I regret voting Labour - they've let women down

Who was it who said that you judge a society by how it treats it's most vulnerable?

I'm ashamed to have been a trade unionist and Labour supporter when I look at the calibre of the majority of their activists and policies these days.

The WFA shenanigans was a disgrace with the pensioner income threshold set far too low. Still we get the ostriches trying to justify it. Labour's own analysis published in 2017 warned that Conservative plans to cut the fuel allowance for ten million pensioners would increase excess deaths that Winter.

We will see how that pans out for Labour in 2025.

I suppose the chronically sick, and disabled, will have the Assisted Dying Bill to look forward to. These benefit changes do not ensure that those who need help are all safeguarded - despite the hollow promises. Mostly, it will be women and child carers left trying to cope at the continued expense of their own health and futures.

Labour's Cunning Plan seems to be to fix their alleged Black Hole by clawing back a few billion in benefits and long term care, and in the longer term, making available the means of seeing off those in despair who genuinely can't work.

Men and women and my elderly mum, they are utterly fucking up this country’s and still wittering on about the last government.

I cant wrap my head around them cutting benefits, telling everyone to get jobs… but then they have screwed the employers who are now closing business.

Are they missing some brain cells, what jobs exactly are these people supposed to get.

My comment was not farcical, nor does my opinion relate to a view that 'boomers' had it easy.

Boomers are now paying more tax than Gen Z because pensioners have better incomes than ever. Whilst not rich, lots of pensioners have reasonable incomes and whilst £300 might be missed we can't afford to dole cash out to households on average, ordinary or comfortable incomes in that way anymore. Particularly if they are sitting on huge amounts of wealth - 25% of pensioners are millionaires. Most of my pensioner friends agree.

I do think it has hit pensioners who only earn a few thousand more than the basic pension though and indicated as much.

I'm ashamed to say I voted for them. I dithered about spoiling my ballot paper, but in the end decided they might be the least worst option and hoped they'd prove to be better than I'd thought. I was wrong, unfortunately.

Wiping out £9bn to claw back £6bn isn’t helping.

If they had avoided the former we’d likely not see the latter, not yet anyway.

That's down to anti growth policies.

Yes, I have thanks.

The Winter Fuel Payment was a huge waste of money, paid to a lot of people who didn't need it. The poorest pensioners will still get it. Personally, I think the threshold for getting pensioners credit is too low, maybe it can be increased once the country is in a better state.

The benefits cuts are more of a mixed bag, some things I very much support, some that worry me more.Any party would be doing the same though.

New benefit rules, heating subsidies, just for starters. You haven't been paying attention?

There are twitter accounts dedicated to reporting on tony blair speeches then timing when a government minister repeats his key points.

One of the lastest ones was wes streeting talking about self diagnosis of mental health issues.

I dont know if its because he refuses to leave, or that labour havent any good people, but blair seems to have a lot of sway from someone who isnt elected.

At the moment the TBI is pushing the idea that AI will unlock growth and make the NHS efficient. To which I say, big if true.

I've seen Rory Stewart say same with no details.

I read about US hospital that did try it around treatment plans and found it exacerbate poor ethnic minoirty threatment and outcomes - it amplified an existing problem and left them open to lawsuits so they dropped it pretty fast.

I do think it could have a role in my family half battle is getting to and then getting past GP - to diagnostic tests or consultant waiting lists. Also witness some speclar inbuilt inefficiencies and shockingly poor commincation and data sharing as patient of NHS.

I've seen little in how they think it could be used - which make me wonder if it's just the latest buzz word and they have no idea what they are talking about.

This government is totally incoherent. They want growth, so they tax businesses. Bonkers decision. They also want people off benefits into work, so they tax businesses which puts the brakes on business investment and employment opportunities. Another bonkers decision.

They want AI but they also want Net Zero. They can't have both, easily.

So what do they want? I wish I knew.

