big mickey Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Wooohooooo! If the Tories do reintroduce weekly bin collections then at least they've done something good.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted September 29, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 29, 2011 These are the same Tories who keep rattling on about localism and how decisions should be devolved down to councils rather than being mandated by evil bureaucratic Whitehall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbins Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 as long as the system is doing everything in its power to keep wages as low as possible. This would be the same system that instituted a guaranteed minimum wage, right? No more people working for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patiirc Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Wooohooooo! If the Tories do reintroduce weekly bin collections then at least they've done something good.. Â As was pointed out to me by someone the other day, We (Preston) still get weekly bin collections, its just that one week they collect the recycling bin/boxes and the next the rubbish bin. So technically ( grasping at straws, mind) we still get a weekly bin collection. Though after pissing about with the way recycling is done, instead of having the really silly recycling boxes, which they change what can and cant put in them almost at will. Preston Council are just going to give house holds one of those thinner wheelie bins in a fetching blue, so all the recycling stuff can go in there, unsorted and will indeed be collecting bins every week of a fashion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 OK, at first glance it seems daft to take money off people just to give it back again; Â Yes, yes the tax credit system is daft - plus it's expensive to manage, prone to error and quite often didn't actually work, with people not understanding the system and being screwed out of their rebates. It's exactly the sort of system that Labour used to love - one that purported to be progressive but was actually a big waste of money and a creator of unnecessary levels of bureaucracy. Spend money collecting tax, then spend more money giving it back. Brilliant. Â Raising the lowest tax threshold, however, is incredibly simple to do and helps ALL tax payers. It's money in people's wage packets every month, not something possibly winging its way back to you when the pencil pushers get round to it. Â Government needs to be fair, and it needs to be efficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Quagmire Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 (edited) These are the same Tories who keep rattling on about localism and how decisions should be devolved down to councils rather than being mandated by evil bureaucratic Whitehall? Eric Pickles is just a cunt, full stop. spews a lot about councils taking responsibility for their services and be more accountable locally in one breath while in the other gives a diktat telling from the top down how regularly services should be run and also asking for budget audits as to what services are being provided/slimmed down or cut in the worst micromanaged, nanny state way possible.  As it is, over here I've three bins, general waste goes into the black bit, paper & plastics go into a blue bin and composting waste like food scraps and grass cuttings go into the brown bin. Black and blue bins are emptied on alternate weeks and brown bins are emptied every three weeks. No problems with it.  OK, at first glance it seems daft to take money off people just to give it back again;  Yes, yes the tax credit system is daft - plus it's expensive to manage, prone to error and quite often didn't actually work, with people not understanding the system and being screwed out of their rebates. It's exactly the sort of system that Labour used to love - one that purported to be progressive but was actually a big waste of money and a creator of unnecessary levels of bureaucracy. Spend money collecting tax, then spend more money giving it back. Brilliant.  Raising the lowest tax threshold, however, is incredibly simple to do and helps ALL tax payers. It's money in people's wage packets every month, not something possibly winging its way back to you when the pencil pushers get round to it.  Government needs to be fair, and it needs to be efficient. Hard to disagree with that. The tax credit system is well meaning, but the more bureaucracy put in place to administer the more error prone and less efficient it becomes. It would be better to have a system whereby if some elements of spending outgoings on some services are above a percentage threshold of net household income, then a subsidy can be applied for to cover the cost above the threshold which can be attached to relevant benefits if necessary e.g. subsidy for childcare attached to child allowance. That may be accused as being similar to the tax credit system, but I would argue simply for a more streamlined approach and not to make things terribly complicated.  Simply raising a high tax threshold isn't necessarily positive though, in Ireland the threshold IIRC is €18k and they're talking of lowering it to increase the income tax net as over a third of workers don't pay any. Personally I'd limit the tax free threshold to around Edited September 30, 2011 by Glen Quagmire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbins Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 OK, at first glance it seems daft to take money off people just to give it back again;Yes, yes the tax credit system is daft - plus it's expensive to manage, prone to error and quite often didn't actually work, with people not understanding the system and being screwed out of their rebates. It's exactly the sort of system that Labour used to love - one that purported to be progressive but was actually a big waste of money and a creator of unnecessary levels of bureaucracy. Spend money collecting tax, then spend more money giving it back. Brilliant.Raising the lowest tax threshold, however, is incredibly simple to do and helps ALL tax payers. It's money in people's wage packets every month, not something possibly winging its way back to you when the pencil pushers get round to it.Government needs to be fair, and it needs to be efficient.Obviously the easier the tax credit system is to understand and use, the better. But I don't think cutting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Chancellor George Osborne is due to announce measures to freeze council tax, invest in mobile phone masts and support British science in a bid to help families and businesses struggling in the difficult economic climate.In his keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Mr Osborne will call on Britons to show a "can-do attitude" and promise them that the country will overcome its current problems.The Chancellor is to announce funding to help local authorities in England hold council tax at its current level for a second year - saving the average family Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildSybianRider Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 "The step will be paid for using around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted October 3, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted October 3, 2011 These are the same Tories who keep rattling on about localism and how decisions should be devolved down to councils rather than being mandated by evil bureaucratic Whitehall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny McBride Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I'm actually right behind raising the tax threshold. It really ought to be a Tory flagship policy. If there's no such thing as society, only individual men and women and families, then no-one should pay tax until they've earned enough to feed, house and clothe themselves and their immediate families. What's important to understand about progressive taxation, though, is what no-one ever seems to point out. It's not about class war or envying the rich. It's about understanding that NO-ONE can get filthy rich without the work of people further down the food chain. You can argue the toss about different theories of value all you want, but the fact is that ultimately, value cannot be created without labour. Thus, if anyone is making money at the top of the organisation without being a capital investor (who, to be fair, also have a right to a return on their investment) then they are making that money because workers are working and some of their input is flowing upwards, while the nation as a whole is providing infrastructure (including education and healthcare for those workers, not to mention things like the transport network) to enable that wealth to be created. Progressive taxation says that the more you make, then the more you are taking - proportionately, not just absolutely - from the system, and therefore the more you should pay into the system as a whole. Since the lowliest workers get the least return on their investment of labour, they should pay the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Van Dammer Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Sending my Application Form in, in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Sending my Application Form in, in the morning.Superb. At least some workers are getting decent pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Van Dammer Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Sending my Application Form in, in the morning.Superb. At least some workers are getting decent pay.Yeah, and the other workers are paying for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Sending my Application Form in, in the morning.Superb. At least some workers are getting decent pay.Yeah, and the other workers are paying for it.What other workers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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