exactly, but as somebody said labour does not exist anymore in the same way neither do the tories. its just one big international uni party run by unelected bods from the world economic forum and their other mates from the WHO. well its the impression it gives to me and many others i speak to.

Replaced John Duncan if memory is correct.

Over the years successive governments both the Labour and Conservative have removed how much they give councils meaning the councils have to raise the extra funding by increasing Council tax.

Spot on Kev But which of our past managers do you think was the worst I seem to remember Viv
Busby was the worst but could be way of the mark.

Would have helped if the tories never closed Prisons without replacing them.

Sarly.
Don't bite matey

He's gone during the week

Nope Martin Scott Pools went from a play off final team to relegation.the following season.

How did we go from freezing pensioners to worst managers

We’ve had some duffers here as managers and Vice Admiral Bob Moncur, who must have conducted training sessions by signal flags from his yacht in the bay, gets my vote on the playing level ….proving a good player doesn’t necessarily make a good manager…….but my worst manager ever wasn’t a bad coach at all, just a manager I couldn’t respect under any circumstances and that was Scotty…I don’t have to give reasons, the name ‘Scott’ is more than sufficient.

He was born and bred in Sheffield, never crossed the border Snowy or was that tongue in cheek ?

The Triple Lock……

If pensioners are deemed to get too much because of it, then find a way to claw some back.

Perhaps rename it Triple Lock Minus.

I was just referring to his surname alone, I detested the block

help me out somebody. i,m trying to think of how to put the triple lock into a comment about triple shit managers.

Well I got a reply to my email from my mp and it's exactly the script that every Labour mp has followed in every interview.
Doesn't address my question why pensioners and not the affluent have to pay for the so called black hole. And no comment to my suggestion that the black hole may actually have been of their own making with Green Overseas Aid over and above the standard budget for overseas aid, pay rises to Junior Dr's and railway workers, Great British Energy con, Border Security Force con, etc

That's the issue with writing to MPs. I'm sure they have a stock selection of pre written letters that they send out.

"send this bloke letter 324"

He was sharp out the day after the vote to justify his actions with a catalogue of waffle……as though it was ‘now to do wiv me Guv’…toilet trained lapdog.

Apparently there's likely to be a vote on assisted dying before Xmas, better than freezing to death?

the vote on that might have been made last week when they voted to take money off pensioners.

It would be interesting to see if they do anything with concessionary travel.
A policy of mine would be to level it across England so that the benefits that the likes of Hartlepool residents get is extended to London (plus others) so that they would have to wait a further 6 years (from 60 to 66) and would lose free travel on the underground i.e. would only get free bus travel.
That would save a fortune and would go towards reinstating WFA.
Over to you London MPs

If they don’t get the message that after WFA, them stopping concessionary fares would be a bridge too far, then they deserve all they get.

I suppose Starmer can relax now as he has already beaten Liz Truss's 49 days.

Come back Tony all is forgiven

i,d reduce the available useage of concessioary travel though to restrict it to local free travel and not to travel free across the country. it was never brought in at the start for something like i saw and heard a few years back. went to skipton to travel to preston to pick a car up in leyland that i had bought. it was just after 9 in the morning and it was a half full double decker of pensioners going to preston then change for blackpool giving them 3 hours at the seaside free. for me it made a mockery of the situation.

Trouble is we are treating these people (MPs) as though they are normal, Good, Decent, People
Don,t think anyone can argue that point.

Aye, Hancock would have cheered us all up.

Can passes still be used during "rush hours" or is it off-peak only?

Can't see what's wrong with them having a "free" day at the seaside, most have contributed enough to society and the government's coffers. For many it may be the only outdoors option available to them.

I believe you pay a nominal fee of you use it before 9.30 am…10 or 20p

30p, you’ll find a few of us oldies queuing up at bus stops after 9.30.

Absolutely. In the winter it might be the only way to keep warm, riding around in buses. Bless them.
I'll bet some of the lads who risked their lives in the Falklands and elsewhere never thought the country would eventually let them freeze to death in their retirement days.
Scandalous is not the word.
At least the lads who took part in the Battle of Britain have been spared the ignominy of this treatment.
"Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few."
Just don't ask for help to keep warm in your old age.

Well said. This needs to haunt Starmer and Reeves as long as they are in public office.

