How do you see your self politically

[blup]

What do you call that?

There isn’t a word for it.

 

[blup]

Communism hates the family, or anything that might teach children ways other than communism. Look at the state-induced break up of families and family values in our country since the 60s, and the constant moves against private education and home schooling.

Neo liberalism did for the family, with a healthy boost from the PM Thatcher. Earlier as education secretary She oversaw and continued the transition from grammar schools to comprehensive, the wee commy. Capitalism hates anything that gets in the way of profit including the family. Greed is good.

 

[charliegolf]

In communism*, the state owns the means of production. The state owns the factories, the farms, the financial systems. It has elections, but not free so don't need to be fair. Leaders cannot easily be replaced. The leaders' friends can, of course live outside the confines of the regime. There is no freedom to travel, often even inside the borders, let alone abroad.

Now contrast that with the scandis.** They restrain capitalism, tax for a fairer society and seem to have low crime rates or 'millionaire runaways'.

*Cuba, the Nokkies. China, (but they are playing the long march to capitalism in a'no we're not!' kinda way re foreign travel).
**Mentioned because they are regarded as social democracies. Americans want this called communism.

We on here should be honest enough to lay off the commie line (Spline et al), cos it's inaccurate, and detracts from the debate.

 

[SPLINE]

We on here should be honest enough to lay off the commie line (Spline et al), cos it's inaccurate, and detracts from the debate.

Not a chance Charlie, the isms are all the same to me, the subtle variations are not significant enough to make each ism distinctive. I include national socialism and fascism in that. What they all have in common is state control of a person's entire life. The right-wing / conservative approach is freedom and happiness l

 

[Justin Passing]

I agree that if people have property assets they should contribute, but I'd like to see a cap on how much they have to contribute.
Haven't given the size of the cap any thought.

The limit you can have before the state takes your money slides between 14500 and 23k or thereabouts. Pretty low imho. But if you're in residential care, what else would you do with it?
Give it to the grandkids? Why should everyone else, via your state provider, be giving money to your grandkids?


If you give your money away in anticipation they can take action , eg against your estate, so they wait. They don't chase your grandkids. This not where the 7 year rule applies, that's for IHT.

 

[Justin Passing]

But (I may have made this up) many people use trusts etc to circumvent what might be considered a fair proposal. As to Filly's note about a cap- fair point. Theresa May suggested £26k back then, didn't she? How about £50k?

There are a lot of wrong ideas about trusts. Basically you can give your money away early to avoid paying IHT on it (7 years rule).
If you put it into a trust say for a 3 year old, you have given it away and have no control thereafter - the parent would have control.
You cannot take any interest etc..

Whether it's a gift or you're putting it into a Trust , the same 7 year rule applies.

If - and this is a "what-if" I queried, which AI was quick to predict so it must be a common question:
I gave a couple of mil to trusts for each of my nieces 2 kids, and their mums ( abroad) had control of it, put it in the bank, and squirreled the interest back to me, the HMRC would be all over it. They do prosecute relatives in foreign countries, and if cash started appearing in my bank, they'd be all over that too, and prosecute me.

The Trust overseer ( I forget exactly who that is) is responsible .
If cash were taken from the account for the kid's education, it should be queried.

Basically, whatever you think of, they're way ahead of you, though there are legitimate limits for gifts, which you can use each year.


I still may use trusts, because I don't particularly trust the nieces' partners, who could grab and run off with. So the nieces would have control until the kids are 18 or whatever, by which time I may be dead.