Theresa May calls General Election on 8th June.

[Tetchytyke]

What a fantastic way to reward hard work, telling them they are going to loss most of their income

The higher tax rates don't apply to the whole amount earned, just the amount over the threshold. So someone on £80k wouldn't be "losing most of their income", even if the tax rate went up to 50%.

I quite agree that there will be marginal situations where people decide that earning £82k instead of £78k isn't worth it because of the additional tax. But that's not the same thing at all. And I certainly wouldn't sniff at a £20k pay rise (which is near as damn it what I earn) just because I'd have to give £10k of it to the taxman.

You also follow the age-old fallacy, of course, that any high income is purely obtained through "hard work" and that people on low income are merely not trying hard enough.

I wouldn't tax till the pips squeak, but that's not what Labour propose either.

FWIW I would abolish NICs, and I would lower VAT, and I would pay for both with higher income tax.

 

[fowler9]

So back to the 1970s with a stupidly high income tax rate for those high earners?

What a fantastic way to reward hard work, telling them they are going to loss most of their income to pay for some youth to go to university to study a degree in media only for them to turn down basic employment as "being below them" (i.e. cleaning)

I went to Uni way back when, qualified for a full grant, studied Mechanical Engineering. During Uni and after I cleaned St Helens and Huyton bus stations, Broad Green Hospital and Cargills factory on the dock road. Take away the grant and I would have had to do much more work whilst doing a degree that was 9-5 every day except Wednesday. You would effectively be denying that degree to anyone that was not wealthy. Not everyone who goes to Uni who is not well off does media studies or something with 10 hours lectures a week.

 

[EM2]

So still think only those who earn over £80K a year will see tax rises?

Seeing as your comment was

How dare someone be smart enough to work in a job paying £60K a year when some people are job shy.

and that would strongly suggest that you were referring to Income Tax (because you didn't mention any other factors), then yes I do.

 

[EM2]

Anyone staying up to watch the results come in?

2015 General Election seemed a foregone conclusion for no Tory win, so I went to bed.
2016 Brexit referendum seemed to be a foregone conclusion for a Remain win, so I went to bed.
2016 US Presidential election seemed to be a foregone conclusion for a Clinton win, so I went to bed.
2017 Super Bowl seemed to be a foregone conclusion for an Atlanta Falcons win, so I went to bed.
2017 General Election seems to be a foregone conclusion for a Tory win, so I'll be going to bed.

 

[backontrack]

I've started a thread for election night as it happens.

You can find it here.

Thank you. #shamelessselfpromo

 

[Darandio]

2015 General Election seemed a foregone conclusion for no Tory win, so I went to bed.
2016 Brexit referendum seemed to be a foregone conclusion for a Remain win, so I went to bed.
2016 US Presidential election seemed to be a foregone conclusion for a Clinton win, so I went to bed.
2017 Super Bowl seemed to be a foregone conclusion for an Atlanta Falcons win, so I went to bed.
2017 General Election seems to be a foregone conclusion for a Tory win, so I'll be going to bed.

Ahaha, I can now see some Tory stalwarts now frantically trying to locate your home address in order to wake you up.

 

[backontrack]

I've started a thread for election night as it happens.

You can find it here.

Thank you. #shamelessselfpromo

 

[Busaholic]

There's potential for one result to be declared null and void. In Newcastle under Lyme hundreds of students have apparently been prevented from voting even though all had been supplied with poll cards: the Labour majority last time was less than a thousand!