Politics Thread!

[merman]

Gah! So much anti-benefits rhetoric doing the rounds and it's annoying AF. Especially as the largest single benefit claimant group in the UK are actually wealthy people.

"Wah wah wah, why is so much of my money going to poor families?", cry the Tory rags. Completely discounting that the largest bulk of those payments actually go toward paying the mortgages of BTL landlords.

My partner's disabled, gets full allowance from the govt. It's meagre AF and she's not allowed to use the housing part of it to go toward a mortgage. But of course the landlord who "kindly" rents her the place gets to pull the benefits straight to him via her bank account.

This week I have to go to a tribunal - for the second time - to try and get back my Personal Independence Payment.

Last time it lasted less than five minutes, and the doctor in charge started by saying, “Looking at your file I don’t know why they took it away.” So the flawed assessment left me and my family in poverty for a year, then cost the Government nearly TWO YEARS PAYMENT to deny me it, go through the process and pay me the backdated money anyway!

One good thing though - an official Government trial of Universal Basic Income is to start, with 20% of the trial participants being disabled.

People on low incomes and benefits CONTRIBUTE to the economy. They have to spend nearly everything on food, clothes and housing. Cutting taxes for the richest - as Sunak means to do - gives them more money to hoard overseas, costing the Government revenue and not contributing to the economy here.

[KlaxonCow]

One good thing though - an official Government trial of Universal Basic Income is to start, with 20% of the trial participants being disabled.

When Mark Drakeford proposed that Wales should trial Universal Basic Income - initially targeted, for the trial, on those leaving care to give them an early "boost" in life - then Westminster and Welsh Tory MPs ridiculed the idea.

Now England wants to trial it on 30 people. Silence. No criticism that it's "mad".

So it's only an "insanity" when Wales wants to do it, apparently. And the Welsh trial was targeted - at a group that, statistically, needs the boost. And it wasn't so stingy - the English trial is only going to be 30 people. The Welsh trial was around 500 kids leaving care, if I recall correctly.

[Dio]

From the interviews I heard yesterday on R5, this isn't a government project, it's a privately funded study.

[Orava]

So burst dam is apparently no threat to the nearest nuclear plant, well that is a relief

[merman]

Government losses due to fraud QUADRUPLED under Chancellor Sunak, thanks to furlough payments, bounce back loans and Eat Out To Help Out.

And in 2021 pensioners were UNDERPAID more than £1.6 BILLION due to DWP errors.

So they can hand out money to fake businesses run by their rich mates, while starving and freezing the elderly. But it’s those elderly who they will want to vote Conservative.

[F-ZeroOne]

So burst dam is apparently no threat to the nearest nuclear plant, well that is a relief

Er, you may have the wrong thread...

[merman]

Sunak passed Johnson’s Resignation Honours List onto the King “unlamented”.

Nothing for Nadine Dorries, so she resigns in a huff and forces a by-election. Exactly what Sunak wanted to avoid.

I cannot even bring myself to type the names of some of the people “rewarded” for being loyal to Johnson.

Oh, and Sunak swanning around in a “Government jet” costing taxpayers £50,000 a day really does prove how out of touch he is.

The pointless agreement with the USA shows just how weak and feeble he is as a leader on the world stage, emphasised by Brexit.

[F-ZeroOne]

So guess who has just spaffed off as an MP?

[tufty]

Oh dear. What a shame.

[gilesgoat]

One good thing though - an official Government trial of Universal Basic Income is to start, with 20% of the trial participants being disabled.

When Mark Drakeford proposed that Wales should trial Universal Basic Income - initially targeted, for the trial, on those leaving care to give them an early "boost" in life - then Westminster and Welsh Tory MPs ridiculed the idea.

Now England wants to trial it on 30 people. Silence. No criticism that it's "mad".

So it's only an "insanity" when Wales wants to do it, apparently. And the Welsh trial was targeted - at a group that, statistically, needs the boost. And it wasn't so stingy - the English trial is only going to be 30 people. The Welsh trial was around 500 kids leaving care, if I recall correctly.

Parenthesis : "You arrive later, it's already been done in Italy ( since 1 year, or 2 I can't remember ) , it is called 'Reddito di cittadinanza' " :

https://www.redditodicittadinanza.gov.i ... /dettaglio

The problem is like "almost all" italian things started with a good idea/intention, got implemented BADLY and almost immediately got exploited "by the usual ones" (*) created and still creates a political storm, will be probably discontinued ( forever i.e. removed ) by Georgia Meloni by the end of June/July this year I can't remember the details.

Fundamentally one of things badly implemented were "the requisites to get it" .. which really created a mega absurd situation that "people that REALLY needed it could not get it and people that don't need it - including people that technically were pretty rich even if practically they could via loopholes "prove" they were still entiled to - able to get it.

One "huge mistake" that immediately came out, and I am not sure if they could/did/could not correct, was really weird, is they set up conditions like "unemployed, with less than X income per month, not having relatives living with them, not owning a X,etc. .. " .. sounds good ... what they FORGOT in all this ? ... "People serving jail time" .. now that population ( people serving time in jail ) is PRETTY BIG in Italy suddenly almost ALL of them qualify to get this money .. and that believe it or not had a SIGNIFICANT IMPACT on the amount of money needed to be paid out ..

Then we had "super absurd situations" like "the son of that PM that gets 20K eur salary per month" ( YES PMs in Italy can get stuff like that and even more and that's ONLY the KNOWN money they get without all the 'behind the scenes paid money' ) - you see why many Italians want to get into politics - was still qualifiying to get it because "unemployed, on papers owning nothing ( was all in the name of his dad ) and such .. " ..

And then (*) "the usual suspect scammers" able to find ways to qualify for it.

The end of the day "this money went everywhere and very little where really needed", still proven to be more "a political move than a reasoned one", been "popular from one side, extremely impopular from another" and looked more like "a move to stir voting" than "a solution to something".

More time will tell but AS IT WAS IMPLEMENTED proved to be practically a total failure and "once more again money in the pockets of the usual ones (*)".

So maybe have a look at Italy and what it has done .. and DO NOT DO THE SAME ! Do it better !

[PFVA]

Coincidence?

Boris resigns after Covid Party Gate almost at the same time Trump is indicted for taking US secret files to his house in Florida.

[PFVA]

And around here today is the national day, and this year they took the official commemorations to Peso da Régua, the area where Douro Wine is produced, including Port Wine. And right now before the President's speech we had the speech of a known enologist.

[PFVA]

The commemorations includes a military parade with all branches of the armed forces, and right now I'm watching the special troops going thru the streets of the town.

I don't know if it's me but I thin they should keep these things in the capital. It looks too weird for my taste.

[F-ZeroOne]

Boris got to knight Rees-Mogg on his way out, so that sentient cadaver will at least be one further step along the way to living out his Medieval Life Dream.

[KlaxonCow]

He's exactly that sort of annoying person who's going to insist that everyone refers to him as "Sir Jacob", isn't he?