It was good to see the Lords kicking Osbourne in the bollocks.
Some of the arguments against their interfering were laughable, the worst came from Michael Howard who talked about "300 years of convention". Sorry, but that convention is not relevant with regards to tax credits.
As with the bedroom tax, most people are in favour IN PRINCIPLE, but not the method employed. Instead of having an alternative in place, the Tories decide to cut the money then fudge the replacement.
I cannot see Cameron flooding the HoL with new Tory peers - that really would be a constitutional crisis.
In a way of course tax credits are an abomination... as was the family tax thing that the Tories had before it. People should simply earn enough to live in the world that they live in. Work should pay. If your rent on a very modest apartment in a down market area is £300 a week, which it can easily be in a city, it's plain wrong that you are only earning £200 a week.
As you say, rather like bedroom tax. I've no problem if the government says, we're not paying benefits for you to have spare bedrooms by the number so you can have your friends over to stay. But the authorities need to be able to provide one bedroom flats within a reasonable area for that to be fair or reasonable.
Michael Howard was always a prat.
Britain has become a horrible place to live for anyone who isn't reasonably to very well off.
" Britain has become a horrible place to live for anyone who isn't reasonably to very well off."
Absolutely and if you visit the US of A you will find it is exactly the same. Westminster's desire to be the 51st state of the USA has led to neocon/neoliberal policies designed to bring about that very situation (poverty for the poor that is). Unfortunately,England keeps voting for that so for now there is nothing we Scots can do about it.
I'd like to live almost anywhere that wasn't ruled by the Eton Boys.
Perhaps your Scandinavia tris, tho' I think they would expect us to do it for ourselves.
And that ought to be a wake up call, don't you think?
50:50 Yes:No at the moment.
I really, really want to believe that that is a trend and not an end point.
We rely on Nichola Sturgeon to call the next one when we will win. It is a difficult call to make.
I don't think I could go through that again - and lose - without having exteremely detrimental thoughts about those that voted no, yet again. It is an entirely dishonourable position to have, it is a ridiculous assumption that what we see in front of us is the best that it gets. Your article about TGV's shows that a country that is not neo-liberal can do something remarkable. The governemt here is incapable of that sort of joined up thought.
The UK can't do.
Is that not the Tories manifesto? Or their Labour Parties acquiescence?
Strange but very interesting times I'd say Douglas.
I think we are changing, and I think that it will be for the better. I'm sure that Labour will recover to an extent, but even they seem to realise that it will be a long struggle back to relevance.
This coalition seems to have cooked the Lib Dems' goose, even though in fairness we have to see that they were a restraining force on the Tories.
I really supported Corbyn's election and I thought that it would make them distinguishable from the Tories. I'm beginning to wonder about the wisdom of it.
I hope that that sometime...when we can hope to win... will be soon.
Before they manage to kill off all our poor and our sick and waste our money on their silly WMDs.
Perhaps in these digital times we should be thinking about having "virtual" peers who only come into being when a government needs a majority in the lords and doesn't have enough numbers to push things through.
Or perhaps Zero hours contract peers, say 500 each for the two main parties to be used only when there is a likely hood of them not getting their own way.
If they get called upon to do their duty they get paid their £300 and can call themselves by silly titles dating back to King Arthur. Any other time they get on with their ordinary jobs in Tescos or down the docks and are called Mr.
A bit like Mrs Goldie turning up there last night... or Andrew Lloyd Webber flying on from New York on expenses...
Or we could just do what the poster suggests... have blow up ones. most of the real ones are balloons anyway, so no one would notice. We could stick a pin in them and bust them when we are finished with them... all of them!
The Huffpost being mildly amusing, who knew?
ReplyDeleteIt only really became funny when Munguin pinched it!
DeleteBritish Labour,the party of abstinence,except of course for Labour peers when it comes to cheap booze in the Westminster bars.
ReplyDeleteTrue, I'm not easily seeing the word abstinence and the name George ffoulkes in teh same sentence.
