Now is the winter of Britain’s discontent

I thought long and hard about the removal of the triple lock to a double lock, in fact I have been surprised it has lasted so long.It was a Conservative government that brought in the triple lock in the first place.Have to wait and see what the Autumn Budget brings and what guarantees are put in place to safeguard pensioners who live on the Basic Pension or close to it.

You’re right PippaZ. I think it’s highly unlikely that they will even suggest means tested state pensions this parliament though, as they will alienate the majority of their voters if they do that.

Here's another tory Johnson mind reader interpreting the PM. A former cabinet minister, so ought to know ?
I'm afraid they've come to a different conclusion from his apologists..

“The trouble with Boris is that he’s not very interested in governing,” says one former Tory cabinet minister. “He’s only interested in two things. Being world king and shagging.”

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/03/tory-triumphalism-will-anger-voters-facing-empty-shelves-and-a-fuel-famine?__twitter_impression=true

It's a funny sort of person who can anyone truly say they don't care or bother about the PMs private life.

Surely how one conducts one's private life is an accurate indicator of their approach to life in general. I expect people to get the measure of me by how I behave towards my friends and family.

You have to have a particularly compartmentalized and blinkered view of things to be so narrow.

When people show you who they really are believe them. Johnson couldn't have shown us more what he really is.

The one area that we know will not be levelled-up, is the pension. No one seems able to say just how wrong it is to take off the Triple Lock. Maybe it's another "I'm all right Jack" instance.

It is just so much the wrong thing to do. Yet again, it is bound to hit the poorest. The point of the triple lock was to raise the level of the basic pension to one closer to that of other rich nations. In fact, 5% more pension age people have fallen into poverty since 2012 - under this government.

We haven't seen the actual figures yet. If this means that the means-tested Pension Guarantee doesn't go up by the set amount, which seems likely, even more pensioners will fall into poverty. I know that SOME pensioners have done very well. However, those on Pension Guarantee will mainly be those who have been on low incomes all their lives or had some devasting event that has affected their lives. This government is now making things worse.

And who is to say they are not thinking of making the pension a means-tested benefit anyway. That was the intention of the Workplace Pension when it came in.

But all I hear is silence. I am afraid the campaign to set the young against the old has been very successful for the Tory Government.

This really is one are where you might time GNHQ might be asking questions about on our behalf.

MaizieD

So far the 'levelling up' plan appears to be announcing impressive sounding sums of money (easy to do when he knows that people were fooled into thinking that £350 million pw was an astronomical amount) for a few projects while in reality there will be swingeing cuts to local council allocations and to all public services 'because (huge lie) we need to pay back the money we borrowed for covid'.

He's pulling everything to the front of the shelf to disguise the fact that there is nothing behind it...

Much like the supermarkets then?

So far the 'levelling up' plan appears to be announcing impressive sounding sums of money (easy to do when he knows that people were fooled into thinking that £350 million pw was an astronomical amount) for a few projects while in reality there will be swingeing cuts to local council allocations and to all public services 'because (huge lie) we need to pay back the money we borrowed for covid'.

He's pulling everything to the front of the shelf to disguise the fact that there is nothing behind it...

Someone should tell Johnson that “levelling up” won’t happen when you tax the poor but the rich get handouts. Also that life expectancy going down in the poorest areas is not a sign of levelling up.

I find it extraordinary that people keep saying "there is a shortage of HGV drivers in Europe too".
Indeed there is, but there are no shortages of fuel or empty shelves in shops (apart from Marks and Spencer in Paris).
It surely only goes to prove that the problem in the UK is caused by the consequences of Brexit.

So let’s put aside cancer and lower life expectancy as Johnson prefers and look at wage growth.

So wage growth is happening because of the lack of supply of Labour.

Easy innit - supply and demand.

Strangle the supply of Labour and employers will raise wages to try attract the employees they need.

But what happens then? What are we actually seeing in the economy?

Inflation- that old enemy that every government hates because it plays havoc with their voters cost if living. The housing crises will be exacerbated because the cost of borrowing will rise.
After the horror that covid inflicted on businesses they will find loans to help them over a sticky period will be more expensive making their businesses less profitable or they increase their prices.

But we haven5 just got demand inflation have we? We’ve got price led inflation as well from the rise in fuel and other commodities as the world opens up after cover.

So once again the U.K. is being hit with a double whammy not just demand led but price led inflation on top of it.

The natural outcome of all this steep rise in the cost of living will be that people demand higher salaries to keep up or see their standard of living fall. We then get into that old enemy of the wage spiral, cost of living rise=higher wages = businesses put up prices to pay for wage rise ad nauseum.

What does Johnson do?

