That was so, so poor last night. The format is just wrong. Either the politicians need to be in soundproof controlled boxes or at least their mics need to be regulated by the chair. The poor chair had no control. I would have preferred the two in boxes, so they had an allotted time and they were silenced after that time ran out. B just seemed to constantly trundle on - and it becomes like a court and judge saying '...strike that from the record...' after the jury has heard what's been said. Pointless.
And I think the chair should be pointing out when the replies are factually incorrect. Not sure B's stance on the England/Ireland border was entirely correct. And J's paper evidence should either have been not allowed, or proven as accurate before he took it on the show.
The whole thing is 'debatable' eh? B's insinuation that his deal is the only deal - conveniently omitting that TM had a deal the HE voted down. And the delay he had a go at J over (as J is proposing getting another deal) - is no different to the delay he caused by voting down M's deal and then going back to the negotiating table. So either 'Just Get Brexit Done' means just that - and he should have voted for M's deal - OR - the deal does actually matter. Still haven't seen his deal costed either - or did I miss that?
I know I've said it before, but " there's not a single politician of any persuasion who deserves my trust, my respect or my vote" I've not seen or heard anything from any of them lately to revise that position. We seem to be in the fantasy land of " my magic money tree has more to give than anyone else's "
And the Tories promise they will plant 30 million trees every year despite the fact they've been supposed to do that anyway and have failed to meet the target every year they've been in power. There seems to be no plan in place for where most of these trees will go either. It's a blatant lie and they have no shame about it.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
and they've failed to meet their target or recruiting and retaining nurses, training and retaining doctors, stopping tax dodgers etc etc One of their spokesmen was on radio the other day and was challenged about why there weren't doing anything about google, facebook etc and their tax bills. " we're looking at ways ..... " then he went on to say David Cameron, George Osborne and Theresa May had " looked " at it too. Don't just "look at it" do something about it. No doubt they'll blame everyone else for the fact that they've done nothing about it even though they've been in government for 10 years. He went on to say if we made them pay more tax there was a risk they'd pull out of the UK market. I mean really???? If Amazon had to pay a fair level of tax , does anyone suggest they'd remove themselves from all their UK customers? Does anyone other than government spokesmen think that? Clearly the almost £2bn sales are of no interest to them??? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/02/amazon-halved-uk-corporation-tax-bill-to-45m-last-year If someone , or a company makes money in this country, they should pay tax here and not claim offshore status.
But wealth and power corrupt don't they - the more you have the more you want to keep. Wasn't it Blair, that after being PM, and on his tour as ambassador of something, earnt something like £12m and paid £300,000 in tax? As my socialist dad used to say, '...the working class can kiss my a****, I've got the foreman's job at last...' (sung to the Internationale).
I'm a conservative by nature (with socialist leanings), but this bunch of Tories are just wrong - we've gone from the 'unlawful' proroguing of Parliament, through dodgy faked video of KS to now 'fake' twitter feeds. And none of that was raised in the debate last night, even when there was a question on honesty. Trust dead-in-a-ditch Boris? Hmmmm. Trust Rees-Mogg's view of a 'great' Britain that has never existed? Even at the height of Empire, the poor were dying in slums and the Irish starved to death. What 'great' Britain do people talk about? The land fit for heroes that the veterans came home to 100 years ago? The post war 50's...60's...? The strikes and powercuts of the 70's...? Hasn't it been better for the common man since the 70's? Since Europe?
But technology is partly to blame - now we report as news things that are about to happen '...later today, blah will announce at the party conference....'. The parties use social media to judge the temperature of the water - and fake stuff to influence the voters. It's just about getting in power and staying in power and nothing to do with belief any more - well maybe not quite. The con of queues of foreigners coming into Britain that was a major referendum 'thing' - the threat of n million Turks coming into the country - how many parties are now back tracking on the numbers that we need to let in?
I'm still at a loss how multi-nationals get away with tax as well - surely tax is paid at point of sale - so if you sell in the UK, you pay tax in the UK - not in Bogota or wherever your accountancy company has found the lowest rates.
I think what gets to people in the Prince Andrew interview / situation is his apparent lack of understanding that it might (just might) have been a bad idea to stay with Epstein after he had been in prison for paedophilia. Sticking by somebody in the period before being found guilty is a totally different matter. Saying it was just a convenient place to stay just compounds the feeling that the guy hasn't a clue about the 'real world'.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I've not seen or heard anything from any of them lately to revise that position.
We seem to be in the fantasy land of " my magic money tree has more to give than anyone else's "
One of their spokesmen was on radio the other day and was challenged about why there weren't doing anything about google, facebook etc and their tax bills.
" we're looking at ways ..... " then he went on to say David Cameron, George Osborne and Theresa May had " looked " at it too.
Don't just "look at it" do something about it. No doubt they'll blame everyone else for the fact that they've done nothing about it even though they've been in government for 10 years.
He went on to say if we made them pay more tax there was a risk they'd pull out of the UK market. I mean really???? If Amazon had to pay a fair level of tax , does anyone suggest they'd remove themselves from all their UK customers? Does anyone other than government spokesmen think that? Clearly the almost £2bn sales are of no interest to them???
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/02/amazon-halved-uk-corporation-tax-bill-to-45m-last-year
If someone , or a company makes money in this country, they should pay tax here and not claim offshore status.
Is that what they think of us?!?!?!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.