29 thoughts on “THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF UNIVERSALISM”

  1. Cant say ending universal winter fuel payments regardless
    of income wealth is wrong many people who are wealthy
    enough do not actually need the payment.
    Ditto social care are we really saying others should pay
    so that someone can inherit a home..er why

    My own family (large ) in total own mortgage free
    nearly 2 million pounds in property should
    none of us pay a penny and pass everything
    on to our children ????

    Income Tax etc so you don’t raise anything
    on anybody even those with massive incomes
    and that’s a progressive snp policy ????

    Discourage use of foreign workers and favour
    home grown Scottish workers you have a problem
    with this ??????

    Its not on its own a racist policy I would suggest
    if linked to specific skills knowledge etc and not
    nation (outdated Concept) ethnic group.
    All the time you allow OUTLANDERS to come to
    do the work their will never be the incentive
    to up-skill the the People in Scotland to fill
    the high paid jobs available.

    the rest fox hunting etc I do agree !

    If a policy is right then you have
    to agree just to say its wrong because
    somebody not snp proposed it is just
    ridiculous. but wery snp

    Now the Conservatives are vile scum
    and will lie and backtrack as they do
    always………..

    BUT A POLICY WHICH IS RIGHT IS
    RIGHT NO MATTER THE PARTY
    WHICH IMPLEMENT AND NOT JUST
    PROPOSE AND THEN WHEN ELECTED
    DROP.

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    1. And the pensioners just above the means tested threshold can just freeze to death then? Leaving aside that benefits for the poor become poor benefits, a far better way of dealing with it would be to make the winter fuel allowance taxable. The wealthiest would have most of it clawed back, those just over an arbitrary threshold don’t lose out completely.

      As for houses, it becomes a lottery. Get knocked down by a bus, the kids get it all, get a long term illness you are worse off. Dilcott came up with a proposal that everyone paid and the funds were pooled to cover everyone. But no Tories ditched that one.

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    2. OK, Niko. I can see those arguments too.

      Of course, I wonder why the likes of Mrs Thatcher got a free bus card, or was entitled to care in old age.

      There’s no easy answer.

      What I worry about is the beginning of a slippery slope. If you can charge people for care in later years, why can’t you charge people for hospital treatment or a visit to the GP. After all, why would the likes of Cilla Black get free board and lodgings in a hospital?

      And what else will follow?

      And where is it reasonable to draw the line. What about people who are 50p a week over that line? They lose the whole of their winter fuel payment?

      Personally, I have never understood the British obsession with owning property. It seems to me it was largely a Thatcher philosophy. Make them a property owning people and they won’t be able to go on strike… or kick off too much, no matter what we do. They’ll have too much to lose.

      So I don’t have a massive problem with people having to sell their homes in later life. But once again, where do you draw the line? Some poor soul has a small tenement flat worth about £50,000. He husband needs care, and they have to sell the flat to pay for it. Where does she live? And even if she can continue to live there until she dies… what if that’s another 30myears? Why would she bother to upkeep the place? What for? So that the government can talk more?

      I can’t remember who it was who said ‘Benefits for the poor are poor benefits’ but it sounds about right to me.

      Kids getting free meals at school? Are we going to go back to the days when those paying for their meals were served first and those who got free meals got what was left. Humiliated.

      It’s not about the party here. There are things in Corbyn’s manifesto that I liked. I dare say there will be stuff in teh SNP one that I won;t like.

      I just think that messing with universalism is a dangerous policy.

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      1. And I certainly don;t think that people employing “foreigners”, should be penalised. What are we going to have? A two-tier system of tax? One for brits and one for foreigners? I find the idea repulsive.

        I worry about the thin end of wedges in all these things. What will be next? Colour? Gender? Sexuality? Faith?

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  2. As other have said elsewhere if Corbyn is taking us back to the 1970s, the Tories plan to take us back to the 1870s (if not the 1770s). Lower than vermin they really are going to asset strip and destroy the welfare state.

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    1. Yes. Did I read somewhere that there has been a big increase in some inner cities of diseases of poverty?

      I can see that May thinks she is appealing to the poorer people here. She will have put off a lot of her traditional vote with it though.

      And wait till the poorer find that there isn’t any more for them; just the humiliation of having to beg for treatement, or a heating allowance or free food for their kids.

      Still, it’s an ill wind. Trussell Trust can look forward to a rush.’ Every town should have two?’

