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[SmokyDave]

Are people trying to deny the tories hate poor people?

Not that I've seen. Do you have any quotes?

 

[sheepishlord]

People that vote for them, yet feel shame at knowing it's the wrong thing to do. And then don't have the guts to even admit to it. I can't grasp it.

Thats them to a tee. Cowards clinging to the little they have. Working class people who like to think they've made it or they're summat above because they vote Tory, people who are "shy" about discussing politics because they don't actually know anything about the policies other than they might get to keep a few extra quid at the end of the week so they can go about looking down on less well off working class people. Like they aren't still working the same jobs they were five years ago, like they aren't still struggling to live.

They so money right now.

 

[Lashley]

Are people trying to deny the tories hate poor people?

They are, yes.

It's laughable.

 

[Audioboxer]

"Labour can't blame anyone else"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-rztKmbe6c

It's true

"Torries have done a lot of damage to Scotland... and parts of the UK"

It's true as well

 

[SymbiantXenos]

Well local council results means labour retain control of Carlisle council.

 

[It's Reyn Time!]

Yup. Everyone hates everyone.

As for the Conservatives making life worse for the poor, I'll wait until I see the 'when' and 'how' before I clutch my pearls.

If you haven't seen it by now, you never will. Feel really fucking lucky.

 

[SmokyDave]

If you haven't seen it by now, you never will. Feel really fucking lucky.

We're talking about an upcoming term, of course I haven't seen it yet.

 

[Clear]

Pretty much the result I suspected.

Post-Blair Labour no longer look like the opposition to the Tories, just a watered-down "alternative". And that's not good enough to swing votes.

 

[Slowdive]

@SkyNewsBreak 50s Harriet Harman will stand down as deputy leader of the Labour party when new leader is elected

.

 

[twobear]

There's Unicef criticising the levels of child poverty in Britain. Who is to blame for that isn't such a simple matter. I'd like to see if child poverty levels rose or fell between 1997 and 2010.

Not specifically child poverty, but:

From the late Nineties onwards, however, poverty began to fall steadily, helped by policies such as big increases in national insurance benefits[30] and the introduction of the national minimum wage.[31] Using the 60% of median income after housing costs poverty line, the percentage of the British population living in poverty rose to 25.3% in 1996/97, compared with 13.7% in 1979. From 1997/98 to 2004/05 (using the same 60% of median income after housing costs measurement), the percentage of the population living in poverty fell from 24.4% to 20.5%. Poverty rose again from 2005/06 onwards, reaching 22.5% of the population in 2007/08, before falling again to 22.2% in 2008/09.[32]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

[Ashes]

If you haven't seen it by now, you never will. Feel really fucking lucky.

food banks are pretty depressing places. Especially if the mother is ashamed of it and hiding it from prying neighbour eyes.

 

[D4Danger]

.

good. The Labour party needs a reboot.

 

[Hasney]

.

I take it that means she's not standing for leader too? Happy days.

 

[Carl]

Just woke up after election all nighter. Blimey I missed all the fun

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Oh knives are already out in my Facebook as a Scottish Tory >_>

 

[Hasney]

I haven't looked at Facebook for weeks. It feels good.

 

[SymbiantXenos]

Something special??

Yes you're right there Dave.

 

[Moze]

We're talking about an upcoming term, of course I haven't seen it yet.

Do you really want to give the government that quite recently introduced the 'bedroom tax' the benefit of the doubt? I think you are reaching here. You know the Tories hate poor people.

A £12 billion cut in welfare has been confirmed for the next term. So it will get worse from here.

 

[Baleoce]

A Tory majority, 3 of the leaders stepping down, and some quite significant names not getting their seats back. I mean, I expected some of this, but it's quite a bit to take in.

 

[Beefy]

I haven't looked at Facebook for weeks. It feels good.

I haven't for years. You don't really miss out on much not being on it.

 

[Jezbollah]

A Tory majority, 3 of the leaders stepping down, and some quite significant names not getting their seats back. I mean, I expected some of this, but it's quite a bit to take in.

It's not the Red Wedding. It's the Blue Wedding.

 

[SmokyDave]

Not specifically child poverty, but:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_Kingdom

It does seem that child poverty fell, but unsustainably through the use of significant additional spending on benefits and tax credits. That definitely fits what I 'feel' about that era.

Gotta wonder what the ramifications of such unsustainable moves would be. It's almost like you'd expect child poverty to rise once the money ran out.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

A Tory majority, 3 of the leaders stepping down, and some quite significant names not getting their seats back. I mean, I expected some of this, but it's quite a bit to take in.

most surprising result since '92.

