Who will you vote for?

[WideWebWitch]

I can't stand Bliar, really don't know what to vote, anyone else finding this hard?

Back in the 80s I used to work for the DSS collecting NI. The employees rate was 6.75%. Now it is 11% but tax hasn't gone down that much. NI has a ceiling, so the higher earnings pay proportionately less than lower earners- how is that fair?

This Govt may have done great things for people with little children, but for those of us with teenagers it's done bugger all. Having had to pay for pre-school education for our kids, we now have to pay for further education as well.

As for the minimum wage, all I can see it has done is increased the disposable income of the young single childless, who spend it on electricals & whathaveyou, which increases consumer spending which in turn increases interest rates, affecting mortgages for those who are not young free & single. It has also closed the gap between people who have been working for 5 minutes & those who have been working for many years on a low wage- their wages didn't increase in line.

The unfairest tax is the insurance premium tax. Not brought in by this Govt, but certainly not abolished by them either! WTF should you be taxed on money you are paying out? ..and no-one ever mentions it!!

Our council tax is already at the point where we really can't afford to pay it. & it's going up again. I can't see that a local income tax would be any better either- they'd pick a rate that meant we'd be paying even more than we are now, like they did following the switch from poll tax to council tax. The only advantage I suppose would be that one of us could give up work (not that we can afford it, but at least they couldn't charge us if we did that).

Talullah that's the most bizarre argument against the minimum wage I've ever heard...!?

I don't agree that the main beneficiaries of the minimum wage are young single childless people!

tallulah - what??? Lots of people benefit from the min wage.

Isn't one of the libdem policies to abolish the ceiling on NI? can't remember.

Well who does then? My DH is a supervisor on not much more than the minimum wage.. for his extra £1 an hour he gets a load of sht & a load of responsibility. If it goes up much more he has said he will go back down to just being a bod because it really isn't worth it. I'd be genuinely interested to hear other people's views because obviously I've only got our experience to go by. (I did expect this reaction TBH, this is another one of the mumsnet "party lines"). IME* this is the effect of the NMW.

Well who does then? My DH is a supervisor on not much more than the minimum wage.. for his extra £1 an hour he gets a load of sht & a load of responsibility. If it goes up much more he has said he will go back down to just being a bod because it really isn't worth it. I'd be genuinely interested to hear other people's views because obviously I've only got our experience to go by. (I did expect this reaction TBH, this is another one of the mumsnet "party lines"). IME* this is the effect of the NMW.

So, tallulah, do you want no minimum wage?

What's NMW?

I will vote Labour for their family-policies

Bloody hell I missed this

can anyone tell me how to register for postal/overseas vote?

sorry haven't read whole thread but:
if gordon brown then labour. if not then libdem.

5 may is date (don't know if that is official yet tho, but is on one of their think tanks' websites or something - dh told me, can't remember)

I suppose i should vote for my dh as he is standing in the election...

NMW = national minimum wage (i think)

tallulah, i sympathise with your dh, but his situation isn't the fault of the minimum wage, surely!

dur! Thanks sd

sd it is, in that it has no bearing on the other wages, which don't go up in line. It's like that old saying about if everyone was paid the same why would anyone bother to be a brain surgeon. (but obviously not so extreme).

As I said, I don't know of anyone it has actually benefited, only the disadvantages of it.

but imo it is the fault of dh's employer for not paying a better wage to supervisors

if the NMW was abolished tomorrow and dh's employer kept dh's wage the same but reduced his subordinates' wages to tuppence an hour, that wouldn't be right would it?!

SuzyWong - forms for registration as an overseas voter

Talullah - many companies do pay ridiculously low wages to supervisors and always have done. before the min wage, in at least 2 companies i worked in, supervisors got less than £1 an hour more than line workers. It often isn't worth it, no.

But, besides young single people, the minimum wage benefits cleaners, school dinner ladies, shop workers and many temp workers, including recent graduates, people who've been made redundant and mothers returning to work....These people may buy more electricals than they used to, but that's not what's fuelling the interest rate rises - they are the low paid after all.

And anyway that old saying isn't true. We would have no city stock brokers if everyone was paid the same, but we would have a similar number of brain surgeons - I would have been one if i hadn't cocked up my A levels. We would have more teachers and nurses too.

And buying more electricals = more tax revenue anyway

Talullah - I think you're a civil servant? Don't know about your dept but in mine they had to abolish the lowest grade because govt itself was paying less than min wage. So lots of low paid clerical staff benefitted - often women, often mothers.