DeleteIt was good to see the Lords kicking Osbourne in the bollocks.
ReplyDeleteSome of the arguments against their interfering were laughable, the worst came from Michael Howard who talked about "300 years of convention". Sorry, but that convention is not relevant with regards to tax credits.
As with the bedroom tax, most people are in favour IN PRINCIPLE, but not the method employed. Instead of having an alternative in place, the Tories decide to cut the money then fudge the replacement.
I cannot see Cameron flooding the HoL with new Tory peers - that really would be a constitutional crisis.
zog
In a way of course tax credits are an abomination... as was the family tax thing that the Tories had before it. People should simply earn enough to live in the world that they live in. Work should pay. If your rent on a very modest apartment in a down market area is £300 a week, which it can easily be in a city, it's plain wrong that you are only earning £200 a week.
DeleteAs you say, rather like bedroom tax. I've no problem if the government says, we're not paying benefits for you to have spare bedrooms by the number so you can have your friends over to stay. But the authorities need to be able to provide one bedroom flats within a reasonable area for that to be fair or reasonable.
Michael Howard was always a prat.
Britain has become a horrible place to live for anyone who isn't reasonably to very well off.
" Britain has become a horrible place to live for anyone who isn't reasonably to very well off."
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely and if you visit the US of A you will find it is exactly the same.
Westminster's desire to be the 51st state of the USA has led to neocon/neoliberal policies designed to bring about that very situation (poverty for the poor that is).
Unfortunately,England keeps voting for that so for now there is nothing we Scots can do about it.
Yes, that's true. We could of course, have done something about it last year but bottled out.
DeleteScandinavian model appeals to me much more.
If we can't be trusted to run our own country, could the Norwegians do it for us instead of the brits?
I'd like to live almost anywhere that wasn't ruled by the Eton Boys.
DeletePerhaps your Scandinavia tris, tho' I think they would expect us to do it for ourselves.
And that ought to be a wake up call, don't you think?
50:50 Yes:No at the moment.
I really, really want to believe that that is a trend and not an end point.
We rely on Nichola Sturgeon to call the next one when we will win. It is a difficult call to make.
I don't think I could go through that again - and lose - without having exteremely detrimental thoughts about those that voted no, yet again. It is an entirely dishonourable position to have, it is a ridiculous assumption that what we see in front of us is the best that it gets. Your article about TGV's shows that a country that is not neo-liberal can do something remarkable. The governemt here is incapable of that sort of joined up thought.
The UK can't do.
Is that not the Tories manifesto? Or their Labour Parties acquiescence?
We live in a very strange time, I think.
Strange but very interesting times I'd say Douglas.
DeleteI think we are changing, and I think that it will be for the better. I'm sure that Labour will recover to an extent, but even they seem to realise that it will be a long struggle back to relevance.
This coalition seems to have cooked the Lib Dems' goose, even though in fairness we have to see that they were a restraining force on the Tories.
I really supported Corbyn's election and I thought that it would make them distinguishable from the Tories. I'm beginning to wonder about the wisdom of it.
I hope that that sometime...when we can hope to win... will be soon.
Before they manage to kill off all our poor and our sick and waste our money on their silly WMDs.
Perhaps in these digital times we should be thinking about having "virtual" peers who only come into being when a government needs a majority in the lords and doesn't have enough numbers to push things through.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps Zero hours contract peers, say 500 each for the two main parties to be used only when there is a likely hood of them not getting their own way.
LOL Brilliant.
DeleteIf they get called upon to do their duty they get paid their £300 and can call themselves by silly titles dating back to King Arthur. Any other time they get on with their ordinary jobs in Tescos or down the docks and are called Mr.
A bit like Mrs Goldie turning up there last night... or Andrew Lloyd Webber flying on from New York on expenses...
Or we could just do what the poster suggests... have blow up ones. most of the real ones are balloons anyway, so no one would notice. We could stick a pin in them and bust them when we are finished with them... all of them!