Mortgage rates / interest etc

[Marcusthehat]

Did I see a recent figure that it is estimated that 10% of the adult male Albanian population have now "migrated" to the UK.
I fear not many of these 10% come here to engage in **lawful honest occupations, unless as a cover for nefarious illegal activities.
**And even if they are lawful, I highly doubt they are paying their taxes.
P.S.
Wor Son worked in a Belfast PO and witnessed first hand, over a substantial period of time both;
(i) The benefits they were claiming, and in all likelyhood, illegally maxxed out.
(ii) The shocking ***cumulative sums of cash being moneygrammed back to Albania/Romania
***cumulatively, because they carefully stayed below the money laundering trigger amounts.
Btw, these communities are known to run the prostituation in Belfast.
Nice people, all in all.
A real asset to any community.
Marcus

 

[Blackswanwood]

I thought about that...A much better idea might be to send the £20,000 to them in their own country to enter into a contract to Not Come to the UK.
We could benefit from not having to find housing for them to rent and their own countries could gain the extra economic benefit of them staying put.

The population of Africa is approx 1.2bn and rising … multiply that by £20k and you’ll spot the flaw in your thinking.

 

[deema]

We do do that in a sense already, with foreign aid. A good investment if managed properly. Also making small reparations for colonialism and the empire.

Why do people feel that reparations are required? It’s a strange concept. So, let’s assume that the idea is valid, the UK should pay reparations for colonialism. Good so far, but why stop there, is colonialism limited by some specific date? No, the argument should apply to what went before the UKs empire, so the UK should seek reparations from France for instance for the invasion of 1066, or the Italians for the Roman era. To give examples. Or perhaps why are we ignoring the internal 100 year war, war of the roses. Let’s remember the UK was at one stage a number of different kingdoms that over time were all brought together, who pays who for that? My favourite is the Catholic Church as we were all pagans before different Popes encouraged and demanded Holly war to retake the Holly lands, that’s after bloodily converting and suppressing other ideas.

Argentina should have a big debt, it did invade the Falkland isles…….but they claim it’s the UK that invaded and they were taking them back…..but who were the original inhabitants?

 

[Jacob]

IF:- " Average processing time is circa 415 days for an asylum application I believe. Now, let’s assume around a cost of £100 / day / person for the UK Government (accommodation, food, medical care, legal cost, spending money for life etc) "
Then why don't we save a lot of Office Time & Money by Giving each successful-channel-crossing-migrant the equivalent of HALF THAT COST; so that they can set themselves up in stable rented housing and a small business to support themselves going forward ?
By doing that we would turn them from an expensive liability into useful and lucrative Tax-Payers !
( 415 Days x £100 Per Day = £41,500. ) ...So if we gave them say, £20,000 Each to set themselves up, on a "Succeed;- or be Returned to Point of Origin Basis" we could gain £21,500 Each Immediately AND WE, AS A NATION would gain a useful Tax-Paying Citizen....Sounds like a Win - Win idea to me.
( " 38,000 migrants PER YEAR x £21,500 saved on each one = £817 Million in savings alone BEFORE they start paying Income tax & VAT...)
To my uneducated mind, it's a No Brainer !

Good idea in principle; "start up" capital for people to rebuild their lives.
Similar to Piketty's idea Economist Piketty: Everyone should receive €120,000 for their 25th birthday

 

[Jacob]

Why do people feel that reparations are required? ....

Because many people are still living with the effects.

 

[Jacob]

Did I see a recent figure that it is estimated that 10% of the adult male Albanian population have now "migrated" to the UK.
...

No you didn't. 1 to 2% according to some sources.
'Exponential rise' in Albanian migrants crossing the Channel this year, MPs told

 

[deema]

Because many people are still living with the effects.

Let’s not forget then the 1st and 2nd world war, Korea, Vietnam, Falkland Isles, troubles in Ireland, Ukraine (we are pumping money into helping their as well as taking refugees), why London is the capital and wealth isn’t distributed evenly across the UK. We are all in some way living with the effects of something. The UK is owed by all ( we fought in all) of them and either people are still alive and living with the consequences, or their children’s lives were / are directly affected. Which in some cases will affect generations.

We were all still paying for WW2 until the 80’s,

 

[Pineapple]

Why do people feel that reparations are required? It’s a strange concept. So, let’s assume that the idea is valid, the UK should pay reparations for colonialism. Good so far, but why stop there, is colonialism limited by some specific date? No, the argument should apply to what went before the UKs empire, so the UK should seek reparations from France for instance for the invasion of 1066, or the Italians for the Roman era. To give examples. Or perhaps why are we ignoring the internal 100 year war, war of the roses. Let’s remember the UK was at one stage a number of different kingdoms that over time were all brought together, who pays who for that? My favourite is the Catholic Church as we were all pagans before different Popes encouraged and demanded Holly war to retake the Holly lands, that’s after bloodily converting and suppressing other ideas.

