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?

This situation has been continuing for a long time. Is there any information about the refugees/migrants who came from Calais previously.

What are they doing, are they in work etc or are they still waiting

Polls really don't matter, the thing to look for is bookmaker odds, and they currently have the Tories as the favourite to win the next election. Tories are 11/14, Labour are 6/4.

@woodhill

This situation has been continuing for a long time. Is there any information about the refugees/migrants who came from Calais previously.

What are they doing, are they in work etc or are they still waiting

Whilst their status is being considered they are not allowed to work. This takes many years, because the government is determined to be as cruel as possible, thus costing the taxpayer millions of pounds a day.

Are you aware which party proposed in parliament in January to remove VAT on fuel as part of their measures to tackle the cost of living crisis, and which party voted against it?

You do realise that VAT on fuel is only 5% so the saving would be about £5 per month on an average bill of £1,200 pa.

A 5% reduction on a 50% price rise is not going to be that beneficial to anyone really.

@StormzyinaTCup

Are you aware which party proposed in parliament in January to remove VAT on fuel as part of their measures to tackle the cost of living crisis, and which party voted against it?

You do realise that VAT on fuel is only 5% so the saving would be about £5 per month on an average bill of £1,200 pa.

A 5% reduction on a 50% price rise is not going to be that beneficial to anyone really.

Is it better than doing nothing at all?

Does the same apply to a 5p drop in the 170p price of a litre of petrol?

I tend to find that the people that rail against supporting asylum seekers (who are legally here by the way despite some posters throwing around the words 'illegal immigrant'), use the concept that they dont support refugees or asylum seekers because they would rather that money be spent on 'our own'

Except when you drill down into those views further, they certainly dont want to support 'our own' either, they want benefits to go down, couldnt care less about public services etc etc.

Everyone is getting £200 back which is just over £16 per month (although this has to be repaid).

Does the same apply to a 5p drop in the 170p price of a litre of petrol?

Yes, because as we know when fuel companies get a whiff of this they put their prices up in the 24/48 hours beforehand so no saving.
This is also the problem with applying Labours one off fuel windfall tax - great for the first year but you can guarantee prices will go up in year two to compensate for this and we are back to square one.

@StormzyinaTCup

Everyone is getting £200 back which is just over £16 per month (although this has to be repaid).

Does the same apply to a 5p drop in the 170p price of a litre of petrol?

Yes, because as we know when fuel companies get a whiff of this they put their prices up in the 24/48 hours beforehand so no saving.
This is also the problem with applying Labours one off fuel windfall tax - great for the first year but you can guarantee prices will go up in year two to compensate for this and we are back to square one.

So I get to pay £200 less this year, but have to pay it back next year when the prices will more than likely be higher still.

Remind me what happens if I don't pay fuel bills this year, but start next year, oh yes I still have to pay the £200 back.

You could hardly make it up.

@Florenz

Polls really don't matter, the thing to look for is bookmaker odds, and they currently have the Tories as the favourite to win the next election. Tories are 11/14, Labour are 6/4.

Seems you can get 66/1 on a Conservative / Labour coalition.

www.paddypower.com/politics/uk-next-general-election

But the next election is a year or so off.

It's going to be a bumpy few years

We are led by a PM who has repeatedly lied to Parliament.
He is a PM who has broken the law, along with many of his MP's.
He is backed by a Tory Party who support his lies and lawbreaking.

What do we expect? Morally bankrupt government and morally bankrupt policies.

There seems to be a pattern where Labour only seem to get ahead off the back of Tory mistakes, not through anything constructive that they have said or done

That’s the pattern of elections - opposition’s don’t win them, governments lose them. I wish I could remember who said that.

The Tories seem to understand that globalisation is over.
Over the next few years there will be a large drop in living standards in the West and famine and unrest in some developing countries.
The response in the West will be a further shifting to the right. It is already happening. The Tories will win the next election and Liz Truss will be the PM. Johnson will seem quite tame then.

