Really enjoyed the Ryder Cup and cooking a meal for my dear wife yesterday in a politics free zone
Just sat down for lunch to see Truss delivering a speech and Farage nodding in agreement
Time to go to politics free zone again methinks
You voted for this lot; look upon your fine works!
I was fine with Johnson on brexit, covid, and Ukraine but he lost me along with the country over partygate
I had no input into Truss election and indeed am not a member anymore
I support Sunak certainly against Starmer
Why? What has he done/ promised to do that warrants this baleful Tory government getting another term? The past 5+ years have been some of the worst governments in our history and the current Tory party are surely the worst of a very bad bunch.
The PM is rich? So what. He is leader of the Conservative Party not a Corbynite Marxist sect.
What voters want to see is their own economic circumstances improve which he and Hunt are doing by cutting inflation and growing the economy and hopefully in due course cutting tax as well.
As for getting rid of Rishi, barely more than a year ago OGH was telling Tories to get rid of Boris in favour of Rishi!
Cutting inflation is not a sufficient condition for people to "see their own economic circumstances improve". What matters to most people is the difference between their income inflation and price inflation. Inflation is still high.
We're not going destitute as fast as we were, darling. I think i'll vote conservative now.
And don't forget the cumulative effect - it will be quite some time before real wages are back where they were before Sunak got in.
Yes. We're just off the back of 20 straight months of CPI inflation being above wage inflation. We've had one month with wages going up faster than CPI. So even if every month is the mirror of the months before, we'll still be worse off than we were in October 2021 by the time the election comes around.
Especially thanks to fiscal drag.
Real take-home wages are still falling currently, even with nominal wages growing faster than inflation.
You’re in danger of post hoc data mining
Wages aren’t growing!
Oops.
Real wages aren’t growing! 😁
Fuck!
Shit! Umm! Fiscal drag, thats’s it. Fiscal drag!
Realtake-home wages aren’t growing! 😁
You’re in danger of wrapping yourself in a comfortable blanket of argument while, I suspect, Bart’s position better reflects the experience of the electorate.
He has two drums that he bangs with monotonous regularity. It gives me a headache.
Fiscal drag sucks. It’s a sneaky tax. But it’s not what people focus on - they see their tax home pay go up, but are struggling to make ends meet because prices are going up faster.
Unfortunately the size of state that the electorate wants needs to be paid for. If there was a government that was willing to be more disciplined then there would be saving that could be made, but that isn’t this government or (I suspect) the next one.
But the level of tax rises that are needed to balance the budget (or at least reduce the deficit below the rate of GDP growth) are too large to be affordable by the rich (however defined). They have already made significant contributions (eg additional rate threshold cut by £25k - that’s £1,250 extra income tax from each individual) as have companies with the planned increase in corporation tax.
there will be more tax rises to come for the wealthy, but the middle income voter needs to contribute as well.
Middle income earners can already be on 80% real marginal tax rates - how much higher than that should those go?
How about taxing everyone the same so everyone contributes equally, rather than opting some out of NICs etc?
Why should some be exempt from contributing whatsoever?
You really are thick , NIC is supposed to be paid till you are state pension age, hence why it stops DUMBO. Fact that a few pensioners work part time after that makes no difference and would raise peanuts you stupid half witted idiot.
I know what its supposed to be paid until, but things can be changed. Why should it stop once at pension age? What good reason is there for it not to apply to pensions, or investment incomes like from letting out homes, or dividends and so on and so forth?
I never said it should be levied on pensioners who work part time, did I?
I said it should be levied on all income that income tax applies to. Which would include pensioners working, yes, so it would also include pensions, money from letting out properties etc
Since everything the NIC tax pays is PAYG and there is no pot of money that has been accrued to fund obligations, it should be paid equitably as you go by everyone and not only those working for their pay.
Don't be so stupid, why not have VAT on everything, you cannot get blood out of a stone. Why the Feck would you pay NI on your state pension that was provided due to teh vast amount of NI you had paid for it.
Because the state needs funding.
Why the Feck should you not pay NI on your state pension? Or private pensions too?
