up these industries.

Do you support those Labour policies, Annie?