Just checked - it was Johnson’s hero, Churchill.

This government are spending money like no other government before. It's scary.

@JC544D

This government are spending money like no other government before. It's scary.

They are doing a great job of it. Spending money on the peoples priorities.

The people being those who paid for the wallpaper and priorities being making the wallpaper people richer.

@MasterGland

The Tories seem to understand that globalisation is over. Over the next few years there will be a large drop in living standards in the West and famine and unrest in some developing countries. The response in the West will be a further shifting to the right. It is already happening. The Tories will win the next election and Liz Truss will be the PM. Johnson will seem quite tame then.

So what you are saying is Putin is right, and all of us little people should be on his side.

You know what I think you are onto something.

So I get to pay £200 less this year, but have to pay it back next year when the prices will more than likely be higher still.

Well yes, it's not free money and paying back £200 to the government is going to be a hell of a lot cheaper than giving everyone £600 via a tax on the oil companies profits (there are of course other risks associated with this). Yes, fuel will get more expensive next year but I can pretty much guarantee it would be higher still under a windfall tax.

@StormzyinaTCup

Everyone is getting £200 back which is just over £16 per month (although this has to be repaid).

Does the same apply to a 5p drop in the 170p price of a litre of petrol?

Yes, because as we know when fuel companies get a whiff of this they put their prices up in the 24/48 hours beforehand so no saving.
This is also the problem with applying Labours one off fuel windfall tax - great for the first year but you can guarantee prices will go up in year two to compensate for this and we are back to square one.

5p cut in duty was basically a multi £billion gift to the fuel industry as there was no obligation to pass it on, a total waste of money, none of the independents passed it on and prices are now back up where they were.

Why should the windfall tax be a one off? if the oil price stays very high, then the tax comes back in.
Even Maggie had a windfall tax on the oil industry.

The £200 scheme will hopefully be changed, as its still in consultation, its grossly unfair to charge someone, perhaps a student or someone separated, who never got the money but then moves into their own property to be made to pay back something they never got.

So far we seem to have established that one political party has a policy that would ensure that every household was at least £5 a week better off, whilst the other has policies that will do their best to ensure that those who are already far richer than they need to be get richer.
What a surprise!

Why should the windfall tax be a one off? if the oil price stays very high, then the tax comes back in.
Even Maggie had a windfall tax on the oil industry.

Because we now want/need investment in North Sea.
It's not at all beneficial to be hammering the oil companies with windfall taxes.

@maducks

How do we manage the tidal wave of illegal immigrants?

We need to do what's right for them, but also the citizens of this country

It's a hard one

We could manage by remembering that there is literally no such thing as ‘a tidal wave of illegal immigrants’ and that that is racist tabloid bullshit

@StormzyinaTCup

Why should the windfall tax be a one off? if the oil price stays very high, then the tax comes back in. Even Maggie had a windfall tax on the oil industry.

Because we now want/need investment in North Sea.
It's not at all beneficial to be hammering the oil companies with windfall taxes.

I understand that investment in North Sea windfarms has been going well. What we really need investment in, is reducing the energy leakage from homes and measures to reduce consumption.
I believe they featured heavily in the recent government white paper on energy security.

What would be the problem with a windfall tax? The chat was that money would be used for reinvestment but it’s more likely to be paid out in shareholder dividends which will only benefit those who own the shares (yes, I know that includes private pensions but that still only benefits a subset of the population and misses those who don’t have private pensions).

Why should the windfall tax be a one off? if the oil price stays very high, then the tax comes back in.
Even Maggie had a windfall tax on the oil industry.

But Maggie was not a true Conservative, far too compassionate.

There would be no place for her in the modern day Tory party.

This issue with the boats on the channel, I remember the hysteria around the 2015 migrant crisis and how Brexit was painted as a way to stop people coming here. Brexit didn't stop refugees (although in fairness you'd have to be proper thick to think it would) so now we are transporting them to somewhere they don't want to go. What will voters want to do next to these people if mass deportations don't get rid of them?