You've not "paid for it", its pay as you go, and the as you go hasn't finished.
So you cannot read either as well as being as thick as mince. Go read the government site , 35 years contributions idiot, I paid for 50 years , why not whine that I deserve 15 years back as well as back pension as I was supposed to get state pension a year earlier based on what I was originally promised. What a Bellend.
Contributions don't stop after 35 years you idiot. I've paid for most of that already, I'll still continue to pay for the rest of my working life - and should pay for the rest of my life as its PAYG not contributions based. Idiot.
So what if you've paid for 50 years? You never paid into a pot, its pay as you go, payments should continue for your entire life as you're not stopping claiming healthcare or any other benefits from the state anymore now are you?
Yet again halfwit , I ahve private healthcare, private Dentistry. Do some work you slacker.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to a pair of scientists that developed the technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccines.
They give these prizes out to any Tom, Dick and Harry these days....
There are some on the weird anti-vax community would have them subjected to a Nuremburg style trial for crimes against humanity...
By chance I had a Pfizer covid booster on saturday and sure as eggs is eggs, had an awful 24 hour period with high fever and feeling like crap. I have had this every time I've had an mRNA Covid shot, but not with the AZ ones. This is not going to stop me having them, but I do, think there is something in the delivery system that my body reacts violently to, much more so than any other vaccine I've ever had. The only other reaction I've had at all like it was a bird flu shot about 10 years ago.
I had quite the opposite experience. 24hr high fever with AZN, and not much at all from the mRNA jab.
Similarly with the immune response to Covid infection itself - some have a violent, sometimes dangerous immune response: others barely register it.
The risks, of course, are orders of magnitude higher with the bug itself.
Do we know why the booster jab is not yet available to buy like the flu one - can't be a capacity issue can it ?
I got it from my first AZ too, and not the others.
And today I have the real thing, for the first time in close to 2 years. Feeling decidedly crap.
Yeah, there is a lot of it about again, with admissions sharply up in my hospital, albeit nothing like previous autumn's. Staff masked again in clinical areas as policy and have had my booster and flu 10 days ago. No after effects.
There will be "a lot of it about" forever more. Like flu. Like the common cold. We just need to accept to rather than run daily commentaries on it.
Andy_JS said: "There really ought to be a special election to fill a Senate vacancy."
Americans agree with you: "Special elections to the United States Senate are held to fill the vacancies that occur when a senator dies or resigns before the completion of their six-year term. Winners of these special elections typically serve the remainder of the term of the senator who has caused the vacancy. General elections to the U.S. Congress are held in November of even-numbered years. New Congresses convened on March 4 of the following year until 1934, and since then, new Congresses have begun on January 3 of the following year.
Because of the cost of conducting a special election,[1] most states hold elections to fill a Senate vacancy in conjunction with the next general election, while some states, such as Alabama[2] and Texas, allow for special elections to the Senate to be held before a general election (similar to special elections to the U.S. House of Representatives, though special elections are on a state-wide basis). Special elections can alter the balance of power in the Senate,[3] as can temporary appointments." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_special_elections_to_the_United_States_Senate
As usual, the rules governing these elections vary from state to state.
The PM is rich? So what. He is leader of the Conservative Party not a Corbynite Marxist sect.
What voters want to see is their own economic circumstances improve which he and Hunt are doing by cutting inflation and growing the economy and hopefully in due course cutting tax as well.
As for getting rid of Rishi, barely more than a year ago OGH was telling Tories to get rid of Boris in favour of Rishi!
Cutting inflation is not a sufficient condition for people to "see their own economic circumstances improve". What matters to most people is the difference between their income inflation and price inflation. Inflation is still high.
We're not going destitute as fast as we were, darling. I think i'll vote conservative now.
And don't forget the cumulative effect - it will be quite some time before real wages are back where they were before Sunak got in.
Yes. We're just off the back of 20 straight months of CPI inflation being above wage inflation. We've had one month with wages going up faster than CPI. So even if every month is the mirror of the months before, we'll still be worse off than we were in October 2021 by the time the election comes around.
Especially thanks to fiscal drag.
Real take-home wages are still falling currently, even with nominal wages growing faster than inflation.
