Re: O/T Thank God for that. : Fri May 14, 2010 6:46 am
Regarding VAT, when Labour temporarily reduced it by 2.5% to kick start the economy during the recession did it make you go out and spend?On a £500 TV for example 2.5% was the equivalent of £10.40 off. It's not going to make you rush out and buy one. So likewise it's not going to stop you buying it if it goes up.
Now regarding benefits, we definitely need a welfare system to help the most vulnerable in society who genuinely need it.
However, where I disagree with you is regarding is "the tiny amount of claimants play the system" for a start (and I'm not aiming this at anyone in particular just generalising) there are jobs available out there which the vast majority of unemployed can do, but won't do, which is why a lot of immigrants come to this country. The amount of people fiddling the system in Keighley is huge, mainly through apathy, lots taking advantage of the rules, quite a few fraudulently.
Has anyone looked in the shopping centre/ bus station recently during the week? It's full of them, the lazy ones, the career parents, alcoholics, drug abusers, chavs. Then there's the ones that hobble around on one crutch, claiming they're cripples. They aren't, if we can have a half blind PM and a blind Home Secretary these people can contribute to society too, after all regarding disablities should it not be about what they can do, not what they can't? Why is it you hardly ever see people with CVs in hand looking for work? After all, isn't that we pay jobseekers to do? Seek out jobs?
I know someone who works with single mums who have many kids to many dads so they get a free house and loads of benefits and believe me it's not a small problem or a small amount of people doing it, there's hundreds in Keighley at it.
Regards waste, you wouldn't believe how much goes on. My sister used to work in Airedale Hospital as part of the purchasing department. She was always telling me about the ridiculous amounts of money which was being wasted. Doctors asking for and being given new Parker pens every week when a 10p biro would suffice, food costing more than the equivalent product in a Supermarket, likewise with things like dressings. And why is this happening? Because there's no bottom line no profit to be made, any surplus is taken off them. The NHS is world's 3rd largest employer behind Indian Railways and US Armed Forces, can you even believe to imagine just how much money could be used elsewhere if they ran it efficiently like a good business?
