Lord Duckhunter

As I've posted before ,this is exactly what Tax Credits and a minimum wage does to the people at the bottom. Notice the line " most pay more than the minimum wage" . They pay pennies above and that's their benchmark, they are not considered exploitative because they pay" above the minimum wage" . With no minimum wage their benchmark would be the minimum needed to retain staff. When I worked in retail management wages were pretty poor for the workers, however good blokes negotiated higher pay , and if we had problems filling vacancies we put the wage up to attract people. Now there's no need to as Tax credits top the wages up and other retailers pay more or less the same. Without tax credits they wouldn't be able to fill their vacancies until the wages were up to a certain level. If you're going to have a minimum wage it needs to be at a level where people don't need benefits to top it up. At the moment its a welfare to work vanity project designed to make politicians feel good about themselves. While tax credits are just a boost for companies profit.

No , because since the inception of the minimum wage everything has become regimented . When I first managed people, you had total discretion on what you paid ( within certain boundaries ) , now it's all benchmarked against the minimum wage . There's also been a notable drop off in ambition , brought about by tax credits . Blokes actually turn down overtime or even promotion because it'll effect their " benefits" . How on earth is that right? I don't blame them , I blame the politicians who allow it . How does it help peoples worth or self respect that we subsidise their employers to pay them and then call them scrounges or deadbeats

Dude, one thing I do know about ( and there's not much ) is retail management as it was in it for a number of years . It's about engaging people and empowering them , you don't keep hard workers in a box doing the same thing over and over . I've had lots of uneducated people who , whilst not necessarily becoming managers , ran areas and small teams for me . Even putting someone " in charge " of the a small part of the business , maybe the fridge by the exit with the sandwiches & bottles of drink in , makes the feel valued . I had a warehouse man who was a few sandwiches short of a picnic who still texts me and updates me on the job he's doing . A job that most on here would find mind numbingly boring , but by giving him a little responsibility and engaging him , he now has so much pride in what he does he texts his ex boss 7 years after he left .

Firstly if they're working hard I've no doubt Sainsburys will try and develop and promote them . It's much cheaper to promote from within than poach managers and supervisors from other retailers . Therefore the manager of your Sainsburys must be a complete and utter idiot to let hard workers " drift" and become zombie like . Secondly , government policy , in particular tax credits & minimum wage is contributing to this situation by surpressing wages . Why should Sainsburys increase wages , they won't lose staff as the government tops up the working poors wages and they're not going to lose people to tesco because they've all benchmarked their wages against the minimum wage . Add to that the fact that thousands of EU citizens will sit on the checkouts for peanuts as peanuts are better than the wages they get at home, and you have a perfect storm . Sainsburys make massive profits , the wet political elite feel good about " helping " the poor and being good Europeans , no wonder the poor sod on the checkout is ****ed off .

Whether we like it or not there's an underclass that nobody gives a flying **** about, certainly not the labour party despite what they claim. The system is all about " managing" this 10% rather than trying to inspire them out of the cycle they are in. Its going to take generations and bucket loads of money to even lift them up one notch. You need to be very special to get yourself out of this.

Can't see him surviving long , but it'll depend on the majority any coalition enjoys . Last parliament he had 80 odd with lib/ dems , if it's down anywhere below 25 he'll struggle IMO . Last time he could ignore the awkward squad , but if he's relying on them keeping in line he won't be able to do it . For every lib /dem member of government they'll be 4 Torys thinking their jobs been taken , that's not a good set of circumstances to try and control your party. Add to that the fact that he's not really a Tory, more of a social democrat and they'll get him before 3 years are up. IMO The biggest mistake the party made was preferring him to David Davies .

"Morning everyone." Sadly the great man has passed away. RIP , a legend of the box.

Anyone think Labour have thought through this Non Dom policy needs to watch Andrew Neil take Shabana Mahmood apart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A1KjRPBvnU

The rich do pay more. What % of total income tax take do you think the richest 1% should pay?

You're right. I wish lefties would stop banging on about " fairness". The fairest system is for everybody to pay the same % . I'm not suggesting a flat tax, although I would like them to be lower for higher earners , the Brown rate of 40% seems reasonable. But they need to be set to bring in maximum revenue and lefties need to stop banging on about fairness. As for non doms . Frasier Nelson has pointed out in the Spectator that the only difference between doms & non doms is tax you pay on overseas wealth. As the ordinary Joe hasn't got any , the line that they should pay tax like everybody else is disingenuous in the extreme. They're trying to imply their on the side of ordinary people . They want to give the impression that they're clamping down on tax avoidance and that non doms are somehow not paying tax like you and I . Whereas " everybody else" is actually doms with overseas wealth in this case.

