UK PM Theresa May to seek snap election.

[Pann]

Ask a commuter how wonderful the system is.

Rail privatization is one of the most consistently popular left-wing policies for a reason.

Some services are in dire need of improvement but at least they aren't crippled by the likes of ASLEF like they were in back in the days of British Rail.

Yup, the Unions!

[Deleted]

Some services are in dire need of improvement but at least they aren't crippled by the likes of ASLEF like they were in back in the days of British Rail.

Yup, the Unions!

tell that to people who have to use southern rail :\

Its actually getting better lately, but the strikes from ASLEF have been fucking over commuters for a year now

[rogueMatthias]

I'd be lying if I said I didn't like some of the policies from the leak and I wish the country could actually work that way. I've always been a Labour person but Corbyns ideas are just unrealistic and the idea that he could actually implement them is laughable at best.

Corbyn seems to have a black and white view on the economy that would prove disastrous. People are either SUPER rich, or super poor and needy. It's like he can't see that there's an "in between".

£10 minimum wage - great for the real poor and in need, DEVASTATING for anyone trying to run a small business or hoping to start a start up business.
Stopping hospital Parking fees - Great idea again, but they're making the money by charging more tax on private medical insurance. Private medical isn't just some luxury of rich bankers, a huge amount of kind-of-ok-off people do too just as they're tired of the NHS. This is going to price them out of it and force them ALL back to the NHS and over burden it even more. Just to save a few people a few quid on parking?

The super rich and huge corporations barely even pay taxes anyway and this won't change, and even the 20:1 cap on pay will just drive up "bonus culture" again, which we've been trying to move away from.

This will basically penalise any smaller or struggling business and any people in the middle-income categories. It's like they're trying to take the incentive away to even try to be more than you are.

[Deleted]

You keep going on about subsiding the banks but what do you think would have happened if the government had let the banks go under? Do you think it would have been the rich Tory illuminati that would have been most affected? Or possibly the everyday man and women that banks with them?

I expect failing businesses to go the wall regardless of how rich the owners are, as would happen to any of us if we started a business that failed. That's what conservatives are supposed to believe.

What conservatives are also supposed to believe: creative destruction is a good thing. Bad businesses fail and are replaced by good businesses.

If the government wants to protect bank customers that's one thing, it can reimburse them directly. Keeping incompetent banks afloat at the taxpayers expense is just stupid. It only happens because of the cozy relationship between the Tories and their city friends.

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£10 minimum wage - great for the real poor and in need, DEVASTATING for anyone trying to run a small business or hoping to start a start up business.

The Tories themselves are proposing £9 an hour. Both proposals are scheduled for 2020. When George Osborne announced this the right-wing newspapers were praising the policy to the skies as evidence that the Tories represented the common man.

£10 is more than £9 but to pretend the one policy is genius and the other is financially irresponsible is ridiculous. It won't drive small businessman to the wall or anything hyperbolic like that.

I mention this because a lot of Labour policies have ended up being Tory ones. When Labour announce them they get ignored-when St Theresa mentions them the newspapers eulogize them.

[caervek]

£10 minimum wage - great for the real poor and in need, DEVASTATING for anyone trying to run a small business or hoping to start a start up business.

Indeed, what they should have done is keep the MW at £7.20 and raised working tax credits, thus making the rich/well off pay to top up the poor's wages. By raising the minimum wage they will instead put businesses under, put people out of work and raise the cost of living across the board.

They are basically proposing robbing the poor/middle to give back to the poor, it's stupid.

[rogueMatthias]

I mention this because a lot of Labour policies have ended up being Tory ones. When Labour announce them they get ignored-when St Theresa mentions them the newspaper eulogize them.

lol "St Theresa". I fee like I need to point out that just because so many people disagree with Corbyn + the plausibility of a lot of his policies, it doesn't mean they don't find May reprehensible and that the Tories are terrible for most of the UK.

She is, they are, but Corbyn is still a muppet.

[caervek]

I fee like I need to point out that just because so many people disagree with Corbyn + the plausibility of a lot of his policies, it doesn't mean they don't find May reprehensible

Sadly a lot of them don't. She has the advantage of being the most left leaning leader they have had in living memory, as a result she appeals to more centre/swingable voters than Corbyn (centre right vs left wing).

[Deleted]

Sadly a lot of them don't. She has the advantage of being the most left leaning leader they have had in living memory, as a result she appeals to more centre/swingable voters than Corbyn (centre right vs left wing).

She talks left. For various reasons it would be almost impossible for her to deliver, assuming she actually wanted to.

My guess is that her speeches are scripted by other people and carefully crafted to appeal to floating left-of-centre voters. She uses that "amateur dramatic society" voice suggesting a lack of personal input and authenticity.

[caervek]

She talks left. For various reasons it would be almost impossible for her to deliver, assuming she actually wanted to.

Indeed, she already faces a lot of opposition in her party for being a "red Tory" (not conservative enough for their liking, it's like the UK equivalent of a RINO).

