I am retired and, along with my husband, consider ourselves to be very comfortably off. The state pension we receive is a full one, extremely generous, neither of us has a private or work related pension. We had a business and purchased the property from which it was run. Upon retirement, aged 66 in my case and having worked full time for most of my 40 years of employment, we sold the building we owned, having transferred the business to the manager a few years before. We received a decent amount of money for the property, it was not a huge amount.
We appreciate just how lucky we are. We have friends, however, and relatives who, as portrayed in your article, assume they are 'struggling' and the Labour Government is an anathema to them. We are bemused and frustrated at this attitude but, sadly, having read your article, it seems a widespread attitude. We are happy to pay more, particularly if it means something similar to Sure Start can once again be introduced. Investment in the young is vital for a healthy and happy country.
Your comments on food spending interest me greatly. Most of proper food that is without pernicious additives is price completely out of range for a few reasons. Shopping if near the home may be only at an 'express' shop with is filled with no real food, only the 'make do' that you must take.
Should you need real items you wait 45 minutes for the bus to arrive (if you're lucky) and the way home has a wait of at least an hour, making the milk, meat now riddled with???
Perhaps our MPs should be stripped of their affluence for them to experience what the man in the street has to endure. Then they may apply real thinking to the budget. Why are they afraid to tax those whose margins will never make any difference? Why do they only tax those who have had virtually everything stripped away? Why do they allow tax haven behaviour?
One example of the latest insanity: any asylum seekers must have "permission" from Home Office to take a taxi to the hospital!! Ambulances don't appear - is this code for 'people must die'? (Disclaimer: if the drive is not considered worthwhile the taxi driver has actually refused to accept my fare!)
Yes, I am angry that these protected, privileged people simply refuse to use their brains and actually think.
I don’t think people were fed up about helping the poor in general terms. The feedback I get is being fed up helping people who decide to have more than three children when they already need vast help from everyone else to get even have one. A lot of middling and well off people decide to limit the number of children they have for affordability reasons and can see little reason why their taxes should free others from that.
In terms of the mansion tax, why should a high earner paying two million for a small house in London suburbs and with a million pound mortgage have to pay tax when a person living in a mortgage free eight or more bedroom mansion in Lancashire pays nothing simply because values are lower? It’s not a privilege having to pay vast sums to live in a tiny place.
Oh and allow me to add. Prime central London prices have, in real terms, fallen by around forty five per cent since 2014. So if you bought a property then for five million you have lost half your money and not only that you are being asked to pay additional tax on top.
One of my Financial adviser clients told me about 25 years ago, that every one of his clients reckoned they would be happy / have enough if they had twice as much as they had already. Given that every client THEN had over a million and that the same whine came from those with 1, 5 or 10 million +, we realised they would never be happy or content. As the song says, Too much is never enough
I am retired and, along with my husband, consider ourselves to be very comfortably off. The state pension we receive is a full one, extremely generous, neither of us has a private or work related pension. We had a business and purchased the property from which it was run. Upon retirement, aged 66 in my case and having worked full time for most of my 40 years of employment, we sold the building we owned, having transferred the business to the manager a few years before. We received a decent amount of money for the property, it was not a huge amount.
We appreciate just how lucky we are. We have friends, however, and relatives who, as portrayed in your article, assume they are 'struggling' and the Labour Government is an anathema to them. We are bemused and frustrated at this attitude but, sadly, having read your article, it seems a widespread attitude. We are happy to pay more, particularly if it means something similar to Sure Start can once again be introduced. Investment in the young is vital for a healthy and happy country.
Your comments on food spending interest me greatly. Most of proper food that is without pernicious additives is price completely out of range for a few reasons. Shopping if near the home may be only at an 'express' shop with is filled with no real food, only the 'make do' that you must take.
Should you need real items you wait 45 minutes for the bus to arrive (if you're lucky) and the way home has a wait of at least an hour, making the milk, meat now riddled with???
Perhaps our MPs should be stripped of their affluence for them to experience what the man in the street has to endure. Then they may apply real thinking to the budget. Why are they afraid to tax those whose margins will never make any difference? Why do they only tax those who have had virtually everything stripped away? Why do they allow tax haven behaviour?
One example of the latest insanity: any asylum seekers must have "permission" from Home Office to take a taxi to the hospital!! Ambulances don't appear - is this code for 'people must die'? (Disclaimer: if the drive is not considered worthwhile the taxi driver has actually refused to accept my fare!)
Yes, I am angry that these protected, privileged people simply refuse to use their brains and actually think.
I don’t think people were fed up about helping the poor in general terms. The feedback I get is being fed up helping people who decide to have more than three children when they already need vast help from everyone else to get even have one. A lot of middling and well off people decide to limit the number of children they have for affordability reasons and can see little reason why their taxes should free others from that.
In terms of the mansion tax, why should a high earner paying two million for a small house in London suburbs and with a million pound mortgage have to pay tax when a person living in a mortgage free eight or more bedroom mansion in Lancashire pays nothing simply because values are lower? It’s not a privilege having to pay vast sums to live in a tiny place.
Oh and allow me to add. Prime central London prices have, in real terms, fallen by around forty five per cent since 2014. So if you bought a property then for five million you have lost half your money and not only that you are being asked to pay additional tax on top.
One of my Financial adviser clients told me about 25 years ago, that every one of his clients reckoned they would be happy / have enough if they had twice as much as they had already. Given that every client THEN had over a million and that the same whine came from those with 1, 5 or 10 million +, we realised they would never be happy or content. As the song says, Too much is never enough