Happy Face

Benefits aren't waste. The job of a government is to tax the wealthy members of society and distribute it to the poor so that no-one is left in poverty. The biggest shame is they've not been taking enough from the wealthy....and the Tories plan to take less. I find it incredible that any working man would be flag waving for increased crippling cuts. Spain aren't having it... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10261567.stm I didnt say they were But you did say they should be cut. We are overspending and need to save money, surely Stopping child benefit payments to Mike Ashley and Richard Branson would be a good start? But you said to £15k+ households. Well you tell me where you think it should be cut off. Regardless what figure you come up with the points still the same, I would rather see the partys tackle these issues than get rid of people like peaspud who sounds like he is actually saving us money. BP's profit in the last quarter were £3.6Bn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/ap...oil-prices-rise I don't know what their current tax bill is, but the most recent one I can find said it was 20%, so using that, they paid £720m in tax over those three months. If they paid what any person on a good salary pays, you could double that. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2002/jan/11/oilandpetrol It is estimated that in 2008, £12.6 million of public money was lost through benefit fraud. http://www.stopbenefitfraudni.gov.uk/cost.htm £12.6m...in a YEAR!!! Compared to BP's favourable tax rate saving them £720m in just 3 months. If you increased BP's rate of tax by 0.045% (less than one twentieth of a percent), you'd cover the cost of benefit fraud. Interesting but you didn't answer the question Sorry, I misread your post. I wouldn't. It's a red herring policy which will save relatively little. How do you determine a persons/households income? It needs people to be given jobs assessing claims...and systems to perform the complex calculation taking into account existing benefits, earnings, pensions, tax paid, shared care of the child etc. The system/people to do that calculation doesn't sound like a quicjk saving, it sounds expensive additional waste. Just make a standard rate available to all and generally the well off won't even want the stigma of applying.

Good work Ewerk, i was struggling to see how that could be right...I missed the NI on the link. The point still stands like.

it doesn't really matter what we are like compared to our neighbours, the fact that every party is backing deep cuts should tell you the problem is serious. It's in every politicians best interest to keep big business happy and anyone middle class or lower diverted by red herrings and misinformed.

Benefits aren't waste. The job of a government is to tax the wealthy members of society and distribute it to the poor so that no-one is left in poverty. The biggest shame is they've not been taking enough from the wealthy....and the Tories plan to take less. I find it incredible that any working man would be flag waving for increased crippling cuts. Spain aren't having it... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10261567.stm I didnt say they were But you did say they should be cut. We are overspending and need to save money, surely Stopping child benefit payments to Mike Ashley and Richard Branson would be a good start? But you said to £15k+ households. Well you tell me where you think it should be cut off. Regardless what figure you come up with the points still the same, I would rather see the partys tackle these issues than get rid of people like peaspud who sounds like he is actually saving us money. BP's profit in the last quarter were £3.6Bn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/ap...oil-prices-rise I don't know what their current tax bill is, but the most recent one I can find said it was 20%, so using that, they paid £720m in tax over those three months. If they paid what any person on a good salary pays, you could double that. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2002/jan/11/oilandpetrol It is estimated that in 2008, £12.6 million of public money was lost through benefit fraud. http://www.stopbenefitfraudni.gov.uk/cost.htm £12.6m...in a YEAR!!! Compared to BP's favourable tax rate saving them £720m in just 3 months. If you increased BP's rate of tax by 0.045% (less than one twentieth of a percent), you'd cover the cost of benefit fraud.

I would most definitely but its not the Conservative way, most of whom probably still believe we are heavily taxed or living in 'rip off Britain'. They've already plucked an arbritrary figure of 80% cuts and 20% tax increases, haven't they? There's no logic in that, just pure tory idealogy. The problem is "The Market" can punish the economy for increasing taxes, the people can't punish it for making cuts........well, they could, but they're too lazy/blinkered/misinformed for that

Benefits aren't waste. The job of a government is to tax the wealthy members of society and distribute it to the poor so that no-one is left in poverty. The biggest shame is they've not been taking enough from the wealthy....and the Tories plan to take less. I find it incredible that any working man would be flag waving for increased crippling cuts. Spain aren't having it... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10261567.stm I didnt say they were But you did say they should be cut. We are overspending and need to save money, surely Stopping child benefit payments to Mike Ashley and Richard Branson would be a good start? But you said to £15k+ households.

List of countries by tax revenue as percentage of GDP: Denmark 50.0 Sweden 49.7 Belgium 46.8 France 46.1 Norway 43.6 Austria 43.4 Italy 42.6 Germany 40.6 Netherlands 39.5 United Kingdom 39.0 Despite being amongst the lowest tax revenue generators (as a percentage of GDP) in Europe, our social programs must take deep cuts following the examples of.... Spain 37.3 Greece 33.5 Wouldn't you prefer tax increases so the people that can afford it (and that caused it) get us through this crisis?

