The Five Demands

Germanshepherdsmum

Landlords won’t be selling to people who can only afford to rent will they?

DD and partner have just bought a house and are paying less for their mortgage than they did for their rent. When did you last look at rental prices?

Many people can’t buy because they can’t raise a deposit and don’t qualify for a mortgage. Lenders don’t take their rental history into account. Of course mortgage repayments are often lower than rents. Do you think I’m daft? Good for your daughter and partner. My son and daughter in law own a property and rent one out so I understand both sales and rental markets pretty well.

Yammy perhaps I am being dense, but I still don't understand your point. Every day lots of Grans post lots of opinions, many of them political; why is my post so dangerous to me? I can't see that I've mentioned anything to give away my real name or details.

DaisyAnne

I would be interested to know exactly what "Democratic Public Ownership" actually means choughdancer. How does it differ from old fashioned nationalisation?

I don't think it does differ from nationalisation really. I know nationalisation had its problems, partly because of the lack of incentive to operate efficiently with no competition. But I feel that privatising has caused so many problems, partly because of the massive pay outs to people at the top, even when they have not done a good job. I think that if nationalisation were carefully planned and monitored it could work far better than the privatised industries now.

MaizieD

^Utopia, a world free from want does not and will not exist,^

Which doesn't mean that we can't try to get as near to it as possible.

We certainly won't achieve it by demonising some sections of society and by defending the 'rights' of another section to monopolise as much of society's resources as they can lay their hands on.

It doesn't Maizie. However, we start with two extreme views of "Utopia", both of which no doubt have something - but not everything - to offer. Add to that the destructiveness of extremes, and working forward pragmatically seems to me to be a better way for all.

At all levels of society there are those that take advantage of others good intentions, taxation goes some way to redress that but never does enough. If you live honestly, avoid the scams and help those you know deserve it, that’s the best you can hope for.

choughdancer

Yammy perhaps I am being dense, but I still don't understand your point. Every day lots of Grans post lots of opinions, many of them political; why is my post so dangerous to me? I can't see that I've mentioned anything to give away my real name or details.

I didn't say the danger was particular to you .I said that anyone's post can easily be found on Google and people are not being careful about what they give away.
Take that as my last answer.

Yammy

choughdancer

Yammy perhaps I am being dense, but I still don't understand your point. Every day lots of Grans post lots of opinions, many of them political; why is my post so dangerous to me? I can't see that I've mentioned anything to give away my real name or details.

I didn't say the danger was particular to you .I said that anyone's post can easily be found on Google and people are not being careful about what they give away.
Take that as my last answer.

Thank you Yammy.

If this is toooo-long, don't read it, I'm having a rant .

At some point a government - whichever one it is - will have to address the ever-increasing gap between the exceptionally-rich and those at the bottom of the heap who live from hand-to-mouth.

We're not like the French - we don't take to the streets the moment an unpopular government policy is launched, but I believe there is a point at which people will revolt - and I think the 'movement' has already started. Austerity has been imposed for too many years and now we're being warned of even more of the same for the foreseeable future. There is only so much belt-tightening that one can do, and people are sick and tired of watching the rich get even richer whilst they, on a daily basis, struggle to make ends meet - aware that this is their future for God knows how many more years.
I'm not anti-Capitalist, nor do I begrudge those who work hard and create businesses/ jobs being amply rewarded for their effort and entrepreneurship. But the sheer greed, profiteering and corruption has got to stop.
Realistically, our fortunes are not going to change overnight, but we cannot go on like this indefinitely. People are not only being priced out of rental accommodation, unable to afford their ever-increasing utility bills, or half-decent food for the table - some are being almost priced out of life itself, in any meaningful sense.
I have no personal axe to grind - I can afford to buy the food we need and heat my home, but I'm seriously worried about the state this country is in now. We have a government that appears to be focused solely on its own survival and its members only interested in achieving their personal ambitions - and increasing their wealth. One that has encouraged division by manipulating the electorate and exploiting their insecurities, in order to keep their foothold. An ex-PM determined - for his own ends - to wreck the delicate re-adjustment with the EU and our European neighbours, an idiotic woman who thinks you can make spag-bol with turnips, a deputy chairman who doesn't understand that you can only feed people for 30p on a large scale, a home secretary who dreams of watching planes take off to Rwanda and continually agitates for us all to regard every asylum seeker as an illegal chancer... I mean, where do they find these people?
... and even now, the anti-Sunak brigade within the party are attempting to destabilise his premiership (he's not "Brexity" enough for their taste). Will we endure yet another leadership challenge prior to the GE?
It's all such a bloody mess. And the worst part of this is that the government will not acknowledge it, choosing instead to find convenient scapegoats. I believe these scapegoats are already forming part of their election 'campaign'. It will be to some extent a negative campaign - vote for Starmer and you are voting for woke-lefties who simply want to tax the rich which will, of course, mean the exodus of the top talent (a myth that has been shown to be largely untrue - though of course, there are always exceptions). And, 'talent' is not static, nor is it the preserve of the rich. I bet there's plenty of it up and down the country, untapped. I'm waiting for the next 3-word 'positive' slogan. We've "done Brexit" (ha!), "Global Britain", "Build Back Better" and "Levelling Up" (bit of a dud that one)... ???

