Just seen report on the latest ONS statistics on household incomes.
Working earnings of the poorest fifth households before tax and benefits was £7,153 per household (an increase of 16.4%) with an additional £7,612 of cash benefits being given to cover housing, tax credits, pensions and other support, giving average total income before tax of £14,765 per household in that category.
The official figures for the same category shows state benefits, including education and healthcare, amount to £15,198 p.a. per household.
Average wages increased by 1.8% above inflation.
Unemployment fell from 5.6% to 5.1%. (5% is reckoned to be the lowest figure an economy can expect to reach if there is a turnover of businesses failing and being created)
The value of benefits in kind - education and healthcare was valued at £7,586 p.a per household across the board.
The inequality gap closed marginally, higher earners still enjoyed increased wages and benefits with the highest earners now earning 12 times the lowest earners, the ratio having previously been 14:1.
Nothing to crow about, but is there really enough there that fits the picture of the poor being deliberately ground into the dirt by the government. Is it better or worse than 10 years ago?
Voters not choosing Labour might just understand that structural problems affecting funding for public services, housing and homelessness are not actually created as part of government policy, as we are led to believe.
The snowflakes who need to create ideological distance between themselves and the Tories need to go so far left they are falling in line behind behind Momentum inspired ideals but don't have the balls to back the real idealists behind Corbyn and Dianne Abbot to see them through, because they only talk about being socialist.
The only way of registering their socialist liberal credentials without actually doing anything, is to go on social media giving vent to their outrage pretending they believe Theresa May and her cohorts are to the right of Attila the Hun conspiring with the World Lizards to kill poor people and rule the World for the benefit of Donald Trump and the super rich. Just like the rant tweeted above by a rabid anti Tory, they start to believe their own propaganda.
Were these figures published by Lewis Carroll?
Can someone justify £70bn for Trident mkII in times of austerity when we didn't use the last one in 60 years?
And can someone contrast the competence of the Home Secretary and Shadow Home Secretary?
Just seen report on the latest ONS statistics on household incomes.
Working earnings of the poorest fifth households before tax and benefits was £7,153 per household (an increase of 16.4%) with an additional £7,612 of cash benefits being given to cover housing, tax credits, pensions and other support, giving average total income before tax of £14,765 per household in that category.
The official figures for the same category shows state benefits, including education and healthcare, amount to £15,198 p.a. per household.
Average wages increased by 1.8% above inflation.
Unemployment fell from 5.6% to 5.1%. (5% is reckoned to be the lowest figure an economy can expect to reach if there is a turnover of businesses failing and being created)
The value of benefits in kind - education and healthcare was valued at £7,586 p.a per household across the board.
The inequality gap closed marginally, higher earners still enjoyed increased wages and benefits with the highest earners now earning 12 times the lowest earners, the ratio having previously been 14:1.
Nothing to crow about, but is there really enough there that fits the picture of the poor being deliberately ground into the dirt by the government. Is it better or worse than 10 years ago?
Voters not choosing Labour might just understand that structural problems affecting funding for public services, housing and homelessness are not actually created as part of government policy, as we are led to believe.
The snowflakes who need to create ideological distance between themselves and the Tories need to go so far left they are falling in line behind behind Momentum inspired ideals but don't have the balls to back the real idealists behind Corbyn and Dianne Abbot to see them through, because they only talk about being socialist.
The only way of registering their socialist liberal credentials without actually doing anything, is to go on social media giving vent to their outrage pretending they believe Theresa May and her cohorts are to the right of Attila the Hun conspiring with the World Lizards to kill poor people and rule the World for the benefit of Donald Trump and the super rich. Just like the rant tweeted above by a rabid anti Tory, they start to believe their own propaganda.
Were these figures published by Lewis CarrollDiane Abbott?
Can someone justify £70bn for Trident mkII in times of austerity when we didn't use the last one in 60 years?
