How do you suggest we fund the NHS, schools, Universities, police, armed forces, social care? We can cut it to the bone as the Tories are doing & have always done, resulting in the society we now have, or we can invest in it properly. If you want the former, vote Tory & you can be happy in your own selfish little world. If you think a caring society is one to aspire to then the only way is higher taxation for those who can afford it. Those on the UK average of £26k cannot afford it.

Some people just aren't lucky enough or have the same backing as you did to improve their lot in life. Whether that's because they don't have the support or because they simply aren't smart enough to realise opportunities. They may even have a medical condition which limits what they can do.

Also someone has to do the jobs that are low paid so you can get your groceries or latest gadget from Amazon cheap. Are you saying that anyone who does these jobs should not get help from the state to pay the exorbitant rents that private landlords(most who are in the 40p or 45p tax bracket) charge? To pay for these benefits, the money has to come from somewhere so why shouldn't the people who earn money off those on the lower end of the pay scale pay more for it?

With regards to Education Increasing funds means nothing if the amount of people who need to use our education system has increased. Its like spending £40 on a weekly food shop for 2 then only having an extra £10 added to that when the number of people you need to feed doubles and the price of the food increases.

You can talk about inefficiencies and improving processes all you want but that also takes money for someone to highlight them, plan the change and then implement the changes. To do all this with a real time cut in funding as well as maintain current levels of service(Actually they are expected to increase levels of service) is ridiculous and virtually impossible.

But hey, don't you worry about that. You get to keep more of the money you earn while depriving people the same opportunities you had.

Anybody could get where I am - I don't have a private or university education I just worked really hard to achieve - it is really that simple.

If people can't afford something is it really the job of the state to provide it? If the state didn't then businesses would have to - the question is are the benefits paid out to workers greater than the CT and NI - a tax on employing people - paid by businesses? I suspect not.

Those people running the public sector will already know where the savings can be made - if they don't they are in the wrong job. You don't need expensive consultants to identify savings you already have the people in the know i.e. the employees you just need to engage them. That is a typical Labour trait lets just throw money at it.

I don't mind paying my fair share but I don't its fair that business and the higher paid should be seen as a cash cow to fund inefficient public services.

Ignore all the evidence - take on the views of the right wing media by osmosis - and repeat it ad infinitum until you convince yourself its true. Meanwhile, the NHS is collapsing, we're hurtling towards severing ties with our biggest trading partner, the national debt has gone up by 700 trillion, and more and more people are in poverty. But you're alright - thanks in large part to a better opportunities created by a kinder politics - so balls to everyone else.

I sometimes wish I saw life in as facile and deliberately ill-informed way as people like you; I'd probably sleep better.

Bren Abbott

Top points made as usual. For people like Sal who lives in a bubble where every person has the same opportunity as the next person, and neither he nor anyone he knows is struggling, I can see why he'd be attracted to Tory ideas. It comes down to putting a few extra quid in his pocket above helping those in our society who struggle the most.

A well funded NHS, education, infrastructure, policing etc all help create an environment whereby entrepreneurs and big business can flourish in this country. They're able to take advantage of an educated, talented & skilful workforce, a healthy workforce, infrastructure meaning they can attract talent from a wider area, a safer and stable country that's adequately policed. That's the vital bit he simply can't grasp.

Meanwhile in the real world the Tories, not content with controlling 90% of the written media, are putting more pressure on the BBC, accusing them of left wing bias & effectively blaming them for the Tories pathetic performance at last night's leaders' debate.

Ignore all the comebacks, take on all the views of the lefty media and continually just keep saying the rich are too rich, make them pay for everything!

I agree that all those things do need funding, no doubt about it, but sick of hearing "tax the rich" as the only option.

Who is "all the lefty media"?

Don't worry, if May wins the GE then she will just force NHS trusts to sell their assets. It seems to be the way of Tory Governments to sell everything off so they can say 'Look we have a stable economy'

It's a better tag line than "strong and stable" which is Teresa May's dream and has sod all to do with her government or the country's economy.
Of course, it's far easier to say that you will tax the top 5%, rather than risk upsetting the other 95% and tracking down the tax avoiders at the top of the pile will pay greater dividends than trying to cut a few quid from the disabled and the pensioners.

" I found it particularly amusing when Angus Robertson fired off at the PM for being nowhere to be seen when his esteemed leader was MIA too!"

Robertson is leader of the SNP in the UK Parliament. Sturgeon and the Scottish Parliament are not up for election until 2021. So why would a Leader not involved in an election be expected to take part in this election debate?

It's not the only option, other plans are to renationalise profit making enterprises instead of selling them off while our chums and partners buy shares in the companies that bought them!

All of the austerity budgets have been targeted at the poor. Service cuts, health cuts, schools, social care, police - all cut by address the deficit caused by greedy bankers. We have paid a heavy price for their greed... time for them to pay a bit back.

One thing is for certain anything that is renationalised will run at greater deficit than it does now. IIRC most of us had an option to buy shares in many of the industries the Tories de-nationalised.

The government can only cut the costs it manages - it hardly say to Barclays this is how you must run your company - that is not how it works as much as you would like it to.