We need a land and wealth tax to replace income and transaction tax.

Masomnia

cepheus wrote: »

Last week the chancellor stood up in parliament to announce that benefits for the very poor would be cut yet again. On the same day, in Luxembourg, the British government battled to maintain benefits for the very rich. It won. As a result, some of the richest people in the country will each continue to receive millions of pounds in income support from taxpayers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/01/farm-subsidies-blatant-transfer-of-cash-to-rich

I guess because our net contribution to the EU is already £7billion and would be much higher than that without the farm subsidies.

antrobus

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Are businesses investing, aren't many sitting on cash piles?....

Corporate UK is sitting on a £750 billion cash pile apparently.

cepheus

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Are businesses investing, aren't many sitting on cash piles?

Would 2-3%, staged increase be the death knell for a compelling business case?

Yes you could be right, perhaps we have become brainwashed by economic theory.

cepheus

All over Europe, essential public services are being cut. All over Europe, the poor are being hammered by the loss of the benefits they need to sustain even the most basic quality of life. But the millionaire landowners continue to reel it in, while still destroying biodiversity, polluting water courses, squandering irrigation water, wiping out pollinators, killing birds of prey and accelerating climate change. Are there not better ways of spending public money?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2013/jul/08/national-farmers-union-public

CLAPTON

cepheus wrote: »

All over Europe, essential public services are being cut. All over Europe, the poor are being hammered by the loss of the benefits they need to sustain even the most basic quality of life. But the millionaire landowners continue to reel it in, while still destroying biodiversity, polluting water courses, squandering irrigation water, wiping out pollinators, killing birds of prey and accelerating climate change. Are there not better ways of spending public money?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2013/jul/08/national-farmers-union-public

yes many people have seen the absurdity of the EU policies for a long time.

Itismehonest

CLAPTON wrote: »

yes many people have seen the absurdity of the EU policies for a long time.

Including most of the farmers that I know. Most of them would prefer to be paid a decent price for their produce than to get EU handouts.
However, that could mean everyone's food bill rising.

CLAPTON

Itismehonest wrote: »

Including most of the farmers that I know. Most of them would prefer to be paid a decent price for their produce than to get EU handouts.
However, that could mean everyone's food bill rising.

Every businessman would like a decent 'price' for their products.

The price of their products should be determined by supply and demand (with appropriate regulations of course) and not by what producers feel they 'deserve'.

Whether prices rise or fall should depend upon the market.

CKhalvashi

antrobus wrote: »

Corporate UK is sitting on a £750 billion cash pile apparently.

We're sitting on a £3m cash pile, and our turnover is much less than 0.0004% of the economy (it's around £7.5m a month atm), so I'd have thought the actual cash pile is much larger than this.

HSBC makes up more than 10% of this alone, as does Royal Dutch Shell.

CK

Itismehonest

CLAPTON wrote: »

Every businessman would like decent 'price' for their products.

The price of their products should be determined by supply and demand (with appropriate regulations of course) and not by what producers feel they 'deserve'.

Whether prices rise or fall should depend upon the market.

Precisely.
As a nation our food prices have been subsidised for years. Let supply & demand dictate.

However, we have high animal welfare & tight crop laws which means our produce is much more expensive to provide than other countries where the laws are lax or non-existent.
When suddenly we need to rely on our own production (as happens from time to time - war, disease....) then Joe Public will start to realise what importing cheap produce & goods really means.

CLAPTON

Itismehonest wrote: »

Precisely.
As a nation our food prices have been subsidised for years. Let supply & demand dictate.

However, we have high animal welfare & tight crop laws which means our produce is much more expensive to provide than other countries where the laws are lax or non-existent.
When suddenly we need to rely on our own production (as happens from time to time - war, disease....) then Joe Public will start to realise what importing cheap produce & goods really means.

I would very much doubt that world food prices are higher than EU prices so I would expect a drop rather than an increase.