OT. The futures Bright, the Futures Brexit!!!

[AdiSalisbury]

Not easy is it? Gonna use Geoff's suggestions as a starter for 10:

NOT SPEND ANY MONEY ON:
Foreign Aid
Defence and military
Long term unemployment benefits et al (except disability payments)

Don't see any issue with foreign aid, if we can do the right thing, we should do. We'll get back a combination of good feeling for being compassionate, if not economic favours, eg priority treatment on produce.

Defence, purely selfishly, my job depends on it. Otherwise, it keeps us safe, we are under constant attack in forms other than infantry, and we need to protect our territory and industry. It is also a leading driver for technological innovation.

Can't argue with the long term unemployment benefits.

SPEND MORE MONEY ON:
Health care, but not just giving big pay increases to staff to buy them off
Policing, particularly in rural areas
Public transport infrastructure - moving towards a ban on use of cars (long term), again mainly in rural areas
Sorting out a proper agricultural and fisheries policy post CAP
Environmental "encouragements"
Primary education and up to 16 (not university)
Apprenticeship schemes - career focussed education and skills training
Introduce "compulsory voluntary" community work schemes for the unemployed - eg litter picking etc to justify/maintain payments and get an enhanced weekly amount if volunteer does longer hours

Can't disagree, the last point especially.

NOT SURE ABOUT
Pensions by and large pensioners are some of the best off on average, but at bottom end the basic rate needs lifting. Maybe taper off the state pension based on size of private / employment pensions

I'm no pension expert, but isn't there already a lifetime allowance in place?

[Geoff Parkstone]

There is a lifetime allowance of around a million now, above which you pay 55% tax when drawn down.

What I was getting at though was, for example, a 70 year old with a million in his pot doesn't really need the 140 quid a week state pension . Perhaps taper off this entitlement for high net worth pensioners ( as at least 20% if not 40% goes back to HMRC anyway) and boost those depending on that 140 to survive

[Trickytreesreds]

...and why was there no money left? Because of the banking crisis/credit crunch which began in the USA in 2007 and spread over here in 2008.
That of course coincided perfectly with Gordon Brown becoming PM, but unless the ‘one eyed Scottish idiot’ - as you unkindly and irrelevantly described him last week - had huge and unprecedented power over the Global Banking establishments...how was that Labour’s fault?
More to the point...you choose to forget that Blair and Brown oversaw huge improvements in our hospitals and schools which have completely stagnated since 2010 and to ignore that the very article you quote, describes how Reginald Maudling left a note of much the same tone when Callaghan took over, so it isn’t just Labour that leaves a mess is it?

They may be far from perfect but at least Labour, the Scots and the Liberals have the interests of ordinary people at heart. What do Johnson and Rees-Mogg know about them? I agree 100% with the points made by MA, mista and Swale above.

FPI end of argument

[ramAnag]

Amazingly naive, rA? Tell me more....

I look at Indian and other Asian immigrant groups, West African groups etc and I see an exceptional degree of family loyalty and commitment to look after one another, generation by generation. Its good to see. The basic white English populace seem to have somewhat cynically divorced themselves from any responsibility for their family or extended family, preferring instead to maximise earnings and leave their "duty" to children or the elderly in the hands of others.

Now I fully accept that in a minority of cases, the child or the elderly may well be better off in a care system, but to me (maybe naively?) a lot of those dumped into care (private or public) are so dumped due to your much vilified greed: mostly where couples prefer to both work rather than looking after their own.

Put bluntly, why should I, via the public purse, pay to look after someone else's parent or child while they go off maximising their personal wealth rather than doing it?

Totally agree with your first paragraph GP and the same seems to be true of Southern Europeans.

I’m not sure about the rest. Is it wrong for two parents to want to put their children’s welfare and well being above caring for their aged parents? It’s thankfully not a conundrum I’ve had to face but you’ve made me think.

The naivety comment comes from the fact that we all have our areas of comparative expertise. I am naive about things in your world of accountancy and tax etc, but I’d suggest that I know a good deal more - professionally speaking - about family dynamics and the under privileged and it is not, in my experience, an exaggeration to suggest that some people are insufficiently competent to be left in control of either children or the old and infirm and that’s not even including the nasty sods who’d just take advantage.

[mistaram]

Amazingly naive, rA? Tell me more....

I look at Indian and other Asian immigrant groups, West African groups etc and I see an exceptional degree of family loyalty and commitment to look after one another, generation by generation. Its good to see. The basic white English populace seem to have somewhat cynically divorced themselves from any responsibility for their family or extended family, preferring instead to maximise earnings and leave their "duty" to children or the elderly in the hands of others.

Now I fully accept that in a minority of cases, the child or the elderly may well be better off in a care system, but to me (maybe naively?) a lot of those dumped into care (private or public) are so dumped due to your much vilified greed: mostly where couples prefer to both work rather than looking after their own.

Put bluntly, why should I, via the public purse, pay to look after someone else's parent or child while they go off maximising their personal wealth rather than doing it?

Geoff agreed with some of that Asians are very family orientated But we had to put my father into care and not only are 99% owned by Asians they are also full of Asians But you are right they do take care of the elderly far better than we do My father was far to ill to be left without 24hr care

[sixtiesram]

Because history has shown that public services do not improve as taxes go up. If they did, I would not begrudge a bit more tax. But they don't. I'm not sure where the money goes, pissed up a wall or vanity projects I guess

When Labour came to power under Blair the NHS was on its knees. By 2010 the waiting lists for surgery, not to mention A&E waiting times, were massively improved because the funding was put in. Now in 2019 we are worse than back to square one. An elderly person waiting for a cataract operation or a cancer patient hoping for speedy treatment will be disappointed. Start looking at the wider perspective rather than your individual greed.

[Trickytreesreds]

When Labour came to power under Blair the NHS was on its knees. By 2010 the waiting lists for surgery, not to mention A&E waiting times, were massively improved because the funding was put in. Now in 2019 we are worse than back to square one. An elderly person waiting for a cataract operation or a cancer patient hoping for speedy treatment will be disappointed. Start looking at the wider perspective rather than your individual greed.

Really?
When I noticed the lump on my neck. I was biopsed within 9 days and having the major operation 12 days later.
I wouldn't call that disappointing.
Yes the NHS needs much investment.
It also needs a major overall, with the way it is run.
Waiting times are down to many reasons, not just lack of cash.
As a Forest fan, I can vouch that throwing cash at something doesn't always give you what you want.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Interestingly, my mother who is 87 needed cataracts done in both eyes. First one done swiftly (a matter of a few weeks) and second scheduled a reasonable time later - didn't want both done together. This was in last 12 months

[ramAnag]

Maybe things vary from place to place GP.
I’m with sixtiesram. If we’re going to be anecdotal, both Derby and my nearest health care centre - Ashbourne - had new hospitals built under Blair.
In contrast last week I tried to make an appointment at my ‘new’ Health Centre for as close to the 8th Dec. as possible...the outcome was an appointment for the 30th December.
The NHS has gone backwards over the last ten years and we all know why.

[mistaram]

Interestingly, my mother who is 87 needed cataracts done in both eyes. First one done swiftly (a matter of a few weeks) and second scheduled a reasonable time later - didn't want both done together. This was in last 12 months

Geoff guess it must be a post code lottery My mother waited 32months from referral dispite repeated phone calls from her to the hospital She had her first eye done in Feb this year and despite them saying her second would be done six weeks later Its hopefully being done in Dec16th