Is this the government you thought was safe with the economy?

You see let me define my socialist principles ...that those of us in society who are lucky enough to have more than our needs are happy to support those less fortunate.

That is the basis of my politics. Forget the rest.

According to many on this site, the UK is made up entirely of
Rough sleepers ( many of which have drug addictions) and poor people living from food banks.
Opposing them are the ranks of the very wealthy.
Well, no actually....the UK mainly consists of working people
Who may not be well off but are actually doing alright thank you very much and are certainly aspirational.
That’s why so many have no time for such as Corbyn and McDonnell, who wouldn’t make things better for the few ( the extremely poor and homeless) they would make it worse for the many!

All governments, whatever the shade of political party supports the poorer members of society when they need it.

Unless you go around handing out tenners in the street, we all support a welfare state.

That is not fact but opinion or surmise. I stick to facts and these are clear from the years of mismanagement by the Tories.

Is that why this government has made such drastic cuts to the Welfare State?

So Anja do you not agree if you have a finite income as most families do and you pay all necessary household bills and remainder of money is split between the children the families with two children will be able to give their children more than a family with the same finite income but choosing to have 10 children. Can you explain why the government is to blame for 10 children living in poverty and not their parents? The children are not undeserving poor. The parents have made them poor though.

It has been refreshing to see less name calling and slanging matches on political threads here recently. It is a pity to see it starting up again, newnanny and to see it endorsed by Lemongrove.

Let's play nicely!

humptydumpty we have I suppose come to the Victorian belief Dickens put into words "let them die and decrease the surplus population"

I never thought the economy would be safe with this government. Why would I? Austerity was merely a political idea and was never necessary in the first place so I wasn't expecting favourable results with that either. It's a shame that our government is now a laughing stock worldwide.

I can see you have one fixed point of view and used flawed argument to justify that. For the few, very few, families who have ‘too many’ (IYO) children, there are far, far more with just 2.3 children struggling to rise above the poverty line.

Boris is trying to announce his new policies of more police on the streets, more money for hospitals and a fairer formulae for schools so all children get same amount regardless of whether they live in a city or a rural location, and minimum wage to all over 21's of £10.50 by end of 2014, but JC and JS have already said they are going to vote new budget down. They said so before even hearing what the policies were. Trisher you do realise the £10.50 is more than Labour are proposing for the minimum wage. Having a higher minimum wage is fairer as it forces businesses to pay workers properly rather than making them claim state benefits. Benefits are a safety net if you are sick, or lose your job and should not be a lifestyle choice. I recall under Brown so many people claimed benefits they could not afford to give them up to get a job as they would be worse off. That was irresponsible in my book. We will just have to agree to disagree as I am totally against Marxist values.

My thoughts exactly trisher, I was going to post the same myself.

I'll just say that there are too many people on this planet.

newnanny Have you never heard of people who have two or more children before life deals them a hard blow - maybe a life changing accident or illness (or even death of one of the parents), the loss of a job which was thought to be secure, etc etc etc?

If you haven't - or don't know anybody in that situation - you are living in a gilded bubble.

Oh dear! oh dear! Newnanny Do have any idea how many families in the UK have ten children?

BTW newnanny Johnson's new funding formula for schools would transfer funding from schools in more deprived areas to wealthier areas. How is that giving children more equality of opportunity?

Amagram where exactly are you seeing slanging matches and name calling on this thread. Let alone by newnanny and endorsed by me!
I believe in playing the ball not the man, and may be blunt in my views but have not name called a single poster.

Raising the minimum wage doesn't make most workers better off because it means they receive less in Universal Credit. What it does is transfer paying from the state to employers, many of whom are small businesses and are already finding it difficult to survive. It doesn't help the one in seven workers who are self-employed either.

Oh Anja thank you for You see let me define my socialist principles ...that those of us in society who are lucky enough to have more than our needs are happy to support those less fortunate
I was beginning to wonder what kind of selfish forum I was on. There are a few people on here who need to look deep into their souls. On the basis of everyone being responsible for their own catastrophes, for choosing to have dozens of children they can't afford......I am lucky enough to enjoy good health at the moment, so what about if I said I was fed up paying out of my taxes for those of you who have poor health? For those of you who failed to make pension provision and now claim pension credits? Or is that different? Same philosophy, different spending.

So true, Gill. There but for the grace of God...

It comes down to ...do you prefer to have a Conservative government that overall does better generally for the country as a whole to one like Corbyn, McDonnell and Abbott ( under the aegis of Momentum ) would try and put in place?
Venezuela anyone?
We do have a welfare state here, NHS and tax credits to top up working people earning under a certain level, and out of work benefits.We all know that rising homelessness has many social reasons, mental health and drug taking along with other problems.It’s a huge problem, and wasn’t eradicated under the last long Labour government ( in any case) and since then the population has grown amazingly.It’s something, that once out of the EU I hope the government will turn it’s attention to, but there are no easy answers to it.

The welfare state was set up to help those in genuine need through illness, bereavement or loss of employment. Unfortunately those who choose to be out of work or have large families are swept up in the welfare net and helped ad infinitum. It's almost impossible to separate the genuine needy from the scroungers but that is what they must attempt to do. No-one resents helping the genuine needy but to know you are working to support scroungers is soul destroying.

The outlook does not look good, with the latest round of spending promises the borrowing is going to increase markedly and it all has to be repaid one day
We are already borrowing 90% of GDP, austerity was supposed to be reducing that, as I remind my leave voting friends, this is what you wanted and you were warned enough times but you chose to ignore the warnings.
As for tax cuts, don’t hold your breath

I haven’t seen any selfish posts from anyone saying they are loathe to contribute to any taxes that help keep our welfare state going.
Do the rest of you go out to specifically give money to needy families?
If not,( and I think that’s a given) you contributed just the same as all of us.