This government and their direction of travel, frightens me.

[Kendodd]

Teressa May (last government, but same party) with her 'go home immigrants' vans and hostle environment.
Immigration and Borders act.
Transportation to Rwanda.
Bringing laws in trying to limit our right to protest.
Lying to the queen to prorogue parliament.
Lying in the house of commons.
Trying to change the law to get one of your MPs off.
Pretty much ripping up the ministerial code.
Windrush.
Admitting that they're just going to break international law.

I bet they will come after the human rights act and try to get us out of ECHR.

Worse, I think a great many of the public love the fact they've done all the above and would cheer loudly at the ripping up of the human rights act and ECHR membership (wtaf?)

How did we get to this?

Those who talk about their children will probably have to move abroad where do you hope they may go ?

I don’t like this government we absolutely need to improve standards of living and we shall be going through a difficult time )I think this shall be global) but the countries where life is better for the average working person are small in number and narrowed down further if you are not note white

Singapore and a few ME countries ? Standard of living is very good

Canada/Australia have a points system (which many view as sensible) cost of housing/living is too a huge issue

Germany, Sweden or Finland ?

My dc are European thankfully

@Cornettoninja

I also agree here and would reduce working tax credits or uc but I bet if the government reduced the generosity of in work benefits and also out of work to ensure working does pay there would be howls of derision here about it

It would depend on how it’s done.

Hacking at the benefits system with no responsibility placed at the door of commercial businesses would be a bloodbath, implementing measures to ensure that the value of the workers contribution to profits is properly remunerated would look differently.

But then we’d experience a deluge of cries that businesses couldn’t afford to operate, businesses would leave the country etc. all desperate to keep a system that allows them a profit at the expense of the people generating those profits for them.

There’s a huge readjustment needed but far too many people getting extremely rich off the back of exploitation. It’s greed pure and simple. There is still profit to made, just less if it’s distributed with an ounce of fairness. That’s what trickle down economics is meant to promote. A working economy so reliant on in-work benefits works directly against that.

100% this.

I also agree here and would reduce working tax credits or uc but I bet if the government reduced the generosity of in work benefits and also out of work to ensure working does pay there would be howls of derision here about it

Unemployment benefit is £76 per week how much lower would you like to cut it?

If in work benefits are reduced, how will the low paid survive? btw these benefits have gone up by 3%, inflation nr 8%.

People can still protest, protesting during covid was a mistake.
The government reacted accordingly, the protesters only have themselves to blame.

Tbh I'm sick to back teeth of people especially online complaining about the UK and our government. All because Labour the main competitor doesn't appeal to the broader electorate.

@Hrpuffnstuff1

People can still protest, protesting during covid was a mistake. The government reacted accordingly, the protesters only have themselves to blame.

Tbh I'm sick to back teeth of people especially online complaining about the UK and our government. All because Labour the main competitor doesn't appeal to the broader electorate.

No, because it’s the most corrupt, mendacious, immoral bunch of charlatans that ever got near power. It’s the worst government of my life time, including Thatcher’s, regardless of my disapproval of her policies, she had some principles and integrity. I’m sick of a government that lies and lies, then lies some more and thinks it can trample over every standard of decency.

And, yes, that’s a rant rather than a considered, rational response but I’m beyond angry. If you’re in any doubt as to how bad this is just listen to what Lord Peter Hennessy, the constitutional expert said on Broadcasting House yesterday.

@Alexandra2001 you’re presuming that this current cabinet have the tiniest shred of conscience that means they have any concern about survival or what that means in reality. They don’t www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/jack-monroe-tears-into-tory-after-he-tells-hungry-nurse-to-eat-pasta-319062/amp/ , neither do they have any foresight www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cost-of-living-boris-johnson-heating-b1924275.html?amp.

Oh and BJ’s commentary on the impact of brexit essentially boils down to ‘if the economy suffers its because people didn’t work hard enough’ with zero acknowledgment of the obstacles his cabinet have put in place to hinder that.

Some of them are now going to get themselves flown to Rwanda at our expense, costing us £30,000 or more each. What have they done to deserve this largesse?

They are already costing that much each yearly when you factor in accommodation, paying for their energy use (electricity, gas and water), food, free medical treatment, school places, free mobile phones and spending money etc. They get more (when you consider the costs above) than pensioners get, most of whom have paid taxes and NI all their lives.

Unless they become high rate taxpayers for many years they will be a burden to the taxpayer.

Why should we import lots of people when our own country is struggling?

@Sugarandspice213

Why should we import lots of people when our own country is struggling?

