General politics discussion thread

[gary v1]

I think a serious problem with our tax system is that different forms of income are taxed differently. We need a simple, straightforward tax on all income regardless of source along with a general anti-avoidance rule so that people don't get away with convoluted avoidance schemes.Also, I don't necessarily oppose tax cuts, but they should be done when business is good, not cutting the top rate (with no idea of whether it will show benefits to the actual tax take) when the Exchequer needs to bring in every penny it possibly can. In my ideal world, we'd slightly over-balance the budget, retaining a small amount (say 3-5%) for a contingency fund, with the tax rates we have now, then we'd cut from the bottom up. The first step would be to increase the basic allowance up to the level of the living wage then cut VAT. After that, I'd increase the basic allowance by a chunk every time you raise the threshold for the other taxes or cut the higher rates. Eventually, the only tax that would exist would be a basic rate of maybe 10% for people earning over about

Edited May 16, 2012 by gary v1

[Kenny McBride]

Maybe not, but it might stop the ludicrous housing bubbles that have precipitate the last few recessions.

[David]

I fucking hate the IMF. I remember thinking that Libya was fucked when the IMF were setting up shop there before Gaddafi's murdered body was even cold.

 

The International Monetary Fund has ratcheted up the pressure on crisis-hit Greece after its managing director, Christine Lagarde, said she has more sympathy for children deprived of decent schooling in sub-Saharan Africa than for many of those facing poverty in Athens.

 

In an uncompromising interview with the Guardian, Lagarde insists it is payback time for Greece and makes it clear that the IMF has no intention of softening the terms of the country's austerity package.

 

Using some of the bluntest language of the two-and-a-half-year debt crisis, she says Greek parents have to take responsibility if their children are being affected by spending cuts. "Parents have to pay their tax," she says.

 

Greece, which has seen its economy shrink by a fifth since the recession began, has been told to cut wages, pensions and public spending in return for financial help from the IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank.

 

Asked whether she is able to block out of her mind the mothers unable to get access to midwives or patients unable to obtain life-saving drugs, Lagarde replies: "I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens."

 

Lagarde, predicting that the debt crisis has yet to run its course, adds: "Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax." She says she thinks "equally" about Greeks deprived of public services and Greek citizens not paying their tax.

 

"I think they should also help themselves collectively." Asked how, she replies: "By all paying their tax."

 

Asked if she is essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe that they have had a nice time and it is now payback time, she responds: "That's right."

 

The intervention by Lagarde comes after the caretaker Greek government met to discuss a sharp fall in tax revenues

[Loki]

There's a big element of racism in the treatment of the Greeks as a second-class citizenry, particularly by the Germans. It's pretty distasteful.

[Keith Houchen]

There's a big element of racism in the treatment of the Greeks as a second-class citizenry, particularly by the Germans. It's pretty distasteful.

Absolutely right. Typical Krauts.

 

See what I did there?

[Vice]

A protestor interrupted Blair at the Leveson Inquiry, calling him a war criminal:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trxs-ypR804

 

This makes me happy, even with the lack of custard pie. Right now, Blair really should be sat on trial in The Hague.

[David]

More racial trouble in Luton over the past few days;

 

Hundreds of members of the Luton Sikh community protested outside local police station amid claims police failed to properly investigate a sex attack on a young woman.

 

Police said they were negotiating with the protesters staging the

[WildSybianRider]

Honestly think I despise Julian Assange more than any other public figure.

[Up Chuck]

I like Wikileaks, but I've always found Assange to be a smug twat at best and a hypocrite at worst (EG refusing to answer questions at a press conference because they "weren't interesting").

[WildSybianRider]

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for subversion, accountability and questioning the powers-that-be. But can anyone tell me any real developments that emerged from wikileaks? That's not rhetoric - I honestly can't think of any. I just read Amnesty International praising its role in the Arab Spring but that seems simplistic to me. Strictly as a "catalyst", ok I get that but the type of uprising that we saw last year is fostered by years of oppression and simmering resentment. Not some dickhead failed journalist releasing a load of cables and the Arab peoples suddenly realising that, you know what, their lives aren't that great and there's no democracy. Seriously, what did wikileaks amount to? Confirmation of what we already know about shady U.S. foreign policy and corrupt govts in developing countries. A giggle at diplomats sneering at their host countries' leaders. Probably a load of sensitive information in the swathe of cables that were released en masse. A chance to look up info on Madeleine McCann or UFOs or whatever. And some mixed up U.S. solder who's been thrown to the dogs by the organisation that never really protected him.

 

Like I say, despite all this, I'm glad that organisations like wikileaks exist. But for Assange personally, hypocrite seems more like a best-case than worst-case description. He's fucked over Bradley Manning, fell out with seemingly every senior wl staffer or contact, screwed those who were daft enough to post his bail our of their money. And, worst of all, made wikileaks' narrative all about him, using the controversy to deflect from the fact he's a slimey, self-promoting, possible-rapist, definite-misogynist. He's conflated important issues about freedom of speech and information with his own snidey little cause. Fuck Julian Assange, man.

[Kenny McBride]

I love that he's terrified of the justice system of the notoriously brutal, authoritarian, US-puppet government of Sweden. Because the powers-that-be couldn't have conjured up a way to extradite him from Britain to the US and put him the fuck into Guantanamo in a flash if they'd really wanted to. No, they needed to get him to Sweden. On trumped-up charges of surprise sex.

 

What a twat.

[Chest Rockwell]

Seriously, what did wikileaks amount to? Confirmation of what we already know about shady U.S. foreign policy and corrupt govts in developing countries.

 

 

I agree with a lot of what you say, especially about how he is deflecting attention from a worthwhile subject to himself, but I think you're understating the impact of this being down in writing, from the source. To that point dismissing the information as "just a catalyst" is underplaying the signficance of having something that acts as a catalyst. Sure it could have been anything, but it was this. And as such, played an important role.

[WildSybianRider]

Kenny,

 

Yep. If I'm wanted by the U.S., the last place I'd want to be is Britain. I'd probably want to be in...... Sweden, I guess. Or Ecuador if I was a truly shameless cunt.

 

 

 

I agree with a lot of what you say, especially about how he is deflecting attention from a worthwhile subject to himself, but I think you're understating the impact of this being down in writing, from the source. To that point dismissing the information as "just a catalyst" is underplaying the signficance of having something that acts as a catalyst. Sure it could have been anything, but it was this. And as such, played an important role.

 

I don't disagree. But something being significant doesn't enhance it with any moral value, and it's frustrating that Assange and his thickfuck celeb backers have made his name synonymous with wikileaks, so the Arab Spring is portrayed as a glorious result of his noble endeavours. When he just wanted to fuck with America to get his name out there. I might be slightly irrational because he makes my skin crawl so much, too.

[Up Chuck]

If I was him, and I wasn't wanted in Sweden, I'd hide in Sweden. He looks so Scandanavian and I heard the place associated with his name so often that for a good time I just assumed he was Swedish.

 

In other news, I believe I've just set the record for lowest amount of intellectual substance in any post in this thread.

 

EDIT: I'll redeem myself. I don't like Wikileaks for anything that it's done so far. I like it for what potential it has. I like that it could be a failsafe for if things ever turned nasty and totalitarian for countries that are more self-aware than, say, North Korea. It could be important one day, so that's why I'm glad it's there.

 

And I do get less and less comfortable about Assange every time I hear about something he's done. He seems to be intent on confirming the bad feeling he's always given me.

Edited June 20, 2012 by opcws

[David]