The banker loving, baby-eating Tory party thread (regenerated)

[Mozzavfc]

Tory MP says living on £81k per year salary is grim, and they need a payrise

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Spoiler

A Conservative has spoken out about the struggles of living on an MP’s salary on the day Universal Credit has been cut for the most vulnerable in the country.

Although he said he currently is not struggling financially, he believes the situation is ‘desperately difficult’ for his newer colleagues.

The Worthing West, in West Sussex representive added: ‘I don’t know how they manage. It’s really grim.’

 

[OutByEaster?]

4 hours ago, blandy said:

Rightly so. Tories get in because they are essentially the only right wing party, whereas (almost) all the others are centre left or left wing.

Thankfully there's now someone working to change that.

 

[Wainy316]

3 hours ago, Davkaus said:

That word removed at 23:20.

At a tory party conference, in a MAGA hat, wearing an iron maiden tee. Is there anyone in the world that doesn't think he's a word removed?  His own mother probably wishes she'd curb-stomped him at birth

He said he’s not a fan of gutting welfare and called them a bunch of neo-liberal useless tw@ts so his view don’t seem to aligned with the others there.  The hat ruins it all though. 

[OutByEaster?]

Friendly Fires don't seem overly impressed that our beloved leader has honoured them by choosing their track to come on stage to:

 

 

[chrisp65]

17 minutes ago, Mozzavfc said:

Tory MP says living on £81k per year salary is grim, and they need a payrise

Link

  Hide contents

A Conservative has spoken out about the struggles of living on an MP’s salary on the day Universal Credit has been cut for the most vulnerable in the country.

Although he said he currently is not struggling financially, he believes the situation is ‘desperately difficult’ for his newer colleagues.

The Worthing West, in West Sussex representive added: ‘I don’t know how they manage. It’s really grim.’

 

 

I’ll put him in touch with my MP. He’s managing by having a little £60,000 per annum side hustle being a consultant to firms that then go on to win government contracts.

We’re too placid.

Counting down the days to a long hot summer.

[The Fun Factory]

20 minutes ago, Mozzavfc said:

Tory MP says living on £81k per year salary is grim, and they need a payrise

Link

  Reveal hidden contents

A Conservative has spoken out about the struggles of living on an MP’s salary on the day Universal Credit has been cut for the most vulnerable in the country.

Although he said he currently is not struggling financially, he believes the situation is ‘desperately difficult’ for his newer colleagues.

The Worthing West, in West Sussex representive added: ‘I don’t know how they manage. It’s really grim.’

 

That would probably just get you enough dough to rent out a semi detached house in London.

[bickster]

 

[bickster]

3 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

That would probably just get you enough dough to rent out a semi detached house in London

Except MPs get a second home allowance if they aren't London MPs. This is not part of the £81k, unlike the  rest of us, rent or mortgage is a perk on top of their wage

[bickster]

40 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Thankfully there's now someone working to change that.

 

 

[OutByEaster?]

3 minutes ago, bickster said:

 

See, he's winning over that right wing majority already! 

[HanoiVillan]

Think this from Duncan Weldon is quite good:

How serious is Boris Johnson about wanting higher wages?

'Today Boris Johnson pledged to move Britain away from its “broken old” economic model and to build a new one of a “high wage, high skill, high productivity economy”. Despite soaring energy prices, a lingering petrol shortage and increasingly threadbare supermarket shelves the Prime Minister has spent his party conference in a buoyant mood. There has been much talk of rising wages and a somewhat blasé dismissal of fretting about rising inflation.

Indeed, there has been a remarkable switch in the government’s rhetoric. A couple of weeks back government spokespeople were insistent that a shortage of lorry drivers and firms struggling to hire was nothing to do with Brexit. Now we are told that this is not only a consequence of Brexit but something to cheer. The ending of free movement of European workers will, we are now informed, force up wages and terms and conditions to draw Britons into roles previously filled by migrants.

