Thetownend.com

I like the rabble rabble noise in the background. Cheers me up.

Also, yay charging on carrier bags and road pricing. Common sense really.

Im watching this too Ben.  The carrier bag scheme thing was comical, especially the response he got.

Talking of emissions, I wonder if those MP's are willing to give up their fuel guzzling flash motors in aid of the environment?

11p on my fags!!! Fuck off.

4p on a pint. Cunt.

and on a litre of cider.

Fags going up. Who'd have thought it.

Has he done alcohol yet? I fear for you Ben.

edit: Doh, you answered it before I posted.

4p per pint of beer.

Bastard.

I also like the way he keeps giving someone the stare of death.  8)

I think he's sexy.

I was hoping for a take from the rich and give to the Ben tax.

Poor form.

they could cut taxes by huge amounts if they stopped giving hand outs to the scum of our nation.
oh but the pc brigade will keep fighting the low lives corner,whilst complaining about the cost of living.
 :evil:

why are carrier bags suddenly the latest most evil thing in the world ?  If it wasn't for supermarket carrier bags I'd have to buy more bin bags.

I also reckon alistair darling has ginger pubes, he's aiming for a full set with his hair and eyebrows

In my line of work, people who receive benefits/jobseekers are far better off with the discounts etc. they get.

I hate having to discuss with people who have worked hard all their lives that they aren't allowed any reductions if they have a pension and have never claimed a penny.

Carrier bags are useful.  I put a jellyfish in one in Turkey.

Hehehe, Radio4 have just cut off nasty angry toryman to talk to pub owners.  8)

:mrgreen:

Nah, most people are just trying to do there best in the world. Loads of these hand-outs are on cool stuff like child benefit. Anyway, scum floats to the top.

Has he done petrol yet! If he puts another 2p on top i will be furious!  :x

I think he should double petrol for non work use.

 :roll: I think they should double the price of fags.

if people cannot afford to breed then they shouldn't be firing out kids at the rate they do, and expect the tax payer to feed and put a roof over their heads.
child benefits for the unemployed should be abolished, and help for working familys should be increased.
the balance is all wrong as it is at the moment.

Yeah let's let every baby and toddler fucking rot because it's their fault they were born. You've got kids get a grip.

Petrol raise has been put off to October.  2p rise in Oct, then anothe 1/2p rise in 2010.

4p on pint of beer
3p on litre of cider
55p litre of spirits
14p on bottle of wine.

Plus guaranteed rises on alcohol above inflation for next 4 years.

David Cameron's response (including humiliation of Ed Balls) was superb.

Income tax change including abolishment of 10% starting rate band, is still going ahead, but not even mentioned in speech.

You'll never understand the common people ....

you'll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there's nothing else to do.

You have some fair points but will get slated on here, every person in teh UK should be made to work on community projects for their dole etc

My last comment came across a tad strong, I don't care that much.

yes i have kids and have worked my arse off to keep them.i got no help and had to support the home on my wage alone.
i am all for benefits for the right people. but the system is abused and i'm sick of funding it.

I don't think the way of solving the problems of a poorly educated underclass is to confound them into a cycle of poverty. Yes there is a balance, but you've also got to make an effort not to shut off options for these people to break out. You also have to educate people about these options and raise their expectations on life.

The problem isn't that life on benefits is all wonderful and joyous. It's not that fun and you don't get that much money. It's that people don't know that you can live a better life by working. Mainly because they never experience it.

"You have some fair points but will get slated on here, every person in teh UK should be made to work on community projects for their dole etc"

Not comparing you to such a man, but didn't Hitler introduce this in Nazi Germany?  It was one of their policies that the unemployed should work for the good of the country to earn their keep.

Want aware of that but if true the man had some visions correct (not teh gassing and other things) but seriously we have parks, towns, roads that need clearing, schools need painting etc.  The amount of poeple on sick, or on this or that benefit will one day finish this country

there are plenty of opportunitys for everybody to get on in britain today.those that dont either cannot be bothered or are better off on the dole firing out kids and living off the tax payer.
the exeptions to that of course should be looked after.some people cannot help what life has thown at them and i would welcome them being supported. but the system is so flawed its an absolute disgrace what going on

Haha then dole money would have to be more, unless you make them do only 7 and a half hours a week = 1 day of work.