And can someone contrast the competence of the Home Secretary and Shadow Home Secretary?
I think the posts on here by most labour voters sum up the Corbyn problem. Most labour voters are probably starting to see him and certain members of his shadow cabinet as a bit of joke, but unfortunately Labour Party members, hold him in high regard.
I'm the same as @Redmidland bar the hard Brexit bit.
I genuinely cannot understand anyone who could vote Tory. Blows my mind.
Neither can I - but equally I genuinely cannot understand why anyone could vote for Corbyn's Labour party.
Their is a vacuum at centre-left that has to be filled as a matter of urgency and I'm not sure that's a reformed Labour party.
A party that recognises when the state needs to intervene - health, education, welfare, infrastructure and defence. A publically funded health service that is resourced for the needs of a 21st century population, with future proofing - the current state of the health service is chronic under funding and the reason there are beds in corridors in A&E, waiting lists for in many cases critical interventions is not a surfeit of managers - it's a lack of money pure and simple. The very same argument can go for education - we owe our children a future. That's school, university and vocational education.
The welfare system should provide an adequate safety net for those in genuine need - with appropriate checks to make sure it is going to the right people. Means testing - and that means every benefit - state pensions and winter fuel allowance included.
The right wing advocate the lowest possible taxes required to scrape through on the above (and failing in a lot of areas). The left wing advocate the politics of envy, taking away incentives to create wealth (and therefore jobs) by taxing anything that moves and financing totally frivolous expenditure. They are extremes and my fear is that the current tory and Labour parties are moving very close to those extremes.
Yes I'm a socialist, not because I believe in the workers controlling the means of production, distribution and exchange - but because I believe in society. Taxes should be sufficient for all of the above priorities without stifling wealth creation and investment. A balance but we are totally out of balance at the moment.
Somebody needs to step up and take command of the centre-left - it will take a couple of parliaments at least but, if there is anything left worth saving after another 10 years of right wing rule, it can be done.
I genuinely cannot understand anyone who could vote Tory. Blows my mind.
See I'm the opposite, I can't see why anyone would vote labour. Like literally cannot get my head round why anyone would pick this current Labour Party to rule this country.
I genuinely cannot understand anyone who could vote Tory. Blows my mind.
See I'm the opposite, I can't see why anyone would vote labour. Like literally cannot get my head round why anyone would pick this current Labour Party to rule this country.
I think most true Labour supporters can't vote for Corbyn either. I certainly couldn't
I genuinely cannot understand anyone who could vote Tory. Blows my mind.
See I'm the opposite, I can't see why anyone would vote labour. Like literally cannot get my head round why anyone would pick this current Labour Party to rule this country.
I think most true Labour supporters can't vote for Corbyn either. I certainly couldn't
Just out of interest, are/were you pro-Brexit @Bedsaddick if you dont mind me askin?
I genuinely cannot understand anyone who could vote Tory. Blows my mind.
See I'm the opposite, I can't see why anyone would vote labour. Like literally cannot get my head round why anyone would pick this current Labour Party to rule this country.
I think most true Labour supporters can't vote for Corbyn either. I certainly couldn't
Just out of interest, are/were you pro-Brexit @Bedsaddick if you dont mind me askin?
I genuinely cannot understand anyone who could vote Tory. Blows my mind.
See I'm the opposite, I can't see why anyone would vote labour. Like literally cannot get my head round why anyone would pick this current Labour Party to rule this country.
I'm struggling to vote for either of them.
I have a lot of sympathy with some of the things that Corbyn says, not so much with other things, but I probably have even less sympathy for most of the stuff coming out of the Tory cabinet at the moment, and frankly I think they deserve a kicking at the ballot box for playing opportunistic political games when they should be focused on securing the shiniest turd they can from the brexit fiasco. But the current Labour party can't even organize themselves, let alone a country.
