UK election

Apparently a Labour MP has messed up tonight, by linking The Duke of Edinburgh's retirement to pensioner inequality.

This was Nadhim Zahawi, Conservative MP on Twitter with his response...

Nadhim Zahawi @ChiOnwurah.

"That is shameful & wrong. I am truly shocked by your comments. The Royal family should be kept out of politics. I hope you will apologise."

I was taken by the third sentence, stating "The Royal Family should be kept out of politics."

If only they could keep themselves out of it, more like.

Prince Charles has been interfering and fiddling with Cabinet Ministers for a long time.
 
Last edited:
I support the Health Secretary's , Jeremy Hunt's proposal to scrap Margaret Thatchers 1983 mental health act. Its good to see the government looking at the big issues surrounding the mental health system. A lot of young people find themselves needing services and sometimes being sectioned and detained either in prison or adult hospitals must be counter productive in terms of treating some patients. I still won't be voting Conservative but I get the gist of this policy.
 
Last edited:
As ever I don't trust anything that this government does. Part of their plan is to train up one teacher in each school to recognise children with depression/mental health issues etc. Given that that teacher will most probably be already having to look out for radicalisation etc etc and having to cope with increasing class sizes with less help from underpaid teaching assistants that are getting few and far between, this doesn't exactly sound like a ground breaking idea. That was, or so I thought, the idea of having tutor groups? And, a reduction of @ £400 per child isn't going to help matters. My friends school can't even afford text books for the pupils. I haven't looked into the other aspects of the proposal yet.
 
Yeah its impossible to genuinely improve everything while cutting so much. Agree with the sentiment Moe, though scrapping that ancient 1983 mental health act is a good thing, if they research it properly and then replace it with something more suitable to 2017..
 
Last edited:
But they won't; they'll just look for something that costs less. Look at 'care in the community' ie close down mental hospitals and throw everyone out into the street. Theresa May is so in tune with people she says that even her shoes 'inspire people'#youcouldn'tmakeitup
 
I don't consider myself particularly active politically and despite concerns over so many issues surrounding the party have pretty much always voted Labour.

I've been firmly in the camp that worries greatly about Corbyn as a potential PM but I find myself much more in agreement with his manifesto than with any other Labour manifesto I can remember.

And, to me, May is coming across as a total megalomaniac, putting herself up as a national leader as opposed to the national servant anyone in elected office should be. Stick a wee 'tache on her and you'd struggle to see the difference between her and Hitler (and Sturgeon).

Today's manifesto is one of the most vicious attacks on the under-privileged I ever remember.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Today's manifesto is one of the most vicious attacks on the under-privileged I ever remember.
Click to expand...

er...plans to means-test the Winter Fuel Allowance, the introduction of what could be described as a 'deferred asset tax' on ludicrously inflated property values in order to help pay for care and the removal of the 'third lock' on pensions which has guaranteed a 2.5% pay rise to the (overall) wealthiest sector of society whilst the income of the working population is stagnant are surely a three-pronged "vicious attack" on the over-privileged

Actually, not vicious, nor an attack, but rather good ideas
 
Last edited:
I'm on a very small pension [state plus one other] and only just have enough income to warrant paying tax, so I would assume that I will lose the fuel allowance and, without the triple lock and with rising inflation I'm going to struggle to have anything other than a very basic existence the way things are going.
 
....The Conservatives made a promise, in their last manifesto to allow one's children to inherit a certain amount of ones estate [I nearly voted for them because of it] and then never implemented it; along with another promise with regards childcare, which would have helped my son [also tempted me to vote for them]. I believe that wasn't implemented either. Too busy putting all their time and energy into a referendum to appease the backbenchers and UKIP voters.
 
Drone said:
er...plans to means-test the Winter Fuel Allowance, the introduction of what could be described as a 'deferred asset tax' on ludicrously inflated property values in order to help pay for care and the removal of the 'third lock' on pensions which has guaranteed a 2.5% pay rise to the (overall) wealthiest sector of society whilst the income of the working population is stagnant are surely a three-pronged "vicious attack" on the over-privileged

Actually, not vicious, nor an attack, but rather good ideas
Click to expand...

