political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
How true. Labour is hitting its own heartlands hardest - which is what they teach you NOT to do in Politics 101. Good to see the effect hitting home in the Mother of Parliaments - maybe MPs could make up the difference by forgoing the subsidy on their toasted teacakes.
All the talk about 'compensation' etc is plainly ridiculous - how can the govt 'compensate' you for taking more of our money, other than by not doing so in the first place? And Broon and the ridiculous Darling fail to realise that there will be a huge perception disconnect between the tax increases hitting paypackets (as of NOW) and any 'compensation' package kicking in - sometime later this year, perhaps. I never thought I'd say it but three cheers for Frank Field.
Yes I too am paying more tax this month. I also can't see how Darling's letter will help me get a tax refund down the line.
For a moment I thought Frank Field, the Labour rebels and Tory opportunists were on my side but it seems they all had their own agenda and that was not helping those on low wages/pensions.
Cameron could put Brown on the spot over his vague promises of compensation at PMQs tomorrow, I hope he will.
The concern I have is that rather than vote for anyone but labour, people just won't bother to vote. I suspect a lower turnout will be 'the protest' which may not be enough to give a poor show in results for Labour.
That you take this kind of pleasure in people's suffering says a lot about the Tories' reasons for opposing this: nothing to do with morality (you have none) and everything to do with opportunism. It will take a long time before people forget the tripling of child poverty and the immense increases in inequality under the Tories.
Ok, tea ladies, you know what to do - GO ON STRIKE! Then declare Brown and Darling Scabs crossing your - selective - picket line, ban them from your cafeteria and refuse to serve them.
Ok, refuse workers, you know what to do - GO ON STRIKE and refuse to empty the PM's and Chancellor's bins.
Ok, shop and supermarket workers, pub staff and all the hard working people our there who are suffering courtesy of Brown and Darling.
Ban them, black them and teach the pair of them a well earned lesson.
And this government you appear to love so much has decreased inequality?
Remind me, which chancellor was it that INCREASED tax on the low paid and REDUCED tax for the rest
Er...
Look, I know it can difficult at times being a Labout supporter; having to deal with words of more than one syllable, trying to make out that removing the 10p tax rate is actually making the poor richer by use of MEANS TESTED benefits.
Wouldn't it be better if they paid no tax at all? probably, but, then, that's not Crash Gordon's way.
i'll admit i'm paying very slightly less income tax now, as i'm just over the threshold for 20% tax. however, my slight joy at seeing my wage slip was short lived when i remembered i'm now paying close to 110p per litre of petrol these days...
so in other words, EVERYONE is now paying more tax, even people who've benefitted from a reduction in income tax.
It couldn't have been timed better really. Just gotta make sure that the vote gets out in force on Thursday and Brown will go down in history as the Prime Minister that couldn't...
Gordon has had his grubby hands in my pay packet this week too. As I tried to explain to the Labour councillor on my doorstep this evening, what's happening nationally is impacting people more than what's happening locally. And how am I to meet the hike in council tax with a decreasing pay packet anyway? He began to look sheepish and we mutually agreed to part.
john said..tripling of child poverty under the Tories.
Yes, they seem to have been sooo much better off under NuLAb.
Shannon Matthews and even Shannon's mum must be thankful that all that extra money has freed them from poverty.
In 1987 in the USA Charles Murray tried to calculate all the government money spent on relieving poverty. All of it. social security, unemployment benefits, medicare etc. It came to $3,8000,000,000 since the 1960's. Enough to give EVERY American who was measured as below the poverty line $117,000 each, at 1987 dollar prices. the total spending was equal to the ENTIRE 1987 USA GDP.
and to quote from parliament of whores.. AND THE SPENDING OF THIS TRULY VAST SOME OF MONEY HAS LEFT ALL THE EXPERTS SLACK JAWED AND DUMBSTRUCK,STARING INTO THE MAW OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY PARADOX:
YOU CAN'T GET RID OF POVERTY BY GIVING PEOPLE MONEY!
shame no one in Nulala read his work before all that splurging went on.
don't believe it John? OK , look at council houses. Those who bought and managed to hang on to their homes in the 1980's. Are they now better off or worse? Is the answer to build more council houses and keep people in them, or more now to sell off later , or to do what Mr Bean wanted in his 11 years which is to neither build nor sell council houses at all.
as Westmorlander says .. it can be hard being a Labour supporter, but do try and open your mind a little.
