Thursday 29 January 2015

David Cameron: Don't underestimate him

David Cameron: He's a ruthless man - Polly Toynbee

13 comments:

  1. A predictable Guardian standpoint. Far too subjective to be credible. On the EU, David Cameron has merely opened the door to debate over the issue, he has not clarified which side he is on. Anyway, the EU as a whole is facing large structural changes that will most likely shift the European consensus further left wing than even red Ed, as proven by the rise of Syriza and Podemos. The increase in internal nationalism started under Labour with devolution in the 90's and was enhanced by the recession, yet was not even considered by the video. Also, our economy is growing far faster than any in Europe, along with having the lowest level of unemployment since 2008, when was that mentioned? This video would be far more credible if it weighed up his successes to his failures, anyone can put up a video highlighting the questionable flaws of a politician, like this one http://youtu.be/jlTggc0uBA8
    or this one
    http://youtu.be/CfRHhSUhz4c

    One must consider whether you would rather have a government that lets people spend more of their money how they like or a labour coalition that taxes its people to death and wastes it by spending it frivolously on feckless civil servants and other public service nonsense

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    1. You make some clever, insightful comments. Though your 'optimism' on the potential growth of the radical left may be overstated. Entertaining video's but are they not just crude party propaganda Boris?

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    2. Boris,

      The definition of subjective is "based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions" (Oxford dictionary). The fact that there are more people than ever are using food banks under Cameron's government is not an opinion. It is reality. The fact that there are 100 000s more children in poverty under Cameron's government than under the Labour government is not a personal view. It is reality. He may have had some successes which the video failed to mention such as legalising gay marriage, bringing down unemployment and cutting the deficit. However, the video also failed to mention Cameron's nefarious links with the Murdoch empire, his decision to sell arms to countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel, his decision lower corporation tax while furiously cutting money going toward those who need it the most or even selling off the Royal Mail as well as parts of the NHS for disproportionately low amounts. Frankly, he got off lightly in the video.

      On the EU, you argue that Cameron has "opened the door" to the issue. This is not his achievement. His spinelessness has meant the racist (bongo bongo land), homophobic (the gays caused the floods) and misogynistic (there are too many scandals to choose from) UKIP and some ancient Conservative backbenchers forced him to promise a referendum he never planned on having.

      Moreover, the "public service nonsense" you refer to is immeasurably important to the country and Cameron has failed to competently deal with it. Housing support has been cut by 38% (London School of Economics, 2015), the over-65 demographic has risen hugely yet he has cut spending for that demographic by 13.4% (London School of Economics 2015) and many of our most important public sector workers such as firemen, policemen, NHS workers and teachers are absurdly underpaid.

      One must consider whether you would rather have a government that advocates the suffering of those at the bottom in order to benefit those at the top as well as being led by an incompetent leader who is in the pocket of corporations as well as China and the US or simply deciding to stop blindly supporting rotten and ineffective parties in electoral system that forces the country to choose between two substandard parties.

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  2. You make a genuinely compellingly case. Lenin 1 Boris 0, is that a knock out blow or does Boris have a rebuttal?

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  3. Firstly, it would certainly be prudent to say that Toynbee's remarks were 'influenced by personal feelings' or she would not have pursued the task of orchestrating such an enlightening video. With regards to food banks, it must be duly noted that the number of food banks have risen since 2010 with only 22 in the UK in 2007 and over 100 by early 2011. However to blame such a conundrum on the Conservative party alone is erroneous. The reason for such a surge in food banks is due to the sombre situation the Conservatives inherited in 2010 following the most catastrophic recession in recent history which was nurtured by the same individuals that left a memo in the Treasury urging the new inhabitants not to bother looking for any money because they'd taken the liberty to spend it all. This matter can be correlated with the 100,000,000,000 of children currently living in poverty. The current poverty line for a couple with one child in the UK is £13,314 per annum. I’m sorry, but there in a house, with a roof, and they have access to a doctor and a hospital. What’s more, their street has lighting and if one of them has a problem, they can call on a police force to help them out. Poverty? They simply don’t know the meaning of the word. There a far too many people in this country sitting in front their plasma TV's (courtesy of the government), expecting David Cameron himself to come round with a bucket of KFC.

    Apart from anything else, the minimum wage has been steadily increasing year on year since 2010, rising from £6.31 last year to £6.50 as any increase in wages must reflect improved productivity which has certainly been growing.

