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This Government is So, So, out of touch, compared with Scotland & Wales!!!

JPC

0
This Government we have for England is So, So, out of touch compared with Scotland and Wales!!
Does Brown and his crownees really appreciate what us ordinary Geo's are having to cope with???

On the other hand Scotland seems to be listening to the populous up there...!!!
Look at what they are doing!!!

More generous with prescription drugs!!!
They have sorted out the car clamping crooks!!!
Done away with car parking fees at Hospitals..!!
And now they want to scrap local authority tax in favor of a 3p local purchase tax...!!

Makes a whole lot more sense to me than what we have to put up with!!

My wife and I live on a pension of £150 a week between us... but we still have to pay full local authority tax... while our son who earns £75,000 a year gets a local authority rebate because he lives on his own!!!
How fair is that???

It makes my blood boil!!!

I've got absolutely no time for this "Head Stuck in the Sand" Government!!

All Blair & Brown seem to want to do is address issues abroad... ("I personnaly think Blair just wanted to make an international name for himself!!").

The war in Iraq & Millions in aid to poor countries is all very well, but when have either of them ever adressed domestic issues like "Rip off Britian!"

Regards
JC
 
I have just come back from a 5 day holiday in Scotland it was an eye opener in seeing no potholes in their roads the only annoying thing is that they charge for spending a penny @ their loos it is 30p :nod:otherwise scotland is a great place to be? a part from the 30p charge we intend booking up for another holiday up there next year?:D
 
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And now they want to scrap local authority tax in favor of a 3p local purchase tax...!!
Sounds good, until you consider that there are people on/below the poverty line who are entitled to council tax rebate because they get income support/pension credit guaranteed credit/other similar benefits. If council tax was abolished and a local sales tax was introduced, it would be these poorer people who lose out because they will have to pay the sales tax out of their limited income.
 
Well would seem since Labour helpe to cause the credit crunch from what I have read Blunket has said pensioners should go back to work yet councellors still draw their fat wages and MP have sumer holidays like school children..
 
On the other hand Scotland seems to be listening to the populous up there...!!!
Look at what they are doing!!!


More generous with prescription drugs!!!
They have sorted out the car clamping crooks!!!
Done away with car parking fees at Hospitals..!!
And now they want to scrap local authority tax in favor of a 3p local purchase tax...!!

Makes a whole lot more sense to me than what we have to put up with!!
JPC, I live in Scotland and feel I must take issue with some of your comments.

1. Yes, it is true that the Scottish Government have reduced prescription charges with a view to abolishing them completely.

2. Wheel clamping has been illegal on private land in Scotland since 1992 - this happened long before the Scottish Parliament was formed. However, clamping can still be done by the police on a public highway.

3. Yes, the Scottish Government are to abolish hospital car parking charges. However, it must be pointed out that the vast majority of hospitals in Scotland don't charge for car parking.

4. The Scottish Government want to abolish Council Tax (which was introduced by the Tory Government in 1993) and to replace it with a local income tax (not a local purchase tax) but they are having difficulty getting support from other parties to pass this legislation. Opponents, in my opinion, correctly say that the lord of the manor who lives off his interest on savings and who doesn't pay income tax, will be exempt. That alone is unfair as the poorest households would be paying and the lord of the manor would get off scot free.

In addition, the Scottish Government has abolished bridge tolls. However, they have reneged on a lot of other promises they made in the run up to the election. Like writing off student loans.
My wife and I live on a pension of £150 a week between us... but we still have to pay full local authority tax... while our son who earns £75,000 a year gets a local authority rebate because he lives on his own!!! How fair is that???

It makes my blood boil!!!
A quick calculation of a pensioner couple with an income for £150 per week and paying a modest £500 per annum in Council tax would be entitled to a Council Tax rebate. Anyone with savings in excess of £16000 are inelligible for a Council Tax rebate. With regards to your son - he will get a single person rebate, which every single occupant is entitled to irrespective of earnings.
 
