Politics Today

[lamrobhero]

I believe the reality is that a truly socialist government will never get elected in the UK. The interesting thing is that in terms of
humour, music and the arts in general the Brits are quite non- conservative if not anarchic. Yet in daily life they are conservative with a small "c" and *compliant.They queue, they obey the traffic lights, they tend to vote Conservative rather than Labour.
The fact is we have to rid ourselves of Johnson, and only a centre-left party can achieve that. Blair knew that : Starmer knows it. First get power, then begin the genuine levelling up and meritocracy : it will never happen under Johnson

* Usually compliant, but some are fed up with all the on - off stuff and as predicted the longer restrictions are in place the less likely it is that everyone will comply

If by truly socialist you mean the goverment all powerful doing stuff for people then I agree. An agenda based on empowering people and ownership of the means of production by means of people's pension funds for example might have some traction. As I said the challenge is to translate socialism for the modern era.

 

[Alistair20000]

If by truly socialist you mean the goverment all powerful doing stuff for people then I agree. An agenda based on empowering people and ownership of the means of production by means of people's pension funds for example might have some traction. As I said the challenge is to translate socialism for the modern era.

Please flesh out your ideas on use of people's pension schemes. I am interested in this.

 

[Stuffy]

So really you'd prefer it if Germany was still divided and half of it was under the sphere of Russia (USSR)...

As for a Franco/German/Spanish Jet project or and whole EU project, Again i say this to you, We as a country voted to Leave, We have left, What the EU does now is nothing to do with us...

Did I say that? I thought I explained lucidly enough the journey that Germany has made over those few short years since the wall came down and the rapidly growing determination of the Franco/German pact to supply, militarize and lead the EU Forces - that's the part does concerns me. I daresay Putin has a good idea of the current military strength the EU could currently put in the field but would he sit on his hands and watch an evergrowing military presence and enemy command structure that could one day outmuscle his country? He certainly didn't hold back in the Crimea. I just wish people would understand the peace that postwar Europe has enjoyed is totally down to NATO and no other.

The French can build their aeroplane with my blessing - ably supported by German and Spanish gelt which is all the French ever wanted. Do you remember the SEPECAT Jaguar DB? France asked the UK to join them in a 2 x aircraft build programme whereby the French would have design leadership on the first project (the Jaguar) and the UK would have design leadership on the second which seemed reasonable enough. However, when the Jaguar build was completed the French immediately lost interest. That's the way the French mind works.

 

[Rosencrantz]

The only reason it will come up if Brexit goes belly up, If its deemed a success then it will be in the past, I am amazed that leave are so hell bent on the remain side of things when the Brexit arguement was over with the 2019 GE, Which everyone agrees, Mind the implemetation of it is getting tricky, Next big date is 31st Dec, Good job the fireworks have all been cancelled.

Yep, if it's all gone rather badly it will be dangerous for the current government to bring it up. If it's gone well, they might bring it up but do run the risk of a large amount of the general public going "FFS, not brexit again, I thought that was done".

 

[DB9]

Did I say that? I thought I explained lucidly enough the journey that Germany has made over those few short years since the wall came down and the rapidly growing determination of the Franco/German pact to supply, militarize and lead the EU Forces - that's the part does concerns me. I daresay Putin has a good idea of the current military strength the EU could currently put in the field but would he sit on his hands and watch an evergrowing military presence and enemy command structure that could one day outmuscle his country? He certainly didn't hold back in the Crimea. I just wish people would understand the peace that postwar Europe has enjoyed is totally down to NATO and no other.

The French can build their aeroplane with my blessing - ably supported by German and Spanish gelt which is all the French ever wanted. Do you remember the SEPECAT Jaguar DB? France asked the UK to join them in a 2 x aircraft build programme whereby the French would have design leadership on the first project (the Jaguar) and the UK would have design leadership on the second which seemed reasonable enough. However, when the Jaguar build was completed the French immediately lost interest. That's the way the French mind works.

NATO was there for Western Europe to combat any threat from the Warsaw Pact, It did a great Job IMO, Mind back during the Cold War we only had "One Enemy" To me its become too fractured and too big, With not enough countries pulling their weight. Putin wanted those Black Sea ports and with a EU friendly President in charge, Ukraine might have let the West use them, Which Putin couldn't allow.

As for the Jaguar Jet, All in the past mate. We won't be part of any EU Jet as we're not in it anymore.

 

[lamrobhero]

Please flesh out your ideas on use of people's pension schemes. I am interested in this.

• Compulsory that everyone has a pension fund.
• Base contribution from the Government 3% of GDP obtained by printing money plus the proceeds of Capital Gains Tax.
• Those in work pay a minimum percentage of their wage into a fund. The level determinded by the needs of the economy.
• Abolish tax relief on borowing whilst simultaneously abolishing tax on dividend income.

 

[Grecian2K]

Another "great benefit" of Brexit?

MSN

£184 Billion fleeing to Euroland. Pah! A mere bagatelle

 

[IndoMike]

Just to wind up Ali:

"A pledge to hit 500,000 coronavirus tests a day in the UK by the end of next month could be missed as vital chemicals and analysing machines needed to hit the target are “a few weeks” behind schedule, the body representing their manufacturers has said.
Boris Johnson has insisted the UK will hit the target by the end of October, up from about 260,000 capacity now, despite a number of problems including people told to travel hundreds of miles and delays in getting results back".

No surprise, I believe.

 

[elginCity]

Doesn’t that mean FOM and EU budget contributions?
I’m not sure any British political party would survive after taking the UK in to EEA/EFTA.

It would, but it’s a way out of this mess that ‘respects’ the will of the people; no EU membership and no customs union. Schengen could be an opt out. Brexitannia could crack on with its own global trade deals while retaining unfettered access to the lucrative single market next door.

We were founding members of EFTA, the door is open to rejoin.

Of course it’d be a hard sell to the dwindling Brexiter xenophobe types, but if it is working well in 4 years ? Brexit will have been delivered.

 

[Grecian2K]

We were founding members of EFTA,

Indeed we were. A fact that we were happy to celebrate at the time with a commemorative stamp issue!