National insurance cut

Soldato
Joined
3 Aug 2015
Posts
7,367
Health service, social care, public transport, roads, education, benefits safety net, essential utilities (water, electric, gas).
Yes but there’s a lot of arguing to do within each of those categories.

Defence needs to be on the list. That’s the main one. Policing, etc.
 
Caporegime
Joined
13 Jan 2010
Posts
32,632
Location
Llaneirwg
Yes but there’s a lot of arguing to do within each of those categories.

Defence needs to be on the list. That’s the main one. Policing, etc.

IMO (and many will disagree) I think defense has plenty. We aren't a super power anymore or a world player. At much as some of the brexit voters will protest.

Defense certainly needs a rethink. Less people (ie troops) and more technology/intelligence.


Everything else needs cash. From roads, to nhs, to pensions, to care etc etc.
Councils are to the point of having to turn down the lights FFS to save money. There isn't much left. And we are facing that now with huge CT rises.
He taketh my money from CT an give with NI.

I don't see any long term solutions. Can't afford to bring essentials into the public domain. Can't tap the average Joe anymore without hurting the economy. Can't force councils to sell assets for the next year, only to be hurt the following.

As we've banged on about for ages, without tapping other income it's just going to get worse
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
3 Aug 2015
Posts
7,367
@413x - I’m not saying there should be more or less on any of these. I’m saying there needs to be a national conversation on what each one entails. That therefore sets the level of tax required.
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
32,618
IMO (and many will disagree) I think defense has plenty. We aren't a super power anymore or a world player. At much as some of the brexit voters will protest.

Defense certainly needs a rethink. Less people (ie troops) and more technology/intelligence.


Everything else needs cash. From roads, to nhs, to pensions, to care etc etc.
Councils are to the point of having to turn down the lights FFS to save money. There isn't much left. And we are facing that now with huge CT rises.
He taketh my money from CT an give with NI.

I don't see any long term solutions. Can't afford to bring essentials into the public domain. Can't tap the average Joe anymore without hurting the economy. Can't force councils to sell assets for the next year, only to be hurt the following.

As we've banged on about for ages, without tapping other income it's just going to get worse


indeed, Russia's invasion has shown us that both the west underestimated risks but equally massively overestimated Russia's capabilities. Russia is struggling with Ukraine when before the invasion there were expections of Ukraine being steamrolled in 1-2 weeks. Russia is now weaker than ever before but the risk of new conflicts is higher.


The real defense budget should not only be focused on technology and advanced weapons, but cyber security. We still have Russian's heavily influencing social media and elections.
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Jul 2008
Posts
7,850
Location
N/A
I don't know.. it may be a lot of gucci belts and no trousers here...
When I first joined OCUK forums (2000s), a lot of my collegues was on this forum not sure how many are still active but we was only on about 20-25k.

Obviously some have progressed with their careers, some have moved out of IT all together..

I'm not on 100k a year yet, and even if I was.. I would likely stick as much as possible into a pension like I do now.

I think the forums changed after the 2017 election - with Corbyn's manifesto being full of free stuff suddenly there was a lot of people on here that were 'poor victims' in need of free broadband etc - and that has perpetuated ever since.. With Covid making any sense of self responsibility a thing of the past with everything seemingly a government problem to be fixed with handouts and legislation etc..

I'm sure there are some genuine people struggling on here that need help.. but I bet if the GPU forum was cross matched with the energy prices thread there'd be some interesting conclusions..
 
Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,410
Ah here we go with the excuses already lol... so put up taxes massively...
The excuses would be used by any party that gets in after another has been in government. We can all see that tax and NI need to be increased to fund the necessary functions of the country, but it also needs to be a simple system. Over complicated systems break down quicker than simple ones.
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Jul 2008
Posts
7,850
Location
N/A
The excuses would be used by any party that gets in after another has been in government. We can all see that tax and NI need to be increased to fund the necessary functions of the country, but it also needs to be a simple system. Over complicated systems break down quicker than simple ones.


So a Starmer govt would just be more of the same..
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2005
Posts
8,427
Location
Birmingham
but I bet if the GPU forum was cross matched with the energy prices thread there'd be some interesting conclusion
I think you have to consider interpretation of value though. Ive moaned about energy prices and bought a 7900XT. One is a luxury and one is not, and in my opinion energy should be stable and cheap so that we have more money to spend on actually enjoying life etc.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
639
Location
UK
Exactly, and probably even worse.

Labour have said many times that to fund the country long term the economy needs to grow. Something which this government has failed to do to any meaningful level in 14 odd years. GDP per capita is pathetic, general productivity is pathetic, living standards - falling and in some cases lower than Eastern European countries who everyone use to look at and point and laugh. The far left won't like the arguement about the economy but it's entirely true.

If you get people back to work by helping to fix the NHS, skills shortages, inward investment have a proper industrial / business strategy etc you'll get more tax take.

Just going along with only looking at tax being high or moderate is not going to solve the underlying problems with the country.

If the Tories lower taxes across the board, I would have no issue with Labour saying they would raise it again for high earners. But I can see why they might not want to do that, instead they are concentrating on getting more people into work.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,410
Labour have said many times that to fund the country long term the economy needs to grow. Something which this government has failed to do to any meaningful level in 14 odd years. GDP per capita is pathetic, general productivity is pathetic, living standards - falling and in some cases lower than Eastern European countries who everyone use to look at and point and laugh. The far left won't like the arguement about the economy but it's entirely true.

If you get people back to work by helping to fix the NHS, skills shortages, inward investment have a proper industrial / business strategy etc you'll get more tax take.

Just going along with only looking at tax being high or moderate is not going to solve the underlying problems with the country.

If the Tories lower taxes across the board, I would have no issue with Labour saying they would raise it again for high earners. But I can see why they might not want to do that, instead they are concentrating on getting more people into work.
I've said this before, I was told by my history teacher that if you looked at the system of government in this country you have Tories saying one thing and most of the time Labour is saying the opposite. So when they get in power they go well we don't want those policies that aren't ours so spend years trying to get rid of them and put theirs in place. Come the election they have a population who are fed up with them not doing what was promised so they vote the other party in and so the cycle goes on. No party is working to get the country better they are only looking out for their own self interest.
 
Back
Top Bottom