Labour isn't working - Thread 8

[TheNuthatch]

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

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/chat/5404009-labour-isnt-working-thread-7?utmcampaign=thread&utmmedium=share

Yes that is a lot of people that turned out today - I can’t understand how Robinson has been rehabilitated and in favour because Musk and Farage fell out..worrying.

More protests planned, beginning at Labour conference. There were almost 900 arrests at the last one, 17 for assaulting a police officer.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/12/week-protests-palestine-action-ban-begin-labour-conference

I read it was about 10-1

Approx 100,000 on the anti-illegal immigration / ‘unite the kingdom’ march

And

Approx 10,000 on the ‘stand up to racism’ / against the ‘unite the kingdom’ march

Londoners must be sick to the back teeth of marches. We lived there for 25yrs and there were a few, but not as many as these days. Using up police resources every weekend.

Yes I agree. It must be a nightmare to police them all whilst still maintaining enough cover for other duties.
I think I read somewhere that France have a dedicated police force just for protests and riots? We may need something similar in England soon.

I'm finding last night of the proms amusing with the march also happening today

Does anyone think it would have been a good move to see starmer there singing land of hope and glory and waving his flag 🤣

Do any on the left go to it or sing in the choirs or orchestra ?

I’m watching the Proms too. Lots of classic, patriotic songs, also lots of EU flags. I don’t think it’s an ant-Brexit thing, but more a rebuke to the all the English and UK flags going everywhere.

Wasn't Bohemian Rhapsody amazing at the start? I do love Last Night of the Proms. 😍

I'm not sure what to make of Elon Musk being beamed into the anti-immigration march to say the UK needs a change of Government now, not in 2029.

We do need to see the back of what appears to be the cabal in charge of (and destroying) the UK right now, but I doubt commentary from someone as divisive as Musk will help.

The Labour donor Lord Alli evicted a family of five from one of his rental properties before increasing the rent by nearly £1,000 a month.

The family, who have school-age children, had lived in the five-bedroom north London townhouse for four years, paying £4,800 a month.

Days after they were handed a section 21 “no fault” eviction notice in June, the property was re-listed for £6,000 a month, amounting to a 25% increase.

It is understood that the existing tenants offered to pay this increase in full, but this offer was refused. The home was then re-let to new tenants for £5,700 per month, a 19% increase.

Waheed Alli, who is worth an estimated £200m, has donated over £500,000 to Labour since 2020 and is one of the party’s largest donors. He spent weeks in the spotlight last year due to the tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of gifts he gave to Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner, including spectacles and clothes donations to Starmer’s wife, Victoria. Starmer has also made temporary use of a £18m penthouse that belonged to Alli.

GUARDIAN

Why would he have refused for the existing tenants to pay the increased rent? Was there a risk that they could later have applied to a tribunal about it, and the decision be binding despite their initial agreement? It seems he had enough time before the renters rights bill comes into force that he could have got that increase in with the existing tenants, and re-issue the section 21 later if needed.

The cynic in me says he no longer wished to house a family of five with school children - when the RRB does come in, it will be very difficult to evict people with kids, I would imagine.

Ah interesting. I guess if it goes to tribunal, then they might take children into account for the discretionary grounds even though it isn't explicitly in the new law. But it will surely be hard to rent a 5-bed house to anything other than a family?

I've just read that the new housing minister spoke to paliament this week about getting the bill into force as quickly as possible now that the various Lords amendments have been rejected. He also said they'd make the changes in 1 stage rather than phased. Perhaps Waheed Alli is cautious that he might run out of time before it comes into force. Labour do have form for abruptly introducing legislation earlier than they had said they would (eg schools VAT).

I'm actually not hugely bothered by this revelation. Donors don't have to agree with all of a party's policies. If anything, it shows that Labour are making laws which go against their donors' interests, as they should.

I think that's entirely different to when the Homelessness Minuster seemed to go against the spirit of the proposed bill last month. A cabinet minister should follow both the letter and spirit of laws: both those existing and those that their government are pushing through.

I think much of what you say will prove correct.

