Going well…

[Hughie Reed 31]

Living standards have stagnated for nearly 20 years, largely due to awful productivity. That's the most difficult problem to solve.

I think that problem could be solved regarding productivity but the answer
May well cause more problems than it sloves

[man in the corner shop]

Rachel's finger crossing worked this month and inflation is down.
Thank heavens for cheaper biscuits and cakes. Giving the workers what they need.Let them eat cakes.

[HawkingsHalfpint]

The problem is that - outside of a few (increasingly foreign-owned, and therefore often foreign-taxed) conglomerates, doing their utmost to squeeze out all but the bravest or most entrepreneurial of little guys; this country just isn’t conducive to growth anymore. Coincidentally enough, as power is becoming ever more centralised and controlled so is wealth, and from where I sit as a (part) business owner and employer for the last six years it really does make me wonder sometimes what the bloody point is.

Especially when much-trumpeted tech deals, pharma deals, ‘groundbreaking’ (well, actually an extension to existing) trade deals actually in many cases aren’t really worth the paper they’re written on. Politically we are at an all-time low, and this lot are fast proving to be no less self-interested and short-termist than the last. Who after 14 terrible years showed themselves to be nothing but the biggest frauds allowed to walk our streets.

HMRC is an utter mess - contacting them beyond a joke. PAYE is now ridiculously expensive and complicated; there is zero coincidence between unemployment figures and an EErs NI hike. You can’t buy raw materials from UK producers anymore, and (thanks to a load of racist boomers flexing their bingo wings in 2016) we can’t import any easily, either. Doesn’t matter if it’s steel, chemicals, plastics… unless it is pharma, services or tech (not hardware) forget about a cheap and sustainable UK supplier. Apprenticeships and T-levels (and such like) are a mere sticking plasters on the shortage of skilled-labour that has been allowed to decay to the extent that an eastern-European employee will typically constitute a much better candidate than a British one. But wait - unless you now pay them at least £38k they can’t come, and even if you do they can’t bring their family. Meanwhile the green-boom hasn’t happened, green energy hasn’t offered any reduction in bills - companies are actually now having to pay more, to subsidise the domestic energy market - a market that believe me will explode over the next few years in the same way that the water one is now (I truly do fear for future energy costs). Meanwhile, many are realising that it’s either better to work no more than 20 hours and pay no tax, because so many jobs have been cut in half (by incentive) to massage employment figures, meanwhile what’s the point saving for your retirement because the tax-free allowance for that is being cut, meanwhile the workers now find themselves in higher tax bands sooner.

And that’s before we get to the unfair tax advantages mentioned above, which are making life for that small guy so uncompetitive that he’d be better off going abroad not only to protect his wealth, but to even get a business off the ground in the first place.

I’m afraid that - unless you’re already a millionaire, or have several kids (and/or wives) who are collectively all able to leverage a system that now benefits the savvy (and not the truly) poor better than the ex-lower middle class, what is the point of wanting to pursue a better future in this country. And, in four years time, when this country looks to the racist anti-Semite schoolboy for answers, they aren’t going to get any; because all he knows how to do is disrupt. He wouldn’t be able to conjure up a workable solution to any of this country’s many problems if they all got together and slapped him across his rubbery face.

Good times.

[Protheroe]

Christ. I could've written most of that.

[baggy1]

It is a very fair reflection of the state of the country at the moment.

One thing I will question though is the perceived changes to the pension contribution limits - have i misread the changes as I understand that the restriction on the employee is purely in not being able to get relief on the NI element of the contribution if it gets over £2k and the income tax element is unchanged. This will unfairly hit the lower earners as I see it as they don't get the , is it 12%, untaxed but for anybody on the higher rate they will only lose out on 2% of whatever the contribution is over £2k.

[Malcolm Tucker]

It is a very fair reflection of the state of the country at the moment.

One thing I will question though is the perceived changes to the pension contribution limits - have i misread the changes as I understand that the restriction on the employee is purely in not being able to get relief on the NI element of the contribution if it gets over £2k and the income tax element is unchanged. This will unfairly hit the lower earners as I see it as they don't get the , is it 12%, untaxed but for anybody on the higher rate they will only lose out on 2% of whatever the contribution is over £2k.

