Theresa May calls General Election on 8th June.

[Antman]

The point is people don't die at the hands of the state, unless there's a judicially sanctioned lynch mob, but at the hands of a professional killer paid out of public money to do their dirty work. Add the physical and emotional apparatus surrounding judicial killing and it becomes a grim business indeed.

I agree that for unrepentant serial killers, child murderers, psychopaths like Shipman the reasons to allow them to remain live are difficult to support, especially bearing in mind the cost to the public purse and the feelings of the victim's family, but is paying a hired killer an appropriate way of settling the issue? Albert Pierrepoint became convinced hanging was ineffective as a deterrent, and he was the last man to look into the eyes of hundreds of condemned prisoners.

I would suggest a doctor to administer a lethal injection as in a case of euthanasia.

 

[pemma]

What charges could have been brought?

Conservative Party could have been fined for breaking the rules or a few election results could have been declared invalid meaning new elections - the latter is irrelevant now due to Mrs May having called a General Election.

 

[Antman]

It was as blatant a case of election expenses fraud as you will ever see- the Electoral Commission fined them a record £70,000 for it- but the CPS have all the backbone of a jellyfish.

It's not a surprise. And without criminal sanctions, they can just add the £70k to the cost of doing an election, which is all they will do this time too.

The whole thing stinks. But a Tory, being corrupt? Perish the thought.

My mistake I thought it was a reference to something else, and yes you do have a point.

 

[meridian2]

I would suggest a doctor to administer a lethal injection as in a case of euthanasia.

Doctors swear a hypocratic oath and their license would be revoked if they intentionally killed someone. Lethal injection is one of the most sanitised but unpleasant forms of execution, victims sometimes taking more than an hour to die.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Lethal injection is one of the most sanitised but unpleasant forms of execution, victims sometimes taking more than an hour to die.

And it is getting worse. Nearly all drug companies now refuse to sell their drugs for the use of execution, meaning that there are huge drug shortages for this. Some states in the US are buying drugs from the black market, using sham buyers, or even going back to other forms of execution because of this.

Of course the US itself is a glorious example of just how little deterrent effect that capital punishment actually has.

 

[Antman]

Doctors swear a hypocratic oath and their license would be revoked if they intentionally killed someone. Lethal injection is one of the most sanitised but unpleasant forms of execution, victims sometimes taking more than an hour to die.

Really? Ever had to take a pet to the vet to be euthanized? Not a pleasant task but there is no suffering and it's over in seconds. How would it be different for a human?

 

[Cowley]

Really? Ever had to take a pet to the vet to be euthanized? Not a pleasant task but there is no suffering and it's over in seconds. How would it be different for a human?

Vets would charge more .

 

[Antman]

Vets would charge more .

Tell me about it, nearly £200 to remove a couple of teeth from the cat but I digress!:-x

 

[edwin_m]

There may () be some merit in what you say. However a lot of Conservative MP's are opposed to Hunting so I can't see the ban being reversed.

Would that be (Liam) Fox hunting or Jeremy Hunting?

 

[ainsworth74]

Really? Ever had to take a pet to the vet to be euthanized? Not a pleasant task but there is no suffering and it's over in seconds. How would it be different for a human?

Yes I have and you're right it was over quickly and humanely. However, lethal injection in executions is far from what you see when you take a pet to be put down. Wikipedia has a good section on it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_injection#Controversy. If you Google 'Lethal Injection gone wrong' you'll find many many results from various media sources of executions that were far from what could be called humane.

 

[Howardh]

Really? Ever had to take a pet to the vet to be euthanized?

I have. The vet said "You don't look so good either, I can do a second one half-price....."

 

[pemma]

Len McCluskey's aide Dan Carden has been selected as the Labour candidate for Liverpool Walton. Joe Anderson is fuming at the annoucement, while the constituency party secretary has resigned saying the process of selecting him was undemocratic.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Humans are a lot different to animals, especially ones that may already be very weak from chronic illness!

 

[edwin_m]

It's also rather difficult to do research on how to kill people humanely, unless you wish to end up on trial at Nuremburg.

 

[ExRes]

Hurrah, Corbyn is now going to spend £22bn on schools in England paid for by a rise in corporation tax from 19% to 26%, I wonder how many of those lucky kids will soon have unemployed parents to walk them to school

 

[WelshBluebird]

Hurrah, Corbyn is now going to spend £22bn on schools in England paid for by a rise in corporation tax from 19% to 26%, I wonder how many of those lucky kids will soon have unemployed parents to walk them to school

You mean the same rate it was at in 2011, and pretty much nothing compared to what it has historically been?

 

[southern442]

Hurrah, Corbyn is now going to spend £22bn on schools in England paid for by a rise in corporation tax from 19% to 26%, I wonder how many of those lucky kids will soon have unemployed parents to walk them to school

Corporation tax is barely paid at present, hopefully the rise will encourage further payment.

 

[pemma]

While schools in Conservative held Trafford have written to parents asking for donations due to how much their funding has been cut.

 

[EM2]

Corporation tax is barely paid at present, hopefully the rise will encourage further payment.