You can rent a five bedroom house to a number of separate tenants I believe. An HMO is three or more people from differing households.

In addition, the courts are extremely slow in dealing with the eviction process (a colleague just evicted a tenant after 14 months - during which time he received no rent, and the property was returned in a terrible condition - the tenant had a 12 year old child). The advice given to tenants is not to leave voluntarily, as they then forfeit the right to council accommodation.

The impact of the RRB even before its implementation, is already being felt, with rental stock falling at its fastest rate since the pandemic.

I otherwise agree with you, I think there are bigger fish to fry when it comes to Labour.

If you remember, the left tried to ban the waving of the Union Flag during the last night of the Proms because they considered it racist and divisive. The audience ignored it!

Tommy Robinson is just a lightening rod for peoples dissatifaction with the government. I include myself in this and had I been younger I would have gone on the march, not because I have any affiliation with Tommy Robinson or what he stands for, but because he has given an outlet for people to show the government they've got it wrong.

Ignore this. I think I remembered it wrong. I blame my age.

In my street there are 5 properties that are rentals. In the last 6 months, three have been put on the market and the tenants evicted and one the tenants were evicted (they were terrible, hadn't paid rent and left the place in a shocking state) and a family member was moved in. This is just one small street in the West Midlands so imagine the loss of rented properties if you apply those figures to the rest of the country. One has recently sold to family (thank god!) another is still for sale and the third was taken off the market because it had been turned into 2 flats and wasn't selling so I think they are returning it to single occupancy.
So it's proof a lot of landlords have got the jitters over this new housing bill. I worry what will happen to all these people, singletons and families that have lost their homes. Not everyone can afford, or wants to buy, where are they all going to go?

@upseedaisee no I don't remember it .

But I did head some debate on the radio about the last night of the proms and some people were complaining that it didn't feel inclusive.

I cannot imagine going to KwaZulu-Natal home of the Zulu people and complaining that their dances and rituals didn't feel inclusive to ME??
.or some small french village having a fete and doing french things and singing french songs and actually complaining I didn't feel represented?

I think it's the sense of entitlement that I certainly wouldn't feel elsewhere that gets me.

Re the landlords bill I'm on some ll forum and they are in uproar about it .

Labour facing 'unemployment epidemic' as record 1.1million under-30s are now on jobless benefits

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15095679/Rachel-Reeves-Labour-unemployment-epidemic.html

Capital has fled, and a significant number of LL’s have exited the market.

One of ours came up for renewal recently and we were genuinely swamped. A tenant paid 12 months upfront (which will soon be banned too).

"He must know enough to bring down Keir if he wanted to,’ said one MP"

Mandy knows where the bodies are buried, he probably helped bury them!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15095971/Labour-Lord-Mandelson-Epstein-Starmer.html

@TheNuthatch

I think I read somewhere that France have a dedicated police force just for protests and riots?

I suspect you are thinking of the CRS..

They do very much have a riot/crowd control role but they actually have a pretty broad brief. We have a unit local to us that has a mountain role (border patrols, search and rescue etc) and the real oddity, until you are used to it, is seeing CRS badged lifesavers on some beaches in summer.

However despite some of the hearts and minds tasks they do engage in they are definitely on the hard side of policing and a cohort not to mess around with at demos.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnies_R%C3%A9publicaines_de_S%C3%A9curit%C3%A9

Apparently rental availability has improved in the last year - after a huge drop during the pandemic. Number of people enquiring about each property down from 15 to 11.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/rental-price-tracker

I think it will be interesting to see whether that changes over the next couple of years.

As reported in the FT last week

UK rental listings dropped in August at the fastest rate since the first Covid-19 lockdown, according to a leading property survey, suggesting landlords are leaving the market because of tax rises and the upcoming renters’ rights bill.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its measure of “landlord instructions” last month dropped to minus 37. That is the worst score since April 2020, when the country was in strict lockdown and the housing market largely shut.

The index, which measures the difference between the share of agents reporting rising and falling listings, points to a contraction in supply, which many agents attribute to tax and legislation changes. The figure is the latest in several increasingly gloomy results for the measure in recent months.