Is a more left Labour government what people want?

I’m asking a question - how will it make your life better? If all that will make you feel better is seeing others be torn down, I think it speaks volumes of your character. I’m not scorning you, I’m just saying I think it’s ironic that the right wing talk about the “politics of envy” yet they base all of their policies on envy.

How do you know such intimate details of your neighbour’s finances? Would you not rather a system that helped both of you, than none of you?

No - the voting signifies that the majority want less left wing policies.

If Labour don’t absorb that, then their fortunes will go from bad to worse.

I cannot be doing with all this envying neighbours bullshit. Benefits are meant to be a sticking plaster - a temporary solution to help people survive in a weak economy.

What we all need is a proper plan from politicians on how they are going to rebuild the economy as it is currently very broken for ordinary people. The greens have the most positive approach but none of them are as bold as they need to be.

@Bushmillsbabe schools and other education settings have the same ni burden also so no it's robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Basically they have done other things that have left places worse off as well.

It’s a choice. You’re martyring yourself working two jobs and forcing yourself over the threshold because in your mind benefits are bad. It’s fine to feel that way but don’t complain when your friend doesn’t and claims benefits whilst working one job instead.

I get why people feel bitter, we’re ’high earners’ so get naff all but have 5 DC which was a choice, as with anything and this means we’re 100% not rolling in it by any means. We just get on with it. We chose to become highly educated and work in fairly well paid jobs and we’d rather be this way than working in min wage jobs and claiming UC. In fact, I’d say I feel privileged to be so educated and do the job I do rather than envying someone who didn’t get the same education and works in a shop.

All of which in regard to the NHS happened under the Tories, removal of bursaries, cutting nurse places, 0% and 1% pay freezes, plan 2 student loans... hell, even the tripling of student fees themselves... all Tory.

BUT at the same time, Tories forced the NHS to recruit overseas, which meant after Brexit, developing countries, often with extreme HCP shortages themselves.

AHP and HCP roles have become degree educated the world over, not just UK, there are some apprenticeship schemes but UK "native" uptake is poor plus we don't have the capacity to train in house.

Reeves has not increased a single tax for anyone working in the NHS, the threshold freezes were baked in until 2028 by the Tories.

Band 3 pay is 27,500 after 2 years, £3000 pa more than NMW....

Yet again, people want higher NHS pay, blame Labour for it (despite giving above inflation pay awards) but blame Labour for higher taxes to pay for this.

If it benefits a relatively small amount of families, why are you so bothered about it? It also doesn’t mostly benefit people not in work because the vast majority of UC claimants are in work. I’m all for lifting children out of poverty and can’t believe people get salty about it.

What I don’t necessarily agree with is FSM on top of this for all children whose parents claim UC. Some people earn fairly handsomely but maybe get £20 a week top up in UC. I don’t think their children need FSM.

@SpideySensesbroken not only weak on send but removing legal procedure for families and protection and removing parents rights. There have been protest recently and legal actions against these proposals have started

I don’t think people working in the NHS perceive their wages are being improved, band 3 pay is abysmal for the skilled role it often is and where it was once a relatively well paid role compared to the minimum wage, it is now virtually paid at the minimum wage. For those higher up the bandings they see their take home pay decimated by high taxes and student loan repayments. Whereas previously the training was funded, new healthcare professionals have had to take out loans to pay for it all themselves. Whereas when I left school you could enter nursing with 5 GCSEs and they would take you up to degree level fully funded, the barriers to become a nurse, paramedic etc have been made ever higher. So it’s not that there is a lack of people wanting to do the jobs but the conditions of entry made more unattractive and even those who do jump through the hoops have now found themselves without jobs. Writing the sort of British people off whom at one time filled many of these NHS jobs as now not good enough is nothing but insulting. How on earth does the ‘natives are too stupid and lazy’ narrative expect to be taken by said natives? I have several degrees but being highly educated is not the be all and end all, it’s often circumstances that lead to the level of qualification a person ends up achieving but it is constantly portrayed as it were a personal attribute. Yet I know plenty of people with few academic qualifications who have attributes which far outstrip those who do.
People see excessive migration as being a big part of our housing crisis, not to mention all the nuances in the new renters rights act plus years of increased taxes on landlords as making being a landlord unattractive for all but a niche few.
People who are already struggling to achieve a decent standard of living for their family see their is no benefit to them busting a gut to try and earn more money due to the way the tax system works, this is the problem they see for business as it’s not worth going for that promotion or doing overtime as the effort isn’t rewarded.

