[noemon]

As Theresa May is fighting to survive, let us look back on what have the Tories achieved the past 9 years in government.



Taxes & Benefits

As soon as they took over in 2010, they slashed corporate taxes from 21% to 20% with a promise to reduce them further to 17% which they have now announced they will be doing shortly. At the same time they increased the VAT rate from 17.5% to 20%, effectively taking away money from the poor by increasing the VAT on basic items while giving it away as a tax-break to corporations by reducing their corporate tax bill.

During these 8 years they also overhauled the benefit system, introducing what they call universal credit aggregating all benefits under a single roof, which has reduced benefit payments to poor families quite a lot. You can read more about the impact it has had here: https://news.sky.com/story/what-impact- ... g-11343838

Education

They raised the university fees from 3000 per year to 9000 per year in 2010. At the same time they introduced an interest-rate on student loans which were previously interest-free. The interest rate was the RPI(retail price index) + 3% depending on salary, currently the interest rate stands at around 6%.

It is quite funny that the Government raises the pensions per year but instead of raising them in line with the RPI, she raises them in line with the CPI(Consumer Price Index) which is far lower than the RPI. For example the CPI was 2.7% for the year ending 2017 while the RPI was 4.1% for the year ending 2017.

So your government pension increases by 2.7% while your government loan by 4.1% + 3%

[Heisenberg]

Don't forget Cameron's greatest achievement: turning Libya into an anarchic failed state infested with jihadist militants and triggering the EU migrant crisis.

Truly a hero of our time.

[Political Interest]

I have never seen a more boring collection of talking heads in my entire life.

They have absolutely no political talent, charisma or interesting ideas.

[SolarCross]

Just next door Ireland has a corporation tax of 12.5%, plenty of other countries have even lower corporation taxes. At some point you have to be somewhat realistic on the price you can charge while others are charging less. Raising taxes isn't the same thing as raising revenue, because the higher the rate the fewer people will pay it if they can help it and many corps, especially big corps, can easily just go elsewhere. 20% of nothing is not more money than 17% of something. Also how the flip is going from 21% to 20% slashing taxes? If you went to your supermarket because they said they were SLASHING prices and you found they had only reduced them by 1% you'd be pretty disappointed and call it false advertising. Maybe you should slash some of your deceptive hyperbole?

At the same time VAT payers are a captive market so you have more room for price gouging there.

[noemon]

The Tories were planning to cut corporate taxes to 15% but they eventually settled to 17% which is due to be slashed this year. That is a 4% reduction rather than 1%. Every 1% corresponds to about 4 billion, not pennies.

I am sure that you SolarCross as a taxi-driver you must be really happy that all your basic items which you purchase have increased by 2.5%(adding hundreds if not thousands per year to your yearly consumption) when the Tories put VAT up from 17.5% to 20% while at the same time corporations are having their taxes slashed. Effectively taking your money and giving it to corporations. If that makes you happy, then good for you mate.

[Victoribus Spolia]

@SolarCross

Quit your complaining.

until Trump, the U.S. had the highest corporate tax rate of all OECD nations.



https://taxfoundation.org/us-corporate- ... mpetitive/

[Nonsense]

Historic VAT Rates

From To Rate
01 April 1973 28 July 1974 10%(Tory increase)

29 July 1974 17 June 1979 8%(Lab decrease of 2%)
1977 1979 Standard Rate @ 8%
Higher Rate @ 12.5%
18 June 1979 31 March 1991 15%(Tory increase of 7%)

01 April 1991 30 November 2008 17.5%(Tory increase of 2.5%)
1994
1997 1977
onwards Domestic Heating Rate @ 8%
DHR @ 5%
01 December 2008 31 December 2009 15%(Lab decrease of 2.5%)

01 January 2010 03 January 2011 17.5%(Lab increase of 2.5%)

04 January 2011 - 20%(Con-L.Dem increase 2.5%)
2015 General Election May 2015 20%
V.A.T is an 'Indirect' tax,as opposed to a 'Direct' tax.
Other 'Sales' taxes include Insurance Premium Tax,@ 5% on most non-life policies, @ 17.5% on other,such as auto sales et'c.
There are also various Airport Departure Taxes(AKA-Air Passenger Duty)

Note:2015 Labour Party Manifesto-'FAIRER TAXES'-"Nor will we raise VAT".
Meaning, that Labour will keep the TORY increase from 17.5-20%

ALL of the TORY increases in V.A.T have been used to finance the cut in higher rates of Income taxes for the wealthy\ better off & attempting to plug budget deficits.

