[Archived] The General Election 2015

[thenodrog]

This was in the Guardian today. Farage campaigning with Joey Essex on a boat off the coast of Grimsby. Shame it wasn't torpedoed:-

Essex explained to the Ukip leader why he was there: “Basically I don’t really understand much about political life and I’m trying to show the youth it’s good to vote.”

Farage said: “What I’m going to try do is give you my opinions, which you’ll either love or hate.”

Essex asked: “Why are we in Grimsby?”

The Ukip leader replied: “It’s symbolic of what’s gone wrong. If we came here 40 years ago there were thousands of men working here and a massive trawler fleet, it was the biggest fishing port in the country.

“We joined the European Union and now have to share all our fish with all the other countries. And what we’re saying is let’s take our country and our territorial waters back, let’s get our fishing industry back.”

In response, Essex said: “Sick.”

When Farage added that he wanted a bigger British fishing industry, Essex said: “Wicked.”

Essex talked to Farage about working at Billingsgate fish market. Asked what he thought of Farage, Essex said: “He’s a really, really reem guy.”

Farage said: “I think that’s good, I’m not sure. Reem? Interesting. What does that mean?”

Essex explained: “It means cool, wicked, sick.”

Obviously a landlubber blueboy but tell me why are you against a thriving, vibrant and successful British fishing industry?

[thenodrog]

Presumably you and your family have used the NHS and various other public services at some point. Don't you have any principles ?

We have, but then we pay for it just like everyone else in paid employment. BUT I also subscribe to Private Health insurance which after a couple of minor ops has saved the NHS quite a packet. So I have paid my NHS contributions and paid for those ops too which in effect is akin to a private donation to the NHS is it not? Double bubble in fact.

So 'do I have any principles'? I'd say so in paying for something that I am not using fully and I'm pretty sure given your love of the NHS that I must now deserve your praise, respect and gratitude comrade.

[thenodrog]

Mr Balls today cited “independent experts” as saying the abolition of non-dom status could raise £1bn. The point is, abolition is correct morally and in principle. These people are using this country as a tax haven, not because they want to live here.

Exactly! A glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel! The nation is benefitting greatly from their wealth. Tax em and they will find somewhere else to live and we won't get any revenue at all. A lose lose suicide policy.

btw you and I could be classed as 'independent experts'. Load of political eyewash. That phrase means nowt without substantiating why they qualifiy to be quoted.

[thenodrog]

I think the fact that he doesn't canvas tells you all you need to know. He's worshipped by people in his community for the service he's given over many years. At 83 I think he deserves to take things a little easier Biddy.

He's never taken a top job in government because he's more interested in serving his constituents. Wasn't caught up in the expenses scandal and hardly ever misses PMQ's.

If only we had more politicians like Dennis Skinner.

Eh? £200,000 grand plus a year each for doing nothing??? Are you off your trolley?

tbh MP's should be forced to resign at pensionable age or 70 imo.

As for his expenses....... He's no different than all the other buggers. Get your head out of the clouds Gav.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5412667/Dennis-Skinner-claimed-for-accountants-fees-on-MPs-expenses.html

[jim mk2]

Exactly! A glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel! The nation is benefitting greatly from their wealth. Tax em and they will find somewhere else to live and we won't get any revenue at all. A lose lose suicide policy.

Non-doms are tax evaders - nothing more. They're international flotsam and jetsam who go anywhere in the world to avoid paying their due. Personally I don't like my country being used in this way. It's indefensible, morally wrong, it's an archaic 200-year-old tax wheeze and it needs abolishing.

Eh? £200,000 grand plus a year each for doing nothing??? Are you off your trolley?

MPs earn around £75,000. Where did you get that figure from ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10503564/MPs-salaries-to-rise-to-74000-a-year-despite-opposition.html

[Gav]

Eh? £200,000 grand plus a year each for doing nothing??? Are you off your trolley?

tbh MP's should be forced to resign at pensionable age or 70 imo.

As for his expenses....... He's no different than all the other buggers. Get your head out of the clouds Gav.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5412667/Dennis-Skinner-claimed-for-accountants-fees-on-MPs-expenses.html

75K a year is what most MP's get?