Tories gave you a very long kicking over unions, restrictive practices and overspending. Labour gave the Tories a big kicking over too little public spending,uncaring attitudes and sleaze
Stop banging on about the evil Tories and try and do some good.. Your spending policies have seen much nicer and better schools that don't teach children to read. Much nicer and better hospitals where a huge number of people die from superbugs. There are more police arresting fewer criminals and solving less crimes. The army has more funds for less equipment.. The poor .... well you know how it is.
just try, really try and think When you look out of your window, is his what the Labour party intended it to be like after a decade in power? really? you surprise me.
As a disabled pensioner on £5,400 per annum with no benefits, my Tax has now more than doubled to £25.80per month.
This may not sound much to many of you but I had planned a weekend break this summer, my first holiday for seven years. That break must now be cancelled in order to fund the Tax decreases for the better off amongst you.
I am aware of many others in the same position as me, and to a man (and lady) they have ALL stated that they will either vote for anyone except Labour, not vote at all or will spoil their Ballot Papers with a suitable epithet.
The other factor which has genmerally been ignored in this debate is the effect on pensions. To enhance your pension fund by £100 per month has until now cost you only £78 as the Government has contributed £22 now you have to pay in £80 as the Government will only pay in £20. So if you earn under £40000 you are going to pay more tax , contribute more to your pension fund ( or get less pension if you pay the same) and generally be worse off
Done My Bit, vote, and vote for the candidate that offers you the best chance of defeating Labour, or the candidate you like best - your choice . Spoiling your ballot paper, or not voting is what authoritarian, post-democratic New Labour wants you to do.
They put out a lot of propaganda that voting doesn't make any difference, they're all the same, the electoral system makes voting pointless in your constituency, there's no way to protest via voting - it's not true. Vote.
Simple question really - do you live in some kind of time warp or some alter universe?
Let's get one thing straight John - you don't get people out of 'poverty' by subsidising them for the rest of their lives. All you do with that is reduce the poor bastards who do the subsidising down to poverty as well. It's called socialism.
The only way to get people out of poverty is to give them a good education and training and put themselves in charge of their future. But then Gordenron would lose control of the serf's lives and they wouldn't really need him, would they?
Brown said this morning, "We didn't cover as well as we should have" losses to low earners without children and pensioners aged 60 to 64, but said he was "listening" and "learning" as prime minister and that problems were "being dealt with".
Can you imagine anything so badly thought through by a Prime Minister that she should have to make a statement like that. Trouble is he never fully admits responsibility for anything he does wrong. What he should have done in the first instance was to have immediately reversed the decision, but he's just not capable of doing so. Instead he is treating the poorest in our society as laboratory rats for his personal research. You can bet your life that he is currently getting the small print together to make absolutely sure that he will recover the tax from the same people under the guise of something else. Such is his grasping nature!
Even those who are not on low pay will be scarcely better off because the increase in NI contributions (by the lifting of the upper threshold) together with the abolition of the 10p rate will largely cancel out the effect of the reduction in the basic rate to 20p. And what little is left is taken up with increased council tax, petrol taxes etc etc. Labour costs you money, as it always does. I just hope they get the kicking they deserve tomorrow.
To clarify, I have never supported New Labour, and am outraged at the 10p rate, the failure to build more council housing, the failure to tackle inequality and poverty and many more things besides. All are utter betrayals of our values. All, however, are also largely a result of the legacy of individualism you lot left after 18 years in power - though NL have done nothing to tackle this either. I have far more right to be angry at the govt than you lot - and believe me I am. But I know that there are a great many socialists in the Labour Party (including the PLP), and that Labour values are the best there is: no other party believes in 'doing as you'd be done by', moral responsibility for others' welfare, compassion and human decency. The Tories care only about greed and individualism - nothing will change that. So whilst I'm angry with my party, yours disgusts me far more.
I paid £11 more income tax this month.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't afford a one bedroomed flat in a country I have lived in and worked in all my life. That is one of the grossest insults.
I can't wait to get rid of these scumbags. They're supposed to help ordinary people like me.
How true. Labour is hitting its own heartlands hardest - which is what they teach you NOT to do in Politics 101. Good to see the effect hitting home in the Mother of Parliaments - maybe MPs could make up the difference by forgoing the subsidy on their toasted teacakes.
ReplyDeleteAll the talk about 'compensation' etc is plainly ridiculous - how can the govt 'compensate' you for taking more of our money, other than by not doing so in the first place? And Broon and the ridiculous Darling fail to realise that there will be a huge perception disconnect between the tax increases hitting paypackets (as of NOW) and any 'compensation' package kicking in - sometime later this year, perhaps. I never thought I'd say it but three cheers for Frank Field.
It's Labour's Poll Tax. Hooray!
Perhaps there will be a bit of slobberdobbing in the Labour members teacakes as the tealadies take revenge
ReplyDeleteSo, the tea ladies in the Commons are paying MORE tax, so that the Labour MPs who voted it through can pay LESS tax. Gordon Brown - what a ****.