Employers will be hit with a 15% bill for the difference as well, which will indirectly hit the employee.

[man in the corner shop]

The problem is that - outside of a few (increasingly foreign-owned, and therefore often foreign-taxed) conglomerates, doing their utmost to squeeze out all but the bravest or most entrepreneurial of little guys; this country just isn’t conducive to growth anymore. Coincidentally enough, as power is becoming ever more centralised and controlled so is wealth, and from where I sit as a (part) business owner and employer for the last six years it really does make me wonder sometimes what the bloody point is.

Especially when much-trumpeted tech deals, pharma deals, ‘groundbreaking’ (well, actually an extension to existing) trade deals actually in many cases aren’t really worth the paper they’re written on. Politically we are at an all-time low, and this lot are fast proving to be no less self-interested and short-termist than the last. Who after 14 terrible years showed themselves to be nothing but the biggest frauds allowed to walk our streets.

HMRC is an utter mess - contacting them beyond a joke. PAYE is now ridiculously expensive and complicated; there is zero coincidence between unemployment figures and an EErs NI hike. You can’t buy raw materials from UK producers anymore, and (thanks to a load of racist boomers flexing their bingo wings in 2016) we can’t import any easily, either. Doesn’t matter if it’s steel, chemicals, plastics… unless it is pharma, services or tech (not hardware) forget about a cheap and sustainable UK supplier. Apprenticeships and T-levels (and such like) are a mere sticking plasters on the shortage of skilled-labour that has been allowed to decay to the extent that an eastern-European employee will typically constitute a much better candidate than a British one. But wait - unless you now pay them at least £38k they can’t come, and even if you do they can’t bring their family. Meanwhile the green-boom hasn’t happened, green energy hasn’t offered any reduction in bills - companies are actually now having to pay more, to subsidise the domestic energy market - a market that believe me will explode over the next few years in the same way that the water one is now (I truly do fear for future energy costs). Meanwhile, many are realising that it’s either better to work no more than 20 hours and pay no tax, because so many jobs have been cut in half (by incentive) to massage employment figures, meanwhile what’s the point saving for your retirement because the tax-free allowance for that is being cut, meanwhile the workers now find themselves in higher tax bands sooner.

And that’s before we get to the unfair tax advantages mentioned above, which are making life for that small guy so uncompetitive that he’d be better off going abroad not only to protect his wealth, but to even get a business off the ground in the first place.

I’m afraid that - unless you’re already a millionaire, or have several kids (and/or wives) who are collectively all able to leverage a system that now benefits the savvy (and not the truly) poor better than the ex-lower middle class, what is the point of wanting to pursue a better future in this country. And, in four years time, when this country looks to the racist anti-Semite schoolboy for answers, they aren’t going to get any; because all he knows how to do is disrupt. He wouldn’t be able to conjure up a workable solution to any of this country’s many problems if they all got together and slapped him across his rubbery face.

Good times.

Good post Hawks albeit depressing.
On that basis I won't get up tomorrow

I know I bloody will.

[Derek Hardballs]

Christ. I could've written most of that.

No you couldn’t. You went out and tried and perhaps succeeded in asking working people to make themselves worse off by voting for Brexit. 

You went out and tried and perhaps succeeded in telling people to vote for the Tories (long before Corbyn before you try that old excuse). 

You don’t want to rock the boat with the multinationals and extremely wealthy individuals, and are opposed to policies that may see a reduction in both their influence and hoarding of wealth. 

 Good post btw Hawks

[man in the corner shop]

Christ. I could've written most of that.

No you couldn’t. You went out and tried and perhaps succeeded in asking working people to make themselves worse off by voting for Brexit. 

You went out and tried and perhaps succeeded in telling people to vote for the Tories (long before Corbyn before you try that old excuse). 

You don’t want to rock the boat with the multinationals and extremely wealthy individuals, and are opposed to policies that may see a reduction in both their influence and hoarding of wealth. 

 Good post btw Hawks

Proth haz zero solutions
Just applying failed and pickled, rigid, dogma doesnt work. Fortunately, that hogwash is only believed by a tiny minority - cultists and true believers.

[CarlosCorbewrong]

Knobheads too