Labour's Disreputable Leadership

I tend to agree with you oss that in 10 or 15 years the white collar numbers will decline because of improvements in atomisation, the problem I see is that no Governments plan that far in advance, they are only interested in their next term in Government, the future is always someone else's problem.

The system is out of control and resembles the bread and circuses of the Roman emperors, crossed with the Speenhamland System.

It absolutely must be reformed, but in Britain the frog boiling principle should be applied to possible voters - bring in the changes gradually.

Do you think I need a new spell checker?

I like that

Eye Halve a Spelling Chequer

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a quay and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its really ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it's weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

(Sauce unknown)

The Tories were not alone in summoning the "troops" for Monday night's important vote. Labour brought-in the 86 year-old Lord Taylor of Blackburn who, in 2009, made history by becoming the first peer in 350 years to be suspended for breaching the code of conduct - the "Cash for Influence" scandal which also involved three other Labour peers including Lord Truscott.



Also present was the expenses cheat Baroness Uddin. Ennobled as Britain's first Muslim woman peer by Tony Blair in 1998, she was suspended from the Lords and the Labour Party for a record 18 months when it was discovered that she'd fraudulently abused her second home allowance. The amount of money quoted in her case (£125,349) is probably the largest amount in any of the House of Commons or House of Lords expenses scandals.



Whilst he was a magistrate and sitting on Labour's frontbench in the Commons, Lord Foulkes, presently aged 73, was fined £1,050 for being drunk and disorderly in 1993 which forced him to resign from the frontbench. He was later criticised after claiming £54,527 in expenses from the Lords while drawing a salary as a member of Scottish Parliament.



And Baroness Hollis the 74 year-old who failed three times to get elected as a Labour MP but nevertheless was appointed pensions minister by Tony Blair. She was criticised when it was claimed that she and her partner, Baron Howarth, lived next door to each other but both continued to claim expenses from the House of Lords.



A veritable rogues gallery of unelected disreputables who were among the ring-leaders of Monday night's vote to override the will of the elected chamber. Their very future as peers may now be in jeopardy.

This concept has always puzzled me throughout my working life.
I first understood it when leaving school and it's been an oft stated prediction ever since.

I'm not disagreeing at all, but I do put forward a case that as 'automation' in the workplace advances so does the creation of new employment opportunities.
I'm retired now, but I remember how the advancement of computers seemed to create far more jobs than was lost. Well as it was in my company anyway.

I think it's a very interesting subject worthy of it's own thread.

I do agree that the welfare budget needs some very careful attention that thinks outside the short term box.

What was it that Jeremy Corbyn promised upon his election - "a kinder politics"?



He's just committed a future Labour government to a £10 billion policy pledge - to scrap tuition fees and re-introduce student maintenance grants. An arguably noble undertaking but where's the money going to come from to finance this act of largesse promised at a No 29 Bus Stop?

scrapping trident and 100 % capital gains on private landlords

That must account for why his approval rating has plumbed new depths this week. Down from -8 to -20.

Let's consider this proposal of 100% CGT you say Corbyn wants to levy on private landlords. The upshot will be that many private landlords could serve notice on their tenants and cease to be landlords, moth-balling their properties. That would drastically reduce available housing and potentially thousands will be made homeless. Nice to know Corbyn cares so much for the more vulnerable members of society.

Scrapping Trident will result in several thousand losing their jobs, some of which are highly-paid. What's about them - are they to become dependent clients of the welfare state?

Better and better:

http://order-order.com/2015/10/30/fisher-mark-2-another-labour-opponent-linked-to-top-corbyn-job/

Back in the days when Michael Foot was leading the Labour Party, John McDonnell was actually sacked by Ken Livingstone from the post of Deputy Leader of the GLC for putting bogus figures into his budget in an attempt to make Livingstone support the Militant Tendency Trots who were then running Liverpool Council.

He's surrounding himself with Marxists and Trotskyites who campaigned against Labour party candidates. Meadway also campaigned for Lutfur Rahman, the former Labour Mayor of Tower Hamlets who, in April of this year, was found guilty of electoral fraud, removed from office and personally debarred from standing for elected office until 2021. Meanwhile Fisher faces expulsion from the party.

Can't Corbyn find anyone who's a loyal member of the Labour party and who is willing to work for him?

I believe McDonnell was the GLC's "Chancellor of the Exchequer" at the time he did that.

It was what I said Mark how would they "mothball " there properties most are bought on credit untill now subsidised by the UK taxpayer I think the effect would be to reduce house prices and with a glut on the market rents also an area of taxpayer subsidy

For Capital Gains Tax to be payable, there has to be a capital gain - the property would have to be sold for more than it was bought for and is only payable upon sale. If landlords decide to "revolt" by withdrawing their properties from the rental market, then the government is going to have a major headache: it will lose the 40% income tax paid by landlords on the rental income, there'll be no CGT and there'll be a large number of people demanding to be housed. Even if this crazy policy is implemented, I can almost guarantee a U-turn after a month or two at most. Also such a policy will not reduce house prices since there are many more people seeking to buy than there are available homes.

Neither the unions nor his own MPs will agree to scrapping Trident - though its land base may move from Scotland to Wales, depending on whether the SNP continue to hold power in Edinburgh. So there's about £167 billion his government may find itself committed to spending. Just as he was forced to climb-down on wearing a red poppy, he'll climb-down over Trident; in common with every other politician, he's not about to bite the hand that feeds him!