Ex Lion Tamer

50 Labour achievements http://www.leedsne.co.uk/50_labour_achievements Yet the Corbynites think it's better to shout from the margins as the Tories dismantle the welfare state. This is interesting on maternity leave in particular: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-timeline-maternity-leave-2113236.html European exceptions, 1988 In 1988 a European Commission report demonstrated the extent to which Britain lagged behind its contemporaries in employment law. The only state not to provide full statutory maternity leave, Britain had blocked the adoption of a draft directive setting out minimum standards on parental leave. New Labour, 1999 Two years after New Labour swept into power, the Employment Relations Act granted all employees a minimum of three months' unpaid parental leave, while mothers were entitled to 18 weeks' paid leave.

Any economist, right or left, will tell you that Greece's inability to devalue its currency has massively hurt its economy. The same has been true in Spain, Ireland and Italy. If they could have made their exports cheaper they would not seen their economy tank so badly. Its the same as when Churchill tried to tie us to the gold standard or Lamont tried to keep us in the ERM, you need flexibility of exchange rates if you are not a fully integrated country. The recession here would have been much worse if we were in the Euro Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

(Mostly) happy to be proved wrong but I'll go on record and say I think Corbyn is and will be a disaster. No doubt his supporters will blame "the Blairites", which now appear to include the Guardian and 95% of Labour MPs, rather than their own poor judgment

I don't blame people for acting in their own interest (within reason), but if it is creating a problem then that's where the government has to step in. And to be fair the government has reduced the tax breaks in its last Budget

What is our net transfer revenue since 2012 out of interest? And how much Sky money have we received?

How much are we missing Paul Mitchell ? Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

Jury still out

What about leagues in other countries that start earlier/later? Or should the entire system be set up to benefit us?

Yep, landlords can be a nightmare, you are very lucky to own, SO16_Saint

And how does selling 5.4% stimulate growth? It's still majority owned by the state

Enjoy the victory!

Does that include George Osborne?

We're never that good at Lords. We'll come back stronger in the next one

Really hard to know what to do from here. Bairstow and Rashid could come in for two of Lyth, Ballance and Bell, but they're not really like for like replacements - we'd lack 'grinders'. Best I can come up with is Rashid in for Lyth to improve our bowling and to some degree the batting, Moeen opens with Cook, and Root takes over at number three to allow Ballance to drop down the order. In reality they will probably go for Bairstow as it's the more conventional choice

Exactly, it's not about being dogmatic "private is better", or "public is better", but what's right for the particular industry.

This is getting confusing because earlier in this thread we established that socialism is social ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy, nothing to do with the welfare state, but anyway... So you're saying we should no longer have a welfare state because some people abuse it? It's hello mass poverty if so

Can you give examples? I genuinely don't know what aspects of socialism go against the apparently selfish human condition. As I say, I feel like strong government helps to negate human selfishness

Can you explain why, in practice that means we need conservatism? In some ways I agree - I want to make money and lead a comfortable life for myself. But that's exactly why I want a strong government to step in and tax me a good amount, because by choice I probably wouldn't give enough to help the people who really need it. Same with inheritance tax, I get that it is a human instinct to want to pass wealth on to your children, but that's exactly why the government should step in and tax it, because the greater good is for children to have to earn their money rather than have it on a plate. Free market capitalism allows our selfishness to run too freely

Wouldn't like to be with you on the Titanic. 'Women and children first? Out of my way!' Although humans have obviously done some terrible things to other humans, it is generally to 'others'. Countries against countries, races against races, social classes against social classes. But within those groups there's a ton of cooperation and sacrifice. We just need to widen people's horizons. The rule of law developed in the UK because of a recognition of the collective benefits of all living by rules that benefit everyone. Part of the taxes you pay have gone to help violence victims to prosecute their assailants, and that's a good thing. The big thing to remember is the progress we've made. 200 years ago most English people thought black people were inferior beings. Women were the property of their husbands and could be raped at will. But as a nation we used our brains and realised that our attitudes were wrong. In the same way, we can progress as to bring an altruistic society (we have actualy made a lot of progress already). But it doesn't help having people like you going around saying we should all be selfish because that's the natural way.

Can we acknowledge that there is a middle ground between socialists wanting to nationalise everything and conservatives who look to help the rich /old at the expense of the poor /young at every turn? It's called social democracy- accepting markets as useful tools but recognising that there need to be strong protections to help the weakest in society?

Can't see anything about magic money trees in your definition of socialism either

I'm atheist but that's ********, Jesus didn't just go around doing miracles, he encouraged other people to share their wealth. Mark 10:21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Luke 6:20-26* And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. ...

We would have spoken to his agent regularly and found out that he was willing to sign a new contract, so offered one. We will now be speaking to vic's agent regularly and in the unlikely event that he is willing to sign, we will offer one

Thanks, appreciated