Why do things keep getting worse?

A £200 million drone factory is being constructed in Mildenhall, Suffolk to make drones for Ukraine. 500 jobs will be created.
Of course, we’re now a legitimate target for Russia or do we conveniently ignore that point? Better or worse?

The videos by Gary Stevenson, which can be viewed on YouTube, are extremely interesting. He is a very brilliant economist and explains in simple terms the increasing wealth gap between the very rich and working people. His solution is to tax wealth not work but so far governments have been afraid to do it.

Uschi

The videos by Gary Stevenson, which can be viewed on YouTube, are extremely interesting. He is a very brilliant economist and explains in simple terms the increasing wealth gap between the very rich and working people. His solution is to tax wealth not work but so far governments have been afraid to do it.

Lawyers get involved.
Smarter ones than employed by our governments.

Beginning to seem more and more than lawyers are the ones running the Uk.

that instead of than in the last sentence.

Uschi

The videos by Gary Stevenson, which can be viewed on YouTube, are extremely interesting. He is a very brilliant economist and explains in simple terms the increasing wealth gap between the very rich and working people. His solution is to tax wealth not work but so far governments have been afraid to do it.

It just makes sense for the wealthy to bear the biggest burden when it comes to paying taxes, as well as big corporations, rather than evading said taxes, and makes absolutely no sense to keep hitting those who are just trying to make a decent living and struggling with hikes in stamp duty and extortionate bills.
Why should the many support the minority of wealthy people at the top of the tree.
Time to shake things up and get rid of suck-ups in government.

Uschi

The videos by Gary Stevenson, which can be viewed on YouTube, are extremely interesting. He is a very brilliant economist and explains in simple terms the increasing wealth gap between the very rich and working people. His solution is to tax wealth not work but so far governments have been afraid to do it.

Gary Stevens has his limits. He understands how the wealthy are sucking up the country's wealth and how it is not only keeping the poor, poor, but is also affecting the middle classes.

This isn't exactly a new concept, Thomas Pikety, a
french economist who wrote a very thoroughly researched book on 'Capital', published in 2011, came to much the same conclusion.

The problem with Gary and Pikety is that they don't really understand how the national economy works, they're still pushing the 'taxes fund spending' myth and the fact that states with a sovereign currency create their own money and should be able to direct how it is to be used.

So they don't really have workable solutions to how wealth can redistributed more equably. In the last Stevenson video I watched Gary basically said just that. "I know what the problem is but I don't know how to solve it'.

More unorthodox economists could easily tell him....

Blair and Brown are to blame for all our troubles. Too arrogant to admit it.
Blair is a liar. He knows what he has done. Wasting money on an illegal war! Brown just wanted to be PM.
Foolish people wanting their little bit of power however it came. Brown lost us our pension savings. Never forgive him.

Stop the billionaires hiding their wealth in the Cayman Islands!

Weddingbelle123

Stop the billionaires hiding their wealth in the Cayman Islands!

They can just move Countries anyway, can they not?

Just read something about France saying Labour made a mistake by trying to tax the wealthy.
And the wealthy just got up and moved.

I think Reform is our only hope for a better life here. We've had Conservative which was quite bad with so many strikes under Rishi and don't mention the havoc Liz Truss caused. Kier is really hopeless protests everywhere, mass illegal immigration, pensioners freezing without fuel allowance, private schools and uni fees up, tried to cut money for disabled, hundreds of businesses folding or leaving the UK and Rayner deputy PM doing Tax fraud. Also pensioners being arrested because they don't want Palestinian to suffer any longer.
Reform at least deserves a chance - can they really be any worse?

Jojo1950

Blair and Brown are to blame for all our troubles. Too arrogant to admit it.
Blair is a liar. He knows what he has done. Wasting money on an illegal war! Brown just wanted to be PM.
Foolish people wanting their little bit of power however it came. Brown lost us our pension savings. Never forgive him.

I agree up to a point as I think Blair and Brown did a great deal of damage.

I think that Thatcher, Cameron and Johnson are also to blame for many of today's problems.

Weddingbelle123

Stop the billionaires hiding their wealth in the Cayman Islands!

You have to understand you can’t tell billionaires where to live, they can buy their way into almost any country they choose.
We should be encouraging them to invest in the UK, to a degree we do but no where near as much as our competitors, it has resulted in almost no technology or renewable industry.

Most of Europe is no better France and several others have serious economic problems, not enough is being invested in growth of the economy

sazz1

I think Reform is our only hope for a better life here. We've had Conservative which was quite bad with so many strikes under Rishi and don't mention the havoc Liz Truss caused. Kier is really hopeless protests everywhere, mass illegal immigration, pensioners freezing without fuel allowance, private schools and uni fees up, tried to cut money for disabled, hundreds of businesses folding or leaving the UK and Rayner deputy PM doing Tax fraud. Also pensioners being arrested because they don't want Palestinian to suffer any longer.
Reform at least deserves a chance - can they really be any worse?

YES - much much worse _ just look at the USA where Fatage's hero Trump has destroyed the economy and reduced the country to the laughing stock of the world/

It depends on the number of lefty lawyers Farage recruits to his team surely?

David49

Weddingbelle123

Stop the billionaires hiding their wealth in the Cayman Islands!

You have to understand you can’t tell billionaires where to live, they can buy their way into almost any country they choose.
We should be encouraging them to invest in the UK, to a degree we do but no where near as much as our competitors, it has resulted in almost no technology or renewable industry.