I also do not feel a landslide for the Tories will be healthy for the country right now because in my opinion they are not seeking to represent a consensus of the population but have instead been pandering to the hardline brexiters which surely represent only a proportion of the small majority of people who voted for brexit and, Q.E.D., represent a minority of the popoulation overall.
So I'm left with a Lib Dem party, whose natural position probably aligns best with my own and who I have voted for in the past, but who are weak right now and going through their own rebuild, or a protest vote for an independent or the greens.
To be honest, my vote registers in a pretty safe Tory seat anyway so my vote is virtually pointless anyway.
As usual, the Simpsons summed it up pretty well years ago.
Corbyn was getting a kicking days after he stood for election. Is there anyone here who doesn't read the Sun Express Mail and the balanced publication, Murdoch's Times?
I'm struggling to work out why more people aren't seeing the logic of Liberal voting.
I agree, they are in many ways the obvious choice for those of us who find the two main parties distasteful, but they are a little hampered by Tim Farron hardly being a dynamite personality and are tarnished still from the coalition, for which the electorate seems to want to make them carry the can for a lot of Tory led problems.
I know he's seen as bit of a joke now, but I heard Nick Clegg being interviewed in a more relaxed environment the other day and was reminded about how well he came across during campaigning in 2010 and he is still speaking a lot of sense imho. It's a shame his reputation is so damaged by the coalition because, I think, if he was a fresh face now like he was in 2010 he could have been a great assest for the centre-left this time around and would have helped the Lib Dems take a lot of votes away from the Tories.
They should be lauded for restraining the excesses of the Tories I M O. Just like Prague frequently pointed out to us during his unswerving support for the party.
I genuinely cannot understand anyone who could vote Tory. Blows my mind.
See I'm the opposite, I can't see why anyone would vote labour. Like literally cannot get my head round why anyone would pick this current Labour Party to rule this country.
I'm the same. I cannot see how anyone could vote for a party that calls themselves socialists...and are actually proud of that as if socialism is actually a good thing.
Of course they wouldn't survive as independents, not many do. And why should they anyway, they were selected and stood in elections the same as Corbyn. If their Clps are unhappy they would be deselected.
I don't agree with one Labour mp who went way too far recently saying he wouldn't even support Corbyn as PM. If you take the whip in that sense I think you do have to adhere to some kind of party discipline and put up or shut up. Although apparently principled the reality is it isn't likely to happen so why say it at all? Perhaps he was trying to attract anti Corbyn Labour votes I guess.
Of course they wouldn't survive as independents, not many do. And why should they anyway, they were selected and stood in elections the same as Corbyn. If their Clps are unhappy they would be deselected.
I don't agree with one Labour mp who went way too far recently saying he wouldn't even support Corbyn as PM. If you take the whip in that sense I think you do have to adhere to some kind of party discipline and put up or shut up. Although apparently principled the reality is it isn't likely to happen so why say it at all? Perhaps he was trying to attract anti Corbyn Labour votes I guess.
Definitely, I'd probably do the same to be honest.
Lifelong labour party supporter/member (not any more), was a minor player once in the scottish labour party when i lived there, had many meetings with Gordon Brown in attendance.
But i cant get me head round the 300k members who voted Jeremy in.
Can you imagine a photo outside No 10 with Jeremy Corbyn/Dianne Abbot/John Mcdonnell/Tom Watson as the head of our nation.
I wont and will never vote tory, the others dont fill be with any enthusiasm either.
As i said before I have never known a rag bag of politiicians running and waiting to run our country.
I think yesterdays results moved us closer to seeing a new centerist party in 6 months time.
I do wonder what he thinks he's doing? Is he sitting there this morning thinking, "Well that didn't go too bad did it? Right, now for some more of the same next month!". Surely he must see that his very presence as the Opposition Leader is handing the election on a plate to the very people he is supposed to be opposing? Why is he continuing?
