Are the conservatives really this popular?

[LabourHere]

Listening to statistician on BBC who reckons the conservatives are head in all polls and will win a majority on election day.

I know only two people voting conservative (mil and dm). Who are all the other conservative voters??

Are the conservatives really going to win the election so easily?

If so...I'm very very sad

The Tories have promoted tax evasion by the already rich.

There are more billionaires in the UK than there have ever been.

There are more vast wealth inequalities than there have been for decades.

We have over 4 million children living in poverty, whilst the wealth of the already wealthy has vastly increased.

Entrophy brought up her hairdresser 'pocketing her cash' and aandajmum brought up tax evasion, which is a legitimate discussion to have.

"Nearly every wealthy person I know, including me, is thinking of leaving the UK if Labour get in"John Caudwell (phones 4U + philanthropist + UK's largest taxpayer):
Here he is talking to John McDonnell:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50704546

McDonnell's false reassurances and jovial laughter at the end of the clip above are terrifying. I bloody hope the polls are right. Please get out and vote everybody!

I think that people working for cash should be considered on a par with billionaires avoiding tax - albeit through legal tax planning in their case.

I think that people working for cash should be considered on a par with billionaires avoiding tax - albeit through legal tax planning in their case.

Fully agree. HMRC's official "tax gap" figures show that small businesses (inc unregistered businesses) form the largest part of the gap, being £14 billion. Far higher than large business evasion and corporation tax evasion. That's not billionaires, it's people we all know, work with, our neighbours, our plumber, our hairdresser, our mechanic, our builder, the guy down the pub selling duty free booze & cigarettes, the small ebayer, your cleaner, etc etc. We all facilitate it by being happy to pay in cash with a nod and a wink, or buying stuff (fags and booze) because it's cheaper under the counter, etc etc.

We just had some major work done to our roof. We couldn't believe how many roofers, scaffolders, etc., were happy to knock that VAT off if we paid in cash. It's an epidemic. These were well known local firms too with liveried vehicles, websites, etc., not "here today gone tomorrow cowboys". It's not just the VAT being defrauded, if it's not going through their books, they're avoiding income tax, NIC, corporation tax too - probably 50% of the job value which should have gone to the Treasury isn't getting there at all. It's about time the country really clamped down on it. How many hospitals, schools, doctors, nurses, teachers, would £14 billion fund??

Entrophy because sole trader hairdressers don't earn a fortune.

I pay her £40 for about 20 minutes of work (including prep), so you're mistaken (neither is she a sole trader, and by the way sole traders have far less overhead so it's really down to them whether they earn their fortune).

If she did, she would have 'built her empire' by now, no?

She's 24!

So what are your views on tax evasion? It was you who described your hairdresser as 'pocketing all her cash and squirreling it away for the salon she plans to build'.

I assume that everyone behaves out of an abundance of self-interest and this guides my political beliefs. If someone works five days a week at a salon paying PAYE and her sixth is cash in hand, I hardly care.

Incidentally I pay all my tax and am more or less happy to hand it over, despite the fact that my council cannot even be bothered to issue a dog fouling PCN to my neighbour despite me doing all the legwork.... but this will change if Corbyn is elected.

This implies that you're perfectly happy with tax evasion (as long as it benefits you), but do feel free to correct me.

How? I pay her what she asks (more, actually) - how does this benefit me?

I admit equality MIGHT reduce under labour - but only in the send that if today the rich can drive a ferrari and the poor a ford - the end result might be the rich driving a mercedes and the poor owning a bycycle.

Everyone will be worse off.

She would be a sole trader if she registered to pay tax for earnings separate from those she is paid via her employment contact.

That's the term the HMRC use.

You benefit because if she doesn't intend to pay tax, she doesn't have to charge clients as much.

It's very simple economics really.

And yes, I KNOW, that you wouldn't mind paying more etc and her tax affairs are none of your business etc.. Excect that they are because you've written about them on a public forum.

I don't blame young people for trying to shore themselves up against the economic shit storm that will be a future Conservative government either though.

And another matter of very simple economics, is that unless she lives in your house and knows telepathically when you want your hair done or teleports herself between clients and does her job with no products or equipment, no CPD, nowhere to store her equipment and with no admin, she does a lot more than 20 minutes for the money you pay her.

As do all sole traders who charge an hourly or daily rate like myself.

You've made a lot of assumptions in your logic.

Prices will be driven down to margin where the supplier has little or no leverage and (into the tax-avoidance zone) where tax enforcement is lax. Neither of these is true here, she's on a mobile hairdresser app so she's on the HMRC's radar and she has a full rota i.e. is well-positioned to tell me to fuck off if I were to try to negotiate a discount or similar, she certainly is not very keen in changing my slot around.