Well said Dickens!

Good rant, Dickens

At some point a government - whichever one it is - will have to address the ever-increasing gap between the exceptionally-rich and those at the bottom of the heap who live from hand-to-mouth.

Not quite the scenario you describe here, but I was interested to see that Rishi Sunak actually pays less tax on his income than does Keir Starmer Sunak 23% as opposed to Starmer (who is nothing like as wealthy as Sunak) who pays 40%.

That's how gaps widen...

As a general set of aspirations, I agree with the OP, but you'll never gain power if you don't take the electorate with you as Corbyn demonstrated. How do we convince people in middle England (is there such a place?) to vote for the general good rather than their own interest?

Dickens, if you think when Starmer gets in he will tax the rich to solve all our problems you are going to be disappointed, the only way to raise enough to begin to pay for the mess we are in now is to raise taxes across the board.
We've seen with Truss what happens when politians propose unfair, unbalanced or unreasonable changes, he’s not going to fall into that trap

^ the only way to raise enough to begin to pay for the mess we are in now is to raise taxes across the board.^

I'll say it again. This is not true. Spending comes before taxation. Analysis of government accounts and accounting shows this to be true. There was no taxation before the government spent £billions on Covid. It was purely money created by the Bank of England.

Spending comes before taxation-true.

Paying after the spending is done . . .

Yammy

I hope anyone who gives their opinion on this or anything else on Grans net, knows they can easily be found by simply anyone Googling their name and putting grans net.
A list of all your postings will appear. If you wish to remain anonymous be careful what you say.

Not true. Only the username not the real name.

Katie59

Dickens, if you think when Starmer gets in he will tax the rich to solve all our problems you are going to be disappointed, the only way to raise enough to begin to pay for the mess we are in now is to raise taxes across the board.
We've seen with Truss what happens when politians propose unfair, unbalanced or unreasonable changes, he’s not going to fall into that trap

Dickens, if you think when Starmer gets in he will tax the rich to solve all our problems you are going to be disappointed

I think you may have completely misunderstood my point...

... which is that it's the line the Tories will take in their negative campaign against Starmer. They will suggest that he's going to tax the rich and therefore all the rich talent will up sticks and leave. It's an age-old tactic, and one people believe.

I'm pretty sure he won't be doing anything of the kind.

Starmer is no more likely to upset the rich than the Conservatives.

The exceptionally rich are a very difficult group to tax for several reasons. They often are company owners and family members have shares, quite often much of the wealth is overseas.
You might think business owners are mega rich but the wealth is passed to family members or fellow directors over the years quite legitimately.

I think Labour is far more of a threat to the comfortably off and high earners than the real rich.

At some point a government - whichever one it is - will have to address the ever-increasing gap between the exceptionally-rich and those at the bottom of the heap who live from hand-to-mouth. Dickens Mon 27-Mar-23 12:39:39

What you say in this comment isn't true. Governments don't have to address this if they choose not to - and the Conservatives don't want to. They see the "rich getting richer" and everyone in a free for all, as the best way of running the country.

Richie Sunak releases his tax and there is a murmur of appreciation for that. How many comments have you seen on this gossip shop about the fact that it shows he only pays 22%?

Many Tories will think him foolish for paying so much. The Conservatives don't want to govern; they want to reduce government. To do this, their greatest need is to keep voters onside in any way they can, to stop other parties from ever governing.

They will do something if it makes others wealthy. They will bring in childcare to get more workers. More workers mean cheaper labour. They will repeat the 1970 attacks on the unions, with all the underhand and undemocratic use of government that went on then, to reduce the money they have to pay in taxes to make the country work and reduce what workers earn.

They only have to make a show of making things being fairer for as long as it takes to get back into power. So no, unless it's simply for the time it takes to retain power, they do not "have" to do anything, even if we all want to rant about it.

Grantanow

Yammy

I hope anyone who gives their opinion on this or anything else on Grans net, knows they can easily be found by simply anyone Googling their name and putting grans net.
A list of all your postings will appear. If you wish to remain anonymous be careful what you say.

Not true. Only the username not the real name.

Please read further up post.

choughdancer

Yammy

choughdancer

Yammy perhaps I am being dense, but I still don't understand your point. Every day lots of Grans post lots of opinions, many of them political; why is my post so dangerous to me? I can't see that I've mentioned anything to give away my real name or details.

I didn't say the danger was particular to you .I said that anyone's post can easily be found on Google and people are not being careful about what they give away.
Take that as my last answer.

Thank you Yammy.

My pleasure.

Anything that Corbyn has his fingers in to be avoided at all cost. You can’t be serious.