He's clearly not stupid and I used to think he was at least principled even if I didn't agree with many of his views. But now I've come to the conclusion he's more interested in rolling back the ethos of the Labour party and heading that up than actually helping it achieve any influence in Westminister. Influence or power that might actually help the very people he claims he wants to represent.
Yes, he gets treated dreadfully by the press, but he should have seen that coming (almost everyone else did including the majority of his MP's) and in surrounding himself with, and putting his trust in, the likes of Diane Abbot to deliver his party's policies he's shown himself to be woefully naive or putting what he sees as the best for his party before what's best for the country.
That's a criticism I usually reserve for the Tories and it saddens and concerns me for the future of our country.
Corbyn was getting a kicking days after he stood for election. Is there anyone here who doesn't read the Sun Express Mail and the balanced publication, Murdoch's Times?
I'm struggling to work out why more people aren't seeing the logic of Liberal voting.
Well, the Liberal Party (which exists, well sort of) has been entirely marginalised. It lost all three of its council seats and gained none, anywhere.
But assuming you are referring to the LibDems, there may have been a reason demonstrated on BBC Breakfast this morning.
Someone called Norman Lamb was on saying it was party policy to increase income tax by 1p in the £ across all the tax bands. He then, condescendingly in my view, said it was no more than a couple of cups of coffee a day, (presumably he meant at Starbucks, not from your kitchen). He added, how could anyone complain about that? Well let's put it another way. At the lowest tax band, it's equivalent to increasing tax bills by 5%. And would therefore have a very significant impact upon the take home pay of the less well off. Voters will not be entirely attracted to this concept. The assumption is that the Tories are making inroads in Scotland because of their support for the Union. I'm not so sure, I wonder whether some people are nervous about what the SNP will be doing with the Scottish tax rates and are voting the way their wallet tells them.
I think yesterdays results moved us closer to seeing a new centerist party in 6 months time.
I do wonder what he thinks he's doing? Is he sitting there this morning thinking, "Well that didn't go too bad did it? Right, now for some more of the same next month!". Surely he must see that his very presence as the Opposition Leader is handing the election on a plate to the very people he is supposed to be opposing? Why is he continuing?
He's clearly not stupid and I used to think he was at least principled even if I didn't agree with many of his views. But now I've come to the conclusion he's more interested in rolling back the ethos of the Labour party and heading that up than actually helping it achieve any influence in Westminister. Influence or power that might actually help the very people he claims he wants to represent.
Yes, he gets treated dreadfully by the press, but he should have seen that coming (almost everyone else did including the majority of his MP's) and in surrounding himself with, and putting his trust in, the likes of Diane Abbot to deliver his parties policies he's shown himself to be woefully naive or putting what he sees as the best for his party before what's best for the country.
That's a criticism I usually reserve for the Tories and it saddens and concerns me for the future of our country.
He continues because he wants to build a new Labour Party based on his beliefs. It's a long term project and he knows that means Labour losing this election and maybe the next.
Corbyn was getting a kicking days after he stood for election. Is there anyone here who doesn't read the Sun Express Mail and the balanced publication, Murdoch's Times?
I'm struggling to work out why more people aren't seeing the logic of Liberal voting.
Well, the Liberal Party (which exists, well sort of) has been entirely marginalised. It lost all three of its council seats and gained none, anywhere.
But assuming you are referring to the LibDems, there may have been a reason demonstrated on BBC Breakfast this morning.
Someone called Norman Lamb was on saying it was party policy to increase income tax by 1p in the £ across all the tax bands. He then, condescendingly in my view, said it was no more than a couple of cups of coffee a day, (presumably he meant at Starbucks, not from your kitchen). He added, how could anyone complain about that? Well let's put it another way. At the lowest tax band, it's equivalent to increasing tax bills by 5%. And would therefore have a very significant impact upon the take home pay of the less well off. Voters will not be entirely attracted to this concept. The assumption is that the Tories are making inroads in Scotland because of their support for the Union. I'm not so sure, I wonder whether some people are nervous about what the SNP will be doing with the Scottish tax rates and are voting the way their wallet tells them.
