Chesterfield Online Forum
General Category => Politics => Topic started by: Sorastro on May 24, 2024, 01:11:16 PM
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For the next six weeks the worlds your lobster. The electorate will be promised the earth and I'm afraid the vast majority will fall for it.
Rishi Sunak....Never trusted him, never will.
Keir Starmer...Never trusted him, never will.
Ed Davey....... Never trusted him, never will......... ad infinitum
I've mentioned this before, as I was approaching voting age I sought advice from my dad {as I assume most did} he being a Labour supporter all his life it wasn't difficult to see which way he voted, but even he was disillusioned then and here we are 60 years later and we're still no nearer having a decent government. He only passed on two pieces of knowledge:-
1/ The only good politician is a dead one..... at least you know where they are and what they're up to any time of the day.
2/ I would chop my right arm off before I ever voted conservative.
Apart from those words of wisdom politics, when I was growing up, was a subject in our house that was never discussed, never a need to discuss it. We were a family of 7 siblings and over the years we never knew each others preferences because we never asked, I only found out {by accident} that my two eldest brothers always voted Conservative.
I've been married for over 50 years and I STILL don't know who my wife votes for mainly because I've never asked, and why should I, it's none of my business.
It wouldn't hurt for the voters to re visit past decades and find out how many promises were either kept or broken by successive governments then make up your minds.
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Only a few days in and already the promises are coming thick and fast from all sides.
Allegedly.. the junior doctors are going on strike again presumably wanting Sunak out so they can get their 35% pay rise, but it looks like they may not get it with Labour either.
The Tories have said this and promised that if they are re elected, but why wasn't any of these "great" things brought in BEFORE the election date it's just another con to get them back in power.
Anyway whoever wins it will just be another 5 years of the same, and why people can't or won't see this is beyond me.
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Finally watched the first debate that was on the other night Sunak V Starmer and, predictably, unimpressed, a classic example of how politicians can talk for an hour and not say anything, as the Americans would say it just became a pi**ing contest.
Apparently there's another one next week, with no doubt more of the same, with more parties this time and now that Nigel Farage has thrown his hat back into the ring that should stir things up a bit.
Sunak lost several brownie points yesterday {D day}, was his schedule THAT full {or did he realise he'd left the gas on?}. His own common sense should have told him you don't leave midway through proceedings especially something so important as that. If Biden can travel all that way and Zelensky can risk travelling through his war torn country to get there PLUS veterans in their nineties can make the effort AND stay longer it doesn't look good for one of our countries representative to duck out, especially someone who only travelled about 100 miles.
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He's obviously got different values to us.
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The Triple Lock for pensioners..
I have just had a quick look at the Triple Lock promises made by Labour and Conservative.
For those unfamiliar with T/L this has been used when calculating pensions, this goes up annually by either 2.5% or inflation {whichever is the greater} granted over the last couple of years it's gone up by the rate of inflation which has been high so it looks {on paper} as if O.A.P.'s are doing well, unfortunately the personal tax threshold {P.T.T.} which is the figure what O.A.P's are allowed to receive in pension before having to pay tax on it, which has always gone up slightly at the same time, has been frozen since 2021 and both the Tories and Labour have virtually said the freeze will continue till at least 2028 which means that O.A.P's {especially O.A.P.'s on just the basic pension} will find their pensions overtaking the P.T.T. and will have to start paying tax which is taxed at 20%.
I myself am already paying tax as I have two small private pensions coming in and this has tipped me over, not only for this year but last year as well.
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We can't win. If people working struggle some needing food banks what chance do pensioners have.We can't pick up a bit of available overtime to help pay bills.
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Say what you like about Nigel Farage he's the only one that seems to be talking sense.
I mean after all, the chances of him getting anywhere near number 10 are slim to none so he has no reason, when interviewed, to lie or in any way bend the truth.
I think the man should be given a chance... Farage as P.M. with Martin Lewis as chancellor of the exchequer, as P.M. he certainly couldn't do any worse.
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Since the start of proceedings I have had leaflets through the door from the Reform party, the Tories and just this morning Labour, all of which are now adorning the bottom of my wheelie bin.
I think the only people making any money out of this are the printers!
It appears a few of the Tory big wigs are already admitting defeat as it doesn't look good for their party. They are actually asking Tory voters, who are disillusioned with the party, to vote for anyone but Labour to try and water down Labours majority.
Although Labour must be rubbing their hands together already, nothing is certain till the last vote is counted.
