Gone baby gone

How can this be? I thought there were two main points to UC... Firsty to make work pay - seems to be failing on this point. Secondly to bring together all the various benefits to make fraud harder, and caps easier to implement - seems to be failing on this point.

There's something else about general strikes. They are usually an indicator the country is about to shake hands with someone from the IMF...

But if they are higher than their competitors it surely proves that tax is irrelevant? To wit, Costa Coffee can pay UK corporation tax and still deliver the same product for less than Starbucks, so either the more tax you pay the cheaper your product becomes (unlikely) or there is no direct relationship between tax and product retail prices for many products and services in the UK.

Actually, I think you'll find that the prices aren't lower. In the case of Starbucks and Microsoft they are actually higher. Their profits are probably higher. Which is good for someone hopefully.

You presume too much. We're going to have more banks that need bailing out* soon. * = indirectly via a government property slush fund. Maybe Amazon, Starbucks and Microsoft could withold their Corporation Tax payments. Just a thought.

Y'know, I don't think that is one of the options. The options are: Pay the same or more taxes for a smaller public sector. Pay the same or more taxes for the same public sector. Only the Labour party have been talking about tax cuts recently. That just shows you what a pickle we're in!

There is some evidence that "back to work" advisors have been putting pressure on JSA claimants to go this route: http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/work-programme-employment-agency-advice.294931/ Helps to massage the very important "claimant count" for JSA. <whispers> Nobody really notices a big jump in self employed people at the same time as "Jobseekers" fall </whispers> But I'm terribly sorry old bean, Universal Credit is going to stop that wheeze (or at least limit it to short time period)

We could, but you'd need to be in a union otherwise you actions would make you liable for dismissal. The article says there are "legal hurdles" to overcome. I think - a bit like the war with Iraq - that just means the right people have to have lunch and sufficient legal fees are paid to make everything ok.

You should probably get that seen to.

Petition is up to over 400,000 signatories and is apparently breaking records! http://news.uk.msn.com/blog/blog--iain-duncan-smith-petition-breaks-records

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britains-biggest-unions-put-weight-behind-plan-for-general-strike-8559027.html It's all starting to feel a bit 1930s. As I said earlier this week, the government will be praying for a crap summer, otherwise there could be public disorder coming soon to a major city near you...

Only because Burger King didn't keep records of who stuck around and who didn't and since they were already firefighting, threw a bone to the press to try and salvage a teeny tiny bit of good feeling!

It usually is the more comfortable people who whinge the loudest. Take NIMBYism as an example.

Let's face it, the MPs struggle to do a fairly easy job on £1,200 a week. And that's will all their other expenses (like accomodation, travel to and from work, etc) met for them by taxpayer. IDS couldn't live on £150 a week or £53 a week if he had to cover all his costs.

True enough, but we swung too far the opposite way, as is often the case.