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Corbynomics: A Dystopia
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The Tories are too embarrassed to say we have it great as a nation because the lefties will hold up a example of someone with a tough life on camera crying that life is hard. The truth is life is good for the majority.
Wages are high, work conditions good, we have full employment, we have a lot of freedom
Life can't be perfect there is always room to improve but perfection shouldn't be the enemy of the good.0 -
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If you think it's bad now, you wouldn't have liked living in the 1930s.
Even under Labour (Ramsey MacDonald 1929 to 1935) the dole was subject to stringent means testing, which stated that all 'luxury' goods were to be sold before the claimant could be allowed to dip into the public pocket.
Non luxury items were basically:
A double bed(with one set of bedding) for every 2 people in the house.
One kitchen table plus a basic wooden chair for each person.
One good set of clothes per person (ie, surplus to that would have to be sold)
One very basic set of pans, crockery and cutlery
Anything else was a luxury. I remember my gran telling me about a couple of families in her street who were 'on the dole'. When the dole inspector made one of his unannounced visits, there would be a mad scramble to hide any family treasures.
Moving on, the political definition of 'poverty' is not set in concrete. I grew up in the 1950s/1960s in what would be, in today's terms, abject poverty. But we obviously weren't even classed as 'poor' then, as my sister and I didn't qualify for free school meals.
Before anyone starts shouting, there's absolutely no way I would wish that on any child today - but when the current definition of 'child poverty' includes not be able to afford their own TV in their own bedroom, foreign holidays or birthday parties then the true definition of 'poverty' is not being met.0 -
Silvertabby wrote: »when the current definition of 'child poverty' includes not be able to afford their own TV in their own bedroom, foreign holidays or birthday parties then the true definition of 'poverty' is not being met.
It is imperative that the definition of "poverty" is continually revised so that the Left always have something to be outraged about.0 -
Excellent article on this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11697568/Our-poverty-rules-are-an-insult-to-everyone-its-time-to-rip-them-up.html
By using dodgy statistics to overstate their case, the Left has caused much of the public to ignore the real problems of deprivation
An excerpt that sums it up:
Take the latest row over child poverty. The main official statistics purport to show that 2.3m children live in poverty. Despite rising wages and employment, that number is set to increase. If such figures don’t sound plausible, that’s because they are scandalously unfit for purpose and are not measuring actual deprivation.
The current rules, originally dreamt up by Left-wing academics in the Sixties, state that somebody is poor if they live in a household on below 60pc of median earnings, regardless of their actual quality of life or access to essentials.
But this measures income inequality, not poverty. Under that definition, poverty can never realistically be eradicated in a capitalist society. If median incomes go up by 10pc, and that of the bottom 20pc by 9pc, delivering huge improvements to the living standards of everybody in the country, poverty would still be deemed to have gone up. It’s bonkers. “Poverty” would remain rife even if the bottom decile earned £100,000 a year, unless – or until – all top earners were taxed out of existence.0 -
Silvertabby wrote: »...Even under Labour (Ramsey MacDonald 1929 to 1935) ...
On a point of order.
The government was only Labour in 1929-1931. MacDonald then became PM of the National Government. Shortly before the 1931 GE I believe. Labour got stuffed.0 -
I might be wrong, but everyone seems to have missed the fact that the 25th October was the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The storming of the Winter Palace, you know.
In fact, no one seems to have made any fuss about it all. You'd almost think that people have lost interest. Were there any marches anywhere?0 -
Eric_the_half_a_bee wrote: »It is imperative that the definition of "poverty" is continually revised so that the Left always have something to be outraged about.
There are a multitude of definitions.
The World Bank uses a $1.90 a day. Or it did. It might be a bit more now. That might be a relevant yardstick in some countries, but I'm not sure you'd get very far in the UK on a tenner a week.0 -
I might be wrong, but everyone seems to have missed the fact that the 25th October was the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The storming of the Winter Palace, you know.
In fact, no one seems to have made any fuss about it all. You'd almost think that people have lost interest. Were there any marches anywhere?
Perhaps because it happened on the 7th November?0 -
Perhaps because it happened on the 7th November?
My source says the 25th October 1917.
A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes, which I am reading at the moment. That's because he, like almost everybody these days uses the Julian calendar. I think the Russians, or the Soviet Union by then, only adopted the Julian calendar in 1918. So their 7th November in 1917 was our 25th October 1917, and would now be the Russians 25th October 1917.0
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