Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

Tax the rich, is the opposite of "Let them eat cake", why would anyone aspire to accumulate wealth if they knew they were going to get it taken away by government.

I agree we need a middle ground but just taxing the rich wont work, and its often the rich that create work for the less well off.

I spent a fair amount of my working life actually getting paid by fairly rich,( compared to me), people.
I don't despise rich people if they are spending their money and creating work for others, and I'm not talking Upstairs and Downstairs stuff.

Stifle the rich and you gain nothing, I'm not sure of the figures but it has been stated how much percentage of the tax take the rich actually pay and its a fair chunk.

 

I thought the present ( and previous) govts wanted to stop or at least vastly reduce illegal immigrants from entering the country. Now it would seem that the main emphasis is on how to stop them from obtaining employment rather than actually stopping entry. Politicians of all description need to get back to basics and take a long hard look at what is happening both in their own country and on the world stage. All this " we know people are worried" "we understand people's concerns" and so on is simply that - say what you think voters want to hear and then carry on regardless. Reform will be no better.

 

Nobody stands a chance of stopping illegal migration until they change the law.

None of them have the guts to do it.

Starmer of all people knows that.

 

Every time any governmant wants more money they tax the lower and middle ends of the tax brackets which are the least mobile because they have jobs and homes and normal banking as opposed to the super rich who have multiple homes, yachts, space ships, offshore accounts. Russian oligarchs chose to live in London because it's easy to avoid taxes and safe compared to other countries. Fine, but let them pay 5% instead of zero.

Reform will be much worse @Philippa as they are playing from the Trump fascism manual on how to fool the poor and the facile into believing all their problems come from immigrants and lefties and use scare stories like the paracetamol-autism ploy to distract attention form important stuff like releasing the Epstein files and ho much money the oligarchs are bribing him to favour their oil industries that destroy the environment and companies such as Amazon and McDonalds where the annual profits are in the billions but the average US worker is paid less than a living wage.

 

Looks like most of our data is already available to access. I’ve been getting some quotes to reinsure our car, and was asked to give our driving licence numbers. Evidently they could then check the type of licence, length of having held them, and any endorsements.
As a side note, I was talking to a friend who lives in Spain, and is just renewing her driving licence. She tells me that every three years, ( as she is over 70) she has to go to a centre where they check her eyesight, among other things, and make her do some sort of hand eye coordination test! She was shocked when I told her that all we have to do is fill in an online form, and self declare eyesight and health issues. Didn’t even have to download a photo as they used the old one from my passport records.

 

You don't have to add extra taxes to the rich, but just make sure they pay the ones already in place. Which, currently, many do not.

You could drop Inheritance tax to 25% (which most people would find palatable) if the rich actually paid it.

Close the loopholes. Simples.

I think Starmer is very unwise to talk about Reform as a danger to the country. That is much like Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" insult. Belittling voters for making a choice out of the poor choice available to them is never a sane idea.

If Labour stopped the boats, they would take most of the wind out of Reform's sails. They should be moving heaven and earth to achieve this instead of piddling about with a one-in-one-out system which is not going to reduce inward numbers overall or deter the Channel crossings.

 

I can remember a time, maybe 20 yrs ago, when the illegals came over in the backs of lorries, I worked with a mate at the time who came up the M20 every morning from folkestone.
He often said, saw another lot getting out the back of a lorry on the hard shoulder and running off, they didn't want to get caught and wanted to melt into the distance.

Now days they hope to get picked up by border force, taken to a hotel and fed, given pocket money and a mobile phone, if they dont already have one, just need someone to sort out the network for them.

 

And if they caught the lorry driver he got fined £2000 per immigrant but they come in by lifeboat and no fines

 

Worth mentioning to the lorry drivers union.
Maybe any fined lorry drivers should get a refund, just need a good lawyer.

 

Thanks for the link @ViewAhead, I'll pass it on. There does seem to be a lot of ingredients in comparison to the cherry powder? No offence meant, as you took the time to find out for me, but if I had gout I would still opt for the cherry juice.

 

No offence taken! I'm not sure if my neighbour tried other things. I seem to remember he had asked a pharmacist for advice after a bad attack and was told there was nothing over-the-counter for gout, so he searched Amazon and hit on this product.

 

It would appear Australian citizens are fighting digital id too. It surprises me that the government there are even entertaining the idea.