To hate what is happening (sorry its an election one)

[TheoriginalLEM]

I hate what is happening to my country. I am British and pr...... well actually not so much these days. I was proud to be part of a diverse country that embraced what "others" could bring in terms of economic and cultural gain. That we were a respected nation that made a difference in the global stage. But now we have become that selfish little brat in the playground, with the nice sweets they don't want to share. No one wants to play with that child anymore, the other kids realise that they are really not all that and quite frankly a little bit pathetic.

I was proud to be British and part of something bigger (Europe) and it made me feel safe.

Now i don't feel safe - i know there are other things at play here.

We are being dictated to by an UNELECTED (oh the irony) harridan who knows full fucking well that she is the only one who can negotiate the shit storm that is Brexit at this stage. Giving the country hobson's choice .

People will forget that she will decimate our schools and create an even more exclusive (not in a good way) society where the less able, less privalidged and ordinary people will be an after thought. Those on benefits will have no voice - look what they have done to disabled people with their fucking benefits cap (the cunts).

Local authorities are scrimping and it shows, so why has my council tax just gone up £50 a month and the services provided being slashed?

Do you know what i hate more - that this elitism is like a cancer. It spreads, insidiously even throughout the very people that May and her cronies wouldn't piss on if they were on fire.

People who i work with seem unanimous in their hero worship of this "strong leader" . Well yes she is a strong leader but that does not mean she is a good leader.

Tuition fees
grammar schools
immigration cap
selling off the nhs via the back door
benefits cap
raised taxes for all whilst protecting their own with tax avoidance schemes.

WAKE THE FUCK UP !!

sorry, rant over, i know very little about politics but i know that im worried for the future.

so why has my council tax just gone up £50 a month

Has your house's council tax banding changed, or have you moved house.? Council tax increases are capped by the government, the cap rose to allow a maximum 5% increase in 2017/18. Assuming no change in your banding an extra £500 a year, assuming you pay by direct debit over ten months, is simply not possible, even in the highest banded property. However if you meant to say that your council tax bill could be £500 higher by 2020 then you may well have a fair point, assuming your house is at least a band E.

Jassy thank you for answering my question. Wouldn't adopting a similar system to Australia counteract some of those concerns though, especially their skills shortage list which they use to ensure skills gaps are priority filled?

I agree with you OP, it makes me sad and worried for the future. But as they say, the darkest hour comes before dawn, so maybe better times are around the corner...

The French result hasn't cheered me up any.

Sparkle, you can have that kind of system without a cap. If you're going to have a functional cap you basically need a cap and queue system - so that once you've reached the cap, that's it for the month/year, regardless of the needs of the economy, or the opportunities for investment that you'll miss, or the fact you can't hire enough nurses that year, or how many families will have to be separated for lengthy periods of time.

And of course a points based system only applies to those coming for work, unless you're going to apply it to family migration.

op just remember re taxation under this last Conservative Government the personal allowance has risen TWICE...dropping thousands of low earners below the tax threshold...

.Minimum wage has also risen noticeably helping many low paid workers

How else do we take the pressure off the NHS, school places and housing except by controlling immigration? Everyone coming to the UK needs healthcare, schools and housing...No party has any solution to this huge issue.

Oh, and to the wealthy none of these policies help them, as they pay for private schooling, and healthcare and have to pay their staff a higher wage so no benefit whatsoever......

Think before you slam all that has been done in this Government...

How else do we take the pressure off the NHS, school places and housing except by controlling immigration?

Use the net contribution to the exchequer by immigrants to expand those services and increase funding proportionally? Or even keep funding the migration impact fund, entirely funded by visa fees and scrapped in 2010?

Do we just keep building, building, building homes, though?

Coz eventually we will run out of space.

The whole point of controlled immigration is allowing people to work here and having the benefit of their skills, so that net contribution is higher than the cost of schooling/housing and healthcare.

This does not work if immigration is uncontrolled as the burden is higher than we can sustain....In the last 3 years 1 million people migrated to the Uk.....that is a LOT of pressure on services.

It is pointless discussing how to fix NHS/housing and school places if we do not know how many we are catering for........

EVERYTHING starts with those numbers, only then can ANY government begin to tackle how to house, school and care for people.

I'm not advocating uncontrolled migration. Simply pointing out that a cap is not unproblematic, and that the schools/NHS argument is economically questionable at best. Funding either would be more challenging with an immigration cap.