Because they could work and pay taxes if only we’d let them. There’s a shortage of care workers and crops are rotting in the fields because there isn’t the labour to harvest them. We actually need a bigger workforce.

There is no shortage of care workers or crop pickers. If care work or picking crops paid £1000 an hour people would be falling over themselves to do those jobs. People don't want to do shit jobs for shit wages anymore. and now they don't have to.

@Florenz

There is no shortage of care workers or crop pickers. If care work or picking crops paid £1000 an hour people would be falling over themselves to do those jobs. People don't want to do shit jobs for shit wages anymore. and now they don't have to.

Care providers and farmers local to me disagree with you. 🤷‍♀️

I think the Rwanda policy is terrible but I also hate this assumption that people coming into the country would be prime candidates for farm and care work. If these are jobs where the pay and conditions make them undesirable, why on earth would (or should) that group of people want or be expected to do it either?

We do need more workers

But where will they live ? Will the government bring them over and house them. How is that fair when families are living in temporary squalid conditions

It’s not as simple as saying well the work is there we bring people over/let them in

But agree we need to be paying people better wages. We can’t get staff because it’s better for them to work part time and get tax credits which is a ridiculous set up (nhs mh with a fair number of support workers) then earn £21k a year in London

"Care providers and farmers local to me disagree with you."
They would do. They've had things their own way for far too long. What kind of salaries are they offering? Have they tried raising the money they are offering in order to attract applicants?

Tbh I'm sick to back teeth of people especially online complaining about the UK and our government. All because Labour the main competitor doesn't appeal to the broader electorate

You think people shouldn’t ‘complain’?

Commentary on Labour is also valid, why wouldn’t it be? I’d agree it’s largely unproductive right now since what we actually need is the party in power to sort its shit out; I’m aghast at the thought of another two years of this bullshit before a general election is due and the tories might be acting tactical so another greasy pole climber isn’t carrying the stains left by his miserable fuck ups. Who knows what labour will look like at that point, if people don’t voice their opinion what will shape them?

@Fidodidit

I think the Rwanda policy is terrible but I also hate this assumption that people coming into the country would be prime candidates for farm and care work. If these are jobs where the pay and conditions make them undesirable, why on earth would (or should) that group of people want or be expected to do it either?

Because they want to stay here and doing those jobs would be preferable to being shipped off to Rwanda perhaps? We’ve always imported labour, those jobs are vacant because of the exodus of European labour with no plan to replace it.

Well of course farmers and companies who employ care workers would agree that brining in people to pay them lower wages is better

I wouldn’t want to work as a career for £21k when I could be better off working part time/temping

Have they tried raising the money they are offering in order to attract applicants?

…and also raising the cost of the produce they sell to cover that?

You’re right, that’s exactly what should happen but the country is a massive tangle of bullshit policies, bullshit accounting and precarious economic policies to keep grifters pockets lined that doing so would pull a thread with the potential to have a whole heap of consequences rain down on our heads.

Or maybe it’s because for the conditions that come with the job, the pay isn’t high enough. I don’t see why one sector of society should be expected to be more tolerant of that than the rest.

@Fidodidit

Or maybe it’s because for the conditions that come with the job, the pay isn’t high enough. I don’t see why one sector of society should be expected to be more tolerant of that than the rest.

So you think it’s better to traffic them to Africa? I wonder what those people would say if given the choice?

Oh brilliant, work in care home for wages much of the rest of the population find unacceptable because it’s better than being sent to Rwanda? I think if people come here they should be allowed to have exactly the same work opportunities as everyone else.

I hate this "ah at least Boris knows what a woman is". Maybe he does or he doesn't. Even if he does he doesn't care about women and their rights.

@Florenz

There is no shortage of care workers or crop pickers. If care work or picking crops paid £1000 an hour people would be falling over themselves to do those jobs. People don't want to do shit jobs for shit wages anymore. and now they don't have to.

Look at the wider picture? if you paid Cw's, lets say £20ph, what would happen is in other sectors paying less, workers would leave & go and do these jobs, leaving us with shortages in other industries.

To put it in perspective, a fully qualified AHP gets £13.50 per hour and 50k of debt.

You wouldn't have to pay CW's a great deal more & nurses would leave the NHS and go work in a care home, free parking too!

We have an overall shortage of workers, quite obv really as we had v low unemployment pre CV and yet 3m EU citizens were in work, most of those have left the UK & many of us have decided to pack up work altogether.

The biggest thing the government could have done to reduce poverty in the UK is build social housing. They haven't though, instead a large amount of, what was social housing is now in the ownership of private landlords turning a large private profit. Selling off publicly owned assets for private profits is absolutely in line with Tory ideology though.