to boycott the companies who are actively backing the tories?

[glinda]

Well, title says it all. 68 companies (or should I say, wealthy, over priviledged company bosses)have written to the Torygraph to back their old buddies. Fine. They are sticking with their mates but they will not have my business,

But the NHS, education etc will also have to pay extra NI contributions. Massively affecting their budgets.

The Tory policy is not to increase it, rather than to cut it. On the basis that we shouldn't harm the economy by making it harder to employ people.

I should say that I am not an apologist for Tory policy. But I would rather talk about issues than sit around swapping prejudices.

I just posted on the other thread as well, but am I right that NI increases hit lower earners disproportionately hard. The 11% (potentially 12%) rate only applies up to a certain earnings limit does it not?

We all pay the same NI, so for some people it is a higher proportion of their income.

Riven, I think employees pay NI after £20k or so - not sure about the exact figure.

Employers pay on every job which is more than about £5700 though - pretty much every job.

'These business leaders care only about money'. Have you considered how many people they employ? The implications to job growth across the board? One of the head honchos at Innocent Smoothies was expressing doubts about the NI rise today. I think most people would consider Innocent a fairly ethical business. Most of these 'fatcats' and 'sirs' have worked their way up over many long years & have learnt considerably more about business along the way than Gordo & co. Some are Labour advisers for God's sake, they're not all Tory supporters. You really are not arguing your case well. And...you're going to need spreadsheets and some serious planning if you want to boycott the whole list. Good luck with that

no they don't longfingers I work p/t and earn about 11k and I pay NI even on my meagre £100 bonus I got at christmas.

If you are over retirement age you don't have to pay NI

Employees pay 11% on all earnings after £95 a week and up to £844 a week (I can't imagine what that looks like!). Above that limit they pay 1%.

Employers pay 12.8% on all salaries above the lower earnings limit (I think.)

That's if I've understood the rates and contributions page on the IR website correctly!

HC,

That is because we are having different arguments!

You are looking at an individual economic measure. I am saying that we need to look beyond this to an obvious party political alliance and one that I do not wish to support.
Individuals are using their links to big companies to add weight to their political viewpoint, All I have is my power as a consumer.

Look at my OP. I asked whether I was BU to boycott. I didn't suggest that you should.

But as leaders of those big companies, that's their opinion.

Again, it's no great surprise.

If you want to boycott, you go for it.

Lots of people will be boycotting them soon enough after all bread, clothes, baby equipment etc is not cheap and benefits don't buy much at all.
It's all very well not wanting public services costs cut but if Labour tell me between now and election day how they intend to pay for it all without making the UK totally uncompetitive, then I may consider not voting Tory.

Ah that's right. £95 to £110 is the bit where you get credited with paying without paying. It's coming back to me now (used to do DH's tax stuff years ago when he had his limited company).

OK, in simple terms, that's a fair few people to boycott. You'll be cutting off your nose etc, they won't notice or care so yes, YABU and quite daft to boycott them.

glinda - to answer your specific question, YABU and pretty naive.

So you take £110 off your weekly wage before tax, and then you pay 11% on whats left?

Public service cuts equate to jobs too!!!

this is an interesting article about CEO's motivation

Tony Blair would never have got into power in 1997 if he hadn't had the confidence of big business. Was it OK by you, OP, that he had that backing? Is it OK for business to support Labour but not the Conservatives.
Perhaps they could accept business-friendly Labour policies in 1997 but not business-sapping Labour policies in 2010.

The NI rise may be a bad idea but no one actually belives the tories can make those kind of efficiency savings do they?

Even DC was rubbishing the idea a few weeks ago