Johnny Bognor

My my view is that it is completely immoral to pass on 'our' debts to our children and grand children. how those supporters of social justice, cannot see the injustice in this is beyond me. It is as if their view is **** our children and **** our grand children. Let them ****ers pay.... An attitude that goes against the very grain of true socialism. Passing our debts onto people who haven't even been born yet, irrespective of rich or poor.????? Perhaps the leftie socialists on this forum need to readjust their moral compasses a little bit?????

To be fair, it will most likely be stressed related, due to the debts that our generation passed down to them, so don't try to shrug that one off

It all depends on the economy and how it recovers. If it does recover well and the man on the street feels better off, it will be a shoe in for the tories next time round. If the economy gets shaky or doesn't recover, the cuts will hurt / bite. Then it will be down to the pain threshold of the electorate combined with how labour re-position themselves.

LOL

Lol. Funniest moment of the evening so far.

Ground breaking news: Exit polls in Chichester suggest that J-CRAP registered its first ever vote in a general election, coming 9th behind spoilt ballots. This is a massive percentage increase on the 2010 election and is therefore a very successful evening for us

Babestation is looking like an option. Occasionlly flicking over to the BBC

Oh come on, don't let the facts get in the way of a good political rant. The tories are nasty wasty and labour are all lovey dovey

I guess that is like Labour promising an EU Referendum in their 2005 manifesto, to be subsequently challenged in court, only to find that in effect, the breaching of a manifesto commitment was political, not a legal requirement. It was a good job Blair didn't carve that pledge in stone.

Hmmm Ah, I see what you did. You'll now claim that it is not all tory policies that are sh*t (by your own admission), but in fact that it is all tory posters on here that are sh*t. :lol: Apologies for misreading the above post

... considering some policies match labour policies, pap (if he doesn't respond), is in effect confirming that some labour policies are in fact sh*t

Really???? Do you not agree with any of the 32 listed below???? Come on, the same can be said of the left on here. Anything but the tories????? OK, here's the tory manifesto. Here is my take on it.... Taxation Raise personal allowance to £12.5k and 40% tax threshold to £50k - AGREE (helps low and middle income families) Increase inheritance tax threshold for married couples and civil partners to £1m - DISAGREE (leave as is, for now) Legislate to keep people working 30 hours on minimum wage out of income tax - AGREE (helps incentivise people to work) No rise in VAT or National Insurance contributions. - AGREE (Leave as is) Transport Deliver the biggest programme of investment in roads since the 1970s - DISAGREE Deliver the biggest investment in railways since the Victorians, including 850 miles of electrified railways - DISAGREE Reform strike laws, including on the transport network - DISAGREE (leave as is for now) Start work on High Speed 2 rail lines and continue development for a "HS3" Leeds-Manchester link - DISAGREE Rural Affairs Invest £2.3 billion in over 1,400 flood defence schemes to protect 300,000 homes - DISAGREE (if you want to live by the seaside, why should I pay for it?) Work to improve and simplify the Common Agriculture Policy - AGREE Hold a free vote on repealing the Hunting Act - DISAGREE (more important things to worry about) Provide near-universal superfast broadband by 2020 and secure the future of 3,000 rural Post Offices - AGREE (critical for business innovation) EU Hold an "in-out" referendum on Britain’s renegotiated EU membership by 2017 - AGREE Protect the UK economy from further integration of the Eurozone. Expand the Single Market - AGREE Scrap Human Rights Act and replace with a British Bill of Rights - DISAGREE (more important things to worry about) Resist EU attempts to restrict legitimate financial services activities - AGREE (we are more exposed to FS) Defence Second new aircraft carrier will be brought into active service - DISAGREE (Can't afford it at the moment) Replace Trident with four submarines to maintain continuous at sea nuclear deterrent - AGREE (keeps us at the top table) Work for peace in Syria and Iraq and pursue a comprehensive strategy to defeat Islamic State - AGREE Create new award for service in the reserve forces - DISAGREE Education Protect school funding per pupil - AGREE Create at least a further 500 free schools in England by 2020 - DISAGREE Zero tolerance for failure – immediate support to turn around failing or coasting schools - AGREE 30 hours free childcare for working parents of 3&4-year-olds - AGREE Welfare Make £12bn welfare savings - DISAGREE (without knowing where it comes from) Maintain the freeze in working-age benefits for two years - AGREE (especially with zero inflation at the moment) Household benefit cap cut from £26,000 to £23,000 a year - DISAGREE (keep the cap as families budget on this, but dont increase for the foreseeable) Replace JSA for 18-21-year-olds with a Youth Allowance limited to 6 months & end automatic Housing Benefit for this age group - DISAGREE (We need to inspire the young, not punish them) Health Increase NHS spending in England by at least £8bn above inflation over the next five years - AGREE Seven-day access to GPs by 2020 & same day appointments for over-75s when needed - DISAGREE Integrate health and social care - AGREE (If it reduces costs) Improve access to mental health treatments - AGREE So out of 32 policies, I agree with 18, diagree with 14. There must be a few on here that you don't deem to be ****????