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l personally wish to see government officials put up with what the rest of us do.. "minimum wage" after all what do they really do apart from sit on their asses and argue like kids allot?

bet most of them have never done a days work in their lives and they are getting paid way over the ods while those who work pretty much all year around live on meagre wages which at this moment in time is hard to live with.
 
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I don't think you can really compare Scotland and England directly because the flow of money is very much interconnected. Some might also argue that the SNP is taking more than their fair share of the supply to help make them more popular but it's hard to know unless you're the one managing the books :) .

4. The Scottish Government want to abolish Council Tax (which was introduced by the Tory Government in 1993) and to replace it with a local income tax (not a local purchase tax) but they are having difficulty getting support from other parties to pass this legislation. Opponents, in my opinion, correctly say that the lord of the manor who lives off his interest on savings and who doesn't pay income tax, will be exempt. That alone is unfair as the poorest households would be paying and the lord of the manor would get off scot free.


Disagree with that point but mainly because of the example used. Many pensioners effectively live off their savings and with an aging population it would be left up to the dwindling minority of younger workers to support an increasingly financially weakened local economy without council tax (unsustainable). There’s nothing wrong with living off the interest on your savings, which is in fact what most people should aim to achieve if they want to have a stable retirement. Forget about the lord of the manor, he’ll still be hit by tons of other taxes related to his property size and wealth.

The biggest problem with abolishing council tax though isn’t anything to do with the reality of the tax itself. Consider how completely useless governments are when it comes to fundamental system changes of any type. Changing from a council to income tax system would end up costing billions, cause masses of delays and require government to re-train thousands of staff within a very short space of time. The result would be chaotic at best.
 
l personally wish to see government officials put up with what the rest of us do.. "minimum wage" after all what do they really do apart from sit on their asses and argue like kids allot?

bet most of them have never done a days work in their lives and they are getting paid way over the ods while those who work pretty much all year around live on meagre wages which at this moment in time is hard to live with.
Hehehe nice idea in principal :) .

To be fair I think MP's have some of the most stressful jobs in the country. They have to put up with masses of flak from the public and many people still expect them to be perfect, so they probably deserve to be paid more rather than less (oohh controversial lol). I mean most of them earn less than £100k, which would seem like a lot to you or me but the economics of scale for the jobs they do in London mean they could be paid a far higher wage in corporate positions.
 
tats BS, imagine working and providing food and crops and having to deal with crap harvests like this year, and being so pushed for money due to bad weather such as we are having yet the government get to give themselves backhanders when they do a crap job, hell even when you need to sort something out like for example council tax, they cant be bothered to note down someones moved (we are now being chanced for Augusts and this months tax when we have not been there for months)

to be fair, all they do is talk and make things harder for the rest of us.. granted they put up with allot of flack, but thats nothing compared to a hard days manual labour then not being able to afford things that with their wages are taken for granted.. they should try living like the rest of us do.
 
I mean most of them earn less than £100k, which would seem like a lot to you or me but the economics of scale for the jobs they do in London mean they could be paid a far higher wage in corporate positions.

You're making the assumption that they would be employed by a corporate!;)
 
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The biggest problem with abolishing council tax though isn’t anything to do with the reality of the tax itself. Consider how completely useless governments are when it comes to fundamental system changes of any type. Changing from a council to income tax system would end up costing billions, cause masses of delays and require government to re-train thousands of staff within a very short space of time. The result would be chaotic at best.


I think you will find they are on much more when a tameside councillor can be on £200,000 a year plus expensis.

Then look at Patricia Hewitt she is labour gets paid for that job she is also working for a few companies BT is the latest addition to her portfolio for 9 meetings a year she will be paid £60,000.
 
Disagree with that point but mainly because of the example used. Many pensioners effectively live off their savings and with an aging population it would be left up to the dwindling minority of younger workers to support an increasingly financially weakened local economy without council tax (unsustainable). There’s nothing wrong with living off the interest on your savings, which is in fact what most people should aim to achieve if they want to have a stable retirement. Forget about the lord of the manor, he’ll still be hit by tons of other taxes related to his property size and wealth.
Crossed wires, I think Mark. I am not suggesting pensioners shouldn't live off their savings. My point was specific to what would happen if Council Tax were to be replaced with a local income tax. Where the lord of the manor in his big mansion would pay nothing towards having his bins emptied because he lives off his savings and doesn't pay income tax.

