well as a diversion it works well if we look at the above posts; the thread is about the investment strike but here we all are debating the idiocy or otherwise of a cabinet minister .... an irrelevance imv since the effect is the same in any case ... the issue is unemployment and recession ... as the Spanish events forewarn ....
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According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. -
You seem to be defending this buffoon ?Originally posted by mercia View Posteverywhere in the media today
(you seem to have an obsession with butlers
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The Tories have at least for the last 30+ years been keen on using unemployment as an instrument of economic policy, as this article from late last year suggests. The sad thing is that that dreadful monetarist approach is now the dominant philosophy in Europe, resulting in for instance youth unemployment in Spain in excess of 50%. Only perhaps a real social conflagration and/or changes in government, e.g. in France, might change the minds of those in power.Comment
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Originally posted by mercia View Post
Well this government seem to have completely misunderstood many things so he really is fair game IMV
hope he gets the boot for it !Comment
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Granny tax, cash for suppers, pasty tax, petrol panic....
What next?Comment
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One would hope (Originally posted by johnb View Post) that the libdems would see sense and call a halt to the whole shabby business
but not much chance of that sadly
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we are stuck in the classic Marxist bind of a surplus of labour and a surplus of capital failing to engage with each other eh .....
maybe the point is that no one knows what to do but i for one doubt that ..... it was mainly the war machine that unlocked capital in the thirties otherwise we need to outdo the New Deal in public investment, regulation of markets finance & banking, sponsorship of good works and artistic endeavours ....
... oh and while we were at it we could take the water gas and electric, not to mention trains and buses and the telephones back into mutual ownership etc ... on the basis that public employment is far preferable to welfare as a national cost .... and that utility profits made from the common goods of society are rather too gangster and old fashioned in the 21cAccording to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.Comment
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One of Cornelius Cardew's first 'political' pieces was a somewhat Cagean graphic score entitied "Ten Thousand Nails in the Coffin of Imperialism". The jerry can afair seems more like another nail than a successful diversionary tactic.
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Lovely to see the Maceroon harking back 20 years or more (it's more isn't it) to Nigel Lawson's imposition of VAT on to hot take-away food and how 'unfair' it is for the small hot food shop having to levy it but not the big supermarkets whose loophole the Maceroon was seeking to close in the interests of 'fairness'.
What the Maceroon never seemed to realise is that when VAT on hot take-away food was imposed there was a huge hue & cry about how this was another tax on poor people trying to get a hot meal while living rough or in hostels or in dreadful Bed & Breakfast hotels as homeless individuals and families.
But then again, Louise Casey 'solved' street homelessness, didn't she?
There was nothing 'fair' about VAT on hot take-away food then and there's nothing 'fair' about it now.
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absolutely ams ... the simplest tax of all .. none take it off!According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.Comment
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Why not remove VAT on hot take-away food and household fuel and have differential VAT rates for luxury goods, e.g. 80% for top-end sports cars (still pocket money for footballers and executives)? Having differential rates would better reflect people's ability to pay and redistribute the burden of indirect taxation in a similar way to direct taxation.Comment
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