Bolitics The New Condem Government

[TrentVilla]

So Mr Clegg (remember him folks?) has remembered he is allowed an opinion of his own even if nobody is listening any more and he wants the government to increase the threshold on income tax because he wants a fairer approach to tax. He seems to forget he was part of the VAT increase despite his previous position on the matter before climbing into bed with Cameron.

Totally and utterly laughable from Clegg, how on earth does he expect people to take him or this supposed stance seriously?

Here

Nick Clegg will say later that he wants the coalition government to go "further and faster" in raising the pay level at which people start paying income tax to £10,000 a year.

The deputy prime minister will argue that many families are at financial "boiling point" and need more relief.

The coalition has promised to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000 by the next election, set for 2015.

Labour said Mr Clegg had "a cheek preaching about fairness and tax".

The deputy PM's speech to the Resolution Foundation in London follows official figures showing the economy shrank by 0.2% in the final quarter of 2011.

It also comes ahead of the Budget on 21 March, increasing speculation that changes to tax thresholds could be announced.

Left vs right

Mr Clegg will aim to set out a distinctive Liberal Democrat fiscal position by highlighting differences with the party's Conservative coalition partners.

He will say that those on the right in politics place "less of an emphasis on using the tax system to create greater equality".

He will also attack Labour by saying the "traditional left" supports a "penal rate on the highest earners, simply because it makes them poorer".

At the last election, the Lib Dems pledged to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000 a year and the coalition agreed to implement this policy over the course of this Parliament.

The income tax threshold was raised by £1,000 to £7,475 in the 2010 Budget, and the government plans to increase it further to £8,105 this year.

But Mr Clegg is expected to say: "Today I want to make clear that I want the coalition to go further and faster in delivering the full £10,000 allowance, because the pressure on family finances is reaching boiling point.

"These families have seen their earnings in relative decline for a decade, compared to those at the top. That has accelerated since 2008, with lower real wages and fewer hours at work."

He will argue that the coalition has raised capital gains tax and reduced tax breaks on pension funds "for the very rich", while "clamping down" on tax avoiders to raise an extra £7bn a year.

'Fair tax cuts'

Mr Clegg will also reiterate his commitment to the coalition's aim of ending the UK's deficit, but will promise to do so "in a way that is fair".

"People look to the Liberal Democrats to keep this coalition anchored in the centre ground. They want economic competence, but they want compassion too.

"It is our job to make sure this government delivers both."

Owen Smith, Labour's shadow Exchequer secretary, said: "This is the man who campaigned against a rise in VAT and then introduced it just after he got elected. And his government's Autumn Statement took three times more from families with children than from the banks.

"For the last year Labour has been arguing for fair tax cuts, such as a temporary cut in VAT, to help hard-pressed families and pensioners and kickstart our stalled economy. And we want to see a tax on bank bonuses at the top to fund 100,000 jobs for young people.

"Now that the economy has gone into reverse, these measures should be part of a real plan for jobs and growth in the next Budget."

[JulieB]

And we want to see a tax on bank bonuses at the top to fund 100,000 jobs for young people.

Nick Clegg is really having a laugh with that one!

ALL the coalition have done since they walked through the doors of No 10 is perpetuate a financial system that privatises gains and socialises (and globalises I might add) any losses.

If the powerbrokers don't come to their senses soon and stop the Nick Clegg style hollow rhetoric and actually DO something - We're either going to see a French style revolution complete with guillotines and lots of blood or more worryingly if ordinary people continue in their slumber and don't wise up real quick across the Western world - we might just all find ourselves - as one VT member who PMd me put it - "sleep walking into slavery" to our corporate masters under the banner of naked capitalism!

[PauloBarnesi]

The British generally don’t do revolution, riots yes, revolution no. We did it in the civil war and then promptly went back to the old system when the Lord Protector’s son proved not quite up to it.

I ve yet to discover the solution to the problem, so the notion of DO something, what is that? What is the Doing something that will solve our ills?

And who are the ordinary people? Is it defined by class? the money earned? education? political allegiance?

