Thread 33 Sunak : Sense and Sunakability

[DuncinToffee]

After 10 dyas on the rollercoaster, we now look forward to 5 more pledges and a mini budget

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4939564-thread-32-sunak-sunak-v-suella-the-final-countdown?page=40&reply=130888910

itsgettingweird

If NMW is going up and inflation is high, what effect will that have on public services who have to pay staff and buy goods and services which have increased in price?

From Beth Rigby at Sky "NEW: Senior govt source tells me Conservative Party been told to be ready for a election from Jan 1st, with Issac Levido, Tory campaign director currently in No 10, joining CCHQ on that date full time" 👀👀

They unilaterally raised election campaign spending cap this week.

(I think it probably did need adjusting just interesting timing and could have been achieved with slower incremental changes)

The UK's election watchdog, the Electoral Commission, told Sky News it had "not seen evidence" to support the changes, which it said give "significantly more scope" for parties that attract the largest donations to campaign.
The new rules were pushed through via a Statutory Instrument on Monday and mean the national election spending cap on political parties will rise by 80%, to about £35m.

news.sky.com/story/amp/tories-accused-of-sneaking-out-plan-to-increase-election-spending-cap-13013774

To be honest that doesn't really tell us that much, does it?

@IClaudine - this is a rather belated Thank You for your post last night. I have avoided the news today. Is it what was expected re disabled people's benefits please?

And today we will all hear our fuel bills will go up.

@tobee it tells us that a Spring election is looking more likely. Especially as Hunt is introducing emergency legislation for Jan tax reductions. But who knows?

The trap Sunak has set himself is that in the New Year the Tories will be trumpeting that they have cut NI and so we should all feel better off. But we won't feel better off, and that will just harden people in not voting for them.

A bit like with the Brexit vote the lived experience is more important than the Treasury evidence. People's lived experience in many areas was that migrants were pulling their communities down, even though the national evidence showed they contribute more than average.

I was emailed exactly this yesterday.
They really do think we are idiots that swallow their bullshit.

Tbh @medianewbie I don't know if Hunt mentioned it in the statement as I just can't stand listening to him. I will have a delve, but I think they plan to go ahead in theory (although they won't actually be able to!).

I am going to write to my Labour MP and ask what their plans are. Rachel Reeves was asked, but she just waffled. We need to put pressure on Labour to not make life worse for disabled people.

Energy prices will rise by 5% in January

Yup. It is the lead story on the radio this morning, @DuncinToffee and @Piggywaspushed. What a bummer to wake up to.

It'll be interesting to see how the other news media play this over the day.

The whole budget was a trap for Labour. They have three options 1) commit to Tory spending plans, no money to implement any of their own policies; 2) plan additional spending, get accused of being irresponsible with money by Tories (this will be what the Tories want) or 3) renege on this budget, open themselves up to criticism they don't support hard working families blah blah

It is so transparent and makes me so angry that in the middle of a CoL crisis the government are more interested in winning an election and scoring points off the opposition than actually helping people.

The situation in the Netherlands is bad. I cannot believe how acceptable Islamophobia is at the moment.

The budget will be forgotten by today’s announcement of net migration record figures.

Well those energy shareholders have got to pay for their expensive Christmas somehow.

I mean, this sort of thing
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67492512

I hate the world right now. Feels like we are on the brink of something horrific. I wonder if its because we've lost most of the people who were alive in WW2

It hasn’t gone down as well as they were hoping. The Telegraph’s main message this morning is that the cut in NI is insignificant, taxation is still at record highs because of the frozen tax thresholds and Hunt will have to produce some kind of miracle before they go to the country. Even the enthusiasm for the increase in pension is muted because it will take a tranche of pensioners into income tax.

Disability Rights UK response to the Chancellors Autumn statement

https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/disability-rights-uk-response-chancellors-autumn-statement

Thanks @DuncinToffee .

God, it is so depressing. Every day the electorate is encouraged to despise a different minority group and blame it for society's ills.

I am so disappointed in my country, I have no words.

@IClaudine . Its horrible isnt it? Hate poitics.

On another equally depressing matter, the Covid Inquiry have published next week's timetable.

Michael Gough, Matt Hancock, Dominic Raab, Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham are amongst those giving evidence.
https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/public-hearings/module-2-public-hearings-timetable/

@IClaudine I agree, I'm at the stage where I cannot actually listen to certain voices (Johnson & Cameron are high on my list) without feeling upset by default.
I was dealing with too much yesterday to be able to put myself in that place too.
(thank you for your kind & sensible comments around this)
My worry is that the Tories will force through something evil in their dying days & then Labour will only water it down a tiny bit as it's still 'better than the Tories'

@AdamRyan Yes. The current administration are criminal imo (see Covid, see what Truss did to our economy / international economic ratings)

sorry, pressed 'send' too soon ...
see Rwanda migration plans, see stigmatising of Disabled people
quite apart from all the illegal creaming off of money, putting BJ's probable unacknowledged relative in the Lords, etc etc etc