Inflation more rantyness

OUT OF HOURS BULLY'S TRUCKSTOP BAR (INTERACTIVE)
21

Zac_A:

adam277:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpU_99EuV3Q

So the Labour leader David Cameron… Sorry I mean Keir Starmer has spoken.

No mention of unfreezing housing benefits despite sky high rents.

Housing Benefit can help you pay your rent if you’re unemployed, on a low income or claiming benefits. It’s being replaced by Universal Credit.
You can only make a new claim for Housing Benefit if either of the following apply:
you have reached State Pension age
you’re in supported, sheltered or temporary housing

gov.uk/housing-benefit

I’m pretty certain that criteria would not include you, me, nor most of the people on TN, so, “so what?”

You’re (seemingly) a lot younger than the average TN membership, but I’d be willing to bet the average TN member (white, male 50-something) thinks too many people get too many benefits already.

I was of the same view that benefits are given away far too much. But times change.
I mean I could go on a rant about how old people get all the benefits… but I think I have already done that at some point lol.

Benefits have stagnated for quite some time. Inflation has gone through the roof. I do not think it unreasonable for a labour leader to say he will increase the amount of benefits people get. But this Labour leader seems to act more like Cameron… it ■■■■■.

fyi… I have been on benefits for like 1 month if that and I am not currently on welfare… I also can not foresee myself ever going on the dull lol. My main issue is not the benefits… it is the Labour leader… acting like a Tory… the Tory leader acting more like a Labour leader… there is no difference between the two.

This is the same numpty who during COVID voiced no opposition to the ridiculous lockdowns and mask mandates. He fully supported them and wanted to go further…

22

When Tony Blair got into power in 1997, that happened because he had realised that people no longer wanted someone “acting more like a Labour leader” by which I can only assume you mean: Corbyn, Kinnock, Foot, Callaghan etc.

If you are accurate in believing “there is no difference between the two” then I believe you have accurately assessed the mood of the country.

I personally do not believe today’s electorate would remotely consider electing someone (Corbyn) who thinks Islamic State can be bargained with (they can’t, you don’t burn people alive if you have any shred of willingness to negotiate) or someone (Foot) who turns up to The Cenotaph on Remembrance day wearing something equivalent to a Donkey Jacket.

Starmer has a long way to go to convince people (eg me) to vote for him, but I didn’t vote Tory last time and I can’t see that happening next time either

23

The way things are looking at present, it seems likely that Labour, or a Labour-led coaltion of some kind will be the next government. I reckon that Labour would stand a better chance of a more decisive victory if they ditched the cardboard cut-out that is Starmer, and replaced him with someone with a bit of personality and backbone. I’m thinking on the lines of Angela Rayner - not that I have any liking for her or her party (in its present form, at any rate).

24

A WH Smith shop charges about £18 for a pack of cigarettes, normal size, I enquired why and he said it has something to do with motorway prices.

The second hand car market, that has changed dramatically as no longer do you see a fairly decent run around for a new driver for a few hundred quid, now you are looking at a few grand, and the prices they charge means their cars are sat there for months with nobody paying the higher prices.

A dealer said it’s due to the long delay on computer chips for new cars that affected the used car sector.

A local place to me admitted all his stock is end of life cars from the auction, the premises has not changed in appearance in over 30 years in appearance as not spent money on signage but the two daughters go to private school and he does shift more cars than the average garage in the area.

25

Henry Stephens:
A WH Smith shop charges about £18 for a pack of cigarettes, normal size, I enquired why and he said it has something to do with motorway.

£21 at Preston railway station WH Smith :laughing:
Of course I didn’t pay it.

26

Unbelievable prices which fuels the market for this :

Screenshot 2023-07-17 at 04.58.28.png
Screenshot 2023-07-17 at 04.58.28.png320×568 62.5 KB

27

^^^ presumably smuggled in? or counterfeit

either way denying the state of the taxes entitled itself to will indeed bring down the full force of the state down upon ones back, resulting in heavy punishment pour encourager les autres

28

Bizarrely enough they have refused to name the shop.

29

My dad sends my tobacco from Belgium, no way I’m paying these prices. Rarely buy cigarettes but they are extortionate over here.

30

Remember the Sun paper had vouchers for £1 you could get over to Calais and fill the boot of the van and car with ■■■■, see many foreign drivers buy a big bucket of loose tobacco in Luxembourg then roll their own with a rolling machine.

31

What IS counterfeit tobacco? - Surely it is either Baccy, hot or not - or it’s camels hit and bus tickets, a composite of sawdust, salt, battery corrosion, and other powdered crap that one might otherwise cut class A substances with?