[JulieB]

The British generally don’t do revolution, riots yes, revolution no. We did it in the civil war and then promptly went back to the old system when the Lord Protector’s son proved not quite up to it.

I ve yet to discover the solution to the problem, so the notion of DO something, what is that? What is the Doing something that will solve our ills? And who are the ordinary people? Is it defined by class? the money earned? education? political allegiance?

No the UK don't do revolution normally - we just moan alot. However I was talking about across the Western World.

Doing Something - isn't that difficult IF the willingness and the backbone is there. To fix the domination of the financial system over the politicians problem ALL you'd need to do is exactly what Capital Hill did after the Wall Street crash of the 1920s - which is to tightly regulate derivative trading and what investment banks could get up to. They still had to deal with the ensuing 1930s depression, due to the crash, but at least they put in tight controls so that people's savings and pensions were protected.

Trust returned back into the system in the main and matters normalised overtime. Albeit a very rough overtime.

However in the last 2 decades regulation on derivative trading has been irresponsibly relaxed to such an extent that London & Wall St decided they would go into a competition for who could win "The World hub of finance Gold Medal" - London won under Blair & Brown - because the square mile now has the most unregulated betting shop environment of anywhere in the world. Cameron & Clegg have done NOTHING so far to rein it all in either.

I don't think people realise just how big these global corparates really are. Their balance sheets are bigger than many Soveriegn states.... and the RISKS are enormous.

The Credit Default Swap market that collapsed in 2008 was a multi trillion dollar market that absolutely dwarfed the entire global stock market in value. Investment bankers were earning billions in salaries and bonuses collectively but that market has largely contracted so they've moved on! However these guys know which banks and governments they sold these enormous bad debts - Collaterised Debt Obligations - CDOs (bundled loans) too. So they know where to attack.

Therefore to prop up their balance sheets and ensuing bonuses, they've turned their attentions elsewhere. They are now prepared to attack Government Bond yields and THAT debt. No one has ever seen that happen before.

The whole derivative market works on volatility. If currencies, stock markets and now government bond issues go up or down...the traders can take a punt on which way it's going to go...therefore it's in the investment banks interests to stoke up volatility, unrest et al and nervousness. The markets work on Fear and Greed!

These consolidated investment banks will take enormous amounts of risk, because they know at the end of the day they are so huge their governments have no choice but to bail them out.

ergo "PRIVATISE ANY GAINS... SOCIALISE ANY LOSSES"

Ordinary people are average Joe on the street - who doesn't understand what's happened in the Financial sector because it's ALL too complicated. Nor have the mass media informed the public in the main what's been going on neither.

The one's who have bothered to eductate themselves have been so incensed by what's happening that many have taken to demonstrating at the Occupy Wall Street followed by all over the US, London and across Europe.

Just go on you tube and watch "Inside Job" for starters which is a documentary version of the Film "Too Big to Fail". I'm not making this up or being paranoid or for that matter looking at "nut job websites". Do some research on what's happened to the assets of MF Global since it went bump last year and what JPMorgan have been up to.

Only yesterday John Hopkins Hanke Professor of Applied Economics publically stated that Greece is about to implode at the Bloomberg Sovereign Debt Crisis Conference in New York. ALL I've done over the past few days is explain exactly WHY Greece is about to implode.

What do you think is going to happen if and when Greece implodes? Actually none of us know...it may cause the Euro to collapse altogether and goodness knows what's going to happen as a consequence if it does.

But I know one thing... whatever happens... the predatory financial terrorists ARE and WILL be doing their best to make money on the backs of it! Because we've allowed them to become simply TOO big to FAIL.

[Demitri_C]

Labour was warned today that it would hand the Conservatives an "easy win" at the next general election by jumping on the austerity bandwagon at "just the point it seems to be coming off the rails".

Compass, a centre-left think tank, claimed the party's new economic direction made it look like Labour had "wholly accepted" Chancellor George's Osborne's fiscal strategy.

In a report out today it suggests that voters have "scant reason" to believe a future Labour government would be any different from the last.

The party also has little to show for its 18 months of opposition in terms of publicly announced economic policy, it adds.