Argentina should have a big debt, it did invade the Falkland isles…….but they claim it’s the UK that invaded and they were taking them back…..but who were the original inhabitants?

PENGUINS.

 

[deema]

PENGUINS.

Brilliant!
In reality, it’s all Africa’s fault. Africa should pay reparations for everything, as all humans trace their roots back to Africa from where we all come from. We literally left Africa invaded the rest of the world.

 

[John Brown]

Brilliant!
In reality, it’s all Africa’s fault. Africa should pay reparations for everything, as all humans trace their roots back to Africa from where we all come from. We literally left Africa invaded the rest of the world.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-out-of-africa-theory-out/
As always, those bl@@dy scientists have changed their minds!

 

[johna.clements]

Did I see a recent figure that it is estimated that 10% of the adult male Albanian population have now "migrated" to the UK.
I fear not many of these 10% come here to engage in **lawful honest occupations, unless as a cover for nefarious illegal activities.
**And even if they are lawful, I highly doubt they are paying their taxes.
P.S.
Wor Son worked in a Belfast PO and witnessed first hand, over a substantial period of time both;
(i) The benefits they were claiming, and in all likelyhood, illegally maxxed out.
(ii) The shocking ***cumulative sums of cash being moneygrammed back to Albania/Romania
***cumulatively, because they carefully stayed below the money laundering trigger amounts.
Btw, these communities are known to run the prostituation in Belfast.
Nice people, all in all.
A real asset to any community.
Marcus

Why would Albanians be sending money to Romania.

I doubt that many more Albanians are criminals than any other place. The problems is criminal gangs which can have an undue influence. In the past gangs like the Kray's had an undue influence in this country but the overwhelming majority of people just tried to keep away from them.

 

[johna.clements]

I thought about that...A much better idea might be to send the £20,000 to them in their own country to enter into a contract to Not Come to the UK.
We could benefit from not having to find housing for them to rent and their own countries could gain the extra economic benefit of them staying put.

We have cut the overseas aid budget which can help people to stay in or near there own country from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP. Of that 0.5% we now spend half of it in the UK on the refugees.

We have cut the overseas aid budget in effect by two thirds. The government is doing the opposite to what you propose.

 

[deema]

We have cut the overseas aid budget which can help people to stay in or near there own country from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP. Of that 0.5% we now spend half of it in the UK on the refugees.

We have cut the overseas aid budget in effect by two thirds. The government is doing the opposite to what you propose.

Again, I always find it very surprising that we talk about a percentage of GDP as a benchmark for overseas aid budgets. The UK had no surplus, it’s not in the black when it comes to our spending versus income. All foreign aid is funded by the UK Taking on National Debt. So, it’s not this generation that’s giving aid, it’s our kids. We all recognise that the national debt cannot just keep increasing and savings have to be made, the debate really is what we collectively consider important. UK GDP is estimated for 2022 to be 3,149 Trillion (12 zeros) now that’s still a huge amount of money when multiplied by 0.5%. To put it another way, you could sort out a huge amount of issue within the UK if that was spent on the poor within the UK, and that’s being spent every year.

 

[johna.clements]

Again, I always find it very surprising that we talk about a percentage of GDP as a benchmark for overseas aid budgets. The UK had no surplus, it’s not in the black when it comes to our spending versus income. All foreign aid is funded by the UK Taking on National Debt. So, it’s not this generation that’s giving aid, it’s our kids. We all recognise that the national debt cannot just keep increasing and savings have to be made, the debate really is what we collectively consider important. UK GDP is estimated for 2022 to be 3,149 Trillion (12 zeros) now that’s still a huge amount of money when multiplied by 0.5%. To put it another way, you could sort out a huge amount of issue within the UK if that was spent on the poor within the UK, and that’s being spent every year.

Some people think it is a good idea to help refugees to stay in or near their own country. It is cheaper than your idea of spending the money on them when they get here.

Boosting the economy of other countries also boosts the potential for UK exports. If you went to a school built with Germany funds would you be more likely to buy German goods.

 

[Jacob]

... All foreign aid is funded by the UK Taking on National Debt.

Or higher taxation

So, it’s not this generation that’s giving aid, it’s our kids.

