What exactly is the Conservative government doing or going to do, for the 'working classes'? What are their tangible, core policies, to benefit the average Joe & Jane?

[MaggieLightBlue]

Just that

I think wages should be better, thus reducing the need for tax credits. Also the cost of living is too high. Having said that, some of the views expressed here are shocking. As if everyone who claims any benefit is a scrounger. Does no one ever think "there but for the grace of God".......?

I think some of you need to read Angela's Ashes to realise what life was like prior to the welfare state.

Supporting people when they need help is not throwing money at them, and if benefits are so easy to claim how come we have so many homeless people on the streets and so many people using food banks?

But they don't need to beat Labours manifesto they just need a manifesto that makes sense and can actually be delivered without the need for unicorns and fairy dust...
They don't need to do a manifesto at all, regardless of what they promise, it's just going to be the same as they've been doing for the past 7 years. So less teachers, less police, less prison wardens, less nurses, less fire stations etc etc

That food banks have become seen as a solution to, rather than a symptom of, gross inequalities in income and wealth indicates exactly what the past 7 years have done for most families.

And paying more actual tax because you earn shit loads, whilst nurses, care workers etc pay less actual tax but then can't afford to buy food or heat their homes is not 'redistributing wealth'.

It's entrenching privilege and poverty.

To be serious for a minute

mud slinging gets us nowhere

I think working class/low/middle income people vote Tory because it is a message of self sufficiency. A low tax/small state economy looks attractive for people who don't trust the state.

Lots of people would rather they kept their own earned money in their pockets to spend as they wish rather than the high tax/big state economic model of 'give us your money and 'we' will decide how to spend it.

That's quite paternalistic really.

Of course it's idealistic though- in practice the average family couldn't afford a big hospital bill even if they were taxed less.

So the NHS becomes the sacred cow.

The rest of public services though- people like to have the 'it'll never happen to me' philosophy.

In a lot of cases it is 'turkeys voting for christmas' but few like to label themselves as the rung who need state intervention to put food on the table.

Unfortunately most voters are selfish (economics is based on this principle) and the poorest don't vote.

I have just been made redundant from a management job in the Charity sector. And no, I wasnt one of the hugely well paid CEO's people hate - it was a modest income running a really successful organisation. Directly because of Government cuts, we were forced to dissolve the charity, leaving many vulnerable and needy people in a difficult position. Excellent policies by the Tories

Beebee, is that something that can be changed? Should we?

I won't argue with that description, but it doesn't bode well for addressing problems requiring joint effort.

The NHS cyber attack is a symptom of the Tories deliberate underfunding

That is way too simple an explanation tbh. Let's not forget the millions that Labour wasted on the IT system then scraped it.

There needs to be a non political discussion about the NHS. It won't happen though because they won't leave politics at the door.

The NHS cyber attack is a symptom of the Tories deliberate underfunding

Probably one of the most ill informed opinions ever. Was it the "deliberate Tory underfunding" that caused the very same cyber attack in the other 100 different countries affected? Who knew our government had such influence over the worldwide IT systems.
Embarrassing.

Russia was also affected. I don't think this can be blamed on the Government.

I don't think they're going to cut immigration - they've said quite a few times that immigration services are run as for-profit and all the barriers to it aren't quotas or anything but financially based sending a clear message, I think, that they are not bothered about migrants taking up space/using the NHS/taking jobs/buying properties and driving up house prices and other concerns, just as long as they aren't poor and are willing to risk large amounts of money for the non-refundable application fees. They simply want to get the larger portion of migrants from the EU into the same money pit as other migrants.

Personally, I wonder when corporations with millions+ in profits will become self sufficient enough to pay their taxes (so teachers and medical staff and such can all be trained and paid) and pay their workers a living wage instead of relying on the government to pay to ensure the people doing the work for their businesses can live housed and fed and provide. Many of the services with the highest demands by society still have among the lowest wages and poor working conditions and protection, and still somehow the blame for that keeps being on those with the least power to change it [and the most reviled for trying].

The best way to encourage people on low pay + tax credits to increase their hours is to reduce the taper rate so that they get to keep more of the extra that they earn.

At the moment, they lose 41p of every pound they earn before deductions. If they pay NI, they lose a further 12p, if they pay tax as well they lose another 20p. So that leaves them 27p better off for every extra pound.

Then, if they get housing benefit as well, they lose 65% of what's left in lost housing benefit, reducing that extra £1 to around 17.5p.

I don't think people can be blamed for not wanting to work an extra hour just to be about £1.25 better off.

Of course, the Tories won't do anything to make sure that the poor get to keep more of their money. They'd rather increase VAT to make sure that they get to take more from them.

They have no policies aimed at redistributing wealth

Can I have a tax rebate then? Because over the last tax year I've paid NI and IT contributions just over 10 times what someone on full time minumum wage would have paid, or just under 3 times what someone on the national average salary would have paid. That sounds like pretty fair redistribution of the wealth I've earned if you ask me.

I'm also working class as well ;)

You're talking about income, Biker, not wealth.

Although you're right inasmuch that during the last tax year the wealthier have become more wealthy and more people are living in poverty.

Your income has been redistributed, just to the already wealthy rather than those who need it.

.....trying to pay off the huge national debt incurred under the last Labour administration.......Remember the post it note left by Labour in the Treasury when they left power? That there was no money left? No kidding.

Remember the post it note left by Labour in the Treasury when they left power? That there was no money left? No kidding

A running joke between all I going and outgoing chancellors.

The debt is still massive. We've had seven years of cuts. Yet debt has increased

Probably one of the most ill informed opinions ever

How so? The NHS was caught out because they didn't apply a security patch. Because they didn't have the funding...... so I don't think it I am ill informed at all.

People should have paper backups. I do. We pay these hospital managers a fortune and they do not even seem able to organise queuing systems with paper and pencil just because display units are down in reception.

I see the NHS ransomware as because many computers still run on xp, for which there are no patches. Due to crap Microsoft guzzleware, the computers can't be moved to newer operating systems - which still get viruses anyway.

'No money left' must be the most powerful legacy of Thatcher and Joseph's realigning of political parameters in the 1980s.

The national economy isn't like a household budget. There's plenty of money in the system, it's just being leeched out of the public sector into private and corporate interests.

The deficit has increased momumentally in the last 7 years. All these 'cuts' haven't actually 'saved' any money.

The problem is our needs (expectations and people living longer) are rising quicker than revenues. So there's a funding gap. There's already a lot of redistribution of earnings via the tax system .....from an article on the BBC site today...the top 1% pay 27% of income tax and the top 50% 90%. One in 4 adults pay no income tax. If we all want better services then all taxpayers need to pay a bit more both basic and higher rate tax needs to go up. Just taxing the top end more is just political posturing it won't raise sufficiently more taxes. I don't think there's an alternative to Conservative at the moment as the Labour front bench aren't credible.

As I have said many times before, there needs to be a non political conversation about the NHS and the way forward.

Both parties have made mistakes with the NHS.

It won't happen though as it would mean people leaving political allegences at the door and not try to point score.

'No money left' must be the most powerful legacy of Thatcher and Joseph's realigning of political parameters in the 1980s.

Wow, reading what follows the above quote is very worrying if more than just you and JC believes it.

Wow, reading what follows the above quote is very worrying if more than just you and JC believes it

@QuiltingFlower it might be worth you actually reading into economics and seeing that actually, the economic policies of the Tories fail time and time again. Which is probably why Gove trash talks economists because they shine a light on the failure of austerity and neoliberalism.