There’s nothing “Counterfeit” about “Substitute”, or we’d have counterfeit money made out of cloth and paper instead of plastic - wouldn’t we?

I await the first tales of “Counterfeit Bitcoin” or “Counterfeit Electric” (powered by a secret, low-profile Mr Fusion nanite reactor hehehhehe)

32

Winseer:
or it’s camels hit and bus tickets, a composite of sawdust, salt, battery corrosion, and other powdered crap that one might otherwise cut class A substances with?

Yes,but comes in a golden Virginia packet

33

blue estate:

Zac_A:

adam277:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpU_99EuV3Q

You’re (seemingly) a lot younger than the average TN membership, but I’d be willing to bet the average TN member (white, male 50-something) thinks too many people get too many benefits already.

YES WE FLIPPING WELL DO!
P/S I’m 48

I don’t.

The UK gets the worst benefits in Europe and working people have been convinced it’s a good thing because there’s a tiny proportion of fraud. (Until they lose their job and need to survive for a few months - then they all think it’s a bad thing)

It never works that way with the rich - a member of the house of lords blags his £300 a day “attendence fee” and no-one says “Remove the attendence fee from all them”. It’s just propaganda.

34

commonrail:

Winseer:
or it’s camels hit and bus tickets, a composite of sawdust, salt, battery corrosion, and other powdered crap that one might otherwise cut class A substances with?

Yes,but comes in a golden Virginia packet

This.
People have been smoking that ■■■■ or worse since smoking began but only recently trying to mugg people off that it’s Golden Virginia or whatever haha.
Very low grade tobacco at best but no counterfeit really. Just the branding.

35

JeffA:

blue estate:

Zac_A:

adam277:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpU_99EuV3Q

You’re (seemingly) a lot younger than the average TN membership, but I’d be willing to bet the average TN member (white, male 50-something) thinks too many people get too many benefits already.

YES WE FLIPPING WELL DO!
P/S I’m 48

I don’t.

The UK gets the worst benefits in Europe and working people have been convinced it’s a good thing because there’s a tiny proportion of fraud. (Until they lose their job and need to survive for a few months - then they all think it’s a bad thing)

It never works that way with the rich - a member of the house of lords blags his £300 a day “attendence fee” and no-one says “Remove the attendence fee from all them”. It’s just propaganda.

It’s looking like a lot more people will be seeking benefits before much longer. ‘Britain is now a poor nation’ with Slovenia’s capital Ljubjana & Poland set to overtake the UK in living standards. Our living standards are lower than those of the least affluent US states. telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/0 … one-issue/

36

Have you seen how little benefits are these days?

It isn’t “Inflation” that has left them behind, but rather “Take a job - and now you lose the LOT”

The Gordon Brown age of “Making Work Pay” is OVER with this Tory government.

First you had to pay back tax credits, if you took a job halfway through the financial year…
Then you had to repay Universal Credit - if your earnings next month disqualified you from what you’ve already been paid this month…

Finally, whatever earnings you DO get - got tapered originally at 63% and now at 55%…
That means if you take a job paying say 40 hours a week @ £10ph (near minimum wage - right?)
Your maximum £900 a month UC would be tapered down by 55% of £1650 a month - which guess what? - means you’ve lost the bloody lot!

You’re still on the breadline.
You did the right thing, and took a job paying full time hours, minimum wage, like the government encouraged you to do

But now - your MRS who lost her job, maybe during the lockdown - loses that £900 income because you’re spending whatever commuting and other overheads - earning £1650 a month on which you’ve got to pay full bills out of, pension contributions, and all the other stuff that government EXPECTS someone holding down a full time job to pay, no help from the state any more!

Compare that to a person earning over £80,000 a year, who offsets everything possible for expenses, pays themselves a dividend of around £6000, and makes the rest disappear - paying little or no tax whatsoever.

The Tories presumably think that “upsetting benefit scroungers” doesn’t upset any TORY voters - because a TORY voter - would never be down on their luck so much that they might have to stoop to claiming something back they’d paid in for their entire lives to date… Only to faceplant when it becomes apparent that the ONLY benefits worth having these days - are the long-term non-maskable ones. FORGET “Making work pay” - because you’re a loser now - as soon as you take that job unless it pays over £20 an hour. Who, who’s lost their job - is in a position to demand THAT kind of money?

On this, I could easily play my own “I’m alright Jack” card here, but the total of other people that both Labour and Tory policy output doesn’t help anymore - might have something to say about it at next year’s election - big time!