Matt Armstrong

30, Sunderland supporter. Red Rahloo means nothing here

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@ProfAndyMackem Yep. Though I'd say a lot of them know that, but it doesn't get as many headlines if they said it

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

I like this because they're saying benefit claimants outnumber tax payers. But they also say that benefit claimants are on 100k a year and the tax payer is paying for all of it? Can't be both can it you fucking idiot

[Eddy James🩵vote tactically: unitetherightuk.com @eddyjames70]

@Stu___X Benefit claimants (they now outnumber tax payers).
Civil servants.
Train drivers.
Unions.

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@joncoupland You can get a Kia Niro/Hyundai Kona for around 10k if you don't mind a high mileage. They'll do over 200 miles on a single charge regardless of the weather. The battery should be fine even if its done over 100k miles as long as you get a battery health check on it

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@_laurennn92 I was having a similar problem so i bought a 'bug-a-salt' gun from Amazon. Now when i see one its more of a game than an annoyance 😂

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@currys @tom0243

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

Polanski is losing a lot of the support he has built up this year. Picking the Tory who started Brexit over a Labour PM who wasn't perfect, but was dealt an incredibly shit hand is unbelievable. Wouldn't surprise me to see him lose the by-election

[Carl @carlrmorrell]

Zack picking Cameron over Starmer tells you all you need to know.

Cameron brought us austerity and his government announced the 2-child benefit cap that Starmer later abolished.

Starmer isn’t even a political target anymore so why would he say this.

[Andy Burnham @andyburnham]

I wanted to explain to you directly my announcement on creating a National Care Service and the triple lock.

Fundamental change is needed to protect the NHS and give older people the support they need.

At Labour conference, I announced a plan to create a National Care Service in the next parliament. To fund it, I am proposing an adjustment to the triple lock on the state pension. This will form the basis of a new settlement for older people in our country. I want to explain why this is necessary and what it would mean for pensioners.

Everyone knows that our social care system is broken. And yet, for decades, politicians have failed to fix it. Shamefully, millions of older people have unmet care needs. Far too many see everything they have worked for – their home, pension and savings – wiped out by care bills. The personal cost can be devastating, but we should not make the mistake of thinking the price is paid only by older people and their families.

I am convinced that if we carry on as we are, our broken social care system will eventually break our NHS too. Every day, older people who should be receiving support at home or in care settings are unnecessarily admitted to A&E. Meanwhile, hospital beds are occupied by people who are fit to leave but have nowhere to go because the care they need is not in place. Go to any hospital and you will see the effect. Corridor care is no longer simply the result of winter pressures. It is a commonplace indignity suffered by thousands of patients every day.

It is time for fundamental change. The best chance we have of saving our NHS is to build a high-quality care service. The National Care Service I am proposing will be based on NHS principles: everyone contributes and everyone is covered. It will give people peace of mind about their care needs and protect what they have built up over their lifetime. It will provide free personal care – support with the most basic human needs: eating, dressing and bathing. And it will be integrated with the rest of the system, preventative in nature, and deliver care at home wherever possible, exactly where older people want and should be.

A National Care Service, I believe, would become as significant as the creation of the NHS itself. But we need to be honest about the changes that are needed to pay for it. And I do not believe it makes sense to preserve the current triple lock while so many pensioners face the risk of catastrophic care costs. We can give pensioners greater financial security.

I am proposing to adjust the triple lock. This is not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one. We pledged in our manifesto that we would keep the triple lock throughout this parliament, and I will keep that promise. This means the state pension is set to rise by more than £2,000 a year, reaching around 30 per cent of average earnings by the end of the decade – its highest ever level.

From April 2030, under our adjusted triple lock, we will guarantee that the state pension rises every year by either inflation or 2.5 per cent, whichever is higher. It will also increase by more than this when necessary to ensure that it holds its value relative to average earnings.

This means that if inflation spikes, pensioners will be protected. If wages rise, pensioners will share in that rising prosperity, with the state pension tracking earnings over time. Nobody’s pension will ever go down. And the state pension will be put on a sustainable footing for decades to come.