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  3. Why do I feel that it seems that Kezia Dugdale is about to cry whenever she speaks?

    I am sure she is about to have an emotional breakdown.

    May be as well she gets a career change soon! For the good of her health 😎

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Seriously, I think that she is in the wrong job. I’ve no idea whether she is or isn’t a nice person and I’ve no wish to criticise her personally, but she doesn’t seem suited to leading the Labour Party in Scotland.

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  4. If the rich pay their NI, then they are entitled to whatever’s going; like prescription charges – if you start means testing some stiff-necked proud people would rather suffer. Universal suffrage, universal benefits.

    OT. I’m pecking out these comments with an arm in a sling and slightly woozy with medication. Monday morning, the first rain at my bit for six weeks, a greasy drain cover – and I’m arse over tip. Just trying to mentally add up what it would’ve cost if the Tory scum get their way…

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Broken?

      Are you sure that Niko didn’t come round and do a bit of Biff bash Boff, like he promised the other day?

      Don’t be afraid to admit it if …

      Seriously sorry to hear you’re hurt. After no rain for weeks surfaces can be treacherous.

      Maybe a wee dram won’t hut too much?

      Oh and I agree… there are some who will never go abegging.

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      1. Bruised shoulder, pulled muscles and road rash. Hmm… was there a Bob Hoskins look-a-like going around K********n with a jerrycan of diesel?

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Conan,

      Agree with your first paragraph, can’t see why it is at all controversial.

      Hope , on your second para, that you heal soon.

      Best wishes.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes. agreed. Apart from the very rich, who appear to pay nothing, people who are a bit better off pay more in tax and NI. It’s wrong to deny them the payback.

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  5. Conan

    More in common numbness all down left side of
    body arm hands legs Doc suspected stroke had me in
    loads of tests..No stroke waiting on diabetes meanwhile
    left hand forearm all tingling pain and not much grip.
    Maybe carpal tunnel maybe not we await tests….

    Thank God for the nhs we will properly die under its
    care………..the young uns will have none when they get
    old

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You still weight train? As you know CTS can be caused by strenuous, repetitive work with the hand… 😉

      The NHS will be safe in a Tory free Scotland Niko. That means indy, like it or not.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes, although the Scottish government will resist it, it will eventually have to come. We get a proportion of what the Engish government spends on health. If they cut it, because they have privatised the heath service and people need (as they do with dental care) to have private insurance cover, then we can’t escape that.

        Independence is the only way to avoid that.

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  6. As you remarked earlier, this is just the thin edge of the wedge. And doesn’t means testing usuallly end up costing more than just paying the benefit to everyone who qualifies?
    Not that I possess second-sight, but I said to my wife years ago when Cameron cut the W.F.P, that the end was in sight, and so it has been proved.
    With the triple lock on pensions about to be removed, what next? Here’s another prediction. If this mob are returned to power, the State Pension wil be the next to be means tested.
    Think not? This group of destroyers, the E.N.H.S, the Welfare State, the Police and Fire Service in England, the Benefits System, and many more, will stop at nothing with their perverted logic.
    How anyone in Scotland could vote for this bunch of uncaring reprobates is beyond me, but believe it or not we are getting a few on the doorsteps.
    No matter what May says, we have to put an end to our continued subjugation by Westminster, and be free to determine our own future, or else we wont have one worth having.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, I think that the state pension may well be in line. They have said that there is no doubt that it will get more and more unaffordable as people live longer.

      Putting up the pensionable age is not much of a saving. After all, a huge number of people in their 60s are unemployed. Denying them pension simply means that the claim unemployment benefits. OK, they are less, but often there are other payments which have to be made (rebates, allowances for housing, council tax etc.)

      So the pension will surely go sooner or later.

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  7. I thought it was interesting that the increase in the cost of hiring a foreign worker only applied to non-EU. They actually have no formal immigration policy for the EU. I’d have expected to see a unified immigration policy statement in their manifesto. They’re going to need that if they want to get numbers < 100K (including students). They're going to fail at that target again. I'm not all that sad about the failure, though.

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    1. It is interesting. Are they admitting that they will have to import EU labour even when they have left the EU?

      I suspect that countries like India, which have made an easier access part of their trade deal strategy, may find that a bit off putting.

      Trust them not to have thought of that!

      100k including student?

      Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha … oh please…. make it stop.

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  8. ITV news. English woman totally surprised that she agreed with Nicola… Inch by inch, bit by bit, we are winning.

    Liked by 1 person

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