Ed Balls Calculator

[tinfoilhat]

Not everyone who relies on government training courses has messed about in school. I've done two government training courses over 25 years apart and I'm educated past degree level. Both led to work. What you learn in school doesn't necessarily equip you for work especially with the advances in technology.

 

---------- Post added 23-09-2014 at 11:39 ----------

 

 

Yes you can. You can guarantee jobs in the NHS, armed forces, schools, etc, etc. Right-wing libertarians like you can't because you'd abolish the state.

 

---------- Post added 23-09-2014 at 11:41 ----------

 

 

They promised that last year or the year before and I've not read anything since, apart from your post, saying they can't do it. Provide evidence in a link then.

 

---------- Post added 23-09-2014 at 11:48 ----------

 

 

"Under the plan, 18 to 24-year-olds out of work for a year will be offered a taxpayer-funded job for six months - with those who refuse losing benefits.

 

Labour says it would pay for this by taxing bank bonuses and changing tax rules for the pensions of high earners."

 

On the radio this morning they were talking about an apprenticeship scheme parallel to higher education. That would seem to be different to the above.

 

"Among the six goals are plans to boost the take-up of apprenticeships until they match the numbers going to university."

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29310512

 

A lot of people on here moan about idlers not doing much to look for work. I wonder how many of them would also moan about a government providing employment schemes like the above.

 

Hold on, I thought forcing people into work or lose benefits was bad when Tories did it ?

 

I'll give ed the benefit of the doubt and say he's fine tuning his policy, detractors will say he's making up what ever he thinks the voters want to hear.

 

He is right about getting more people into apprentiships but a lot of things have to change. Firstly, make it ok for bright teenagers not to want to go to university. Right across the media and beyond you are looked down if you don't have a degree to the point it's a handicap, despite the fact it might not be really useful in your choice of career. Secondly, make apprentiships worth a damn with a decent qualification. Thirdly, up the standard of kids leaving school - too often it isn't very good - possibly because all the bright ones are going to university whether it's right for them or not.

[geared]

I never used to be a fan of a minimum wage, as I thought that the market would govern the situation.

 

However, now we have a situation where businesses refuse to trickle down profits, and the gap between the lowest and highest paid workers has grown beyond all reasonableness. This has led to lower paid workers wages needing to be topped up by the taxpayer so they can receive a liveable wage, then it does seem time for the government to step in and regulate what a minimum wage is.

 

pushing up the minimum wage then just puts pressure on the lower and middle income areas as the gap between them and the minimum decreases. that in turn angers the middle classes who see someone in McDonalds earning near enough the same wage as they do.

 

There needs to be a raise above the board or something, I'm not sure how tho.

Tax relief for people earning under a certain amount??

 

---------- Post added 23-09-2014 at 13:16 ----------

 

They promised that last year or the year before and I've not read anything since, apart from your post, saying they can't do it. Provide evidence in a link then.

 

Provide evidence of what exactly, I say they can't do it, I say they have not legal grounding in which to do it.

 

If you think they can legally freeze a free market like the energy market then the burden of proof is on you, not on me.

[L00b]

Under the plan, 18 to 24-year-olds out of work for a year will be offered a taxpayer-funded job for six months - with those who refuse losing benefits

Weren't the Tories (or other reactionaries...UKIP?) vilified for that sort of proposal (pick up litter and clean graffitis or lose benefits) not so long ago?

Labour says it would pay for this by taxing bank bonuses

That old chestnut...Like it will happen, or yield anything if it does

and changing tax rules for the pensions of high earners

A pension raid? They've got form, mind you

 

Not having a pop at you LeMaquis, but this is all just electioneering noises. For a man of supposedly 'vision', his plans are singularly lacking in originality and ambition.

[JFKvsNixon]

pushing up the minimum wage then just puts pressure on the lower and middle income areas as the gap between them and the minimum decreases. that in turn angers the middle classes who see someone in McDonalds earning near enough the same wage as they do.

 

There needs to be a raise above the board or something, I'm not sure how tho.

Tax relief for people earning under a certain amount??

 

Actually a raise in wages might not see some families earn more money, it just means that the state pays less benefits to them.

[ANGELFIRE1]

Is this the same Balls who almost single handed (helped by Brown) brought the Country to it's knees and almost bankrupted it.

 

Angel1

[Xt500]

Actually it's pretty ironic that Balls said Labour was the party of employment. I thought unemplyment actually rose between 1997 and 2010 when they were in power and has rather tumbled since. Aren't their more people in work in the UK now than at any time in our history?

 

No there isnt,they just call them something else or badger them off the books.

[Mecky]

Is this the same Balls who almost single handed (helped by Brown) brought the Country to it's knees and almost bankrupted it.

 

Angel1

 

How do you work that one out?

[Obelix]

For a man of supposedly 'vision', his plans are singularly lacking in originality and ambition.

 

IT's Labour's only pony trick. Tax the rich, spend like water. Socialism is great until you run out of someone elses money.

 

Except this time they screwed it up so badly that the previous Govt hasn't had time to get the finances sorted for them to actually have a large pot of other peoples money to spend. So they are looking a little foolish and flapping around a bit..

 

Looking at what they want to spend, and what they hope to raise there's an enourmous difference. I guess Ball's calculator comes with the same sort of inbuilt distortion field that Salmond was using when he worked out the oil price...

[geared]

I like his latest pledge:

"Give me ten years to fix the country"

 

I'm thinking: "

We gave you 13 years and you ruined it, GTFO"

 

Does anyone else wonder if the country isn't as 'broken' as politicians/the media make out??

[L00b]

Does anyone else wonder if the country isn't as 'broken' as politicians/the media make out??

I think it is broken in many respects (particularly socially), but not others, and that insofar as politicians/the media are concerned, their "broken" does not mean the same thing at all as the man in the street's "broken".