We must have a system where the rich pay their fair share and don't slip through the net and the proposed local income tax falls short in that respect.
 
Well would seem since Labour helpe to cause the credit crunch from what I have read Blunket has said pensioners should go back to work yet councellors still draw their fat wages and MP have sumer holidays like school children..

Its not just the Labour who has help the credit crunch along the oil companies plus OPEC who are about to cut back production which could yet another big hike in prices?:nod:

So yet more airlines will go to the wall? Blunket should retire and keep his ideas to himself.

As for MP's & councilors getting big fat wages & long holidays this will never change as they all tarred with same brush in a word GREEDY:(

Kits
MP'S get rail travel / petrol /car hire allowrence all on top of their wage pa and not forgetting help with a second home or flat in London to be near Big Ben? £300.000 +
 
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His analysis showed the system has cost English taxpayers more than £200illion since 1985, with £102bil*lion going to Scotland, £43billion to Wales and £57 billion to Northern Ireland.
Oh few, for a second I thought that £200bn figure in the article was for 2008 alone :) .
 
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Then just wait until 2009!!
 
Sounds like the Scots have it better than us, but who is paying for it? ;)

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view...land-Wales-and-Northern-Ireland-can-have-bett

I wish! :hrmph: My son currently lives in England and says the cost of living is much the same. Swings and roundabouts - Houses are dearer but Council tax cheaper....food the same.
Anyway the SNP will tell you different. They claim the UK treasury has benefited by £200 billion from Scotlands oil: http://www.snp.org/node/240

And by the way...I am no supporter of the SNP. But it's funny how this has only become a big issue since devolution.
 
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They claim the UK treasury has benefited by £200 billion from Scotlands oil

Since when has it ever been Scotland's oil?

Just because it's piped ashore in Scotland, it does mean that they own it. Most of the oil fields are in international waters half way between Scotland and Norway, the gas fields are off the east coast of England. Did Scotland alone stump up the money to find the oil and build the rigs in the first place?

Scots do have some benefits that the English don't, relatively small perks maybe, but they do need to paid for by someone.

Drug treatments
NHS patients in Scotland get treatments sutch as Macugen and Lucentis to prevent blindness and aricept,reminyl and exelon used to treatAlzeimers.None are available free in England

Hospital Parking
Free in Scotland and Wales but not in England

Prescription Charges
By 2011 all Scottish prescriptions will be free.All prescriptions are currently free in Wales.English people pay £7.10p

Social Care
Nursing home residents in Scotland receive free personal care while English pensioners with assets of more than £20.500 must pay for all costs

University Fees
No up front tuition fees for Scottish univesities.Students in England pay up to £3.145 a term

Eye Tests
Free for all in Scotland and for the over 50s in Wales.English patients pay up to £30 and Welsh under 50s £18.89
 
Since when has it ever been Scotland's oil?

Just because it's piped ashore in Scotland, it does mean that they own it. Most of the oil fields are in international waters half way between Scotland and Norway, the gas fields are off the east coast of England. Did Scotland alone stump up the money to find the oil and build the rigs in the first place?
Talk about crossed wires...the point I was making was that the SNP would tell you different with regards to the Express article you posted.

I said "They claim" meaning the SNP. And this is what they claim:


"Making the most of our natural resources
Independence would give us full control of energy policy – and bring home Scotland’s share of North Sea oil and gas revenues.

More than 90 per cent of the UK’s oil revenues come from the Scottish sector of the Continental Shelf. So it really is Scotland’s oil"

Over the past thirty years over 35 billion barrels have been extracted from the UK sector of the North Sea, producing a cash windfall for the UK government of over £200 billion. There is plenty of potential left in the North Sea, with as much as half of the oil yet to come and new opportunities opening up for the oil industry to the north and west of Scotland".
 
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