The changes from DLA to PIPS have been a complete mess - with the reported levels of benefit fraud being less than 1% I would love to see a cost benefit analysis prove that this has done anything but cost more money than it saved and also lead to many claimants suffering incredible levels of stress trying to get access to benefits.

I'm sure the means testing process for the fuel payments will also be an utter balls up, leading to people being badly assessed and losing the allowance to which they are perfectly entitled.
 
I know of someone who died of Motor Neurone disease; his sister [my friend] had to fight hard to get through the red tape that finally meant he received benefit and, of two payments that he received one was after he died and they had to repay it. I'd seen I Daniel Blake and wasn't sure how close to the truth it was; my friend said it was so similar to what happened to her brother she left the cinema in bits. I can't believe what this country has become. My children will, most probably, inherit nothing from me and will have to work till they die. What incentive is there to work hard? And, at a time when people like Rees Mogg [now, there's a good old Conservative politician who really represents the working people]are being handed millions to do up their family mansion. My daughter is a teacher; growing class sizes, no money for text books etc etc
 
The devil will be in the detail regarding the fuel allowance. Whether it will be a banded incremental deduction or an 'all or none' above/below a certain income who knows?

I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if the means testing process is a balls-up, means-testing isn't easy, unlike the doling out of flat rate universal benefits. But in my view universal Poll Benefits are as unfair as universal Poll Taxes: the former gives to those who don't need it and the latter takes from those who can't afford it

As I understand it the proposed 'death tax' as some have chosen to call it will ensure that 100K of a property's value will be protected. Anyway, isn't the liquidation of parents' estate in the form of inheritance a nice bonus rather than a right?

The words 'pledge' and 'promise' are chucked around like confetti in election manifestos. I've long realised they're no more than wish-lists and ideas
 
Last edited:
Any party that continues to use Jeremy Hunt (James Naughtie got it right) in any ministerial position simply has to be opposed. Far from offering strong and stable leadership, May takes the line of least resistance and has got multiple splinters from referendum fence-sitting. Her refusal to submit to public scrutiny and repetition of 'Brexit means Brexit' makes one wonder if she's really a series 3000 mechanoid. She's obviously not up to being a 4000 like Kryten. John Major without the charisma.
 
She's a prudish grey old lady who belongs in the 1950's and borrows an authoritarian streak from Cromwell. She actually wants to censor the internet now so that she deccides what we're allowed to look at on-line. She has zero flair and imagination and the charisma of the office cold water dispenser. Someone obviously told her once to wear some zany shoes in a desperate attempt to inject some personality and colour into her mortal form. This idea that she's a dedicated follower of fashion that she's tried pedalling is equally farcical. She had a sheltered upbringing as a vicars daughter in some safe little retreat in southern England before going onto Oxford. No one has found any remotely interesting back story to her. She was probably a boring prude when she was a teenager too
 
Last edited:
As far as the Tory pensioner policies are concerned, the main problem is that there is no detail so it's impossible to say whether or not any money will be saved.

Means testing the winter fuel allowance - I've no problem with this in principle but the cost of means testing could well exceed the amount saved and history shows that, if it's moved to a benefit that has to be claimed, it will be the poorer pensioners (ie the ones who need it most) who won't claim out of a misplaced sense of pride.

Ending the triple lock on state pensions - I've also got no problem with this in principle because the triple lock has raised the average pension from 16% of average wage to 25% and could be said to have achieved its purpose. However, the state pension was changed radically a couple of years ago and I'd say that any changes to the lock should probably only apply to pensions paid under the new system.

The changes to paying for social care are by far the most significant and could affect future generations quite badly. That said, someone has to pay for social care. Again, my problem is that there is so little detail and there is at least a chance that the charges could be circumvented by going for equity release.

https://www.tactical2017.com/
 
A strange thought struck me today

How would Ed Miliband have got on against Theresa May?

The more this campaign drags on, the more and more turgid she comes across as. She ducks out of debates, and only does set pieces with handpicked party members. She ain't a great campaigner, and looking at the polling, Labours manifesto has seemingly gone down better than the Tories seriously uninspiring effort. She is of course lucky to have run into Corbyn and his coterie, but Miliband had a little bit more about him, and he himself was perhaps unlucky to run into the oil slick that was David Cameron. Compared to May at least, Miliband looks positively dynamic.
 
Back
Top