Oh and for the Facebook/Instagram generation..... no selfies in the polling booth!!! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11586385/Voters-warned-they-could-be-jailed-if-they-take-selfies-in-polling-stations.html

True, and they do talk some sense, but there are far too many looney policies for my liking...

Not at all, I want legislation, but in the meantime, we as citizens can do our bit. You can't complain about starbucks not paying tax, if you're putting money in their pockets knowing that they avoid tax... But this point also comes back to what I was saying earlier. If we as consumers "buy british", it is good for our economy, because we don't export profits elsewhere. Fair comment

Good point. WH Smith or Waterstones over Amazon....

Don't disgaree with making people who should pay, pay. But individuals can do their bit. Rather than go to Starbucks (who pay **** all tax), go to Costa Coffee, a British owned company. Starbucks have paid £8m in tax over the last 10 years. Costa have paid £15m in the last year.. This is one interesting article in the Mirror, I read a few years ago.. http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/personal-finance/fairer-trading-your-essential-guide-1444646

But many people work in one-off events, cyclical events or industries where a flexible workforce is needed. Students want flexible work to fit round their studies. Zero hour contracts work in these instances. But yes, they are open to exploitation and without doubt need reforming. But banning them completely will just mean that employers use agency staff. So it doesn't solve the issue and pushes up employer costs. I personally think "internships" are a more expoitative. Offering "experience" in return for working for nothing.

Exactly. But the "party for business" and the "party for the working people" have missed it completely.

I question the policy. On NI, neither the tories or labour are doing anything. So I question the tories too. When I go on about corruption, I may appear to attack Labour, often in response to attacks on the tories. But I have and will bash both sides. As the forum is too left leaning, I like to dilute that somewhat. I am not restricted to one party based on entrenched political beliefs. I used to vote blind on party lines, but as I have got older, I look at the policies of all parties. Some of them I like. Some of them I don't. Whether that be left or right. But for me, there is no clear winner who gets my vote. So I am one of those disenfranchised voters. Dave represents me no more than Ed respresents you, or Clegg who doesn't represent anyone. But zero hours contracts are not all bad. They can be very popular with the people on them. Some whole industries are reliant on them. There is no doubt they need reforming, but kill the majority of them? As for bedroom tax, I am not in favour of it as it is targeted at the more vulnerable. If anything, it should be applied to home owners. If you live in a house which is bigger than you need, then you are consuming valuable housing stock and can afford to pay more. Schemes like the rent-a-room scheme are a good idea as it doesn't clobber people, who want to make a bit on the side, whilst helping to alleviate the housing crisis. So on those two polices, I disagree on one and agree with them on the other. When I go through all of the policies for all of the parties, I am left in a position where I can't vote for any of them.

Tax can be used as a stick or it can be used as a carrot. Labour are proposing to increase corporation tax and use this to fund a reduction in rates. Hardly a tax cut. It is just tinkering. Why not use the tax system to influence behaviour for the greater good? Why not reduce employers NI for businesses, say with less than 10 employees. Hardly helping the rich...

Errr, aren't general elections about policy and where 'we' are going?? Too many on this thread are blinkered by out dated party allegencies, slagging one or the other side off. Too happy to play the political game. Get turned on by the mud slinging (granted I get suckered into the mud slinging from time to time), but I genuinly like to debate policies. There are so many common sense policies that the main parties seem to be missing. Is it not right to debate these? Is it not right to suggest alternatives and debate them sensibly? It's either that, or going back to the usual you ****ing leftie **** ****. So come on Pap. Do you think labours pledge to reverse the cut in corporation tax and reduce business rates will help the working man or less advantaged in society? I happen to think the suggestion to cut Employers NI would be far more constructive. I also think I am right in questionning why none of the main parties could pick a simple vote winner.

My business is a net exporter. We create products and services that we sell to the rest of the world. If we had a change of mentality, whereby we nuture and encourage this on a national scale, it would 'import' wealth. It might not solve all of our problems, but it would go some way to making our economy stronger. But like most lefties on here, you didn't come up with any solutions to make things better. It is OK to sit on the sidelines and snipe at others, without offering practical solutions yourself. I have offered many across this debate, so I'll chuck in another one for good measure... Rather than add or take away 1% on corporation tax, how about reducing employers NI, which is effectively a tax on employing people??? If you want to encourage business to create more jobs, don't tax them on it. I cannot fathom why Labour want to **** about with rates (by reversing the corporation tax reduction), when they claim to stand up for working people. Here is a simple measure that is easy to implement and would incentivise / reward businesses to employ more people. Over to you to hear your suggestions on how we can make the world a better place, with anticipation .......

Oh theres plent. Tory and labour. It's one of the reasons, I can't bring myself to vote for any of them. But the Green Party are the most hypocritical. They expect us to be frugal on a personal level, whilst their policies require extravagent spending on a national level. That is what turns me off most about the Greens. I look at them and see middle-class, materially comfortable, self-righteous hypocrites. I have no doubt that few of them would survive in the wilderness, which is where their policies would take us.

on a local political programme she appeared with several of the souths MP's. The topic of second jobs came up. She was highly critical, taking the moral high ground claiming that she devotes all waking hours to her constituents. When the presenter brought out a copy of her new book, she looked quite ridiculous.