But beyond noting the chutzpah of attempting to sell a shortage of lorry drivers as the herald of glorious new era for workers, how seriously should Johnson’s rhetoric be taken? If the government was genuinely following President Biden down the path of cheering wage rises, that would indeed be big news. But this is unlikely to be the case.

[...]

For all the rhetoric about the Conservatives reinventing themselves as the real party of British workers, the basis of Johnson’s electoral coalition remains a traditionally Conservative one:  older people who likely either own their home outright or are paying a mortgage.

It’s easy enough for such a party to bask for a few months in the warm glow of good real wage statistics. But, absent a material rise in productivity, a general increase in wages that begins to push up prices is another matter.

The casual chain that runs: faster wage growth – higher inflation – higher interest rates – lower house prices is not one the government’s current electoral coalition would welcome and is one the Treasury is very much alive to.

Better to think of Johnson’s speech today as part of his usual “politics of spectacle” than as a serious governing agenda or as part of a major shift in the UK’s economic paradigm.'

more at: https://duncanweldon.substack.com/p/how-serious-is-boris-johnson-about

This is smart IMO. If higher inflation is tackled via higher interest rates and an increased cost of borrowing, that necessarily means bond yields will rise, which may make bonds a more attractive investment than buy-to-let properties. In turn that could lead a drop-off in demand for houses, which could even lead to (shock) a decline in house prices. Far fetched? Maybe, but it's not unthinkable. And Weldon's other point is right - they have gone from denying there were any supply chain problems at all a couple of months ago, to 'well maybe there are problems, but they're nothing to do with Brexit' a month or so ago, to 'actually we were trying to cause wage inflation all along, this has always been part of the plan' over the last week or so. If anyone reading this believes that, I have some bad news for them*. The claim that they always intended to do this doesn't pass the smell test, and it's revealing that they're casting around for excuses.

Spoiler

*They've taken 'gullible' out of the dictionary

 

[bobzy]

On 07/09/2021 at 22:07, Davkaus said:

Shall we ban nice cars because some people have to get the bus?

The solution to housing problems is investment in social housing, not a frankly bizare and authoritarian landgrab and criminalisation of someone having a seaside weekend home. It's an outrageous suggestion.

Just listened to this - reminded me of our conversation.  Worth a listen (it's 5 mins long);.

"Buying a home can often be a big challenge – but in many areas it’s becoming increasingly tough just to rent somewhere. Official figures show that people in rural and coastal spots are being squeezed out of the rental market – because the pandemic has seen outsiders and holiday-makers snapping up properties in popular tourist destinations. In North Devon - there's been a 22% increase in house prices."

(Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09x2k4b)

[chrisp65]

The purchase of houses and flats in coastal communities for people that fancy a weekend place, a speculative purchase, a second home for the holiday season, or fancy dabbling in a bit of air b’n’b is out of control and needs punitive taxation.

It’s killing communities.

 

 

[Davkaus]

24 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

The purchase of houses and flats in coastal communities for people that fancy a weekend place, a speculative purchase, a second home for the holiday season, or fancy dabbling in a bit of air b’n’b is out of control and needs punitive taxation.

It’s killing communities.

 

 

I was reading about Pembrokeshire doubling council tax for second-home owners, and it's along the right lines but I'd probably go further than that.

Apparently what's happened in other areas is that people have decided to just make them holiday lets which means they pay business rates instead of council tax. I was surprised business rates would ever be lower than even double the council tax bill

[Rds1983]

2 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

The purchase of houses and flats in coastal communities for people that fancy a weekend place, a speculative purchase, a second home for the holiday season, or fancy dabbling in a bit of air b’n’b is out of control and needs punitive taxation.

It’s killing communities.

 

 

Having grown up in one of these areas and having a lot of family still down there, I feel like it's a catch 22 situation. House prices are too high compared to average local wages, but by far and away the biggest source of employment in these areas is usually tourism, as fishing and agricultural are dying. Tourism is often the only thing providing a lifeline to these communities and if you place restrictions upon it the communities will suffer more. 

