Labour supporter Jack Monroe defects to Green Party

[darmstadt]

Heck 6 people a day are killed mining coal.

Not in the UK

[pjclarke]

I do feel sorry for the neoconservative right. The results of their 30 year economic global experiment are in and it has been an unadulterated disaster for all but a tiny minority. OECD countries have introduced more regressive taxes, taxing the rich less and the poor more, with the promise that economic efficiency and investment would follow, enriching us all. But no, as state incomes and the spending power of the poor contracted, so did demand, and investment rates. We were also promised that removing labour constraints and a 'flexible' workforce would reduce unemployment. The opposite has occurred - income inequality and unemployment have soared. The wage stagnation forced people to supplement their income with debt, fed by the deregulated banks, with consequences we are now all paying for.

After a long period of relatively stable distribution of income between profits and wages, the share of wages in total income has fallen since around 1980 in most developed and many developing countries. In several of the larger developed countries much of this decline already occurred between 1980 and 1995, when increasing unemployment started to exert pressure on workers and to weaken unions and average wages began to fall behind overall productivity growth. In some countries this trend continued for two decades. With wage compression pursued in many developed countries to overcome the current crisis and new records in unemployment, this trend is likely to be even reinforced. In several developed countries it has been accompanied by a dramatic gap between the top income groups and those at the bottom of the income ladder.

UN CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT



Blinkered by an elevation of profit above all other values and an unreasoning idealogical hatred of anything that looks like common provision or restraints on private companies' ability to maximise profits, the Right has had to blindfold itself and deny the overwhelming scientific concensus on climate change, a truly despicable policy revealed by Republican activist Frank Luntz in a 2002 memo to George Bush.

The scientific debate is closing [against us] but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science.... Voters believe that there is noconsensus*about*global warming*within the*scientific community. Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate

So, lie to the electorate, and the planet can go to hell in a handcart, just so long as our Oily friends keep the billions rolling in. Yep, that's the Right for you.

[hyperD]

Thank you comrade for your undying support, your black armband is in the post.

[darmstadt]

So, lie to the electorate, and the planet can go to hell in a handcart, just so long as our Oily friends keep the billions rolling in. Yep, that's the Right for you.

....

[DodgyAgent]

I do feel sorry for the neoconservative right. The results of their 30 year economic global experiment are in and it has been an unadulterated disaster for all but a tiny minority. OECD countries have introduced more regressive taxes, taxing the rich less and the poor more, with the promise that economic efficiency and investment would follow, enriching us all. But no, as state incomes and the spending power of the poor contracted, so did demand, and investment rates. We were also promised that removing labour constraints and a 'flexible' workforce would reduce unemployment. The opposite has occurred - income inequality and unemployment have soared. The wage stagnation forced people to supplement their income with debt, fed by the deregulated banks, with consequences we are now all paying for.



UN CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT





Blinkered by an elevation of profit above all other values and an unreasoning idealogical hatred of anything that looks like common provision or restraints on private companies' ability to maximise profits, the Right has had to blindfold itself and deny the overwhelming scientific concensus on climate change, a truly despicable policy revealed by Republican activist Frank Luntz in a 2002 memo to George Bush.



So, lie to the electorate, and the planet can go to hell in a handcart, just so long as our Oily friends keep the billions rolling in. Yep, that's the Right for you.

What you seem to forget is that the reason the "OECD" countries are where they are in the first place is because what you call neocon activities (capitalism) have put them in the position of wealth and stability in which they exist. No socialist driven economy has ever created any sort of wealth or advanced society on its own. It is entirely fair to say that these neocon activities have indeed created huge inequalities. However socialist governments have emerged to rectify this situation taking up to 50% of the riches that have been created on a mandate of distributing wealth and making for a fairer society and a clean and healthy environment.

Unfortunately instead of sticking to the mandate on which they were trusted to deliver they have failed to achieve anything to help the less fortunate. Driven by envy vanity and self interest they have exploited their position of trust with the net effect of destroying economies, bringing more people into their world of state dependency and killing the goose that lays the golden egg. very few of these people for example question the performance of public services and they use the NHS as a political football to manipulate people into continuing to vote them in.

Where the left should be making public services work they are instead totems of the fiefdom in which their minions manipulate and blackmail the rest of us. In schools they would rather we all had a sh*t education than a small percentage be allowed to move up the ladder through the grammar school system. Instead of making ALL schools as good as grammar schools they seek to get rid of them

The result is no one feels any moral obligation to pay tax and no one has any faith in socialists to run anything. The only reason people vote for them is because the left cleverly play the class war game and foster guilt and envy to win support.

The neo cons as you call them have done their bit and continue to do so by creating wealth. Unfortunately the envy self loathing driven left have not even begun to fulfil their part of the bargain.

[pjclarke]

No socialist driven economy has ever created any sort of wealth or advanced society on its own.

China? Fastest growing economy this year. Has it not occurred to you that it is possible to be economically and socially liberal, to be environmentally concerned, to believe there is a place for market-driven policies, to be on the Left without signing up to the full Communist Party manifesto? You were the only one to drag in Socialist Governments, of which there are only 4 in the world.

Try decaff.

[Zero Liability]

China is far from socialist in anything but name... it is on the same cheap credit rush as the rest of the developed economies, and is due to undergo/is already undergoing a correction. Neither is it laissez-faire, of course.

[darmstadt]

Denmark, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, New Zealand (nearly) and Belgium are all socialist countries most of which I think people here would be happy to live in...

Not quite correct, but a basic overview of those countries:

Denmark has a wide range of welfare benefits that they offer their citizens. As a result, they also have the highest taxes in the world. Equality is considered the most important value in Denmark. Small businesses thrive, with over 70 percent of companies having 50 employees or less.

Finland has one of the world’s best education systems, with no tuition fees and also giving free meals to their students. The literacy rate in Finland is 100 percent. Finland has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Like Denmark and other European countries, equality is considered one of the most important values in society. Whereas in the Netherlands, government control over the economy remains at a minimum, but a socialist welfare system remains. The lifestyle in the Netherlands is very egalitarian and organized.

Like the Netherlands, Canada also has mostly a free market economy, but has a very extensive welfare system that includes free health and medical care. Canada is ranked as one of the best top five countries to live in by the United Nations and the Human Development Index (HDI) rankings.

Sweden has a large welfare system, but due to a high national debt, required much government intervention in the economy. In Norway, the government controls certain key aspects of the national economy, and they also have one of the best welfare systems in the world, with Norway having one of the highest standards of living in all of Europe. Norway is not a member of the European Union.

Ireland has arguably one of the best welfare systems in the world, with unemployment checks higher on average than Denmark or Switzerland’s average. Around 25 percent of Ireland’s GDP goes towards paying for the welfare system.

New Zealand may not be a socialist country, but the welfare system in the country is very wide ranging, offering support for housing, unemployment, health, child care, and education as well. Therefore, New Zealand has many of the characteristics of a socialist country, even while remaining officially free market.

[pjclarke]

China is far from socialist in anything but name... it is on the same cheap credit rush as the rest of the developed economies, and is due to undergo/is already undergoing a correction.

Socialist countries may not borrow?

[pjclarke]

Denmark, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, New Zealand (nearly) and Belgium are all socialist countries most of which I think people here would be happy to live in...

Not quite correct, but a basic overview of those countries:

There you have it, on the left, to be sure, but none of these nations would self-describe as socialist. Indeed,I am pretty sure that the socialist states as described by Dodgy exist only in his fevered imagination.