This "solution" of labour to use "Pensions Credit" is just to enable you to claim the WFA, but it will only bring your pension up to £218.15 per week or £11344 per year. As a new boy to state pension i already get £11492 per year (full 35 years contributions). Then the person claiming will get £11344 plus £200 (???) in WFA.
Does anyone have a clear picture of how this works as it is as clear as mud to me with little knowledge of the benefits system.
I have occupation pensions so i am not looking at this with a personal agenda BTW.

again that depends on where you live and which area issues the pass. around my way you have to pay full whack monday to friday before 9.30am but free on saturday and sunday. in greater manchester pensioners can travel free on the trains inside that area where in west yorkshire its half fare.

i can and have had experiance of what i find an abuse of pass use when i was a bus driver. on a sunday i ended up with a full load of them just travelling around on a three hour round trip. problem was there was a hospital on the route which ran hourly on a sunday where nurses and hospital visitors were unable to get on due to them. surely that cannot be right.

well just popped out and the post arrived. in it was bill for tax for over £400 on the just over £14k government only pension i receive. they have taken my fuel allowance off me, want money back they,ll be after my fucking hands next. thats about £700 in total taken off my earlier rise so god knows what i have been left with. if only we could opt out of paying for the dinghy divers, the workshy and mp,s expenses it would not feel too bad. anyway why cannot they take tax out at source as they did with my wages from the first to the last day i worked.

You can work out if you are entitled to Pension Credit,
https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator

Once you reach Pension Age, you should get the living wage. End of.
And you don't pay any tax at all on that nor any private pension you have paid into.
Keep it simple!

They are keeping it simple, To them its like taking candy from a baby.

One day they will be parading around asking/touting votes, Just remember these times, I know i will.

The residents of Burn Valley ward have the opportunity to set the ball rolling tomorrow.

Interesting read https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cje30vq7yypo

Very interesting number about half way down that rings a bell as being similar to the WFA saving .....

The IFS estimates the policy will generate an extra £1.3 to £1.5bn for the UK government. Mr Adam says it reached this figure by calculating that parents who stop spending their money on private school fees will eventually spend the extra money on other goods and services, generating extra VAT revenue.

I had no idea private school fees were VAT exempt and the schools got 80% business rate discounts.

I wonder how many other things like this are in place to make things cheaper for the more wealthy in society?

Exactly these schools are classed as "charities" and are entitled to full or 100% rates relief.
They should be relieved of this status asap.
And we are talking about establishments like Eton etc here BTW along with a few in the Teesside area.

So he taught at a Private fee paying school….? ….. did he approve of the VAT hike for such schools…?

Blame the wife….she told me, but she uses the Arriva bus.

Rachel Reeves apparently has issued an instruction that all the paintings in the stateroom of No 11 that are painted by men depicting men are to be removed and in their place paintings by women or paintings depicting women are to be installed. I would call that pure sexism.
Good judgement doesn't appear to be her strongest suit ( no pun intended considering the clothing she has been gifted).

that will be seen as being progressive by the lefty elite but a bloke going the opposite would get constant stick for doing it.

We need to whizz you over to the Labour party conference right now!!.I'll get the placard made up when you still have the hands mr accy . .And let's all hope the drink goes to their heads tonight because the right wing media will be right onto it in the morning mr j..You can imagine them all still bleating on about the covid drinks party whilst necking back champagne eh.

The wife was watching Reeves speech on the box when I came in yesterday dinner time and quite frankly what I caught of it was like some 1930’s political rally with the clapping idiots in the seats excited and clapping her delivery style which was very reminiscent of the 1930’s…avery driven woman who’d drive a tank therough your house and blame you for being in the way.
Starmer and her are like two sleepwalkers certain of their own destiny, but we all know where that ends….especially, when you realise they’re missing the signs coming at them from all political persuasions.
Cheering from your zealots in a conference is a false indicator of public opinion.

wonder if it was live shows that were televised where the audiance was told when to laugh, clap and cheer.

She was interrupted by a heckler…. and after he was ‘escorted’ out, went into disturbing rant mode…..very driven …. the trades unionists at the earlier session were far from happy with the Party over the WFA as booing commenced when they appear to have been shuffled out of the debate.

Maybe the thinking is, Set him on fire and we all get a warm

Dictators 1 and all.