I want to be upfront about what I am proposing because this adjustment will bring change. The state pension will not increase as quickly as it otherwise would if we kept the triple lock in its current form. However, the adjustment will enable us to fix social care for everyone by building a National Care Service that provides older people with free personal care at the point of need. I believe this is a better deal for pensioners.

I do not expect people to support this plan without seeing the full detail. We will start laying the ground now for the National Care Service and introduce it as soon as possible in the next parliament. Louise Casey’s review will advise us on exactly how and we will build the maximum consensus around her recommendations. It will be fully funded – and not through borrowing.

I appeal to everyone to engage in this debate responsibly and urge politicians to continue the cross-party talks that began over the summer. We need less point scoring and more problem solving. The situation is too serious for us to play politics. Care workers struggling on low pay, families stretched to breaking point, older people fearful of losing everything they have worked for. We need to give them reason to hope again.

I have wanted to fix social care for a long time. As health secretary in 2009, I tried to find a cross-party solution. Since then, I have watched the challenges grow more acute and the consequences become more severe. It is a profound failure of politics that we have known about this problem for so long and yet failed to act. I would never forgive myself if I did not try now.

This is the settlement I am offering to pensioners: a state pension that rises every year, no care charges and a high-quality National Care Service to give peace of mind in later life. I do not pretend this will be easy. But in the end, politics is about finding a way. I gave my word that I would do everything in my power to build a care system worthy of the people who provide it and all those who depend on it. This is how we can achieve it.

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@SunderlandAFC Happy with this! Will make my journey home less stressful when driving up from Stoke

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@discostoo @DobbySolanoNUFC Ahh fair, keep it that way then 😂

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@ProfAndyMackem Yeah. I just hope Burnham is brave enough to do something about it or will the generation who have had it easier than any other bitch and complain til he gives in and gives up

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

Keep the triple lock but means test it then. If you've got a private pension paying £25k+ a year and/or over £50k in savings then you don't need it. That money would be better going to someone who needs it, not a couple who spend 6 months of the year on a cruise ship

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@ProfAndyMackem Exactly. It needs to change because it's broken and can't be fixed in its current form. It could have a similar system to UC where you report your finances once per year and if you have savings over the threshold, your payments are reduced. People will still moan but it's fair

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@ProfAndyMackem He probably knows that but it helps him far more to stir up the neanderthals that follow him and get them angry again

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

Yes you're missing something you thick fuck. One filmed his crime and posted it online for the world to see, and the other was some blokes trying to steal red diesel and running away

[Nigel Farage @Nigel_Farage]

How is it that Danny Tommo sits in a cell while five suspected terrorists are out on bail?

Is this two-tier Britain, or am I missing something?

[Politics For You @PoliticoForYou]

BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨

Pensioners concerned with Labour’s threat to remove the state pension triple lock are urged to take the advice they give to young people.

Stop being such snowflakes, save your pennies and go on less holidays.

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

FINALLY. I'd go a step further and means test it. If you've got 50k in the bank and you already have a private pension giving you 30k a year, you don't need it. Let that money go to someone who has nothing

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 BREAKING: Andy Burnham is set to signal the end of the state pension triple lock in his conference speech tomorrow

[@Telegraph]

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@Royleblue23 @MartinSLewis That's the problem, Phil. I'm 30 and i'm not expecting to reach a retirement age. Either the world will be fucked before i get there, or the age will keep rising and rising and i'll never reach it

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@TypicallyTM I've been playing Minecraft for well over a decade and I've easily put in over a thousand hours into it and I've never once killed the Ender Dragon 😂 I just build cool castles and fortresses. Not everything has to be about winning!

[Matt Armstrong @MattSafc73]

@dylankbuckley @zarahussain999 @PolitlcsUK Hahahahahahaha okay, now is when I stop thinking this is a genuine discussion. You're either a bot or on someone's payroll if you think that