 

[Hasney]

I haven't for years. You don't really miss out on much not being on it.

True, I just keep it alive for people to contact me these days. Yo never know who wants a pint.

 

[Highwind]

Are people trying to deny the tories hate poor people?

b-b-b-but benefit fraud!!

It's fucking ridiculous lmao.

Can't believe this is happening. What the actual fuck brits. :/

Clegg and Miliband are useless.

 

[twobear]

It does seem that child poverty fell, but unsustainably through the use of significant additional spending on benefits and tax credits. That definitely fits what I 'feel' about that era.

Gotta wonder what the ramifications of such unsustainable moves would be. It's almost like you'd expect child poverty to rise once the money ran out.

The money didn't run out. There's no such thing as 'the money running out' for a country that can print more money whenever it wants.

 

[anonymous_abc]

Urgh I cannot stant the patriotism in his speech....

 

[CharmingCharlie]

Do you really want to give the government that quite recently introduced the 'bedroom tax' the benefit of the doubt? I think you are reaching here. You know the Tories hate poor people.

A £12 billion cut in welfare has been confirmed for the next term. So it will get worse from here.

Then going by that Labour hate poor people too because it was Labour that introduced the bedroom tax for private rentings in the welfare reform act in 2007. All the Tories did was extend the bedroom tax to cover social housing too.

Now I am not defending the Tories here I think they are a bunch of self serving right wing cunts but using the bedroom tax as "proof" they hate the poor is moronic since it was a bloody Labour party that introduced the fucking policy which people seem to be forgetting.

 

[jonno394]

Do you really want to give the government that quite recently introduced the 'bedroom tax' the benefit of the doubt? I think you are reaching here. You know the Tories hate poor people.

A £12 billion cut in welfare has been confirmed for the next term. So it will get worse from here.

Never understood the bedroom tax hate myself, you shouldn't be renting a property too big for you if you need help paying the rent (via HB)

 

[Royal_Phalanx]

Norway looks pretty nice right now. My entire young adult life will be spent under a Tory majority government. Fuck.

 

[electroshockwave]

Not specifically child poverty, but:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_Kingdom

Sort of a related note: Growing up in poverty affects children's brain development

And inequality is bad for economic growth:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/26/imf-inequality-economic-growth
http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/inequality-hurts-economic-growth.htm

 

[30yearsofhurt]

Great article on Mhairi Black. I'd vote for her.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/make-way-for-the-youngest-british-mp-in-modern-history-mhairi-black-aged-20-20150508-ggx7j7.html

 

[Psychotext]

Just an idea of some of the sort of policies we might see now the Conservatives are going alone (what the Lib Dems are understood to have blocked during their time in office).

Inheritance tax cuts for millionaires
Scrapping help with housing costs for young people
Weakening arrest warrants for people who have fled overseas
Firing workers at will, without any reasons given
Regional pay penalising public sector workers outside London and the South East
Privatising the motorways and key A-Roads
The Snoopers’ Charter
Bringing back the old O-level / CSE divide
Profit-making in state schools
Cutting the time childminders can give to each child
Cutting new nursery buildings
Stopping geography teachers telling children about how we can tackle climate change
Axing human rights from national curriculum
Ditching the Human Rights Act
Watering down the ban on hunting by allowing 40 dogs to flush out a fox
Weakening the protections in the Equalities Act
Renewing Trident in this Parliament
Scrapping Natural England
Cutting investment in green energy
Nation-wide immigration checks on all new tenants and lodgers

http://www.markpack.org.uk/129190/what-the-lib-dems-have-stopped-the-tories-doing/

 

[anonymous_abc]

I feel so sorry for Nick Robinson with his sore throat.

 

[Irminsul]

We very well might do but worth saying at this point that I think Scotland as a nation has voted for unionist parties > SNP purely in terms of popular vote.

Actually, no, not even that: http://www.bbc.com/news/election/2015/results/scotland

The SNP has exactly 50.0% of the vote share.

I agree and I don't. The local representation is also important to me, so what happens there? Do we have a new house for locally elected MPs?

Because most people see it as voting for a party and a leader rather than someone to represent them and their community, the voting system does need a change to represent that, but that first part of my post is rarely answered.

This is primarily where that idea falls apart for me too.