It follows an admission by shadow chancellor Ed Balls earlier this month that Labour accepted the Government's public sector pay freeze and could not promise to reverse Coalition spending cuts.

Unfortunately for Labour the strategy hasn't worked so far - polls taken in the week since Balls' apparent change in direction have shown Labour slipping, with one poll giving the Tories a five-point lead.

The report, White Flag Labour? Fiscal policy for the UK's next progressive Government, warns the party not to accept the "fallacies of Osbornomics", seizing on today's dismal official figures confirming the UK economy shrank by 0.2% in the last quarter of last year as proof the Government's plans are failing.

It states: "Ed Balls' new strategy of accepting Coalition spending cuts as a fait accompli risks making it look like Labour has wholly accepted George Osborne's fiscal strategy - demoralising Labour Party supporters who are fighting against them while allowing the Conservatives to dictate the terms of the economic debate."

The report claims it would be "no surprise" if the Chancellor announced in 2014 that his plan to eliminate the structural deficit was being pushed back to 2020.

Labour has a "clear duty" to the British public to highlight the "manifest flaws" of the Government's economic management, it adds.

Economist Howard Reed, author of the report, said: "Given the trouble that the Coalition's deficit reduction programme has run into, it would seem ludicrous for Labour to jump on board the austerity bandwagon at just the point it seems to be coming off the rails."

Just click it

shows no matter who you vote for your gonna get screwed. anyone thinks it will be better under labour are kididng themselves. same shit different colour

[Chindie]

Parties generally are not in it for you.

Which is why the rabid support they get perplexes me.

[snowychap]

And we want to see a tax on bank bonuses at the top to fund 100,000 jobs for young people.

Nick Clegg is really having a laugh with that one!

That's a Labour policy and not a Lib Dem/Coalition one, I believe.

[JulieB]

And we want to see a tax on bank bonuses at the top to fund 100,000 jobs for young people.

Nick Clegg is really having a laugh with that one!

That's a Labour policy and not a Lib Dem/Coalition one, I believe.

Yes you are right I noticed afterwards that it was actually the labour party that are calling for this not Nick Clegg. There's about 1Million young people now unemployed IIRC in the UK so 100K is about 10%.

Another "Doing Something" could of course = if the UK Treasury ARE going to print money - involve giving some of the billions being put aside in quantative easing direct to the public or business instead of giving it to the banking sector via the bank of England. In the hope that people and business will spend more. GDP looks like it has fallen again - so the UK could well already be in another official recession.

But that's not part of the plan - We're the ones feeling the pain.... whilst the City are getting all the gain!

[TrentVilla]

And we want to see a tax on bank bonuses at the top to fund 100,000 jobs for young people.

Nick Clegg is really having a laugh with that one!

That's a Labour policy and not a Lib Dem/Coalition one, I believe.

Well Nick Clegg is quoted by the BBC as saying it.

[snowychap]

Well Nick Clegg is quoted by the BBC as saying it.

I thought they quoted Owen Smith?

[TrentVilla]

Well Nick Clegg is quoted by the BBC as saying it.

I thought they quoted Owen Smith?

Sorry you are right, I'd missed that important factor.

[snowychap]

Well Nick Clegg is quoted by the BBC as saying it.

I thought they quoted Owen Smith?

Sorry you are right, I'd missed that important factor.

He he. No probs.

Tbh, when I flicked through it first time, I thought the same as you and Julie (and that Clegg had adopted a Labour policy).

[TrentVilla]

Tbh, when I flicked through it first time, I thought the same as you and Julie (and that Clegg had adopted a Labour policy).

It would be a natural progression though, he has spent the last 12 months pretending he is a Tory...

[Chindie]

I wouldn't have thought Clegg would pick up any Labour policies - he doesn't need any help to be less popular .

[JulieB]

Zerohedge.com are talking about the price of Gold this morning

Continuing Negative Real Interest Rates Sees Gold Rise Above $1,700/oz

Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,713.00, GBP 1,091.10, and EUR 1,300.59 per ounce.

Yesterday's AM fix was USD 1,659.00, GBP 1,064.08, and EUR 1,277.04 per ounce.

