To think there is no more money?

And what a nasty bout of inflation we suffered as a result!

Oh please do @FictionalCharacter ... would love to know ...

Thank you!

see my 2012 link upthread. But yes of course it depends on how much you use public services. You were educated, you use the NHS, you drive on the roads, you will draw a pension.......

Encourage young people to only have children once married / stable with a suitable spouse. Contraception isn't difficult & is free so there's no excuse for having 5 children by 5 different useless dads by the age of 20 (obvi exaggerating!!!)

Then, when sadly relationships break down, the NRP needs to work + pay a substantial amount. Taxpayer shouldn't be subsiding lazy parents.

Explosion in single parent families is a tragedy on an individual, emotional, financial & societal scale.

I’m not in the UK but it’s the 6th largest economy in the world. There’s money,

@Towelmode I'm a pensioner and DH and I pay quite a lot of tax on our mainly public sector pensions, as do most of the people we know. Just like the rest of society some of us contribute financially and some of us don't . I just wish the ageist assumption that we are all in the same boat once we are past 66 would change.

Some types of spending by the state are investments that will
pay off in the long run though.

More decent council housing should lead to less housing benefit payments for extortionate private rents.
Investment in things like Sure Start and decent provision for young people can have long lasting positive impacts, less cost from antisocial behaviour and better/higher paying jobs for children who received solid foundations and a positive start in life.
Good, reliable infrastructure and services attract businesses and investors.
Investment in repair and maintenance of buildings and infrastructure avoids catastrophic failures, crumbling schools etc…

That’s why austerity was such a costly mistake. “Saving” money in the wrong place ends up being incredibly expensive!

No. I don’t believe this.

Duh! Some of that is because of Ukraine, hence why we need to help sort it!

I agree inheritance tax makes sense.

Or we could increase taxes on richer old people and their estates when they die.

Taxes need to be spread better and not just forever increased only on workers.

You may not like vanity projects although bear in mind that the dome is now used for events that attract a lot of visitors and if you want to have a vibrant tourism and entertainment industry then you have to make a certain amount of investment. But vanity projects are a red herring compared to public services.

The NHS costs over £200 billion a year. Pensions over £130 billion. Other benefits £130 billion.

So if you're saying you don't want to pay taxes because it will just go towards vanity projects then you're lying to yourself.

Imo, fuck Ukraine. People are starving and dying of cold ffs.

I think the MPC set the interest rate. You can auction government bonds but the international money markets influence their value, plus such borrowing has to be paid for.

Is that based on having children and associated benefits? I don’t have children (although I’m on MN!) and can’t work out why I wouldn’t be a net contributor? Very interested to hear if I’m not!

The economy is many times worse than Labours joke about no money being left - its like this after every Tory government (facts can be found in gov stats if anyone doesn't believe me).

But we need to invest to get a return so we can kick start the economy.

Gordon Brown was a brilliant Chancellor of the Exchequer and Rachel will follow him to be a great Chanceller because she has experience as well as heart. She is prioritising on the basis of value and returns so not everything will get all the funding it needs right away.

Sometimes we need to trust the process. This is one of those times.

@Hedgeoffressian completely agree.

We can't afford the public services that we want right now. We need to streamline & prioritise.

Keir has just announced £84 million for Africa. There is enough money we just keep getting people in power who prefer to send it abroad than deal with our own, failing services.

There is more available. But it is stuffed offshore, or routed through convoluted ‘companies’ or employing your spouse as ‘secretary’ or inflated expenses out weighing income. What there is a lack of is paying a fair share.

Being the opposition, they will have known this in the run up to the election. But I fully expect Rachel Reeves when she delivers her autumn budget to say something along the lines of ‘we weren’t planning to increase taxes but since we’ve been in power it’s become apparent there’s no money left and we have no option but to increase taxes’ but I’m not buying it. They must have known this before 4th July.

This is real life and I’m worried about the prospect of tax rises because although on paper I earn a reasonable salary, I’m not left with very much at the end of the month. I’ve been having sleepless nights about what the future now holds. Of course I hope I’m proved wrong.

Thanks! That’s a very succinct explanation.

So basically taxes need to be higher or benefits lower? Or both?

100%. Russia has militarised their economy, and the USA are most likely going to be isolationist if Trump wins.

It's going to be a scary world and our defense forces have been hollowed out over the last 30 years. It will take time and investment to bring them back to a reasonable level, and we need to start now.

Forgot the Yep!

My frustration though is that people want good public services, a fully-functioning NHS, benefits like child benefit and nursery subsidies. They want a triple-lock pension. They want granny to have a lovely care home when the time comes.

What they don't want is: to pay income tax; higher rate tax; indirect taxes; to pay to park in hospitals; inheritance tax - even though the estate can in many cases be worth up to £1 million before you start paying tax; CGT.

How do they think this is possible.