Hi, Agreed, great debate. +++

Today there are fewer very poor people, living longer, healthier lives, accessing "libraries" on-line like Uni lecturers only had access to. :)

How? Globalisation. We run 2 cars, holiday abroad and enjoy life. A woman in my office went to Japan on bloody holiday! No, not the Boss Lady, the part-time admin lady! Unrepresentative? Colleagues holiday 3 times a year, abroad. Just mid-level office wallahs, not big income sales / business owners / senior managers. :D

Or would you prefer all equally poor?

YB

This seems relevant....
 

..John Redwood - a senior Tory, who also works as chief strategist for an investment banking firm - advising wealthy investors to pull their money out of the UK. No conflict of interest there then, and someone who clearly has the interests of the British people at heart.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/frances.../#522b15fc4c1e

Tell that to the kids in this country that are only eating hot meals at school, and only then because they qualify for free school dinners.

http://http://www.independent.co.uk/...-a7700161.html

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...ing-to-shelter

I'm an adult (ish) volunteer for the Scouts and we do fundraising as you do through out the year, some of the money generated goes into a hardship type fund to help parents that would otherwise struggle with the cost of sending their child on camp or other activities we do. It's not publicised or anything so that no one feels any different but allows all the kids to take part no matter what's happening at home.
That's this country and it's real people.

Meanwhile Royal Mail closes its (in surplus) final salary pension scheme to future accruals and claims £106m tax refund. I'm sure their shareholders are pleased to see more profit, don't worry about the workers when they retire though.

http://www.cityam.com/275853/royal-m...sion-close-its

RM should never have been sold off, those profits should have been going to the treasury and that includes the assets now being sold off for huge profit.

Dont get me started on closed off final salary pension schemes - I am on one with Corus which they not only closed off to new applicants (I guess at least they know that before they take the job) but it now seems they want to "modify" significantly - https://www.ft.com/content/26f238aa-...4-0ac7eb84e5f1