LabourLeaks

[Jack]

First of all can I just say how delighted I am that Super John got that award ;-)

Anyway. Labour's draft manifesto has been leaked and I copy below the highlights as noted in the Guardian.

All I can say is oh yes I'd vote for that. Well most of it!

Knocking back a second referendum without it even having been discussed shows a total disregard for the Scottish Parliament and what I've felt for a long time was an undertone of hatred towards the Scots. So its Thanks but no thanks, good luck in Englandshire.

# Bring parts of the energy industry into public ownership and introduce a local, socially owned energy firm in every area. Also introduce an “immediate emergency price cap” to make sure dual fuel bills stay below £1,000 a year.

# Nationalise the railways.

# Phase out tuition fees.

# Make more funds available for childcare and social care.

# Retain the Trident nuclear deterrent. A sentence from earlier drafts saying that a prime minister should be “extremely cautious” about using a weapon that would kill “millions of innocent civilians” has been removed.

# Place “peace, universal rights and international law” at the heart of foreign policy, while committing to spend 2% of GDP on defence, as required by Nato.

# Make zero-hours contracts illegal.

# Build 100,000 new council houses per year.

# Complete HS2 from London to Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Scotland.

# Borrow £250bn to invest in infrastructure but stick to the fiscal credibility rule to balance day-to-day spending. Also raise taxes for people earning more than £80,000 and reverse corporation and inheritance-tax cuts.

# Insulate homes of disabled veterans for free.

# Extend the right to abortion to Northern Ireland.

# Oppose a second Scottish referendum.

# Lower the voting age to 16.

# Employ 1,000 more border guards.

# End the badger cull, keep the fox-hunting ban and support a ban on wild animals in circuses, as well as protecting bees by banning neonicotinoids.

# Extend the Freedom of Information Act to private companies running public services.

# Review universal credit cuts with a view to reversing them.

# Recognise the benefit that immigrants have brought but introduce fair rules and reasonable management, working with employers that need to recruit from abroad but deterring exploitation.

 

[egb_hibs]

There's a fair chunk most people would support if we had a magic money tree.

Surprised you'd vote for all of it Jack; spot the bit about the Scottish referendum?

 

[Smurf]

In theory it sounds great to get much more money into all these projects. Let's get all these fat cats to stump up by putting up Corporation Tax hugely.

Until of course in the global market of 2017 they fuck off elsewhere in the world taking their tax contributions and jobs with them.

 

[Doc Shrink]

Knocking back a second referendum without it even having been discussed shows a total disregard for the Scottish Parliament and what I've felt for a long time was an undertone of hatred towards the Scots. So its Thanks but no thanks, good luck in Englandshire.

There's a fair chunk most people would support if we had a magic money tree.

Surprised you'd vote for all of it Jack; spot the bit about the Scottish referendum?

The dafty probably didn't take the trouble to read it properly Eegie.

 

[Jack]

There's a fair chunk most people would support if we had a magic money tree.

Surprised you'd vote for all of it Jack; spot the bit about the Scottish referendum?

Are your eyes just painted on??????

Edit: A magic money tree is only needed if the money isn't there. I have no doubt it is there. It's just a question of priorities on spending and also possible revenue streams.

The dafty probably didn't take the trouble to read it properly Eegie.

Aye there was a moment there that I thought what I had written was just voices in my head that never made it to the keyboard!

 

[egb_hibs]

Are your eyes just painted on??????

Edit: A magic money tree is only needed if the money isn't there. I have no doubt it is there. It's just a question of priorities on spending and also possible revenue streams.

ooft that's embarrassing - read too many reports in my time and skipped from your first sentence to the list, assuming it was c&p preamble. Mea maxima culpa!

Back to the money - I very much doubt it's there, but I'm sure my doubts will be dispelled and this will be fully costed when the final draft emerges.


Okay, no I'm not.

 

[egb_hibs]

In theory it sounds great to get much more money into all these projects. Let's get all these fat cats to stump up by putting up Corporation Tax hugely.

Until of course in the global market of 2017 they $#@! off elsewhere in the world taking their tax contributions and jobs with them.

Fat cats don't pay corporation tax; no person does. Any benefit received from a company's activities is taxed when salaries and bonuses and dividend are received, and when goods or services are purchased both within the supply chain and at the sale of the end product.

Corporation tax is a bit of a mystery really, but in practical effect it's a tax on monies retained to grow businesses and thus the economy, through more salaries, bonuses, dividends and added value to be taxed. No country really does well out of making it punitive, indeed one of the reasons even the US struggles in world business (vs their resources) is their sky high rates.

I have to say K, at least there is a consistency in the nihilism and know-nothingism of the Marxists. Your own version of third way politics is contains some really striking contradictions.

I would link corporation tax to investment in the UKs workforce to subsidise not offshoring where your competition have. It would be almost as futile as your plan in a globalised world (if it's legally possible at all) but at least its a nudge towards job creation rather than the job destruction you would incentivise.