Dennis Skinner has done nothing wrong in terms of expenses, he's a proper politician, cares about people, if we had more politicians like him the country would be a better place to live for everyone.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/may/31/dennis-skinner-bolsover-mps-expenses

[yoda]

Have Labour ever left Government with the economy in better shape than when they entered Government ?

[Biddy]

75K a year is what most MP's get?

and to be fair, that only kicks in later this year when they get their 11%!!!! pay rise. Of course all politicians are appalled by that amount but "unfortunately" they can't do anything about it. According to the article Jim linked to Milliband says he is not going to accept his, we'll see when June comes around. At least he says that, I notice all the other top ranking officials were outraged in 2013 when it was announced but made no comments on not accepting it. Personally, if they really couldn't have refused (as it is set independently) it would have been a nice gesture to all donate the extra to charity. Of course that's not going to happen.

Dennis Skinner has done nothing wrong in terms of expenses, he's a proper politician, cares about people, if we had more politicians like him the country would be a better place to live for everyone.[/size]

Come on get over it, you have no idea about whether he "cares about people". I do agree though that he shows a great deal more integrity than 99.9% of the other politicians when it comes to what he claimed for. I still don't agree that most of the expenses for ANY politician were on the whole justified. Taking Dennis' for example, although he was considerate enough to claim less than he thought he could, why should we, the tax payer, still have forked out anything for his new bed and bathroom in London? Those should have come from normal living allowances and wages. BTW, looking at his house here, it hardly looks lived in so I guess he spends most of his time in London (granted I am just theorising as you keep doing)

[Biddy]

LMAO http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32223486

[broadsword]

Non-doms are tax evaders - nothing more. They're international flotsam and jetsam who go anywhere in the world to avoid paying their due. Personally I don't like my country being used in this way. It's indefensible, morally wrong, it's an archaic 200-year-old tax wheeze and it needs abolishing.

It's been going on for longer than Labour have been in existence, so why is it only now that they're proposing to outlaw it?

[jim mk2]

Tax evasion is a worldwide problem, not just here. Governments are making efforts to clamp down as part of efforts after the financial crisis to clean up the system. Switzerland is on borrowed time.

[yoda]

Tax evasion is a worldwide problem, not just here. Governments are making efforts to clamp down as part of efforts after the financial crisis to clean up the system. Switzerland is on borrowed time.

Yeah, ISIS are going to nuke them

[broadsword]

Being a non-dom is avoidance, not evasion, isn't it?

So why didn't Labour have this whizzy idea while Tony "I don't have £100 million, honestly, not even a fifth of that" Blair was in power?

[yoda]

Being a non-dom is avoidance, not evasion, isn't it?

So why didn't Labour have this whizzy idea while Tony "I don't have £100 million, honestly, not even a fifth of that" Blair was in power?

Maybe he knew he was going to become a global advisor, or is that too cynical, even for Tory Blair

[thenodrog]

MPs earn around £75,000. Where did you get that figure from ?

75K a year is what most MP's get?

Dennis Skinner has done nothing wrong in terms of expenses, he's a proper politician, cares about people, if we had more politicians like him the country would be a better place to live for everyone.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/may/31/dennis-skinner-bolsover-mps-expenses

Just a ball park estimate of salary plus expenses. Don't tell me that you two forgot them? MP's expenses are worth twice their salary and I can imagine the crap that would drop on me from HMCR if I tried to claim double my salary in expenses! One law or one and another law for others eh?

Old info from your favourite rag jim. Update it to today and I'd imagine that salary and expenses will average to approx 200k each won't it?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/oct/22/houseofcommons.uk

[thenodrog]

It seems to me that most parties are committed to balancing our books, except the Greens, who I'd like to have heard more from them regarding their economic policy, but can only believe their noises about increasing spending is reckless.

I've just seen their Party Political Broadcast! What a shambles. Useless and pointless.... just about sums their party and it's members too.

[Gav]

Come on get over it, you have no idea about whether he "cares about people". I do agree though that he shows a great deal more integrity than 99.9% of the other politicians when it comes to what he claimed for. I still don't agree that most of the expenses for ANY politician were on the whole justified. Taking Dennis' for example, although he was considerate enough to claim less than he thought he could, why should we, the tax payer, still have forked out anything for his new bed and bathroom in London? Those should have come from normal living allowances and wages. BTW, looking at his house here, it hardly looks lived in so I guess he spends most of his time in London (granted I am just theorising as you keep doing)

You do seem to have a downer on Dennis, has he run over your cat biddy?

