To feel like I'm not sure where I sit politically anymore, and to worry about it.

I think we have a few challenges on raising taxes:

• Lower to average earners are already struggling to make ends meet, with their incomes often topped up by benefits of some sort
• Higher earners have a record income tax burden - paying rates of >50%+ from £50k - and already are heavily incentivised to work less or use pension contributions to reduce their tax burden
• The specific reason for tax increases at present seems to be to… give more benefits to a growing group of workless people. Which… I don’t think will land very well…

I agree with the sentiment. I feel a bit politically homeless since Kier has been flip flopping around, and his 'views' has changed on a lot of things. Incredibly disappointed in them for feeding in to the increasingly hostile anti-trans rhetoric in the UK. Glad they banned political groups from Pride. Was the right thing to do.

I think the deterioration of many things in the UK - living standards and growing neglect across the board - has clearly accelerated but despite thinking some mistakes have been made by Labour, we can't forget that we have the Tories to thank for the systematic enshittification of our public services. They presided over Brexshit, all for the benefit of their billionaire mates, and brutally slashed investment. During her tenure, Theresa May slashed the police force by about 20%. Even if Sunak hired more police to make up for that, the numbers remain lower per capita than they were before the Tories came to power in 2010.
So, for crime rates, let's lay the blame at the feet of those who fucked it up.

I voted Lib Dem in the hope the current govt would be watered down and because Ed Davies has disabled child and may Maybe somewhat emphatic to those with disabilities.

However I really wasn't expected Labour to go for those they have. Absolutely not how I thought of Labour in the past.

I agree all benefits need looking at but I feel it should come from the professionals that care for the sick and disabled the doctors and psychologists and psychiatrists. Not someone on a telephone with no experience. Surely all evidence is ready made in those notes. Anyway I digress.

Reform are going to be the next govt, that's certain unless starmer does something radical to change things. Sacking Rachel reeves would be a good start.
However the problems we have are not all uk only so that makes it difficult.

Across the board, happy to pay more in tax if it changes things for the better

I could have written that word for word OP. I feel exactly the same and it’s really uncomfortable. I don’t know what the answer is at the moment. I’m trying to step away more about caring but that doesn’t feel like me either and some of the issues you mention impact my family directly.

Kendodd · Today 08:46
Also, at the other end of the scale, the rise of the billionaires has done terrible damage to the Western world. Tax them out of existence would be my solution.

edited - sorry I didn’t see your point about no worldwide tax authority before I answered.

Where do you think taxes should be raised?

If Labour manage to get tough on Immigration, which I think is becoming a big problem for us on such a small island, and raise taxes, so we can have better services, then they will keep my vote.
Are there any parties who fit this bill, but who will also look after disabled people and carers?

I think when problems are further away it’s easier to be idealistic. When they are on your doorstep you become much more pragmatic.

I don’t know what the answers are, can’t afford to be harder on criminals ( no money for prisons). Often people caught are low in the chain whereas the folk controlling things get off without consequence.

Immigration and asylum seekers, the reality is hundreds of millions/ billions of people do have at risk of violence or persecution/ challenging / difficult lives in other countries and you understand why they’d want to leave. The numbers don’t stack up though, we are a relatively small country.

I think the reality of the situation is that we are an aging population and pensioners are expensive they take up a huge proportion of DWP, NHS and council resources. This is only going to get worse in time so there will be less money to go around

I think its pretty depressing, I think if I were Rachel Reeves I’d hsve a cry too as the math isn’t adding up.

If I was in charge I would - 1. bring in id cards and tighten regulations so illegals can’t work making us less attractive 2. Maybe Rwanda wasn’t such a shit plan 3. Be much protective of our liberal values if you want sharia fgm and headscarves this isn’t the place for you 4. Take away the pensioners benefits but be more generous on iht so they can pass it on to youngsters and boost economy 5. Be much stricter on benefits have hostels so no one’s homeless but people are incentivised to work for their house 6. Do a massive inspiring ad campaign by Dannie Boyle or similar linking in our glorious history and saying come on everyone pull together now give back to your country not take

Also, at the other end of the scale, the rise of the billionaires has done terrible damage to the Western world. Tax them out of existence would be my solution. Nobody needs one billion nevermind 100 billion. This isn't something one country on its own can solve though, you need global cooperation on tax. Again, something that would never happen because billionaires are too powerful politically and for some bizarre reason the masses cheerlead them.
So basically we're fucked.