Current Labour policy is unchanged & hypocritical.

Under CAMERON, Labour & the Lib Dems condemned the 'Tory' tax increases on V.A.T .

However,when OSBORNE raised the tax from 17.5-20%, the Lib Dems supported the increase despite campaigning against any increase during the pre-coalition election campaign & Labour's position was hypocritical due to saying that they too would keep it indefinitely.

Labour knew that it would hurt the poor pensioners, as well as the working age poor.

What it illustrates is that LABOUR would tax people at ever higher levels, when the poor of any age really suffer because of it, they suffer twice, once because the Basic State Pension only is raised according to whatever is highest, pay, prices or a combination each year, which is their only protection against inflation, but, they pay it back, with more, from price increases,council tax increases & stealth taxes.

The 2.5% that the Tory government raised the pensions by, was taken back in the other pocket,by the V.A.T 2.5% increase, a case of,in one hand-out of the other.

That's just the way that the Tories operate, what they 'give' they 'take' back, then all the real increases come along, leaving the poor or old, poorer, as each year comes along.

Until Rachel REEVES? stated that Labour would keep the VAT increase, that party actually had a better record on it than the Tories, but then, history is not one of Labour's great strength's.

[ThirdTerm]

They raised the university fees from 3000 per year to 9000 per year in 2010. At the same time they introduced an interest-rate on student loans which were previously interest-free. The interest rate was the RPI(retail price index) + 3% depending on salary, currently the interest rate stands at around 6%.

May is considering a cut in maximum fees on some courses from £9,250 to £6,500 ($8,500). It used to be less than a half of that amount in the Labour era when I was around and working-class students still had a chance to get ahead in British society. Wealthy foreign students used to make up for the shortfalls by paying prohibitively expensive tuition fees between £20,170 to £46,610 ($61,000) per year. But May made it difficult for non-EU students to get in as the Home Secretary.

[noemon]

In 2002, I paid 1200 university fees and so I did in 2003, I recall in 2004 they were raised to 2000 and the same I recall was in 2005. 2005 was the only year I took out a loan which I have now repaid as my family paid my fees in 2002-2004. Then fees were raised to 3000 where they remained for a long time until 2010 when the Tories raised them to 9000. The interest rates on educational loans though take the cake especially when one considers that the government uses the CPI for pensions but the RPI+3% for student loans. I don't think they care about their hypocricy anymore.

[SolarCross]

The Tories were planning to cut corporate taxes to 15% but they eventually settled to 17% which is due to be slashed this year. That is a 4% reduction rather than 1%. Every 1% corresponds to about 4 billion, not pennies.

I was referring to your description of the rate reduction to 20% from 21% as "slashing". How would you describe Ireland's corporation tax?

I am sure that you SolarCross as a taxi-driver you must be really happy that all your basic items which you purchase have increased by 2.5%(adding hundreds if not thousands per year to your yearly consumption) when the Tories put VAT up from 17.5% to 20% while at the same time corporations are having their taxes slashed. Effectively taking your money and giving it to corporations. If that makes you happy, then good for you mate.

Yeah I think VAT should be 0% along with all the other taxes. Any gov that takes more than 5% GDP is taking too much. That would make me happy, not that you care.

[noemon]

I was referring to your description of the rate reduction to 20% from 21% as "slashing". How would you describe Ireland's corporation tax?

A 4 billion tax-gift to corporations is slashing it mate. That is 4 billion you and me will have to make up for them in turn slashing our own pockets.

[Beren]

At some point you have to be somewhat realistic on the price you can charge while others are charging less ... At the same time VAT payers are a captive market so you have more room for price gouging there.

Exactly!



9% corporate tax combined with 27% VAT and no one can beat Hungary!

[SolarCross]

A 4 billion tax-gift to corporations is slashing it mate.

