Philip Hammond says there are 'no unemployed people'

[Thumper]

Tell that to the overweight people refused hip replacements or an alcoholic placed firmly at the back of queue for a liver transplant.
Surely you're not naïve enough to think that if you mess your head up with drugs that you chose to take, doctors with limited resources are going to lavish their time and energy on you.........?
Boy are you in for a shock.

Whether people have an equal right to healthcare and whether healthcare professionals recognise that fact and act accordingly are two separate questions.

And you keep using phrases that make it seem you've assumed that, just because I'm in favour of decriminalising drugs, I must be an active drug user. You know what they say about assumptions. There are plenty of people out there who recognise the utter pointlessness, illogic, and downright hypocrisy of our current drug laws- it's not just about people legitimizing their own habit.

 

[Ken L]

Seems to me that a lot of people would do well to get out and about in the world a bit and they might just start to realise that their "right to healthcare" is nothing of the sort.
The NHS isn't perfect but it's better than many provisions and it is under constant assault from global health tourism, abuse by those that don't value it and those with an ideological/political agenda.
It can evaporate like smoke in the wind.

Wherever possible in this thread, I've tried to use general rather than personal terminology but sometimes it just gets tiresome. I couldn't care less whether you are an active drug user. I'm addressing the bad idea not the individual.

 

[Norfolk79]

Trouble is with tax credits the taper rate at which they get taken away discourages people to work more. I can see why people work the minimum as any extra money they earn they pay 20% tax, 12% National insurance and 41p of their tax credits goes for every £1 extra they get. Effectively a 73% tax rate, yet the government says a 50% higher tax rate discourages rich people and so it needed reducing to 45!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[pms67]

I couldn't vote for Labour as I know from history socialism only ever makes the poor poorer.
Latest example the country Corbyn was singing the praises for Venezuela, even with it's massive oil reserves, socialism has ruined the economy and left the majority of the people in poverty.

I didn’t vote for Labour

 

[pms67]

I've never yet voted Tory but the labour party no longer represents me or any other working person. They are now the party of foreigners, the jobless and middle class champagne socialists.

I didn’t vote Labour

 

[pms67]

The Tory’s are a horrible,horrible lot.
Not all of them,just most

 

[Thumper]

Seems to me that a lot of people would do well to get out and about in the world a bit and they might just start to realise that their "right to healthcare" is nothing of the sort.
The NHS isn't perfect but it's better than many provisions and it is under constant assault from global health tourism, abuse by those that don't value it and those with an ideological/political agenda.
It can evaporate like smoke in the wind.

Wherever possible in this thread, I've tried to use general rather than personal terminology but sometimes it just gets tiresome. I couldn't care less whether you are an active drug user. I'm addressing the bad idea not the individual.

I'm not sure what gives you the impression that I'm having a pop at the NHS. I value the NHS very highly, and few current political issues make me quite so angry as the attempts to dismantle and privatise it. I think its something the UK should be very proud of and work damn hard to preserve, and I think NHS staff do a fantastic job under very difficult circumstances.

A large part if the reason I'm a fan of the NHS is precisely because it recognises people's right to healthcare, at least in spirit and normally in practice. The American system, for example, does not.

 

[Russ146]

There's a dude couple of doors down from us, 24 years old and never worked a day in his life. Rent paid, fuel paid, council tax paid. Not tried finding work cos he doesn't want to ( his words ). But things have gotten so desperate lately that my eternally soft missus has taken to supplying him with meals, from money I have worked for. WTF??? This is enraging me no end but for now, I'm keeping a lid on it to preserve domestic harmony. But it won't last.

What are you a man or a mouse?

What else is she giving him while your slaving away?

 

[pms67]

What are you a man or a mouse?

What else is she giving him while your slaving away?

I hope that’s a joke

 

[Dutto]

I voted Labour AND I am an active Member of the Labour Party AND I am proud of the way the Party is coming back to the core socialist values on which its formation was based. :thumb:

I also have a fairly decent memory and I can remember when:

1. Nationalised industries returned profits (and there were a lot of them) back to the UK Exchequer for the benefit of all UK subjects; rather than bleeding the country dry by sending profits to investors in the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, China etc etc.

2. Employment was paid at a rate where the worker could support himself and his family without the need to get his income propped up by "benefits".

3. A persons Pension was "ring-fenced" so that an Employer could not plunder the fund, use it to pay himself massive dividends and then leave the workers without a pension.

4. People working for the state or local authorities were paid less than those working in the commercial sector; but this was balanced by a high level of employment protection.

5 EVERY local council had to provide social housing to those who were not fortunate enough to be able to purchase their own home or find the higher rental prices found in the private sector. Council housing tenants had a high level of protection so that they could raise a family secure in the knowledge that if they kept paying their rent they could not be evicted.

6. Home ownership was fairly low but it was generally within the limits of anyone who was regularly employed. As a "for instance", in the early 60's I could purchase a "two-up/two-down" terrace house in Louth for £450 which was about 50% of my then wage. (The same type of house currently sells for +/-£40,000!)