Edited to add: this is why Gordon Brown was and the current lot are so fond of so-called stealth taxes. The recent increases in VED being the latest example. It will raise Treasury income significantly but hardly anyone cares. Surely it's appropriate that anyone who buys a new car deserves to pay more tax? Isn't it?
I genuinely cannot understand anyone who could vote Tory. Blows my mind.
See I'm the opposite, I can't see why anyone would vote labour. Like literally cannot get my head round why anyone would pick this current Labour Party to rule this country.
I'm the same. I cannot see how anyone could vote for a party that calls themselves socialists...and are actually proud of that as if socialism is actually a good thing.
I might be because at least Labour have got an ism, there is no discernable ism with the Tories if you discount fuckyouism.
Of course they wouldn't survive as independents, not many do. And why should they anyway, they were selected and stood in elections the same as Corbyn. If their Clps are unhappy they would be deselected.
I don't agree with one Labour mp who went way too far recently saying he wouldn't even support Corbyn as PM. If you take the whip in that sense I think you do have to adhere to some kind of party discipline and put up or shut up. Although apparently principled the reality is it isn't likely to happen so why say it at all? Perhaps he was trying to attract anti Corbyn Labour votes I guess.
I think they should have just 'put up' with it for a bit and waited until they could win as they knew they would not defeat him with the massive vote of no confidence. I had expected the penny to drop after the local elections we just had but the general election has scuppered that.
The thought of forming their own party is extreme, but they as individuals could have stood down or announced that they wouldn't be seeking re-election in 2020 (now 2017). As others have mentioned by opposing Corbyn they have left him a pretty shallow pool of talent to select from (See Abbott. D).
The sad thing is that I actually think they are coming out with some good policies and ideas that are from the centre left, although I await to the costings.
I'm struggling to work out why more people aren't seeing the logic of Liberal voting.
My constituency is solid Tory and will probably vote LD as they have the best chance but will hold my nose more tightly than if I voted Green or Labour. The reasons why is this election all Farron has to do is take 20 seats off the Tories ( I have no hope that Labour ill make any headway).
This puts us back into the position of having a coalition which whilst it would almost certainly be LD & Tories would put a break on the excesses and arrogance of Theresa May. It should prevent a hard Brexit and the Grammar school/Free school debacle.
But instead of attacking the Tories and looking to win in South West England & South West London he is busy moaning about Labour being the worst opposition ever. He is shooting at the wrong target.
I think 1p in the pound more if it goes to the NHS is a good idea.
Someone earning £15k a year would pay about £30 more per annum in tax, someone on £150k more like £1,500 etc. I think it's a good idea, especially if they can squeeze up the tax free allowance to negate some of the hit for the lowest paid tax payers.
When has anyone had to "justify" where their vote is going? I remember when it was considered rude to ask soneobe who they voted for, much like how much money they earned
This has really pissed me off. I'm a lifelong labour voter and until recently a member. Regional chair of a Trade Union and worked for the NHS until I retired late last year. I think my "socialist" credentials are pretty solid.
I'm struggling to vote labour this time around because I think the leader and his front bench are damned well incompetent and I really would worry if any of them were anywhere near leading the country. I don't agree with Corbyn's stance on an independent nuclear deterrent or his pathetic wishy washy attitude to Brexit which to me should be the rallying point for any sensible politician to make a stand against the lunacy of Article 50.
I resent the assertion that not voting labour makes me a Tory. It doesn't and never will.
The horrific thought of a massive conservative majority is what will probably steer my vote not the lecturing by some arrogant tosser on social media.
Well said SHG, its where I am, how can we trust Corbyn, when he has demonstrated that by appointing/supporting Abbot as his Shadow Home Secretary, how floored his judgment is.
