UK General Election 2015

Hexx wrote:Greens are alright. They have completely unworkable pie-in-the-sky dreams, but at least it comes from a desire to be good and help others.

Unlike...other minority parties.

I agree that it's nice that their ideas are born from good intentions, is just a shame that their policies have been proven completely unworkable. I was pretty close to voting for them at one stage.

DML wrote:I couldnt believe when the Greens said they wanted a £10 minimum wage. That is literally nuts in my opinion.

By when though?

It does need to rise. £10 an hour is about £20k p/a, which isn't an outrageous salary by any means. It would massively decrease the government's responsibility for supporting the poor (housing benefit, tax credits etc.) and move working people comfortably out of poverty.

Is it that much of a problem if cleaners and coffee shop workers are making £20k? It's still lower than the (current) average. Some businesses would struggle, others would face the stark reality that they would have to make a little less profit to give their employees a better life.

Personally, I think a better policy would be to enforce a link between the salaries of the top and bottom employees in a company. The CEO can only earn 10 or 15 times the salary of his lowest paid employee, for example.

Shadow wrote:

DML wrote:I couldnt believe when the Greens said they wanted a £10 minimum wage. That is literally nuts in my opinion.

By when though?

It does need to rise. £10 an hour is about £20k p/a, which isn't an outrageous salary by any means. It would massively decrease the government's responsibility for supporting the poor (housing benefit, tax credits etc.) and move working people comfortably out of poverty.

Is it that much of a problem if cleaners and coffee shop workers are making £20k? It's still lower than the (current) average. Some businesses would struggle, others would face the stark reality that they would have to make a little less profit to give their employees a better life.

Personally, I think a better policy would be to enforce a link between the salaries of the top and bottom employees in a company. The CEO can only earn 10 or 15 times the salary of his lowest paid employee, for example.

Surely by paying everyone a minimum of £20k per annum (for example) all you will do is cause massive inflation? A coffee shop worker earning that much more will just make the price of the coffee rise. As things go on £20k will not look like a large salary and the bosses will just increase their earnings so that they continue to earn loads more than their staff.

The living wage is a nice goal to aim for, but it has to be properly thought out.

Moggy wrote:

Shadow wrote:

DML wrote:I couldnt believe when the Greens said they wanted a £10 minimum wage. That is literally nuts in my opinion.

By when though?

It does need to rise. £10 an hour is about £20k p/a, which isn't an outrageous salary by any means. It would massively decrease the government's responsibility for supporting the poor (housing benefit, tax credits etc.) and move working people comfortably out of poverty.

Is it that much of a problem if cleaners and coffee shop workers are making £20k? It's still lower than the (current) average. Some businesses would struggle, others would face the stark reality that they would have to make a little less profit to give their employees a better life.

Personally, I think a better policy would be to enforce a link between the salaries of the top and bottom employees in a company. The CEO can only earn 10 or 15 times the salary of his lowest paid employee, for example.

Surely by paying everyone a minimum of £20k per annum (for example) all you will do is cause massive inflation? A coffee shop worker earning that much more will just make the price of the coffee rise. As things go on £20k will not look like a large salary and the bosses will just increase their earnings so that they continue to earn loads more than their staff.

The living wage is a nice goal to aim for, but it has to be properly thought out.

I wrote a post to this effect that hasn't gone through for whatever reason. Anyway, you're totally right. The pricing for goods and services isn't plucked out of thin air, wages are built into the price.

Yes competition will ultimately bring prices down but this will likely lead to huge companies being loss leaders and wiping out small businesses.

Hime wrote:

Moggy wrote:

Shadow wrote:

DML wrote:I couldnt believe when the Greens said they wanted a £10 minimum wage. That is literally nuts in my opinion.

By when though?

It does need to rise. £10 an hour is about £20k p/a, which isn't an outrageous salary by any means. It would massively decrease the government's responsibility for supporting the poor (housing benefit, tax credits etc.) and move working people comfortably out of poverty.

Is it that much of a problem if cleaners and coffee shop workers are making £20k? It's still lower than the (current) average. Some businesses would struggle, others would face the stark reality that they would have to make a little less profit to give their employees a better life.

Personally, I think a better policy would be to enforce a link between the salaries of the top and bottom employees in a company. The CEO can only earn 10 or 15 times the salary of his lowest paid employee, for example.

Surely by paying everyone a minimum of £20k per annum (for example) all you will do is cause massive inflation? A coffee shop worker earning that much more will just make the price of the coffee rise. As things go on £20k will not look like a large salary and the bosses will just increase their earnings so that they continue to earn loads more than their staff.

The living wage is a nice goal to aim for, but it has to be properly thought out.

I wrote a post to this effect that hasn't gone through for whatever reason. Anyway, you're totally right. The pricing for goods and services isn't plucked out of thin air, wages are built into the price.

Yes competition will ultimately bring prices down but this will likely lead to huge companies being loss leaders and wiping out small businesses.

The thing is there's always the question of how come there are other countries that have higher incomes but lower prices than here? How do we achieve that? For example in the U.S. And Canada average pay a cross industries are higher than the UK but prices of goods and services are cheaper. Meals, drinks etc all cheaper.

I'd have to double check with Canada but the US has lower wages for lots of industries hence the tipping culture, much worse working conditions, terrible welfare and national health services, etc.