You know I have to agree with alot of Arribas points  
but Ben - thats the most thought out argument for the other side Ive heard recently

The generation now are the children of children and are growing up with no respect for anyone and the attitude that the world owes them a living.

One thing that annoys me is the amount of Tax I pay on my second job - Im trying to work hard to support myself and make a better life yet its hardly worth my while.

we have been putting the world to rights in the office this afternoon!  8)

You would like this then

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=528630&in_page_id=1770

actually don rogers, if those polish familys have parents paying into the pot here in taxes then i dont have a problem with it at all.
i'd rather they got child benefit than scummy brits who bleed the system like they do.

I'm with arriba on this one. I'm married with 3 kids - wife stays at home to look after the 3 kids. Never had a day on the dole in my life. I'm sick of paying for bloody parasites whose only purpose in life seems to be to breed increasingly more violent parasites. Those who have a disability that prevents them working then we have a collective responsibility to look after them. Immigrants who contribute to society - no problem with them. Its the bloody indigenous layabout bastards that I have a problem with.

Totally agree, 100%

Did anyone see the program last nite on beeb2? Was saying about poles working in peterboro earning £25k+ per year picking butternut squash. They asked people outside the job centre how desperate they were for a job, most said very but refused to do that job. One even said he got paid more (£7 ph) being on the dole!

Pissed me right off.

But there are also people out there with skills looking for jobs who claim dole money.

Someone I know very well did this a couple of years ago and claimed dole money for about a month or so. He then found a job and has since moved on to a better paid job (which in turn means he contributes more taxes and NI).

A better administered benefits system which is harder to exploit is what is needed.

NI rates haven't changed for years, which is what supports the benefits system.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/white/poles.shtml

£7 per hour on dole is wrong. It works out at nearer £1.40 per hour on average

actually I've just had a brilliant idea... I'm off to tescos to pick up as many carrier bags as I can get.  When they start charging 5p for them I'll stand out side sainsbury's and flog tesco's ones for 2p.

 :goodpost:

As i posted somewhere else

Would it not make sense to get people on benefits to work for their money via the council, this way we save cash on council workers and we give the unemployed routine and confidence to enter the workforce?

If you think living on £70 week is a bonus or a nice career I think you should try it, that £70 has to pay part for your rent, your bills, your food and even thing else you need. So I would imagine that being unemployed is not quite so nice as the right wing suggest.

If this country invested cash in helping working class kids find direction via schools it would help a great deal. I mean why not have more job training in schools as part of GCSEs, if a child is going to get Es & Fs in History or Art then why not get them to train in a career in social health or plumping? or at the very least something to give them encouragement when they enter the workforce.

I am not saying that all these kids are angels but 95% of them just lack direction, and to judge them against Polish immigrants who only come here to money is a little strange, how about we do a program about poverty in Poland and see what their youth are like? Neo Nazis groups are a problem as well as unemployment.

plumping ?

Can you get a certificate for that ?

I write the longest essay i have ever done and you pick me up on Plumping .

Hard to please  :D

:mrgreen:

Roll on Election day. Labour will lose by a landslide at the moment.

Their key policies at the moment seem to be

- tax the ordinary working person / family to death.
- Igonore the super rich
- pretend that inflation to the average person / family is running at 2%. It isnt. Has anyone in goverment looked at their petrol / domestic fuel / food bills recently?  have they fuck.
- give the money to the underclass of society who have little or no desire to contribute to society under the guise of "eradicating child poverty"
- wastfully spunk millions on public services that show no sign of actual improvment after 10 years of heavy investment.

Tax & spend. Its the same old Labour story.

trouble is colin, i cannot see a workable alternative.the torys are a joke as are all the other parties.
we have to pick the best of a very bad bunch, and i cannot do that at the moment.
proportional representation is the only way forwwrd imo

Ooops I forgot

- bring in a raft of new "green taxes" these are just like normal taxes but you are supposed to feel better about them.  Despite the fact that they wont change behaviour, just generate revenue. And despite the fact that the UK's carbon emmisions are just a drop in the ocean. The UK dropping its emmisons by 10% overnight would make fuck all difference on a global scale. We are a small island.

