egg

It was on X mate - what more verified is there than that?

Fuck me, I think you must be American and have this odd belief that liberal views are left wing. You obviously have a simple left / right view of politics. If you follow this link: https://www.google.com/ And type in "explain the centre ground of UK politics to me as I don't get it", a whole new world will be revealed. Think if it as the sea of grey between your black and white understanding.

Agreed. He's a bright bloke and has enough about him to know what to say and what not to say. He had a chance to clarify and repeated the one murder point. He was trying to minimise the situation to make his point, and didn't take the opportunity to clarify when he had the opportunity.

So 3 or 4 people hijacking the forum with aligned political views. I have no issue with that, but question why you see differing views from 3 or 4 people as such an issue.

I think some of us have a less binary view of the political spectrum of you and a few others. Your opinion that anyone left of your thinking is a raving leftie is pretty tragic.

Some of us have worked hard mate and work when / if we choose. The rewards of capatilsm. Your time may come.

Ha!! What a well thought through response 👏👏 As an aside, I'm not sure how many lefties support means testing benefits and clipping the wings of state pensions. Feels a tad more centrist to me, but your world only sees left / right. Shame.

Should we, France, etc have kept our colonial land in Africa? How's having part of the EU on mainland Africa going today?

I don't think it'll be a season. I'm still thinking 8-12. 8 I think he stays, any more I think he goes sadly. Let's see, MB has a decent track record so today may well be D-day.

49,000 people now arrived in Ceuta. The easiest thing for the Spane need to accept it's nonsense having sovereignty over it and cede it to Morocco.

With the season starting in 15 days and 14 days to appeal. Gulp.

Not enough NI payments to get a state pension? I don't access the NHS either, and although I accept I must still pay NI, I think private health premiums should be tax deductable. Give people incentive to take strain away from the NHS. Re pensions, I really like the Ozzie superannuation system. Something to be said for that but our pension system has become so expensive I can't see any way of funding the existing obligations whilst banking people's contributions for their future.

No. The triple lock is unaffordable, and social care is needed. I think most people acknowledge that. Other things have to change as well. I've said above that some state benefits (eg. PIP, DLA) should be means tested. I don't extend that means testing to the state pension, and pension credit or similar should be in place to help those pensioners who need more. We need a system where social care is available, where people who need state assistance get it, but we can't have a system where people receive monies that they simply don't need regardless of whether they tick certain boxes.

Post of the week 👏

He said "But always we will show how we are going to pay for it, what we are reprioritising. That will be a theme that we will always come back to." I don't take that as a suggestion that policies and funding will be announced simultaneously - expecting that is unrealistic.

Got a link?

Indeed. He either wants social care sorting or he doesn't. If he does, he should applaud Burnham for the commitment, and welcome the fact that he wants to take time to work out the details including the funding. I'm slightly baffled why anyone sees any of that as a bad thing.

It's quite amusing that people are clutching at straws, but going on about pearl clutching.

He hasn't put the cart before the horse. He's committed to a policy, in principle. He's invited cross party discussion on that principle. There'll then be a detailed proposal re that policy. It'll then be costed, then funded on way or the other. Alongside that there'll be a review of all manner of areas of spending - welfare, state pensions included, defence, etc. We also need to see where gilt yields go and assess our borrowing costs. Committing to a principle was the right thing to do. Looking at everything else is also the right thing to do. Then shuffling the pennies will then happen, and be the right thing to do. Social care needs fixing.

Probably best to direct your question to someone who you think has criticised you. I'll stick to the actual subject.

I didn't get personal. I criticized the article, gullible people, and lazy posting. If you put yourself in the gullible camp, then yep, you got flak, but I didn't put you there.

I didn't get personal. Show me where. As farmer said, people are entitled to assume that something you link to may represent your view unless you say what your view is. That shouldn't be a controversial or surprising opinion.

Yep, and as I suspect we see sometimes, an opportunity to row backwards when flak is received. It makes discussion pointless.

Would you be happier if he just said he'd slap taxes up? Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather sit back and see what he does elsewhere to find the money. Removing the triple lock should cover it.

That's a different issue. You did what he did, and got criticised for - lazily posting a link without comment/question/opinion. If you don't want it being suggested that a shit article doesn't represent your opinion, don't lazily link to it without any comment etc.