The Sunday Times "Rich List"

[samssong]

Do you know what country I am resident in?

 

Well it is obviously not in never never land:rolleyes:

[Obelix]

No, despite some of the posters on here clearly inhabiting it!

[Staunton]

Do you know what country I am resident in?

 

 

The theme of this discussion is the Times Rich List here in the UK. The forum to which Obelix posts is particular to Sheffield, England. These are the pertinent points. My question to Obelix was related to reliance on state services. Obelix's continuing avoidance of this point leave us to make up our own minds on the question.

 

The rich get richer, as the 2017 Times Rich List yet again makes clear. Meanwhile schools, the NHS and Social Care, the services that most UK citizens rely on for their health and education, are being systematically drained of resources, and their staff subjected to demoralising pay cuts clearly demonstrated in the tory freeze on pay for nurses and teachers at rates below inflation.

 

If you have children, or grandchildren, nephews or nieces, friends or neighbours who are still at school, ask yourself if you believe they should suffer an 8% cut to their education whilst the billionaires laugh into their vintage pink champagne?

[Obelix]

And Stauntons continual harassment of someone not even RESIDENT in the UK shows that his overriding objective is to stifle reasonable debate and to enforce his own will on others.

 

I refer you Staunton back to my points as raised. Are you going to debate civilly?

[Staunton]

And Stauntons continual harassment of someone not even RESIDENT in the UK shows that his overriding objective is to stifle reasonable debate and to enforce his own will on others.

 

I refer you Staunton back to my points as raised. Are you going to debate civilly?

 

I think we would be interested to hear whether Obelix has any need to depend on the state (wherever that residence happens to be) for basic services such as education and health.

 

Most of us, most residents here in Sheffield, most people in the UK, have no choice but to look to the state for our education, schools for our children, for our health needs.

 

We have just a few weeks before the most important election in many years. This is likely to be our last chance to save the NHS, our final opportunity to say no to the destruction of the education system upon which over 90% of us rely.

 

Think very carefully before deciding how you are going to act on June 8, make sure you do not vote against your own interests. See through the hype - ask yourself if the Sun or the Daily Mail really care about state schools or NHS hospitals?

 

Have you ever heard the BBC or Sky News outline the neoliberal agenda? Of course not, they don't even use the word. They don't want us ordinary folk informed about such things, they prefer our ignorance. They are not going to help us to make sense of the fundamental questions of our time because they have vested interests to promote and their journalists have career ambitions to pursue.

 

Let's think for ourselves, let's all exercise our right to vote, and let's all vote for a defence of the services upon which most of us are entirely dependent.

[Grietje]

'BRITAIN’S wealthiest people are richer than they have ever been with a combined fortune of £519bn — equivalent to a third of the nation’s annual gross domestic product.

 

As people have seen their wages fall in real terms, The Sunday Times Rich List 2014, published today, reveals that the 1,000 richest men and women have surged to new heights with their wealth rising by 15.4% on last year’s total of £449bn.

 

It means the wealth of the top 1,000 has doubled since the crash, rising from £258bn in 2009. Philip Beresford, who has compiled the list since 1989, said: “I’ve never seen such a phenomenal rise in personal wealth as the growth in the fortunes of Britain’s 1,000 richest people over the past year.” '

 

Source: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/article1412257.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2014_05_17

 

It's not difficult to work out why. My own pension savings jumped by a similar percentage, which is down to the drop in the value of the Pound post-EU referendum and the continuing bullish stock market.

[Obelix]

I think we would be interested to hear...

 

 

...are you going to debate civilly?

[Staunton]

...are you going to debate civilly?

 

Let's ask Obelix a civil question.

 

Obelix, I wonder if you would like to tell the forum whether or not you support Teresa May's 8% cut in state education?

[Obelix]

Start a new thread if you want to debate things off topic....

[Staunton]

Start a new thread if you want to debate things off topic....

 

Obelix has refrained from indicating any personal dependence on state services such as health or education.

 

Now Obelix would prefer not to indicate any opinion on the 8% cut in funding for our schools.

 

Supporters of neoliberalism will always seek to suggest that things are fine for ordinary people when indicators patently demonstrate otherwise, as the latest Times Rich List so clearly shows. The richest 1000 people in the UK have added another £139 billion to their fortunes since I began this topic in 2014, taking their combined wealth to £658 billion. Meanwhile public services such as the NHS, education and social care have all been driven into funding crises by the ideologically motivated austerity policies of the conservative party.