General Politics Thread

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, Suspect Device said:

Edinburgh Worldwide IT 155%

Monks IT 145%

Unilever 110% (Inc dividends)

Diageo 106% (Inc dividends)

Jupiter European IT 74%

I just hope to beat the FTSE over the long term and it is generally about 9% on average. My worry now is a crash before my retirement date or the government changing something to screw me over.

 

 

There's definitely a long overdue crash coming.

Everything is false at the moment, however the real indicators such as stagnant wages, artificially low interest rates, trade wars and worldwide manufacturing slowdowns all point to impending doom from a markets perspective.

The problem is that we've used up all our "silver bullets" such as QE and have nothing left in the armament this time.

History always repeats itself and personally I'm going for hyper inflation and civil unrest similar to the 1930's and we all know where that ultimately leads, which of course is another marker this time political with Brexit and the rise of populism throughout the developed world.

I'm not painting a very nice picture here, I know, however best that we're all prepared.

On a happier note, the English Premiership will be screwed so maybe not ALL bad news..................

[Detournement]

All interest rates are artificial. There is no such thing as a natural interest rate.

There is unlikely to be another crash as governments have figured out how to give billions of pounds/dollars/euros to banks and corporations to underwrite their loses without anyone raising an eyebrow. The problem will come when people realise that if you can create money to bail out a bank you can create it to pay for nurses, homes and anything else that is required by society. Democratic control of the money supply would destroy the inequalities that our economy is predicated upon.

[MarkoRaj]

1 hour ago, Detournement said:

All interest rates are artificial. There is no such thing as a natural interest rate.

There is unlikely to be another crash as governments have figured out how to give billions of pounds/dollars/euros to banks and corporations to underwrite their loses without anyone raising an eyebrow. The problem will come when people realise that if you can create money to bail out a bank you can create it to pay for nurses, homes and anything else that is required by society. Democratic control of the money supply would destroy the inequalities that our economy is predicated upon.

How are the Northern Rock shares doing?

[Father Ted]

Raising the pension age at all, is an insult. The current pension age is too high as it is.

I think it's time that old austerity mantra "We're in it together" is put to the test.

A full audit of all Westminsters overheads, wages of politicians, etc. I want to see drastic cuts, the type our public services have suffered. No 2nd homes, a budget hotel for politicians.

Crapita, Serco and the like should be replaced as there failure is costing us dear.

Time for the waste of space and finance that is the House of Lords must go.

Lizzie and her royals, should be told, no more handouts.

Then move onto dodgy tax practices, offshore tax havens and like. Close them down and recoup what we can. An estimate of £85 billion at last count.

I'm sick of these elected idiots ripping the pish out of the public.

The time has come to destroy various gravy trains once and for all.

If we don't have enough finance for retirement then we don't have enough for the above.

[Suspect Device]

Some stats about pensions.

https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/welfare-spending-state-pension/

You can gauge for yourself if they are 'unaffordable' or not.

[Granny Danger]

10 minutes ago, Suspect Device said:

Some stats about pensions.

https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/welfare-spending-state-pension/

You can gauge for yourself if they are 'unaffordable' or not.

The U.K. appears to be the only European country that has an issue with the future of the state pension.

 

[Father Ted]

I don't think £96.6 billion is much in comparison to other government pet projects; Trident, PFIs, etc.

If other European countries can pay their pensioners, 2 or 3 times what we pay. How do they manage?

Another important item. Where does all the state pensions go that aren't claimed, due to death before retiral age?

If the OBR told me it was Monday, I would have to check the calendar first to make sure.

Some stats about pensions.
https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/welfare-spending-state-pension/
You can gauge for yourself if they are 'unaffordable' or not.

[beefybake]

4 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

Everyone loves monks, my Dad is up 300% on that one

Poor monk.

[Suspect Device]

13 minutes ago, Father Ted said:

I don't think £96.6 billion is much in comparison to other government pet projects; Trident, PFIs, etc.

If other European countries can pay their pensioners, 2 or 3 times what we pay. How do they manage?

Another important item. Where does all the state pensions go that aren't claimed, due to death before retiral age?

If the OBR told me it was Monday, I would have to check the calendar first to make sure.

Also apparently we leave pension credits unclaimed.

es that 40% of families eligible for pension credit weren’t claiming it, leaving up to £3.3 billion of available pension credit unclaimed.

 

https://fullfact.org/europe/pensioners-eu-uk/

I'm unconvinced that our pensions are that unaffordable. Yes, I fan understand that increasing lifespan creates problems but surely it's a question of priorities rather than affordability. 

[Suspect Device]

23 minutes ago, MixuFixit said:

Isn't it the case that it's possible to get a more generous state pension in effect through claiming various allowances, while most other countries don't have the allowances and just pay a decent pension in the first place?

I always think benefits you are entitled to but have to ask for are designed so many people don't claim them.

You'd be right.

[Bairnardo]

Isn't it the case that it's possible to get a more generous state pension in effect through claiming various allowances, while most other countries don't have the allowances and just pay a decent pension in the first place?

I always think benefits you are entitled to but have to ask for are designed so many people don't claim them.

Absolutely. Its a model well used by koads of companies. Like when you get a new phone or something and they tell you that you get a free speaker or tablet or some other shit, then it turns out you actually have to wait 13 weeks for a one day window in which you have to redeem your voucher. Specially designed to be laborious and easy to forget.

Just the same as auto renewals of brutal insurance premiums. If you bet on laziness across your customer base, you will win

[Dunfermline Don]

Also apparently we leave pension credits unclaimed.

es that 40% of families eligible for pension credit weren’t claiming it, leaving up to £3.3 billion of available pension credit unclaimed.

