Hundreds in Leeds - the city is full of bars and pubs, its like you can go 50 yards with seeing one - that is despite beer being £6 a pint.

Pubs fail because of a few key factors - smoking ban, cheap off sale alcohol, dinking/driving etc nothing to do with the Conservatives.

So why are the Tories so far ahead in the polls? Perhaps its you that is way off knowing what real people think - perhaps rather than signing of their payroll you need to go out and speak to some of them - but then you would have to stop looking down on them from your lofty perch.

Haven't the Tories shown a significant increase in the national minimum wage £2/hr - a 33% increase. Combine that with increases in personal allowances of £6k - surely these policies positively impact the poorly paid.

So given the financial situation the Tories inherited what do you think they should have done?

The idea that Corbyn is negatively impacted by the press needs to be offset by the strength of Labour with social media - who actually buys a newspaper these days? Far more people read/use Twitter so its just a spurious excuse because we don't want the state to own all our businesses and Labour's message simply doesn't stack up to scrutiny.

McDonald showed the angry side of Labour on Marr today - lost his cool and the argument.

Quote: Sal Paradise "Haven't the Tories shown a significant increase in the national minimum wage £2/hr - a 33% increase. Combine that with increases in personal allowances of £6k - surely these policies positively impact the poorly paid. So given the financial situation the Tories inherited what do you think they should have done? The idea that Corbyn is negatively impacted by the press needs to be offset by the strength of Labour with social media - who actually buys a newspaper these days? Far more people read/use Twitter so its just a spurious excuse because we don't want the state to own all our businesses and Labour's message simply doesn't stack up to scrutiny. McDonald showed the angry side of Labour on Marr today - lost his cool and the argument.'" I agree with the first 2 points that you make, which are offset by the younger workers and the dreaded zero hours contracts - £2 and hour more, if you lose 3 or 4 hours of work may still be a reduction ?? and of course you dont mention those who, for a multitude of reasons, cant work and should we gloss over child poverty, crime and massive increase in foodbanks, all as a direct result of austerity cuts And, just to show the utter contempt that the Tories have for the poorest people in the country, their candidate for Broxstowe, tells people, rather than use foodbanks, they should take out payday loans https://universalcreditsuffer.com/2019/ ... yday-loan/ As long as his conscience is clear Is this who we should vote in on Thursday ??

Quote: Sal Paradise "Haven't the Tories shown a significant increase in the national minimum wage £2/hr - a 33% increase. Combine that with increases in personal allowances of £6k - surely these policies positively impact the poorly paid. So given the financial situation the Tories inherited what do you think they should have done? The idea that Corbyn is negatively impacted by the press needs to be offset by the strength of Labour with social media - who actually buys a newspaper these days? Far more people read/use Twitter so its just a spurious excuse because we don't want the state to own all our businesses and Labour's message simply doesn't stack up to scrutiny. McDonald showed the angry side of Labour on Marr today - lost his cool and the argument.'" I agree with the first 2 points that you make, which are offset by the younger workers and the dreaded zero hours contracts - £2 and hour more, if you lose 3 or 4 hours of work may still be a reduction ?? and of course you dont mention those who, for a multitude of reasons, cant work and should we gloss over child poverty, crime and massive increase in foodbanks, all as a direct result of austerity cuts And, just to show the utter contempt that the Tories have for the poorest people in the country, their candidate for Broxstowe, tells people, rather than use foodbanks, they should take out payday loans https://universalcreditsuffer.com/2019/ ... yday-loan/ As long as his conscience is clear Is this who we should vote in on Thursday ??

On the issue of austerity and public finances and said it was a myth that the Conservatives would not invest as much in public services as Labour.

The financial crisis hit in 2008 and tax receipts crumbled and the budget deficit jumped up to 9.9 per cent of GDP. At this point the Tories saw electoral advantage in making the deficit their key campaigning point and so they started to say Labour had been spending too much for years and that's why the public finances were such a mess. It would have been more credible if in 2007, they had made a big deal about the 2.6 per cent deficit and said we need this to be zero so we would reduce spending, but when you campaign on 'we will match Labour's spending' and then subsequently claim Labour's spending was too high, you can see this was based on political opportunism not economics.

As for how to reduce a budget deficit

Well nearly all nurses starting out will be renting as they are very unlikely to own property so the vast majority will be paying somewhere close to the national average rent.

Most when they start will be living in shared accommodation as they would do at university or even in halls if their degree allows.

That's alright then, why would or should they ever want their own place
We could pay them a bit less, cos they're only nurses - not like proper doctors ??

If you really want to encourage people in to work then the benefits system needs to incentivise people who come out of unemployment to take insecure jobs and guarantee an 'income floor' for a certain period which guarantees that they will be better off than sitting on benefits.

So if you take low-paid part-time, variable hours work, the benefits system should smooth your income and avoid income gaps.

The big problem with the current system is because of the gaps in receiving payments when your status changes, people can't risk it because they don't have a cushion of savings to smooth cash flow problems.

There has been a lot of good thinking on welfare reform and incentive design from both left and right wing policy groups but the UC reforms have been undermined by the fact the government has targeted reducing the overall benefits bill, which means they look to chip away wherever they can, rather than thinking strategically how best to create a system that incentivises work.

With deposits on property so prohibitive, renting is the only option for younger people, unless they are very well paid or, they have parents who can "help".

Perhaps as parents that is what we should be doing - rather than passing on wealth when your kids don't really need it giving it them when they do. Maybe less spent on lavish weddings and more contributed towards deposits would be beneficial?

My estate has 110 houses cheapest £225k - the average inhabitant is well under 30 - so to say young people can't get on the property ladder is not the case, if they want a house it needs to be a priority - blowing £200 on a typical Saturday night out doesn't help.