Labour La La Land?

www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicspending/bulletins/ukgovernmentdebtanddeficitforeurostatmaast/march2019

ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/9510404/2-21012019-AP-EN.pdf/97de2ad5-5b7e-4de9-ab36-7bbf8773aad0

The point the Tories realised so well is that the realities of the economic situation don't really matter. What matters is how you sell things to the public. If you can persuade them that you are doing the right thing and have no other choice, at the same time blaming the other party for the whole thing you are quids in. You tune in to the British taste for suffering, their liking for shortages and restrictions (a left over from the war) and their need to blame someone. Result you can do as you like.

I'm not altogether sure what the purpose is of the links you posted, Joelsnan Would you clarify?

The one argument that the LP use that is 100% right is that austerity is a political choice and has only ever shifted the nation's wealth away from 95% of the population to enrich further the top 5% by income and assets.

It's prime function is to reduce the size of the government and its influence on society at large.

It was no accident that one of the first areas attacked by the Tories was the judicial services including legal aid and the court services, after all if the access to the courts is restricted to the top 5% the risks of judicial reviews are reduced such that government actions are generally unfettered by the rule of law or even by prudent or just management of the nation and its resources.

btw I forgot to say that my GCs go to top private schools, and so do all my nephews and nieces. Several board at top Public Schools.

And that where I live- there were in the 50s, and there are nowadays - NO private schools at all. Why would anyone need one when the education is so well funded and classes below 20. And that has a massive effect on social cohesion- when in a class is so varied- the CEO's kids who is a billionaire, the local woodcutter and farmer's kids, and the surgeon's and dentist's, and the dustbin man and the cleaning lady, and the unemployed and the millionaire business owner, etc, etc, etc.

One British private school opened in the nearby main town, but soon closed as there was so little take up and mainly expat kids. There is a small Catholic school and another small one for expat kids working for the local international businesses- who intend to return. Other expats have just integrated the local schools, with support, and very happily. Hurrah.

Public and private schools do not automatically receive charitable status.
To receive and maintains its charitable status the public school my children went to educated many underprivileged young people free of charge.

I am currently reading Tom Bowers book”A dangerous hero” about Jeremy Corbyn. It is very concerning.

Our initial plan if he gets in is to get out of the country fast. However I think he and his sidekick McDonnell will find a way to stop us getting our money out before we flee.

Corbyn is a Marxist he will see the people that have achieved and worked suffer, the feckless benefit scroungers will be the winners along with all the migrants that will flood into our country.

Missfoodlove ' the tactics used by many to get grants for top private schools are truly shocking- they don't pay top accountants for nothing. Very few truly underprivileged children get places. So perhaps the so called 'charitable' status should depend on proportion, and places attribution properly investigated by an independent body.

missfoodlove you say "the feckless benefit scroungers will be the winners along with all the migrants that will flood into our country"
Do you have any more prejudices that you would like to air?

Jura2&Ilovecheese.

Any organisation with charitable status must be accountable to the charities commission, it is not just a rubber stamp.

Regarding my “prejudices” Jeremy Corbyn wants to end the benefits freeze, McDonnell has said he will fully update benefits from day 1.
This is not sustainable, benefits are now a lifestyle choice for many, not a safety net.

Immigration to the UK is not too high according to Corbyn.
How is our infrastructure going to cope?
Hospitals, schools and the police are pushed to the limit.

I am not racist or prejudiced just practical.

Misffodlove 'What's wrong with buying a private health insurance. The rest of the world does.'

I can assure you, that without immigrants, those services would indeed be pushed way beyond the limits.

Oh not the old 'lifestyle choice ' nonsense

Hospitals, schools and the police are pushed to the limit.

They are pushed to the limit by the tory austerity policies. They need investment to improve and extend their services. And by the fact that many of their staff are EU nationals who are leaving because the UK no longer offers them any security.

Benefits can be a lifestyle choice, it is true - there are many private landlords who are only too happy to take housing benefit to pay their buy-to-rent mortgages. And employers who prefer to let the government pay a percentage of their employees' salaries rather than pay them a living wage out of their own profits . Terrible!

ooops, somehow this quote didn't register, and a previous one was posted.

It was meant to be 'Hospitals, schools and the police are pushed to the limit.'

I can assure you, that without immigrants, those services would indeed be pushed way beyond the limits.

Well said Mamacaz!

We havd a shortage of nurses and teachers so giving them one extra day off a week will mean closing schools and hospitals. It takes years to train a nurse or a teacher and there are not enough spaces on nursing courses. Yet another policy Labour have not thought through. We can give surgeons another day off each week but see waiting lists for operations get longer and people die from waiting. Labour is all ideology and no pragmatism.

Stop bashing btl LL. We let out 6 houses but only to people who can afford to pay the full rent and not rely on benefits to pay it for them. All LL I know do likewise. I know a lot of LL. If they work and pay money themselves they take better cate of house, and we rent to Polish and Romanians as well as Brits who all work hard.

Corbyn has also said he wants an open immigration policy. BJ wants a points based system like in Australia with shortage jobs like nurses gaining a lot of points and jobs we can fill ourselves attracting fewer points.

Legal aid is badly awarded. I see Jhadi Johns parents are getting over 100k. Victims get nothing. I dread to think how much Shamima Begum will get. In my book this is money wasted whilst schools desperately need more funding.

I think it's to prove your point Maizie. Debt is higher in real terms and as a percentage of GDP than it was in 2010.

Legal Aid used to help many people who could not otherwise have gone to court.

newnanny
We let out 6 houses but only to people who can afford to pay the full rent and not rely on benefits to pay it for them

That may well be true in your case, but working and relying on some sort of benefit towards rent are not mutually exclusive. A significant number of working people are still eligible for, and need, some form of benefit. They almost all have to rent in the private sector, so even if you don't, lots of landlords clearly do rent to them (not that housing benefit for working-age people is generally paid direct to landlords any more, so I wonder how many landlords would know if part of the rent their tenants paid them included an element of HB, especially if this came about after the initial checks?)

If they work and pay money themselves they take better cate of house, and we rent to Polish and Romanians as well as Brits who all work hard.

How do you know they 'work hard'?

Btw, I will stop bashing btl ll (not that I have ever mentioned them before) when others stop making ignorant, sweeping references to 'feckless benefit scroungers'

I have never made any references to 'feckless benefit scroungers'.

The reason we know our tenants do not get benefits is because we see bank statements to show earnings before renting to them. Benefits payments show up on bank statements.

We know they work hard as both parents work full time and some work 50-60 hour weeks. I call that working hard. We rent to lorry drivers, pickers in factories, a paramedic and 2 nurses. I don't think they could get away with not working hard.

Legal aid should not be given to terrorist. I wish it would be capped at £5k.

I am NO fan of JC, and yes, I agree, 4 day week is nonsense. And as much as I would rather there were no private schools- or hardly any, because all kids are offered a good quality education, wherever they live, and whomever their parents are - banning them is not the way. Etc. Etc.

And yet- yesterday and today - Johnson's abominable and despicable behaviour, made Corbyn and others on the front opposition bench, look like Statemen- calm, well argumented and humane.