I got speaking to a union official today who argues the following points and thought it may make for interesting discussion.
**please note these are not my own beliefs**
The current Conservative lead government has convinced the majority of the public through television, media and other sources that the current economic and employment situation is as a result of the previous Labour governments over indulgence on borrowing, welfare and immigration policies, as well as the banks pretty much doing what they wanted. Whilst the banks did indeed play a massive part in the economic crash leading to the situation we are in now, the Conservatives are over exaggerating the part the policies of the Labour government had to play in the situation.
In the almost 3 years of the conservative lead government, the situation has changed very little and they are still now using the excuse that they were 3 years ago - that Labour are to blame.
We are told almost daily that the number of people claiming benefits is high and that these people either cannot find work or do not wish to. The actual figure for people claiming unemployment benefits, who are not actively seeking work is 1.6 million which is less than 3% of the population. The rest of benefit claimants are either in part time work, carers, disabled or other.
None UK born people who are claiming unemployment benefits amounts to around 371,000 people. This figure takes into account even those migrants who came to the UK as eary as 1975. A proportion of these people will have been paying into the UK treasury and NI for a large portion of their time here. The other migrants in the country are largely in full time employment paying uk tax and NI currently.
The income tax for those who pay 40% tax is only 5% lower than the super rich. That means that somebody earning 500,000 per year only pays 5% more tax above the threshold than those earning say 50,000. Under labour this figure was 50%. It was the conservatives who reduced this to 45%. The super rich now have more money in their pockets than under Labour.
Lets not forget it was Labour who bailed out the banks to prevent bankruptcy and not the Conservatives. The current government now justifies spending cuts in the public sector based on the claims that the labour government messed everything up. So how is it that the current government can justify allowing the super rich to pay 5% less tax than under labour?
At the same time as blaming everything on the EU zone and Labour, the conservatives fail to recognise the real cause of the problem in the UK, which is that there is no industry, and wages for the majority of people remain low and do not keep up with inflation. All this occurs at the same time as the massive companies, pay less and less tax, make more and more profits, remove employees terms and conditions and manage to pay their executive staff millions in salary and bonus money. It was the conservatives who privatised the railways and utility companies, paving the way for those companies who took over to take control of the UK publics energy prices, and railyway fayres purely based on their own profits. Its the same story every year now, shock horror - energy prices to go up due to this, due to that, due to investment in networks etc etc, and yet 6 months later all of those companies post massive profit hikes.
This only ever affects the working class man and woman, those who struggle to get by, whilst yet again - the super rich dont need to worry.
Cutting spending and benefits will only serve to make the situation worse. Working terms and conditions will continue to be eroded, pay will never ever increase inline with inflation and people who live on benefits will turn to crime to bridge the gap between the benefits they were used to and what they will eventually get. Your children, parents and you will be at a greater rish from crime like robbings, stabbings and other violent crime. All in the name of getting a tenner extra to pay for their lifestyle. Who cares if a minor percentage of the population cant be bothered to work? when the real problem is not them, but the lack of industry and well paid work in the UK today. Until we realise this the situation will never improve and the greedy capitalists will become richer and richer, and all the more influential in government policy.
Who really created the situation we live in today? was it Labour or was it the Conservatives?
**please note these are not my own beliefs**
The current Conservative lead government has convinced the majority of the public through television, media and other sources that the current economic and employment situation is as a result of the previous Labour governments over indulgence on borrowing, welfare and immigration policies, as well as the banks pretty much doing what they wanted. Whilst the banks did indeed play a massive part in the economic crash leading to the situation we are in now, the Conservatives are over exaggerating the part the policies of the Labour government had to play in the situation.
In the almost 3 years of the conservative lead government, the situation has changed very little and they are still now using the excuse that they were 3 years ago - that Labour are to blame.
We are told almost daily that the number of people claiming benefits is high and that these people either cannot find work or do not wish to. The actual figure for people claiming unemployment benefits, who are not actively seeking work is 1.6 million which is less than 3% of the population. The rest of benefit claimants are either in part time work, carers, disabled or other.
None UK born people who are claiming unemployment benefits amounts to around 371,000 people. This figure takes into account even those migrants who came to the UK as eary as 1975. A proportion of these people will have been paying into the UK treasury and NI for a large portion of their time here. The other migrants in the country are largely in full time employment paying uk tax and NI currently.
The income tax for those who pay 40% tax is only 5% lower than the super rich. That means that somebody earning 500,000 per year only pays 5% more tax above the threshold than those earning say 50,000. Under labour this figure was 50%. It was the conservatives who reduced this to 45%. The super rich now have more money in their pockets than under Labour.
Lets not forget it was Labour who bailed out the banks to prevent bankruptcy and not the Conservatives. The current government now justifies spending cuts in the public sector based on the claims that the labour government messed everything up. So how is it that the current government can justify allowing the super rich to pay 5% less tax than under labour?
At the same time as blaming everything on the EU zone and Labour, the conservatives fail to recognise the real cause of the problem in the UK, which is that there is no industry, and wages for the majority of people remain low and do not keep up with inflation. All this occurs at the same time as the massive companies, pay less and less tax, make more and more profits, remove employees terms and conditions and manage to pay their executive staff millions in salary and bonus money. It was the conservatives who privatised the railways and utility companies, paving the way for those companies who took over to take control of the UK publics energy prices, and railyway fayres purely based on their own profits. Its the same story every year now, shock horror - energy prices to go up due to this, due to that, due to investment in networks etc etc, and yet 6 months later all of those companies post massive profit hikes.
This only ever affects the working class man and woman, those who struggle to get by, whilst yet again - the super rich dont need to worry.
Cutting spending and benefits will only serve to make the situation worse. Working terms and conditions will continue to be eroded, pay will never ever increase inline with inflation and people who live on benefits will turn to crime to bridge the gap between the benefits they were used to and what they will eventually get. Your children, parents and you will be at a greater rish from crime like robbings, stabbings and other violent crime. All in the name of getting a tenner extra to pay for their lifestyle. Who cares if a minor percentage of the population cant be bothered to work? when the real problem is not them, but the lack of industry and well paid work in the UK today. Until we realise this the situation will never improve and the greedy capitalists will become richer and richer, and all the more influential in government policy.
Who really created the situation we live in today? was it Labour or was it the Conservatives?