AIBU to want spending cuts rather than more tax rises?

Not if they're highly-skilled, a skill or qualification in short supply, and offer a salary that will enable to become a net contributor.

Is my philosophy not to import net-beneficiary low-wage immigrants (and their families)? Oh yes.

O.M.G, please tell me you're not irrational/uninformed enough to vote Green?!?

If you do, this discussion is pointless...

It's going to take the IMF instructing the UK to do the same to get things changed to solve the problem. We're not yet at the stage of needing IMF help, but we're definitely getting closer. I suspect a lot of politicians are hoping that happens so they can claim "It's not our fault, the IMF made us do it" when it comes to reducing benefits (inc state pensions), cutting public sector bloat and inefficiency, increasing taxes, etc.

Does your child have needs that couldn’t be met at a state school?

I haven’t voted Labour since we got Tony Blair instead of John Smith.

Yeah, until fiscal drag brings it down...

Replacing the triple lock with sensible and genuine inflation linking (without the triple lock ratchet) would be OK. The young should be very, very wary of anything more than that.

OK, 1% on income tax and 1% reduction on ALL benefits. That way everyone pays! Or are you one of those who wants to continue hammering only workers - i.e. the people we need to keep the economy moving?

Reading these posts you can see how it gets to this stage.

Do you not think maybe just maybe immigration should be limited to sectors where there's a UK skills deficit (so our own can get jobs) and that we should select from cultures closer to us.

Yeh sure pal, pointless Labour laughing emoji

Where do you suggest cutting from?
There are no huge efficiency savings to be made.
Welfare Benefits are not as huge as you imagine.
The bulk of the welfare bill goes on Pensioner Benefits: £177.7 billion (around 55% of the total budget), which includes £146.1 billion specifically for the State Pension.. No Government is going to cut those. Which means cutting benefits for working families and disabled claimants. And those see already fairly low .
Paying an extra penny on tax isn't going to break the bank for most people

That’s the aim.

Aye sure pal 🤣

Means testing state pension wouldn't affect those living on the breadline. The threshold needs to be set at something like average workers' income, so around £39k as a minimum, or the £50k higher rate threshold, or the £100k threshold where workers lose free childcare, etc. Those living only on state pension or pension credit would be nowhere near the threshold for means testing.

How about less children?

Not all utilities, just water rates. Gas, electricity, internet and the TV licence are not included.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting it's a huge amount of money or that it buys anything resembling a luxurious lifestyle. But I genuinely struggle to call it poverty. I think applying that label to this level of disposable income risks making a mockery of what poverty means for genuinely poor people in much of the rest of the world.

I’m with you op.
We are at a stage where people who don’t work and therefore contribute nothing are often better off than those who do work.
I agree on raising taxes for millionaires and multi million corporations. I also think it’s time to nationalise all the water companies. Then start on nationalising transport.
As for cuts. Let’s start with housing. Nobody should be living in a house a with 3 bedrooms or more without paying for it.

Stop allowing people to live rent free whilst those working are being crippled with rent costs.
If you have yet another child, you do not get a bigger house. You make do. If that means living in a 2 bedroomed house with your multiple children then so be it.
Many, many working people have to live in houses with multiple occupancy.
Stop giving preferential treatment to those who do not work.
Next, make fathers pay for their children. Make them pay for every child they have with all the women they keep getting pregnant. If they then can’t afford to have a child with yet another different woman, then good. The tax payer should not be paying for this.
I’m all for other cuts too. Removal mental health as an illness which you receive benefits for. Remove payment for having a child with ADHD.
Make every household pay council tax. This will make those who don’t pay more inclined to take a bit more pride in their local environment.
Reduce all the free stuff those who don’t work get. Many pensioners on pension credit are better off than those who have saved and put money into a private pension.
Abolish the winter fuel allowance.
Charge for doctors appointments, not a lot but charge. Then reduce NI contributions so those who work are hardly any worse off. I’d be quite happy to pay to see the doctor. I might actually be able to get an appointment if all the freeloading time wasters were removed.
Stop giving so many people free prescriptions. There is a lot of abuse of the system.
Stop classing being an alcoholic as an illness you get paid for.
Make people attend classes to better themselves a condition of receiving free money. Eg your child has ADHD, let’s look at how better to manage their behaviour. If you don’t attend you loose your benefits. Then you are expected to take onboard the suggestions made. If you don’t that’s fine, you will no longer receive tax payers money to fund your lifestyle.

I’m in the UK. We have ONE layer of LG. One. Not three.

Debt is trillions, not billions. Taking a billion from each billionaire won't solve anything. There are only 157 billionaires in the UK. So, great, we get £157 billion from them. That just about pays the interest on the trillions of debt for around 18 months. The benefits are trivial compared to the damage it would do, i.e. the billionaires would bugger off abroad to avoid a second bite of the cherry a couple of years later (then again and again). It's not sustainable. We need to make changes that will happen EVERY year, not as a one off. That means tax rises, benefit cuts, public spending efficiency improvements, etc.

They’ve made the fuck all issue even more pronounced, now they’re in power.

In preference to giving someone a visa to do the job, whilst paying for the UK resident to be on benefits: yes, obviously!!

Or even when the UK resident ends up doing a less qualified job, when they could do the more qualified one. Eg. it's a disgrace that trusts were offering posts to foreign doctors, leaving newly qualified UK medical students without a training position.

This really isn't in any way strange or contentious! .

Most countries expect a job to be offered to existing residents first. A work visa is only approved when the company can show that they've tried and failed to recruit within the country / within the EU.

Go back to the post with the link, you’ve missed what it’s for. It’s about skilled visas for people in vape shops. If there’s no visa they won’t be here to not work.

They inherited the fuck all left. The Tories even sold off water and Royal Mail. We are a nation with zero assets.

Yes, yes, I absolutely would (evil laughter).