    With regards to Cameron's 'nefarious' links with Murdoch (fail to see how this association is criminal in any way), such a friendship between a politician and the tycoon is no new thing. Tony Blair is the godfather to Grace Murdoch, the elder of the two daughters of Rupert. Former spin doctor Alistair Campbell has publicly stated that Murdoch was crucial to Labours victory in 1997. Not to mention Milliband's attendance to Murdoch's garden party in 2011 oh and his crude pose with a Sun newspaper, so i don't think we need any more supercilious lecturing on that. You also fail to mention the inseparable relationship between Milliband and the trade unions.Without the trade unions, Ed Miliband would not be an aspiring prime minister. But for the intervention of the “brothers” – in the shape of the trade union bosses – it would be his Blaire sibling David,getting ready to fight the next general election. At the last election, they gave £14 million to the party, more than 50 per cent of donations.

    In terms of supporting Israel, its important that since we played an integral role in aiding the formation of Israel that we continue to assist Israel in its attempts to defend itself from a vast array of neighbouring countries one of which (Iran) has openly completely denied the holocaust ever occurring and most of which would wipe the country clean off the map if they were given the chance.

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  4. This concept of 'furiously cutting money going towards those who need it most' is an interesting concept. From April, people can earn £9,440 before paying income tax. Under Labour, this personal tax allowance stood at just £6,475. As a result, 24 million taxpayers have seen their income tax cut. Two million of the lowest paid have been taken out of paying tax altogether. Those earning the minimum wage have seen their income tax halved.I would say that is somewhat helping those who 'need it most' and privatising Royal Mail has increased employee share ownership.

    I agree that UKIP are a bunch of plebs that should not receive one scintilla of power in the next election. However, your characterisation of Cameron offering a referendum on Europe as a negative thing is quite concerning considering the latest poll with over 15,000 participants has stated that 8 out of 10 people want to leave the EU and 9/10 want a referendum. Cameron is the only person who can administer such a promise so to describe such a move as a bad thing is frankly undemocratic.

    With regards to the public sector, there are now 190,000 new affordable homes, The "right to buy" your council flat has been reinvigorated. The discount for council tenants has been boosted to as much as £75,000. Moreover, the over 65 demographic who are currently subjected to the 55% 'death tax' will now receive on average over £15,000 more over the course of their retirement due to the triple lock scheme (department of work and pensions). The abolition of the 55% inheritance tax will allow the over 65 demographic who have worked and saved all their lives to be to able to pass on their hard-earned pensions to their families. I'm afraid your information on police pay is incorrect as, similarly to teachers in the public sector, performance related pay has actually rewarded individuals with higher pay based on their merit and teaching ability, rather than just turning up.

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  5. It is the Labour party's belief that all of life's ills can be solved by obliterating the wealthy...Britain’s wealthiest 1% pay almost a third of all the income tax received by the Treasury. But still Miliband wants them to cough up more. And the electorate may well decide he should get it. Which will cause the rich to move elsewhere, which will cause tax receipts to go down, not up (see France for details). It has been acknowledged that even if you confiscated the assets of the Duke of Westminster (worth 8.5 billion) and gave them all to the NHS, it would be gone in less than a month. This does nothing more than highlight the fact that by alienating the wealthy you are doing nothing more than distorting the generators of this countries wealth.

    It is fascinating that you would perceive Cameron to be an 'incompetent leader' when compared with an individual who does not even have the support of those in his own party and who 'is in the pocket' of the unions. If you still consider the Conservatives to be rotten and ineffective and genuinely believe that by changing the electoral system you will relieve the nation of the two substandard parties and pave the way for the inspirational and revolutionary likes of UKIP, the Greens, the libs dems (if they still exist after the election) and the BNP than you may be more troubled than I initially anticipated.

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  6. Quite the response Boris, though I'm not sure Labour plan to solve the country's ills by 'obliterating the wealthy...' You make an excellent case and whilst your point about the Duke of Westminster has merit, what about dealing with corporate tax avoidance which according to some costs the UK £80 billion per year http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/tax-evasion-spirals-to-more-than-80-billion-a-year-new-figures-show http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/11/tax-avoidance-justice-network

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  7. Boris, thank you for your comments. It's certainly very touching that you took the time to write over a thousand words of rebuttals to my points, whether it is driven by your bordering on fetishistic adoration for Cameron or your rejection of the ideas of compassion and support, I appreciate your contribution to this debate.

    First you make the point that all the use of food banks and the rise of children in poverty isn't Cameron's fault. This is poppycock. The crash hit in 2008, two years before Cameron got into power yet there were less children in poverty and less people using food banks per annum than under Cameron. This clearly shows that Cameron neglected the issues surrounding the poorest in society (surprise, surprise). And I also take umbrage at the idea that it was purely the Labour government's fault that the recession happened. The recession happened worldwide, not just in the UK which shows there's more at play than just Gordon Brown's leadership. On the topic of benefits, your nightmares about legions of benefit scroungers taking over Britain are merely the result of Cameron scaremongering you. There is only a tiny amount of people exploiting the system and that problem cannot be tackled by making everyone suffer by cutting benefits but instead Cameron should focus on improving the organisation of the benefits system.

    On the EU, your assertion that of a 15 000 person sample, 8 out of 10 people wanted to leave, was dubious to say the least. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_referendum_on_United_Kingdom_membership_of_the_European_Union#2015 This article lists all national polls taken by reputable sources, not only have none of the polls included a sample as large as 15 000, but none of them have even near 8 out of 10 of people supporting leaving the EU. In fact the majority of the polls suggest that the electorate want to stay in the EU. Cameron is not the paradigm of democracy, he is a weak leader who was bullied into a referendum.

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  8. And though the minimum wage is slightly rising, many young people are forced into exploitative zero-hour contracts which make making a living far more difficult. If they don’t agree to the zero-hour contract, they have their benefits removed so it leads to a bizarre catch-22 where you either don’t work and starve to death or you are kept barely afloat in a limbo which means the worker earns enough to survive but not enough to actually progress.

    On Israel, I would love to debate you over numerous war crimes that Israel has committed but let’s not cause any more controversy in this comment section.

    And when it comes to the income tax being cut for low-earners, I fully support it. However, this was not Cameron's doing, it was the Liberal Democrats. It has become apparent that in the run up to elections, Cameron has been passing off Liberal Democrat reforms as their own. I would be disappointed in Cameron if I actually found him likable.

    On the public sector, the ‘right to buy’ scheme is one that’s been around for decades (first appeared in the 1959 Labour manifesto, I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear) and it is notable that it has helped some to buy homes but 190 000 (no idea where you got the number from but let’s go with it) homes does not fix the problem of the soaring property prices that Cameron faces. He boasts of the deficit being cut but the property market is in a horrific position with over 400 000 streets with the average house price of over £1 million (source- Land Registry). On the topic of teachers and policemen, performance related pay is a flawed idea. It encourages teachers to prioritise those more likely to get good grades at the expense of those who need support. And even if the system was fair, they are still paid a disproportionately small amount.

    Mr Thomas has already pointed out how hysterical your argument about Labour is (especially since they’ve pledged to continue austerity). But I’m slightly disappointed that you decided to spend your time criticising Miliband when that’s the equivalent of stealing candy for a baby. He’s got the charisma of brick and is mocked by not only the nation but his own party. However, your comments about Miliband only serve to prove my point. Why the hell should we settle for him as a leader? Why the hell should we settle for the spineless, unrelatable and incompetent Cameron? Why the hell should we settle for a coalition we didn’t vote for? The running of the nation is at stake so why are we so happy to accept sub-standard government? It is time for change. Cameron, Clegg, Farage and Miliband shouldn’t have a place in the spotlight, we deserve better.

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  9. 1. Please keep the debate fraternal. 2. Remember I am trying to be devils advocate, so please dont quote me to back up your argument

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  10. I think calling the leader of the fastest growing economy in the West incompetent is a fairly poor argument.
    Don't think theres much point arguing about public sector anymore as Hunt looks as though he's summarised Labour's attitude towards the teaching 'INDUSTRY' in 1 tweet http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/02/02/tristram-hunt-twitter-teachers-stop-moaning_n_6592562.html

    .....not very robin hood esque if you ask me, oh well, just under 100 days to the election and they've already ballsed up..I guess time will tell how many more people will begin to realise how much of a bunch of incompetent plebs the labour party truly are.

    and heres the EU poll.. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/553241/80-per-cent-Britons-leave-EU-poll-reveal

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  11. Boris,

    I feel like you've spectacularly missed my point. We have politicians like Hunt that openly insult those they are meant to support. We have politicians like Cameron and Miliband who get into bed with Murdoch who ran an illegal phone hacking scandal under the knowledge of many in Westminster. We've got Farage who comes from the city but pretends to be a 'man of the people' while his party victimises those in society like immigrants and the LGBT community. We've got Clegg whose tuition fee promises never came to fruition. We’ve got Cameron whose quantitative easing has led to 40% of the government assets within the country to lie in the hands of the top 5%. It is almost criminal how complacent we are in letting these cretins rule over us! Our wealth, happiness and future are in the hands of those in government; let’s not just discard it so the status quo is kept.

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