To wonder if people prefer the last government to this one?

@Ticklyoctopus why would that be more pressing? We already have more over 65s yr olds than under 15 yr olds.

We have a far more pressing problem on our hands which is the SEN crisis. I truly believe a quarter of current primary aged children will not work through some form of mental health issue or neurodivergence.

We have an ageing population & have done nothing to plan for it. Years of low growth & little investment, low interest rates kicked the can down the road & now there is no more road. People don't want to acknowledge it though & prefer to blame others.

The Conservatives did not deserve to remain in power at the last election but Labour have reverted to type and are gravely and grossly mismanaging the economy. The NI increase, particularly the lowering of the threshold to £5k, has plugged growth and resulted in job losses.

Growth has been shit since 08....

The current government is a shit show.

But the Tories were an even shittier show, and Reform would be a fucking sewer.

This, I do think it's odd that so many posters didn't seem to have much of an issue with years of the Tory shit

This govt is the worst in my lifetime.

Our roads are not being fixed. However bigger fences are being put up to stop the constant stream of people trying to throw themselves off them. So yeah rather than mental health support just bigger fences over the roads.

Cheaper than the 3/4 hour road closures or mental health help I guess. Push the issue to the next county no doubt.

The entitlement that some people have to other people's money is astounding isn't it?

I agree.

This government have been the absolute worst. I actually almost can't believe how awful they have been. The uncertainty and fear that they impose on the nature during the lead up to every budget is unacceptable. The fact they seem incapable of making any kinds of cuts is also really worrying.

There is an enormous amount of wealth to be taxed from the UK middle class and the government needs to grow a pair and get hold of it.

Wow! you can't take any more taxes from income because we reached a stage when tax basis is decreasing as a direct result, so let's tax middle class wealth? yeah, sure, this will teach them to stay here and work more

Same in my area (North). Plus the road markings have finally been painted again (I don’t think they’d been done since Labour were last in power), cat’s eyes replaced and new street lighting.

It was actually becoming dangerous especially in the dark with all the LED headlight glare.

I suppose you can pretty much view any tax as "a great big jealousy tax on success".

So maybe we should all stop paying any taxes then.

Or recognise that good services require higher levels of taxation.

I don't think it is practical to tax income more, because that is tapped out and it disproportionately hits those with the least money.

There is an enormous amount of wealth to be taxed from the UK middle class and the government needs to grow a pair and get hold of it.

Generally I view that there should be a basic set of stuff that isn't taxed. And everything above that should be. So a basic car, no. An SUV for the damage it does, yes. A basic house no, a large mansion yes.

The last lot were a disgrace but atleast the goal posts weren’t being moved every five seconds. This government is the equivalent of playing football on a rotating surface; who shout kick off imminent for 7 hours prior to actual kick off. Everyone nervous.

Confidence and stability is rock bottom. It’s seriously affecting my business.

I think Johnson was anything but funny.

How shallow.

The CGT annual exemption has already been reduced from £12,300 to only £3,000. The IHT threshold has been frozen for nearly 17 years.

How does a wealth tax work? What would be the threshold? What about people with illiquid assets, would they need to incur cgt to pay the wealth tax? Borrow money?

Why SUVs? Many are fuel efficient and low emission, lower than many coupes and hatchbacks. Why come for EVs? I thought we were driving for net zero, why disincentivise?

And are we truly rewarding inefficient councils that have already made inflation busting increases in council tax with yet more increases? Why double G and H? The tax already paid is pretty hefty.

You manifesto is basically a great big jealousy tax on success.

Definitely wealth taxes. So CGT should increase. Inheritance tax. Pension contribution tax relief should be curtailed as people are building up huge pots unnecessarily. Maybe a VAT luxury rate, although you then get into the question what is a luxury.

More taxes on cars across the board, SUVs in particular and EVs.

There needs to be a packaging tax as the way plastic packaging is used is ridiculous, plus some extra taxes on gambling and fast food.

Council tax needs to be significantly increases as many councils are going bankrupt. The doubling of G and H bands is a good idea before reform is done.

I don't support increases in income tax and NI. Maybe NI needs to come in for pensioners.

I can think of some others.

The government I expect will bottle all of this.

What taxes would you want raised? Frozen thresholds have dragged more and more middle earners into higher rate tax, and those earning £100=125k are paying an effective rate of tax of 62%. How much further do you think we can go?

Urgh well the last government gave us such delights as lockdowns, the rule of 6 and defaqto compulsory vaccination, whilst also delivering the highest tax burden in generations and allowing hundreds and thousands of undocumented migrants through the doors.

But the current administration seems to think they didn't go far enough on these things and seem to be doing all they can to increase illegal migration and the tax burden on hard working families.

Its no wonder people are turning to reform.

I want a government to be what Boris told us he'd be this time 6 years ago.

I kind of believe in long term balance in the government.

So when you get the Tories in generally taxes are low, spending is low and the debt gets paid down. Services generally become crap. This is all relative of course.

Then when Labour get in taxes get higher, spending is high and the debts run up. Services generally get better.

Hopefully over time the time in power evens out so we get some sort of equilibrium.

The situation is a bit different now because Labour can't really run up any debt, but I was at least hoping they would up spending and taxes.

Unfortunately, like Tony Blair, Starmer is pretty much Tory lite. They are bottling all the taxation decisions and in the end the outcome would be pretty much the same as if the Tories were left in charge with the same shit show, different colour hat.

So yes a somewhat disappointing outcome, which may lead to a lot of people saying "what the hell let's try Reform because they can't be any worse than any of the established parties and so I might as well throw the dice".

I’m not suggesting BJ was committed - he doesn't seem to have been committee about anything his entire life. But he held himself out to be a leave supporter. Adopted leave attitudes when ‘negotiating’ and got what his government supported.

Leave voters don’t get to pretend it would all have been rosy had a true leaver done the negotiation.

This.

but, so far, have been utterly underwhelmed and disappointed!

I had much lower expectations than many with Starmer - I was worried about lack planning but aware Tory's were leaving a huge mess - but underwhelmed and disappointed is how I feel.

Why do you think Sunak would have been better?
One of the reasons we are in the position we are is his Government swept issues that they knew were coming under the carpet and refused to take necessary decisions.
I think he was actually quite relieved not to have won the last election

Don't keen on Starmer but Jeez the last government were not far off the shit show of America right now.

Sadly, I think the current Government has borrowed its strategy from Argentina and Peron and is formulating policy to keep its voter base on side, and disproportionately, these are recipients of government handouts. There's also a sizeable cadre of high-minded liberals who are never sceptical of needs yet incredibly rude about "white van man".

I think the press and then media in particular the right wing media media and X in particular is very good at whipping up hatred and spreading things that are not true.
I don't know the answer but I don't think any Government would be popular these days.