4 billion spread across millions of corporations. There are more corporations out there than just Amazon and Facebook and a lot of them are tiny.

There are 5.7 million SME in the UK.

[noemon]

No mate, 4 billion is not across corporations, but across me and you. It is me and you that have to cover the 4 billion gift to corporations which this year is set to become 16 billion and that is on a per year basis. 16 billion is more than the total amount of student debt per year, just to give you an example.

[SolarCross]

No mate, 4 billion is not across corporations, but across me and you. It is me and you that have to cover the 4 billion gift to corporations which this year is set to become 16 billion and that is on a per year basis. 16 billion is more than the total amount of student debt per year, just to give you an example.

Why not make corporation tax 100% then? How much do you think you would get really after everyone leaves or liquidates?

[skinster]

Tories should be hanged for their crimes against humanity, basically.

[noemon]

Why not make corporation tax 100% then? How much do you think you would get really after everyone leaves or liquidates?

Why not make student interest-rates 100% and corporate taxes 0%. That way you get all the corporations coming here and all the students paying for their tax bills.

I think a corporate tax relative to other economies of your size is reasonable. The UK competes with Germany(free education), France(also free education) not with Ireland or Luxembourg but even that does not change the fact that the Tories have taken money from the students and the poor and given it to corporations, unashamedly so and unashamedly so you are defending these actions.

This 1% which you consider puny, and too little to consider would remove all interest-rates from all student loans, and the 4% would remove their student loans altogether.

[SolarCross]

Why not make student interest-rates 100% and corporate taxes 0%. That way you get all the corporations coming here and all the students paying for their tax bills.

I think a corporate tax relative to other economies of your size is reasonable. The UK competes with Germany(free education), France(also free education) not with Ireland or Luxembourg but even that does not change the fact that the Tories have taken money from the students and the poor and given it to corporations, unashamedly so and unashamedly so you are defending these actions.

This 1% which you consider puny, and too little to consider would remove all interest-rates from all student loans, and the 4% would remove their student loans altogether.

Students should pay for their educations and they should borrow at the same rates as everyone else. If I want to borrow money to improve my income potential or make some other capital investment in my life (a new home or car) then I don't expect to get someone else to pay the interest for me. Why the special privilege for pretentious middle class wankers? It shouldn't have anything to do with gov.

[noemon]

Students should pay for their educations and they should borrow at the same rates as everyone else. If I want to borrow money to improve my income potential or make some other capital investment in my life (a new home or car) then I don't expect to get someone else to pay the interest for me. Why the special privilege for pretentious middle class wankers? It shouldn't have anything to do with gov.

Students should not pay for their education as that is a public good, not to mention already free for your competitors(Germany, France and others), nor should they pay for interest-rates on money that their parents have paid into the tax-pot. Furthermore, please tell me why should students pay interest-rates on government money more than the interest the government pays to pensioners? Lastly you should not confuse government loans with commercial loans. Government only loans you your own money, corporations loan you their money, unless the Tories have just cut their taxes and increased yours which means that they are also lending you your own money and they should also cap interest rates to the CPI.

[Rich]

Don't forget Cameron's greatest achievement: turning Libya into an anarchic failed state infested with jihadist militants and triggering the EU migrant crisis.

Truly a hero of our time.

The fantasy world where everything's the fault of WIGs, White infidel Gentiles. Gadaffi had lost control of large parts of the country before the West ever intervened. Gadaffi might have been able to cling on to power, but he was never going to stop a prolonged civil war. Gadaffi was never going to get the backing of the likes of Iran, Hezbollah and Russia the way the Assad regime did. Assad had some level of respect amongst Mus;im regimes even if they hated his religion. Gadaffi was widely held in contempt. The refugee crisis was inevitable. Muslims and Black African leaders were quite of creating bankrupt ,violent shitholes without any intervention from the West.

I've even heard retarded ignorant lefties, whinging that Gorge W Bush destroyed stability in Iraq, where as any one that has spent five minutes researching Iraq's history knows that one thing that Saddaam never brought was stability. He massacred the Baath Party leadership in his seizure of power and in months launched a war against Iran.