What's the political climate like in the UK right now?

Post Reply New Topic

I am sure you know that was the Labour party in 2004. What difference does it make which party it was? Both major parties have done little to follow EU FOM and have instead continued with our own EU immigration policy of allowing people without employment to migrate here and stay.

VAT is more than 12p in the £1. VAT is 20%.



It's more than about money. It's helpful to refer, but at the end of the day any benefit seems marginal. We still have to find space to house them, provide facilities for them, and so on.



You're a few sausage rolls short of a Jacob's join if you want it without thinking of your own people that actually have to live here. It's needless and unnecessary competition.

Reading West is a two-way marginal (they have a Tory MP), Reading East is more solidly Labour than Reading West is Tory, although in 2004 they had a Labour MP. They elected the Tories in the 2005 election.

Are you a Labour supporter? If so it kind of matters there.

which is not what I do. Please stop trying to create and impose a false position that I hold simply so you can attack it



This is not fact, it is your opinion, and one I do not share with you.



You are entitled to your opinion and so am I. Please don't try and insult me just because I hold a different view to you.

no

That's pretty much the opposite of what has happened. Over the past five years, racists have spent so long claiming that it isn't racist to be racist that people are starting to actually believe it.

Stripping us of our right to live anywhere within the EU that we want is not "voting for freedom".


Being worried about uncontrolled immigration is inherently xenophobic. Uncontrolled immigration is a very good thing. Tequila has already posted that EU migrants are net contributors in the UK (which of course means that British citizens are not; I don't have a problem with that). Studies suggest that removing all barriers to immigration would be worth around $10trn to the global economy.

Prejudice isn't all-or-nothing. Being able to work with people doesn't mean that you have no prejudices. If you hold concerns about immigration then you are xenophobic, pretty much by definition.


I deliberately emphasised xenophobia for this exact reason.

It would be natural to be upset about having your operation delayed. However, if your reaction to the delay is different based on the nationality or place of birth of the person who moved ahead of you, then yes, you are being xenophobic. There's no good reason to prefer people who were born on the same rough bit of land as you to people who weren't.

Honestly, the lengths people will go to...

I don't think HMRC pays VAT on its tax collection services. If it did, then that money would go to the Exchequer and thus be counted in the figures.

Yes, the "net contribution" factors in HMRC's administration costs, which are marginal. HMRC's budget was £4bn in 2010; think it's somewhere in the region of £7bn now. Of course, that covers things other than tax collection, but it comes to about 1% of the government's budget.

Put it another way - UK nationals are presently a net drain on the system, primarily due to us being less likely to be of working age. Let's say we contribute 98p for every £1 we receive. Should we then deduct 20% for VAT and some more for miscellaneousness administrative costs? It just doesn't make sense.

This is fairly trivial. We're a big country with lots of empty space; loss-making farms make up a large part of the country. The bigger issue is that housebuilding takes time, but of course the bigger driver of the need to build houses is old people living in their homes for longer (which is a good thing, but does mean those homes aren't freed up for young people).


Emotive topic but please avoid the personal attacks, thanks.

All people are "our own people". There's no sense in discriminating between British people and non-British people. It's irrational and xenophobic and unfair. As a liberal, I won't stand for it.

Yeah, I think that even the "not racist just don't like 'em" types genuinely believe that they don't have bigoted views. I think a lot of people haven't had access to the schools of thought that encourage critical thinking about these sorts of issues; it's very easy to go your whole life without thinking about it.



I think it's natural to have some concerns about the idea of totally re-opening our borders again. It's been about a century since our borders were open so most people can't really conceive of it any more. I don't condemn feeling that way, but it's still more based on personal feelings than anything else.


I don't even really see the issue with contribution. Human rights are inalienable. People deserve to be treated well regardless of whether they are "valuable".

I messed up the quoting on that^ post!

Possible vote of no confidence coming next week

Heated. The politicians are bickering.

There's a lot of statements from politicians in the newspapers saying things like "prime ministers plan is rubbish". No published suggestions as to how to fix it, no energy being spent working toward a common goal. Just a few extremely loud and unproductive politicians whining. Possibly this is politics the world over! I voted remain, but personally I support the prime minister in the leave efforts because at least she is putting her energy into forging a deal with Europe and not engaging in the squabbles.

The upside of such fierce debate is that at least the politicians are too busy to get sucked into any more harassment or embezzlement scandals....

every week I think it must have reached peak posturing by politicians over brexit, yet the following week trumps it

We have entered the twilight zone

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpeM_DzXUAA-gE4?format=jpg

More or less obscene posturing by MPs to push an agenda that could collapse the UK as we know it. Democracy, blah blah, will of the people, blah blah, scaremongering, blah blah, remoaners, etc.

The problem with democracy is that people would claim it undemocratic to have a second referendum. Why? If it's what everybody wants, surely the result would not change? If it does, doesn't that itself prove democracy is a broken system? Too much rhetoric and not enough action. Opposition parties need to rail against this, fast, before it gets out of hand. Or at the very least, allow us who never wanted it in the first place to isolate ourselves from those who did.