| Foamer said: Hahaha. That's it? Hardly a reintroduction of Clause 4 and a call to the proletariat to reclaim the means of production by all means necessary. Just a few- 'Rediscover radicalism'- he's referring to the energy of the early Blair years, as opposed to the relative stagnation of 2005 onwards. The party looked bereft of ideas in its latter years and got bogged down, he wants the vitality back. What's the problem with having more female members of cabinet? 'Trades Unions' didn't vote for him- individual members of the 7 million-member-strong Trades Unions voted for him. 'Higher bank levy'- the Tories are proposing a £2 billion levy on banks, offset by a forthcoming reduction in corporation tax; this is in comparison to the £11 billion they want to take out of the benefit system. Given the reckless irresponsiblity of the banks and their new profitability, I'm pretty certain they could pay more and alleviate some of the pain lower down, after all 'we're all in this together', aren't we? 'Living wage'- don't you believe in people being given the dignity of being paid a decent wage and thus not having to rely on benefits? There are far too many companies paying crap wages and being effectively supported by the state. Why should part of my tax go to subsidise a firm who's keeping wages down to undercut its competition? '50p tax rate'- the rich pay more, so what? They've benefited more from the society we've created, so why shouldn't they put relatively more back in? It only affects ~300,000 people in any case. 'Graduate tax'- I'd have rather had a few pence extra tax on my pay slip for a few years than the whopping amount of debt at 20% interest I left university with (this was before student loans came into being). You earn more, you pay more, seems fair enough seeing as you've benefitted from a university education. |
Radicalism - fair enough. That can be construed in any number of different ways, so I'll take your word for it.
Female Cabinet Members - I don't care if there are no female Cabinet members, or one, or five, or ten, or sixteen. I just want them to be chosen based on their political ability, rather than their sexual organs.
Trade Unionists voted for Ed, rather than his own party, and some Unions pledged to remove support if Dave won.
Oh, I'm for giving the banks a good slap in the face. But Gordon Brown was saying he would do this for years, and he was Chancellor and PM for the period with the highest bank bonuses in history. He had the CEO of RBS knighted!
Living Wage - It's a little ambiguous. The fact is, there isn't enough money in the country to pay all minimum wage earners, say, £10 an hour. It would be lovely if everyone could live in comfort, but not everyone can. That should be a long-term goal, rather than a pledge for the current Parliament.
50p tax rate - This really doesn't need to be there. Chances are, if somebody is making £150,000 a year or more, they've done a fair bit to contribute to society and to the country. Do they need the extra money? No. Do they deserve it? In most cases, yes. The richest of the rich find ways around this, anyway.
Graduate tax - I don't believe he's cited a figure for this. But wouldn't you rather get your loans out of the way in a few years (there are student loans now) than pay tax for receiving a higher education every day of your life? Yes, university is government subsidised. But it's provided for the most intelligent youth in the country to get the education they need to really make a difference. It will encourage more people to bypass university and get a job straight away, and it will also encourage university graduates to move abroad. Plus, if you can afford to pay the £20,000 odd that university costs straightaway, then you should have the option to do that, rather than paying several dozen times that amount in taxes over your lifetime. It's not as bad as David, though, who wanted to take away the charity status of private schools and start taxing school fees. Seriously. And he's supposed to be the right wing guy here.
(Former) Lead Moderator and (Eternal) VGC Detective 