- Pretend that raising tax on beer by 4p and wine by 16p is somehow going to affect "binge drinking" culture. It wont. If you added 50p to a pint the same people would go out at the weekend and fight, vandalise etc. Its pure revenue generation.

ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH   WANKERS!  :evil:

Not forgetting that they blatantly lied to the British electorate by failing to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution

although I also hold those spineless abstaining shirt lifters at the Lib Dems partialy responsible for that.

I would also add royally buggering science research funding, dropping our international partners on big projects in the financial brown stuff and generally making us a laughing stock around the world .  Then wonder why there aren't many science teachers and why students don't want to do science in further education.

Oh and anually erroding the content on school curriculum's in order to artificially raise exam results to the extent that a first year degree course is what you used to do in O-levels 25 years ago (sorry for anyone at school/college at the moment, its not your fault !).  Forcing as many kiddies as possible into irrelevant degrees, making then pay a grand a year for the priveledge before setting them up for a careeer in a call centre, then wondering why you can only get polish brickies/plasterers/sparks etc, etc.

and invading Iraq to blatantly secure a supply of oil for the yanks - costing billions and countless lives, then let petrol go over a quid a litre anyway, piss off most of the middle east in the process and forget to buy some working guns for the poor bastard squaddies you send to deal with it.

following a disingenous twat of a leader with a fat disingenuous scottish twat and generally wasting the last ten years

genf, war makes money. The longer the better and more profitable. It's an amusing situation because i suspect the UK economy doesn't benefit quite so much as the FED does. We may as well just post taxes to the yanks.

14p on wine eh. Bastards.

if they were really serious about binge drinking they'd put arsenic randomly in every fifth can of stella..  actually they probably would

I'm with you on this Bushey

This is fucking outrageous, the total cunts.

Not that surprising about the increase on wine, wine is dirt cheap anyway.


The increase on a pint of beer at your local pub ... well thats different, in a few years time the term 'the local' will be a thing of the past.

This country we call England ...

I was laughing so much driving home listening to David Cameron this afternoon I almost crashed  :-))(

The problems in the country are so deeply rooted in poor governments over many years. Its easy to criticise New Labour for all the problems now, but they inherited a country in a shit state after 18 years of Conservative rule.

After spending the last three years living overseas, I am so glad to be back. NOT. Frankly I wonder what is happening in this country. I have discovered so much utter incompetence and such poor customer service over the past six weeks, I am at the point of just jacking in my job and fucking off overseas again. This country sucks, and a change of leadership will be so superficial as to make no fucking difference whatsoever.

:goodpost:   Same here.  After having just moved back here, I am thinking I've made a bit of a fuck up!

I wish you would fuck off back to America or stop winging about how everything is so shit in this country  :wink:

Unfortunately, my decision to return wasn't mine. More a case of my employer saying "Thanks, you've done your three years son, now stop wasting taxpayers money and go home". And then proceed to make my transition back to the UK (which consequently also involves a move of house within the UK) even more fucking difficult by insisting all my worldly possessions can only be moved to my house in Cambridgeshire, and not Windy Super Mare. Fucking incompetent Bean Counters  :twisted:

I'm here for 3 reasons:

1. Make the most of watching STFC.

2. Adopt children.

3. Get as much appropriate job related training (all funded by the Company) so that I become a more marketable commodity within the USA, and then fuck off back there permanently.

Its a four year plan.....and its better than anything New Labour has to offer......

Winston Churchill once said something along the liens of.

"Democracy is the worst form of government in the world, except for all the others"

I can't confess to have followed politics in the U.K. that closely and having not  even been there for over 8 years now I may be a bit wide of the mark, but what Sir Winston was getting at is that not everybody can be made happy.

As a smoker and I drinker I agree with taxes been raised in tobbacco, although social and economic implications should be taken into account in regards to alcohol.

One thing that really really bothers me is all the storys about freebies being handed out, both to foreigners and lazy cunt Brit's. That is just wrong wrong wrong.

Before leaving the U.K. for Thailand i was un-employed for 6 months whilst waiting for my house to be sold, and despite being able to do so I did not sign on, as I took the moral stance that if I wanted a job then i could have got one.

