AIBU To think that Labour is more against aspirations than the Conservatives?

It won’t improve standards at all. Most of the issues are behavioural related. Making Fiona go the same school as Kai, isn’t going to stop Kai’s low level nuisance making or stop him smoking vapes in the school toilets. Fiona will just get additional tuition and activities outside of school to make up for things she’s missing in her new school. And her parents will use the saved money to buy her a house, unless people campaign to stop people giving their kids a deposit also.

It’s structural reform of services that’s required. Making some people happy that some others can no longer afford to go to private school won’t make a tiny bit of difference. It’s lazy thinking. We need genuine innovation in the sector.

As Labour made this one of their flagship announcements, I’m concerned what’s next regarding increasing financial burden through higher taxation. It’s always easy to shake down the middle class. They’ve signalled this is their plan. It won’t stop at schools.

You can shout that I’m ‘wrong’ all you like, but this is my take on the situation.

I'm sorry but this is laughable. Labour are 20 points ahead. As a point of attack, saying they are anti aspiration is a bit like puffing a pea shooter into a hurricane.

This disaster government needs a huge, game changing narrative. Anti aspiration when they have presided over a massive collapse in living standards isn't just tone deaf, it's the reason they are going to win handsomely.

OP I'd say if you are a standard Conservative voter then your view is quite normal, but you have got to raise your eyes to how others live. They don't agree.

Have you got a source for the statement in your first two sentences, @Alcyoneus ?

It seems to be rather at odds with the fact that the highest ever number of people in the UK were on benefits in 20/21, which was 10 years after Labour were last in charge.

https://news.sky.com/story/record-number-of-britons-receiving-benefits-that-amount-to-more-than-they-pay-in-tax-study-finds-12793349#:~:text=Analysis%20by%20Civitas%20of%20Office,as%20NHS%20and%20education%20services.

Of course, they may have got that down a bit post-Covid, but a cursory google hasn't brought up any sources with a total figure and the complexity of weeding out any double counting while so many are on a mixture of various legacy benefits and UC is too much for my brain on a non-working day.

If the Tories were serious about cutting the "benefit bill", they'd introduce rent controls. The housing costs element is the largest single item in virtually every UC breakdown I look at (I'm a welfare rights adviser) and lots of families with decent incomes are entitled to UC simply because of high rental costs.

I also suspect that the there is a significant amount of under-claiming. Our team is tiny (less than 4 FTE posts) and we uncover far more underpayments than overpayments. In the last full year that we reported on, we got an extra £680k for clients who'd been underclaiming/underpaid. If that's typical, it's no wonder the coalition stopped public funding for welfare rights work.

How are the tories honest ? They live in fantasy land.

It's time to start buying a different newspaper OP, your current one isn't doing you any favours.

This "they're all as bad as each other" narrative is beyond boring, and actually a pretty lazy conclusion to make. I can only assume that 14 years of collective electorate amnesia, coupled with Stockholm Syndrome, is to blame.

Private education is a discretionary purchase of a luxury item, of course it should have VAT on it. If I am going to have to pay 20% tax on toothpaste and toilet roll that I buy with my already taxed income you should be paying it on buying privilege for your kids.

Conservative HQ getting desperate peddling this crap through sock-puppets on MN the day after two thumping by-election losses to Labour even after Kier's Anti-Semitism scandal.

What if they spend that money on improving standards for all children, improving education for all? Or is it only your children who deserve to benefit from the opportunities provided by a high quality education?

I was excited about getting rid of the Tories. However, Labour announcing they plan to put VAT on private schools which will basically just be passed on to the parents, is making me think twice. I now don’t trust them as it sounds like a thin end of the wedge which will start being applied to other things.

No tax rises should be introduced for the foreseeable at all. Structural reform of services should be the focus. Not just taking more and more of peoples money, throwing good after bad.

Whoever gets in, normal people are screwed. The Tories support the ultra-rich and grudgingly provide support for people on benefits, whilst squeezing and screwing those on low to middle incomes, 20-40K range. Labour support those on benefits and grudgingly help the ultra-rich, whilst squeezing and screwing those on low to middle incomes.

The only real difference is Labour lie and pretend they're not fucking you over whilst they do it, whereas the Tories don't mask their contempt as they fuck you over.

Basically the choice is do you prefer people to be honest as they ruin your life, or do you prefer to live in a fantasy land and pretend to yourself that they're not ruining it even though every atom of your body knows they are?

Bye then.

High earners can move easily. Can’t see any real reason why they wouldn’t now

You might struggle to leave the country. The Tory Government's Brexit removed your right to live, work or study freely in Europe and you'll need a lot of dosh and a highly paid, secure job to move anywhere else. So good luck with that.

This is the same OP that thinks doctors should have their right to strike withdrawn.

Rwanda. Although obviously that has just entailed wasting millions of pounds so far.

There is no one to vote for. Taxes will rise even higher under Labour and nothing will be any better.

I’d rather leave the UK, tbh.

@Ringpeace or maybe forever? They deserve to be utterly annihilated.

If there's any justice in life, at the next general election the fucking Tories will be booted into the political wilderness for at least the next 20 years.

And fucking good riddance. Shithouses.

You do realise that public borrowing is at an all time high, and the Tories have been in charge for 14 years ?

I suspect the £4bn misspent in Covid, £7bn Covid Fraud, £35bn lost in Liz Truss’s budget, £140bn shrinkage in the economy since Brexit, plus record inflation is much more problematic.

What have the Tories done over the last 14 years to sort out low wages, so people don’t need tax credits ? The figures would suggest nothing.

What right wing? What right policies have you seen enacted? Name one.

Our politics are western and liberal and we have utilise both capitalist and socialist approaches to do one basic thing. Improve our quality of living. We know capitalism drives improvements in standards of living faster but the cost is inequalities. Socialism redresses inequality but means slower improvements in standards of living. The issue with either is the quality of life that comes with standards of living.

Any decent politician of the left or right should want to improve the quality of our lives through improved standards of living and reduced inequality. They should be serious people who know this isn’t easy and that there is no quick fix that ignores economic and social realities. As an electorate we need to be smarter with our decisions, both in what we want and how much we are willing to do to achieve it. We are stuck between a hard left and right that scream demands but never say what they will do or sacrifice to achieve it.

Our current situation is dire. The right wing of the Conservative Party are insanely driven towards unfettered capitalism and they are in a death spiral of lies and deception to achieve this. They promise things no serious politician could deliver. They have used a small mandate to create one of the least talented and unserious governments for generations. To the point where the only explanation is that they are trying this hard to be so bad at government. Even the best of the government minsters are idiots with bugger all talent and literally every problem is an unforced error.

Labour at least seem to know they need to be serious and have shown they can shut down the “I want it and I want it now” demands for everything and anything. They aren’t proposing anything that would limit aspirations. They haven’t since the 1980’s anyway. And before that it was the labour movement that secured improvements in wages, housing and public services. Which our centuries old unfettered capitalism failed to deliver.

Oh dear , oh dear. Have a listen to the Mick Lynch interview on the News Agents podcast.

I'm sure she will. She is probably a bit rattled by yesterday's election results though.

You've summarised perfectly how I feel. In a likewise comfortable position financially, but with young children I fear for their future and the services they rely on/ will need in the coming years. Focusing everything on wealth and material possessions is a very limited, and limiting, view of the world.