Re: Britain's Election - May 7

[Rockhopper]

They usually are Ags. Don't do as I do -- do as I say! Some-one should ask him that question - will he deport his wife?

We see very little of him here thankfully, but what we see is him ranting about "Asians"

Tim.

[Stirky]

I suspect that his anti-immigration is targeted at those who are coffee coloured Stirkles.

Tim.

No there is a lot of people that are against the Eastern Europeans like Aggie said, there is an ever growing population of Polish and Romanians here. A lot of which have settled, got jobs, paying their taxes etc, so I do not see the problem with them. Like I said before there are a lot of British born people that sit on their butts claiming all the benefits they can!

[Agartha]

If immigrants left benefits would mostly stop, they would become like benefits in Italy, for example, where you get unemployment for no longer than a year and then you have to go and find a job.

I understand that it is not easy to deal with people from other countries... some, like me, try to integrate as much as they can, others don't and I disagree with that. If you live in a foreign country of course you have to retain your culture, but you also have to show respect and consideration for the country's culture.

Having said that, British people have such a mixture of blood in them, from the Romans, to the Vikings.... even the Celts originated in Kazakhstan! 

There is one thing that I actually agree with Ukip: I know for a fact that more than half of HIV patients in the UK are foreigners and they do put a strain on the NHS. The question is, what to do? Do we support free NHS services for those that haven't worked or been in the UK for too long? Or do we start getting tough and only allow residents to use it?... a very difficult question...

[Rockhopper]

Yes I know what you're saying, I just repeated what we get out here from UKIP. Under FPP they won't get into power but are a distraction that takes votes away from the more legitimate parties.

The problem with chronic un-employment is that people just give up. We humans can only take so many knock-backs and we stop looking. When that happens it becomes inter-generational. Private business won't solve un-employment, it's an anathema to them, they want a good number of people out of work and actively seeking work to keep wages down and profits up. So the only ones who can do anything are the Govt. but they won't either now.

What we really need in the west is Govts. with a view of the future not just the here and now. They could be employing many of the un-employed doing work that would benefit society in the future and what is paid in wages gets spread out into the economy and causes it to grow.

I'm not criticising the UK, we have the same problem here too.

Tim.

[Stirky]

Yes unemployment is not good, the figures go up and down, they say it's getting better but in reality it never really changes that much. We had a rough patch where a lot of firms (and big firms) were laying off workers, some of these people had been with these companies their whole working life. Very hard to go and get something else after that. Even now there are still redundancies going on. There used to be safe secure jobs that would last you your whole working life, safe secure jobs just do not exist anymore. You just have no guarantee how long you will be with that company, everything is to unpredictable now, even companies that have bee traded for decades have found themselves in trouble financially and have either laid off staff or gone into receivership. There is no easy answer to this either.

There are a lot of people on job seekers benefit that are genuinely wanting to find work. There are a lot of young people straight from school/college/university that have never had employment and can't find any. There are too many people after the same type of work. But you also have a lot of people on these benefits that never have the intention of working, they just do not want to. I know of people like this, I also know of people that get jobs easily but just never stick at them and leave a couple of weeks later.

You are right though, spend to long in this vicious circle of signing on and seeking employment and yes people do give up. They loose their sense of pride, their drive and their direction. There is no easy answer, and this problem exists all over the world.

[Rockhopper]

I know what you're saying Stirkles and Ags. It's a problem that can be fixed with a will to do so though.

Apparently you have the same problem as we do - a Govt. that looks after it's business mates and ignores the people. They don't seem to understand that the greatest asset any country has is a well educated and healthy population. But they cut funding to schools and privatise the NHS and so on.

We don't get tax cuts (except to the wealthy) we get tax shifts. If a Govt. cuts taxes then they must make up the revenue somewhere else and that somewhere else is you and I paying more. "User pays" is an example; there are services that some people need to use (no choice) so the cost of that service is an indirect tax.

Tim.

[Rockhopper]

This pretty much describes the UK;

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/03/free-trade-corporate-plunder-and-the-war-on-working-people/

Tim.

[Lenzabi]

Like I said earlier, do not let them turn your nations into carbon copies of America. The Wealthy deserve to be taxed hard, it was what the American Founding fathers saw a a means to keep the rich under control so they would not do as they are now, steal all from the poor and middle class and turn the country into the travesty it is now with the taxes all on the poor and middle classes and the wealthy usurping power at every turn.

[Rockhopper]

Right on Len. Sadly the rest of the west have already copied all the crap. And now we have to change it for the better.

It won't happen until most people have nothing left to lose. Combine that with the effects of climate change and the fertiliser will hit the oscillator!

Tim.

[Rogue]

Seems weird to have an election on a Thursday.

[Rockhopper]

Indeed Roggie. We have ours on a Saturday.

Tim.

[Stirky]

Always are Thursdays

[Rogue]

Indeed Roggie. We have ours on a Saturday.

Tim.

Yes sensible day, just like us in Oz sorry Stirks

[Stirky]

I don't know why Thursday's but has been that way for years, must be some reasoning behind it lol

[Lenzabi]

And for us in America, it is a Tuesday

[Stirky]

See that is equally as stupid lol

[Stirky]

Here you go:

Election Day in the United Kingdom is by tradition a Thursday. It has been suggested that this tradition arose as the best of several circumstances: Friday pay-packets would lead to more drunken voters on Fridays and weekends; having the election as far after a Sunday as possible would reduce the influence of Sunday sermons; many towns held markets on Thursdays, thus the local population would be travelling to town that day anyway. Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, all future General Elections shall take place on the first Thursday in May every five years, barring special circumstances. Most other European countries hold all Elections on Sundays. Polls in the United Kingdom open at 7:00 and close at 22:00.

[Agartha]

Funny how I got so used to voting on Thursdays that I had forgotten it is different in other countries...... I know in Italy and Argentina they are always on a Sunday... to make sure most people are off and don't have an excuse not to go.

[Rockhopper]

The story here is that it was set on a Saturday because the Religious would not agree with it being on Sunday. I know not how true that is though -- kind of an urban legend.

The questions for the Brits are; Will anything change? For the better? For the worse?

Tim.

[Rockhopper]

Found this in my wanderings;

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/immigration-to-britain-has-not-increased-unemployment-or-reduced-wages-study-finds-10075047.html

Tim.

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