Anybody else who doesn't know who to vote for?

Cossy

GSM I’m talking about the top 5% of earners, no one else.

That my personal view. No idea tbh what the LP view as “wealthy”, I appreciate it’s all relative.

Apparently anyone with a gross income of over £80k is in the top 5%. I’m glad I no longer work, but remember that figure will also include people who have unearned income such as pensions and rental income.

I remember John McDonnell - who is still around - saying that anyone who had anything to leave was wealthy.

Looks like you might have a choice between Independent or Monster Raving Loony Salti!

GSM Yes I looked and saw that and I’ve revised that to the top 3%.

I’m really talking about people earning in excess of £150,000 PA

Germanshepherdsmum

Cossy

GSM I’m talking about the top 5% of earners, no one else.

That my personal view. No idea tbh what the LP view as “wealthy”, I appreciate it’s all relative.

Apparently anyone with a gross income of over £80k is in the top 5%. I’m glad I no longer work, but remember that figure will also include people who have unearned income such as pensions and rental income.

I remember John McDonnell - who is still around - saying that anyone who had anything to leave was wealthy.

That’s a low figure (£80,000) to be included in the top 5%.
(OK I know many earn a lot less, but many 1,000’s earn a hell of a lot more)

Think how many people/professions this includes…

So to any of you posters who are against tax increases - do you want to see improvements in public services - the police, schools, NHS, better rights for workers, better access to housing, a fair and just immigration system or not? After 14 years the Tories have proved themselves unable to deliver on any of these, what makes you think they will be better in future?

The Tories have achieved their purpose which is to make the rich richer. To remove as much tax revenue as possible from the public sector and redistribute it to the private sector. This is simply what they exist for. They do not want taxes spent on the average worker or on public services that they do not use.

“GrannyGravy13

Germanshepherdsmum
Cossy
GSM I’m talking about the top 5% of earners, no one else.

That my personal view. No idea tbh what the LP view as “wealthy”, I appreciate it’s all relative.
Apparently anyone with a gross income of over £80k is in the top 5%. I’m glad I no longer work, but remember that figure will also include people who have unearned income such as pensions and rental income.

I remember John McDonnell - who is still around - saying that anyone who had anything to leave was wealthy.
That’s a low figure (£80,000) to be included in the top 5%.
(OK I know many earn a lot less, but many 1,000’s earn a hell of a lot more)

Think how many people/professions this includes…“

Clearly, GrannyGravy13 95% of working people earn less than £80,000 (it was £87,000 in the piece I read earlier)

Nicenanny3

Whitewavemark2

Heaven help us if the majority of people vote on a “gut feeling

Well what are you voting on promises/blind faith that it will all pan right? Starmer or any on his front benches have no track record on running the country do they.

Nicenanny3 you need to do your homework. There are four shadow frontbenchers who were on the front bench in the Blair/Brown years. It blows your argument if you get the basics wrong.

Greyisnotmycolour I completely agree

The Tories have achieved their purpose which is to make the rich richer. To remove as much tax revenue as possible from the public sector and redistribute it to the private sector. This is simply what they exist for. They do not want taxes spent on the average worker or on public services that they do not use

Absolutely Greyisnotmycolour! Our taxes are currently the highest they’ve been for 80 years, yet very little makes its way into public services. This is down to political choice.

It’s not as if Tory supporters can claim we currently benefit from low taxes … because we don’t! I’m happy to pay tax in order to gain good public services for all citizens. Under this government we have the worst of both worlds … high taxation and crumbling public services

It’s a figure I found by googling. It seems low to me as well but that’s what I found.

Germanshepherdsmum

It’s a figure I found by googling. It seems low to me as well but that’s what I found.

I have always thought the top 3-5% of earners as the multi millionaires/billionaires.

Here in the S E you would struggle to get a mortgage on anything other than a rabbit hutch on a single gross salary of £80,000.

Yes, it’s not a lot.

fancythat

Purplepixie

I’ll decide on the day. Not convinced by any of them.

Hear hear.

I am leaning towards Reform.
Dont know if they will put up a candidate here.

As it happens, our MP I quite like.

I may do what I have done before, and vote for a minor candidate.

I so wish people wouldnt autmatically keep voting for one of the two main partes.
And then complain there is no one to vote for!
When there ballot often has up to 10 candidates on it. [Not in Scotland as I understand it].

All in all, I am clear as mud really.

Then vote LibDem and campaign for proportional representation.

