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Is austerity working- and will it ever end?

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If the Tories despise ordinary people, as you claim, why have they increased the minimum wage, introduced a national living wage, and massively increased the income tax threshold? Those things benefit ‘ordinary people’.

 

Who introduced the minimum wage ? and who opposed it saying it would cost 1000s of jobs.

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If the Tories despise ordinary people, as you claim, why have they increased the minimum wage, introduced a national living wage, and massively increased the income tax threshold? Those things benefit ‘ordinary people’.

 

Whoopy do! National living wage £7.83 for under 25 and £8.75 for over 25 - not exactly a fortune is it? Especially with rents at an all time high, cost of living going up, and inflation at almost 3% and rising.

 

It hardly compares with MPs 11% pay rise does it? Or CEOs /excecutive pay, multi £million pay packets, share options, pension plans, and expense accounts, reduction in Corporation tax etc.

 

As for tax, well it's all give with one hand take back with the other. Taking money off the disabled was unforgivable and closing services a disgrace.

Ask any of Mrs May's 'just about managing' if they feel they've been helped, and are now out of the woods....

Edited by Anna B

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Who introduced the minimum wage ? and who opposed it saying it would cost 1000s of jobs.

 

I’m not sure why that’s relevant to the current government? If the Conservatives still oppose the minimum wage then it’s odd that they increased it.. Things change, parties change.

 

---------- Post added 30-09-2018 at 15:34 ----------

 

Whoopy do! National living wage £7.83 for under 25 and £8.75 for over 25 - not exactly a fortune is it? Especially with rents at an all time high, cost of living going up, and inflation at almost 3% and rising.

 

It hardly compares with MPs 11% pay rise does it? Or CEOs /excecutive pay, multi £million pay packets, share options, pension plans, and expense accounts, reduction in Corporation tax etc.

 

As for tax, well it's all give with one hand take back with the other. Taking money off the disabled was unforgivable and closing services a disgrace.

Ask any of Mrs May's 'just about managing' if they feel they've been helped, and are now out of the woods....

 

I’m not saying it’s a fortune. I’m saying that the government raised it. Isn’t that a good thing?

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I’m not sure why that’s relevant to the current government? If the Conservatives still oppose the minimum wage then it’s odd that they increased it.. Things change, parties change.

 

---------- Post added 30-09-2018 at 15:34 ----------

 

 

I’m not saying it’s a fortune. I’m saying that the government raised it. Isn’t that a good thing?

 

They're not daft, they have to play the game... give us a few crumbs to gnaw on, while they enjoy the banquet...

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They're not daft, they have to play the game... give us a few crumbs to gnaw on, while they enjoy the banquet...

 

You what?

 

So you think a cleaner deserves the same wage as a nuclear engineer for example? Are you high? That is where your argument seems to be going. The wage you are paid is determined by demand and rarity of the required skills and qualifications. I absolutely make no apologies for going through continuous learning and acquiring the skills and qualifications I have to earn the wage I do. There should absolutely be a significant differential between what I earn and the minimum wage, I worked for it to get into the position I am in.

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Whoopy do! National living wage £7.83 for under 25 and £8.75 for over 25 - not exactly a fortune is it? Especially with rents at an all time high, cost of living going up, and inflation at almost 3% and rising.

 

Didnt George Osborne increase the minimum wage more than Labour were promising?

If that did not achieve what you want, is there another solution?

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You what?

 

So you think a cleaner deserves the same wage as a nuclear engineer for example? Are you high? That is where your argument seems to be going. The wage you are paid is determined by demand and rarity of the required skills and qualifications. I absolutely make no apologies for going through continuous learning and acquiring the skills and qualifications I have to earn the wage I do. There should absolutely be a significant differential between what I earn and the minimum wage, I worked for it to get into the position I am in.

 

I'm sure you worked hard to get where you are. But do you not think people on minimum wage work just as hard as you do? And are any less important? Ask a carer. They just do it for less.

 

As for qualifications, they are only half the story. Continuous learning requires brains, opportunity, aspiration, encouragement and support (and often) money. You have obviously been blessed with those, and should be grateful. Many are not so lucky.

 

However we disagree on the rarity value. A lot of top paid jobs come down to who you know, not what you know, opportunity and luck. It's the jobs that are rare, not the people who fill them.

 

Do you really think an ordinary girl with a 2:1 in English Lit from Newcastle University would have become Director of a top London Art Gallery if she wasn't called Princess Eugenie? Would Lulu Guiness have become a famous designer of awful (and awfully expensive) handbags if it wasn't for the Guiness name and friends in all the right places? And so on....

 

Nor am I saying there shouldn't be a pay differential, but it has long been debated which jobs have most merit and are most beneficial to the community, and therefore should be more highly paid. The jury is still out on that one, but the rich and influential somehow always seem to think it is theirs.

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No real sign of austerity ending.

 

Biggest cuts for 8 years in Local Authority spending.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/england-council-budget-cuts-government-austerity-social-services-essential-care-safety-a8559486.html

 

And £2.7 billion cut in NHS spending due to a government "mistake".

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-latest-cuts-miscalculation-billions-public-sector-pension-costs-a8562491.html

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They dispise ordinary people; helping them goes against their ideology.

 

I guess restaurant workers aren't ordinary people then

 

Restaurants face ban on taking share of tips

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45701799

 

You really do live in your own crazy blinkered fantasy world at times. :rolleyes:

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I guess restaurant workers aren't ordinary people then

 

Restaurants face ban on taking share of tips

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45701799

 

You really do live in your own crazy blinkered fantasy world at times. :rolleyes:

 

What the Tories say they'll do, and what the Tories actually do, are two different things...

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I guess restaurant workers aren't ordinary people then

 

Restaurants face ban on taking share of tips

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45701799

 

You really do live in your own crazy blinkered fantasy world at times. :rolleyes:

 

Another idea pinched from labour.

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So the cuts to services, funding for local authorities and other hardships bestowed upon the (majority of the) population, grouped together as 'austerity measures' keep coming with no end in sight.

Has the banking crisis been paid for yet, and if not when will it be and will any cuts be reversed ?

 

If the Tories stay in power, austerity will become the new normal. They have no intention of reversing the cuts. Eventually people will forget what it was like before the financial crash and just accept things the way they are.

The financial crash is already part of history.

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