Strike!!!

[Twinfan]

I'm with Matt77 - the UK needs to stop bloody moaning and thinking it's hard done by, and just get on with enjoying life.

[mikeluke]

In fact, and I have it on good authority from Afghan Dave, that if you looked closely at the pictures of the strikers, they were all foreign nationals, Afghans or Irish travellers and were striking against being evicted from Dale Farm or getting the dole stopped or having to learn English or something.........



 :lol:

[Twinfan]

:lol:

[Ian Price]

I'm with Matt77 - the UK needs to stop bloody moaning and thinking it's hard done by, and just get on with enjoying life.

Me too. I don't have much of a political view to be honest, I just don't have the time or inclination to get involved with the debate.

Bobby McFerrin said it best.

[HTH AMPS]

I'm with Matt77 - the UK needs to stop bloody moaning and thinking it's hard done by, and just get on with enjoying life.

Thats all fair and well Dave and I generally agree on a loose basis, but when you're being financially squeezed all the time its tough to ignore being skint all the time.

[Twinfan]

True, but that can't be ALL the government's fault?  Or is it?

[HTH AMPS]

True, but that can't be ALL the government's fault?  Or is it?

Well, the squeezing you bit is - on a wider scale, both the current and last government were subject to global issues that pretty much every other country is is subject to, so that was (to some extent) unavoidable, however they could certainly be making things a hell of a lot easier for people.

Just to demonstrate some things I find insane... 8% of my income is on gas/electric, 5.5% is council tax, 10% is on petrol, 32% of my wage is on my mortgage, I could go on, but you see very quickly how people are left with next to nowt to live on. 

This government needs to get a firm grip on regulating certain markets, however I can't see a Tory government re-nationalising what they privatised in the first place or limiting (virtually) unchecked free-market economics.

[ToneMonkey]

I've not read thewhole thread as I'm at work, but I'll stick my ore in anyway.

My mum and my brother are both nurses and agree with the strikes. They're not striking as they're covering patients (like most peole in the NHS, they actually put sick people first).

Both of them have repeatedly been shat upon from a great height in their day to day jobs, neither of them come out with much money and they do silly hours and shift patterns. There is no way on earth that I could do their jobs and still be a realtively normal mental state (my bro had to hold a featus the other week, which he says was completely heartbreaking). My bro also has 8 month old twin girls to feed and he is loosing money every month.

I can't really argue with the retirement age increasing to the national standard, but the increase in pension contributions is a massive piss take. It is a tax on the public sector workers and even the Bank of England has agreed that this is the case.

[gordiji]

Yes, it's the gov's fault who are in bed with the banksters and the media.All of these problems start with the financial
system which as it stands is unsound.It needs to 'grow' ad infinitum or it collapses.This will be done stealthily by currency debasement which is tough if your poor.
The shadow banking system(derivatives, cds's ets) currently stands at 700,000 000 000 000 dollars and it's unregulated.
If we had honest money aka truly free markets the credit bubble probably wouldn't have gone on so long.Imo the
most powerful banking groups knew they would be bailed out.Failure & criminality at the highest level hasn't been punished.
The bad debt since 2008 hasn't been cleared out but has in fact grown.
Now co-ordinated central bank action is the order of the day to prop up the system.Central planning and liberty don't really mix (historically).
If you understand the link between free markets and liberty things going forward aren't looking good.
Clearly many contracts (pensions) can't be honoured because of demographics.The problem is that this has been understood for years and the irresponsible self serving gov's never dealt with it.If they are honoured it will be with greatly diluted currency.(stealth)
As  a side note i recently read that all the GDP of the uk during labours years was equal to the total amount of equity
withdrawl ie, imaginary.
The system needs overhauling (reforming) but it needs to start at the root.How money is created, issued etc.Making
spending cuts from the bottom up won't work.

[HTH AMPS]

The system needs overhauling (reforming) but it needs to start at the root.How money is created, issued etc.Making
spending cuts from the bottom up won't work.

Agreed, but no government has the balls to do it.

They talk about 'tough choices', but they're barely scratching the fu*king surface.

[ToneMonkey]

I'm with you guys. The problems are quite fundamental and lay at the feet of Milton Economics.

I'm not one of the usual Thatcher bashers (although I will be dancing in the street when the bitch kiffs it), but it's that bitches fault - along with Milton and Ronald Ray-Guns.

[tomjackson]

My mum and my brother are both nurses and agree with the strikes. agreed that this is the case.

Yes, my wife is a nurse and has similar stories.  Really harrowing stuff.  She works in a childrens hospital.
She has a degree and 10 years experience but the NHS treat nurses like sh!t and the pay is not great.
She has been on shifts where there's just 2 of them to 16 beds during the night and they are pressured to admit more.  But if there is ever an accident it will be the nurses that get the blame.

I told her to go private but she likes helping and being with children.

[ToneMonkey]

Same as my mum and brother, they wont go private either.

[Ian Price]

The system needs overhauling (reforming) but it needs to start at the root.How money is created, issued etc.Making
spending cuts from the bottom up won't work.

Agreed, but no government has the balls to do it.

They talk about 'tough choices', but they're barely scratching the fu*king surface.

The government do make some absolutely absurd decisions as well. I know that I have said I have no real interest in politics but I do get very annoyed when they announce plans to change the way child benefit is calculated.

I'm fortunate enough to be in a pretty well paid job that is (hopefully) secure. The minute I go over the tax threshold for child benefit I lose all of it - I have 4 kids (2 of whom were totally unexpected). This means I will lose around £3.5k per year in previously paid benefit.

Before anyone rants at me I'm no money grabber and can live without that money. It just riles me when they base the ruling on one person in the household going over the threshold i.e. a single parent earning enough money to take them over the threshold would lose everything but a couple whose combined salary is significantly more (but neither of whom have broken the threshold) would still be entitled to get the benefit. This just makes no sense. I know they need to draw the line somewhere but surely one of their well paid advisors could come up with something better than that.

I know this is a very very small problem but just another sign that the government do not really care about the impact on families/single parents as long as they are saving money in benefits.

PS I could be wrong in some of the detail above and the govt may have changed their stance - I suspect they haven't though.

[dave_mc]

^ yeah they really should work that stuff out based on the whole household income.

True, but that can't be ALL the government's fault?  Or is it?

well it kinda is if they're paying your wages :lol: