How has your life benefitted from a Conservative Gov?

[dsr]

(Yes, it was a bit of a doddle.) I'm going to take slight issue with the bolded bit, though. At present opinion polls show social classes C2DE in favour of the Conservatives, despite being presented with an alternative manifesto entirely designed for their situation. If this changes it would mean the wealthy inflicted Tory rule on the poor, and your thinking would be unfair. If, however, the Tories maintained their lead in this group right up to the election, then I'll totally give up on politics as well.

A friend of mine received a letter the other day saying he had won £750k in a FIFA lottery. This would be ideal for his situation, but he's not going to act on it. Why not? Because he doesn't believe it's true. It may be that a lot of people read the Labour manifesto offering them loads of goodies at no cost to themselves, and they don't believe it.

[keith1879]

Having spent my working life in Financial Services, I always consider the UK Stock Markets as a viable barometer of how well a Government is doing. The FTSE 100 is currently at its highest point. This is important. Why - because so many people have stocks & shares in their pension arrangements (even without knowing). Buoyant stock markets are good for our economy and for dealing with institutions worldwide.That's what a Conservative Government delivers.

How many of you remember the Winter of Discontent in 1978/79? (not that many I guess!). That was the last time we had such left-wing policies. Eventually, the country was virtually being run by the Trade Unions, especially the NUM. We had continuous strikes - the country was in a real mess. Yes, the Labour Government at the time promised so many appealing policies but in a short time the Unions took over. I don't want to go back to those days, thank you.

I remember it. Since then I cannot remember a single budget (left or right wing) that actually made me better off. Tax reductions were always offset by N.I. increases or inflation. I earn less now in real terms than I did in 2001 despite having an apparently much better paid contract. The country in 1978 (winter of discontent or not) was VASTLY more equal than it is now and that in general is a sad indictment of the last 40 years. I love that StandishClaret is so impressed by the stock market and its significance for pension funds. It's good for mine but a huge number of people in this country have miniscule pension funds (or none) - and the stock market is supremely irrelevant for them.

[If it be your will]

.

[Hipper]

I know for a FACT that many people who use the foods banks are not poor! They just live beyond their means.....Lots have the latest mobile phones with contracts, sky tv, smoke cigarettes etc etc etc.....that they refuse to give it up order to buy food! They are not poor....they just have p1ss poor money management!!! People need to learn to live within their means and buy staple food before luxuries!

can you show us some facts to back up this ******** please?

there's no doubt there will be some people who abuse the system but given you generally need a referral to use most food banks, the majority of people using them will do so out of necessity.

I too would like a source of facts about food banks. It's an interesting subject and COYC73 should justify his assertion.

It also doesn't really belong on this thread unless someone on here can say they have had to use foodbanks under a Conservative government.

[dsr]

The country in 1978 (winter of discontent or not) was VASTLY more equal than it is now and that in general is a sad indictment of the last 40 years.

I'm not sure that it is. (Quite apart from whether equality is something to be prized above all.) But foreign holidays, for example - now more than 50% of the population each year have a foreign holiday; in the seventies it was more like 15%. Is that a sign of less equality, or more? And is it a bad thing? There are loads more cars, but still some people can't afford them, and I suppose the Sky TV / non Sky TV inequality more or less matches the colour TV / black and white TV split of the seventies. But at least telephones are much more equal now - not only does pretty much everyone have one that wants one, but they're also available on demand and we don't have to wait 6 months to get one!

[COYC73]

I too would like a source of facts about food banks. It's an interesting subject and COYC73 should justify his assertion.

It also doesn't really belong on this thread unless someone on here can say they have had to use foodbanks under a Conservative government.

I can't show you "facts" but you are quite welcome to come speak to some of the people I have spoken to regarding food banks.....if they are willing to talk to you that is....my wife works in the NHS and quite a few NHS workers use food banks from time to time....the usual excuse is they don't have enough money to last them until the end of the month, they have more money going out than they have coming in, so the end up borrowing and using over drafts etc to make it to pay day....

As for the reply doesn't belong in the thread....I was replying to someone about uk food banks.....feel free to move the reply to a didn't thread if it bothers

[COYC73]

I too would like a source of facts about food banks. It's an interesting subject and COYC73 should justify his assertion.

It also doesn't really belong on this thread unless someone on here can say they have had to use foodbanks under a Conservative government.

Just to add, they are not proud of the fact they have had to use food banks or have **** money management skills.....but freely admit it once having a few and conversations go that way....and yes some have cars, big TVs, mobile phones, even one with a massive mortgage that she cannot really afford.....