Yes, this is true of my northern city. Drug addicts congregate in the town square, off their faces first thing in the morning and get increasingly fucked up throughout the day. They walk into the bakeries and shops and just take food and drink off the shelves and eat it right there. No police come, nothing happens. It's open criminality and bleak hopelessness there every single day and nothing is done about it. These are all white British people whose lives have been wrecked by the years of Tory austerity which ruined prospects and plunged families into desperate poverty across the country while decimating any services that might have been able to mitigate the damage.

We don't have high levels of immigration here but it's a very pro-Reform Brexiteering city. Everyone wants to blame immigrants but the problems here are home-grown.

That said, Labour don't seem to be making anything better. The north is still ignored and this government don't seem interested in addressing the decline. It would be worse under the Tories and unthinkably bad under Reform. I still don't know if I could vote Labour again, but who else is there?

I also work in fraud and all we see now is a massive increase in benefit tourism. Massive. Considering PIP is hard to get all family members are in receipt of it.

I agree op.
I think much of this comes down to poverty and much of the poverty comes down to housing. Low paid (essential) job don't pay and are actually better off on benefits than doing them.
My solution would be a massive council house building programme prioritising working, British people. At the moment you stand a better chance of council housing (of which there is a massive shortage of) if you have serious social problems, this just creates gettos. Originally council housing was to provide security for working people to get ahead. I think this might also ease the mental health crisis amongst our young. They could see that work does actually pay and they can get ahead with a job, even a low paid chappy job. Unfortunately this massive council house building programme will never happen because planning permission will be vigorously and determinedly objected to by the comfortablely housed. I think if it was clear that council housing would only be for working British people this might possibly ease objections but this policy of working and British would likely never get past equally laws.

If you and @EasternStandard read the post properly you’d see I’ve cut and paste (wouldn’t let me quote).
We can all have different opinions and I agree with this.

AI will build you a data set and extrapolate the data if you are interested.

I'm feeling similar, not sure who to vote for. Have toyed with the idea of Lim Dems in the past, so may have a look at their policies a bit more.
Usually vote Labour, will see how the next four years pan out.

I'm a higher taxpayer and am happy to be so, insofar that I'm funding public services and people who need state help. But a lot of public funds are wasted and that annoys me.

I am left-leaning but the current Labour government are just useless. "Watered down Tories" is a good description. It was never about doing good for ordinary working people with this lot, it was about getting into power, and only that. Starmer prevented his "left -wing" MPs (Dear god) from going to pickets during the national rail strikes, (which wound me up no end, being in the industry) and did FA after last year's riots to try and persuade people that Reform really aren't in Government for the good of the people. He's gone after the disabled. The way to dissuade people from voting for populist wankpots is to make life better for the proletariat. I'm not seeing any evidence of this, a year after he took power.

What do people need? Free education. Reasonably priced housing. Access to a job that gives them a good standard of living, not just one that "gets you by". They need a government who, if you are disabled or have vulnerabilities, don't keep telling you to get a job when the system is very much against you doing so. Access to much better healthcare, especially mental healthcare. A criminal justice system that is fit to serve the devolved country you live in. Just, you know, basic stuff. This Labour government can't provide this.

I also don't think Corbyn is tge answer either because although more left-wing, he has opinions about certain groups in our society that I can't get on hoard with.

I think we need to change the tax system so that the 1% pay a significantly more towards the country. Look at the Duke of Westminster & how he gets around paying tax. We need to close loopholes for the super-rich.

I'd vote Green if it wasn't for their track record on women's rights to single sex spaces, and firing their own for having similar opinions to me.

I spoiled my vote last time. My mini-protest at politics in general. Honestly, all political parties need to get their houses in order. I can see Reform being the next party to run the country and this comes after many years of inaction by everyone else. It's an absolute bonfire of a future for the UK.