You’re in danger of post hoc data mining
Wages aren’t growing!
Oops.
Real wages aren’t growing! 😁
Fuck!
Shit! Umm! Fiscal drag, thats’s it. Fiscal drag!
Realtake-home wages aren’t growing! 😁
You’re in danger of wrapping yourself in a comfortable blanket of argument while, I suspect, Bart’s position better reflects the experience of the electorate.
He has two drums that he bangs with monotonous regularity. It gives me a headache.
Fiscal drag sucks. It’s a sneaky tax. But it’s not what people focus on - they see their tax home pay go up, but are struggling to make ends meet because prices are going up faster.
Unfortunately the size of state that the electorate wants needs to be paid for. If there was a government that was willing to be more disciplined then there would be saving that could be made, but that isn’t this government or (I suspect) the next one.
But the level of tax rises that are needed to balance the budget (or at least reduce the deficit below the rate of GDP growth) are too large to be affordable by the rich (however defined). They have already made significant contributions (eg additional rate threshold cut by £25k - that’s £1,250 extra income tax from each individual) as have companies with the planned increase in corporation tax.
there will be more tax rises to come for the wealthy, but the middle income voter needs to contribute as well.
Middle income earners can already be on 80% real marginal tax rates - how much higher than that should those go?
How about taxing everyone the same so everyone contributes equally, rather than opting some out of NICs etc?
Why should some be exempt from contributing whatsoever?
You really are thick , NIC is supposed to be paid till you are state pension age, hence why it stops DUMBO. Fact that a few pensioners work part time after that makes no difference and would raise peanuts you stupid half witted idiot.
I know what its supposed to be paid until, but things can be changed. Why should it stop once at pension age? What good reason is there for it not to apply to pensions, or investment incomes like from letting out homes, or dividends and so on and so forth?
I never said it should be levied on pensioners who work part time, did I?
I said it should be levied on all income that income tax applies to. Which would include pensioners working, yes, so it would also include pensions, money from letting out properties etc
Since everything the NIC tax pays is PAYG and there is no pot of money that has been accrued to fund obligations, it should be paid equitably as you go by everyone and not only those working for their pay.
Don't be so stupid, why not have VAT on everything, you cannot get blood out of a stone. Why the Feck would you pay NI on your state pension that was provided due to teh vast amount of NI you had paid for it.
Because the state needs funding.
Why the Feck should you not pay NI on your state pension? Or private pensions too?
You've not "paid for it", its pay as you go, and the as you go hasn't finished.
So you cannot read either as well as being as thick as mince. Go read the government site , 35 years contributions idiot, I paid for 50 years , why not whine that I deserve 15 years back as well as back pension as I was supposed to get state pension a year earlier based on what I was originally promised. What a Bellend.
Contributions don't stop after 35 years you idiot. I've paid for most of that already, I'll still continue to pay for the rest of my working life - and should pay for the rest of my life as its PAYG not contributions based. Idiot.
So what if you've paid for 50 years? You never paid into a pot, its pay as you go, payments should continue for your entire life as you're not stopping claiming healthcare or any other benefits from the state anymore now are you?
Yet again halfwit , I ahve private healthcare, private Dentistry. Do some work you slacker.
Comments
These things are important…
Americans agree with you: "Special elections to the United States Senate are held to fill the vacancies that occur when a senator dies or resigns before the completion of their six-year term. Winners of these special elections typically serve the remainder of the term of the senator who has caused the vacancy. General elections to the U.S. Congress are held in November of even-numbered years. New Congresses convened on March 4 of the following year until 1934, and since then, new Congresses have begun on January 3 of the following year.
Because of the cost of conducting a special election,[1] most states hold elections to fill a Senate vacancy in conjunction with the next general election, while some states, such as Alabama[2] and Texas, allow for special elections to the Senate to be held before a general election (similar to special elections to the U.S. House of Representatives, though special elections are on a state-wide basis). Special elections can alter the balance of power in the Senate,[3] as can temporary appointments."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_special_elections_to_the_United_States_Senate
As usual, the rules governing these elections vary from state to state.