[Woodleyclaret]

All Tory governments have given nothing to the average to low income families.
They have sold off utility companies allowing bills to rocket.They sold off most of council housing stock and allowed private landlords to hike up the rents to today's astronomical levels. Taxes have increased and prices of food rocketed.

[keith1879]

I'm not sure that it is. (Quite apart from whether equality is something to be prized above all.) But foreign holidays, for example - now more than 50% of the population each year have a foreign holiday; in the seventies it was more like 15%. Is that a sign of less equality, or more? And is it a bad thing? There are loads more cars, but still some people can't afford them, and I suppose the Sky TV / non Sky TV inequality more or less matches the colour TV / black and white TV split of the seventies. But at least telephones are much more equal now - not only does pretty much everyone have one that wants one, but they're also available on demand and we don't have to wait 6 months to get one!

The gap between the richest and poorest increases every year - I accept that there is a substantial grouo in the middle who have gained in affluence but I'm fairly confident that you will find that real power and real income is concentrated in far fewer hands now than then. Is inequality a bad thing? I would say that it is - the sort of inequality we are increaingly moving toward with a small elite hoovering up all the rewards is typical of some very unattractive societies indeed.

But the FTSE is hovering around 7500 so I'm alright Jack.

[dpinsussex]

All Tory governments have given nothing to the average to low income families.
They have sold off utility companies allowing bills to rocket.They sold off most of council housing stock and allowed private landlords to hike up the rents to today's astronomical levels. Taxes have increased and prices of food rocketed.

Why should any government ?
Go and do something about it.
I was brought up with nothing provided. I went out and made a career. Why should i pay for dossers? I pay a shed load of tax but i made sacrifices to move away from part of the country i love. I can now provide for my children but all this was down to hard bloody work.
Sorry no sympathy .

[Sidney1st]

All Tory governments have given nothing to the average to low income families.
They have sold off utility companies allowing bills to rocket.They sold off most of council housing stock and allowed private landlords to hike up the rents to today's astronomical levels. Taxes have increased and prices of food rocketed.

Could you buy a council house during Labours last tenure?
I'm fairly certain you could and they did nothing to stop it or replace the houses quick enough.

I've checked and Labour first propose the idea in the 50's, but the Tories ran with it first and it was available well before Maggie.
Labour changed the rules in 2005 making it a bit harder to buy, but they didn't stop it.

[dpinsussex]

Could you buy a council house during Labours last tenure?
I'm fairly certain you could and they did nothing to stop it or replace the houses quick enough.

My question is ambition. Why should you only aim at a council house. Ffs do more with your life and afford to buy what u really want

[Rick_Muller]

Why should any government ?
Go and do something about it.
I was brought up with nothing provided. I went out and made a career. Why should i pay for dossers? I pay a shed load of tax but i made sacrifices to move away from part of the country i love. I can now provide for my children but all this was down to hard bloody work.
Sorry no sympathy .

That's quite an insular perspective though dpinsussex. The fabric of society is made up of people from all backgrounds with varying abilities which means that not everyone will have the wherewithal to go and do something about it.

Let's assume for a moment that everybody gets up and wants to better themselves, who will do the menial jobs that are beneath you? Cleaners, road sweepers (trigger), cafe staff, Greggs servers etc - all these types of jobs are necessary in a society so someone will need to do them and these people will not be wealthy or better off and may need help with costs of life such as housing benefit etc

I get your sentiment in that anyone can in theory go out and better themselves, but in practice life isn't that simple.

[Sidney1st]

My question is ambition. Why should you only aim at a council house. Ffs do more with your life and afford to buy what u really want

Thanks for missing the point of my post.

Woodley mentioned the Tories selling off council houses, I merely pointed out it was Labours idea first and the Tories picked it up and ran with it.
Labour haven't stopped the scheme either during their 13 yrs in charge.

As for me personally, I'll be lucky if I can afford a house where I am now in oxfordshire.
3 bed house on my estate, across the road from me is £375k...
Paying a 10% deposit leaves you with mortgage repayments of £1700 a month over 25 yrs.
That's more than I earn in a month on my own

[Rick_Muller]

Thanks for missing the point of my post.

Woodley mentioned the Tories selling off council houses, I merely pointed out it was Labours idea first and the Tories picked it up and ran with it.
Labour haven't stopped the scheme either during their 13 yrs in charge.

