Labour government

I'm not stupid. I didn't believe their lies and would never vote Labour

Certainly hard to run a small business these days. Much, much harder than 10 years ago.

Good point regarding the private sector. The public sector is paid by the government, by taxpayers. Without a healthy private sector, public services can’t function.

You have to make it easier for private sector companies to succeed to keep the economy going.

I don’t understand the need to make it more expensive to employ people for a start with the employee national insurance hike.

The problem is that they are big State thinkers fundamentally - seeing the private sector as something to milk to expand the state sector again. When in reality, the private sector is the driver and the state sector is essentially back office and a cost now. You first need the private sector to grow to then fund the back office improvements you want to make. Yes you need to comply with the laws and regulations in the back office and yes the back office is a critical support function, but without the front office bringing in more revenue you are essentially screwed. So the NI rises were completely mis-timed. You do that once there is growth. And you certainly do not cause inflation via channelling funds to the back office first. Step 1 of the rules playbook.

I didn't vote for them and I'm really disappointed that they have made so many unforced errors since taking office. They seem to have a problem with Comms - anyone seen their latest TikTok video?

The budget has been widely criticised from all sides and is now proving to be extremely problematic - how can you bang on about growth for months and then plan a budget like Reeves did? It's beyond me. It's clear they don't really understand growth but just thought by saying the word repeatedly, people would believe they did.

I wanted Labour to win but didn't vote for him as I didn't want there to be a massive majority . I live in a normally Tory seat so voted conservative but Labour won the seat. My fears over the huge majority have materialised, I felt KS had promise but now for the most part I see a PM who doesn't listen, has no real plan and is quite dogmatic. I won't be voting for Labour in the next election and think those Labour MPs is marginal and same in non marginal seats ought to have an alternative career plan.

In spite of all his hypocrisy and the shit shows around labelling everyone who disagrees with him 'far right', the economy is truly the main issue going on.

The budget has seriously undone any recovery we had underway (the Tories had reduced inflation after Covid!) and they have set us back already. I dread to think what the next budget will look like - probably even higher taxes for all the nasty rich folk.

I find Starmer to be unusually robotic, there just doesn't seem to be much passion, any real well thought out opinion. There's just nothing. Yet, he ploughs ahead speaking in clickbait type language not really giving anything away about who he is. I don't even think he likes British people, he seems to hold a sneer for anyone who doesn't agree with him. It's a strange thing to say that a PM doesn't seem to like a large proportion of British people, but I genuinely think he doesn't.

I wonder now that the holy Guardian is reporting same thing the Times + Telgraph + every other paper have been reporting, that Labour die hards will finally accept the trouble the economy is in?
I also see Truss has issued a cease and desist on Labour about their claims that she crashed the economy when they have done exactly the same thing. She must be sat at home laughing her head off at their performance and having conversations around karma.
Reeves should be calling for her own resignation!

The Quantitive Tightening is not working!
Clearly the Oxford PPE course is more Politics and Philosophy than bloody Economics, Rachel Reeves. And very clearly is lacking in Maths!

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/09/pound-falls-to-14-month-low-as-bond-sell-off-piles-pressure-on-rachel-reeves

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1404j3xmxdo

Understand where you’re coming from on that.

Starmer has the wrong team around him completely and needs to reshuffle urgently. Lammy a deadweight too!

Look Trump is in and UK’s role has always been as a middle man between US and Europe. It is critical Starmer gets that. So what if he has to slime out to the Musk/Trump ego - he needs to play chess and the long game. We cannot end up as their pawns, but Trump/Musk are emotional about the UK, giving them the right signals will ease the rift quickly.
Chagos has to stay with the UK for now. We simply cannot afford the extra billions now anyway.

The speaker has granted an urgent question on market turmoil

People still distracted by Musk and current media cycle

Reeves will say the usual but @Legoninjago1 might have it in that post

I think it is very difficult in this environment to be a politician because it is all so fast moving. You have to understand the market and be a great politician at the same time and you need to move fast when it matters but not get rattled, when it does not, nor get distracted. They need the best CEO types in the job essentially. But with some morality/principles. These career politicians should be finished for good. It does not work anymore.

They are all in way over their heads. Desperately trying to look competent but it's clear they really are not. Totally over promoted. Starmer is a huge disappointment.

“How does this deal differ from the one the Tory’s were going to sign just before the election?”

I do not care about what is the Tories or Labour’s fault etc - all I care about is what is best for the country. Rushing a deal through with Trump about to get in, not good! So I ask, at what cost?

“Plus, going left when other countries are going right might not be a bad thing either.”

I think all this “left” and “right” bullshit needs to stop. I don’t give a monkeys about political ideology. I want an economically competent Government that acts in the best interests of the country as a whole and the majority. I also want a steady unemotional leader who is not swayed by Trump, distracted by ideology and ignores the hard left or hard right in their party completely and puts the country and economy above party political interests.

How does this deal differ from the one the Tory’s were going to sign just before the election?

The updates today are dire but I can’t see who would replace either of them in Labour, maybe they’ll both keep each other in

I consider the Chagos deal to be essentially treasonous.

Labour should not oust Keir, but Reeves needs to go.

Reeves is completely out of her depth. She is not qualified for the job. They needed a really well qualified economist with years of financial markets experience in this job. Everything flows from the economy doing better. Our borrowing costs today are shocking. They cannot sit back and assume we cannot actually go bust as a country, they always have to have that at the back of their mind. Economics first, ideology after that, if there is the budget for it.

I think Starmer is really ill advised to go ahead and try and get the Chagos islands deal through before Trump is in. At what cost?

Do you mean that Labour should rise up and oust Keir?
Who do you think would make a better leader?