To think there is no more money?

Spending is different when it comes to a government. If I can't afford an item I want and I take debt to get it then I simply have the item. If a government takes debt to pay for something e.g. healthcare, it generates more money as more people aren't ill and are able to contribute. If it builds infrastructure the population is more supported and more prosperous. If money is treated as simply a commodity and profit is sought above all else (such as in the private sector) there's no investment and money simply swells in one area, in the same way a cancerous tumour grows and eventually interferes with the function of everything else. This is what we've seen over te past 12 years, businesses have profited wildly but the value of money has gone down, because fewer people have money they aren't able to provide s much in exchange for it. This is one of the reasons even businesses are supporting Labour now, try and boost productivity and increase the value of products and services again.

Whilst countries like China, India and the US do nothing to combat it, we won't have a planet anyway. Their emissions are getting worse, or not changing. Our contribution is miniscule.

House price inflation absolutely is unearned wealth. A house that was worth X now being worth XXX has nothing to do with how hard someone worked. None at all.

I think people under estimate how crippling hidden disabilities and untreated MH can be.

The backlog and waiting lists for MH treatment need to be cleared. Young people want to work and not be crippled with mental illness. There is an endless wait and zero support until crisis. That needs to change as it keeps them trapped in a sticking plaster circle. Treat them, get them well,give them coping strategies and they will thrive and pay taxes.

There is no way Ukraine is going to beat Russia whatever that means. We shouldn’t be supporting the US proxy war with Russia it’s clearly not in our interests. This way should end with a negotiated settlement as soon as possible. The alternative to this is an eventual nuclear exchange which is horrific. I can’t believe the war mongering that goes on about Ukraine, it’s absolutely disastrous.

The elephant in the room is Net Zero. A strong economy needs plentiful cheap energy. This is not going to happen from solar panels made with fossil fuel energy imported from China and with metals mined by child labour. We need to be exploiting our own oil and gas resource and building nuclear power stations.

A welfare state only works when people honour the social contact and understand it is for times of need and they should use for the shortest possible time. Most people with a degree of disability can work if they choose to. A contribution based scheme would help with higher benefits for people who have paid in for a long time. There is no way under 25s should be accessing out of work benefits. It’s a quick way to ruin their lives. They should have government supported work placements or training. Mental health issues are improved in the vast majority of cases by engaging in meaningful activity. The benefits system frequently disables people by making them dependent.

The NHS is something of a national religion and it’s not healthy it sets ridiculous expectations and makes people feel their health is not their responsibility. The danger in any insurance based system is the private companies would simply profiteer but ultimately I believe the NHS will end up for emergency care and cancer care only with most other care being delivered privately.

Without a green agenda we’ll have no planet- little short sighted methinks.

“Kick people back into jobs - people can come at me all they want and say ‘but some people genuinely can’t work’ and that may well be true, but the vast majority are lazy twats - “

Are they, links and evidence please.

TBH anyone who thinks that labour aren’t going to hike taxes is deluded. The money has to come from somewhere - taxes and culling benefits are the only option.

The best way would to be means testing all benefits. Kick people back into jobs - people can come at me all they want and say ‘but some people genuinely can’t work’ and that may well be true, but the vast majority are lazy twats - and culling things like child benefits, means test state pensions, means test disability allowance. The State supports to many people - and we cannot afford to.

Stop giving bloody ridiculous pay rises to the sodding NHS and police who have had bloody good pay rises for the past 8+ years. Stop giving aid to countries that are bloody wealthy (looking at countries in Europe here who receive funding for shit they could do themselves), stop giving money to help ‘gender equality’ in sodding Afghanistan etc. - because that money is having no effect - stop handing out money to migrants, stop with the sodding green agenda as it’s not affordable.

But they won’t. Because their core voting base want them to do all the above. So, all they can do is hike taxes.

Inheritance is and people have been taxed previously on the money that paid for the property and also stamp duty on top. They then pay inheritance tax which is plenty. Also it’s not unearned people have worked for it. My parents went without to pay for their house as did we as children. They worked and earned the money to pay for it. They want to help their grandchildren when they die one of whom has disabilities and will need a lot of support and provision.

@ll09sm

"All the freebies were spent during Covid when people were screaming to be furloughed and stay at home to bake banana bread and watch Netflix.