As for me personally, I'll be lucky if I can afford a house where I am now in oxfordshire.
3 bed house on my estate, across the road from me is £375k...
Paying a 10% deposit leaves you with mortgage repayments of £1700 a month over 25 yrs.
That's more than I earn in a month on my own

Similar story where I am in Bedfordshire Sid - I have a good job, so does the other half now but we just can't afford the "affordable" houses!

[boatshed bill]

Similar story where I am in Bedfordshire Sid - I have a good job, so does the other half now but we just can't afford the "affordable" houses!

Yeah, I see all these "affordable houses" and think: how?

[Sidney1st]

Yeah the affordable houses pitch is ********, we all know that one.

It looks nice though.

https://www.chancellors.co.uk/propertie ... end-didcot" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Imploding Turtle]

Yeah, I see all these "affordable houses" and think: how?

Cardboard is pretty cheap.

[ClaretAndJew]

All my furniture has become strong and stable

[Cirrus_Minor]

In the year 2020 I will be 65 and will have worked for 50 years. I have paid taxes and national insurance throughout these years and I will have had no breaks. Just go to work, earn the wage/salary, pay tax and national insurance, year in year out for 50 years.

Unfortunately for me though the government has now decreed that 50 years is not enough and will have to wait another year until I will qualify for a state pension.

[dsr]

The problem is, cirrus, when you started work the average life expectancy of a 65 year old man was 12 years. Now it's 19 years. The extra 7 years need paying for, and as it's you getting the benefit, is it perhaps fair that you should pay a fraction of the cost?

[Imploding Turtle]

The problem is, cirrus, when you started work the average life expectancy of a 65 year old man was 12 years. Now it's 19 years. The extra 7 years need paying for, and as it's you getting the benefit, is it perhaps fair that you should pay a fraction of the cost?

That's a part of the problem. Massive cuts in tax rate over that time is another part of the problem.

[CardyTheClaret]

But we could until now? How depressing is that?

Do you not remember the last Labour government's catastrophic decision to close down Burnley's A&E?

[Sidney1st]

Do you not remember the last Labour government's catastrophic decision to close down Burnley's A&E?

No they generally don't remember these things, it's always the nasty Tories who cut/close everything.

[If it be your will]

.

[Imploding Turtle]

Well, I'm an extremist terrorist sympathiser now. Apparently. Thanks Theresa.

[Imploding Turtle]

Why am I always asked to defend New Labour's health reforms? They had absolutely nothing to do with me, I can assure you.

Source?

[AndrewJB]

I dislike the cuts Blair's government made too. It's not a partisan thing to appreciate the different direction Corbyn is putting forward. Different not only to the Tories but to New Labour as well.

[If it be your will]

.

[Imploding Turtle]

I don't think I have a ten year old photo of me shaking my head in disbelief at what went on in the NHS under Blair. I don't know how else to prove this was nothing to do with me.

I wasn't serious.

[Hipper]

Do you not remember the last Labour government's catastrophic decision to close down Burnley's A&E?

Can I ask, in all innocence, what was catastrophic about it?

[Inchy]

I started my training in the NHS at the back end of the last Labour government.

Heres how it has changed for me:

-Less qualified nursing staff on wards. This has resulted in 12.5 hour shifts often turning into 13-14 hour shifts as I have to stay late to get the paperwork finished

- Only a 1% pay rise. If my pay matched the cost of living I would be earning nearly 4k more a year now

- Nurses leaving the NHS to work for agencies, only for the Tory gov to cap agency pay. This hasn't stopped the usage of agencies and agency nurses still get paid a lot more than me. The cap hasn't worked. Some agencies nurses are great, others are useless, the main problem is it offers no continuity for the patients and staff

-Fewer nurses training due to cutting bursary payments.

[brexit]

Interesting
There is only one food bank in Burnlwy (old kitchens garage ? tun by a church I think but you have to be recommended them to receive food.
Tory government has little impact on me but the council does and they are shocking

[dsr]

I started my training in the NHS at the back end of the last Labour government.

Heres how it has changed for me:

-Less qualified nursing staff on wards. This has resulted in 12.5 hour shifts often turning into 13-14 hour shifts as I have to stay late to get the paperwork finished

- Only a 1% pay rise. If my pay matched the cost of living I would be earning 7k more a year now

- Nurses leaving the NHS to work for agencies, only for the Tory gov to cap agency pay. This hasn't stopped the usage of agencies and agency nurses still get paid a lot more than me. The cap hasn't worked. Some agencies nurses are great, others are useless, the main problem is it offers no continuity for the patients and staff

-Fewer nurses training due to cutting bursary payments.

