Benefits v Defence Lord Robertson

[Wednesdayschild87]

Lord Robertson’s Speech… seriously does anyone care?? He’s laid out the fact that as a nation we can’t carry on like this… he said we can’t afford to keep throwing money at benefits whilst leaving our country defences I’m actually shocked no one has come out and spoken on this matter before. I’m incredulous.

So bring in compulsory voting?

@Fluffyholeysocks yes, it’s much fairer to means test as opposed to pushing the age out so far a lot of the young will never see it.

We have completely screwed over the young.

Demographics means that would be unlikely to make any difference. We already have more over 65s than under 15s

Surely it would mean that policies would have to be spread across benefitting different groups though? If all 16-25 year olds voted more would be put into education for example.
At the moment the only group the main parties really care about is pensioners

"You can't have a march unless you pay for it."
"We're not going to do that"
"Well, you can't march then"
"We will march anyway"
"You'll all get arrested"
"How are you going to arrest us if you don't police the march?"

It may help but there are just so many pensioners and then many on the threshold of becoming one who will likely vote in a similar fashion.

Can they be relied upon in the battle though?

What about NEETs and years on welfare? any reason why they can't be asked to serve their country?

We'll police the first march, arrest you all.
Will see if there is any appetite for the second march. Arrest you all if yes. Rinse and repeat until no more marches.

Are there enough police to arrest everyone?

Surely we want the best in our Armed Forces? Why should they have to take the unemployed and unemployable?

Biggest expenditure is welfare. Pensions are about half of welfare bill.

Reduction of benefits will not only generate savings, but push many people into employment thus generating growth

So asylum seekers are the best then?

I think facing a choice of no benefits at all or army many will find stamina to work.

Eh? Who said asylum seekers are the best?

I want entry into the Armed Forces to be on merit. No dumbing down of standards.

I imagine all the asylum seekers will be jumping in dinghies and heading home again the minute there is a sniff of them being needed to defend this country.

Labour IHT on pensions is exactly what prompted me to retire many years earlier than I planned to.
I can't pass my savings to my DC yet and there is a huge risk of 40% tax bill when time comes. Why would I work more if taxman takes such huge share of it?
UK is one of the very few OECD countries which has IHT, and the rate we have if easily the worst one.
Setting your children up if one of the biggest drivers of human behavior, IHT is hugely negative here.

It’s not just about welfare, an ageing population puts a huge strain on the NHS.

The vast majority have paid no where near enough tax for free healthcare and years of state pension.

Why do we still have blanket free prescriptions for over 60s?!

Defence needs around £100 billion pa extra (has a current deficit of £28 billion) assuming it was spent wisely, double that if recent procurement debacles continue....

Reform of Triple lock would save about £10bn pa
Labours Benefit reforms would save £5bn, Tories plan on cutting £12bn over 4 years from Welfare.
Reform say they would cut £9bn from MH benefits.......

So we get £22billion.... £78bn short....

Getting people to live more healthily would need 'billions spent on things like leisure centres, sport in schools, more sports fields, therapies, loss of taxes from fags booze... re designing cities to get rid of the car and force people on to bicycles.....

Would take decades.

For Russia to invade the UK, it either needs to set sail from the nr Artic or come through Western Europe...atm it cannot even defeat one country after 4 years of trying.... i doubt very much they would take Poland, Germany, France and then cross the channel and march down your High Street.

If we want more spent on Defence, we need to raise taxes one way or another.

UK is one of the very few OECD countries which has IHT, and the rate we have if easily the worst one

You can’t compare one thing in isolation though. We have distorted housing market & huge intergenerational inequality around housing

Housing costs are responsible for a large part of the welfare bill.

And we have the other problem that future generations are more likely to be renting in retirement.

The whole thing is a mess

They seriously need to look not so much at state pension but at how freely all these disability benefits and additional premiums/ pension credit is given out . It's a real eye opener and really needs to be curbed. Fair enough if people are disabled enough to need to pay for care but most aren't.

yeah, like this one

Benefit cheat who claimed anxiety left her housebound caught ziplining and surfing in Mexico | UK News | Sky News

The nhs gets plenty of money its just run really badly

And what’s the solution? Whats the solution to the fact that wages don’t pay the cost of living and the baby boomers took all our money via rent? Whats the solution to the lack of jobs and the fact that computers have destroyed 10s of 000s of jobs for 40 years? Where’s the manufacturing sector?

All very well some poncy lord who’s never had to worry about where his next meal’s coming from , his servants will set it out at the correct time. Whats the solution for those of us who have no inheritance, who rely on work and have watched it be devalued for 30 years? Especially for women who are paying the cost of motherhood for the rest of their lives???

read @BarbiesDreamHome post from 08:27 today

Maybe we just all need to accept that the boom time is over, and the government aren’t going to do everything for us, so they can concentrate the funds on their primary functions, one of which defence of the realm.

I suggest you re-read mine at 16:23. Where did I refer to asylum seekers?