So they get that many seats, how is it then decided who fills those seats? Assuming the leader of the majority party becomes the PM do they then pick their cabinet and assign seats? Also what if it's a very minor win? Does the leader of that party get it automatically or does it still require some higher percentage? And what about my local rep? I may not have voted for the tories but at least I have Labour representation in my constituency.

Just use a system similar to those in effect in Germany: Half the seats are elected directly by FPTP, half of them are used to have a proportional end result. You get two votes in each election that are independent of each other.

I.e., if one party gets 10/100 direct seats and 10% of the vote, they would gain another ten seats (as the total is 200) that are distributed by party lists. If they'd gain 0 direct seats, they would get 20 distributed by party lists, in case they get all their 20 seats directly, the list wouldn't be used.

It gets a bit more complicated if, in this example, said party would get more seats directly, but there are methods to fix that (the total number of MPs increases and is filled by underrepresented parties).

By this system, we both get to vote for local guys as well as having a proportional representation.

 

[Hasney]

Urgh I cannot stant the patriotism in his speech....

I never can with anyone, but the masses expect it.

 

[Carl2291]

Great speech, well done Dave.

 

[SmokyDave]

The money didn't run out. There's no such thing as 'the money running out' for a country that can print more money whenever it wants.

Oh there we go then. If it's that simple we'll just print enough money for all the poor people. Problem solved.

 

[Jezbollah]

Current polling share with 4 seats to declare:

Conservatives 36.7%
Labour 30.5%
UKIP 12.7%
Lib Dems 7.8%
SNP 4.8%
Others 7.5%

 

[D4Danger]

Oh there we go then. If it's that simple we'll just print enough money for all the poor people. Problem solved.

that only works for banks.

 

[It's Reyn Time!]

Never understood the bedroom tax hate myself, you shouldn't be renting a property too big for you if you need help paying the rent (via HB)

That's how it was meant to work. What's actually happening is it's removing families from their homes and shoving them into slums because they had one spare room in the upstairs of their house, usually used for storage, guests or hobbies.

 

[Lashley]

Never understood the bedroom tax hate myself, you shouldn't be renting a property too big for you if you need help paying the rent (via HB)

I know a ton of people in a flat with two bedrooms, one is tiny and they're charged for it. The elderly are fucked by this too. This isn't people living in a 4 bedroom house by themselves.

 

[anonymous_abc]

I never can with anyone, but the masses expect it.

dito.

 

[CharmingCharlie]

Never understood the bedroom tax hate myself, you shouldn't be renting a property too big for you if you need help paying the rent (via HB)

Most poor people don't exactly have a CHOICE as to where they live. If you are on social housing you have to take what the council offers you be that a 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom or 20 bedroom hovel. If you turn down what is offered to you then you immediately lose your "in need status" and will have to wait decades for anything to come up.

Now couple that with the fact there are fuck all in the way of single bedroom properties you get a situation where people are being forced to live in a house with 2 bedrooms that they do not want, need or use but thanks to Labour/Tories they have to fucking pay for.

 

[jonno394]

I know a ton of people in a flat with two bedrooms, one is tiny and they're charged for it. The elderly are fucked by this too. This isn't people living in a 4 bedroom house by themselves.

So they can't move in to a one bedroom flat instead?

Most poor people don't exactly have a CHOICE as to where they live. If you are on social housing you have to take what the council offers you be that a 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom or 20 bedroom hovel. If you turn down what is offered to you then you immediately lose your "in need status" and will have to wait decades for anything to come up.

Now couple that with the fact there are fuck all in the way of single bedroom properties you get a situation where people are being forced to live in a house with 2 bedrooms that they do not want, need or use but thanks to Labour/Tories they have to fucking pay for.

Ok. This makes more sense but then there's always private renting options

 

[Prisoner]

What a disgrace. This stupid country.

 

[PJV3]

that only works for banks.

Lol.

Ssh,we don't talk about that.

 

[Lashley]

So they can't move in to a one bedroom flat instead?

Not in this area. There are none, and when there are they're given to families waiting on the list.

 

[Psychotext]

So they can't move in to a one bedroom flat instead?

Problem in a lot of cases is that the next place they're offered (that they can afford) can be half way across the country, or in a really shitty area.

 

[twobear]

Oh there we go then. If it's that simple we'll just print enough money for all the poor people. Problem solved.

I mean, they printed money for the rich people (quantitative easing) during the last recession when it would have been far more effective to print it for the poor people (cut taxes and raise welfare budgets). You're talking as though it's a joke and not what actually happened.