Jeremy Corbyn

Star Post Maringer. Ginny you too, I'm right next to you both on the barricades. I try and keep my politics to myself on the Fishy, but sometimes you just have to.

Quoted from Maringer

It appears that you have either failed to comprehend or have simply ignored my many, many posts over the past year which deconstructed the myth of Tory competence with the economy. It takes a very special kind of a mind to think that the Blair/Brown governments "trashed the economy", especially in comparison to the ongoing clusterfuck we're seeing from Osborne.

Yes and I've stated my case to you many a time as to why they hold some responsibility I can well remember every year Brown ending his Budget Statement with the words ‘NO MORE BOOM AND BUST’. What a joke, what a disaster and so many especially on here have such short memories.

Quoted Text

Faced with these facts (and they were facts), it really does beggar belief that anybody still thinks the recession in 2008 was anything to do with the 'New Labour' government at all rather than a crash of the world banking system. Quite how anybody can defend Osborne's record also beggars belief. He has missed every single one of his own economic targets by an enormous amount, has borrowed vast amounts of money whilst overseeing a decline in living standards, the weakest 'recovery' from a recession since the South Sea Bubble and his own plans to balance the books (which make no sense if you have any understanding of sectoral balances) are predicated on private debt reaching record levels by the end of this parliament! He's also engaged in the usual Tory race to the bottom for Corporate tax levels, has little interest in chasing tax evaders and has defunded and massively cut back HMRC to show this and is still engaged in further inflating the already overblown property market. All in all, he's set on taking us back to the 1920s. A breathtakingly incompetent Chancellor who makes Brown look like a genius in comparison though he was far from that in reality.

You not seen today's good news on the jobs front then? More people in work than ever before with growing wages ( an amazining achievement considering net migration is about 350,000 a year thanks to labour)  the number of unemployed at its lowest level since 2008, it chuckles me how you leave the good stuff out,
anyway I've told you before give them their full term and then see where we are in 5 years before we start comparisons, although for all their faults I just can't envisage this government doing an overall worse job then Labour, they would have to leave the country more broke than broke..... Labour do not, never have and never will understand business or economics, if they did they wouldn’t be socialists.

Quoted Text

Regarding your rather lengthy earlier post about left-wing comedians and other minor characters in the BBC (strange how there are so few funny right-wing comedians, isn't it? Or should I say not funny?),

So few? There isn't any because the Lilly livered BBC scared stiff of political incorrectness!  Even Dame Edna gets censored So we have to put up with boring lefties telling the same boing jokes about the banks and calling UKIP racists ... yawn.

Quoted from ginnywings

You seem to be a very angry sort Grim and your constant deriding of people that vote Labour is laughable. As one of the brainwashed Grimsby Socialists, i'm possibly far too thick to get your subtle take on things in the political spectrum, so i'll leave you to your delusions and pointless ramblings.

I'd also like to ask why it bothers you so much, as according to you, Labour are un-electable, so you have no need to worry. The country will just go from strength to strength now the Tories have a 4 year mandate to work with. Chill and enjoy the massive upturn the country is about to enjoy.

I'll leave you with a parting gift to peruse. It's from your favourite Tory rag too.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....d-people-racist.html

intercourse me you actually admit to being a socialist  
I'm really not angry but after a bad day at work you just can't beat a ginnywings post for some comical relief, lefties! They do my head in and I think it's fair to say that they need a good slap most of the time but I'd make an exception for ginny bless and give you a cuddle. Goodnight.

Quoted from Grim74

intercourse me you actually admit to being a socialist  
I'm really not angry but after a bad day at work you just can't beat a ginnywings post for some comical relief, lefties! They do my head in and I think it's fair to say that they need a good slap most of the time but I'd make an exception for ginny bless and give you a cuddle. Goodnight.

I'd much prefer the slap actually; would probably reciprocate though. Condescension is such an ugly trait in a person.

Quoted from Grim74

Yes and I've stated my case to you many a time as to why they hold some responsibility I can well remember every year Brown ending his Budget Statement with the words ‘NO MORE BOOM AND BUST’. What a joke, what a disaster and so many especially on here have such short memories.

Whataboutery. Again. Brown certainly showed unfounded hubris in thinking that it would be possible to control the business cycle through fiscal policy, but the crash in 2008 came from a bursting bubble in shadow banking that nobody really had recognised existed. After all, your chum Osborne was repeatedly calling for further deregulation of banks in 2006. Need I mention (yet again) about the Tories' pledge to match spending by the Labour government? Not once did they warn of any overspending before the financial collapse, because there wasn't any, yet this has become their dishonest narrative since 2010. Amazing how short many people's memories are and they buy into the Tory dishonesty. Aided and abetted by the media, of course, as well as ineptitude from the Miliband regime. Still can't believe that bunch never called out the repeated Tory lies about the economy from 2010 onwards. Absolutely mind-boggling.