ReplyDeleteYes I too am paying more tax this month. I also can't see how Darling's letter will help me get a tax refund down the line.
ReplyDeleteFor a moment I thought Frank Field, the Labour rebels and Tory opportunists were on my side but it seems they all had their own agenda and that was not helping those on low wages/pensions.
Cameron could put Brown on the spot over his vague promises of compensation at PMQs tomorrow, I hope he will.
But why did Frank Field cave in so easily?
The concern I have is that rather than vote for anyone but labour, people just won't bother to vote. I suspect a lower turnout will be 'the protest' which may not be enough to give a poor show in results for Labour.
ReplyDeleteThat you take this kind of pleasure in people's suffering says a lot about the Tories' reasons for opposing this: nothing to do with morality (you have none) and everything to do with opportunism. It will take a long time before people forget the tripling of child poverty and the immense increases in inequality under the Tories.
ReplyDeleteOk, tea ladies, you know what to do - GO ON STRIKE!
ReplyDeleteThen declare Brown and Darling Scabs crossing your - selective - picket line, ban them from your cafeteria and refuse to serve them.
Ok, refuse workers, you know what to do - GO ON STRIKE and refuse to empty the PM's and Chancellor's bins.
Ok, shop and supermarket workers, pub staff and all the hard working people our there who are suffering courtesy of Brown and Darling.
Ban them, black them and teach the pair of them a well earned lesson.
@John at 8:54,
ReplyDeleteAnd this government you appear to love so much has decreased inequality?
Remind me, which chancellor was it that INCREASED tax on the low paid and REDUCED tax for the rest
Er...
Look, I know it can difficult at times being a Labout supporter; having to deal with words of more than one syllable, trying to make out that removing the 10p tax rate is actually making the poor richer by use of MEANS TESTED benefits.
Wouldn't it be better if they paid no tax at all? probably, but, then, that's not Crash Gordon's way.
Regards, Westmorlander
i'll admit i'm paying very slightly less income tax now, as i'm just over the threshold for 20% tax. however, my slight joy at seeing my wage slip was short lived when i remembered i'm now paying close to 110p per litre of petrol these days...
ReplyDeleteso in other words, EVERYONE is now paying more tax, even people who've benefitted from a reduction in income tax.
I have just had to give all my employee's their wageslips for this month.
ReplyDeleteAs Nadine says - election day on Thursday!
It couldn't have been timed better really. Just gotta make sure that the vote gets out in force on Thursday and Brown will go down in history as the Prime Minister that couldn't...
ReplyDelete"The tea room staff were mad, very mad."
ReplyDeleteIf they were mad, they needn't be - somebody should tell them that they don't pay UK income tax over in the US.
Gordon has had his grubby hands in my pay packet this week too. As I tried to explain to the Labour councillor on my doorstep this evening, what's happening nationally is impacting people more than what's happening locally. And how am I to meet the hike in council tax with a decreasing pay packet anyway? He began to look sheepish and we mutually agreed to part.
ReplyDeleteThursday can't come too soon
John, why don't you just put on your flat cap and go walk your whippet?
ReplyDeletejohn said..tripling of child poverty under the Tories.
ReplyDeleteYes, they seem to have been sooo much better off under NuLAb.
Shannon Matthews and even Shannon's mum must be thankful that all that extra money has freed them from poverty.
In 1987 in the USA Charles Murray tried to calculate all the government money spent on relieving poverty. All of it. social security, unemployment benefits, medicare etc.
It came to $3,8000,000,000 since the 1960's. Enough to give EVERY American who was measured as below the poverty line $117,000 each, at 1987 dollar prices. the total spending was equal to the ENTIRE 1987 USA GDP.
and to quote from parliament of whores..
AND THE SPENDING OF THIS TRULY VAST SOME OF MONEY HAS LEFT ALL THE EXPERTS SLACK JAWED AND DUMBSTRUCK,STARING INTO THE MAW OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY PARADOX:
YOU CAN'T GET RID OF POVERTY BY GIVING PEOPLE MONEY!
shame no one in Nulala read his work before all that splurging went on.
don't believe it John? OK , look at council houses. Those who bought and managed to hang on to their homes in the 1980's.
Are they now better off or worse? Is the answer to build more council houses and keep people in them, or more now to sell off later , or to do what Mr Bean wanted in his 11 years which is to neither build nor sell council houses at all.
as Westmorlander says .. it can be hard being a Labour supporter, but do try and open your mind a little.
Tories gave you a very long kicking over unions, restrictive practices and overspending.
Labour gave the Tories a big kicking over too little public spending,uncaring attitudes and sleaze
Stop banging on about the evil Tories and try and do some good..