Benefits aren't waste. The job of a government is to tax the wealthy members of society and distribute it to the poor so that no-one is left in poverty. The biggest shame is they've not been taking enough from the wealthy....and the Tories plan to take less. I find it incredible that any working man would be flag waving for increased crippling cuts. Spain aren't having it... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10261567.stm I didnt say they were But you did say they should be cut.

Benefits aren't waste. The job of a government is to tax the wealthy members of society and distribute it to the poor so that no-one is left in poverty. The biggest shame is they've not been taking enough from the wealthy....and the Tories plan to take less. I find it incredible that any working man would be flag waving for increased crippling cuts. Spain aren't having it... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10261567.stm

Do people charge their mates to use their season tickets when they can't go?

960x640 compared to 480x320 on the last model. It'll be pretty.

No "Give it away" option?

Can I put my work sim card in it?

I didn't realise we had been asking other clubs to join in our Mail Boycoutt...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10263325.stm Something weird going on like.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration...nces-retirement A sad day for freedom of speech and journalism in the US. She was one of the few real journalists left in the White House, less interested in access for her next book than actually reporting the truth. Compare her question at the start of this clip to the piss poor one that follows... Most of the White House Press corps spent the past weekend at a BBQ with Joe Biden and Rahm Emmanuel where they had water fights with squirt guns and creamed themselves on Twitter about the access they were getting... http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/twitter-twit.html

Platinum Stars could have drawn level with England but missed a penalty. Still one nil after 19 minutes. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/w...ies/default.stm Win the world cup? No chance.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-stag...-thatcher-clegg

Cameron lies? http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-stag...nterest-cameron

erm...keep protesting?

Most Man U fans are probably more worried they didn't win the title or the champions league or the FA cup this year after selling the best player in the world (smashing the transfer record) and not replacing him. Don't you see a correlation between that and the debt? Selling club tbh. you obviously think you can win trophies in football without being in debt I don't know how you've made that leap like. it's a basic enough point. I made exactly the same point as you myself, I fail to see how you can suggest I think any differently. They had to sell Ronaldo because the debt's out of control. They can't afford more debt and therefore they can't afford the title or the European cup. You're suggesting the spiraling debt over the last 5 years under Glazer is an inevitable result of winning things, even though they won stuff for a decade before that with a perfectly manageable debt. No I am not. I'm saying they realise that if you want to win things, you have to have the best players and pay the going rate to beat your opposition sometimes. The very fact that their debt is now what it is, proves my point conclusively. If they want to win the league again, they are going to have to replace Ronaldo properly, and now they will have to replace the likes of Giggs and Scholes too. We will see what ManU fans reaction is if this doesn't happen. So we're agreed. The fans will be unhappy that the debt has been allowed to spiral in the last 5 years. Given the inextricable link between the crippling interest payments and their ability to fund ongoing success. I never disagreed. My point is that if only they had known what a collision course they had been on, they would not have celebrated winning those titles and the European Cup so much would they ? Have you not been watching the protests that have been going on in Manchester despite winning the title three years on the trot and winning the champions league? Some fans went so far as to set up another club. They could see it coming and complained bitterly even while winning things and celebrating accordingly.

Most Man U fans are probably more worried they didn't win the title or the champions league or the FA cup this year after selling the best player in the world (smashing the transfer record) and not replacing him. Don't you see a correlation between that and the debt? Selling club tbh. you obviously think you can win trophies in football without being in debt I don't know how you've made that leap like. it's a basic enough point. I made exactly the same point as you myself, I fail to see how you can suggest I think any differently. They had to sell Ronaldo because the debt's out of control. They can't afford more debt and therefore they can't afford the title or the European cup. You're suggesting the spiraling debt over the last 5 years under Glazer is an inevitable result of winning things, even though they won stuff for a decade before that with a perfectly manageable debt. No I am not. I'm saying they realise that if you want to win things, you have to have the best players and pay the going rate to beat your opposition sometimes. The very fact that their debt is now what it is, proves my point conclusively. If they want to win the league again, they are going to have to replace Ronaldo properly, and now they will have to replace the likes of Giggs and Scholes too. We will see what ManU fans reaction is if this doesn't happen. So we're agreed. The fans will be unhappy that the debt has been allowed to spiral in the last 5 years. Given the inextricable link between the crippling interest payments and their ability to fund ongoing success.

Most Man U fans are probably more worried they didn't win the title or the champions league or the FA cup this year after selling the best player in the world (smashing the transfer record) and not replacing him. Don't you see a correlation between that and the debt? Selling club tbh. you obviously think you can win trophies in football without being in debt I don't know how you've made that leap like. it's a basic enough point. I made exactly the same point as you myself, I fail to see how you can suggest I think any differently. They had to sell Ronaldo because the debt's out of control. They can't afford more debt and therefore they can't afford the title or the European cup. You're suggesting the spiraling debt over the last 5 years under Glazer is an inevitable result of winning things, even though they won stuff for a decade before that with a perfectly manageable debt.

It's not just Krugman. 60 of them wrote letters to the FT saying cuts are "positively dangerous" http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/...315552728?f=rss