Out of interest, I thought I would dig out our 2010 general election thread to see what the results were then.

Labour Party 18% [ 19 ]
Conservative Party 23% [ 24 ]
Liberal Democrats 33% [ 34 ]
Democratic Unionist Party 0% [ 0 ]
Scottish National Party 2% [ 2 ]
Sinn Féin 1% [ 1 ]
Plaid Cymru - Party of Wales 0% [ 0 ]
Social Democratic and Labour Party 2% [ 2 ]
Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern 0% [ 0 ]
Respect Coalition 0% [ 0 ]
Ulster Unionist Party 0% [ 0 ]
UK Independence Party 1% [ 1 ]
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland 0% [ 0 ]
Progressive Unionist Party 0% [ 0 ]
Green Party in Northern Ireland 1% [ 1 ]
Green Party of England and Wales 1% [ 1 ]
British National Party 8% [ 8 ]
Other 3% [ 3 ]
No Vote 8% [ 8 ]

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17908&p=1264545&hilit=election#p1264545

The Lib Dems have really fallen out of favour with the great GRcade public.

Hime wrote:

Moggy wrote:

Shadow wrote:

DML wrote:I couldnt believe when the Greens said they wanted a £10 minimum wage. That is literally nuts in my opinion.

By when though?

It does need to rise. £10 an hour is about £20k p/a, which isn't an outrageous salary by any means. It would massively decrease the government's responsibility for supporting the poor (housing benefit, tax credits etc.) and move working people comfortably out of poverty.

Is it that much of a problem if cleaners and coffee shop workers are making £20k? It's still lower than the (current) average. Some businesses would struggle, others would face the stark reality that they would have to make a little less profit to give their employees a better life.

Personally, I think a better policy would be to enforce a link between the salaries of the top and bottom employees in a company. The CEO can only earn 10 or 15 times the salary of his lowest paid employee, for example.

Surely by paying everyone a minimum of £20k per annum (for example) all you will do is cause massive inflation? A coffee shop worker earning that much more will just make the price of the coffee rise. As things go on £20k will not look like a large salary and the bosses will just increase their earnings so that they continue to earn loads more than their staff.

The living wage is a nice goal to aim for, but it has to be properly thought out.

I wrote a post to this effect that hasn't gone through for whatever reason. Anyway, you're totally right. The pricing for goods and services isn't plucked out of thin air, wages are built into the price.

Yes competition will ultimately bring prices down but this will likely lead to huge companies being loss leaders and wiping out small businesses.

A £20k minimum wage would wipe out many small businesses and cause a massive rise in unemployment.

We'd be better off lowering the cost of living to make money go further. But a large factor in this is the bloated housing market.

Laga why are you against the decriminalisation of drugs? Every time this comes up you say it's a bad idea yet ignore all reasoning to the contrary.

Also voting green for the reasons Karl articulated. Plus the whole drugs issue is so important to me that were I running I would virtually be the UKIP of legalisation.

Moggy wrote:The Lib Dems have really fallen out of favour with the great GRcade public.

Probably down to the
> "We won't raise tuition fees"
> Raises tuition fees
debacle last time.

Might have exactly the same thing this election with the Greens if people actually believe their "we'll write off student debts" nonsense.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32311736

Making the case for another coalition, Mr Clegg said a vote for his party would stop the Tories or Labour governing on their own, arguing the Lib Dems would "add a heart to a Conservative government and add a brain to a Labour one".

The Greens would be the Wizard. Flashy but ultimately full of bullshit.

Nah, Clegg should be the Wizard. Posing as the Great and Powerful king-maker whilst really just being a pathetic has been hiding behind a curtain.

Hey, Nick Clegg... Dorophy has something to tell you.

I genuinely do not know who to vote for in this election. Sigh sigh.

In my place it's a clear toss up (ignoring like 40% swings) between Lab/Tory with about 2k votes out of 70k (last time) between them.

Looking increasingly like it will probably be a Labour "win". Labour and the SNP alone have enough to defeat any confidence vote whilst even the Conservatives allied with the Lib Dem could not do the same. The Lib Dems simply won't have the numbers to hand either side victory like last time. The SNP are projected to the third largest party in parliament so they could easily hand Labour the government if they chose to do so, unless there is a dramatic shift in favour of the Cons.

Interestingly, if it weren't for the SNP there would be no question over Miliband's eventual victory. Their rise to dominance in Scotland is certainly the most significant electoral shift I have seen in my lifetime.

Meep wrote:Looking increasingly like it will probably be a Labour "win". Labour and the SNP alone have enough to defeat any confidence vote whilst even the Conservatives allied with the Lib Dem could not do the same. The Lib Dems simply won't have the numbers to hand either side victory like last time. The SNP are projected to the third largest party in parliament so they could easily hand Labour the government if they chose to do so, unless there is a dramatic shift in favour of the Cons.

Interestingly, if it weren't for the SNP there would be no question over Miliband's eventual victory. Their rise to dominance in Scotland is certainly the most significant electoral shift I have seen in my lifetime.

The Labour Party have only themselves to blame up here for their stupidity during the independence debate.

Given that the primary goal of the SNP is to break up the UK, putting them in a position of power over it in a coalition government seems ridiculous.