Peter Crowley

Goodwin Banking

@DPJHodges “Sack like Trump…😀”

Interesting thing. Someone’s just pointed out that almost all the staff who were on the Durham trip with Keir have since left his office. You know how all the witnesses to the Kennedy assassination died or disappeared in mysterious circumstances….

@elonmusk They voted them in! How do you define “eejit”?

Good

@KarlTurnerMP He used to scold Boris for “ not answering the question. But he ignores the same behaviour from Starmer. Odd, that….

The speaker of the ‘Mother of Parliaments’ (birthplace of the Westminster system of democracy) is required to visit other parliaments around the world to represent our Parliament and our democracy. I am grateful to Mr. Speaker for the work that he, his deputies and his staff do.

@RHHassall But his life is a holiday! He does nothing!

Oh fuck off, you nasty little prat! That's hardly a luxury hotel. And do you really think he shouldn't be entitled to a short holiday with his family? 🤦‍♂️

@KayBurley @bbclaurak @vicderbyshire Lefty “balance signalling” to frame the puff piece…

No fan of Starmer but he continues to hold his nerve and carry out the supreme duty as PM - to keep his citizens safe from harm. @bbclaurak @vicderbyshire

@jessgill03 It was a policy started by Thatcher and aggrandised by Blair to cut dole queues.

It’s really strange how some boomers are blaming young people taking “bullshit degrees” for the reason they can’t buy a house when they’re the ones who encouraged that if we wanted to be successful, we should get a degree. Most 18 year olds are following the advice of their parents and their schools when they go to university - this is system that the boomers set up and now young people are being blamed for it.

@MorphingReality @TheAliceSmith Living in the past… under Marxism , you got shot for being poor….

@TheAliceSmith Capitalism was having people beaten and shot for asking for the wages that would take them out of extreme poverty Capitalists fought against every effort to lower this line

Thank you, capitalism!

Woke Union - and woke teachers must do what they’re told. No choice.

@jessgill03 It was a policy started by Thatcher and aggrandised by Blair to cut dole queues.

@Glinner @SCynic1 Graham, Take a leaf out of Matt Goodwin’s book - self published and made it big! That’s why the left hate him! I’ll be getting a copy of yours!

When I was losing my family, career, musical, and livelihood, I announced I was writing a memoir. Laurie Penny responded by calling me a bigot and urging publishers not to touch it. I asked for a deletion and apology. This was the apology.

@miriam_cates @PensionsDave The problem is that people moan, but no one digests an alternative- except me…

Is the state pension really so 'meagre'? Let's take a look... The basic state pension is just £12,547 a year. But... Only around 15% of pensioners rely on the state pension alone. The vast majority have other income from private pensions etc., which is exactly how our system is designed to work (and why the UK has generous tax breaks for pension contributions). The small proportion of pensioners whose only source of income is the state pension are entitled to other benefits in addition, including pension credit, housing benefit and council tax support. A pensioner with no other income, no savings, no disabilities, no care responsibilities and rent of £800 per month is entitled to £401.55 a week in benefits including state pension, which is £20,881 a year. For comparison, a full time minimum wage worker has an after tax income of £21,364. Unlike a pensioner, a full time minimum wage worker is not entitled to free travel, free prescriptions, a winter fuel payment or senior citizens discounts. £21,000 a year is not a lot of money. But the very poorest pensioners have similar incomes to low-wage workers. Given the greater costs faced by those who are working, it's perhaps not surprising that working age adults are now more likely to live in poverty than pensioners. And at the other end of the scale, one in four pensioners are millionaires and still receive the basic state pension, paid for by current tax payers (including those on minimum wage). No one (definitely not me) is suggesting that the state pension should be reduced for the poorest pensioners. But pension spending now accounts for half of the UK's social security budget and, given the urgent need to cut government spending, we must consider reforms like means-testing and scrapping the triple lock.

@albieamankona This is a stupid argument. Yes, the government could vote to stop state pensions- but then, people would stop paying NI contributions- or vote in a government Mine you, we could scrap NI, and roll it all into tax….,

Nobody has a “RIGHT” to a state pension. It is a benefit paid for by the tax payers at the time you receive the benefit and it is subject to the same checks, balances and affordability criteria as every other benefit provided by the state. Whoever told you national insurance was invested in a personal pension pot for you, lied. It’s a tax, like income tax, VAT et al.

@QcWynter I’d keep tweeting, mate!

From a wealthy friend, who decided that I needed a pick me up after my hounding yesterday for my widely misunderstood satirical post about our Great Inspirational Leader, Keir. Hmmm. This could be an immensely profitable "wine grift". So, here goes. "I think Keir is wonderful"

@jessgill03 Good point. The property world has changed….

Too many boomers have this really toxic assumption that young people are unable to afford a house because they’re lazy and don’t work hard. Most young people I know are working full time specialised jobs, having the majority of their salary swallowed by renting (despite it being a flatshare) taxes and cost of living. It’s almost impossible for young people nowadays, without the help of their family, to afford a house. And then they get blamed for having a Netflix subscription or getting the odd takeaway as if saving that £300 a year would let them afford a £20,000 deposit.

@albieamankona @KemiBadenoch @MelJStride Please detail your plans for cutting state pensions….

My views on the state pension have been consistent for years and I’m not about to start pretending otherwise for a few likes. The triple lock is unsustainable. Everyone knows it. The only debate is who’s brave enough to say it out loud. @KemiBadenoch knows it. @MelJStride knows it. @Nigel_Farage knows it. @RobertJenrick knows it. @Keir_Starmer knows it. @RachelReevesMP knows it. @ZackPolanski knows it. @EdwardJDavey knows it. And yes, you do too. What we’ve got isn’t disagreement, it’s theatre. A cross-party commitment to nod along privately and say absolutely nothing useful publicly. I don’t say things to be popular. If I wanted that I’d post pictures of my lunch and call it “thought leadership”. I’ve got friends and family whose opinions I actually care about. The approval of randomers on this app doesn’t quite crack the top ten. If pointing out the obvious makes me unpopular, I’ll cope. Best of luck to everyone still pretending this adds up.

@annaroseridgway No need for bile. Just explain how you would run the state pensions system down, please.

I love the pensioners in my replies (one of many lovely messages I have received recently)

@jessalinecaine A “smaller, duller, meaner” life if you don’t get a gap year I never got a gap year

Quite a revealing mindset this. When young people can’t afford housing, the answer is never that the market is broken. It’s always that they should have lived smaller, duller, meaner lives …

@ColeFusionHQ Now degrees are handed out like confetti. Part of the cost is student cross subsidy. Hence the loan burdens. Thatcher/Blairs trick…

your grandparents bought a house at 3.5x salary and graduated debt-free. you graduate £50k in debt into a housing market at 7.5x salary. they did not cheat. somebody changed the system. nobody has been held to account.

@BenedictSpence We vote, dear boy….

Pensioners may wish to consider that responding to working people’s struggles with contempt and vitriol, as evidenced in the replies, might not be a great long-term strategy if they want to keep their benefits.

@lukerobertblack Clever people like this can never answer “why did we pay in, then? And if it goes, won’t everyone stop paying in? The fact there isn’t a fund doesn’t matter. Successive governments get voted in and decide how to regulate the flows for state and public sector schemes. Got it?

Wrong. The state pension is a social security benefit paid for by today’s working population. It is funded by general taxation. No one has “paid into” a pot. Comes out the DWP budget like all other benefits