Sir Ralph

This hair brain idea has the potential to cause a property crisis which the country cannot afford. 1. This increased cost for housing will be capitalised against values 2. It can cause some to enter into negative equity and increase mortgage costs. Notwithstanding pensioners that are reliant on their property equity to survive their retirement 3. Cue thee potential of a risk of a crisis…. i hope the civil service has somebody in it that can see marginally beyond the objective of the possible policy change to understand the consequences and that Burnham listens https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/council-tax-land-value-downsizing-andy-burnham-b3016870.html

I just feel privileged you engaged with my AI arse for two minutes. You are superior in terms of life experience, intellect and all other counts like the others from your side of thepolitical spectrum. FYI the dismissal of a yougov survey on people’s perception of unions (directly linked to this subject) demonstrates this arrogant nature.

“Can’t be arsed” weird response when you engaged. This will be a surprise to you but a significant portion of the population don’t like unions - see 2022 survey and things won’t have improved. In their modern day format they can be seen as self serving and protectionist but you have benefitted them so of course your view is positive. Your response is arrogant as you aren’t right about everything. My view isn’t based on perception but “I can’t be arsed” https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/44616-trade-unions-seen-more-negatively-following-2022s-

So you want to know why I have my views but won’t explain your background. As a union member you have benefitted from their protection so of course you like them. Also I don’t want employment laws back in the Victorian times but I also don’t like the union protection of employees and parts of business that, for example, may be inefficient.

Were you a union member in the private or public sector? I explained earlier why some employers may have a negative view of unions. That view isn’t exactly ground breaking and would be a common view in many private sector businesses. I know senior people in the public sector who also do not like the unions. In addition to what I mentioned above, unions sometimes create increased restriction around employment and business functions. This makes the workplace less competitive and actually reduces business growth and the potential to operate more efficiency thereby creating more jobs. This is a reflection of some unions that have a socialist mindset whilst trying to operate within a capitalist system.

Thats your opinion regarding “sensible employers attitudes” as it’s mine about unions. Have you been part of a union before?

Unions in principle can be good if they are being reasonable with employers and I can see a place for them when you have significant numbers of employees with standardised pay. Over recent years in respect of some industries (for example rail and train) unions have a bad reputation of overplaying their hand and trying to secure unreasonable terms for their members. When I was younger I worked in a place that had union employees and my experience was that the reps were the work shy ones who used their membership to protect themselves. It could have negative connotations because unions can reduce flexibility in managing staff for business and create the potential for industrial action and, in some circumstances, more adversarial relationships between employees and employers. This can be a problem for some businesses as it can slow decision making particularly when margins are tight.

In most businesses I think people would not want to be a member of a union because of the negative connotations, hence why they don’t thrive in those environments. I don’t hold out much hope for improvement but at least he doesn’t look like he is going to appoint Red Ed as chancellor

I wouldn’t have said some of the things she did. However I think we should be looking as well about how she treated others. Those that knew her, including those from the gay community, have only said positive things. To me that’s says a lot about someone’s character.

The difference is that I think your threshold for what a “c bomb” is or a “facist” is lower than a lot of people, particularly people who disagree with you. It’s about tolerance of an alternative viewpoint without getting abusive. Anyway we all agree it’s a sad state of affairs that people with different political views are being attacked

And I quote (following various rants calling me a c bomb plus other things)…..I’m “evil” for my view on the 2 child benefit cap. You’re Easily offended so your reaction to Widdecombe isn’t surprising “Mate, you would prefer kids to be in poverty than to allow people child benefit for if they have more than 2 kids, and as the above studies prove, child poverty causes child deaths. That's bordering on evil, so don't you dare try to take the high road.”

Whilst she, for example, voted against certain proposed LGBT… legislation that doesn’t make somebody a homophobe. How do you square off the fact that she was friends with a number of gay celebrities as outlined above who have come out in support of her? You can disagree with something and not be racist, homophobic, etc. it’s how you treat the individual - you should read @trousers copy and paste above it nails it You did label me a child killer because I disagreed with the removal of the two child welfare cap. so if that’s the standard for calling someone that, you are too easily offended by people that you don’t agree with

Whilst she, for example, voted against certain proposed LGBT… legislation that doesn’t make somebody a homophobe. How do you square off the fact that she was friends with a number of gay celebrities as outlined above who have come out in support of her? You literally labelled me a child killer because I disagreed with the removal of the two child welfare cap so your standard for offence generally is a very low bar

Th bizarre thing about this is why were the police so keen to push this idea that the attack wasn’t politically motivated? The bloke drove 4 hours from Rotherham than morning. Not exactly a speculative burglary. Doesn’t add up.

Same happened after Charlie Kirk unfortunately

Politics are intrinsically linked to ethics and morales. Not a good post. You might disagree with her but she was a leading voice in the Conservative Party for many years. You may not agree with some her views but she was hardly seen as an extremist in normal society (the echo chamber here is not a good sample test). The bbc let her on strictly for goodness sake.

It shouldn’t need an explanation - in tragedy in particular, you either have respect for people regardless of politics or you don’t. Ironic that you have tried to teach others lessons in empathy in the past.

Absolutely embarrassing and classless. Just a reminder he has said that about a nearly 80 year old women beaten to death in her own home. Lovely

Good we agree. What I didn’t like about his post was that it read that having an “extreme” view (subjective) means that somebody attacking that person could be understandable. I think the Green Party are extreme (probably stupid more than anything) but I would not go close to understanding why a nutter would harm one of them.

Correct

He insinuated that Widdecombe forced her beliefs on others because she is religious. My point was that the negative aspects of wokeism, which widdecombe stood against, actually does that instead. That wasn’t the main point of my post which was that someone’s political views, which are contrary to yours, doesn’t mean that it’s understandable as to why somebody would attack them- do you agree?

What a load of tosh. She had different political views to some other people. If that winds up other people with different political views (who are by their very nature intolerant of other peoples views) they should understand the meaning of the word “democracy” and grow a thicker skin. If people don’t like it go and live in Iran or North Korea. We live in a world where the religion of woke forces its opinion on everybody.

Ah, yes of European countries. Fair enough - our predicted growth is marginally above the Eurozone, but above it nonetheless. Is that because of Brexit (not that I voted for it)?😂

Its not the highest predicted growth from what I've read. We are predicted a 1% growth, up 0.2% from the 0.8% growth previously predicted for 2026 is what I read. Genuinely interested - do you have a link to this confirming we have the highest predicted G7 growth for '26 and '27?