To be fair to Corbyn he didn't have much choice. Most of the PLP flat out refused to serve in his shadow cabinet so he could only pick from the dregs that were left.
When has anyone had to "justify" where their vote is going? I remember when it was considered rude to ask soneobe who they voted for, much like how much money they earned
This has really pissed me off. I'm a lifelong labour voter and until recently a member. Regional chair of a Trade Union and worked for the NHS until I retired late last year. I think my "socialist" credentials are pretty solid.
I'm struggling to vote labour this time around because I think the leader and his front bench are damned well incompetent and I really would worry if any of them were anywhere near leading the country. I don't agree with Corbyn's stance on an independent nuclear deterrent or his pathetic wishy washy attitude to Brexit which to me should be the rallying point for any sensible politician to make a stand against the lunacy of Article 50.
I resent the assertion that not voting labour makes me a Tory. It doesn't and never will.
The horrific thought of a massive conservative majority is what will probably steer my vote not the lecturing by some arrogant tosser on social media.
I take it you meant Fiiish's post has pissed you off Shootie?
At present I'm finding it hard to disagree with anything he posts.
Comments
Can someone justify £70bn for Trident mkII in times of austerity when we didn't use the last one in 60 years?
And can someone contrast the competence of the Home Secretary and Shadow Home Secretary?
I'm the same as @Redmidland bar the hard Brexit bit.
Their is a vacuum at centre-left that has to be filled as a matter of urgency and I'm not sure that's a reformed Labour party.
A party that recognises when the state needs to intervene - health, education, welfare, infrastructure and defence. A publically funded health service that is resourced for the needs of a 21st century population, with future proofing - the current state of the health service is chronic under funding and the reason there are beds in corridors in A&E, waiting lists for in many cases critical interventions is not a surfeit of managers - it's a lack of money pure and simple. The very same argument can go for education - we owe our children a future. That's school, university and vocational education.
The welfare system should provide an adequate safety net for those in genuine need - with appropriate checks to make sure it is going to the right people. Means testing - and that means every benefit - state pensions and winter fuel allowance included.
The right wing advocate the lowest possible taxes required to scrape through on the above (and failing in a lot of areas). The left wing advocate the politics of envy, taking away incentives to create wealth (and therefore jobs) by taxing anything that moves and financing totally frivolous expenditure. They are extremes and my fear is that the current tory and Labour parties are moving very close to those extremes.
Yes I'm a socialist, not because I believe in the workers controlling the means of production, distribution and exchange - but because I believe in society. Taxes should be sufficient for all of the above priorities without stifling wealth creation and investment. A balance but we are totally out of balance at the moment.
Somebody needs to step up and take command of the centre-left - it will take a couple of parliaments at least but, if there is anything left worth saving after another 10 years of right wing rule, it can be done.
I have a lot of sympathy with some of the things that Corbyn says, not so much with other things, but I probably have even less sympathy for most of the stuff coming out of the Tory cabinet at the moment, and frankly I think they deserve a kicking at the ballot box for playing opportunistic political games when they should be focused on securing the shiniest turd they can from the brexit fiasco. But the current Labour party can't even organize themselves, let alone a country.
I also do not feel a landslide for the Tories will be healthy for the country right now because in my opinion they are not seeking to represent a consensus of the population but have instead been pandering to the hardline brexiters which surely represent only a proportion of the small majority of people who voted for brexit and, Q.E.D., represent a minority of the popoulation overall.
So I'm left with a Lib Dem party, whose natural position probably aligns best with my own and who I have voted for in the past, but who are weak right now and going through their own rebuild, or a protest vote for an independent or the greens.
To be honest, my vote registers in a pretty safe Tory seat anyway so my vote is virtually pointless anyway.
As usual, the Simpsons summed it up pretty well years ago.
