ukip to cut income tax

For 41-55k earners. BBC spinning it as going after labour voters. Seems more like tory territory to me. Interesting times coming up at the next election I reckon.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29368838

Is any party actually going to raise taxes?

I’d be happy to pay more for a “high tax, high spend” economy. Mind you, I’m just a bit of an old socialist hippy, and I don’t earn enough to fit into that tax bracket anyway!

Nigel Farage’s party will pledge to fund the changes by leaving the EU and cutting UK foreign aid by 85%

They are carving out a niche as the party of the selfish and insular. Hopefully their lack of real policies will be enough to keep them 100% out

They are carving out a niche as the party of the selfish and insular. Hopefully their lack of real policies will be enough to keep them 100% out

Every mainstream party is aiming for that same niche. Labour promising to cut child benefit FFS.

I fear there are enough selfish and insular people within our society to get them at least a toe in the door 🙁

I’m with you Peyote. Grudgingly though you do have to wonder if its the shake up we need to get past having 3 different shades of shite. Could it force labour and conservatives apart? Or am I being hopelessly optimistic as usual?

I do love that the parties that present foreign affairs as “not our problem” (be it poverty war famine or disease) are the same ones that are anti immigration . Why on earth do they think all the immigrants refugees and asylum seekers are wanting to upticks and move in the first place . Foreign aid is in our direct national interest it should be properly targeted to benefit the nations rather than corporations dictators and multinational business but it should not be cut back for selfish economic reasons as well as simple humanity.

Is any party actually going to raise taxes?

@Peynote, every party is going to have to collect more taxes or spend less or both.

Could it force labour and conservatives apart? Or am I being hopelessly optimistic as usual?

@aa I have posted a number of times that the center ground is what wins UK elections, that’s why Labour and Conservatives appear so close as to move away from the centre is almost certain defeat. If Labour move further left they will not get elected, I don’t see the Conservatives gifting them the center ground by moving further right.

Cutting foreign aid is a disgrace, I would certainly re-direct some of the spending but to cut it is petty headline grabbing.

Cutting foreign aid is a disgrace, I would certainly re-direct some of the spending but to cut it is petty headline grabbing.

Agreed, but it will appeal to the Daily Mail bunch, who have been trained to hate all foreigners….

I think it’s quite a clever play, a lot of people within that bracket (myself included) are finding it harder to make ends meet despite earning a good salary. That’s not to say I’ll vote UKIP.

/Prepares for flaming from those who are raising 14 kids with real values on 20p a week.

Peyote – Member
Is any party actually going to raise taxes?

I’d be happy to pay more for a “high tax, high spend” economy. Mind you, I’m just a bit of an old socialist hippy, and I don’t earn enough to fit into that tax bracket anyway!Trouble with high spend is that it when POM (other people’s money) is involved, the spending can become very inefficient and indiscriminate, or even downright fraudulent.

I’d rather see the personal allowance raised – it’s a simple change to administer and would help everyone but especially those on lower incomes.

Talking of selfish middle classes:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11109845/Why-arent-the-British-middle-classes-staging-a-revolution.html

Labour and the Torys are anything but the “center”. Both are very right wing, with very little difference between them.

The Green Party have an MP…UKIP don’t.

Amazing how little coverage Greens get though.

gwaelod – Member
The Green Party have an MP…UKIP don’t.

Amazing how little coverage Greens get though.

Because LaFarage and UKIP make a better headline with their frothing at the mouth loonie casual racism, as opposed to the Greens frothing at the mouth loonie hippy tofu eating wind farm tree hugging.

* I’ll vote Green in any election, purely based on the fact most of their policies are broadly based in good old fashioned socialism.

The Green Party have an MP…UKIP don’t.

Amazing how little coverage Greens get though.

What do the number of votes overall look like though, I suspect UKIP maybe get more over the country whereas the greens are confined more to Brighton?

That and the greens tend to comment on other debates rather than starting them. UKIP stand up and shout about stuff like imigration, europe, etc. The greens don’t stand up and shout about legalising cannabis etc, I suuspect because that would shoot themselves in the foot and they want to be seen as a credible party. Whereas UKIP seem content to be loonies and drag the debate to them.

i honestly believe that the BBC keep banging on about UKIP as an anti-tory tactic.

ukip to cut income tax

They’d have to be in power to do that.

That’ll not happen. Not in my lifetime anyway.

We could see them play a part in a coalition couldnt we? The lib dems are **** and no one else would play ball with the tories.

Naaa, theyd need enough MPs to make a difference. If the tories were a few short they could form a minority government and rely on a few labour/lib dem votes each time. Coalitions are only needed when theyre 50-100 votes short.

the party of the selfish and insular.

They should do well then. Everyone votes in their own interests.

Labour and the Torys are anything but the “center”. Both are very right wing, with very little difference between them.

very right wing? No way! Right of Centre though.

I beg to differ on that point wrecker – the majority or any may bit not all.