Germanshepherdsmum

Yes, it’s not a lot.

However, 95% if people earn less than this currently! Many who live in the South East, teachers, nurses, junior doctors, most retail staff, most hospitality staff, most civil servants, most people in banks, most clerical workers, milkman, bakers, gardeners, nursery workers, carers etc etc etc This is how Mr & Mrs average, below average and just above average actually earn now!

Well, Cossy, you know how I managed to earn a lot more than £80k and it wasn’t easy. I had zero quality of life. The people you mention, with the exception of junior doctors (though they will become consultants or GPs), will fare much better than I ever did in the work-life balance stakes. If people prefer easier hours, less stress and don’t want to burn the midnight oil that’s their choice.

Well GSM it was your choice to put greed above anything else.

I'm undecided, but don't trust or like Starmer for the appalling way he has treated Rosie Duffield. He's stood by while she has been bullied and treated abominably by the party for believing in the sex based rights of women, and never given her any support at all. He just launched the Kent election campaign but Rosie, a Kent labour MP since 2010 wasn't invited! I don't trust him to protect women and their sex based rights. She's not my MP but how I wish she was! He's a self-serving coward in my book.

That remark is uncalled for Greyisnotmycolour! You don't have to agree with GSM but nasty personal remarks are unnecessary.

Rosie51

That remark is uncalled for Greyisnotmycolour! You don't have to agree with GSM but nasty personal remarks are unnecessary.

👏👏👏

Yeah that was deeply unpleasant.
GSM is describing the reality of stressful highly paid jobs. We can pretend that those jobs dont require sacrifice if we want, dont know what that achieves but carry on.

Have just looked at the numbers in my area last election and despite our Tory mp being horribly lacking in so many ways he got twice as many votes as the Labour candidate. That’s a lot to overturn this time.

This is a fairly poor somewhat run down town in the south east, with many social and other problems, yet people still vote Tory. Why? There is a well known conundrum often debated in academia known as The working class Tory vote, which questions why ordinary people would vote that way.

Given the average wage is now up to 35,000 gross if lucky, but average means many earn less, why on earth would they even consider voting Conservative. It’s a complete mystery to the academics. To me too.

Dont they realise that the Conservative goal is profit and to enrich the wealthy few, mostly their mates, business or personal, not the hard up rest of us? They don’t give a flying fig and have little respect for anyone or anything which doesn’t produce a profit and public service, as many other ordinary but vital jobs, are not there for profit, yet serve just as, if not more important a role as the financial sector.

Conservatives have governed for about 75 years out of the last 100 so have had more than enough time to ensure a fair society but under their governance the rich have got much much richer while the rest of us, the majority, struggle.

Because the left have failed them? And what the people on Twitter and the media think on issues is about a thousand light years away from what 'ordinary' people think.

GSM, I am rarely so rude but the comments you made about other workers life choices are every bit as a rude and if you make comments like that you should expect similar in return. It is quite clear from earlier discussion on this thread that 95% of workers earner less than £80K. To imply they that's their choice and they are basically lazy is incredibly insulting. What would happen if nobody wanted to do those jobs? As already happens in the care and farming sectors, the solution would be to employ immigrants but that doesn't please many people either. Not everyone can become a lawyer or earn £100k+, it would be good to acknowledge this and be thankful that there are people to fill all the roles we need to function as a society. So my apology, as spoken by good Tory, Pretti Patel "I'm sorry if you were offended".

GrannyGravy13

Germanshepherdsmum

Cossy

GSM I’m talking about the top 5% of earners, no one else.

That my personal view. No idea tbh what the LP view as “wealthy”, I appreciate it’s all relative.

Apparently anyone with a gross income of over £80k is in the top 5%. I’m glad I no longer work, but remember that figure will also include people who have unearned income such as pensions and rental income.

I remember John McDonnell - who is still around - saying that anyone who had anything to leave was wealthy.

That’s a low figure (£80,000) to be included in the top 5%.
(OK I know many earn a lot less, but many 1,000’s earn a hell of a lot more)

Think how many people/professions this includes…

It's true though. The figures are easily available, although they only include people who pay income tax. The income curve rises relatively steadily until the top couple of percent.

That's why it's laughable that people who only think they earn an "average" income are often deluded. The truth is that many of them earn far more than average.

A very unpleasant and unnecessary post Greyisnotmycolour. A lot of GN's have benefited from GSM's generously given legal expertise, myself included.