Anyone else irritated by the media coverage of budget?

They are all v bitter, pronounce themselves patriotic British but would rather the country went to hell in a hand cart, then Labour be successful, in fact, if they could, they'd actively set about our demise under Labour, just as Hunt has tried to do with his NI cuts.

Tories had 14 years, 14 years in which to show us all, that the Cons can transform the country for the better, even allowing for CV and Ukraine, they had 10 years.... yet wrecked everything, by 2015, the NHS was missing every target they were previously making and the country owed more than it ever had under Labour.
By 2020, the NHS was a mess 4m on waiting lists, pandemic response collapsed due to cuts and then of course, they gave us the worse possible Brexit deal, short of no deal at all.... just as Covid hit, we had Bojo, not content with that, Liz Truss.

Yet have the bare faced cheek to say Labour have failed.... less than 4 months in.

It is odd. Some posters on this thread don't want the well off to shoulder all the burden, yet when Labour announces something that will affect people on lower incomes too, they don't like that either.

What do they want?

Yes, the media is being very annoying as though people will be reduced to penury by a bit more tax. My husband's field of work has gone dead and he's probably about to run out of money job hunting soon so I'll have to hold up the household on my salary for a bit but I could still absolutely pay more tax even then as I earn decently above national average.

Labour needs to pull their finger out and tax big businesses and the mega rich much more though, it's bullshit that they'll all move somewhere else if they have to pay what will amount to a fraction more tax for them.

Because privatisation has worked so well - the railways and water industry are shit, literally in the case of the latter. How on earth does introducing a new cost in the form of profit improve public services? I thought this Thatcherite nonsense had long been debunked.

The cap was only introduced in 2022 and was always going to be temporary, though, even under the Tories.

Wales and Scotland have never had the fare cap.

Really makes sense doesn’t it. Don't want to be too green and look after people on lower wages

Totally agree OP

Fast doesn't necessarily equal good. MRI scanners in a truck tend to give poorer quality imaging. The NHS often has better quality scanners than the private sector, and the reporting is definitely better- ours is outsourced and they are often very poor. if you're lucky you recognise the name of a trusted colleague doing extra private work, but some of the reports are unreliable - and the reporting is also very slow.

Oh, you are talking about the cap in England, sorry.

The Westminster government doesn't set bus fares, silly sausage.

The scheme, bought in as a CV measure only, was coming to end at the end of this year, in a way, Labour have extended it.

Not all who use the buses work.

I see the latest non-tax on working people is to add two quid a day to their bus fares

A friend in radiographic has taken up crochet. Her department is so rationed. She turns up for work and sees few people. Whereas a friend working on reception in the private sector a pantechnicon turned up twice a week containing scanners and MRI machines rather like the vets. It was a production line. I had to use this service during lockdown. Parking up in the car park. Climbing the stairs to the wagon. Into the machine, scanned and out. Husband waiting couldn't believe how fast it was.

Privatisation is exactly why we keep pouring money into the NHS yet little/nothing improves.
These private companies all have to make money, have their own, costly, duplicate back office functions and the only way they can get the HC staff is to offer exactly the same T&Cs as the NHS, inc job security and pensions, so we end up paying twice and still cannot deal with poor quality staff.

We ve had 40 years of out sourcing in the public sector, what have we gained?

How on earth do you measure the productivity of a nurse or a physio etc? all this would do is make sure the most poorly didn't get treated/moved out quickly, as they'd mess up the figures, a physio wont spend time on a difficult to treat patient, why would they?

If it works out like this and growth is stifled by policy then it will come round to public sector anyway

I’d ensure we had more privatized services.Some need removing or charges made. I also want productivity. Just pouring money into poor services doesn’t help them be efficient or better. We know that. So not all cuts at all. Better management for a start.

So what would you both cut? Which of our already decimated public services would you decide we no longer need?

@Xenia Exactly. That’s also a recipe for no growth. All the heavy lifting is coming from the private sector. All the money goes for wage increases in the public sector and the bottomless black pit of the NHS and there’s no growth or improvement at all. So we just carry on doing it. What did Einstein say about “insanity”?

I would prefer to halve the size of the state and have much less tax to pay. Both Tories and Labour have been very high spending. The last Tories imposed on those on £70k plus (the top 10%) the highest tax burden for 70 years.

I can’t disagree with any of that.

I take a more sinister pov.... they knew they'd lose, they made the first cut and it made no difference to polling, so they cut it again... all done to screw up Labour: support the tax cut and tie labour into funding it.. with the negative press its generated.
OR oppose it and lay themselves open to Labour increase your taxes...

Same with little funding for the pay rises they themselves set the agenda for.

I think it was all done solely to make sure Labour are in for one term only.

They thought that and the empty promise of tax cuts would win them the election. I see Hunt is now rubbishing the OBR. The desperation is palpable.

It’s a shame the tories felt the need to make the cut in the first place, there was no need

'unprecedented economic challenges'
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c079nmk0rd5t

Reversing the NI cut would be political suicide & it would go completely against Labours promises, the media and some on here would have a field day.

Bottom line is Hunt set this trap for Labour, Hunt & Sunak knew it was totally unaffordable and a responsible Chancellor/PM would never have done it, but he carried on with an eye to the 2029 GE, fuck over Labour and hope no one forgets... remember what happened when Brown took away the 10% rate? Tories never let us forget this...

Tax cuts have to be funded through economic growth, not further tax rises and spending cuts.