I know he's seen as bit of a joke now, but I heard Nick Clegg being interviewed in a more relaxed environment the other day and was reminded about how well he came across during campaigning in 2010 and he is still speaking a lot of sense imho. It's a shame his reputation is so damaged by the coalition because, I think, if he was a fresh face now like he was in 2010 he could have been a great assest for the centre-left this time around and would have helped the Lib Dems take a lot of votes away from the Tories.
Just like Prague frequently pointed out to us during his unswerving support for the party.
Of course they wouldn't survive as independents, not many do. And why should they anyway, they were selected and stood in elections the same as Corbyn. If their Clps are unhappy they would be deselected.
I don't agree with one Labour mp who went way too far recently saying he wouldn't even support Corbyn as PM. If you take the whip in that sense I think you do have to adhere to some kind of party discipline and put up or shut up. Although apparently principled the reality is it isn't likely to happen so why say it at all? Perhaps he was trying to attract anti Corbyn Labour votes I guess.
But i cant get me head round the 300k members who voted Jeremy in.
Can you imagine a photo outside No 10 with Jeremy Corbyn/Dianne Abbot/John Mcdonnell/Tom Watson as the head of our nation.
I wont and will never vote tory, the others dont fill be with any enthusiasm either.
As i said before I have never known a rag bag of politiicians running and waiting to run our country.
I do wonder what he thinks he's doing? Is he sitting there this morning thinking, "Well that didn't go too bad did it? Right, now for some more of the same next month!". Surely he must see that his very presence as the Opposition Leader is handing the election on a plate to the very people he is supposed to be opposing? Why is he continuing?
He's clearly not stupid and I used to think he was at least principled even if I didn't agree with many of his views. But now I've come to the conclusion he's more interested in rolling back the ethos of the Labour party and heading that up than actually helping it achieve any influence in Westminister. Influence or power that might actually help the very people he claims he wants to represent.
Yes, he gets treated dreadfully by the press, but he should have seen that coming (almost everyone else did including the majority of his MP's) and in surrounding himself with, and putting his trust in, the likes of Diane Abbot to deliver his party's policies he's shown himself to be woefully naive or putting what he sees as the best for his party before what's best for the country.
That's a criticism I usually reserve for the Tories and it saddens and concerns me for the future of our country.
But assuming you are referring to the LibDems, there may have been a reason demonstrated on BBC Breakfast this morning.
Someone called Norman Lamb was on saying it was party policy to increase income tax by 1p in the £ across all the tax bands. He then, condescendingly in my view, said it was no more than a couple of cups of coffee a day, (presumably he meant at Starbucks, not from your kitchen). He added, how could anyone complain about that?
Well let's put it another way. At the lowest tax band, it's equivalent to increasing tax bills by 5%. And would therefore have a very significant impact upon the take home pay of the less well off.
Voters will not be entirely attracted to this concept. The assumption is that the Tories are making inroads in Scotland because of their support for the Union. I'm not so sure, I wonder whether some people are nervous about what the SNP will be doing with the Scottish tax rates and are voting the way their wallet tells them.
The thought of forming their own party is extreme, but they as individuals could have stood down or announced that they wouldn't be seeking re-election in 2020 (now 2017). As others have mentioned by opposing Corbyn they have left him a pretty shallow pool of talent to select from (See Abbott. D).
The sad thing is that I actually think they are coming out with some good policies and ideas that are from the centre left, although I await to the costings.
This puts us back into the position of having a coalition which whilst it would almost certainly be LD & Tories would put a break on the excesses and arrogance of Theresa May. It should prevent a hard Brexit and the Grammar school/Free school debacle.
But instead of attacking the Tories and looking to win in South West England & South West London he is busy moaning about Labour being the worst opposition ever. He is shooting at the wrong target.
Someone earning £15k a year would pay about £30 more per annum in tax, someone on £150k more like £1,500 etc. I think it's a good idea, especially if they can squeeze up the tax free allowance to negate some of the hit for the lowest paid tax payers.