Quoted Text

You not seen today's good news on the jobs front then? More people in work than ever before with growing wages ( an amazining achievement considering net migration is about 350,000 a year thanks to labour)  the number of unemployed at its lowest level since 2008, it chuckles me how you leave the good stuff out,
anyway I've told you before give them their full term and then see where we are in 5 years before we start comparisons, although for all their faults I just can't envisage this government doing an overall worse job then Labour, they would have to leave the country more broke than broke..... Labour do not, never have and never will understand business or economics, if they did they wouldn’t be socialists.

The problem isn't so much the levels of unemployment as the poor quality of the jobs produced - part time with low wages, zero hours, all that sort of stuff. This study from last year shows that median wages are still below the level of 2008 which is terribly poor:

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/real-wages-and-living-standards-the-latest-uk-evidence/

In addition, self-employment is now at record levels, yet median pay for the self-employed has been falling for some time. Somebody self-employed is considered as having a full-time job, but many can't earn anything like enough to reflect this. Up to 80% of the self-employed are living in poverty:

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/.....s-77-are-in-poverty/

Hardly encouraging and, though the official rate of unemployment is still falling, so is the level of wage growth which is the main reason why interest rates remain so low. It has to be said that there is also something a bit hookey about the official unemployment statistics as some studies indicate:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/20/jobs-revival-benefits-work-jobseekers-allowance

No statistics available one way or the other to fully investigate the actual unemployment level, however, so you have to assume that the government estimates are broadly correct though tax receipts certainly don't indicate any surge in actual employment. I suppose that the black economy could well be booming which would explain the lower than expected tax receipts but this is obviously bad for the UK.

Quoted Text

So few? There isn't any because the Lilly livered BBC scared stiff of political incorrectness!  Even Dame Edna gets censored So we have to put up with boring lefties telling the same boing jokes about the banks and calling UKIP racists ... yawn.

What an embarrassing load of old nonsense this last paragraph was. In fact, I'm pretty embarrassed that I've just spent a few seconds responding to it. Not that I expected you to admit that the BBC News department is clearly staffed and run by those friendly to the right-wing press and agenda.

Maringer whilst I don't always agree with your conclusions or viewpoint, you always provide an interesting and in depth analysis.  That said, I have to take you to task over using Taxresearch as a source.  Surely our old friend Mr Murphy has been so discredited that his pronouncements are more likely to harm your argument.  I won't blouse on about it but take everything he writes with a bucket of salt.  

I look forward to reading more of your otherwise excellent contributions in due course.

For a more balanced view of the tax debate, you might want to check out http://www.responsibletax.org.uk

Quoted from Town Monkey

Maringer whilst I don't always agree with your conclusions or viewpoint, you always provide an interesting and in depth analysis.  That said, I have to take you to task over using Taxresearch as a source.  Surely our old friend Mr Murphy has been so discredited that his pronouncements are more likely to harm your argument.  I won't blouse on about it but take everything he writes with a bucket of salt.  

Murphy is OK, if a bit argumentative. Very productive, though, and the sheer amount of output he produces is remarkable, so clearly some of it is better than others. Not sure if you're being facetious or not about the responsibletax web site because, if you look at their front page now, you'll note a contribution from a certain Richard Murphy...  

I must say, the CoVi idea sounds like a good one as too many of the think tanks are nothing but organisations designed to set the agenda as opposed to carrying out actual research. The right-wing ones are especially bad for this as so few of them disclose their funding and a remarkable number of their former employees end up as Tory SPADs. That said, it is slightly concerning that the responsibletax site is 'sponsored by KPMG' as they are just about as crooked as they come! It's all very well funding a think tank with crowdsourcing, just as long as you aren't reliant on the usual suspects for your funding!

However, regardless of your other views about Murphy, you're certainly incorrect in making an ad hominem attack on him in regards to the particular link I posted. There was no opinion in that link at all - all he did was dive into the official data about income sources of the self-employed released by HMRC and come up with obvious conclusions based on the statistics. I don't see how anyone could differ about his conclusions there. Play the ball not the man.  

Sorry, I didn't actually click the link so it was totally ad hominem.  That said, I've seen other examples of where he's taken data selectively and completely misrepresented the facts.  It's become something of an irrational thing with anything he produces now.  He just makes my blood boil.

The point of the responsibletax website is to hear from all sides of the debate which is why I find it interesting.  And like it or not, the big four need to be part of that debate.  I think it's good that NGOs and, yes, even the crusaders have an equal platform.

Anyway, back on topic, the economy is still limping along and looks increasingly fragile, neither side seems to have any decent policies to avert a further crisis if it materialises, therefore I have nothing positive to suggest just a rising sense of unease.

Ska face:

If we get rid of the monarchy I hope you're gonna dig deep for the excess tax of the equivalent that the monarchy brings in tourism. Because I bet she earns no where near what that brings in!

As for Corbyn, unless you're a migrant or a dole popper or a social hermit, I can't see for the life of me why you'd give that man a vote!