Your spending policies have seen much nicer and better schools that don't teach children to read.
Much nicer and better hospitals where a huge number of people die from superbugs.
There are more police arresting fewer criminals and solving less crimes.
The army has more funds for less equipment..
The poor .... well you know how it is.
just try, really try and think
When you look out of your window, is his what the Labour party intended it to be like after a decade in power?
really? you surprise me.
As a disabled pensioner on £5,400 per annum with no benefits, my Tax has now more than doubled to £25.80per month.
ReplyDeleteThis may not sound much to many of you but I had planned a weekend break this summer, my first holiday for seven years. That break must now be cancelled in order to fund the Tax decreases for the better off amongst you.
I am aware of many others in the same position as me, and to a man (and lady) they have ALL stated that they will either vote for anyone except Labour, not vote at all or will spoil their Ballot Papers with a suitable epithet.
Any suggestions?
The other factor which has genmerally been ignored in this debate is the effect on pensions.
ReplyDeleteTo enhance your pension fund by £100 per month has until now cost you only £78 as the Government has contributed £22 now you have to pay in £80 as the Government will only pay in £20. So if you earn under £40000 you are going to pay more tax , contribute more to your pension fund ( or get less pension if you pay the same) and generally be worse off
But if you are a 40% tax payer then you now get 20%, instead of 18%, relief on your pension contributions.
ReplyDeleteStrange old world with this lot in power isn't it?
Done My Bit, vote, and vote for the candidate that offers you the best chance of defeating Labour, or the candidate you like best - your choice . Spoiling your ballot paper, or not voting is what authoritarian, post-democratic New Labour wants you to do.
ReplyDeleteThey put out a lot of propaganda that voting doesn't make any difference, they're all the same, the electoral system makes voting pointless in your constituency, there's no way to protest via voting - it's not true. Vote.
I am supposed to be one of the 85% who benefit from the abolition of the 10p rate and yet my payslip was down this month too.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone won under this new scheme?
john said @ 8.54..
ReplyDeleteSimple question really - do you live in some kind of time warp or some alter universe?
Let's get one thing straight John - you don't get people out of 'poverty' by subsidising them for the rest of their lives. All you do with that is reduce the poor bastards who do the subsidising down to poverty as well. It's called socialism.
The only way to get people out of poverty is to give them a good education and training and put themselves in charge of their future. But then Gordenron would lose control of the serf's lives and they wouldn't really need him, would they?
Blue Eyes said
ReplyDeleteHas anyone won under this new scheme?
Of course..and I think you know what his name is.
Brown said this morning, "We didn't cover as well as we should have" losses to low earners without children and pensioners aged 60 to 64, but said he was "listening" and "learning" as prime minister and that problems were "being dealt with".
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine anything so badly thought through by a Prime Minister that she should have to make a statement like that. Trouble is he never fully admits responsibility for anything he does wrong. What he should have done in the first instance was to have immediately reversed the decision, but he's just not capable of doing so. Instead he is treating the poorest in our society as laboratory rats for his personal research. You can bet your life that he is currently getting the small print together to make absolutely sure that he will recover the tax from the same people under the guise of something else. Such is his grasping nature!
Even those who are not on low pay will be scarcely better off because the increase in NI contributions (by the lifting of the upper threshold) together with the abolition of the 10p rate will largely cancel out the effect of the reduction in the basic rate to 20p. And what little is left is taken up with increased council tax, petrol taxes etc etc. Labour costs you money, as it always does. I just hope they get the kicking they deserve tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI've won, but then I earn considerably more than £100K.
ReplyDeleteI am going to vote Tory which will be a vote to pay a more redistributive tax. Bizarre times!
To clarify, I have never supported New Labour, and am outraged at the 10p rate, the failure to build more council housing, the failure to tackle inequality and poverty and many more things besides. All are utter betrayals of our values. All, however, are also largely a result of the legacy of individualism you lot left after 18 years in power - though NL have done nothing to tackle this either. I have far more right to be angry at the govt than you lot - and believe me I am. But I know that there are a great many socialists in the Labour Party (including the PLP), and that Labour values are the best there is: no other party believes in 'doing as you'd be done by', moral responsibility for others' welfare, compassion and human decency. The Tories care only about greed and individualism - nothing will change that. So whilst I'm angry with my party, yours disgusts me far more.
ReplyDeleteLabour values are the best there is: no other party believes in 'doing as you'd be done by',
ReplyDeleteHa.
The two great beliefs of Labour:
1. If I can't have it why the hell should you. (e.g. IHT)
2. What's yours is mine and what's mine's me own.
Runner up:
All Animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
Oink.