Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Fri May 15, 2020 7:39 pm  

Gullibility only lasts as long as it does not effect a person’s finances, when they realise that many will be paying more and working until they are 70 the lies of Johnson will quickly start to wear thin and scrutiny will increase. We all know he is not a big fan of being scrutinised or questioned without a large fridge about.

Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Sat May 16, 2020 5:11 am  

wrencat1873 wrote:

Do you think that Sunak will still be a front bench politician when the Government have to balance the books.
All that he's done so far is to open the country's wallet and boy, has he opened it.

Spending at a rate never witnessed in peace time.

If he gets through this one, with borrowing under control, he will probably be made king, never mind Prime Minister.
It's far more likely than Boris will use him as a fall guy and tell the country how he "trusted him to get us through this", as he eases him aside for yet another one of his cronies.

I was always told that it's easy to spend money and that anyone could do it, much more difficult to achieve the same results on a budget and he's certainly not sticking to any budget but, there will be a day of reckoning at some point and then we will see, not only how good the Chancellor is but, also how good Boris is under severe fiscal pressure and most importantly, there wont be the get out clause of the last 10+ years, where every difficult decision was blamed on Labour - I'm looking forward to it.

Sunak is a very bright individual who has plenty of personal wealth so he is not being an MP for the money so yes he will be around for the long haul. I agree he has thrown the kitchen sink at this - not sure what else he could have done - there would 4m unemployed if he hadn't. One thing is for certain if he gets the top job the cabinet will have significant intellectual horsepower - its the way professional firms work employ the best brains. It is the one thing Labour fear. Brains will always beat idealism it is why Starmer is making a better fist of it than Corbyn/McDonald/Long-Bailey did.

It will Boris that's eased out his flaws are there for all to see - he is a front man but like Trump that is OK for a short period. If there is no substance behind it the public will see through it - like they did Corbyn.

One thing the Tories will do is leave the EU with no deal - the damage will just get lost in the fiscal mess the virus has caused - no bad thing in my view, let's have a clean slate. Austerity will not return - perhaps big ticket projects will be canned, we will all just pay more taxes, pension allowance for top rate tax payers will go - quite rightly too, fuel duty will increase and I would expect to see dividends taxed differently too. As a lefty I'm sure you wont mind paying more tax - you have been calling for it for years.

Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Sat May 16, 2020 5:42 pm  

Matt Hancock has just pretty much spat in the faces of the families who’ve lost loved ones in care homes. T**t.

Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Sun May 17, 2020 3:06 pm  

It does not take long for the government’s true colours to come through. We have Priti Patel when questioned confirming the home office were looking into the imposition of the NHS charge levied on those non U.K. heroes in hospitals. The problem is that this was a Johnson they were not and had no intention of dropping the application of the £600 + charge each non U.K. resident and their family pay to access the NHS.

Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Sun May 17, 2020 7:30 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Sunak is a very bright individual who has plenty of personal wealth so he is not being an MP for the money so yes he will be around for the long haul. I agree he has thrown the kitchen sink at this - not sure what else he could have done - there would 4m unemployed if he hadn't. One thing is for certain if he gets the top job the cabinet will have significant intellectual horsepower - its the way professional firms work employ the best brains. It is the one thing Labour fear. Brains will always beat idealism it is why Starmer is making a better fist of it than Corbyn/McDonald/Long-Bailey did.

It will Boris that's eased out his flaws are there for all to see - he is a front man but like Trump that is OK for a short period. If there is no substance behind it the public will see through it - like they did Corbyn.

One thing the Tories will do is leave the EU with no deal - the damage will just get lost in the fiscal mess the virus has caused - no bad thing in my view, let's have a clean slate. Austerity will not return - perhaps big ticket projects will be canned, we will all just pay more taxes, pension allowance for top rate tax payers will go - quite rightly too, fuel duty will increase and I would expect to see dividends taxed differently too. As a lefty I'm sure you wont mind paying more tax - you have been calling for it for years.

"Austerity will not return"
With record borrowing and a fiscal hole that is just fecking huge, how are the Tories, with their triple lock on tax going to pay down the new increased deficit, especially with massively shrinking tax receipts.

At the stare of the virus, there was talk of a cliff edge and a quick "bounce". However, with the easing of the lockdown likely to be slow and careful, the bounce will be akin to that of a cold squash ball, more of a thud on a cold floor and perhaps more interestingly, if you are right and there is not going to be a further period of austerity, why the hell did the poorest people in the country and our new hero's (in the NHS), have their livelihoods squeezed so far over the past 10+ years by the Troy party ??

Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Mon May 18, 2020 11:51 am  

wrencat1873 wrote:

"Austerity will not return"
With record borrowing and a fiscal hole that is just fecking huge, how are the Tories, with their triple lock on tax going to pay down the new increased deficit, especially with massively shrinking tax receipts.

At the stare of the virus, there was talk of a cliff edge and a quick "bounce". However, with the easing of the lockdown likely to be slow and careful, the bounce will be akin to that of a cold squash ball, more of a thud on a cold floor and perhaps more interestingly, if you are right and there is not going to be a further period of austerity, why the hell did the poorest people in the country and our new hero's (in the NHS), have their livelihoods squeezed so far over the past 10+ years by the Troy party ??

Everybody had their income squeezed - I didn't see many salary increases across the private sector during the reign of the coalition apart from minimum wage increases so it wasn't only the public sector that got squeezed.

Not a chance for further austerity - we will carry a bigger deficit that is for sure and various levers will be pulled: fuel duty, pension allowance >20% will be scrapped, greater efforts on CT, dividends will be taxed at higher levels bigger increases in council tax etc.

What should be allowed to happen is a halt to the increase in minimum wage 6% this - similar next - must keep going even though it will hurt the government most.

Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Mon May 18, 2020 12:48 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Everybody had their income squeezed - I didn't see many salary increases across the private sector during the reign of the coalition apart from minimum wage increases so it wasn't only the public sector that got squeezed.

Not a chance for further austerity - we will carry a bigger deficit that is for sure and various levers will be pulled: fuel duty, pension allowance >20% will be scrapped, greater efforts on CT, dividends will be taxed at higher levels bigger increases in council tax etc.

What should be allowed to happen is a halt to the increase in minimum wage 6% this - similar next - must keep going even though it will hurt the government most.

We'll certainly see just how creative Sunak actually is.
As I said, all that he's done so fare is to spend, spend, spend at a level that would make even the Labour Chancellors of bygone years blush, which is very easy.
A chancellor shows their worth when they can give the perception of spending, while actually keeping a "balanced" ledger.
This guy hasn't had to balance anything yet but, you seem to think that he's the dogs whatsits.

Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Mon May 18, 2020 1:04 pm  

wrencat1873 wrote:

We'll certainly see just how creative Sunak actually is.
As I said, all that he's done so fare is to spend, spend, spend at a level that would make even the Labour Chancellors of bygone years blush, which is very easy.
A chancellor shows their worth when they can give the perception of spending, while actually keeping a "balanced" ledger.
This guy hasn't had to balance anything yet but, you seem to think that he's the dogs whatsits.

What I think is he has got the mood of the nation right - the furlough, CBIL, VAT he has been creative in helping businesses survive and give workers some dignity during this crisis. You lot didn't like austerity when Osborne tried to balance the books so your option was borrow more money so what do you want?

One thing is obvious he is a very bright guy which is always a good starting point - intellectual horsepower is seldom beat by idealistic thinking.

[Mild Rover]

Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Mon May 18, 2020 2:08 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

intellectual horsepower is seldom beat by idealistic thinking.

Yeah, but first of all you need an emotive three word slogan.

I reckon that is why Stay Alert went down badly - only two words.

Only about 6 weeks for them to decide on whether to continue negotiating a trade deal with the EU. It doesn’t matter how bright you are if you’ve given yourself no good options.

Re: PM in Intensive Care... : Mon May 18, 2020 2:41 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Everybody had their income squeezed - I didn't see many salary increases across the private sector during the reign of the coalition apart from minimum wage increases so it wasn't only the public sector that got squeezed.

Not a chance for further austerity - we will carry a bigger deficit that is for sure and various levers will be pulled: fuel duty, pension allowance >20% will be scrapped, greater efforts on CT, dividends will be taxed at higher levels bigger increases in council tax etc.

What should be allowed to happen is a halt to the increase in minimum wage 6% this - similar next - must keep going even though it will hurt the government most.

Why pick on the poorest workers in the country?

What about the "never had it so goods" how about a freeze on the triple lock or maybe a cull on the free bus pass & T.V. licences, after all the elderly are the most affected by the virus, we're all in it together aren't we?