That's impressive. Cost of living (CPI) has risen by 15.1% since May 2010, and while I don't know how much exactly nurses pay has gone up, it was 6% up to 2014 and a further 1% this year, which makes at least 7%.

So if you've lost out on a £7k pay rise you must have been earning in the region of £90,000 when you started training. I didn't realise nurses were so well paid.

[UpTheBeehole]

Where's the 6% come from?

[HatfieldClaret]

No government, or change of one, has benefitted my life.

I'm not rich and I'm not poor. This means I get stung every time.

[UpTheBeehole]

dsr please can you show your working

[dsr]

Where's the 6% come from?

Sorry, it's a bit less than 5%. I was looking at the average over NHS staff as a whole, not realising the pen pushers were getting far more than their share (and far more than they deserve).

That means the basic salary would have been more like £70k at the start. Sorry. £70,000 @ 5.8% overall increase = £4,060 rise per year; £70,000 @ 15.1% cost of living increase = £10,570 increase per year. difference £6,510.

https://fullfact.org/health/nhs-pay-has ... tion-2010/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[CardyTheClaret]

Can I ask, in all innocence, what was catastrophic about it?

Firstly, I personally know of three people who have died that would have had a much better chance of survival without a twenty five minute ambulance journey.

[PutTheWheelieBinsOut]

The problem is, cirrus, when you started work the average life expectancy of a 65 year old man was 12 years. Now it's 19 years. The extra 7 years need paying for, and as it's you getting the benefit, is it perhaps fair that you should pay a fraction of the cost?

No that's not the problem, we now have to pay in a pension contribution each month to our own pensions, thats besides national insurance. We are working longer to pay off the debts of another generation - the baby boomers!. Never before has a generation took so much from the country and given so little back, greed, greed, greed!

[dsr]

You can opt out of the new pension contribution if you want. (Which wouldn't necessarily be a good idea, and probably that option will be removed in two or three years anyway.)

I'd put the excessive pensions of the past down to incompetent politicians rather than greed by the pensioners. If someone offered you a fat pension, wouldn't you take it?

[PutTheWheelieBinsOut]

When a U.S President spoke to his country's people and said 'ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country', it's just a shame a U.K Prime Minister wasn't doing the same in this country at the same time. Whether its free university tuition, buying council houses at rock bottom prices or purchasing the utility companies, I could list many more, not to mention the vast growth in the 'divorce business', they have just taken.

But their greatest indictment in my view is that their voted in governments that kept their parent's generation pension's low, a generation that went to war for them. Shame.

Very few politician's will upset this generation, of course because this generation actually decides elections.

[Inchy]

Sorry I miscalculated. I put mine and my wife's joint salary (she's a nurse) in the RCN calculator

I would be earning 3800 more. Would be about 7k as a family



If you want to have a look at the RCNs calculator for this the link is below. I'm a nurse not an economist or accountant so it may be over egagerating. Maybe others will be able to critic it.


https://www.rcn.org.uk/nursingcounts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Greenmile]

can you show us some facts to back up this ******** please?

there's no doubt there will be some people who abuse the system but given you generally need a referral to use most food banks, the majority of people using them will do so out of necessity.

He put the word FACT in capital letters. What more do you want?

[If it be your will]

.

[Claret-On-A-T-Rex]

Burnley and their position in the top flight has improved dramatically under this Tory government whereas Blackburn have slipped down a few leagues.

[Imploding Turtle]

I know for a FACT that many people who use the foods banks are not poor! They just live beyond their means.....Lots have the latest mobile phones with contracts, sky tv, smoke cigarettes etc etc etc.....that they refuse to give it up order to buy food! They are not poor....they just have p1ss poor money management!!! People need to learn to live within their means and buy staple food before luxuries!

I bet you're outraged that so-called poor people can afford some white goods too. The ******* spongers!!!



Just incase anyone thinks that image is a joke... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al5E3KbIfeo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Top Claret]

Far to many scroungers in this country, people living off the backs of the hard earned tax payers.
Fat obese people riding around in mobility cars at our expense. We should make the bastards starve and not give them handouts so they can stuff there faces off take aways and clog up our hospitals.
People should take more responsibility for there own lifes and not rely on government hand outs

[bfcjg]

I have benefited by not having Diane Abbot in power.

[starting_11]

Having read this...

Why do I bother paying taxes at all?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39974177