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 Sep 22 2014, 06:26 AM
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#1
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 DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480 
              
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i.e. pretty much the last promotional opportunity the main parties get before the general election next year, so they all tend to trot out flagship policies. Also I figure a separate thread would be nice so the policies and events could be discussed separately from the polling effects.
Labour are up first* this week in Manchester, with Ukip cheekily slotting themselves in at the end of this week in Doncaster in between Labour and the Tories (who are up next week in Birmingham) with the Lib Dems going last for the first time in years in Glasgow in a fortnight (and I admit a very, very small part of me wanted independence just for how absurd that would've looked had it gone ahead). On policy Ed's pledged a commitment to raise the minimum wage by £1.50 to £8 over the next parliament. It sounds small beer but it's only gone up by £3 since it was first introduced (and surprisingly, even that small increase over 15 years has been a little above inflation, so £1.50 over five years would amount to the biggest real terms increase since the minimum wage was put in place to begin with). Today's Ed Balls' speech, so expect the whips and chains to come out and Danny-related horror. Tomorrow sees the big leader's speech, which will almost certainly come with a big crowdpleasing policy of some sort. Place your bets on what it'll be and you win a PRIZE (if Labour win next year) (prize may be aforementioned crowdpleasing policy). *well, technically the Greens were a few weeks back but they're realistically going to be lucky to get any higher than 5% come the business end of things next year so BOV frankly) |
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Sep 22 2014, 08:30 AM
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#2
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I'm so lonely, I paid a hobo to spoon with me
Joined: 6 February 2010
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It says a lot about the appeal of the child benefit cap that I think it's probably better for us that it's had some limelight stolen in the media by Balls elbowing a man in the face.
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Sep 22 2014, 10:44 AM
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#3
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BuzzJack Gold Member
Joined: 11 April 2006
Posts: 4,259 User: 457
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QUOTE(¿ REY CARLOS ? @ Sep 22 2014, 09:30 AM)  It says a lot about the appeal of the child benefit cap that I think it's probably better for us that it's had some limelight stolen in the media by Balls elbowing a man in the face. It seems they're going full steam ahead with their pitch of "Vote Labour for Tory cuts delivered with half the competence!". I don't see it working out, somehow. |
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Sep 22 2014, 03:19 PM
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#4
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 WINTER IS COMING
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 45,597 User: 88
  
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Absolute bullcrap from Labour. Pledging to raise the minimum wage to £8 by 2020? Anyone undecided, that falls for that trick is decidedly stupid. The raise won't even be enough to, please correct me if I'm wrong tho I'm sure I won't be to cover inflation rates. It's essentially a con. Dead in the water party at the moment, scraping for votes.
Think Labour need to sit back and realise that they actually won the vote in England less than 10 years ago. You guys really need to get rid of Milliband. |
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Sep 22 2014, 03:38 PM
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#5
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BuzzJack Gold Member
Joined: 11 April 2006
Posts: 4,259 User: 457
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QUOTE(Rooney @ Sep 22 2014, 04:19 PM) Absolute bullcrap from Labour. Pledging to raise the minimum wage to £8 by 2020? Anyone undecided, that falls for that trick is decidedly stupid. The raise won't even be enough to, please correct me if I'm wrong tho I'm sure I won't be to cover inflation rates. It's essentially a con. Dead in the water party at the moment, scraping for votes. Think Labour need to sit back and realise that they actually won the vote in England less than 10 years ago. You guys really need to get rid of Milliband. The problem is that atleast half of the possible replacements are even less charismatic and inspiring than Miliband (incredible though that sounds). Part of me is actually starting to wish Gordon Brown could take over again. This post has been edited by Danny: Sep 22 2014, 03:40 PM |
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Sep 22 2014, 03:44 PM
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#6
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WINTER IS COMING
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 45,597 User: 88
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QUOTE(Danny @ Sep 22 2014, 04:38 PM) The problem is that atleast half of the possible replacements are even less charismatic and inspiring than Miliband (incredible though that sounds). Part of me is actually starting to wish Gordon Brown could take over again. Labour need it. Really can't see anything other than a Blue win come 2015. The closer it gets to Election time, I think the more Labour will buckle under the pressure. Shame as I actually like some of the ideas Milliband has regarding shaking up the British political system, but they just have nothing in terms of capturing the mass. |
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Sep 22 2014, 11:43 PM
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#7
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DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480
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QUOTE(Rooney @ Sep 22 2014, 04:19 PM) Absolute bullcrap from Labour. Pledging to raise the minimum wage to £8 by 2020? Anyone undecided, that falls for that trick is decidedly stupid. The raise won't even be enough to, please correct me if I'm wrong tho I'm sure I won't be to cover inflation rates. It's essentially a con. Dead in the water party at the moment, scraping for votes. Very, very wrong. The minimum wage has only gone up by £3 since it was first introduced in 1999 (and it's about a pound higher now than it would be had it been pegged to inflation all that time). A rise of £1.50 over five years (if inflation stays about the same as it is now) is in real terms the biggest increase since the minimum wage first came in - around two and a half times more than the inflation rate. |
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Sep 22 2014, 11:48 PM
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#8
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DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480
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QUOTE(Rooney @ Sep 22 2014, 04:19 PM) Think Labour need to sit back and realise that they actually won the vote in England less than 10 years ago. You guys really need to get rid of Milliband. Not quite. We won the most seats in England in 2005, but Michael Howard actually got more votes in England than Labour did that year. |
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Sep 22 2014, 11:56 PM
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#9
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DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480
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Anyway, on the HEADLINE POLICY (which by the looks of things is going to be combined with a big vision 'long term plan' style speech on six main policy areas Ed wants to tackle) - plugging the incoming £30bn funding gap in the NHS through a mansion tax and a windfall tax on tobacco companies. That last one took me by surprise, but all importantly I think I LIKE IT
Most importantly it passes the 'would you like a pony and would you like somebody else to pay for that pony?' test, as I was briefly horrified that we were potentially in for a flagship policy of standard income tax/national insurance up to fund the NHS going into an election, which wouldn't have been pretty. |
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Sep 23 2014, 12:01 AM
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BuzzJack Gold Member
Joined: 11 April 2006
Posts: 4,259 User: 457
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Oh God, this "10-year plan for a world-class Britain" thing is going to be one of those phrases Labour spokesmen go on TV and robotically recite time after time isn't it (for some reason they don't seem to realise that it's possible to consistently get across one message without using the EXACT same form of words and EXACT same tone of voice).
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Sep 23 2014, 12:07 AM
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DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480
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HONESTLY Danny, did your mother never tell you about the perils of looking a gift horse in the soundbite?
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Sep 23 2014, 01:45 PM
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#12
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WINTER IS COMING
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 45,597 User: 88
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QUOTE(Cassandra @ Sep 23 2014, 12:43 AM) Very, very wrong. The minimum wage has only gone up by £3 since it was first introduced in 1999 (and it's about a pound higher now than it would be had it been pegged to inflation all that time). A rise of £1.50 over five years (if inflation stays about the same as it is now) is in real terms the biggest increase since the minimum wage first came in - around two and a half times more than the inflation rate. But you can't deny it's a con? It would surely be roughly £8 by 2020 regardless of which party is in power just to keep up with inflation. Just smacks of desperation, and is a lame announcement. |
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Sep 23 2014, 02:13 PM
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#13
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 BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 13 April 2007
Posts: 36,655 User: 3,272
    