Then it's our generation giving

We all recognise that the national debt cannot just keep increasing and savings have to be made,

Yep that's why taxation makes more sense.
They burble on about austerity ("savings have to be made") being essential to avoid increased national debt but it's a bit of a con trick to distract from taxation as the better alternative i.e. spreading austerity to the whole community not just the low paid.
But as 5th richest nation on earth we don't need austerity we need redistribution. The party is over.
And also of course we don't need "growth growth growth" in the light of climate change and the massive changes needed in our economy, we need "redistribution redistribution redistribution".
They know this and this is why they are swinging the lead over zero CO2 - it's going to cost a lot.
No coincidence that climate change denial is also on the Tufton St Taliban agenda.

 

[Spectric]

Did I see a recent figure that it is estimated that 10% of the adult male Albanian population have now "migrated" to the UK.
I fear not many of these 10% come here to engage in **lawful honest occupations, unless as a cover for nefarious illegal activities.
**And even if they are lawful, I highly doubt they are paying their taxes.

Are they coming here because we are in effect advertising ourselves as a soft touch, we are making it worth traveling the extra distance and taking the risk because of what we are telling the world. We are advertising the fact that only 5% of burgularies are solved, 1.7% of rape offences get to court and drug offences are on the rise, the only offence you are more likely to get convicted of is murder. On top of this you get free board once the navy gets you here so for them this must be like the Yukon gold rush and plenty of ripe pickings. Like all crime you need a detterent that outweighs the gains so not worth doing.

 

[johna.clements]

Are they coming here because we are in effect advertising ourselves as a soft touch, we are making it worth traveling the extra distance and taking the risk because of what we are telling the world. We are advertising the fact that only 5% of burgularies are solved, 1.7% of rape offences get to court and drug offences are on the rise, the only offence you are more likely to get convicted of is murder. On top of this you get free board once the navy gets you here so for them this must be like the Yukon gold rush and plenty of ripe pickings. Like all crime you need a detterent that outweighs the gains so not worth doing.

I don't understand why some sections of the press are telling refugees how good things are for them here, which they are not, if they do not want them to come here. They should be saying they will have to live in some grotty bedsit with little money for a couple of years whilst the bureaucracy grinds very slowly.

 

[johna.clements]

And also of course we don't need "growth growth growth" in the light of climate change and the massive changes needed in our economy, we need "redistribution redistribution redistribution".
They know this and this is why they are swinging the lead over zero CO2 - it's going to cost a lot.
No coincidence that climate change denial is also on the Tufton St Taliban agenda.

Failure to take action on CO2 is also borrowing from the future.

It is cheaper and easier to fix things over time rather than deal with the consequences.

 

[deema]

Or higher taxation

Then it's our generation giving

Yep that's why taxation makes more sense.
They burble on about austerity ("savings have to be made") being essential to avoid increased national debt but it's a bit of a con trick to distract from taxation as the better alternative i.e. spreading austerity to the whole community not just the low paid.
But as 5th richest nation on earth we don't need austerity we need redistribution. The party is over.
And also of course we don't need "growth growth growth" in the light of climate change and the massive changes needed in our economy, we need "redistribution redistribution redistribution".
They know this and this is why they are swinging the lead over zero CO2 - it's going to cost a lot.
No coincidence that climate change denial is also on the Tufton St Taliban agenda.

There is absolutely no reason why those with your perspective cannot voluntarily pay higher taxes. You just need to inform the tax office of your philanthropic perspective and either make one off donations, or pay more. We don’t share the same opinion on how to generate more tax revenue, but that doesn’t preclude you and others with the same view of enacting your beliefs.

 

[deema]

Let’s put some numbers on things. First off, the UK national debt is approximately £2,427 billion. We have a population of c67 million. That’s each an average debt of £36,200 per person in the country. Let’s take Pakistan, it’s national debt is $248 billion, with a population of 225 million, an average debt of $1,102 per person in the country. Now the average gross income in the UK is £38K (ONS 2021) so, roughly one years salary is owed in debt by everyone in the country. The average annual income in Pakistan is $7,330, which is that each person owes around 2 months salary to clear the national debt. However, the UK provided Pakistan with £14.5 billion in Official Development Aid. The UK is increasing the burden on its population at a higher rate than one of the principle country’s it provides aid to.

The indebtedness of every person in the Uk is nearly 6 times higher than a country we are providing aid to. If you were looking at to whom you would lend money to, you would say that the UK is bankrupt, and Pakistan is in a good position to raise more debt if required to sort out its problems. Let’s not forget it’s also a nuclear country.

The UK provides aid to India, China and a number of other countries, where similar calculations can be done. The reason I’m highlighting nuclear countries with space programs is because it’s a huge expense to have these.

These types of numbers and comparison are never considered when the whole issue of aid to other countries is debated.