Lockdowns cost the taxpayer £1 trillion. Yes that’s right. That’s a lot of zeros at the end of that number. The same people that wanted longer and harder lockdown and furlough for fun then squealed like trapped rodents when rampant inflation followed. They then wanted more freebies. Which they got. And now wonder why there’s no money left.

Money really does not grow on trees. There is only 3 ways to get it.

Earn it. This country certainly not doing that with 6 million people on out of work benefits. And less than half the population not being net contributors paying for everyone else.

Borrow it. The national debt is now more than 100% of GDP. The country borrow almost £20b a month to most for welfare and debt interest. A total Ponzi scheme.

Print it. The country printed so much free money since 2008 that printing anymore will turn it into Venezuela.

So guess what. There really is no money left. The freebies have run out"

Please don't you will soon have posters on here who after vaguely remembering GCSE Keynesian economics will say we can borrow as much money as we want cos it will always grow the economy and can pay itself off.

The interest bill on the current Government debt is the same as what is spent on the entire education budget.

Just to reinforce the point: There really is o money left!!

Because they've only been in for 3 weeks.

I think there will be changes announced in the next upcoming budgets that will address some of these, not all but the "Grow the economy" stuff is too long term, will take years before anyone notices, if by the time of the next GE, people don't notice improvements in e.g NHS, Dentistry and Roads, they they will vote for the extremes.

People don’t pay tax over and again on their principal residence. House price inflation has been stratospheric. Inheritance of unearned wealth like this should be taxed heavily.

Amazing!

Zero mention of wealth/asset taxes, as per usual its the less well off that can make the sacrifices.
Tax unearned income same as earned, council tax rebanding for more expensive houses, get rid of the private sector in the NHS and other public bodies, just duplicates services & drains money.

So many people are on long term sick and much of this is due to not being able to get healthcare, both physical and mental.

The number of older people claiming Attendance Allowance with massive houses and huge amounts of money in the bank is enormous and the threshold for it being awarded is very low. Wouldn't surprise me if they changed things regarding AA.

Means testing state pension and other OAP benefits such as free prescriptions, free bus pass, winter fuel allowance, etc, could be set at quite a high level, i.e. maybe £100k of income, so it wouldn't affect the majority of people. Anyone with an income of £100k in retirement doesn't need a free bus pass!

We've managed to means test child benefit for people with incomes over £50k (now £60k), so it can't be that hard to administer!

I’m not sure more children ( beyond 2) crippling the planet and housing is the answer.

This.

We both earn well. But even with the new 15 hours, and me working part time, childcare costs cripple us.

In a few years we'll be in an ok position (providing jobs stay secure), but if we had more than the one child we'd not be able to keep our heads above water.

We can promote having children. More benefits, more childcare support. This is costly and the effects will take a long time.

Lots of people don't qualify for benefits but also wouldn't be able to afford another child. Longer term something which supports anyone with a child in my opinion would be better. Properly funded childcare for example- this would support those who don't qualify but also would take some financial pressure off those who do so benefits they do receive can be spent on other things. Not adverse of course to benefits rising, but when considering supporting families there's more to it.

Why shouldn’t you get a state pension and inherit? People pay tax over and again on what they leave their children and then it is taxed some more. People go without to pay into a private pension and own a home. There being no point to that would be catastrophic financially.

Increasing retirement age beyond 67 doesn’t sound appealing. I speak as somebody 10 years off it in quite a tiring job.

Means testing pensions would never work and could well cause additional problems. You also can’t take state pensions off people who have paid into a system for years believing they’d get a state pension at the end.

The State Pension on the other hand is explicitly tied to National Insurance contributions, and the number of years you have paid. Those on the left didn’t quite get the longer term implication of the conservatives removal of NI, opening the door as it did for exactly what you want - means testing of the state pensions. And in princplie, given enough notice, it makes sense. The problem is no one trusts Labour with private enterprise or pensions because they have a bistrot of destroying both.

Our birth rate is declining and this means that we will soon be in the position where we simply do not have enough working age people to fund all public services.

We have a number of options available to address this, but non are nice, easy, simple etc.

We can promote having children. More benefits, more childcare support. This is costly and the effects will take a long time.

We can increase immigration. This impacts on public services and there are cultural implications. It's also incredibly unpopular.

We can massively overhaul public services - austerity on crack. Means test pensions, these are the biggest cost of welfare whether you want to admit it or not. Increase retirement age. Bedroom tax for pensioners. Introduce fees for the NHS. Scrap benefits such as ESA and other working age benefits. Etc etc etc.

None of these are particularly appealing.