British Politics Thread.

[Mr Mystery]

Indeedy.

But how many Brits are willing to do fruit and veg picking for any amount of money??

[Wolfshade]

I do it for free, and it appears that my mastiff is quite adept at picking raspberries without damaging the plant...

[Mr Mystery]

Pics of the Dogbert please

Especially scoffing the fruits.

[40kGamer]

Create any system, and it's open to abuse. All you can do is make it harder for that abuse to pay off to the point it's worth abusing.

Very true. No matter what the law is there are those that will flow around it like water. Best you can hope for its to stem the tide.

So these cards? First up, ciggies are not cheap in the UK. Knocking on for £10 a pack of 20, or £20 for 50g of loose tobacco (far better value!). Nobody that is capable of work, but isn't, should be able to afford these.

Holy crap! 20 cigs in Ohio costs ~$6 USD or about £3.75! Quite the difference there!

Black Market? They just try to undercut the legitimate market. Now....if you can't buy legitimate, Black Market prices will shoot up, and you'll need a reliable supply....

Fraud is pretty common here although the majority still follow the law.

Most people on benefits aren't scumbags or parasites - they're just in a bad place, often through no fault of their own.

Not sure if this is true of the vast majority on US benefits although I firmly believe the wealthy end of the spectrum here is the far bigger issue that needs tackled... not sure if this is the same on your side of the pond or not.

[Kirsten]

for many years I mocked the anti immigration people who complained about immigrants taking their jobs and doing it on the cheap etc.

I have over the last few years discovered that they are not entirely wrong, even if their reasoning is. I am by no means anti immigration, and I do not blame the immigrants themselves whatsoever. there are far more jobs out there that pay below minimum wage than you would ever imagine though, and they are almost exclusively done by immigrants. this is either because the jobs are cash in hand/unregistered, or they get round it in other ways by paying for the literal amount of work done, like the weight of shellfish cleaned an hour for example. a hotel I used to work for had literally no other Manx people working there aside from me, and people were dismissive and saying 'oh but local people don't want to work, they just want to live on benefits, only foreigners are willing to work hard'. but in reality, the hotel did not advertise for staff, they simply employed friends/family etc, following the family already working there. there was no opportunity for local people to get the positions. the current place I work has certain similarities. one of the guys I work with got the job because his dad was already there, and the only english he could say was yes and no. he has been there four years and is still on minimum wage and doesn't care because it is so much better than where he comes from. not many of us would be happy with fours years in a job without a raise.

[Al Shut]

Most people on benefits, as in 'vasy majority' most aren't scumbags or parasites - they're just in a bad place, often through no fault of their own. The key is to make being on benefits relatively unpleasant, so people are encouraged back into work.

I don't quite understand how these two sentences make sense together. I would assume 'non-parasites' wouldn't need much encouragement.

[Psychosplodge]

I would have agreed with this, then I had a thought, Who defines whats necessary? Last time I was unemployed, my jobseekers was used almost entirely keeping the car on the road which gave me wider employability, but I know someone who when they lost their job was told by the job centre to get rid of their car which made even less sense due to their limited access to public transport.

Eastern european labour undercut people in the building trade.
But the biggest issue with immigration is its affect on housing. If net migration is a quarter of a million people where are we housing them?
We don't build enough houses and I don't mean these pokey little flats that housing associations won't touch as they're too small. I mean proper houses at a price the full time employed can afford.

40k gamer, cigerettes, alcohol, and petrol are all taxed heavily here, but whats worse is you pay VAT on a price that includes duty, so you pay tax on a tax.

[Wolfshade]

Well usually alcholo and ciggies are considered "essential", certainly when you look at people who have special arrangements to pay back more than they can, such items are considered as essentials so are "safe".

But mobility is very important which is why on the cycle thread I have highlighted a couple of schemes that involve giving peopel refurbished bikes so that they can get to jobs.

[Psychosplodge]

Considering my knee has just popped I don't think that would help me out in future

[Wolfshade]

Weak to the wall!