Crow about that oh so clever rise in wages. With inflation at

lemongrove

Just to point out, the lack of HGV drivers is a problem all over Europe and the US.
Boatloads/ lorryloads of immigrants are also a problem all over Europe and the US.

And the lack of meat processors, care workers, vegetable pickers, food packers, poultry workers, hospital staff, clinicians, vets, abattoir workers, to name a few.

Is there a shortage of these throughout Europe.?

Cancer outcomes should be part of any levelling up agenda. There is no reason why any region(s) should have worse outcomes than others. Yet some regions (broadly corresponding to the poorest) consistently have worse outcomes.

Rather than "setting aside"/ saying they don't matter, they very much do matter, not only in their own right but as part of "levelling up".

I seriously wonder if Johnson has any idea what "levelling up" implies beyond it's appeal as a slogan.

lemongrove

Not at all growstuff .....although I could say the same about any posters on here.
What I saw was the PM using the wrong words, they were probably the only words that came to mind ‘ never mind cancer outcomes’ when he meant ‘ setting aside cancer outcomes’. That seemed obvious.

How lucky we all are that you can interpret what he meant correctly.

How lucky you are to have a mind link to know exactly how he meant it.

Do you read back what you write?

lemongrove

We can only speak for the way we see things Summer be it my bias or your bias.

That's not the same as seeing "things as they are".

lemongrove

We can only speak for the way we see things Summer be it my bias or your bias.

Yes I know. Which is why I stated that. you stated that you see things as they are. As though you are the only one whose interpretation is correct

I bet Johnson will make no mention of inflation at over 3% or fuel shortages or how energy providers are going bust while the few that are left are hiking prices just as winter kicks in. Similarly all those empty supermaket shelves and the shortage of HGV drivers or why there's too few people to get the harvest in won't get mentioned. He may condemn the EU for signing off on his oven ready Brexit deal and how the EU must re-open the Northern Ireland Protocol because they apparently tricked us into agreeing it. No mention of the 130,000 deaths in the pandemic or all the dodgy PPE contracts and the cut of £20/week in UC that goes into action on Wednesday will be given a swerve. But there will be lots of fact-lite unsustainable promises about levelling up that will distract the sheeple.

He was answering a question about the main aim of ‘levelling up’. I suggest you watch Marr tomorrow and see what the PM says then.

I expect that the picaninnies with watermelon smiles, the tank topped bum boys and the 'letterboxes' all smiled forgivingly and said that it was just Borises little gaffe. He really meant something else much less racist and more respectful.

And, as trisher mentioned her, I expect that
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is indulgently saying that she's fine with his little gaffe getting her a few years in an Iranian prison. Silly old Boris, he can't find the right words sometimes, but hey, that's fine, his heart's in the right place...

But lemon should a PM be "seting aside cancer outcomes"? Shouldn't they concern him?

Not at all growstuff .....although I could say the same about any posters on here.
What I saw was the PM using the wrong words, they were probably the only words that came to mind ‘ never mind cancer outcomes’ when he meant ‘ setting aside cancer outcomes’. That seemed obvious.

lemongrove

I have just read the whole interview, and could clearly see what he meant....it’s part of who he is to speak in this way and no doubt he can’t change that, much as he may want to.He has always been gaffe prone.That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care about the health of people in this country.He has foot in mouth syndrome yes, but that doesn’t negate the real aim of levelling up by driving up wage growth in the North and encouraging business opportunities there.

Were you letting Angela Rayner off, seeing it as a "gaff" lemongrove. Johnsons "gaffs" have left one little girl without a mother and a husband without a wife - and who knows when that will change?

Metric means quantifiable measure. What he is saying, while Covid numbers are rising, the only thing he cares about is the money paid in wages. Why? Because all he thinks about is winning the next time.

This is not the money that feeds hungry children or that keeps families warm. Not money for the increase of 5% since 2012 of pensioners who now live in poverty.

And most of all, he did not care about the money that wasn't made available to help the care homes when he sent people from the hospitals to spread the virus amoung the elderly and most vulnerable cases causing heaven knows how many deaths.

He is, and always has been, only interested in making sure those who have, get more and his own power. He is, after all, a Conservative.

We can only speak for the way we see things Summer be it my bias or your bias.

Your posts suggest that you don't see "things" from an objective point of view.

lemongrove

I see things as they are Alegrias
A more diplomatic PM would have said ‘ it isn’t about cancer outcomes or health, the policy of levelling up is about wage growth’ but the message would have been the same.

No, you see them from your bias.

As do we all.

But you are not the authority on how things “are”.

We have had ( still have) Covid very much with us, no moving on from that just yet.