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Last week there was another election debate on t.v. with all the main parties, and I.T.V. came on a few days before asking viewers to send in questions that can be put to the candidates. I ended up having to tape the programme and watched it the next day and the whole programme, which was almost 2 hours long, consisted of about 4 studio audience questions and just 1 viewer question.
If your going to do something like that have a programme with audience questions and one with viewer questions, or at least the same amount of each.
P.S. In my opinion Farage won hands down.
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Betting on outcomes.......
So it looks as if they are all in it, one candidate has bet on himself to lose at the election, others were caught betting on the timing of the election, why can't they just pass a law making it illegal to bet on anything connected with politics....problem solved.
The betting shops need to take most of the blame for this as lets face it some people will literally bet on anything.
I have a better use for my money.
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Only a few days to go now and it seems {at the moment} Labour are going to win, unless of course the muck raking increases to muddy the waters still further.
So if your wanting the next government to be up front with the voters, not make promises they can't keep, stick to their manifestos and not change their minds mid stream, no scandals and generally end up being bad apples {as bad as this lot and those before them} 5 years down the road then to me there is only one course of action on July 4th....
Wimbledon will be on the telly!
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The 4th of July.
Not long now......I thought I was hallucinating watching the news this morning, up pops Boris Johnson singing the praises of voting Tory.
Whatever the outcome is on Friday you'll have 5 years of it, good luck.
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Meanwhile what's your thought on Jo Biden
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Meanwhile what's your thought on Jo Biden
There is no room in politics for sentimentality. Anyone with an ounce of brain can see the man is totally unfit to hold high office, he is not up to it physically or mentally and the longer he stays in the better Trumps chances.
Unfortunately it appears no one likes the vice president Kamala Harris so they are stuck either way.
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I agree and wonder why he actually wants to carry on given the age he is.
His eyes don't look right at times. He does appear to have a medical problem
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Thursdays result was not a complete surprise.
I thought Farage's Reform party would have fared better but none the less he's got into the Commons and I really hope he shakes things up a bit.
Having watched the speech by Starmer outside no. 10 yesterday it was very upbeat and full of hope, I've taped it so during his stint as P.M. I can revisit it and see how he's faring {baring in mind I hope to still be around in another 5 years}.
I watched on the news this morning the new cabinet ministers arriving to start "work" and Angela Rayner turned up, now I may not be an expert on ladies fashions but as she walked up Downing street she resembled a tea clipper in full sail, not to mention the colour but then again if she does a good job I don't care if she does it wearing a monks habit and ski mask.
Don't expect too much too soon....as with all incoming parties they spend the first 2 years of their tenure blaming "the last lot" as to why things are not moving on apace.....I wish them luck, lets hope he's not Rishie Sunak part two.
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Only a few days in and Labour are saying we will do this and we will do that.
I notice that Rishi Sunak has lost one of his cabinet, Cameron has quit {again} and got the hell out of Dodge, Rishi won't be too far behind him no doubt, I predict by Xmas Rishi and his wife's bank account will be living in America.
Labour says they are hoping to recoup some money from the "failed" Rwanda scheme, while they're about it they can recoup all the money that was wasted on bogus P.P.E. contracts during the pandemic {like they said they would do at the time}.
They are going to build 1.5 million homes over the next parliament, already the N.I.M.B.Y's are closing ranks, especially the Tory held seats.
That amount of housing will take up a lot of space.
One way would be to buy up agricultural land from farmers and build there, green belt I hear you cry! well lets face it agricultural farming in this country has been on the decline for years, almost anyone reading this knows of a farm that has a field {or fields} full of Solar panels, or a farmer who now runs glamping/camping sights on arable land, as traditional farming does not seem to pay, besides the vast majority of our foodstuffs is shipped in from abroad anyway.
Speaking of new cabinet members I was surprised to find Emily Thornberry has not been offered a cabinet post, maybe she was too close to Corbyn and this new party want's to distance itself from him, if that is true then they need a new leader!!!
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Meanwhile what's your thought on Jo Biden
It just gets worse, Biden at the meeting yesterday, when introducing Volodymyr Zelenskyy called him president PUTIN!!! and later he referred to his vice president as "Vice president TRUMP".
He says he's had a least 3 tests to prove his fitness to run and passed basically with flying colours, well of course you can pass when your being tested by yes men and sycophants your bound to come out smelling of roses.
I predict that before the election gets under way Biden will be forced out, something along the lines of
"President in hospital undergoing surgery and doctors advise him he must drop out on {physical} medical grounds" thereby saving face.
Trump needn't do any electioneering at all....Bidens doing all that for him.