Most of Europe is no better France and several others have serious economic problems, not enough is being invested in growth of the economy

Not that there is a whole heap of actual billionaires. 3,000 of them.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_billionaires

varian

sazz1

I think Reform is our only hope for a better life here. We've had Conservative which was quite bad with so many strikes under Rishi and don't mention the havoc Liz Truss caused. Kier is really hopeless protests everywhere, mass illegal immigration, pensioners freezing without fuel allowance, private schools and uni fees up, tried to cut money for disabled, hundreds of businesses folding or leaving the UK and Rayner deputy PM doing Tax fraud. Also pensioners being arrested because they don't want Palestinian to suffer any longer.
Reform at least deserves a chance - can they really be any worse?

YES - much much worse _ just look at the USA where Fatage's hero Trump has destroyed the economy and reduced the country to the laughing stock of the world/

It is the richest Country.
By a wide margin.

sazz1

I think Reform is our only hope for a better life here. We've had Conservative which was quite bad with so many strikes under Rishi and don't mention the havoc Liz Truss caused. Kier is really hopeless protests everywhere, mass illegal immigration, pensioners freezing without fuel allowance, private schools and uni fees up, tried to cut money for disabled, hundreds of businesses folding or leaving the UK and Rayner deputy PM doing Tax fraud. Also pensioners being arrested because they don't want Palestinian to suffer any longer.
Reform at least deserves a chance - can they really be any worse?

Yes, I think a Reform-led UK could be a lot worse!

However, I'm interested in what you think they would do to improve the situation.

Incidentally, the UK doesn't have mass illegal immigration or hundreds of thousands of freezing pensioners. IMO an increase in private school fees isn't a bad thing. Unis need a massive overhaul anyway. The most deserving disabled will have their benefits increased and there will be more security for them. I've written before that I actually think some disabled benefits need scrutinising.

I agree that there needs to be a new approach to businesses. IMO the increase in employers' NI was a huge mistake. We've had three recent threads about Angela Rayner and I'm not going to comment any further. Frankly, I hope Farage goes the same way because he deserves it.

The "Palestine Action" designation as a terror group is ridiculous and I hope it will be reversed. I can't see Reform being great supporters.

So what will Reform actually do to improve the state of the country? It would be helpful to know because they don't seem to have any policies - and I'd hate to think people wouldn't know what they're voting for.

fancythat

varian

sazz1

I think Reform is our only hope for a better life here. We've had Conservative which was quite bad with so many strikes under Rishi and don't mention the havoc Liz Truss caused. Kier is really hopeless protests everywhere, mass illegal immigration, pensioners freezing without fuel allowance, private schools and uni fees up, tried to cut money for disabled, hundreds of businesses folding or leaving the UK and Rayner deputy PM doing Tax fraud. Also pensioners being arrested because they don't want Palestinian to suffer any longer.
Reform at least deserves a chance - can they really be any worse?

YES - much much worse _ just look at the USA where Fatage's hero Trump has destroyed the economy and reduced the country to the laughing stock of the world/

It is the richest Country.
By a wide margin.

Ask the average American if he/she is better off and approves of the treatment of women.

It was the richest country under President Biden but under Trump it gets poorer by the day - $36.2 trillion in national debt at a recent count and rising,

David49

Weddingbelle123

Stop the billionaires hiding their wealth in the Cayman Islands!

You have to understand you can’t tell billionaires where to live, they can buy their way into almost any country they choose.
We should be encouraging them to invest in the UK, to a degree we do but no where near as much as our competitors, it has resulted in almost no technology or renewable industry.

Most of Europe is no better France and several others have serious economic problems, not enough is being invested in growth of the economy

That's why it doesn't matter that much if billionaires do leave the country. They can invest their money (or not) wherever they want.

David I agree with you that the UK needs to do a lot more to encourage inward investment.

varian

It was the richest country under President Biden but under Trump it gets poorer by the day - $36.2 trillion in national debt at a recent count and rising,

It matters how the wealth is distributed. It matters very little if Musk and Zuckerberg are getting richer, if the vast majority of the country is getting poorer.

Reform won’t be any better and probably a good deal worse, Farage is a publicity hound like George Galloway, happy to jump on the band wagon and preach to the converted whose fears and prejudices help frame his narrative. But he has no real solutions or workable policies, and if hard graft is involved will promptly jump off the band wagon and go to ground.

fancythat

Weddingbelle123

Stop the billionaires hiding their wealth in the Cayman Islands!

They can just move Countries anyway, can they not?

Just read something about France saying Labour made a mistake by trying to tax the wealthy.
And the wealthy just got up and moved.

Have the wealthy left the country though. Happy to be corrected but thought I read the other day that it hadn’t actually happened?

I don’t think the wealthy have left the UK, many other European countries charge far more in taxes than we do.
Surprisingly countries that do charge more still have wealthy people living there though so it doesn’t necessarily compute that all rich people will flee a country if charged more in taxes.

MayBee70

fancythat

Weddingbelle123

Stop the billionaires hiding their wealth in the Cayman Islands!

They can just move Countries anyway, can they not?

Just read something about France saying Labour made a mistake by trying to tax the wealthy.
And the wealthy just got up and moved.

Have the wealthy left the country though. Happy to be corrected but thought I read the other day that it hadn’t actually happened?

It depends which source you read.

Some sources say yes. Some say no.

In real life I know one who has.
But that hardly makes for definite data.