Starmer son finds a quiet place to study for GCSEs

Round here we have these things called libraries ...

'Smash the gangs' - it's now we are pragmatic because it won't work
Nom dom - ditto

If only they'd square up to the VAT damage

Care to address today and tomorrow?

Old flip flop Starmer and Reeves, when they actually look at the economics rather than the ideology.

The promised 6,500 teachers will prove interesting when they raise fuck all from the PS VAT raid.

Shock horror!!! report commissioned by the Independent Schools Sector, finds VAT on fees would be a disaster.

More independent research - IFS - shows it would raise £6bn over the course of this Parliament.

I think they lack competence, and broader financial acumen

Yes Cameron (Brexit) Osbourne, Johnson, Sunak, Truss and Kwarteng has these by the bucket load didn't they?

What a fantastic place they have left the UK after 14years, no growth, a shattered NHS (14000 deaths each year caused by AE failings, 8m on waiting lists) crumbling roads and buildings..... what a legacy.... no wonder the idiots focus on a suit, they ve nothing else to say.

I think anywhere they say 'we are pragmatic' means we fucked up and got it wrong

It's on all the stuff that I said was the wrong way to go, if I could see it why not the chancellor and PM?

I think hopeless doesn't cover it

Bar VAT which will likely go the same way and will be damaging but I doubt they budge

Yes both

Maybe they put the warnings down to "right wing biased sources" and didn't believe non-doms would leave.

Or they knew the warnings were accurate but the policy would help them get elected and it'd be fine, they'd think of something to raise money in other ways once in power.

The second possibility is risky - they're in danger of having to raise / save money in ways that piss off people who can't just leave, unlike non-doms, but who do have votes.

I mean, you can see their logic with VAT on private schools and axing the Winter Fuel Allowance for many pensioners - most of them vote Tory, they thought, so Labour won't lose votes it already had. Though events at the Labour conference should have given them food for thought

So what do they do? Take cutting / tax-raising measures that affect (even more) possible Labour voters? Keep blaming the Tories for five years? Hope the economy perks up in five years time and everyone feels better off (and that was the entire basis of their manifesto)?

I think they lack competence, and broader financial acumen.

Being ideological probably doesn’t help either.

They are all over the shop

The annoyance for me is anyone suggesting this would happen got loads of flack

'It comes amid warnings by advisers that thousands of wealthy foreigners with non-domicile status were looking to leave the UK.' from the article

I get the sense Reeves is lagging behind so badly, it doesn't inspire confidence

Thanks for this - I found this bit very interesting:
“The 2018 Baines Cutler report estimated that removing the VAT exemption would result in a net cost to UK taxpayers “for very many years, maybe permanently”.[49]It stated that every student that left independent school would result in an ongoing cost to the government of £10,000 per year and a one-off cost of £10,000, compared to a scenario where no pupils left the sector. The ongoing costs would come from lost VAT (from schools claiming back VAT on their purchases and pupils leaving the sector) and the cost of educating those pupils in the state school system. The £10,000 one-off cost would be for capital investments needed to accommodate more pupils in state schools.[50]”

Can't stand Sir Keir personally. I have always said he's nothing but another Tory in a red tie. However, any sentences written after 'according to Guido' should be read with applied scrutiny.

And the Starmer supporters become increasingly conspicuous by their silence…

Well, Free Gear Keir is the gift which keeps on giving:

Sir Keir Starmer to meet with Donald Trump to 'establish a relationship' | Politics News | Sky News

Didn't have time to meet Kamala though.

Oh wait, maybe he needs to stay somewhere overnight hence building relationship with Trump??

All the hate for the wealthy and then look at them lapping up the freebie crumbs thrown at them by …. the wealthy!!!?

The main thing that Starmer had going for him was that he wasn’t Boris Johnson, or Rishi Sunak or heaven forbid, Liz Truss. Simply not being any of those people was enough to get him elected to the position of Prime Minister.

And yet, even with such a low bar to start from, he has quickly and spectacularly shown himself up to be incompetent, insincere and insufferable. It’s quite some achievement.

I’m suffering from awful second hand cringe for him

He’s so embarrassingly bad. The Free the Sausages thing this week made me howl, so I am grateful for that, but his hypocrisy is so staggering

I think besides the fact he’s again accepting freebies from his rich chums, as I understand it he was literally broadcasting from The Penthouse telling people they should stay at home, while not being at home. And placing pictures of his children behind him to make it look like he was at home.

so cringe.

I have no problem with this or any government changing course if new facts and analyses come to light.

What is so pathetic about this, though, is that the very wealthy have been demonised by Labour and its supporters for many years. Anyone saying that non dom status might actually be a good thing and that punitive tax is self-defeating has been shouted down.

Many Labour fans on here attacked Sunak’s wife over and over and over, and attacked Sunak by association, because she was a wealthy non dom. As if that was somehow illegal or immoral.

Agree but I wouldn't bet a penny on them reversing PS VAT - it's religious, this is the hill they will be prepared to die on.

The only escape would be to let the Lords block it and cry "unfaaair", but I'm not familiar with technicalities and not sure if this policy requires Parliament's approval.

But this document is an interesting read. And embarrassing one for Mrs R
Independent schools: Proposed VAT changes - House of Lords Library (parliament.uk)

Anyway, let's don't derail the thread, it's still about Free Gear Junior success at GCSE

Definitely.

Although imagine the howls of protest from the Guardian and the unions.

Now they just need to do the right thing on PS fees.

What a bunch of numpties this lot are.

Just posted this on another thread!

Unbelievable!

I'm glad they are seeing some sense, but really wonder how they will dress it up to save the face.

I guess they will rely on public not being knowledgeable enough to understand the gap between manifesto and policy. Hope journos will do a good job

‘Reeves ready to water down planned tax raid on wealthy foreigners’
FT

Thats it Rachel, you do a u-turn love!

👏 👏 👏 This!