To think the Tories must actually want to loose the next election?

Perhaps look up where Keir Starmer went to school.

Well he did buy his mum a donkey field

I'll be SO proud if mine ever buy me a donkey field

I’m not a Tory. I have never voted Tory, and I think their behaviour, definitely since 2015, has been pretty disgusting in every area aside from gender. But. The three main things that have fucked the country now are Brexit, covid and the Ukraine war.

Brexit was undeniably the Tories’ fault, but Labour did sod all to stop it because the dangerous, incomplete fool who led them at the time supported it, and they left it far too long to get rid of him.

The only thing Labour did during covid was argue for more lockdown, which would have left us in an even worse mess. To be fair, Andy Burnham was an exception to this, but god forbid that the Labour Party might have a northern leader.

And Ukraine, to be fair to both, is beyond the control of either of them.

And, gender. Sorry, I know lots of people like to get very angry that it’s important to some of us and we aren’t prepared to suck it up, but it is and it’s there.

So I’m not really seeing the justification for calling Tory voters morons. We’ve had a choice for years between incompetent and nasty, and not quite smart or inspiring enough to beat incompetent and nasty. I don’t think picking option 2 necessarily makes you inherently superior in your judgement.

No, he's just funnelling UK money into his family business before he's out of a job.

The Tories are a bunch of greedy people who know they are going to lose.

They will do nothing about strikes, crumbling infrastructure or public services, police or education funding.

The next election is either May or September next year. Unless you can pay for private medicine or private education then you had better hope that Labour Party can find some money. It's going to be a nasty hangover after Brexit bollocks.

You're getting a bit desperate now.

Who gave Saville a knighthood?

I think that's given me the best laugh I've had today.

I seem to recall Sunak trying to push his normal credentials and failing to fill up a Fiesta in a petrol station.

We end up with Raynor as PM??
Jesus
Wake up people

Could you gist what makes up the overall tax burden?

To open that link requires turning off all the partner vendor tracking cookies (that don't show on the first page - I don't really have appetite for a couple of hundred clicks and I was hoping you might have the key points at your fingertips)

What the hell happens when the deal between Starmer, the bbc and Jimmy Saville comes to light?

Will that happen before or after the election?

Sunak doesn’t attempt or pretend he is representing the poor, and he doesn’t hush up and hide his pampered luxury like Starmer.

@Fightyouforthatpie , the Tories once were a low - or lower - tax party. Maybe you’re too young to remember when the higher tax rate under Labour was 98p in the £ and we had a massive brain drain.

Unlike pauper Sunak?

Sorry this is going back a bit, but this is the best plan I’ve heard in years. Decades even. Could we, er, proactively, you know, in any way, make any of them aware that this might be a remotest possibility that hasn’t even crossed our minds? Please?

We are very different people.
I find the Labour Party a total embarrassment, they are incompetent, lack leadership and polish and have no policies to speak of.

I can’t believe anyone would look at the multi millionaire Sir Keir from the elite London metropolitan establishment and imagine he has the first fucking clue about the working class of this country!!

Well he did buy his mum a donkey field

https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/faced-highest-tax-burden-70-years-budget-fails-put-britain-path-prosperity

So what's Labour’s eye watering woke agenda?

Tax?

I know. I’ll never learn, will I? 😉

increasing tax isn’t on the agenda which is just as well as the Tories have increased it to the highest level for 70 years

Which taxes do you mean?

Income tax was way higher in the 1970s (and for much of the 80s) - so only 40-50 years ago.

Don't have corporation tax at my fingertips, but thought that was downward too

VAT rates were set by EU (as it was an EU sales tax) and apart from abolishing tampon tax, I don't think much has been done with them since Brexit

Awww @BIossomtoes you and your facts.

The few remaining Tory supporters don't want anything to do with facts.

The facts don't support supporting the Tories.

The Tories know they're going to lose (tempted to channel Lemmy here, but if I was to be a fool and gamble) I'd say that the Tory aim now is to make it as hard for a Labour government as possible - the govt continues broke, there's a major new spending commitment to fix schools and whatever else is found to have RAAC (unforeseen, inescapable, and likely to land fully in the next administration)

Expect other spending to begin in the next 6 months. Which will barely add up, but just like when the money ran out in 2008, the money ran out in propping up the economy in the early years of the pandemic.

The next Chancellor will need to be very good. Or at least be competent, with their toes held to the fire by a clear-sighted and determined (and probably workaholic) PM. Is there really anyone up to in any of the current bunch, of any stripe?

Starmer is not PM material, a lisping indecisive public school boy that had concrete charisma and a rag tag second rate party. They are certainly not anything like the slick operatives of Blair’s team.

He’s not a public school boy. He went to a grammar that became fee paying while he was there. He then got a bursary. They said Attlee wasn’t PM material - look what his government achieved.

We haven’t seen enough of Starmer’s top team to judge but I certainly don’t think Cooper, Reeves, Debonaire, Streeting or Benn are second rate. Rayner reminds me of Barbara Castle, who was formidable. Labour is entirely clear that increasing tax isn’t on the agenda which is just as well as the Tories have increased it to the highest level for 70 years.

The truth of the matter is 95% of the British public would put an x in the box that offered them literally anyone else!

Starmer is not PM material, a lisping indecisive public school boy that had concrete charisma and a rag tag second rate party. They are certainly not anything like the slick operatives of Blair’s team.

Then you have Rishi that blew up their own party - and with it their chance to win.

I couldn’t call it.

I was asked upthread why anyone would vote conservative, and I will say people really don’t like Starmer and especially not rabid Raynor and it’s better the devil you know sometimes. I am not sure anyone wants to pay even more tax next autumn with Labour, it will boil down to that.