Gold rose 2.5% yesterday and broke $1,700/oz to $1,712.80, its biggest one-day gain in the past 4 months, as the US Federal Reserve’s 11 out of 17 members voted that interest rates would likely remain near zero into late 2014.

Investors sought safe haven refuge into gold fearing their portfolios would lose value as Central Banks flood the markets with loose monetary policies and more cash for governments that can't seem to manage their balance sheets. A group of 7 major economies now have interest rates that average .5%.

Spot gold rose 2.7% to $1,710.44/oz by 4:33pm EST (21:33 GMT).

Technical buying also propelled prices after the metal broke above its 100 day moving average for the first time in 1-1/2 months.

Silver also rallied up 4%. Today's Comex February gold option expirations will show more activity in the gold markets. One trader stated that gold's gains on Wednesday could be due to a huge cover on a short position before today's option expiration.

[tonyh29]

Subway creating 6000 new UK jobs

that should help Poland's unemployment problems :winkold:

[TrentVilla]

I think you might have miss read the article, I believe it said 6000 new subs.

[JulieB]

This article and video explains why our economy is so reliant on debt and why the US & UK will/have been prepared to go to war keep the status quo in place that the US Dollar remains the World's Reserve Currency - otherwise it's valueless.

The 6 minute video explains what ALL of us need to understand IMO.

Fractional Reserve Currency: A Scam, A Pyramid Scheme

October 28, 2011

Fractional-reserve-currency-pyramid-scheme

Our current ‘fractional reserve’ currency system is DEPENDENT upon more debt in order to grow. It’s a statement that may sound crazy, but it’s true. If there is less debt in the system, the system itself becomes deflationary, and begins to collapse. Sick, isn’t it?

Every single dollar is borrowed into existence, and it’s owed back with interest.

Michael Maloney, CEO of GoldSilver.com, when speaking about the ‘fractional reserve’ currency system in the short video below, says…

“It’s a scam, it’s a pyramid scheme”

“We pay tax for the privilege to have currency”

“We are going to be experiencing greater changes in this decade than anybody has seen in their lifetimes”

“What your are going to see in this decade is going to be astounding

While reading comments from others regarding the ‘fractional reserve’ currency system, some say…

If there was a movement to ensure that all 8th graders (or high school seniors – or even college freshmen) truly understood what fractional reserve banking was, or how it operates in the real world, and the toxic consequences of its very practice, many would begin to question almost everything they had been told their entire lives, on the assumption that they were being told the truth.

Fractional reserve banking using inherently worthless fiat currency is the most cunning and destructive ruse that man has ever created.

It is not taught for a reason.

Fractional reserve banking as state doctrine is akin to having a system in place whereby all babies would be born pre-addicted to a potent drug, and then keeping them on that drug for the rest of their lives, withdrawing it or providing it in excess, depending upon what behavior The-Powers-That-Be wanted to induce from the populace.

Fractional reserve banking allows a handful of people to create a broken-willed herd of debt serfs.

…and it is extraordinarily efficient.

While I know that the present currency system “is what it is” and we have to operate within it, for now… it is educational to learn more about how this system of creating currency really works.

We can still individually choose to NOT participate by not taking on debt (or, ‘excessive’ or risky debt). NOT taking on debt will NOT feed the system. However, it may possibly lead toward more individual liberty, freedom, and independence while not becoming a debt serf-slave who is beholden to their financial masters (banksters).

I suggest thinking about ‘opting out’.

Money Survival Blog: Fractional Reserve Currency Scam

[tonyh29]

I think you might have miss read the article, I believe it said 6000 new subs.

coincidently I went on a diet beginning of the year and the one near my office has now closed down ..... and the owner of KFC is talking about having to pull his children out of private school

Edit:

also saw an article from last week that McDonalds is creating 2500 new jobs

appears our plan is to eat our way out of a recession

[drat01]

It seems that he cannot help but tell lies - Cameron telling more lies at PMQ re jobless

He claimed at PMQ

“There are more people in work today than there were at the time of the last election”

when the reality is totally different

Lies, Lies and Tory lies as usual