FPL, music, etc. // 23 // Free Palestine.

Economics 🎓
Joined September 2015
Oli Dugmore delivers one of the most powerful and well thought out answers I’ve seen this n a long time on #bbcqt 👏
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Tom is right on this! ‘Telling millennials we're keeping the triple lock to help us in 30 years' time is nonsense. We're on course to be the first generation worse off than our parents. We're locked out of the housing market, paying higher taxes, repaying student loans that never seem to shrink, and putting off having children because of the cost of living.’
I listened to Ed Davey on the @BBCr4today this morning, and frankly, I think he missed the point. The idea that we're keeping the triple lock to help millennials is at best for the birds, and at worst downright insulting. I say that as a millennial. The case for the triple lock is a worthy one - stopping pensioner poverty. I want that as much as anyone. But pensioners are now less likely to be in poverty than children or working age adults. We talk about fairness, yet our answer is to give the same increase to every pensioner, treating the one choosing between heating and eating exactly the same as the one with millions in the bank. I can see no moral or fiscal case for above inflation rises for millionaires. That money should go where it's needed most - to everyone in poverty, not just one group. It could help fund free personal care, a policy that would disproportionately benefit older people. Ed is right that we shouldn't pit one generation against another. But intergenerational inequality is already one of the defining injustices of our time, and this would further entrench it. Worse, it gaslights an entire generation into believing it's for our benefit. Telling millennials we're keeping the triple lock to help us in 30 years' time is nonsense. We're on course to be the first generation worse off than our parents. We're locked out of the housing market, paying higher taxes, repaying student loans that never seem to shrink, and putting off having children because of the cost of living. I joined this party because I care about fairness and tackling inequality, and that has to include inequality between generations. This line, and this decision, fails on both counts. Ed needs to think again.
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People will lecture you about the Winter of Discontent after we've had over a decade of discontent.
Trying to frighten people with the scary ghost of the 1970s is funny when we've been living in a permacrisis for at least 25 years
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Trying to frighten people with the scary ghost of the 1970s is funny when we've been living in a permacrisis for at least 25 years
Andy Burnham seems to remember a different 1970s to the rest of us. Britain in 1979 was utterly broken - ravaged by unaccountable trade union power, economically stagnant, the sick man of Europe. The 1980s saw a remarkable national recovery based on free enterprise, the rule of law and championing Western values. And it is this that our Prime Minister rails against…
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The personal allowance has been stuck at £12,570 since 2021. And it’s staying there until 2031. If it had kept up with inflation, it would be around £17,470. The 40% tax threshold would be around £70k instead of £50,270. Your salary goes up. The tax-free allowance doesn’t. That’s how you get a tax rise without announcing a tax rise.
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Some of the coverage of the triple lock amounts to irresponsible scaremongering IMO Pensions are not being cut - it's not right to give pensioners the impression that they are Here's how I'll explain it to my grandma
"The new triple lock is not going to put pensioners into poverty. Pensions will still rise in line with average earnings." 🎙️ @HelenMiller_IFS explains how the new triple lock will work in our latest podcast: has the triple lock been fixed?
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Fairs triple lock discourse has reached "if NI wasn't enough we also paid VAT"
If you are only counting their NI contributions. Do you know what VAT is?
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It's depressing knowing that we could save a HUGE, unfathomable amount of money without anyone poor or vulnerable being affected simply by means testing the State Pension but that it'll never happen because so many people think wealthy older people deserve benefits for nothing.
The U.K. should abolish the triple lock at a MINIMUM. Next step should be means testing the state pension.
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When you qualify for your state pension you should be required to sign something that says you understand it’s a benefit before you receive it
We need a national initiative to explain to the British public how pensions work. So many old people seem to believe that all their National Insurance contributions over the years went into a little personalised money pot in the bank with their name on it.
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And, of course, the reply is "these aren't facts" + being blocked so that they don't have to face the evidence. Cowardly.
It's a well-known fact that they are the richest cohort in the country, and it's a well-known fact that the average pensioner takess more out than they paid in I'm not asking for a high pension, I just want to know that I'll *get* one... Seeing as we're the ones paying for them
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Replying to @danielcave_
Is the triple lock the best way to support the minority of pensioners without home ownership, though? Targeted support would be far more effective without taking billions from working-age poor and handing it to exceptionally wealthy pensioners
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You cannot spend your life paying British low tax rates, and insisting even they are too high btw, only to demand a Danish-like state pension upon retirement and expect younger working people to pay for it. Fuck off.
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Everyone upset about the rumoured triple lock changes, remember, is insisting that the state pension should rise *faster* than the wages of the people who pay for it. That’s the only thing at stake here. Andy is not cutting the pension, or even suggesting it should stop rising.
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Just to let you know your NI was never to pay for NHS it was never ringed fenced for pensions and those born for example 1956 will receive £291,000 more than they ‘put in’. The state pension has also never been decent one of the lowest in Europe. Why ? Because we pay lower taxes
James is absolutely right. We paid our NICs because we wanted financial security in our old age. Now the government is looking to renege on its side of the deal causing incredible mental anguish to those like me (& millions of others) who rightly expected a decent state pension would be there for them on retirement. It’s beyond disgusting.
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Pensions should not rise faster than the median worker's wages. If Boomers want higher pensions, then they should back policies that spur economic growth and wage growth, so that we will have more tax revenue to fund higher pension welfare payments.
Let's remember that the triple lock was introduced to protect pensioners from being left behind, and was never meant to be permanent. That principle remains important. But politics must also be honest about trade-offs. Reforming the triple lock into a double lock - protecting pensions through earnings or inflation, whichever is higher - is fairer and a more sustainable approach. The money saved could build a properly funded social-care system, so people are not forced to sell their homes, exhaust their savings or rely on families to fill the gaps. This is not about pitting pensioners against older people who need care. It is about recognising that security in later life means both an adequate pension and access to dignified care. Our leaders need the courage to tell the public the truth: better services require difficult choices. PM Burham at last appears to have that courage.1 We also need a settlement that is intergenerationally fairer, and honest about what it. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crwy… @andyburnham
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Even if Burnham isn't able to gather enough political clout to abolish the triple lock, I hope this can help shift the Overton's Window on the triple lock from being an untouchable ''holy grail'' to a question of ''when does it inevitably get replaced'' in public discourse
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Lots of well off pensioners fuming now because they “didnt mean THAT benefit”
🚨 BREAKING: Andy Burnham is set to signal the end of the state pension triple lock in his conference speech tomorrow [@Telegraph]
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Amelia Dimoldenberg is Jewish and Ed Sheeran is not Jewish, but this joke about him not having a backbone is “antisemitic” according to this other non Jewish person ….just in case you were wondering where we’re at with antisemitism being a protector for ever criticising Israel
The regime spreading the news that antisemitism is socially acceptable.
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Actually the lyric is: “I ride for you, Charli.”
I weep for you, Charlie.
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There they are, the ‘paid our fair share’ generation.
You can see why Burnham is keen to avoid making this much worse
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