Tory Vermin

I once met a Hindu extremist. To cut to the chase he told me that if I ate meat I would die, to which I pointed out that in the Holy Bible, Old Testament, people offered burnt cattle as a sacrifice. I suggested to him that although I did not agree with him I respected his views and opinions and that he did the same to me. He said he could not do that so I told him that there was no point in us talking any further and left.

I do not want to get into a discussion about Christianity, but post this to show the problem of trying to discuss matters with extreme people who only accept their way and no other.

Quoted from Sandford1981

This is such a complex situation so forgive me for over simplifying things but,
key to this for me is in the innocent part!
I don’t differentiate between the slaying of innocent people based on where they live or what god they worship. All of it appalls me truth be told and it doesn’t have to be this way.

Religion in some ways is like politics  .Its a group thing that some people can heavily ascribe to as way of forging their identity(touched on this on my Sociological and Psychological studies). My way is better than yours and people want to dominate be it through peace or violence (all have some form of weakness ) .  

I don't like to say this DB  (Dave  )  but if you don't eat meat you are still going to die.

Quoted from grimsby pete

I am only saying what a lot of peole are and that is 2 wrongs dont make a right.

If Israel were just killing fighters  not many people would be concerned but they  are killing women and children many of them babies.

I could have said what Hamas did was flipping horrific which it was but i was not trying to make matters worse by inflaming the post.

Like all wars its the innocent  that suffer the most.

The RAF and USAF killed 25k in a couple of days in the 1945 Dresden raids, I don't expect there were too many protests at the time and and there would have been a perception of revenge from Londoners for the blitz less than 5 years previous, but the raids were heavily criticised later as slaughtering innocents when the war was effectively won. Context is everything though; V2s were still landing in Britain and behind the scenes we now know the Allies were in a race to develop the first nuke and didn't know for certain where the Nazis were up to with it, what's more the knowledge of Holocaust was out. Anything that had a chance of shortening the war, even by a few days was on table.

In 67 and Yom Kippur in 73 Israel faced an existential threat from up 4 Arab nations on its borders, this still seems to be in the Israeli national psyche and is exploited by Iran and Hamas to engender excessive responses and lots of dead innocents in the news around the world - which is what Iran and Hamas want. They don't care about dead Palestinian innocents. 7th October was effectively a mass suicide attack on behalf of the Palestinians. There is no possibility of an existential threat to Israel from Hamas and Hezbollah, no matter how much they talk about it. Only Iran can pose that and only Iran can withdraw it.

A different regime in Israel may have reacted differently; do nothing immediately, get sympathy round the world including other Arab nations. Decapitate Hamas with assassinations, like the Israeli response to Munich 72. Make Iranian officials feel nervous about meeting Hamas in places like Beirut, where they met a few days before the attack. The die is cast now though.

The Israelis are doubling-down now, though. Bombing UNRWA schools overnight and killing more ever-more women and children.

Look at interviews with one or two of the IDF soldiers when the attacks on Gaza began - they had bloodlust. Understandable that they are going to be upset with the murders by Hamas and also the thought of the hostages taken and, cheered on by some of the very right-wing politicians in government, they've obviously decided to go though all of Gaza and bomb anything they decide they need to. Collateral damage isn't something they care about and it's a catastrophe both for the Palestinians and the chance of peace.

It's an ongoing tragedy which has no end in sight. If there aren't war crime tribunals at some point in the future, I'll be amazed. Probably a decade or more down the line, however.

Tax cuts in the offing?

Anyone would think there is an election on the horizon.

Well, I’m watching the optics very carefully. We’re still in a cost of living crisis, with a crumbling public service infrastructure, ongoing strikes and the NHS in crisis, Still If Hunt makes cuts to corporation tax - we already have one of lowest rates in Europe - and to inheritance tax - that is tax cuts for the wealthy and f**ck all for Britain’s hard working ordinary families. Now, strategically, this would surely be utterly foolish, but it’s exactly in keeping with all of the other appalling things this government has done, and their client media friends at the Mail, Express, Sun, Telegraph, GB News, Talk TV etc will gaslight the rest of us and cheer it through.

It’s worth remembering that, in essence, and when crystallised- the Conservative party exist to collect public money and redistribute it to private parties. Always have, always will. Usually cronies, donors, grifters and faudsters. They may take the view that they’ve got a year left before being smashed out of the park - might as well set fire to what little they haven’t yet torched, and shift as much of that national treasury into private hands as possible and to hell with it.

Quoted from chaos33

Well, I’m watching the optics very carefully. We’re still in a cost of living crisis, with a crumbling public service infrastructure, ongoing strikes and the NHS in crisis, Still If Hunt makes cuts to corporation tax - we already have one of lowest rates in Europe - and to inheritance tax - that is tax cuts for the wealthy and f**ck all for Britain’s hard working ordinary families. Now, strategically, this would surely be utterly foolish, but it’s exactly in keeping with all of the other appalling things this government has done, and their client media friends at the Mail, Express, Sun, Telegraph, GB News, Talk TV etc will gaslight the rest of us and cheer it through.

It’s worth remembering that, in essence, and when crystallised- the Conservative party exist to collect public money and redistribute it to private parties. Always have, always will. Usually cronies, donors, grifters and faudsters. They may take the view that they’ve got a year left before being smashed out of the park - might as well set fire to what little they haven’t yet torched, and shift as much of that national treasury into private hands as possible and to hell with it.

A cut to IHT when social care in this country has completely disintegrated, would be the ultimate final feck you p;ss take.

It is impossible to fix the NHS without fixing social care. The Inheritance Tax tax net should go up not down to help pay for it. The old dear in a nursing home in Cleethorpes is taken for everything but the last £25k to pass on to the family, whilst multi-millionaires pass on huge pension pots, accumulated with income tax relief, to the family without paying a single bean in tax.

Cutting IHT would be expensive and completely regressive. The argument I’ve seen put forward most is that it’s people’s wealth that’s already been taxed. To my mind, that’s largely nonsense. Most of the wealth likely to be caught by IHT is unearned asset inflation such as on real property and shares. These aren’t taxed unless the gains are crystallised. Why should the heirs not bear some of the tax burden when they inherit? Very few people were historically caught by this but more people are being sucked in now due to rampant house price growth in particular. Good! I’d love to leave a wedge for the kids but that doesn’t mean they should avoid their responsibility to society alongside that.

Lot of doom and gloom on here as per usual. Whenever I have a bad day I just come on here and read the posts 😃

There have been study’s done over the years that proclaim conservatives are much happier than liberals, well I reckon it’s conclusive if this forum is anything to go by.

Anyway to cheer you all up I’ve just seen some brilliant amazing news, best news of the year drum roll ………..

Geert wilders is on course to win the Dutch election 🙌 😃🙌
The tide is finally turning 💪