Sandro Raniere

William Hague and Eric Pickles are born and bred yorkshiremen, Esther McVey is from Liverpool Thats 3 off the top of a semi drunk head

An inspection at the time of their claim for JSA Again a one off example and not reflective of things in general but i know of someone who owned a highly expensive Hublot watch, I have seen them go for 5 figure sums online, he filed a claim for JSA after his business went 'bust' Surely common sense suggests he should not be entitled to JSA while having such a watch, even though it was bought while the business was doing well The value of the watch is 3+ years worth of adult rate JSA

Only one way to find out, a war crimes trial in The Hague, will never happen sadly but that is where they both belong If they had attacked military targets, soldiers etc then fine, no issue with that, but targetting civilians is vile

Initial costs would be high but money would be saved over time It is essential that the welfare state is rolled back to what it was originally created for, a safety net for those genuinely in need, an idea I support Welfare should not be there for handouts for millionaires, it should not be there to subsidise the feckless who can't keep their legs closed and churn out kid after kid, it should not be there to subsidise career claimants who can't be bothered looking for work, it should not be there for immigrants who have never paid a penny in NI Whole welfare system needs reforming radically

Whether they are or not they are still legally entitled to it Lord Sugar is legally entitled to a state pension, free prescriptions and eye tests and the winter fuel allowance despite being a billionaire, its absurd http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13...nt-want-it.html

Raising taxes on large properties will not bring in any money Someone with say a £2m home will just set up a Bermuda based property management company and transfer the home as an asset into that for example or transfer the home to an offshore family trust

I can't really comment on the Darling Plan until I have read it, i will get up to speed on it next week when i am in the UK again and update this thread with my thoughts

In the literal sense of the word you are right, there was no racial or Hitler style master race element to it But in many ways this is even worse, Hitler had a vision, an extremely f***ed up one but still a vision that drove him to do what he did Milosevic and Karadzic were nationalists who again did what they did out of a twisted vision Blair and Bush just massacred 26,000 Iraqis for kicks as if they were playing a video game, no vision or motive or warped logic, just plain old killing spree, there was no strategic or military importance into carpet bombing residential areas of Baghdad

Aha good one, Whoever made that pic is a genius, i could imagine that to be almost true too, Blair is a sociopath

Agree, it will never happen, but the state pension will be a millstone round the neck of the British economy till reforms are bought in and radical ones, more and more people are living longer and longer, something has to give in the pensions system

I think state pensions should only go to the poorest pensioners anyways, should be means tested so only the poorest get it Someone who worked for 40 years, has generous company pensions etc should not get a state pension as they simply don't need one I would means test every aspect of state pensions and only give it to those that need it the most, that includes extras like prescriptions, bus passes, eye tests etc 3 miles from where i live is Sandbanks, one of the wealthiest places in the world, from times i have spent at Sandbanks the average resident seems to be in their 70s and 80s, why are these people getting state pensions when they don't need them I would extend means test to every benefit claimant, someone out of work for example, a DWP official should visit their home and if they have a big tv, lots of expensive jewellery or whatever they should not get benefits till they have sold and lived off their assets or paid at a reduced rate because they have goods that can be sold to live on

Welfare and NHS account for well over 1/3 of government spending, labour have repeatedly condemned efforts to rein in the welfare budget and also NHS reforms I have not read the Darling Plan but at best it would have been tinkering at the edges while throwing vast sums into welfare and NHS

Shock and Awe, the deliberate targeting of civilian areas of Baghdad with missiles and B52's, resulting in the death of some 26000 Iraqis was the most vile war crime for generations, the world was rightly horrified by the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime but Blair and Bush killed over 20 times as many as Assad did in the chemical attack I don't think the slaughter of 26,000 Iraqis can be considered anything other than genocide

It was a different era then on here In 2010 the show in this section of the site was run by 2 complete and utter c**ts, probably the 2 most repugnant individuals i have encountered on any forum so hell would freeze over before i was ever going to roll over and agree with anything Scott and Rob said It is a different era now, while I don't agree with anyone in this thread I don't have a problem with a single one of them so am more 'open' and reasonable than i was then

Wrong, if labour do something i feel is good for Britain then i give credit Aside from being a lying genocidal c**t i thought Blair did a pretty good job, however, Brown was hopelessly out of his depth as PM, as useful as a chocolate fireguard If Brown had become PM in 2010 again he would have raised taxes for businesses, taxed entrepreneurs into oblivion, thrown more and more money into the black hole aka the NHS instead of making it more efficient, spent more and more money the nation didn't have and handed more and more money to benefit claimants

Zero hours contracts are convenient Convenient for the employer as he doesn't have to fork out for stuff like holiday pay, sick pay, maternity leave, redundancy etc Convenient for the employee as they can build their hours around their commitments like having kids/picking kids up from school, caring for an elderly relative etc, it helps end the 'latchkey kid' culture and improves family life compared with the mum having to do a 9-5 Its a win win situation both for the employer who is not burdened with extra costs and win win for the employee who is not forced to work inconvenient hours for them Plus zero hours contracts are voluntary, the DWP have said that no one faces sanction for refusing a zero hours contract job so those that are on zero hours contracts are doing so on own free will

I know a couple of people who are on zero hours contracts, both carers, and they have work coming out of their ears, often not finishing till after 9pm, ok carers might not be in the same boat as people employed by Sports Direct but with retail sales rising at the highest level for 15 years according to a survey i read in Daily Mail Online (not their survey before you say its just the Daily Mail) I would imagine the zero hours contract workers in retail are not just sitting at home

You work in the public sector though, the public sector has been hit stronger by cuts and wage freezes than the private sector, the absolute bulk of the new jobs created have been in the private sector so your personal experiences as a public sector worker are not necessarily reflected in the private sector

Then the majority of new arrivals must have found jobs then because bar a couple of months the number unemployed has dropped almost month on month Unemployment is still too high but if labour were in charge I have no doubt it would go up not down

I believe in talking up the economy and talking up Britain, the left and liberals believe in talking it down

Unemployment is dropping like a stone, there is 30m in work for the first time ever Exports are their highest for 15 years Non EU exports are at their highest ever None of those key indicators are really related to the housing market

Aspiration and social mobility are important things Take the typical council house owner over the years, probably a lorry driver or a car plant worker or a bricklayer, previously they would have had no hope of owning their own home so life was devoid of aspiration, they work hard, retire, die, nothing to show for it, but being able to buy their own council house helped aspiration, their kids then take it over, kids that again would have been trapped in council accommodation with no hope of ever owning their own home, instead they can climb the housing ladder Most people in life want to own their own home, have a good job, have a couple of kids and a dog and budgie, why should an entire sector of the population be deprived of that opportunity? Maggie set a whole section of the working class free

People being able to buy their own council house was massively popular with voters under Maggie and was a huge reason why she won 3 elections, the mistake she made was not allowing councils to use the money for new builds but giving people from poor backgrounds the chance to get their foot on the housing ladder was one of her best policies

How is it a weak and fragile recovery when we are growing faster GDP wise than our European and international rivals? We are recovering from a low base yes but we are recovering fast and in a sustained way, every economic indicator from job creation to manufacturing to car sales to retail sales to web sales to exports to house price rises are in positive territory

I don't believe that the Royal Mail was undervalued, sure there was a surge on the first day but that is typical of a heavily hyped share floatation, things will level off