As for 'getting over it' as you put it, caring about people is a labour pre-requisite Biddy, I also read his book recently, the man cares about people, take it from me.

[Biddy]

You do seem to have a downer on Dennis, has he run over your cat biddy?

As for 'getting over it' as you put it, caring about people is a labour pre-requisite Biddy, I also read his book recently, the man cares about people, take it from me.

Not so much of a downer on him, just annoyance at people who who live no where near this area lording him like he is the messiah. I might have to read his book now. I never thought of looking for one by him.

£9.49 for the Kindle edition, screw that!

[Gav]

By dads reading the book at the moment, well actually he's said absolutely no chance he's reading that rubbish, but I live in hope as its a good read.

Once I get it back I'll get your address and post it to you, if i remember.

[thenodrog]

Exactly! A glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel! The nation is benefitting greatly from their wealth. Tax em and they will find somewhere else to live and we won't get any revenue at all. A lose lose suicide policy.

Non-doms are tax evaders - nothing more. They're international flotsam and jetsam who go anywhere in the world to avoid paying their due. Personally I don't like my country being used in this way. It's indefensible, morally wrong, it's an archaic 200-year-old tax wheeze and it needs abolishing.

Lets look at this almost in reverse. Who has probably done the most for Blackburn and it's citizens in the last 100 years?

No doubt you'd myopically nominate barbara castle / Jack Straw / or Lord Patel but pretty well everyone else would rightly point to Jack Walker.

From humble beginnings Jack strove to build a massive steel stockholding company (biggest in Europe at the time) employing hundreds of local people before selling out to British Steel. Once the business was sold it's rumoured that Jack and Fred tossed a coin to determine who would live abroad in tax exile in order to avoid paying a massive amount of tax generated by the sale to the Inland Revenue. Probably for the only time in his life Jack lost the toss and moved to Jersey. What happened later was that that money was subsequently invested, mostly in this country to build a massive business empire involving property, industries, airlines etc which is now stands at at least double the original amount and will be paying massive massive amounts of tax in one form or another every year to the British Govt.

Next up of course was taking over BRFC and providing the town's team with a desperately needed brand new state of the art stadium and training facilities which were second to none, and to provide a management structure as well as a team manager and team good enough to be elevated to sit at the very pinnacle of British football and bring pride and fame back to the town on both a massive and unpredictable scale. All this rem was carried out against the back drop of decline and depression in the town caused by the demise of King Cotton.

So.... If Jack had stayed here and paid his dues there would be 3 tumbledown sheds at Ewood with the Riverside demolished through safety concerns, there would have been no 'Walker Years' and there would be no Walker park. So now a question for you....would the the town and it's citizens have benefitted from him handing over the loot to the bottomless pit in Westminster or has Blackburn benefitted more by his continuing business acumen from tax exile?

I think we all know the answer don't we? Drive the bread winners / big hitters / wealthmakers away with the threat of Robin Hood taxation and we will all suffer in the long term.

[jim mk2]

Drive the bread winners / big hitters / wealthmakers away with the threat of Robin Hood taxation and we will all suffer in the long term.

Jack Walker was a tax evader - end of story. We all have to pay taxes - including the wealthy.

[broadsword]

Avoider, not evader.

[Mike E]

Jack Walker was a tax evader - end of story. We all have to pay taxes - including the wealthy.

Bit slow on this aren't you Jim? Evading and avoiding. 2 things. One legal, one not.

And you disregarded everything else in drog's post. Did Jack's tax avoidance benefit the country in the long run? Yes or no?

[Gav]

Bit slow on this aren't you Jim? Evading and avoiding. 2 things. One legal, one not.

And you disregarded everything else in drog's post. Did Jack's tax avoidance benefit the country in the long run? Yes or no?

First rule when arguing about politics, try to avoid answering a direct question!

[K-Hod]

Bit slow on this aren't you Jim? Evading and avoiding. 2 things. One legal, one not.

And you disregarded everything else in drog's post. Did Jack's tax avoidance benefit the country in the long run? Yes or no?

You'd be a brave man to argue on a Rovers forum that Jack Walker's tax avoidance benefitted the country in the long run!

It isn't always as cut and dried as that though.