to believe Rachel Reeves was crying because

@Blossomtoes

Jeremy Corbyn held an event in Wes Streeting’s constituency hours after announcing that he would help to create a new Left-wing party.

The former Labour leader, now an independent MP, spoke in Ilford North alongside Leanne Mohamad, the pro-Palestinian* *candidate who came within 528 votes of defeating the Health Secretary at last summer’s general election.
Mr Streeting will face an uphill battle to keep his seat if the backlash over Labour’s stance on the Israel-Gaza war continues.

He is one of the most prominent MPs in Labour’s moderate wing, and widely tipped to run for the party leadership when Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure comes to an end.

You can disagree but you’re still wrong.

The groups that show the most mixed contribution are family reunion and asylum/refugees. The former often a necessity to ensure the primary visa holder comes, or stays. And their children are usually net contributors over their lifetime. latter show net contribution after about 10 years, with decent integration policies (which we broadly have). Unemployment and wage stagnation has probably made it harder, and there’s probably more challenges with integration now because, politics.

So, broadly we do only have immigration that financially benefits the UK. In some cases that’s because people are coming to do low paid and under appreciated but necessary jobs.

I disagree, but it’s beside the point. Why not only allow immigration that financialy benefits the U.K.

I think NI raises were a mistake. They don’t just affect business but also non-profits, many of which are picking up the slack of depleted public services, which has a further knock on effect on productivity because some of that support was keeping people in work, above the poverty line, mentally well etc.

However I think the principle of big employers contributing more is a necessary one, given the right mechanism. Volume employers have benefited from in-work benefits by keeping workers on low wages, part-time hours and zero hour contracts. And then as soon as NI goes up they put up prices rather than see a dent in their enormous profits. It’s cakeism really, there needs to be a way to rebalance that but it can’t be done overnight.

It’s not true that ‘the vast majotity’ don’t contribute, that’s simply false. A small group of highly skilled visa holders are one factor, but not the only one.

Do you think the anti growth policies such as NI which hits businesses are problematic?

Or do you think Reeves is making the right decisions

The PP didn’t treat immigrants as a group, they said the ‘vast majority’ are a drain. Which is true. Your reply is also true in that as a group they contribute more than they put in due to some very high tax payers. Maybe we lower immigration to those who contribute? Crazy idea I know right?

This story is two years old. It’s a travesty, but not something you can pin on the Chancellor.

Aid is part of keeping the UK safe.

This just isn’t true. You can’t treat ‘immigrants’ as a single group but if you do, most research suggests that immigrants broadly contribute more in taxes than they receive in services. People in relativelu low paid jobs may also be on receipt of in-work benefits but are doing essential roles in shortage occupations.

Yes! Whilst simultaneously making private schools even more elite. Genius.

I don't give a flying bollock about what other incumbents did. We are where we are now and it seems Ms Reeves has done everything she can to wreck the economy.

What I would like to know is who signed off the recent £94.5 million aid package to Syria ?

And this when our our own SEN children are missing out

news.sky.com/story/why-thousands-of-children-with-special-educational-needs-are-missing-out-on-education-12920518

Outrageous !

…and improve education by taxing schools out of existence.

Yes. Rachel Reeves deserves all the criticism she gets. She out of her depth and unfit to continue as chancellor.

Same.
RR thinks you get growth by taxing SMEs out of existence.

Especially whilst putting in policies that have the opposite impact.

The vast, vast majority of immigrants are a drain on the Exchequer. If we only took the people you're describing, our fiscal position would be fantastic.

Funnily enough I don’t advise Rachel Reeves. Were you as anxious to point out the flaws in previous incumbents’ policies?

That's what we'd all like to know !

If growth is impossible, why has Rachel Reeves repeatedly claimed she has a strategy that will ensure economic growth?

Reeves doesn't want growth. She made that quite clear in the budget.

But none of this is a new problem. I don’t disagree with a lot of what you say, but fundamentally growth is almost impossible in a country that doesn’t make anything. Where are our growth industries? There’s a huge investment needed in education, housing and transport to enable large chunks of the population to be more productive, but the narrative on this thread seems to be all about cuts. The welfare bill is unsustainable but the idea that it can be cut and people will magically get jobs and sustain them is risible. There needs to be targeted investment. Labour have an uphill battle with the right wing press and a broadly right wing electorate, and they have an identity crisis. But the roots of the crisis around us predate them by at least a decade and trace back to austerity.

How are these kids going to be motivated or enabled to contribute to economic growth? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg8r3vm4llo

The most ridiculous thing in all of this is that the UK has creamed off lots of highly talented immigrants coming in via UK unis who then have contributed vastly into the coffers, not just with taxes, but via growth and yet the politicians are allowing the narrative to take hold that immigrants are a big drain. It is nonsense, certain types of immigrants are the complete opposite, absolutely essential. The successful European countries which are all in structural decline with falling birth rates will be those able to attract AND retain the best incoming talent.

Oh sorry did you think I was serious about life expectancy? It is dropping like a rock but not quickly enough. Though the economic outlook will certainly hasten deaths from disease and despair, so there’s that too.

There are many things that ought to have been done differently, on that we agree, but I don’t lay the blame entirely at the door of the current Chancellor. And neither does the OBR. Part of the problem with the triple lock was the uncertainty. Massive changes to policy right now are the worst thing that could happen.

What a naive post when you look at the enormous number of pensioners using every service imaginable for multiple decades after retiring at 55.

Yes the chancellor does have a responsibility to end the triple lock, free passes, prescriptions for pensioners etc - will she? Not a chance. She is now vastly weakened and on the verge of collapse.

The kinds of cuts that are desperately needed now to avoid an economic disaster will never get past the thick Labour MPS that think moral superiority is more important than keeping the lights on.

We are absolutely screwed.

The UK faces “daunting” risks to the public finances as its soaring debt load leads to “substantial erosion” of its capacity to respond to future shocks, the independent budget watchdog has warned. The Office for Budget Responsibility said on Tuesday that efforts to put the UK on a more sustainable fiscal footing have met with only “limited and temporary” success in recent years. Underlying public debt, which is at its highest since the early 1960s, is set to rise further, the OBR warned. It added that addressing the issue had become “considerably more challenging” given low economic growth and rising interest rates.

FT.

This is precisely why productivity growth is collapsing. The productive taxpayers amongst us are reducing our efforts in the face of very high marginal tax rates on income from employment. And compounding all of this is a slice of unproductive working age slackers who simply do not want to work.

The OBR is actually under-stating the financial risks. The UK is basically insolvent if you take into account off balance sheet risks. Taxing the productive more will simply accelerate the decline because the unproductive will keep trying to extract more resources.