Internal politics/issues dont bother me that much as there is no magic answer to all problems, but when GREAT Britain constatntly bow to pressure from the U.S. and the E.U. it pisses me off greatly.

I remember a year or two ago reading about prison guards (Or something like that) not being allowed to display the cross of St. George incase some ethnic minorities find it offensive. And even a suggestion that foorball shirts should not display the cross. WTF!!!!

What I would like to see is a PM/Government stand their ground and say FUCK YOU to the P.C. brigade. This is Britain, it is great and if you don't like it then FUCKOFF!.

Rant over.

pumbaa wrote


I`m sure sometime in the future you will be complaining about the inadequencies of the British adoption system and if you have not commenced the adoption process yet your 4 year plan may be too optimistic.

sounds like a case of get want you want from the UK and bugger off again
after all you`d need to be  insane to adopt in the USA

can you adopt in this country then bugger off abroad?  :o

And now the TED is back I know I can say what a total and utter cunt Alistair Darling is for putting my road tax up from £170 to £260 as of next year.

How the fuck this is fair to retrospectively changes the bands 7 years after the car was new fuck Knows.

Wankey labour, can't wait for them to come canvassing so I can make a few suggestions.

Mine's gone down by £10 a year, yay!

Its the worst budget since I can remember, id say its the final nail in the coffin, cant wait for an election

Those tories will win the next election, which is a bit mental considering how much of a non-party they've become. A lot of the Labour goverment's doings has been pretty much in line with a centre leaning conservative government, which has left them struggling for alternative policies, especially when at the same time they're trying to distant themselves from the slightly more right wing parties like UKIP.

The other problem they have is that they've never really got over the differences of opinion that their members have over Europe. They've gone for the popular line of we're great Britain, referendum la de la. But if it ever came to a proper debate over the subject they'd be in for a bit of party splitage.

They'll struggle horribly if they get into power. The whole economic down turn will leave them with little room to maneuver. It's easy to come up with fun ideas like people having to do a bit of work for their benefits and so on, but sound bite ideas like that aren't just difficult to implement in practice, they don't make much difference economically.

In fact the whole benefit issue is much more complex than the "Grr.. why should I be paying taxes for people to have spending money" line of thought anyway. Benefit money paid out is very quickly re-absorbed into the economy, and it also increases public spending, which simplified means that people can have jobs selling stuff to people on benefits. or something.

Whoever wins the next election is going to struggle. But I don't think this decade long Labour government will be looked back on that badly in a few decades time. Not in the same way as the Tory's last stint anyway. Certainly not domestically anyway. Foreign policy might be a different matter, but the conservatives can hardly claim that they'd have been more moderate.

Your average person now is certainly better off than they were in 1996. Although it has come at a cost. A big one being the huge levels of personal debt that we have. It's been a necessary evil of keeping the country buoyant though. Individuals borrowing money = More Spending = more money going through the system = stronger economy (sort of, simplified).

The trick now will be to keep interest rates low enough not to completely kill off public spending. Although not too low, because the banks are struggling a bit (although they've got other more massive forces at work on them). We've probably hit a point where people are going to borrow less now, whatever the interests rates are, due to the banks being less willing to lend.

If we can keep the level of public debt stable (ie. individual debt levels don't increase too much), some moderately speedy inflation probably isn't a bad thing. It'll hit your average persons buying power pretty hard, but it'll also lessen the real value of their debt, which will give more economy manoeuvrings ability in the longer term.

This all really needs to coincide with a weakening of the pound, it's nice if you go on holiday to America, but the collapsing of the dollar isn't great for the global economy. Unless it falls so badly that the Euro becomes more of a standard, which wouldn't happen over night. Especially when so much of the growing nations rely on exporting to the US. Europe does it's share of importing, but it's not quite there.

So that's badly phrased, probably quite wrong, and horribly simplified economics from ben's head.

Oh the point of quoting was that with a bit of a global struggle on the economics front, we're not facing it too badly. Certainly not compared to America anyway. They're heading in the direction of recession. Oh not that,  I mean that it wasn't that bad a budget.

do you have an american spell check on your PC?

Yeah, I think I might do, it's where I've been installing the firefox 3 betas.

ah, it was maneuvre that gave you away, missed the o out.

how long did that post take by the way? that's quite a commitment.