I've been shouted down before for pondering what the UK's October the 7th will look like.

Once the demographic numbers have shifted enough it is inevitable. Anyone who doesn't think this is coming hasn't been paying attention to what has happened to every other country where that has happened before. Without fail.

It's hard to see the UK not learning from other countries mistakes. It's like watching a gullible tourist being led down an alley to slaughter.

@MidnightPatrol has nailed it with their post, it feels like the middle class are propping up a lot in this country. Yes I know there’s an argument of tax the rich more but we need to acknowledge there are more people in the middle class, paying high taxes and seeing no return on it. It’s due to collapse. So many of my peers are earning £100k+ in London and yet they’re dumping the extra into their pensions or compressing their hours to avoid tax as they don’t see any positive returns for working substantially harder and paying more tax. All they see is a person lying about their mental health in a poorer part of the country, having a house on benefits and feeling like it’s funded by working professionals who still live in house shares. I think there’s needs to be huge crackdown on benefits overall, not just PIP, for both British citizens and then also stop giving benefits to immigrants. That’s why so many come to this country in the first place.

I have always been very left-wing, but have had a bit of a reckoning in the past few years. My best friend and I once jogged down the Whitechapel Road and were heckled 14 times by the men outside the masjid. I’m in a same sex relationship and have been on the receiving end of hassle from people from cultures where same sex relationships are frowned upon. I have a very intense professional job, and I sometimes feel like I’m working long hours and getting taxed loads so I can pay rent, try and save for a housing deposit, and put my dream of family and children on hold whilst others enjoy council housing in zone one and two of one of the most expensive cities in the world. I used to be so left wing but now I just feel angry that if you come from a normal / working or lower middle class background and you work hard you just get treated like a blood bag by HMT. I can’t believe I no hold these views as they used to be anathema to me !

YANBU

Unfortunately, people in communities who have been most badly affected by high immigration and who have been trying to speak about it for decades, have had decades of being told they are thick and racist. It’s shown real class prejudice. These were low income
communities and the people in them were regarded as the Great Unwashed that the middle class people, unaffected by high immigration, could look down on.

I often hear middle class professionals talking about how we just need to educate those with concerns about immigration, but when I speak with these professionals they have never taken the time to educate themselves about the impacts high immigration have had on these communities. That would involve talking to and really listening to the Great Unwashed after all. And there’s no need for that, as poor people are clearly just wrong about their own experiences, aren’t they?

I’m fed up pretending all cultures are equal. I would say the majority of non-western Europe cultures have values and practices we would find problematic and yet we wholesale import these cultures and “respect” them when they fail to integrate and their communities abuse the skilled worker scheme to import all their families. We need to take a much harder line on immigration like Denmark or Australia.

I’m also fed up with the left wingers who simultaneously wanted the winter fuel allowance back for everyone but also want wealth taxes. Pensioners are the wealthiest group in society - means testing the WFA absolutely only affected the wealthier pensioners.

I feel many of the same things.

Left voting (Labour and Lib Dems) for years. Husband and teenage son are increasingly right wing and I push back on what I think are more extreme (not extremist) positions but I also think we can’t go on like this.

When so many of the people who turn up on boats are young men. A tricky demo graphic to manage at the best of times. And if their lives in their home countries are so bad then why aren’t the women and children turning up in such numbers too - women’s lives are often much harder than men’s.

People bringing cultural attitudes that are not compatible with British values and culture and seemingly not wanting to adapt.

People (not only immigrants) who want to take but don’t seem to want to work to get to a position where they can contribute (whether that work is bettering themselves through education or taking control of their health and improving their wellbeing - of course not everyone can do this but are we really saying the massive increase in disability benefit claimants have got no prospect of getting better ever).

Agree on the point about kindness. It’s a great impulse and one I feel too. But it doesn’t work when the other party takes advantage. If everyone is genuinely doing their best then it’s a fair deal. But it doesn’t seem to be working now.

i do worry about the future :(

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04334/SN04334.pdf

Please check the reference data. It's 12%. Whilst that is a significant minority, it is not a huge percentage.