TBH as noted with the Greens etc it is amazing that they get so much coverage when they have **** all MP’s and are likely to have the same number after the election- might get th eby election but they wont hold it IMHO.

They have no electoral clout in Westinster and yet we laud over his loony musings as if they matter.
He gets so much coverage I also suspect a conspiracy but against whom I do not know.

We may as well ask what I will do as I wont be in a position to deliver either.

I cannot listen to a word the loon says tbh and it is largely irrelevant.

Everyone votes in their own interests.

No they don’t, many may vote in such a way, but many others are capable of a bit of compassion and responsibility to see beyond their own greed and selfishness.

Must be a quiet news week, got to give the journalists something to work on…..

they have **** all MP’s and are likely to have the same number after the election- might get th eby election but they wont hold it IMHO.

I hope you are right but I’m not sure. If labour had got their act together maybe but they are such a shambles some may think kicking the tories is an option.

They also want to raise the personal allowance to £13,500.

I think they might need to do more than scrap foreign aid to pay for that.

Perhaps they would be more convincing if they jsut offered free coke and hookers to everyone.

Perhaps they would be more convincing if they jsut offered free coke and hookers to everyone.

as long as it’s British Coke and Hookers, none of this European muck!

Worryingly populist headline grabber for the unthinking voter.

I really hope all those who say that there is no point in voting wake up and see the kind of loons who may hold some sort of sway after tbe election. Appeals to the worst kind of ignorance, and Daily Fail readers.

UKIP have gained the most votes in a nationwide election, the Greens have never got close to that – my guess their highest position would be fourth.

mudshark – Member
Labour and the Torys are anything but the “center”. Both are very right wing, with very little difference between them.
very right wing? No way! Right of Centre though.

I would call both the Milliband Muppet and CMD as far right as opposed to centre right.

YMMV of course.

No they don’t, many may vote in such a way, but many others are capable of a bit of compassion and responsibility to see beyond their own greed and selfishness.

I don’t think that’s nececeraly right or true though.

I vote towards the left of center, but not out of compassion for people ‘below’ me, because I believe that if everyone’s better off on average the impact is felt by everyone from the bottom up.

I don’t do it out of some alturistic ‘donate my vote to the poor’ compasionate reasoning. It’s a cool headed decision that I think that’s whats best for me.

It’s a democracy, if the right wingers were in power and made the rich rich and loads of people poorer, then there’d be enough poor people voting left of center to overthrow them. Ditto if there was a left of center party in power, building huge debts based on giving people shedloads of free cash they’d all be rich and start voting for the right again. That’s why we have 2 parties, both pretty much in the center, and swing between them every few years.

If people vote on ideological grounds (either way) rather than in their best interests then we end up with a government that on average doesn’t reprisent the needs of the country.

The difference between out reasonings is that despite the fact I’d probably be short term better off voting right of center for lower taxes etc, I don’t believe I’d be better off overall in the longer term. Stuff like overseas aid, social welfare, the NHS, imigration, military spending, etc is all to my short term detriment, but I beilieve it is in my own interest.

Which is why single policy parties like UKIP should exist. IF there was a town in Kent, overun by imigrants, to the detriment of the indiginous population, they have as much a right to that being raised in parliment as an issue as unempoyment in a northern indutrial town being a Labour issue. It’s a big IF though.

Foreign aid is a total red herring

Haven’t they also said that they’d get huge savings from leaving the EU?

That kind of UKIP-maths can probably produce about a one thousand three hundred million billion trillion pounds…

Remind me again why it is that our tax pounds should be given to countries that can afford their own nuclear arms, rather than be spent here.

Haven’t they also said that they’d get huge savings from leaving the EU?

According to a quick Google, the UK pays about 10bn into the EU, but once you take into account the amount it receives back (local aid, etc.) the actual net outflow is about 4.7bn. Not enough to cover the tax proposals, basically. (This is assuming that leaving the EU is cost free, of course).

Remind me again why it is that our tax pounds should be given to countries that can afford their own nuclear arms, rather than be spent here.

We like to support the poor in countries that could but don’t support them as much as we think they should.

No they don’t, many may vote in such a way, but many others are capable of a bit of compassion and responsibility to see beyond their own greed and selfishness.

Not many, and certainly not enough to sway an election. All union members I’ve ever known have been labour voters. That’s not compassion however they dress it up, it’s self interest.

True altruism doesn’t exist, we are all selfish to cetain degrees.

However, compassion and self interest aren’t mutually incompatible, I can be selfish, have my wants/needs met without causing hurt/disadvantage to others, or even approach it from a symbiotic level. Conversely I could just go all out and not give two-hoots about the impact of my wants on others. All three options are selfish though. It’s just semantics.

All union members I’ve ever known have been labour voters

I’m in a union and have not voted labour as many times as I have. You’d be amazed how many teachers vote tory and almost all teachers are in a union.

True altruism doesn’t exist, we are all selfish to cetain degrees.

Well depends on how philosophical you want to get but in practical terms I think there is altruism about – say a financial sense or how their time is spent.