The contribution from businesses to the overall tax take is about 8%.

 

[Bromley boy]

The contribution from businesses to the overall tax take is about 8%.

In corporation tax terms, that's true.

Although we shouldn't forget that, by employing people, businesses also contribute PAYE, NI, VAT to the Treasury. Those three taxes alone account for over 50% of tax revenue.

The problem with Corbyn's/McDonnell's proposals, as I understand them, is that they're being wildly optimistic in the amount they can raise by increasing corporation tax and, according to quite a few sources, seem to be making figures up on the back of a fag packet, spending the same money several times.

 

[muddythefish]

Voting for a party that wants to abolish hospital parking charges, tuition fees and give us a decent properly funded health and education services on a par with other leading European nations, or one that wants to bring back fox hunting.

Your choice.

 

[ExRes]

Voting for a party that wants to abolish hospital parking charges, tuition fees and give us a decent properly funded health and education services on a par with other leading European nations, or one that wants to bring back fox hunting.

Your choice.

Voting for a party that wants to raise taxes to pay for what cannot be afforded, borrow the shortfall and return the country to the 1970s I think you mean, I've been there and done it thanks and it didn't work

 

[EM2]

Voting for a party that wants to raise taxes to pay for what cannot be afforded, borrow the shortfall and return the country to the 1970s I think you mean, I've been there and done it thanks and it didn't work

So how do you get to a low tax, high public service economy?

 

[47802]

Voting for a party that wants to abolish hospital parking charges, tuition fees and give us a decent properly funded health and education services on a par with other leading European nations, or one that wants to bring back fox hunting.

Your choice.

Yeh I will take the one that wants to bring back fox hunting even though i'm not in favour thanks, although its would be a free vote.

Do I want a bunch of London based left wing Socialist/Marxists running the country controlled by left wing unions, yes I am old enough to have been around in the 1970's when the Unions were powerful and on strike most of the time and the country was a complete shambles.

People and Businesses will be taxed to the hilt or the country will be even more massively in debt to pay for all this lot.

If you voted Brexit well Corbyn doesn't believe in immigration controls. Corbyn or Mrs May against the Brussels Mafia, Hmm.

Defence well Corbyn doesn't believe in our Nuclear Deterrent or really believe in NATO either.

Diane Abbot as a Cabinet Minister, and a Marxist Chancellor

Your Choice

 

[ExRes]

So how do you get to a low tax, high public service economy?

I have no idea, I'm a retired train driver not an economist, what I do know from experience is that the idea of taxing the lifeblood out of everyone is ludicrous and will drive the country down and down, people should be aware that Labour taxation doesn't mean the rich will shoulder the burden alone, the poor old worker gets it in the neck as well, along with increasing unemployment and interest rates and a reduction of the very services that are supposed to be the ones being supported, It's there in recent history for all to see

 

[me123]

Voting for a party that wants to abolish hospital parking charges, tuition fees and give us a decent properly funded health and education services on a par with other leading European nations, or one that wants to bring back fox hunting.

Your choice.

Clearly neither the blue nor the red team are palatable choices for many of us. In the Blue corner, we have a Conservative government who promise to isolate the UK and cut public services, including selling the NHS to Donald Drumpf's friends. But at least they are capable of delivering this. In the red corner, we have a geography teacher saying some nice things that turn out to be pulled out of thin air and lacking in any substance, whilst his compatriots try to overthrow him.

That's why I'll be voting for the pink and yellow team. I was going to vote for Labour, more as an anti-Tory vote than anything else, but following Diane Abbot's disastrous LBC interview in which she proposed paying police officers £30/year I realised I can't even bring myself to vote for Labour, even if it is just a tactical vote to keep the Tories out.

 

[Tetchytyke]

In corporation tax terms, that's true.

Although we shouldn't forget that, by employing people, businesses also contribute PAYE, NI, VAT to the Treasury. Those three taxes alone account for over 50% of tax revenue.

Nope. The employee pays income tax and the end customer pays VAT. The employee also pays most NICs. Don't try and claim that Big Business pays my tax: I do.

Corporation Tax is a tax on profit not turnover. The idea a company will refuse to make a profit at all because of a marginal tax increase is laughable. It makes no impact on employability at all.

 

[AlterEgo]

Voting for a party that wants to abolish hospital parking charges, tuition fees and give us a decent properly funded health and education services on a par with other leading European nations, or one that wants to bring back fox hunting.

Your choice.

As far as I'm concerned it's a choice between a nasty, chameleon-like Tory party led by a strange woman, and a London Marxist set who think Hamas are their mates.

No thanks to either.

 

[AlterEgo]

BBC say they've got hold of a leaked copy of Labour's manifesto which includes plans to nationalise the railways, buses and energy firms.

 

[me123]

I bet it does. I also bet there's no actual plan on how to raise the money to achieve this aim, aside from vague statements about raising tax from "rich people" (without exactly mentioning who these "rich people" are).

It doesn't matter what they say. There's not a snowball's chance in hell that they'll ever get to deliver on the manifesto, so they may as well promise the world.