Labour isn't working - Thread 3

[TheNuthatch]

A thread for those who don't like this Labour government.

Previous thread
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Whilst also conveniently forgetting to mention Reeves is already running a £150 billion deficit and is spending over £100 billion a year on debt interest...while the economy flatlines and unemployment spirals, thanks to her previous disastrous budget.

The utter joy of a Labour government. At least they're pretty much certain to only get a single term now.

We’re sinking with this. NHS massive, defence still low.

Economy back to shrinking due to economic vandalism by Reeves, Starmer and Labour.

Yes it’s all very well but we all know the tax rises are coming in the autumn - so far labour have done nothing in any way innovative or aimed at real reform. Nothing that addresses the structural problems.

What they have attempted so far in terms of long lasting reform is bad - the education bill.

They will be out at this rate thankfully. The problem is the damage over the next four three to four years.

They have done so much damage in the last year it’s really unbelievable but sadly not can’t imagine what things will be like in 4. Arrogant twats the lot of them and we’ve had no real interlopers on here for a while probably realisation is happening fast

I listened to the Chancellor this morning. Nick Robinson pointed out to her that the NHS budget is now bigger than the entire budget of Portugal. We really are an NHS with a state attached.
He also pointed out that government borrowing costs are now higher than they were after Truss and Kwarteng's mini budget. The economy shrank by 0.3% in April, yet Reeves will not accept any correlation between that and her budget measures taking effect.
Reeves has pledged to reduce the asylum Bill by £1b, yet boat crossings are up. She's deluded.

This time last year, we were in the throws of the election campaign. Labour were promising an amelioration.

Figures from awful April being laid out in the telegraph today as monthly info by the ONS is announced. An expected contraction of .1% in GDP was expected but it came in at 0.3%. The pound has fallen since the figures came out.

Apparently exports to the US contracted by £2 billion, compared to the month before. I remember you saying that the GDP boost from March is probably from companies trying to ship out their wares before the tariffs kick in @TheNuthatch - I wonder if that's why we saw a greater than expected boost in March and a greater than expected fall in April.?

Yes exactly that. Labour are still trying to take credit for increased growth in Q1, but it was obvious that a fall was coming. We had tariff day, and the NI increase coming in April. Construction has grown slightly, otherwise the contraction would have been even bigger.

Yes definitely a factor for earlier figures. I recall Labour crowing about that so either they are totally clueless and couldn’t see the impact or were lying when talking about growth and fixing the economy.

Both bad options.

Reeves was crowing about it this morning! She said the growth figures were 'disappointing', but figures for the first three months were a better indicator of where the economy is at.

Remember, she also said this week that they are only u turning on WFA because the economy has improved. Yesterday she said they can only announce more borrowing investment because labour has stabilised the economy. She lies as often as she breathes.

It's so dishonest. The Autumn budget and the assumptions around spending were built on 1.1% growth over the year but I don't think we are going to get anything like that. Especially not when unemployment is up with each passing month.

It’s madness at this point. She’s incompetent and lying. Bad combination!

How could the first three months be a better indicator of things going forwards. The first three months doesn't have a higher minimum wage, there are no tariffs with the US, the Employers ni contribution increase hadn't kicked in, the domestic household wasn't paying the new council tax rates, water rates and food inflation was coming down.

I'm particularly vexed today because my shopping trip around Tesco was an inflationary piss take.

Added to that, the IFS say that their spending plans post 2026 don’t stack up, are potentially unachievably constrained… and the only growth I can see from this is public sector related for defence, nhs. With the exception of the house building…

I must be a bit dense but I can't work how you have a boom in house building when there are huge employment gaps in the industry? You can't fashion sparkies and plumbers from thin air with cash alone.

Immigration? Re-packaged as an India trade deal perhaps? Or an EU youth mobility scheme? Perhaps forced labour for asylum seekers as has been suggested on other threads? Maybe those disabled folk could do it.

The IFS also said:
Department of Health and Social Care will swallow 41% of day to day spending by 2028/9. Paul Johnson said "one has to question for how much longer this relentless increase can continue".

Council tax bills expected to rise at their 'fastest rate over any parliament since 2001-05'.

Reeves has made some 'rather odd recent claims' about the economy improving, adding 'neither the economic forecasts nor the public finances have improved relative to a year ago'.

A dose of realism there.

The debt servicing is more than defence and education combined. Something about gilts being worse now too this morning.

Yeah, I saw that comment not so long ago, hopefully it was trolling for effect though. I have been quite surprised by how far the Labour faithful will travel to stay in step with this government - slavery would be a big ask.

Oh, and Rayner is pushing to decriminalise homelessness. Another policy that sounds sweet and fluffy and progressive in theory but in practice spells chaos for town and city centres.

@Upstartled my friend went into Cheltenham town centre last week she’s not from Glos. There were 30 ish tents sleeping bags in the town centre Cavendish house which was the pride of the promenade is gone thanks Mike Ashley and it looks a shit tip. Rayner decriminalising homelessness 🤦‍♀️ it’s all about punching down isn’t it ?

Yeah, I know. Our local town is quite dicey and they are spending an utter fortune trying to renovate it but unless they can make it less intimidating and risky then I'll be continuing to stick with the, now absolutely heaving, retail park.

This policy is only going to exacerbate problems further and I don't think concerns about tent cities are ill founded.

I read SanFranSicko some years ago now but it made a convincing case that policies like this, which appeal on paper as a march towards kindness, work in real life to create more harm to the vulnerable and to the areas which become no-go zones.

Agree. That’s not good. Tent cities are not going to help people.

So what do we do with the homeless people instead? Genuine question.