Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Labour's worst crime wasn't Iraq – it was welfare




By Ed West Politics Last updated: November 9th, 2009

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The comedian Mark Steel once said that the Iraq War was so fundamentally wrong and evil that grumbling about Labour's other mistakes was like complaining that Ian Huntley was a rubbish caretaker – in other words, that crime was so terrible that everything else pales into insignificance.

I'd disagree. Labour's worst crime wasn't Iraq, it was welfare. In his excellent The Rotten State of Britain, Eamonn Butler records that the turning point for Labour came on 27 July 1998, "when Frank Field, the Minister of State for welfare reform, was reshuffled into oblivion. Blair had asked the veteran anti-poverty campaigner to 'think the unthinkable' on welfare reform. He did: he wanted an attack on benefit fraud, tighter controls on incapacity benefit, and the end of the perverse incentives that he thought created a dependent, work-shy underclass. But his proposals were by then far too radical for an administration that had already settled comfortably into power and did not want to frighten its own left wing."

And as this league table of benefits show, it was for nakedly cynical political reasons – an incredible 189 of the top 200 constituencies for benefit-claiming are represented by Labour MPs (and it'll be back to 190 if they hang on to Glasgow North East).

It is not the people in these parts of the country are lazy or natural scroungers – it is that the system encourages them to live off the state.

Butler points out: "People find that if they can actually worsen their circumstances – or pretend to – they will qualify for additional benefits.

"For example, because the government's tax credit system gives particular help to one-parent families, it ends up creating one-parent families. A single mother who works 16 hours a week on the minimum wage and is paid tax credits could achieve an income of £487 a week. But a two-parent family on minimum wages would have to work a hundred hours longer to achieve the same income."

At least Tony Blair invaded Iraq with good intentions; Labour's decision to keep millions on benefits was cynical, and to anyone with real "values", not the pantomime Presbyterianism the Prime Minister parades, morally wrong. Idleness saps the spirit and eventually the mind and body too – which is reflected in the fact that even at the height of the insurgency Iraqi male life expectancy never fell below 67, while in Calton in Glasgow, where 44 per cent are on incapacity benefit, it's 54. So Blair the war criminal has done less harm than Brown the welfare criminal.

Wish Mr Carson would come back into the community rather than being an outcast protecting another board member.

Things would start at - ie nil and best forgotten.

Biggest mistake Labour made was giving away our EU veto. Things in the EU would be very different now with the veto.

Haze,

It is only those jolly foreigners who tell lies.

We (exclude me) always tell the truth.

That is why Cameron day by day resembles a beetroot more and more.

Well funny enough on SKY news last night all this open ess was caused by Thatcher agreeing to a 1986 to open boarders in return for some bunkum excuse.,

Wish Chris C would come back aboard.......... it got out of hand both ways....repeat....

goldfinger - 04 Nov 2014 17:25 - 49191 of 49194 edit this post

Wish Mr Carson would come back into the community rather than being an outcast protecting another board member.

Things would start at - ie nil and best forgotten.

Andrew Grice Author Biography




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Ed Miliband will today admit that the previous Labour government made serious mistakes on immigration, as he unveils tough new policies to ensure that migrants do not squeeze British workers out of jobs.

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The Labour leader will end his party's reluctance to address the issue head-on by admitting that voters are anxious about immigration. He will insist that such fears "do not make them bigots" and that his hard-edged new approach is not a lurch to the right.

In a major speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research, Mr Miliband will propose:

l A ban on employment agencies recruiting only or mainly migrants.

l An early-warning system when employers, sectors and regions have at least 25 per cent low-wage, foreign workers so local people can be trained to get more jobs.

l Tough transitional controls when new members such as Croatia and Turkey join the European Union.

l Stricter enforcement of minimum-wage laws, after evidence that many migrants are paid less than the minimum wage, with maximum fines for breaches by employers doubled to £10,000.

Immigration is a sensitive issue for Labour, whose worst moment of the 2010 election campaign came when Gordon Brown was confronted by a party supporter, Gillian Duffy, in Rochdale about the number of people from eastern Europe now living in the UK – and referred to her as a "bigoted woman" in private remarks captured by a television microphone.

In what will be seen as a mea culpa, Mr Miliband will admit today: "We became disconnected from the concerns of working people. And, to them, Labour was too quick to say 'like it or lump it.'"

Crucially, Mr Miliband will argue that immigration must be seen as an economic issue. "We were dazzled by globalisation and too sanguine about its price. By focusing exclusively on immigration's impact on growth, we lost sight of who was benefiting from that growth – and the people being squeezed in the middle who were losing out," he will say. He will add: "It was a mistake not to impose transitional controls on accession from eastern European countries. We severely underestimated the number of people who would come here."

In another departure from Mr Brown's stance, Mr Miliband will say: "I'm not going to promise 'British jobs for British workers' or pretend that a cap on a tiny fraction of migrants will solve everything.

"But we do need to offer working people a fair crack of the whip and set out a new approach to this issue which can offer real ways of addressing their legitimate concerns."

Mr Miliband will insist he is not proposing a quota of jobs for British workers. But every medium and large employer with more than 25 per cent foreign workers – double the average share of migrants in the population – should have to notify Jobcentre Plus. If necessary, local and central government would then ensure better training to help local workers fill the skills gap.

Chris

You need to edit some of those copy&paste post's

wasn't trying to win points let alone pints you silly old shagged nag
not bad for an old fart though :-)

Come on Chris, dont be daft.

GF.

My memory started at birth and is indexed!




















Now where is that b, index?




Come to that where is my b. stick?

LOL! just jogging your memory gf, amnesia is an illness as well you know.

Don't worry, Chris isn't daft, in fact he's got all his marbles which you obviously don't.

Amnesia is an illness and so is telling lies.

The Labour party is about to do the biggest U turn in political history to try and win the next GE

Fred will be upset , we all know how he keeps on posting about Tory U turns

Chris Carson

Are you entering the Space Race with your postings?

For God's sake, use the bloody 'Edit Button' and 'Delete' some of the nothingness you are persistently posting.

PS. Please tell Fred how to do it too.

Chris lets have a talk and be respectable of each other.

What you seem to be missing is that you spoilt each night at least 30 hours of research each day and well into the night most of the time.

As you know getting the right charts at the right time is emparitive to get the right set up.

Now come on, calm down.

And think how I felt.

But I forgive.

Chris Im here to talk, use my DM.

Cheers GF.

Divide and rule, is that your new game gf? Sorry it won't work, Chris has you well sussed.

Well I havent done nothing against the board rules as laid down by Mike B the gaffer.

In fact Ive made sure I havent gone against them.