[alexw]

Indeed, what they should have done is keep the MW at £7.20 and raised working tax credits, thus making the rich/well off pay to top up the poor's wages. By raising the minimum wage they will instead put businesses under, put people out of work and raise the cost of living across the board.

They are basically proposing robbing the poor/middle to give back to the poor, it's stupid.

This is an absolutely terrible idea. If you subsidize low paying jobs you end up incentivize employers to create more low paid jobs, because if they do so the state will come along and pick up the difference needed to make their workers income livable. So instead of employers investing to make the workers they hire more productive so as to be able to offer higher wages and increase the attractiveness of the remuneration on offer, they just hire more low wage low productivity employees and the more productive businesses and their employees then get taxed to subsidize the most poorly run ones. That's a great way to run down a nation to third world status.

If a business cannot pay enough to keep its employees whole it should go to the wall and free up space for its more productive competitors. It personally sucks for the owners of those businesses but noone owes them a living. They should go to the wall.

[Pann]

I expect failing businesses to go the wall regardless of how rich the owners are, as would happen to any of us if we started a business that failed. That's what conservatives are supposed to believe.

What conservatives are also supposed to believe: creative destruction is a good thing. Bad businesses fail and are replaced by good businesses.

If the government wants to protect bank customers that's one thing, it can reimburse them directly. Keeping incompetent banks afloat at the taxpayers expense is just stupid. It only happens because of the cozy relationship between the Tories and their city friends.

It has nothing to do with the owners. The banks are limited companies the owners would have been relatively unaffected if they had been allowed to go the wall but those who have money in the bank would be the biggest losers. I have to say making people homeless because the bank they pay their wages in to has gone bankrupt is very...uhm... left wing?!? But hey as long as you stick it to the man who cares about the little guy? Huh?

So what you are saying is that it would have been better to just give those who lost their savings/wages money instead of buying a stake in the banks which can be recovered at a later date? Honestly you are living in a fantasy world.

[Deleted]

lol "St Theresa". I fee like I need to point out that just because so many people disagree with Corbyn + the plausibility of a lot of his policies, it doesn't mean they don't find May reprehensible and that the Tories are terrible for most of the UK.

She is, they are, but Corbyn is still a muppet.

Hey may be a muppet, but I'd always vote for a muppet over a monster.

[DarkAmbient]

She's come up with some soundbites for the proles.

The precedents for people saying stuff like this and actually doing it are not good. Most Tories and New Labour types have said similar stuff.

At the end of the day they do what the corporations tell them, mainly because they can get a nice fat directorship on a bank or something afterwards earning millions for working two hours a week.

That will not happen with Corbyn. He's not in the pocket of big business. Virtually everyone else is.

You forgot to list the qualities you think Corbyn has that would make him a good prime minister. I'd be interested to read them.

[caervek]

This is an absolutely terrible idea.

It's worked well for decades.

If a business cannot pay enough to keep its employees whole

That's the problem, they can, but now the government want them to overpay their workers (or sack them so they end up on benefits) so that they don't have to pay anything (apart from when people become unemployed, or businesses go under). And doing that will result in the cost of living going up so there's no net gain anyway (hence why the current system works better).

[Deleted]

You forgot to list the qualities you think Corbyn has that would make him a good prime minister. I'd be interested to read them.

Not being in the pocket of big business is a quality in and of itself.

[Pann]

Not being in the pocket of big business is a quality in and of itself.

But being in the pocket of the unions is A-OK?

[Deleted]

Seems she will have an easy time getting the support she is looking for, especially thanks to the joker that runs the opposing party.

[DarkAmbient]

Not being in the pocket of big business is a quality in and of itself.

Someone else who can't answer the question. Strange... it's almost as if they can't bring themselves to be honest.

[alexw]

It's worked well for decades.

Lol. Tell me what is the productivity level of the UK vs its competitor nations in Europe? What are the real average wages per hour worked of your average UK employee vs your average French or American worker? Here I'll help you answer that question -





Its an absolutely terrible idea just as I said and its worked out terribly. The UK is a low wage low productivity nation. Its created exactly what it subsidized for.

That's the problem, they can, but now the government want them to overpay their workers (or sack them so they end up on benefits) so that they don't have to pay anything (apart from when people become unemployed, or businesses go under). And doing that will result in the cost of living going up so there's no net gain anyway (hence why the current system works better).

Yeah that's a total load of nonsense. If they were paying enough to keep their employees whole there would be no need for government wage subsidies. And how is getting them to bear the full cost of keeping their employees whole (by removing the wage subsidies and forcing them to increase the wage they pay to make up for it) making them overpay???? These employees should be able to survive solely on their wages without subsidies in the first place. They are currently underpaying as the presence of wages subsidies make obvious.

[Deleted]

Someone else who can't answer the question. Strange... it's almost as if they can't bring themselves to be honest.

...It is a quality, tell me why it isn't?

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But being in the pocket of the unions is A-OK?

Did you see me say that?