Do Labour really know what they are doing??

That was the first thing that came to mind, but yeah, is a bit of a MN cliche.

I'm just sick of seeing policies or claims announced on here that haven't actually materialised, and seeing people believe whatever crap is peddled in the press. The press really don't care about the average person, even the wealthier people on MN. I would say a lot of the newspapers are unreadable too.

Well I am not pleased about the WFA decision, for a start. I'm reserving judgement until we see the actual budget.

Precisely. This is pure manipulation by the media. Invent a “policy” and attribute it to the government, then accuse them of changing their mind with an invented denial. The mainstream media is badly written fiction at the moment.

I actually agree with your post. Shame it used the old MN cliche frothing. Makes it almost unreadable.

But nobody decent knows what they’re doing. Have you seen the state of the world? The only people who know what they’re doing are the undemocratic, ruthless bastards. Everyone else is trying to square the circle, with less money and more pressures than before.

I really don’t think so no. Not sure why they even gave the chagos islands away tbh. If you are going to give it away give it to the poor chagosians.

OP, given that you say the Chancellor has now "dropped" this plan, could you please indicate when exactly she stated that she was planning it in the first place? Not interested in speculative media reports about what she might do, just in what she indicated that she was planning to do.

That was a strange political error adding to thread title yanbu

So what are you hoping they will do or will you just be pleased with whatever they do, you surely must have some opinion

Most of the right wing press don't like Labour, never have. It may not be leaks.

Looks like there wasn't a budget then like I thought from reading this, and it's just people frothing before anything has been announced.

I'm not impressed with Labour though, but they have been handed a crock of shit and Tories seemed to be revelling creating the shit too. They were utterly awful. I don't think the current incarnation of Labour's policies are that far away from what we had before though sadly. I'm disappointed and frustrated.

I don't understand why people are so fucked off with them trying to keep staff in the public sector when it is literally falling apart through lack of staffing and adequate training. If you don't want it to get worse, unfortunately you need to keep attracting people to fill the vacancies, especially since everyone hates importing workers from abroad evidently.

I'm confused. I thought the budget was at the end of October. Have I missed something?

That conference has caused a fair bit of damage already.

Agree. 100%.

Well they are and that’s being leaked again to manage expectations. One day, people can admit to themselves they were fooled and Labour got in on policies and leaks which don’t make fiscal sense. Maybe when they target ESA, PIP and UC. Until then, I’ll wait.

They do seem a bit all over the place, with the non dom row back but also the very early doom press conference

The CBI and IoD have said that too

Criticising Labour for not doing something they have never formally announced they were going to do and criticising the imagined reasons for them not doing it (favouring public servants etc.) it is a bit...desperate.

But they don't need to backtrack at all because they never announced they were going to do it! They don't need to say anything.

Of course they did. Via leaks to the press. How our democracy has run since day dot. This way they can just quietly backtrack without committing. I look forward to the fireworks then they are honest about what they really need to target.

Labour have always favoured public servants.

But they don't need a get out clause, because they never said they were going to do it in the first place?

They can’t. It would cause investment to collapse and productivity to collapse even more. It was never feasible, they knew it. Frankly, if they didn’t, then they have no place in office. Plenty of warnings out there.

I always said - their get out clause for this will be the public sector. That way they are protecting the hero Drs and teachers. Without communicating that, in reality, it would’ve caused economic collapse.

They seem to know what they doing in terms of strategy - put all the shitty benefits cuts through early white they can still blame the tories.
I actually do think Rachel Reeves has a plan and knows what she's doing. Starmer less so....

Well, you were more optimistic than me.

This is still obviously only speculation at this stage, still three weeks to go so we'll see, but I was sure they will press ahead no matter what and we'll end up with full blown disaster. If it is true that they are u-turning, then I'm actually more positive.

The problem with this government is that ideology is above common sense for them so I didn't think they will even try to save face.

Wait until the good old VAT raid on private schools is deemed unlawful by the high court.

Not a clue do they have

No I don't think Labour have any more of a clue than the last lot. If they had a plan they would have communicated it clearly and stuck to it. Their plan was apparently fully costed, the state of public finances was not kept from them before being elected, so either they lied or they never had a plan.

Staunch Labour supporters may dismiss anyone who criticises the party as a bot but Labour are only receiving the same scrutiny that any party in government does.

I'm not convinced that all the press speculation about what Labour may do in the budget is made up. I think Labour are using ambiguity about their intentions to test the waters about what they might be able to get away with.