Care for the Elderly

[Hugh]

You using the word PARANOID what a joker.  It was old labour fault that M Thatcher did what she had to do at the time. And labour copied her ways to regain power and have done nothing in 13 years to change things. It is you that is PARANOID about M Thatcher. You can't post with out mentioning her name. She in fact will go down in history of one of our greatest Prime Ministers and rightly so.

[Ivanhoe]

///////She in fact will go down in history of one of our greatest Prime Ministers and rightly so. ///////

Have it you're way Alf G.
 
 
 

[Ivanhoe]

/////////You using the word PARANOID what a joker.  It was old labour fault that M Thatcher did what she had to do at the time. And labour copied her ways to regain power and have done nothing in 13 years to change things. It is you that is PARANOID about M Thatcher. You can't post with out mentioning her name. She in fact will go down in history of one of our greatest Prime Ministers and rightly so. //////

Seriously though, by praising Thatcher, you uphold her ideals of creating mass unemployment to control inflation, an ethos that New Labour have continued since 1997.
 

[Hugh]

Wilsons brought in thousands of imigrants from the west Indies to fill the job market creating a lot of unemployment. As far as closing many coal mines which created a lot of unemployment would have happened who ever was in power. The requirement for coal in large amounts was gone. Clean energy was the in thing. M Thatcher was a very brave Prime minister who took on the the unions who had gain far to much power and was slowly destroying the country. Strong unions were getting very large pay rises for their members which made the poor much poorer, with the very high inflation.

I always remember one miner saying They should buy British coal only. Why haven't you bought a British made car? Far to expensive?

[Ivanhoe]

///////M Thatcher was a very brave Prime minister who took on the the unions who had gain far to much power and was slowly destroying the country. Strong unions were getting very large pay rises for their members which made the poor much poorer, with the very high inflation. /////

Anything you say, now im blocking you.

[Papaumau]

And with many welfare loafers with credits can end up with a pension much higher than a person who as save and as a small private pension. That is WRONG and should be stopped

That's a hoary old argument Hugh !

As Ivanhoe says..."The British welfare state is a good thing" - envied by the world at large even if it could be simplified and applied more accurately and more rigorously.

Be sure that if you are on benefits of any kind you are living just slightly higher than the absolute poverty line.

[Ivanhoe]

/////////Be sure that if you are on benefits of any kind you are living just slightly higher than the absolute poverty line/////

Some people are, some people arent, and billionaire tax avoiders are definately not, but we never hear about them do we, just tiny minded junk about the poor fiddling the system.
 
 
 

[Papaumau]

If ANYBODY qualifies for benefits - even if they are cheating the system - they only get enough to subsist on and no more.

NOBODY ever had a luxurious life while on benefits !

[Ivanhoe]

//////NOBODY ever had a luxurious life while on benefits ! /////

Agreed.

I could have put it better.

 

[Hugh]

A person just above the limit which credit is given will get less than the person claiming credits that is a fact. And should be corrected.

[Ivanhoe]

////////A person just above the limit which credit is given will get less than the person claiming credits that is a fact. And should be corrected/////

Yes and its a fact all right, and all because of Thatcher's 1980 pensions policy that New Labour have continued.

Means testing is what Thatcher brought in, because she did not believe that State pensions should rise in line with male average earnings.

I dont believe in meanstesting pensioners, I believe in a decent increase in the basic State pension for all Uk pensioners making no need for means testing thresholds.

[Hugh]

 dont believe in meanstesting pensioners, I believe in a decent increase in the basic State pension for all Uk pensioners making no need for means testing thresholds.

I agree 100% with that

[Ivanhoe]

/////I agree 100% with that/////

How much do you think the basic State pension should be, out of interest ?

[Hugh]

AT LEAST £500 a week for a married couple. Even with that amount if you have rent to pay and smoke you would be hard pushed to make ends meet

[Papaumau]

The trouble is guys that if we are not to see an across-the-board rate of benefits or pensions for everybody, ( which would be impossibly expensive and see many people getting large pensions and benefits that do not need them ), we really have to have some kind of "means testing".

My idea is to drastically simplify the means testing system so that it is no longer expensive to run and the people who really need it and who are either too afraid of application or don't want to "take charity" will get it easily without the rich getting it too.

I have not yet seen a government that REALLY want to lift the poverty-stricken of Britain out of poverty or that want to truly narrow the rich/poor gap.

I am hoping that the Liberal Democrats may be able and willing to do that IF they get the power.