AIBU to want spending cuts rather than more tax rises?

I called Green voters "irrational/uninformed", which is a perfectly reasonable thing to say in good faith.

Furthermore, you've said that you don't vote Green - so the insults did indeed start from you.

By the way, you should check your own grammar before calling out other people's 😂

Personally, I think clear, rational, economically sound thinking is more important anyway - especially in an informal discussion forum - but "you do you"

These are not seperate concepts - earning and disability, nor earning and needing help. Just because I'm a reasonable earner doesn't mean that I or my children don't have a disability. 3 out the 4 people in our house have a disability. Luckily my work is very supportive and made some adjustments to support me, and I cut my hours as I cannot work full time due to pain and fatigue, but that has an impact on our income. DH also has a disability but fortunately can work solely from home. DD1 has health needs and a disability, but we had to fund most of her care ourselves due to long wait lists, which I appreciate is a privilege in itself! But it's frustrating that we are paying lots in, but cannot access support when needed, so on top of tax, we additionally need to pay for healthcare - someone mentioned above that we must be pretty poor at budgetting - no, we just spend several thousand per year getting DD things we feel are essential to her health and learning, and I also had to initially go private, not because we were well off, but because it was so bad that I couldn't care for my baby daughter, and if my husband had to quit work to help, we would have lost our home. So yes we earn reasonably, and yes we have needed help at various points, but unfortunately the help wasn't there.

But vape shops and turkish barbers are the only growing industry on the High Street, definitely not "declining". Nothing to do with most of them being illegal money laundering operations!!

Hence why we needs means testing of all benefits so that those 25% don't get any benefits - they don't need them if they're millionaires.

It's based on tax breaks, i.e. no VAT on motability cars, no road tax on motability cars, government grants towards specially adapted cars, etc.

If they've earned the money from the British economy, they can reinvest it in the British ecconomy.
Fine with them exemping wages, or setting a free allowence amount, but sending big sums abroad should come with some level of acountability.

Non vintage champagne at £35 a bottle is not being subsidised. Similar from Tesco wouldn't cost £15 a bottle.

Able bodied people shouldn't be on benefits in an ideal world. But in the actual world people lose their jobs, or suffer mental ill health, or for any number of reasons cannot make ends meet in a cost of living crisis. So the second a plan like this meets reality it falls apart.

We need a system based on need, with incentives and punishments. That's basically what we have. Unfortunately people take advantage of it, and some beat the system. The easiest thing in the world is to find fault with the system (which is what Farage does). A much harder thing is to design a better one (which is what serious politicians try to do).

We can't keep raising taxes indefinitely. Sooner or later benefits will have to be cut, the number of people receiving them reduced, and the public sector will need to start being run efficiently.

Are you just ignoring the 75% who are not millionaires? How difficult is it to understand that not everyone had the opportunity or spare money to pay into a private pension or save. All my income went into my family so that we didn't have to claim benefits.

We can just end the triple lock so pensions come down. And then look at where else to cut. I feel able bodied people should take responsibility for their own lives and not be on benefits.

'Cultures closer to us'? 'Our own'?

The picture becomes clearer with your every post...

It doesn’t make sense to give vape shop skilled visas when we have an issue with retail declining and NEETs.

Motability is a charity not a government funded scheme. Forcing a charity to make changes to their funding model will have no impact on government spending. It would have the same effect as changing what the RSPCA does with their money.

What about them? They're UK residents. If you refer back to my posts you'll see I include them in who should be getting jobs.

The Boriswave was a fucking disaster but I blame him for that, not any individual who arrived legally.

What about those who've already been issued them?

Not be given visas to work in the UK.

So in order to do jobs in their 'own countries', in other words, you'd like them to...? (insert as applicable)

No, the perfectly obvious meaning was why are we giving foreigners those visas?

I realise that, but although I agree it seems puzzling someone would work in a vape shop on a 'skilled' visa, I also got the impression there was a subtext of 'why are we giving foreigners these jobs?' to that particular post.

Has anyone suggested getting rid of the subsidised dining room in Westminster yet?
That's usually suggested as a way to sort all financial problems out 😂

Don’t forget according to mumsnet all those who do not work, or didn’t work when they were of working age, are severely disabled. They have no arms or legs and are blind and deaf too.
Absolutely nobody, nobody is a lazy, entitled bastard who is taking the piss and has chosen to not work, but rather scrounge as much as possible from the idiots who do go out to work.
All of their multiple dcs are disabled and were severely disabled at birth. Absolutely no of them are awful parents whose own lack of parenting skills has contributed to the feral children they have raised.
Plus the meagre benefits and freebies which they receive mean they have to eat beans on toast every day. Cannot afford designer tracksuits for their dcs and have to live 12 to a bed. Oh wait……

I would be in favour of the two child benefit cap, except that without it children might starve. Until someone can solve that, I reluctantly oppose its abolition.

I would be in favour of ending overseas aid, except that without it, actual human beings in poorer countries will die and our soft power diminishes globally. Until someone can solve that, I reluctantly oppose its abolition.

I would like to pay less tax. But demand for public services is rising, and the proportion of those working in the population is diminishing as we age. Until someone can solve that, I reluctantly support paying more tax.

I would like to cut spending. But whilst it's easy to identify individuals who milk the system, it's almost impossible to identify actual spending that can be cut without serious and unpalatable consequences. Until someone solves that, I reluctantly support current spending levels.

Working age benefits bill is about 150bn pa.

Where did I say to cut it for truly disabled?

8mn people claiming (that's about 20-25% of working age population) aren't disabled who will starve to death. Some will just have to work.