This is the line spouted by that nutter Polly Toynbee . On " Any Questions" she said that that EU membership was so important to the UK that it shouldn't be put to a vote in case the answer is OUT. Its basically the establishment's policy, and at least she and Blair actually say it instead of giving us a load of pony. Cameron's offer of a referendum was purely for party political purposes, and now he needs a Wilson type blag to pull it off. The Tories have brought this all on themselves . Maastricht changed the relationship between the EU & UK and we should have had a vote then. The stupid thing is they would probably have won one easily then. The establishment don't seem to understanding that the longer they hold off a vote , the more resentment will build.

Got to be a wind up . There's no way you can only have your first choice out , and get a loan in .

Perhaps you will answer the question that Tim failed to answer. Do the Swiss have an " insular & myopic" view ? Do they not share this view of " being European "?

Never a free kick in the first place. Keeper knocked it long for flick to Defoe, but a shocking decision

What the hell are you on about, have you been drinking. Do you realise that England , Scotland and Wales are parts of the same country. People from Bavaria may feel more comfortable with people from Hamburg than from athens, is that their German island mentality ? And how is Cardiff particularly different from English cities.

And Cyril Smith , lord Rennard, David Laws, Chris Huhme and the guy whose just admitted to deliberately getting aids as a suicide attempt .

He's better than ormerod . People banging on about the price don't seem to understand contracts and how the market works . If Clynne had 4 years left on his contract he would cost someone more than he will in the summer , yet he is the SAME player . I've been watching football for over 40 years and I've not seen many players give absolutely everything like he does . Of course this doesn't make him special , but people fawn over wasters like gaston . He's a good honest pro , good squad player and appears to be a decent bloke . I'm glad we signed him and couldn't give a flying **** that he cost £12 mil .

Nigel's been campaigning hard today , no rest for him ( I don't know how to take a screen shot of the tweet) . @GarethJFuller: Nigel Farage talks to local people at Thanet Beer Festival in Margate.

It says something when Bear is the voice of reason on a thread that doesn't involve sex ( no offense Bearsy)

As people are throwing " facts" around, here's one. Pelle wants to play for saints, Lambert didn't.

Isn't Luxemburg a tax haven for big corporations and in the EU. Anyway why are you having a pop at Monaco, you can drive through with your family without realising you've changed country and that seems important to you. You did not answer the question. You implied that our euro scepticism was a result of our " island mentality" , is Switzerland an island, what about Norway. How's their island mentality?

What about the Swiss have they got this " island mentality" ?

Being a member of the EU comes with certain " rules" one of which is free movement. Instead of admitting this and sticking up for the EU , the establishment parties lie, bend the truth and throw insults . It was refreshing to hear Leanne Wood speak the truth, shame others won't.

Loving the chuckle brother's political debate.

As previously posted UKIP's base are dissatisfied Tories . However , they've picked the low hanging fruit and are now seeking to be an alternative to labour in labour heartlands outside of Scotland and London . You can see this by their shift in policy towards nhs spending & they seem to be moving away from some of the radical ideas they used to believe in . A Cameron led Tory party will not do any sort of deal with ukip , no chance IMO . Euro scepticism when ukip was formed was always about sub section x of section y of some obscure eu directive , meaning the eu superseded the British parliament . This used to allow the established parties to claim Europe was way down on peoples concerns . What Nigel Farage has done is link unskilled unlimited EU immigration to EU membership , and as it is clearly linked , the mainstream parties cannot dismiss it as an unimportant issue . As someone whose opposition to the EU is the democratic deficit , I was hoping that he would expand this and link other ills as well ( eg tax , policing and justice ) . People like tony benn and bob crow were anti EU , but they would never be ukip members . The situation is that you have nobody to vote for except ukip if you're anti EU and it's the kiss of death for your front bench career if you want to leave the eu . I always vote UKIP in the European elections , and are more than likely to this time . This is not because I'm racist or a little englander , but because I want to leave the EU and passionately believe that Grammar Schools should be part of parental choice in education .no other party has those 2 policies . I also want a smaller state and believe that UKIP stand for that , although they are watering this down in their chase for labour votes .