A simplistic analysis, and you called the FT ‘right wing’ in your previous post.

The FT readership is actually pretty divided, as are the editorials. Point is - Labour’s policies, incompetence, u-turns, vetting failures, local and devolved election hammering, and now leadership psychodrama, have illustrated the folly of a socialist government. The BBC and others see this.

Even the Guardian has turned critical.

Oh my! blaming Labour for things that happened 25 years ago!

If true (its not) why didn't the Tories reverse this over 14 years in Govt????

CS has always been inefficient etc.

Starmer/Reeves get blasted for blaming our perilous economic state on things the Tories did 22 months ago.....

Your post did cheer up my morning though!

“Economically necessary” is not the same thing as good for the economy. The Treasury likes immigration because business likes immigration because they like a steady flow of low skilled workers to whom they can pay low wages.

Yes. Labour are weak on issues that most people I know care about, that is to say Palestine, mental health, funding social care properly, SEND support in schools, climate change, pro- immigration and increasing access to affordable housing and childcare.

And they don't care what we want they have an ideology to be follow

Angela raynor has written an open letter and has said the nnw wage needs to rise to help young people into work.

This in itself shows a fundamental misunderstanding of why their policies have gone so wrong .

It's utter madness.

I don’t think the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ have much meaning anymore. The world has changed so much since those terms were coined, they no longer represent any kind of shared political philosophy or set of beliefs.

What people want, generally, is still the same though. They want to work and to be rewarded for that. To exchange their labour for goods and services, or the means to purchase them. They want to work, and to be able to feed, clothe, care for their children and family, get them medical care when they need it. They want to work, and when they are old and tired they want to stop working and be cared for. They want to see their children do better, go further, achieve more than they did.

i can’t remember what podcast it was I listened to recently, but the speaker was saying that we fell into a trap of thinking the post war 1945-2008 period was the new normal, and it wasn’t. It was actually a blip in human history, a freakish period of huge change. We optimistically believed the world was genuinely changed forever. But it wasn’t. It was a blip, and now we are back to business as usual. Human nature is what it is, and that doesn’t change.

They backed Labour at the very last minute, like the SUN, because they knew the Tories were toast.
They don't back Labour now because they think Reform might win.

The reality is, Reform can hardly get 25% in national polling.

Ironic coming from Blunkett when so much of what makes government and the civil service turgid and inefficient was implemented under the last Labour government.

Yes agree with this.. All those who clapped and welcomed that well known corrupt passport seller for cash and other sleazy activities ' we call him Peter' should be out. Its clear they have no integrity.

The country don't want to pay massive amounts of tax if they work hard, and what tax they do pay frittered away on endless bad decisions.

Labour had a great opportunity. They really fucked it up. We need a new broom, and get rid of the people in the cabinet right now. All of them. And give back those massive payrises.

And reinstate wrongly sacked civil servants. Oh and pay the post office victims before you go.

Why? If they lose their benefits it won’t benefit you.

The FT backed Labour during the 2024 GE.

Not any longer, they don’t.

Despite being very leftie myself, I accept most people don't want this. This was a choice for us a few years ago and certainly, there was a huge popular movement towards the left-wing, but the public, despite increased votes in that direction, voted against it.

Very sadly, I think we're going into neo-fascism or modern far-right authoritarianism, which has its roots in the prep and push towards Brexit. And the population keep voting for it, so it must be what they want.

The strange thing is this supposedly left public spending government I actually seems to be sending less money into public services. The budget for my NHS team is at lowest level in real terms that it has been for past 10 years, with 12 percent cut since the start of this parliament.
My daughters primary (of which I'm a governor) has seen a real term drop in funding and is likely to end this school year in deficit for first time in 15 years, despite already cutting 4 LSA jobs. Labour have cut their real term funding approx 8%

It's much more nuanced to that saying right wing are in favour of lower spending and left with higher.

The amount they spent of lifting the 2 child cap could have been spent on schools and paediatric care, and I think it would have been popular as would benefit nearly every child in the country without discrimation, both rich and poor. But spending it on the 2 child cap benefits a relatively small amount of people, and generally benefits those who do not work and contribute more than those who do, which is seen as unfair