bickster Posted January 27, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2014 The whole thing needs to change. A complete re-alignment of the way the county is run and operates.Absolutely agree, pity there is no one to vote for who offers the type of realignment you suggest.Green possibly? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 The whole thing needs to change. A complete re-alignment of the way the county is run and operates. Absolutely agree, pity there is no one to vote for who offers the type of realignment you suggest. Green possibly? On some issues maybe, but taken as an overall package....not so much - for me at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfisher Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Idealist lefty Owen Jones gives us a glimpse of his completely unrealistic airy fairy lefty vision of a future world. A living wage! Workers rights! No no no! Maggie would be turning in her grave if she read this little communist's piece. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-joness-agenda-for-hope-we-want-a-fairer-society--and-heres-how-we-can-achieve-it-9086440.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 (edited) Re: Amazon et al It is amazing that our governments make so many concessions in favour of businesses like Amazon, who can't really operate off-shore without becoming less competitive. They would have to build their warehouses as far away as Germany where VAT is slightly lower (19%) and where there is no minimum wage to gain, but higher postal costs and longer shipping times would certainly give a huge advantage to any company which remained on shore. But solving the problem of Amazon et al's tax avoidance is not a parochial issue, it lies with the EU's crazy arrangements with Luxembourg, where the likes of Amazon and Starbucks not only shelter profits from taxation from the UK, it is a global scam which also deprives the USA of revenue. The question is, why is a landlocked country which is not even a proper democracy allowed to operate with such privileges which come at such huge costs to every country in EU? It is true that each state is allowed to set its own tax rates by way of competition but Luxembourg is entirely dependent on the European transport infrastructure to function and there seems no reason why other countries couldn't apply sanctions in the form of toll charges to off-set the revenue losses which Luxembourg inflict on the rest of Europe. The fact that none of this happens suggests that the government is complicit in Amazon et al's tax arrangements, which they choose not to explain. As Blandy points out, there is no getting away from it, all these arrangements amount to a subsidy. The only conclusion I can reach is that the government are just happy to have these companies, whether it be Starbucks or Amazon, acting as the collectors of huge amounts of VAT, which they consider a great enough service to the country, without the IR having to hassle them over taxes on their profits. It seems likely that Blandy is correct in assuming that there is something ideological about this, in that they have a hard-on for such efficient retail business models. I definitely think the working definition of the term 'anti-business' is actually, 'not willing to give subsidies'. Edited January 27, 2014 by MakemineVanilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 You gotta watch out for suicide Smith, if you get sick or become disabled or lose your job he'll have you working in Poundland for free. The shop where everything is worth a pound... except you. Stolen for FB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Idealist lefty Owen Jones gives us a glimpse of his completely unrealistic airy fairy lefty vision of a future world. A living wage! Workers rights! No no no! Maggie would be turning in her grave if she read this little communist's piece. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-joness-agenda-for-hope-we-want-a-fairer-society--and-heres-how-we-can-achieve-it-9086440.html Everything he writes reads like an A Level politics essay from some div in a 6th form college. Even the leader writer in today's Indie says that a 50p tax rate is nothing more than a headline grabbing waste of time at best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted January 27, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2014 Idealist lefty Owen Jones gives us a glimpse of his completely unrealistic airy fairy lefty vision of a future world. A living wage! Workers rights! No no no! Maggie would be turning in her grave if she read this little communist's piece. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-joness-agenda-for-hope-we-want-a-fairer-society--and-heres-how-we-can-achieve-it-9086440.htmlEverything he writes reads like an A Level politics essay from some div in a 6th form college. Even the leader writer in today's Indie says that a 50p tax rate is nothing more than a headline grabbing waste of time at best.ergo taking it down from that level originally was also a "headline grabbing waste of time" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfisher Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 (edited) Idealist lefty Owen Jones gives us a glimpse of his completely unrealistic airy fairy lefty vision of a future world. A living wage! Workers rights! No no no! Maggie would be turning in her grave if she read this little communist's piece. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-joness-agenda-for-hope-we-want-a-fairer-society--and-heres-how-we-can-achieve-it-9086440.htmlEverything he writes reads like an A Level politics essay from some div in a 6th form college. Even the leader writer in today's Indie says that a 50p tax rate is nothing more than a headline grabbing waste of time at best.ergo taking it down from that level originally was also a "headline grabbing waste of time"Well in the piece Owen calls for a 50p tax on the 2% not the 1% by reducing the threshold to £100,000 anyway. If that's the writing of a 16 year old I think we should have more of it. It's more aspirational than the usual xenophobic right wing drivel spouted out by miserable old hacks on the Murdoch payroll. Edited January 27, 2014 by Kingfisher 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Idealist lefty Owen Jones gives us a glimpse of his completely unrealistic airy fairy lefty vision of a future world. A living wage! Workers rights! No no no! Maggie would be turning in her grave if she read this little communist's piece.http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-joness-agenda-for-hope-we-want-a-fairer-society--and-heres-how-we-can-achieve-it-9086440.html The only things I agree with are the 50p tax, the workers' rights thing and doing something about tax-avoidance. The 50p tax might be a gimmick but so is the bedroom tax and most of the present government's anti-chav policies. The rights of employers and employees need rebalancing because at present the market has been fixed totally in the employers' favour. 