 

https://fullfact.org/europe/pensioners-eu-uk/

I'm unconvinced that our pensions are that unaffordable. Yes, I fan understand that increasing lifespan creates problems but surely it's a question of priorities rather than affordability. 

I always have had an issue with Tax credits of any type. It was a few years before I was fully aware I could apply for child tax credit. I was too busy working and bringing up the kids,

Wouldn’t it have been easier to raise the tax free allowance taking more lower paid people out of tax rather than have to an application process which then requires extra staff at HMRC to process. I would rather that HMRC staff were trying to deal with tax evasion/avoidance issues instead.

[Father Ted]

Isn't it the case that it's possible to get a more generous state pension in effect through claiming various allowances, while most other countries don't have the allowances and just pay a decent pension in the first place?

 

I always think benefits you are entitled to but have to ask for are designed so many people don't claim them.

I'm led to believe in general, the benefits that go unclaimed towers over any "benefit scrounging" figure.

 

Yet we don't see any adverts or TV shows about benefits you might be due, but plenty on benefit scrounging.

 

Take from that, what you will.

 

[Suspect Device]

1 hour ago, Bairnardo said:

Absolutely. Its a model well used by koads of companies. Like when you get a new phone or something and they tell you that you get a free speaker or tablet or some other shit, then it turns out you actually have to wait 13 weeks for a one day window in which you have to redeem your voucher. Specially designed to be laborious and easy to forget.

Just the same as auto renewals of brutal insurance premiums. If you bet on laziness across your customer base, you will win

 

Aye, it's easy to sign up for a new TV channel but you have to phone up to cancel. Make it slightly harder and you coin it in. Same goes for the tax credits.

[BawWatchin]

[Benjamin_Nevis]

I'm led to believe in general, the benefits that go unclaimed towers over any "benefit scrounging" figure. 
Yet we don't see any adverts or TV shows about benefits you might be due, but plenty on benefit scrounging.
 
Take from that, what you will.
 

The unclaimed benefits figures, particularly for pension credit absolutely dwarf those for benefit fraud.

Pension credit is fairly easy to claim however, basically a phone call and send in bank statements. DWP also offer a visiting service to claim, which they don't publicise much, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

1 hour ago, Day of the Lords said:

The unclaimed benefits figures, particularly for pension credit absolutely dwarf those for benefit fraud.

Pension credit is fairly easy to claim however, basically a phone call and send in bank statements. DWP also offer a visiting service to claim, which they don't publicise much, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

Correct. The figure for unclaimed benefits (between 10 and 20 BILLION, depending on source and definition of "benefit"), just like unpaid tax ( aprox 109 BILLION), absolutely dwarf those for benefit fraud (1.9 BILLION - less than 1.2% of benefits paid). The number of Government employees chasing wee Shuggy down the road* compared to those arranging meetings with Amazon and Google are similarly skewed. But then the Great British Public love blaming those less well off, don't they? Why else would horrible shite like "Benefit Street" and "The Scheme" get made - and watched?

Government Policy here, as always, is the man on £2000/hour telling the man on £10/hour that the immigrant on £8.21/hour is the problem. And it works. It works every fucking time, because the poor bástards at the bottom lack the resources or energy to fight back.

Here's a thing - if I'm being shit on, I would look upwards to see where it's coming from. Faeces doesn't defy gravity.

*Just imagine if all those DWP and HMRC snoops and investigators were deployed instead on making sure Shuggy and those like him had access to those benefits they need. Nah, that would be mental. Especially when there's sanction targets to meet.

[EvilScotsman]

11 hours ago, Dunfermline Don said:

I always have had an issue with Tax credits of any type. It was a few years before I was fully aware I could apply for child tax credit. I was too busy working and bringing up the kids,

Wouldn’t it have been easier to raise the tax free allowance taking more lower paid people out of tax rather than have to an application process which then requires extra staff at HMRC to process. I would rather that HMRC staff were trying to deal with tax evasion/avoidance issues instead.

This is one of the things which UBI addresses - by removing the application and means testing processes, you save nearly enough money to pay the Basic Income itself, according to calculations by the Green Party (if I remember rightly - I think Common Weal have also done some costings, so I may be confusing the studies).

[WhiteRoseKillie]

2 minutes ago, EvilScotsman said:

This is one of the things which UBI addresses - by removing the application and means testing processes, you save nearly enough money to pay the Basic Income itself, according to calculations by the Green Party (if I remember rightly - I think Common Weal have also done some costings, so I may be confusing the studies).

Absolutely. There's a good piece at the start of Rutger Bregman's Utopia for Realists which details the results of giving  group of homeless people actual cash money rather than the type of "help" that charities or benfactors assumed would make a difference.  UBI is a great idea, held back by Man's mistrust of his Fellow Man. See my earlier post about who's to blame for the shit we're in as opposed to who we think is.

Another instance is the idea that it actually costs more to decide who qualifies for free NHS prescriptions in England, rather than make them free across the board, as in Scotland. Not sure that stacks up, but I know that only 20% or so of NHS patients do pay, so the impact of universally free wouldn't be as big as some might think.

 

[dee_62]

22 hours ago, Suspect Device said:

You can retire at 55.

For now. That's already been upped from 50. They might change that at any time. They've already changed the women's retirement age with very little warning.

Pretty sure they'll mess up my planning by taking away the 25% tax free allowance before I reach 55 as well. Only 3.5 years to go.

Think it's already been changed - it'll be 57 by 2028 to tie in with the change to 67 for the State Pension.  Pretty sure I read somewhere a while back that they were looking to tie in access to any private/workplace pension to 10 years below the State Pension age at some point.