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192 comments
Brexit has given an extra shove to the UK's gradual slide over the past 15 years. Other countries are facing similar issues - but Global Britain is just that bit more World Class at going steadily backwards.
It's interesting (in a depressing way) that even the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury through the Osborne years now thinks maybe we could made better use of near-zero interest rates of much of that time, presumably to invest in infrastructure, social housing, skills, innovation - all of which would have generated sustainable positive economic, social and (if we chose) environmental returns over decades. Instead, we have living standards going backwards and 139,000 children in England in temporary accommodation.
Merry Christmas!
Oh well, at least the NHS is now thriving with the extra Brexit money given to it…
If only there had been someone or some group of people willing at the time to suggest that utilising zero % interest rates to invest in the public realm would have been a wise use of public money. Oh, hold on a minute...
Another example:
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/closing-youth-clubs-could-save-kc...
The local MP is Sir Robert Syms, Conservative. He and his cohorts are to blame not as they'd wish you to believe the wokarati, the LBGT community or those arriving on small boats. Use your votes wisely at the next election and vote tactically to get these awful people away from the levers of power
Are you insinuating that such a dignitary from the Nasty Party is unlikely to be an immigrant (or child of same), of non-heterosexual orientation or trans ... or even (clutches pearls) a vegan?!
It's not unknown for children of immigrants to gain success with the Tories, but they also seem the most likely to blame refugees for everything. It's very much climb the ladder and pull it up after yourself so no-one else can benefit.
You've got a generation raised on the welfare state
Enjoyed all the benefits and did just great
But as soon as they were settled as the richest of the rich
They kicked away the ladder, told the rest of us that life's a bitch...
- Frank Turner, "Thatcher Fucked the Kids"
Exactly.
The transfer of wealth to the boomers from subsequent cohorts is astonishing. It's well worth reading The Pinch by David Willetts (yes, he's a Tory but one with some brains, unlike the party's current incarnation).
It makes for some shocking reading.
It doesn't stop with the boomers, the older portions of gen X are virtually indistinguishable from the boomer generation in terms of wealth etc.
Until we get some redistribution of that generational wealth gap the ability if the country to pay for necessary public services will be sorely diminished.
From your suggestion elsewhere - isn't an inheritance tax an attempt to address part of that though?
It is but it doesn't work particularly well.
With the right accountant it's possible to avoid paying any inheritance tax at all, the wealthier you are the less likely you are to pay it. See the Duke of Westminster as a good example.
A reformed council tax would be essentially unavoidable, whoever owned the property would be liable for the tax be they a normal individual or an obscure blind trust registered in a tax haven.
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