'Living wage' is just a slogan and how much it is will change with every person you ask: any job which can't produce enough value to justify the 'living wage' will disappear. The soft attitude to tax-avoidance in the UK needs to at least reach the standards set by the Americans where the IRS is a byword for tyranny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Yeah, he usually bang on the (collective) money, the Jones lad. He writes some excellent stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Idealist lefty Owen Jones gives us a glimpse of his completely unrealistic airy fairy lefty vision of a future world. A living wage! Workers rights! No no no! Maggie would be turning in her grave if she read this little communist's piece. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-joness-agenda-for-hope-we-want-a-fairer-society--and-heres-how-we-can-achieve-it-9086440.html Everything he writes reads like an A Level politics essay from some div in a 6th form college. The Michael Gove award for counter argument goes to... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Income tax is wishy washy. Land and property tax is where it's at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 (edited) Idealist lefty Owen Jones gives us a glimpse of his completely unrealistic airy fairy lefty vision of a future world. A living wage! Workers rights! No no no! Maggie would be turning in her grave if she read this little communist's piece. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-joness-agenda-for-hope-we-want-a-fairer-society--and-heres-how-we-can-achieve-it-9086440.html Everything he writes reads like an A Level politics essay from some div in a 6th form college. Even the leader writer in today's Indie says that a 50p tax rate is nothing more than a headline grabbing waste of time at best. Maybe so, but seeing as it's far superior in understanding and content than anything produced by the likes of cameron, osbourne, Gove or IDS etc, that must mean we are being run by people who produce ideas on par with your average 11 year old Edited January 27, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Income tax is wishy washy. Land and property tax is where it's at. unearned (i.e rentier, usuary speculative incomes etc,all those activities that arn't real investment activities) income should be taxed at a much higher rate that earned income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 (edited) A little fact about the minimum wage, if it had increased at the same rate as executive pay since it's introduction, It would currently be over £19 p/h. Now if all those executives were running their companies so well to justify these increases then surely there would be a huge surplus of money around to increase their workers pay, Edited January 27, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GENTLEMAN Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 I expect employment in the UK is going to be like this in 2030.... . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 A little fact about the minimum wage, if it had increased at the same rate as executive pay since it's introduction, It would currently be over £19 p/h. Now if all those executives were running their companies so well to justify these increases then surely there would be a huge surplus of money around to increase their workers pay, as shown by RBS who today have hinted they will ask shareholders (i.e. Mr Osbourne) to endorse banker bonuses of 200% of salary for their top boys total joke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted January 27, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2014 A little fact about the minimum wage, if it had increased at the same rate as executive pay since it's introduction, It would currently be over £19 p/h. Now if all those executives were running their companies so well to justify these increases then surely there would be a huge surplus of money around to increase their workers pay, as shown by RBS who today have hinted they will ask shareholders (i.e. Mr Osbourne) to endorse banker bonuses of 200% of salary for their top boys total jokeDidn't that already happen before xmas? It was certainly talked about. It goes like this, EU says any banker bonus' above 200% must be approved by shareholders. UK Govt is 85% of shareholders in RBS. So in effect a bank that **** up the world economy wants to pay its top staff over 200% of their normal salary in an annual bonus, not based on them actually doing a good job but based on the idea that it makes them competitive in the job market. UK Govt don't want to say no apparently… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post chrisp65 Posted January 27, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted January 27, 2014 the news was broken today specifically for RBS It was in the middle of their phone / teleconference with journalists announcing they have to find another £8 billion on top of what they've already shelled out in compensation and fines. Having announced it was £3.5 billion they then casually added a further £4 billion then mentioned there was about £500 million earmarked for fines then mentioned this likely wasn't the end of it. Then confirmed they wanted to pay bonuses double what is allowed under EU regs, thus triggering the need to ask Osbourne. To be fair, if I had to tell my bosses I might have lost 8 billion more than the 20 odd billion I'd already lost, well, I might as well ask for a double bonus at the same time and see how it goes. You don't get if you don't ask. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Applies cross party, but belonds here as the current government have such strong opinions on social security http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/21/jack-monroe-benefits-street-poor-mps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts