British Politics Thread.

[Mr Mystery]

To be fair, I'm not sure professional footballers, for all their failings, have ever single handedly pumped the global economy, then somehow passed all the blame onto whichever government was encumbent at the time.

[Path Walker]

I'm not sure if Tory policies genuinely represent a 'reverse Robin Hood' wherein money from the poor gets into the pocket of the rich. Because after all, if they are genuinely bone shatteringly poor, they will not have 2 pennies to rub together to take 1 penny off them and pass to the rich - and the rich if they are soe wealthy won't notice it anyway.

Has anyone considered why Labour demonise 'the wealthy' so much and target bankers, but don't ever mention the obscene wages of premiership footballers?

Tory policy is directly based on trickle down economics which is utterly about taking from the poor and giving it to the rich, based on the fallacy that this will benefit the poor

[Haighus]

Hmm, but it could be argued that the footballers are near-directly taking money out of the pockets of those who go to support them, many of whom, traditionally, were working class.

On the subject of "reverse Robin Hood", some policies that at first seem to be favouring one group or the other (I'm going to consider just rich and poor right now) actually often don't, even if they seem to at face value. I've already mentioned Labour's policy to reduce University fees, which actually is much more likely to benefit the rich. The Tories cutting corporation tax is another example: it seems to favour the big businesses over the common person on the street, yet the government has apparently pulled in more corporate tax, in actual numbers, than it would of if the rate had remained as high. Mainly because if the businesses are doing better, then they pay more, even if it is at a lower rate, and also that more businesses decide to invest in the country because the tax is lower.

[Denzark]

I've seen figures from the Institute of Fiscal Studies that shows when you put top rate tax up, the first year after doing so shows increased receipts, and the second year then shows a loss on the originals taken at top level.

Happened with 50p rate last time, will happen again.

The top 0.9% earn 11% of GDP and pay 25% of income tax, resulting in having 8% (down from 11%) left. But apparently hitting 'the poor' - will result in massed returns and milk and honey for the rich. Hang on - they are poor! They supposedly have little to take off them!

Seems flawed to me.

[Mr Mystery]

Oh good.

Russel 'as I say, not as I do' Brand, the multi-millionaire 'anarchist' gob****e has a new film out.

That's right rubes, I mean, right-on folk! He's come up with another way for you to pay for his opinion against capitalism, because making money is bad

[Denzark]

The horror...

[Denzark]

Independent Treasury analysis (All Civil Service/Government departments are on Purdah at the moment, meaning apolitical impartiality) puts £6bn interest onto the debt bill for a SNP/Lab coalition. Or £350 per household.

[URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/georgeosborne/11556539/George-Osborne-Families-350-worse-off-under-Ed-Miliband-and-the-SNP.html"]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/georgeosborne/11556539/George-Osborne-Families-350-worse-off-under-Ed-Miliband-and-the-SNP.html[/URL]

[Mr Mystery]

Depends what it's being spent on if you ask me.

Frivolous nonsense, such as millennium domes etc? No ta.

Country's infrastructure? Not an issue.

I guess that's the eternal issue of a semi-socialist state (NHS etc). We're all in favour of the service, but not everyone is all that happy paying for it.

I can't knock the NHS. It's saved my life on multiple occasions. So like school funding, I count my tax as my 'payback' for that.

[Psychosplodge]

Pointless infrastructure like HS2?

[Mr Mystery]

Pretty much. I'm in favour of better public transport links, but this just strikes me as a very expensive, one-way-and-that's-to-London cash funnel.