AIBU to think Burnham’s words may haunt his premiership?

@Greyrock79 seems to have abandoned the thread but you have taken up his mantle admirably.

Parts of Swansea are stunningly beautiful. Rhossili Bay has the most amazing waves. Gorgeous. 🌊

I'm sure you would (though i think its a stretch to say 'we all' as i doubt there are many on the thread that interested in me). You want to know because you want to divert attention from the points I made by making it personal and hope to discredit me.
I explained you can't have both low wages and a low welfare bill. Do you have any comment on that?

Some example data with respect to government spending.

• 30% of working age adults in Swansea are on benefits

• Unemployment is just 3.4%, largely because 33% of the jobs in Swansea are in the public sector.

• So roughly two thirds of Swansea's adults are funded by the taxpayer.

• Average (median) earnings per person in Swansea is £37.3K per year.

• At one of the boroughs in Hertfordshire, for context, that number is £36.5K. So people in Swansea with all that taxpayer support enjoy a higher income than people living with way higher housing costs near London.

• To drive the point home, GDP per head in Swansea is £29.6K, 21% below earnings whereas GDP/ head in the Hertfordshire borough is £44.2K per head, 21% above earnings.

Something is clearly very messed up in the UK.

@Schlossadler

UK politicians are just not very clever and bond investors can clearly see this.

Yes, Brown tried to fool the markets by renaming benefits as "tax credits" in the hope of disclosing them as negative tax rather than a benefit.

He also tried to reclassify running costs, such as nurses wages, as "investments" to change how they were declared in the statistics on the spurious grounds as being "investment in our health" rather than what they are, which is basically a running cost.

The financial markets aren't fools - the fools are the politicians who think they can pull the wool over their heads.

NIC has gone up.
Fiscal drag has meant effective income tax has gone up.
IHT has effectively gone up due to the changes made by Reeves.
Pensions have been brought into the scope of IHT
Income tax on interest, dividends and property income has increased by 2%

I don't know how you can say tax rates havn't gone up!

"No ifs, no buts"

Not really. I just find unions clueless with money. For the party that's meant to represent the many and not the few, they don't lead by example.

Certainly more sensible than an unfunded £10 billion cut in NI as an unsuccessful election bribe.

Bring back the Corn Laws!!

“Fully funded, fully costed.”

All seems fairly sensible to me. And in line with what was promised in the manifesto.

True.
They also did say that they would "fix the foundations" when in actual fact they lobbed a hand-grenade at them.🙄
I'm still waiting for them to "smash the gangs", but that's another discussion.🤔

Labours Major Tax Increases

Budget / MeasureKey Tax Policy ChangeEstimated Revenue / Impact

2024 Budget
Employer National Insurance rate increased to 15%; secondary threshold lowered to £5,000.
Raised £25.7 billion by end of decade.

2024 Budget
Capital Gains Tax rates raised, alongside cuts to Business Asset Disposal Relief.
Raised £2.49 billion by end of decade.

2024 Budget
Brought unused pension funds and death benefits into Inheritance Tax (IHT) calculations.
Raised £1.46 billion by end of decade.

2025 Budget
Extended freeze on personal income tax and National Insurance thresholds (extended out to 2031).
Raise £7.8 billion by end of decade.

2025 Budget
Capped salary sacrifice schemes at £2,000 before National Insurance applies.
Raise £4.85 billion by end of decade.

2025 Budget
Raised tax rates on non-earnings income, hiking savings, dividend, and property income tax rates by 2 percentage points (effective April 2027).
Broadened tax base on non-labor income.

2025 Budget
Annual recurring mansion-style charge on properties valued over £2 million (£2,500 to £7,500) starting April 2028.
Targeted high-value property levy.

2025 Budget
Introduced road-mileage taxes for electric vehicles (3p/mile) and hybrids (1.5p/mile).
New vehicle usage levy.

Not exhaustive.

Yes that all got dropped pdq.

The first budget was a one off tax hike apparently. They’re on their third, which is all the budgets they’ve had.

@5128gap Hmm, so it looks like we aren't going to hear about all your valuable experience in the Private Sector?
I myself have built up 3 profitable businesses from scratch and all had full diaries when I stopped trading.
The reason I wrapped them up was that my husband was in the Armed Forces and was relocated 3 times, which was a shame for me.
I am on business No4 now and as DH is no longer a serving soldier I expect this one to continue for some time.

No. If you promulgate misinformation I’ll correct it.

Can I request you stop engaging with me, please?

Tax rates haven’t gone up.

Painful, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, who remembers these bangers?

"All of our plans are fully funded and fully costed. There are no additional tax rises in our plans."

"We will not raise tax on working people."

"We have no plans to increase capital gains tax... We have no plans to increase individual tax rates beyond what is set out in our manifesto."

Bloody liars.

Agree. I don't see how it's going to be financially viable to raise the personal tax allowance either, as much as we would all love a slice of that. How's that going to fit in with Labour's propensity to tax their way out of crises. I grin and bear every Labour government; just thankful their terms are relatively few and far between.

Yes.

Labour are simply presiding over the very definition of a doom loop with higher tax rates now generating less tax, whilst repeating ad nauseum that growth is their highest priority.

Labour have learned well from the SNP, who have redefined investment as increased benefits spending as all other investment capital pools are drained.

UK politicians are just not very clever and bond investors can clearly see this.

@5128gap " I have some experience, yes."
Well I'm sure we'd all like to know what your experiences were/are in the private sector ?

I mean by 'living wage' what living wage means. The wage calculated by the Living Wage Foundation to cover living costs. Its £13.85. A little higher for London, and higher than NMW. Its the amount good employers should budget for if they don't want to burden the tax payer with topping up their staff wages through benefits.
I have some experience, yes.

You are missing a key point with your last sentence.

If these "non viable with a living wage" companies don't exist, then the goods and services that people buy and pay VAT on won't exist, the income tax and NI won't exist, the Corporation tax on profits won't exist, so not only will the tax take be lowered, but those people employed by them will be claiming unemployment benefits. A multiple hit to the economy.