I think most people pride themselves on their intelligence, even if secretly, and their ability to think for themselves.
Here are some links to counter concerns from voters.
Fact checking – the BBC RESPONDS HERE TO TORY CLAIMS HAVING NOT SEEN LABOUR MANIFESTO
Responding to the opposition
The Guardian – say Labour ought to fight like for like
The Guardian – who created the Windrush scandal and the “hostile environmnent” from 2018
The Great Pay Robbery – households worse off this decade.
Universal Basic Income.
People of all income brackets may wonder how this would work and what effect it would have. Would it make people less likely to look for work? According to Mark Henderson’s book The Geek Manifesto, policy making in government can only ever be an experiment.More communication is needed and people need to give feedback to their politicians, not write them off if a policy fails. Then a policy can be changed or improved if the experiment doesn’t go according to predictions.
Wired magazine – here is an article which discussed UBI and a quote below:
Data from the Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty reports that “in terms of labor markets, poverty, safety net, wealth inequality, and economic mobility, the US comes in last of the top 10 most well-off countries, and 18th amongst the top 21.” Alston wrote that “the American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion, as the US now has the lowest rate of social mobility of any of the rich countries.”
The Guardian – discusses the issue and underlying references to the world of work or unemployment. a Quote:
Paid employment is held up as one of the ultimate markers of being a valuable member of society, with those not in paid work (always described in these narratives as a voluntary position, rather than as the result of issues outside their control) seen as a drain on society.
Raises in Tax
The big difficulty here is, again, that all the projected answers are effectively conjecture, so a balanced view of what is said is required.
MoneyWeek – they compare Labour’s tax reforms with the Liberal Democrats and do not think the tax changes will be good overall.
Tutor2U on Economics talks about the “Laffer Curve” that aims to calculate the “optimum tax rate” in terms of collecting maximum tax revenues. The aim of this is to show that Labour aim to get this right with partnership from the public and by using feedback to adjust their proposals for the best.
Understanding the Laffer Curve
The Laffer Curve is based on the economic idea that people will adjust their behavior in the face of the incentives created by income tax rates. Higher income tax rates decrease the incentive to work and invest compared lower rates. If this effect is large enough, it means that at some tax rate, and further increase in the rate will actually lead to decrease in total tax revenue. For every type of tax, there is a threshold rate above which the incentive to produce more diminishes, thereby reducing the amount of revenue the government receives.
Student Debt Black Hole in our Economy
UK Finance on Yahoo – Student fees left a trillion dollar black hole
The Independent – keeping an eye on what the Conversatives are dong here.
The Week – also the government’s plans to privatise millions of student loans here: The Week (privatisation article)
The Daily Mirror – (Google seems to have blocked these links on my Mac browser)
The Daily Telegraph – about how the government SOLD off the student loan book for half its value to foreign investors in 2017.
Gagging orders for university staff
The Guardian – £90million has been spent on silencing victims of misconduct
BBC – criticizes gagging orders
OFSTED being replaced under Labour
BBC – saying Labour considers Ofsted “unfit for purpose”
Nationalisation – public services
Independent – How nationalising water, energy and Royal Mail would pay for itself in 7 years
Reuters – the plans set out for nationalisation under Labour.
Showing how much Boris cares about people – not
The Independent – Boris views on single mothers
Daily Telegraph – Boris views on social mobility and rich/poor divide
Daily Telegraph – Boris views on not leaving the EU
Boris in Guardian Tory biased article on Tory Islamophobia
On the NHS – here is an impartial summary as to what has actually happened so far, from this Guardian article
The leak shows that the US is interested in the UK healthcare market and that discussions had covered patent lengths, which affect the profits of American pharmaceutical companies. It is no secret that the US resents the leverage available to the NHS as a large state-owned consumer of medicines. Washington would see breaking that monopoly as a core objective of trade talks, inflating prices. Dismantling state provision so private insurance companies can expand in the British market would also be a desirable outcome for US lobbies, but not for British citizens.
The Guardian continues:
The NHS is formally “on the table” in talks because the Americans have put it there. But the UK government has not yet acquiesced to any demands. Formal negotiation is not yet at ministerial level. Mr Johnson can continue to claim that he would never yield, but a long record of dishonesty makes his pledges worthless. He is already associated with one of the most conspicuous falsehoods of recent British political history – the referendum campaign claim, printed on the side of a bus, that £350m a week could be diverted from EU budgets to the NHS. The current Tory manifesto includes a duplicitous claim to employ 50,000 new nurses, 18,500 of whom would in fact be existing nurses retained in post.
Therefore, the issue with Boris is one of distrust ultimately. To voters this would make their healthcare SAFER, of course, with Labour.
The topic of Anti-semitism
Haaretz – A newspaper in Israel published this view.
The Jewish Voice for Labour posted 50 times Jeremy Corbyn stood with Jewish people.
A piece of history
The term “benefit scrounger” appeared in the 1940s in a letter from a Conservative voter in South West London complaining about not getting domestic staff as English women would rather sit around on benefits than work.
The real reason for this great social change is that British women were fed up with being exploited in unregulated domestic service. Irish women started filling these roles then also they got fed up. Conditions of domestic service were inhumane in some households. Wages weren’t paid or paid late by some employers who didn’t live within their means. Accommodation was inhospitable. Staff were ill-treated and disrespected and time off was often too short for domestic staff to see their families. Yes conservatives still demanded they had, predominantly female domestic servants. Think Keeping Up Appearances.
This brought about the start of the “daily”, a domestic servant who would arrive through a back door each day and be there to answer the front door to the postmen or any other house callers or unexpected visitors. This new form of snobbery grew after the second world war.
However, Clement Attlee, who had served alongside Churchill during the second world war in the coalition and had lived in the East End of London to observe why people were so deprived while working so hard, came to power over a Labour government in 1945. When Aneurin Bevan started the NHS in 1948, the Labour government introduced paid training for women to become nurses for the new National Health Services. – Source: The Victorian Slum (BBC)
Compare that to Boris’ views on women:
Business Insider – Boris’ record on attitudes to different people.
The Labour Party website – quotes from Boris’ articles in the Spectator.
The New European – Boris Johnson calls women “uppity and irresponsible”
The Spectator – Boris Johnson’s article from 1995
The Metro – On Johnson’s unearthed comments in his column in Spectator magazine
Finally – time for a laugh: Blackadder the Third at the election results. Dish and Dishonesty (S3Ep2)
Dairy of A Nonny Moose 