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Well it had to happen....... Trump.
The conspiracy theorists are on line in droves apparently....Put up job, the C.I.A. were behind it, etc.
No matter what the reason this is not the way a "civilised" country behaves!!!
Having said that I have always had my opinion about who was involved in the J.F.K. assassination ever since I watched his demise unfold on t.v. when I was a teenager and it's never altered all these years later.
On this side of the pond I doubt there are many Trump supporters but it was shocking to see, he's one very lucky bloke.
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Trumps running mate sounds a right bundle of fun, just by watching the news today it seems just over a year ago the vice president pursuivant Michael Pence couldn't stand Trump and he took every available second of air time to talk him down, now all of a sudden they are big buddies.
Allegedly:-
It appears Pence seems anti Ukraine and possibly thinks Putin is the bees knees, so any help for Ukraine against Putin will more than likely dry up if they get in. He also has made it abundantly clear he does not like Britain's new Labour government so working with a Trump president is going to be an up hill struggle for Starmer and his crew.
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Correction...The incumbent V.P. is J.D.Vance not Pence which is the name I saw when I looked him up, obviously not updated their blogs.
After listening to Biden this morning I can only assume his doctors and those around him read this forum!
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The Triple Lock for pensioners..
I have just had a quick look at the Triple Lock promises made by Labour and Conservative.
For those unfamiliar with T/L this has been used when calculating pensions, this goes up annually by either 2.5% or inflation {whichever is the greater} granted over the last couple of years it's gone up by the rate of inflation which has been high so it looks {on paper} as if O.A.P.'s are doing well, unfortunately the personal tax threshold {P.T.T.} which is the figure what O.A.P's are allowed to receive in pension before having to pay tax on it, which has always gone up slightly at the same time, has been frozen since 2021 and both the Tories and Labour have virtually said the freeze will continue till at least 2028 which means that O.A.P's {especially O.A.P.'s on just the basic pension} will find their pensions overtaking the P.T.T. and will have to start paying tax which is taxed at 20%.
I myself am already paying tax as I have two small private pensions coming in and this has tipped me over, not only for this year but last year as well.
I know it's early days yet but I've been trawling through Labours "pledge" on pensions on line and although they are insisting on keeping the triple lock I can find no reference to the P.T.T. part of it so it looks like, up to now, the freeze is still on.
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I have just watched Kemi Badenoch in the house of Commons, the other day, addressing Angela Rayner and congratulating her on her new role.
She basically told Angela that her new government has "Stitched her up" none more so than in regards to Labours pledge to build 1.5 million homes in this parliament as it's unattainable and she makes some valid points. She basically said 1.5 million homes roughly works out at building over 800 per day in the length of this parliament to reach their target. Labour has been in power about 3 weeks now and already not a brick has been laid, this also doesn't take into consideration all the asylum seekers that are going to be fast tracked and allowed to stay {they will need homes!} so by the time they get their fingers out they are going to be thousands of homes behind and more than likely can't catch up.
Now I understand why the Tories lost the election.....it's because they wanted to. Give it about 3 years and Labours name will be mud.
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Meanwhile what's your thought on Jo Biden
It's the right decision but he should have done it awhile ago. He's clearly not well maybe just old age but he's not upto the work needed.
Just found out he's dropped out, lets hope he didn't do too much damage leading up to the election.
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He should have stood down awhile ago, clearly gas age issues abd won't be up to the job.
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3 weeks in and Labour are already back wording on some promises, cancelling projects {including new hospitals} and a threat of increasing taxes, basically, as they put it, because the Tories were not straight on the countries finances.
The Tories on the other hand are claiming that's just an excuse to convince the electorate that they have no other choice but to increase taxes and not fulfil certain promises....................who do you believe?
Me I believe none of them, politicians couldn't tell the truth if their lives depended on it.
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Now I understand why the Tories lost the election.....it's because they wanted to. Give it about 3 years and Labours name will be mud.
Correction I'll give it 3 months, they've obviously hit the ground running......nose first.
As for the p.t.t. on pensions apparently the freeze IS staying till 2028 which, especially in my case, by the time the end of 2028 comes round the vast majority of both my private pensions will be swallowed up in paying tax.
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I went to a coffee morning yesterday the pensioners are not happy.
Worked the majority of their lives and being penalised for their savings was the general view.
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I went to a coffee morning yesterday the pensioners are not happy.
Worked the majority of their lives and being penalised for their savings was the general view.
