Which taxes should Burnham put up?

We’ve had such a big change in employment. Even in the 90s people could live happily on the wages from normal jobs, they weren’t rich but happily working and buying houses and going on holidays. Those jobs now don’t pay enough to live, they are often harder and more pressured and don’t have the respect that they did previously. Young people see futures where they can choose to go on to benefits and live a limited but passable life, or work hard and live a barely more passable life. Making work pay, be desirable, allow people to live a reasonable life. We have to drive up productivity, get more people into work, help people stay in work if they are struggling, retrain people into careers that are future proof, improve wages for essential services. Tax increases have got to go for the top and leave the middle and bottom alone.

Trouble is, do all that, and you still can end up worse off than those who didn't bother, due to the housing costs, and loads of other things that workers have to pay for that the shirkers get given as freebies.

What is the proportion of domestic flights in the UK? It must be tiny?

If it weren't for what we spent servicing our debts this year, government borrowing would have been equivalent to 0.6% of GDP (calculated by subtracting what we spent on debt interest payments (equivalent to 3.6% of GDP) from this year's government borrowing (equivalent to 4.2% of GDP). The figures for the last few years have been comparable from what I understand. We have such high levels of debt mostly due to Covid (which saw unprecedented government spending during peace time and massively reduced tax receipts pushing government borrowing to 15% of GDP in 2021) and the rise in interest rates since then due to factors such as inflation. But also due to the 2008 financial crash. The politicians may keep saying we're accruing this debt because of welfare but we're really not. They know it's a vote winner. I think most of them also know it's not true.

The sense of self entitlement is incredible.

Instead, work hard at school, get good qualifications, get a fulltime job, work fucking hard in your job, and buy your own home.

Stop looking for endless handouts.

The sense of self entitlement is incredible.

Instead, work hard at school, get good qualifications, get a fulltime job, work fucking hard in your job, and buy your own home.

Stop looking for endless handouts.

Taxes need to come down after the shambles that Rachel from Accounts created with her jobs tax. No wonder there are no student or school leaver jobs because its too expensive to employ young people for a few hours a week. Coming along with the minimum wage rise that was a real own goal.

The more taxes go up the more the black economy thrives. People look for a cash in hand side hustle and self employed people put a % of their work under the counter or boost their tax deductibles. The more you squeeze people the more they will change their behaviour and not feel guilty.

Okay then there needs to be rent control and lifetime security of tenure.

Does that include domestic flights? So a Penalty on people who live in/businesses based in north of the UK?

There shouldn’t be any social housing.

The IMF? Oh what a surprise.

The OECD and IMF agree with @Friendlygingercatits just were so hooked on what’s in these threads on tax rises people keep demanding more of them. For others that is.

If it weren't for what we spent servicing our debts this year, government borrowing would have been equivalent to 0.6% of GDP (calculated by subtracting what we spent on debt interest payments (equivalent to 3.6% of GDP) from this year's government borrowing (equivalent to 4.2% of GDP). The figures for the last few years have been comparable from what I understand. We have such high levels of debt mostly due to Covid (which saw unprecedented government spending during peace time and massively reduced tax receipts pushing government borrowing to 15% of GDP in 2021) and the rise in interest rates since then due to factors such as inflation. But also due to the 2008 financial crash. The politicians may keep saying we're accruing this debt because of welfare but we're really not. They know it's a vote winner. I think most of them also know it's not true.

I know Chagos islands are strategically important and that the Chagos Islanders want to stay part of Britain. The question is why are Labour determined to give them away and spend billions of our money doing so?

I haven't said everything would be fine, I've said that government borrowing would have been very very low in recent years if we weren't paying such high interest on our massive debt. In response to someone who was I think implying borrowing is high to pay for public services and benefits etc.

Welfare spending is not particularly high compared to countries comparable to the UK. We spent very slightly below the average of the EU countries before the pandemic and now spend very slightly more than the average. I don't think it's safe to make further cuts. There have already been many deaths as a result of previous cuts and it just increases pressure on other services like the NHS, and social care. It's false economies.

The internet tells me that the Chagos Islands are of strategic geopolitical importance to the UK in that "they provide the UK with a critical joint UK-US military facility on Diego Garcia, which projects Western power across the Indo-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. The remote location offers strategic depth for monitoring maritime trade routes and conducting surveillance. "

You can’t simply ignore debt repayments and say ‘if we didn’t have them then everything would be fine’. We do have debt repayments we can’t control and if the spending we can control welfare is one of the biggest spends. But the Labour government also seems determined to spend money overseas with no discernible benefit to the uk eg Chagos.

If it weren't for what we spent servicing our debts this year, government borrowing would have been equivalent to 0.6% of GDP (calculated by subtracting what we spent on debt interest payments (equivalent to 3.6% of GDP) from this year's government borrowing (equivalent to 4.2% of GDP). The figures for the last few years have been comparable from what I understand. We have such high levels of debt mostly due to Covid (which saw unprecedented government spending during peace time and massively reduced tax receipts pushing government borrowing to 15% of GDP in 2021) and the rise in interest rates since then due to factors such as inflation. But also due to the 2008 financial crash. The politicians may keep saying we're accruing this debt because of welfare but we're really not. They know it's a vote winner. I think most of them also know it's not true.

People should be allowed two flights per year. If you fly any more than than, you pay an additional £100 per flight. There are 300 million passenger journeys per year so this could raise about 15 billion.

I disagree.

I’m familiar with that welfare statistic. What I would say is that the number of net economic contributors (taxes paid vs benefits received) is falling, and we are borrowing more and more to keep the show on the road.