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QUOTE(Rooney @ Sep 23 2014, 02:45 PM) But you can't deny it's a con? It would surely be roughly £8 by 2020 regardless of which party is in power just to keep up with inflation. Just smacks of desperation, and is a lame announcement. No it wouldn't. Unless inflation is significantly higher than expected, an increase to £8 will beat inflation. I'm listening to Ed Miliband's speech. He has said he wants as many people in apprenticeships as go to university. That makes no sense. If 50% of school leavers go ti university - as the last government wanted - then that means all the rest have to go into an apprenticeship to meet that aspiration. More apprenticeships are certainly needed but Miliband needs to avoid aspirations that are just plain daft. |
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Sep 23 2014, 02:24 PM
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#14
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BuzzJack Gold Member
Joined: 11 April 2006
Posts: 4,259 User: 457
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But the thing is the minimum wage itself is close to irrelevant. Germany has much higher wages on average, even though they don't have any official minimum wage. The key difference is they actually have strong trade unions who can hold employers' feet to the fire and force them to pay good wages.
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Sep 23 2014, 02:37 PM
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Shakin Stevens
Joined: 29 December 2007
Posts: 46,140 User: 5,138
 
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QUOTE(Danny @ Sep 23 2014, 01:01 AM) Oh God, this "10-year plan for a world-class Britain" thing is going to be one of those phrases Labour spokesmen go on TV and robotically recite time after time isn't it (for some reason they don't seem to realise that it's possible to consistently get across one message without using the EXACT same form of words and EXACT same tone of voice). As Milliband said in his speech I think the aim is to show hope for the future as it's obv the Tories will focus on the past to convince voters to fearfully vote them back in to 'finish the job they started'! This post has been edited by steve201: Sep 23 2014, 02:38 PM |
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Sep 23 2014, 02:40 PM
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 13 April 2007
Posts: 36,655 User: 3,272
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The speech was rather flat until he got on to the NHS. That woke the audience up. He seems to have read the last Lib Dem manifesto for the constitutional change part.
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Sep 23 2014, 02:46 PM
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#17
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DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480
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QUOTE(Rooney @ Sep 23 2014, 02:45 PM) But you can't deny it's a con? It would surely be roughly £8 by 2020 regardless of which party is in power just to keep up with inflation. Just smacks of desperation, and is a lame announcement. No, because inflation wouldn't have it anywhere near £8 by 2020. Hence why I said 'the rise is 2 and a half times what inflation is' in that post you literally quoted. |
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Sep 23 2014, 02:48 PM
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#18
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DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480
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QUOTE(Danny @ Sep 23 2014, 03:24 PM) But the thing is the minimum wage itself is close to irrelevant. ?! |
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Sep 23 2014, 02:57 PM
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#19
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DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480
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QUOTE(Suedehead2 @ Sep 23 2014, 03:13 PM) No it wouldn't. Unless inflation is significantly higher than expected, an increase to £8 will beat inflation. I'm listening to Ed Miliband's speech. He has said he wants as many people in apprenticeships as go to university. That makes no sense. If 50% of school leavers go ti university - as the last government wanted - then that means all the rest have to go into an apprenticeship to meet that aspiration. More apprenticeships are certainly needed but Miliband needs to avoid aspirations that are just plain daft. I don't think we have a target for school leavers going to university anymore, so it would be 40% apprenticeships, 40% university. |
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Sep 26 2014, 10:13 AM
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#20
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I'm so lonely, I paid a hobo to spoon with me
Joined: 6 February 2010
Posts: 12,908 User: 10,596
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UKIP conference has started. Apparently the North is a borderline fascist state.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commen...nd-9756395.html Seriously though, an 85% cut in foreign aid. Even for them that's evil. |
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