Row breaks out over plans for regionalised benefit payments

“Start taxing the banks, just remember, even the poorest people helped bail them out. http://tinyurl.com/yctjk35”

“Sochat, have you not heard of the deficit or government debt? Run up by this (and the previous) government paying bills we cannot afford!!
If we stop paying benefits to the rich ie, winter heating allowance, child benefit, free bus passes etc there would be more money for those who need it. Universal benefits are a needless drain on resources.
If we also stopped health tourists, deported (instead of jailing and paying their keep)foreign criminals and terrorist suspects, made sure everybody paid their due taxes, made the banks behave more responsibly, stopped utility companies milking us dry and cut petrol duty so maybe inflation on day to day living was lower then everybody would have more free money to spend and maybe the economy would pick up.
The only people not suffering are the rich and it's not an attack on them, more an attack on an inept government that keeps helping the rich and making the rest of us pay for their mistakes.
We do pay too much in benefits though and I agree with the idea that after 2 children (unless twins or more happen) the state stopped paying for them. If you can't afford kids then don't have them, we have stopped at one because we cannot afford more though we would love another one. Housing benefit is helping too many live in homes they don't need and cannot afford too. Benefits are for those who need them, not those who base a lifestyle around them. Maybe if our politicians set a better example the rest of us would follow suit!!”

“weslangdon, thanks for agreeing with me, Fred the shred and Adam Applegarth were just two of the bankers set free by Blair.
I've kept away from mentioning Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and the call by the very respected Desmond Tutu to put Blair on trial for crimes against humanity, he must think Blair did something illegal, costing tens of thousands of lives in Iraq.”

“westlangdon

Sorry i didnt see those letters after your namemaking you a proffsor of economics.”

“GorseinonJoe; please don't expect me to justify the stupidity if Blair and Brown, they rode a property bubble, had no insight, foresight or understanding that all bubbles collapse.
However whilst they may have been stupid the actions of the bankers here and especially in the USA was CRIMINAL. Fred [the Shred] Goodwin destroyed RBS, Adam Applegarth destroyed Northern Rock, their actions and those of others cost the tax payer £500 billion. Private debt was dumped on the public, they are criminals and they ought to be in prison serving life sentences, their actions have destroyed a million jobs and caused immeasurable misery for millions more. Put the blame where it really belongs not on the poorest.”

“weslangdon, you seem to have forgotten the excesses of 13 years of Labour government that we are all paying for.
The Millennium Dome, 1 billion pounds to build, apology from Tony Blair as a mistake, sold at a loss to the taxpayer to the tune of £750 million.
£185 billion being borrowed without any real plan to re-pay, an acceptance that cuts will have to continue into a Labour government (if elected) but no detail on what will be cut, however, no commitment to increase the income tax of the richest back to 50p in the pound (interest group?).
Labour who unleashed the bankers in 2008 to delve into sub prime mortgages which is accepted as one of the main reasons we are in the mess we are.
And the note left by a Labour minister joking that "there was no money left". Hardly the actions of a politician who had the country in mind whilst in government.
Yes politics are about choices and the last Labour government chose to back the bankers to create wealth, unfortunately the poor didn't see much of the rewards the bankers pocketed. Ed Milliband will still be New Labour, the old, socialist Labour party disappeared with Neil Kinnock. The NHS is no better now than it was 20 years ago, there were and are still "fat cat" managers who have delivered next to nothing and millions of pounds are wasted.”

“GorseinonJoe; Politics is about choices and Political parties are about interest groups. Conservatives represent the interests of rich people; therefore they expect poor people to pay for the financial crisis caused by their mates the bankers. People on the left like me believe the rich bankers ought to pay for this mess not the poor. This Government choses to fight an unpopular foreign war, squander billions on two cirucuses this summer and cut taxes for the rich, they think they can fool people into thinking this is fair. The attack on the benefit system is a clear attempt to blame the victims of Government failure for a crisis not of their making.
BLAME THE BANKERS NOT THE POOR, MAKE THEM PAY”

“Sochat, don't give up, the question you pose is valid, where will the money come from? Should we borrow again to buy ourselves out of trouble? Who will then have to repay any money borrowed? Our children? It is now accepted by ALL parties that cuts are inevitable in this government and whoever gets voted in next time, some have accepted this reality others haven't.”

“Sochat; you sound like Micawber

http://tinyurl.com/936qqmp

and you advertise your ignorance of how public finance and modern economies work, it is impossible to cut your way out of a recession”

“I would like to hear from all you people on these boards where the money will come from to continue paying all these benefits.Taking into account that any government can only spend the revenue that it raises in taxes.”