Lib Dem policy debate thread

[SenoraPostrophe]

So we've had best/worst tory/Labour threads, and I thought I'd fill the obvious gap for 2 reasons: firstly i'm seriously thinking of voting Lib Dem, and secondly because it occurred to me that the reason so many people scored well for the lib dems on this thread is because their policies are not debated as much as those of the other parties.

So anyway:

local income tax - good idea. in fact it was my idea.

50% tax band over 100k - good idea

free personal care for elderly - good idea, but I'm really not sure we should spend 1.7 billion on it. personal care is already free to those who have no money.

abolishing university fees - ditto. perhaps they should cut them though.

abolishing the DTI - really not sure on this. The dti does all kinds of dodgy stuff which should be abolished but not sure the whole dept should go.

what do you think? sophable, where are you?

My parents reasonsing Gwen is that if business people know they are going to be taxed that much, they won't bother to let their business expand in order to keep their earning lower, therefore not creating as many jobs.

I can sort of see their point but to me at the moment £100k per year is an enormous amount (not to them though)

The same arguments were used against teh Minimum Wage though - that it would be costly and jobs woudl be lost. Didn't happen.

Not on a large scale Tinker but at the time my mum was running a little corner shop, earning not very much. She couldn't afford to employ anyone when the minimum wage came in and closed the shop down. Luckily for her my Dad's business was doing OK but one woman lost her job.

I'm not saying I disagree with the minimum wage by the way.

Not the same argument at all Tinker. Minimum wage created wealth, people were paid more, so could afford to spend more. And minimum wage jobs tend to be ones that have to be done, with set hours and usually a set output (I'm thinking shelf stacking/cleaning type things here). Jobs where people earn over £10k tend to be ones where in the short term people will not notice that they are not done, but long term if people don't do them the economy will suffer - The vast majarity of city jobs come under that profitable but not strictly essential tag. And people earning over £100k will generally be able to choose to not earn more money without suffering.

Supertax does not work. It didn't work in the 60's adn it won't work now. GB (who I do thin is teh msot competent and principled chancellor we've had for a long time) is not proposing it because he knows it would not work, not because he thinks it would be a vote loser (because it would affect such a small %age of the population)

morning paper all your university story indicates is that its alright for rich stupid people to go to uni but poor stupid people cant. at least the lib dems will create equality of oppertunity for stupid people wishing to go to university - in fact maybe it will irradicate stupid people becuase you have to be off your fkin rocker to go and get in that much debt. have never been happier i have only one "brainy" kid. if i had to put three through uni - they wouldn't eat. bet they dont take into account twins either - double the debt same income. fkers mther fking W8nk*Ers.

HMC "Vote labour - it's a good middle ground! "
thats the best bloody slogan i have heard yet!

the person runing in the local elections for lib dems is a wonker. hes only running inthis ward cos theboundaries have changed and the other candidate for what used to be his ward has it in the bag -apparently. so poor poor councillor cant claim his 20k county council/council expenses and hasn't bothered even campaigning as he has to look for a proper job.

my kids are having mock elections and came home chanting "vote green" i told them to get off their arses and recycle then... thats much to hard work.

Yes can't really undestand Labour's reasoning on university admissions. On Question Time last week when that student harangued Tony Blair about benefiting from free university eductaion, TB responded with 'But in my day only 5% of people went to university!!!'. My questions are, therefore:

1. Why should EVERYONE have go to university? Is it about to become compulsory?
2. I think EVERYONE should have the opportunity to go to university if they are bright enough and want to. (With the emphasis on 'if they are bright enough')
3. But... don't see how having tuition fees will contribute to the fulfilment of my second point. Creating massive student debt will mean that only the people who can afford to pay it back will go to uni. Not the ones who are bright enough. Not the ones who are relatively poor. Not the ones who want to go into a worthwhile but not particularly lucrative profession.

right on wordsmith