Quite right O.C. the fact that we have the next 5 years of a Labour government {that's if they last that long} that within weeks has kicked the O.A.P.'s not once but twice, the p.t.t. freeze plus now no winter fuel payments.
I notice that Rachel Reeves has not suggested a wage reduction for politicians or a culling of the house of Lords to save some cash, you only have to look at the Kings coronation and more recently the state opening of Parliament to see where the money is being wasted, all they had to do at the state opening was stick an ordinary shop sign on the door that said "WERE OPEN"
O.k. maybe the winter fuel payment was not very well thought out when you consider ALL pensioners were entitled to it, that meant the likes of Alan Sugar, king Charles et al, plus a good % of the house of Commons and ALL of the house of Lords you can see how skewed the system is, rather than scrap it out of hand at least means test it.
As I said before was there a budget defecit or are they telling porkies, I doubt we will ever get to the bottom of it, we are like mushrooms, kept in the dark and cr*pped on twice a day.
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I doubt we will get to know the truth but as pensioners we are of no use to them for voting are we.
They want the young ones with a longer life expectancy.
We should take a leaf out of Viv Windsors book and
SPEND
SPEND
SPEND
😅
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It would appear Nigel Farage is trying to get Parliament back sitting over these riots, good luck Nige!
Like the school holidays I don't understand why {this year} Parliament rises for weeks, it started hols on 30th July and will reconvene on 2nd September, like the schools there is no need for it.
This practice started about the mid 1800's the reason for the Parliamentary holiday was because [then] during the Summers the river Thames used to stink to high heaven and M.P.'s couldn't stand the smell so gave themselves a few weeks off till things cooled down, this is no longer the case {apparently} so therefore no need to continue the practice. Anyway nowadays the "stink" always seems to be coming from inside Parliament.
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Correction I'll give it 3 months, they've obviously hit the ground running......nose first.
Farmers protesting outside Westminster, Winter fuel payment binned for millions of O.A.P.'s, Horizon scandal payouts still nowhere to be seen, no nearer solving the boat crisis......Yes 3 months was a good guess.
General election in the Spring me thinks!
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Noticed on the news 3 "guest" speakers at the farmers protest at Westminster yesterday, Kemi Badenoch, Victoria Atkins and everyone's favourite Jeremy Clarkson, interesting trio.
It's obvious why Badenoch and Atkins were there to point score for the Tories, they don't give a monkeys about the farmers it was just a chance to have a dig at Labour. If the rolls were reversed and the farmers were outside a Tory run Westminster demonstrating those two would have set the dogs on them and had them jailed.
As for Jeremy Clarkson {I'm a farmer 'cos I've got sh*t on my wellies} apart from being surrounded by the media when he arrived how can he empathise with these farming families that have worked farms for generations when he's been doing it 5 minutes.
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We needed changes but they have gone in too hard with what they are doing, little wonder people are annoyed,
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Noticed Starmer is trying to put the Kibosh on up and coming local elections in May, well he's bound to because he knows the party he leads has managed to alienate the electorate in record time and he knows they will take a drubbing at the polls and if bad enough could trigger a general election.
I've a feeling Labour are discovering they may have [already] made a mistake picking Starmer as leader... Starmer Reeves and Raynor need to go. I may not be a politician, but even I can see they're not cut out to be in charge, unfortunately this narrows the field of suitable candidates drastically.
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Ostensibly the reason for wanting to scrap the elections is that Angela Rayner wants to reorganise local government by grouping local councils together into unitary authorities representing populations of not less than 500,000. Ms Rayner comes from the Metropolitan County of Greater Manchester (population 2.9 million), where such an idea might be reasonable. She clearly is clueless about non-metropolitan England, where 500,000 represents half of Derbyshire or almost half of Lincolnshire.
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When I was a young {good looking} lad just leaving school and starting work, I was blissfully ignorant of politics and overhearing a conversation on politics by a couple of my older workmates one said:-
"Why can't we just get rid of all the M.P.'s and pay the 12 best brains in Britain to run the country". That was in the mid 60's,I believe that conversation is just as relevant now than ever.
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Just had the pension letter today telling me what I can expect in 2025/6.
Yes I'm getting a rise in pension, but as I mentioned before I have a couple of private pensions so am already paying tax. This years increase will now be more than swallowed up in tax PLUS more, so much so the tax bill for this year has almost doubled from last year.
at this rate I will have to look for a job.
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They miss the fact that we worked for what we get pension wise, taxing on it can't be right.
Any money we need out if savings we are questioned.
They are looking for Cohesion and Fraud.
What are we coming too, What a world to live in.
Our own government screwing pensioners over