I didn't vote Labour, but I'm ever so gutted for all women...and the whole country tbh at the utter shait show that's happened so far.

Absolute joke of a party with a clown at the head of the table.

Sorry, which vital services have they cut?

And what have they done which is evil?

I'm not convinced that Starmer himself has a plan, or any guiding ideology. It's worth reading the new book Get In, by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, about his path to power. It's a weird book because you learn a lot about infighting and backstabbing within Labour, but at the end you're none the wiser as to what if anything Starmer actually believes. He seems to be a pure managerialist without any actual politics, and we just had that with Rishi.

Following on from that, the direction of the government will be determined by the people he has around him, and since Sue Gray was ousted, that overwhelmingly means disciples of the Dark Lord Blair.

So the best way of figuring out what the government is going to do is to look at the website of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and assume that what the TBI is saying today will be government policy in six to nine months.

At the moment the TBI is pushing the idea that AI will unlock growth and make the NHS efficient. To which I say, big if true.

Change is one thing, cutting vital services to the most vulnerable in the community is quite another. As I said, they out-toried the tories! Not even the tories were this bloody cruel and evil!

That's about where I am. I wouldn't vote for Labour, but I wished them well in a difficult job, like PP. And something had to be done about the cost of PIP. But, as with the WFA, they are alienating their natural support. And I still don't trust them at all on gender.

I suspect there is an element of no matter what party got into power they were going to have to do something about the vast welfare costs

I made that point on several poltical threads and posters didn't want to hear it.

We will be getting the unpopular stuff now far away from next election while they still have large majority that mainly votes with them.

I didn't vote for them despite the scolding on here - and I didn't vote Tory either. Nether looking great then or now TBH - so no idea what will happen next election.

I think Labour truly despise women - they certainly are a women hating party.

Exactly! Aka “the blob”.

Labour are keeping the red flag flying.

Just the wrong type of red flag 🚩

Maybe things will look up, but at this point I think they've alienated everyone except for junior doctors and train drivers.

I voted SDP, not because I agree with them on everything, but because they've got some good ideas and I wanted to encourage them.

As far as Labour goes, the really obvious thing is that they said very little about policy in their election campaign. It was all about competence and integrity. On integrity, let's just say Starmer banging on for years about standards in public office made a rod for his own government's back.

On competence, to listen to Reeves you'd have thought there were all these obvious buttons that could be pushed for economic growth, and the problem was that Jeremy Hunt was refusing to push them. I didn't believe that - there were serious problems that would be a challenge for any government.

I wasn't expecting much from Labour, but Jesus, I wasn't expecting them to make Rishi Sunak look like he was born under a lucky star.

They have been brain-washed by neo-liberal mantras such as 'private is more efficient' and 'less is more' etc. There are no longer any socialist parties in Western Europe, they all talk the same trickle-down, austerity mantras that have already shown they do not work.

None of the main parties had any policies that seemed likely to promote growth. It's actually still early days to judge what Labour are trying to achieve - and in reality, not the fantasy world where some Labour voters live, they have little choice over cuts. Life was always going to get worse, whoever got in. Labour will suffer in any elections over the next couple of years.

All the parties knew there had to be cuts and they all lied because the British public do not vote for the truth.

I'm pleased they settled with doctors - for now - and that they are undoing the wasteful duplication with NHS England. They've stopped the waste of money on puberty blockers and Stonewall lost some of it's government funding. Making pensions passed on subject to inheritance tax is also encouraging people to spend or pass on money now, that's good for the economy. It was right to take the winter fuel allowance from the rich, although they took it from too many poor. They could have made it taxable and withdrawn completely from higher rate tax payers. Housebuilding plans, if achieved, will be another plus.

Reserving judgement on the benefit changes until I see how they are applied. I do know people who should be working and are not, or who choose to work less hours than they could. I also know people who can never work and should not be harassed over it. I suspect it will not deal with the former while harming the latter.