7. State "benefits" (with the exception of Child Support) were paid only during periods of unemployment, sickness or periods of extreme need.

In the late 1960's I worked as a sailor in the Merchant Navy and was on the Grimsby Pool. At the end of each trip I was paid off until such time as I was allocated another ship. During my period of unemployment I claimed Unemployment Benefit which came to £13.11.0d per week with two free bottles of milk per day because I had two young children. My pay as an Efficient Deck Hand with a Lifeboat Certificate? £13.11.10d a week; but with the chance of overtime. :lol:

Being out of work in those days was anathema because meaningful paid work was available to everyone!

This country has been mismanaged by many governments but none has quite managed the level of incompetence being achieved by the current government.

It's time for change! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Thumper]

I like Corbyn's Labour. I'm young enough that, before that, I had only ever experienced Blair and Brown's "New Labour". I never voted for them until Corbyn came along.

 

[Gunge]

What are you a man or a mouse?

What else is she giving him while your slaving away?

Lol! Not what you're thinking - he's gay!! Besides, our relationship is rock solid and in 25 years there's been 'no-one else', guaranteed. But my missus is just too soft for her own good sometimes. I'm definitely a man but there is still a little milk of human kindness in my veins and will help anyone when they're down. I'm just getting a little frustrated at his apparent lack of effort to sort himself out. Got to happen one day, and you know what they say about karma.

 

[Dutto]

I like Corbyn's Labour. I'm young enough that, before that, I had only ever experienced Blair and Brown's "New Labour". I never voted for them until Corbyn came along.

I have to admit that I voted for "New Labour" on the basis that it was necessary for the Labour Party to change its stance on a number of things to A) Become electable. and B) Prevent the "Establishment" (i.e. the Tory Media, Banks, Stock Exchange etc) from bringing the Party into disrepute before they had managed to do anything.

It came as a massive shock to see that "New Labour" was apparently determined to discard the socialist values at the core of the Labour Party and in some instances become more "Tory" than the Tories themselves.

I like what I see happening at the moment and definitely approve of the move back towards those core values. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Saisonator]

Today's Labour and the left in general are utterly establishment.
Be it the education system from infants up to university, the BBC, judges, most of the public sector and the civil service are all a bunch of leftists.
Labour support the EU, that are in the pocket of multi national companies, pro globalisation and mass immigration.
Bloody is there any establishment that Labour and the left are not part of or supporting?

 

[Dutto]

.............

Bloody is there any establishment that Labour and the left are not part of or supporting?

Please be more specific and quote the references from where the information is gathered. :thumb:

 

[Duxuk]

On the 4th October 1779 Luddites rioted at Birkacre mill near where I live. They burnt the mill to the ground in a protest against the mechanisation of spinning and weaving. T' mill owner, Arkwright moved his operation elsewhere and was very successful. Chorley lost employment. The lesson is obvious. You must accept technology and adapt or we lose out against other countries. Ultimately technology will create it's own employment. In the '70s we were told that computers would allow us to work shorter hours but the opposite is the case.

 

[Thumper]

@Saisonator

This would be the same BBC that gave Farage more air time than the rest of the party leaders combined when UKIP had no seats, and yet had to be publicly browbeaten into inviting the Green party to the leaders debates despite them having held at least one seat for years? That bunch of leftists?

 

[Bernie]

In the '70s we were told that computers would allow us to work shorter hours but the opposite is the case.

True. I find that I'm always in the internet blogging away at all hours.

 

[Dutto]

...........

In the '70s we were told that computers would allow us to work shorter hours but the opposite is the case.

Back in the 70's I was attempting to control an offshore gas production platform from an onshore location with an IBM-1800 computer; and at that time we were being warned that we all had to look for something to fill out our "Leisure Time" because we would all be working a 10 hour week by the turn of the century.

What no-one realised was that another solution was to keep 25% of the population working 40+ hours a week on low wags and put the other 75% out of work!

Enter "The Bitch"!

In 1979 when she took power there were 1,390,467 people unemployed and within seven years (even after a lot of statistical juggling to lower the figures) a further 1,902,400 people had joined them.

Weird eh? All those people consigned to the scrap heap of unemployment and yet the nation has just voted to leave the EU on the basis that too many immigrants were finding employment in the UK.

Not really weird when you think about it. IT MAXIMISES PROFITS to employ smaller numbers of staff, working longer hours on lower wages than the more generous alternatives being put forward in the early 1970's.

Welcome to a UK economy which promotes austerity for the poorer members of our society and greater wealth for those who are already rich in material things.

It HAS to change! :thumb:

Reference:

Unemployment statistics from 1881 to the present day
https://www.ons.gov.uk/ons

 

[Saisonator]

@Saisonator

This would be the same BBC that gave Farage more air time than the rest of the party leaders combined when UKIP had no seats, and yet had to be publicly browbeaten into inviting the Green party to the leaders debates despite them having held at least one seat for years? That bunch of leftists?

He makes good TV because he gives straight answers and has more charisma than most other politicians today.
Plus he pretty much engineered the Brexit referendum, so he has had a lot more influence in politics than UKIPS number of seats would indicate.