It goes without saying that a mobile hairdresser has to absorb the cost of her time between appointments.

I don't blame young people for trying to shore themselves up against the economic shit storm that will be a future Conservative government either though.

It is really hard for you to accept that a 24 year old hairdresser with a working-class background is making a lot of money as the result of her entrepreneurialism, isn't it?

I thought you didn't know anything about her tax affairs? You now seem confident that she's on HMRC's radar.

It didn't go without saying that she needs to absorb the cost of her travel time. You said that you paid her a fee for 20 minutes; she works for longer than that to provide you with an appointment, so can't as you imply provide 3 x 20mins slots in an hour.

And yes, having done some non-client based work with people working in a similar occupation (although with a lot more experience) I do find it hard to believe that someone working in a hair salon five days a week and cash in hand/sole trader one day a week is making 'a lot of money' in real terms ie the current cost of housing.

Even if this young woman fits in 20 appointments on her self-employed day, so works at least a 10 hour day (depending on how much travel she has do to) 52 weeks a year, and offsetting the cost of products, equipment, training, petrol/transport and admin, she'll be pocketing an additional couple of grand a month, which isn't a lot in a Tory Britain, I'm afraid.

If she wants to go on holiday, has a family emergency or becomes injured or ill, that will obviously decline considerably.

As I said earlier, I don't have a problem with young people working hard. I did something similarly entrepreneurial when I was younger (though I have always paid taxes due), but as I was born in more benovelent times, I worked to finance myself through 'A' levels, received a full grant for HE and entered the housing market when it was saner.

I wish her and all young people lots of good fortune. And boy oh boy they're going to need it when they truly realise what Johnson has in store for us all.

I admit equality MIGHT reduce under labour - but only in the send that if today the rich can drive a ferrari and the poor a ford - the end result might be the rich driving a mercedes and the poor owning a bycycle.

Any proof at all to back up that statement or is this just more of the same nonsense that people parrot about Labour after years of poisonous drip-feeding from the press?

Johnson is a horror show. A vile, racist, sexist sociopath.

The Conservatives are really popular here.
Equality will increase under Labour......we will all be equally poor.

Hoping for a large Tory majority.

Get Brexit Done.

So is 'unequal poverty' better then?

4 million children living in poverty, more food banks than McDonald outlets in the UK, unprecedented numbers of families living in temporary accommodation, people with life limiting disabilities being declared 'fit for work' and having their income cut off with no warning. All since 2010 while the deficit has more than doubled.

people with life limiting disabilities being declared 'fit for work' and having their income cut off with no warning. All since 2010 while the deficit has more than doubled.

I’m sorry, I have to correct this. There were more people declared ‘fit for work’ following the Work Capability Assessments under the last Labour government than there are now.

I can’t quote the exact statistics as I can’t access the DWP stats files on my iPad. The monthly/quarterly figures on outcomes of WCAs are available on the DWP’s website and it clearly shows a decrease over time in ‘fit for work’ outcomes.

Hoping for a large Tory majority.

Honestly, hell mend this country
I'm an immigrant. I was so proud to be here and I hate what it's become.

There was a saying that if all of the wealth in the world was divided equally between everyone living, within 24 hours there would be millionaires and paupers.

Yawn

Whatever you say about the Tories at least they don't support the IRA terrorists who were blowing us up and killing innocent people.

Corbyn suppprts the IRA, Hezbollah and Hamas.
He has repeatedly refused to condemn the IRA.

Do you really think he would make a good ?

they supported and paid the political wing of the UVF who murdered hundreds. They also have a previous member of the IRA within their ranks. Pot,kettle? @Coppersulphate

Come on now, Coppersulphate - are you forgetting he was "working to broker peace" from his lowly position as an unregarded backbencher? And that (as a recent poster told us) he actually wrote the Good Friday Agreement?

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/jeremy-corbyn-should-not-be-allowed-to-rewrite-the-history-of-his-support-for-the-ira/

To answer the tax question asked earlier, the tax system as a whole is only slightly progressive (higher % of income paid as tax, as income increases) because VAT and other sales taxes and duties are regressive (lower % of income paid as tax as income increases, due to purchases of necessary goods taking up most of your income when you are low paid). So overall it is correct to say that lower income groups contribute more to benefits proportionally.

Although lower income groups are net gainers from benefits and subsidised services (healthcare, education, transport, etc).

It is going to be the biggest shock of all election results
I really really hope you're right!

I too am hoping for a shock election result..... a really HUGE Tory majority.
That will be really worth celebrating
#Get Brexit Done .....asap