Fuck knows. 30-40mins probably. It started off as just a criticism of the tory cunts. Then went of more of an overview of global economics in relevance to us as a country. There's lots of points which are over simplified to the point of nearly being wrong, and I've been drinking wine all afternoon which hasn't helped. Although it has a bit. If I was going to attempt a post like that sober then I'd be constantly checking sources to check what I was writing. That whole thing was just written off the top of my head. Also Strangely uninfluenced by Radio4, as the only programs I've listened too since the budget have been The Archers (the baby is so going to be disabled of something) and Front Row (which I love to listen to, even if their discussing art and shit).

I think the overriding point of it is, that even over three elected terms, there isn't much leeway to what governments can do. Even as a member of the G8, we're still overbearingly affected by global economic forces outside of our control. Which I'd use as an argument of being more involved in the EU, even if does mean submitting some of our economic powers. It has it's massive flaws, especially when it comes to subsidies for farmers and that shizzle, but if we want to remain a global force in the wake of the rise of China, India, Brazil and the like, then it's better to be a co-operative member; using our diplomatic and economic weight to improve the EU, than to just ignore it and waste away by ourselves.

It's nice to think of good old World Conquering Britain, and we still have massive global clout if you consider how small a nation we are. It won't last forever though, and it's probably best to use it now to set ourselves up for the future as a nation.

I think quite a bit of it was wrong. I prefer the one line rants which include the word cunt in  :D

and what do you know?

Nah a lot of it is pretty bollocksish, but the point that government spending isn't as simple as (strawman) "If we don't spend this on benefits then it'll cost me less taxes", because it's quite clearly not.

I think the main point with Labour that has pissed people off is the 'pay now, tax later' policy, the latter part of the policy coming into effect now.

There were supposedly reserves when Blair became Prime Minister, now we have debts. The Government want people to have less debt but there own is increasing. Politicians are hypocrites.

Well that's the impression I get from the very brief overviews I have read. I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of that was factually incorrect. I was planning to have a proper read of all the budget stuff before the Easter weekend.

As for the next general election - I'll see how I feel nearer the time. Nobody is inspiring me with anything remotely like confidence.

I'd like to see a Thatcher-esque type in charge again.

Sure she upset alot of people, but she got the fucking job done.

I wonder what would have happened had Blair been in charge when the Argies invaded the Falklands......  

Maggie wasn't afraid to stand up to any cunt, regardless of who she/he/they where and she both took England out of a serious recession and put the Great into Britain.

Again I don't really follow it that closely but for me it all seems to be a case of voting for "The best of a bad bunch" really.

Oh and Gordon Brown turned out to be a bit of a wet blanket didn't he.

No offense BR (well a bit of offense maybe), but you're talking a lot of rhetoric style bollocks. It's easy to say stuff like "Yay Great Britain", but the only way we're still powerful on the global stage is through our relatively strong economy and our diplomatic relations with all the countries we used to basically own.

Real current day world; we have to accept we're no longer a world super power, and despite playing with the Falklands, we weren't then either.

Globalisation has made the "West" powerful, but that's the "West" as a whole. Not us individually.

On a domestic front, if we'd gone for the Thatcher style "no society" over the last decade, we'd be a hell of a lot more fucked economically wise.

I think that's some more classic meaningless rhetoric. The whole thing is always a cycle. I hate to say it, but Gordan Brown didn't do a bad job as chancellor, good god I don't agree with all his shizzle. But we've got a stable(ish) economy at a time when the worlds super power is struggling big time.

Not that I'd ever vote for them, but it annoys me that the tories are so pathetic as opposition. It annoys me even more that the libdems have imploded on themselves. They should have never got rid of Charles Kennedy.

I agree, and I'm not sure they will win for the reasons you say.

For the first time in my adult life I probably won't vote. I used to hate people wasting their vote, but I can now see the point that there is no point in voting.

just remember there are dozens of fun ways to spoil a ballot paper.

I think voting should be compulsory, but I think there should be a 'none of the above' box.  That would send a massive message to the apathetic, self serving lawyers in Westminster.  As this isn't the case, I would echo Axs point of spoiling your ballot paper, rather than not voting, if you don't think anyone is worth the vote.