Is there money to do what Labour wants to do?

There's plenty of money in the UK. The only problem is that 23% of wealth is held by the top 1% of the population. The bottom 50% have less than 5% of it.

It's remarkable that so many people, presumably many of whom are not in this top 1 or even 10%, have bought in to the lies behind the idea that this is an inevitable or somehow even desirable feature of a functioning modern society.

The wealth of the 1% is truly staggering when framed in comparative terms. The machinations of much of the media and certain political entities is designed almost entirely to keep it as such.

I think the messaging coming from Labour is promising and it will be interesting to see if they are prepared to make some politically very tough decisions to start correcting the underlying problem.

No of course not. But then they didn’t actually promise a lot, people just seem to think they have.

Hopefully those who don't want to can opt out! Oh wait labour is in charge we have to fund those not working somehow. I honestly think they will borrow and make our kids pay it back

Indeed - I live in Belgium and taxes are much higher. On the other hand, I have a dentist, can get a same day GP appointment, kindergarten and wrap round care is practically free from 2.5 yo, Uni tuition fees are 800 euros a year, hospital care is fantastic and people aren't relying on foodbanks etc etc. In the UK it seems that increasingly everyone expects everything, but no-one wants to actually pay for it. I see so much about people saying they will move abroad if taxed more, but in reality many places have even higher tax rates.

Infrastructure is going to be taken care of with private public initiatives so the likes of Blackrock will build the stuff and the British taxpayer will be guaranteeing their returns. Heads they win, tails we lose.

Starmer’s speech today about being ‘unburdened by doctrine’ is the clearest sign yet that Labour intend to use privatisation.

All of these people who are saying they don't want to pay more tax, do you already pay to send you kids to private school and pay for private health care?

Surely the only alternative to not raising taxes and borrowing is privatisation of the NHS. Do you want that instead?

Labour has a magic money tree apparently. Anyone with a job, pension or house may be very afraid now, tax raids may be coming.

I thought it was Tony Blair who instigated PFI 🤔

The Sue Gray ‘s* list' and the 6 nightmares looming for Labour and Sir Keir Starmer

www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1919424/Sue-gray-list-nightmares-facing-labour#ICID=Android_ExpressNewApp_AppShare

Everyone knows there is just no money without increasing tax or borrowing more.

Absolutely.

Nope. Booked in a meeting with the family lawyer for this week to look at IHT planning as I think there will be some big raids on that and CGT.

They'll need to be giving the doctors their 35% pay rise pronto, if they're going to end the striking and tackle the waiting lists.

I highly recommend listening to the interview Paul Johnson, head of the IFS, did with The Rest is Money a few weeks ago. He was pretty damning of both Labour and Conservatives for not admitting that they had no plans to pay for their spending other than “growth”.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-money/id1703785141?i=1000657223674

No. Hence raiding pensions and taxing the living hell out of everyone.

The uk does not have incredibly high taxation

Most of the developed European democracies have much higher taxation and much better public services

"Incredibly high taxes" - compared to where? Many European countries pay much more tax for high quality public services.

I'm not sure that "most people you spoke to" is useful data on this subject really.

@MojoMoon the issue with Gordon Brown isn’t so much that he sold it. It’s that he declined the advise of a panel of experts, including the desk heads of the best bank bullion traders in the UK, who advised him 1) the timing was wrong and 2) if you decide to go ahead and sell it anyway, do not, under any circumstances, tell the entire market, in advance, that you’re going to sell it. Because obviously the price will move against you.

I know this because my boss at the time was one of those bullion desk heads sat in the meeting. Gordon Brown massively cocked up the sale of our gold reserves. One of our grads could have done a better job.

A recent study showed two thirds of people would be happy to pay more tax to fund public services so perhaps that's how it'll be done.

This

the UK already has incredibly high taxes and most people that I have spoken to would not happily be taxed more. Taxing people more is not the answer and will only fuck people over more, better money management is the answer.

The issue was that he sold it when the price was extremely low and then it increased rapidly. I agree that no one can tell the future tho - no one criticized him at the time.

You.must be very naive. There is no money left. It was all used for furlough and Ukraine and the government of the time borrowed billions to get us through the pandemic lockdowns. The only way Labour can improve public services and improve wait times on hospital appointments is to tax more or borrow more. I'm expecting council tax increases for people with gardens, higher CGT, inheritance tax and possibly charge people more to use care homes If they have money of their own. At the moment they can keep £23k. I think that will be taken away from them too If they need care. If there was money about don't you think Sunal would have used it to rescue himself?

No, there isn't, there will have to be cuts somewhere if they keep their promise not to raise taxes. But some of their pledges are not down to money. 6500 extra teachers? From where?

Yes this. They committed to do very little.

That long? 😆