You then have the separate issue that most of the larger local employers in these areas are now being bought out by national chains meaning the profits they generate don't even stay in the area. 

Edited October 7, 2021 by Rds1983

[chrisp65]

1 hour ago, Rds1983 said:

Having grown up in one of these areas and having a lot of family still down there, I feel like it's a catch 22 situation. House prices are too high compared to average local wages, but by far and away the biggest source of employment in these areas is usually tourism, as fishing and agricultural are dying. Tourism is often the only thing providing a lifeline to these communities and if you place restrictions upon it the communities will suffer more. 

You then have the separate issue that most of the larger local employers in these areas are now being bought out by national chains meaning the profits they generate don't even stay in the area. 

It’s really not catch 22, tourism is not a full time 12 months a year job and its very rarely a progressive career.

Jostling crowds in Mevagissey in July are not the sign of a vibrant diverse year round economy. When the biggest income is a part time job in tourism, the town needs something else, not more tourists hoovering up homes and turning them in to air b n b’s. It’s not a lifeline when it closes the local school. It’s not a lifeline when it puts homes out of the economic reach of the locals.

I’m not saying we stop tourism. I’m saying we stop some people having two homes where others don’t have one. We stop communities being dispersed for the convenience of the disposable barbecue brigade. 

[HanoiVillan]

Specifically he is alleged to have written:

'“My view is Covid is a loss maker for us, we just need to centre on white genocide […] because many of our white race are convinced about vaccines, but not about our replacement,” Wills is alleged to have written on a social media under a different name.

In another, he is said to have urged fellow members to “remember the 14 words”, a reference to the 14-word white supremacist slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”'

[PaulC]

22 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

It’s really not catch 22, tourism is not a full time 12 months a year job and its very rarely a progressive career.

Jostling crowds in Mevagissey in July are not the sign of a vibrant diverse year round economy. When the biggest income is a part time job in tourism, the town needs something else, not more tourists hoovering up homes and turning them in to air b n b’s. It’s not a lifeline when it closes the local school. It’s not a lifeline when it puts homes out of the economic reach of the locals.

I’m not saying we stop tourism. I’m saying we stop some people having two homes where others don’t have one. We stop communities being dispersed for the convenience of the disposable barbecue brigade. 

100% agree 

[Davkaus]

I think the greatest fear of people like that is that them and their families will be treated the way that they treat other ethnicities.

[Rds1983]

36 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

It’s really not catch 22, tourism is not a full time 12 months a year job and its very rarely a progressive career.

Jostling crowds in Mevagissey in July are not the sign of a vibrant diverse year round economy. When the biggest income is a part time job in tourism, the town needs something else, not more tourists hoovering up homes and turning them in to air b n b’s. It’s not a lifeline when it closes the local school. It’s not a lifeline when it puts homes out of the economic reach of the locals.

I’m not saying we stop tourism. I’m saying we stop some people having two homes where others don’t have one. We stop communities being dispersed for the convenience of the disposable barbecue brigade. 

You place the limits on tourism that have been suggested (punitive fees for owning properties) and people won't own them to let them out. Without them where do the tourists stay? You destroy the only industry that is keeping these towns alive. 

All you achieve is having a town that's dead all year round and huge amounts of economic flight as there's nothing else stimulating the economy. You end up with the towns like those 10 or 15 miles into Devon (and without the moors providing tourism) that are just empty shop after empty shop and closed schools as people move elsewhere.

It's very rare that anything else other then tourism wants to be in these towns to offer large scale employment. I'd love to hear examples of what else there is to provide full time progressive careers in these small towns as there isn't anything in Devon. It's why I, and several of my friends and family had to leave. 

The ones who stayed behind are reliant on tourism in one way or another. A few have social care but that's not enough on it's own to support a community.