Labour isn't working - Thread 11

[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/5416167-labour-isnt-working-thread-10?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

People are worried about their pension pots too. Taxing the 25% withdrawal or reducing the amount. There's so many rumours

The intense anger I feel for Starmer, Reeves and the others, has become a constant companion

Poetic. And totally depressing 🤬

The thing that riles me most is that the governments don't see the consequences of the various tax traps, and there are many. I stopped voting tory in 2010 after George Osborne took away child benefit from single income households on 50k. Then you had the loss of personal allowance at 100k implemented by Gordon Brown. Then the loss of childcare help on 100k. Honestly why on earth do governments think it's a good idea to disincentivise earning. I don't get it at all. It's truly bizarre, like a punishment for daring to work your arse off. Often people on benefits are better off when they get their housing paid. Why doesn't anyone want to see hardworkers rewarded. Tories and Labour are both as bad. I've never voted Labour but used to vote tory. Won't again unless they radically change. Reform doesn't excite me. I can see through their bluster. Very bad idea I think if they get in, but they will because people have had enough.

My DH lies awake worrying about the kids, both married with families. Their jobs, their income , their tax position. They all look so tired sometimes. Everyone working full-time and worried about mortgage rates, bills, education Etc.

We never worried as they do about everything when they were small children.

I do the same - awake all hours - except mine are still in primary school. But I’m consciously aware that things will be much more difficult for them when they get older. I believe we are in a period of managed decline that the politicians are aware of, but won’t admit to.

I felt like the Torries were managed decline. Labour feels like unmanaged decline.

It doesn’t have to be this way, but changing it would take a massive shift in attitude. Basically a factory reset for the UK. I suppose voters will think Reform are the ones to deliver that. I’m sceptical.

I worry about my kids too. They'll never afford to buy a house and renting is extortionate now. Plus the cost of childcare. They'll be waiting for us to die so they can inherit our house, though that won't go far split 3 ways. We can't downsize as they'll be living with us until they're 30s probably the way things are going. I think I'm getting agitated as I know the writing is on the wall and the government need to be honest. They won't though. I suspect at some point they'll means test the state pension. I wonder what they'd set it too. Would people take private pensions earlier. The thing governments forget is that their policies make people change their behaviour and this is where we're at now. The chickens are coming home to roost as my old dad always says.

@Catatemyhomework when I was in my 30s, I thought the state pension would be abolished by the time I got there.

New news - the Green Party have voted to abolish landlords. My late father actually used to worry about communism. A reasonable concern.

I suppose one of the things about being a pessimist is nothing is ever shocking?!

Bloody hell, the Greens are completely nuts.

So it seems, they aren't proposing outlawing landlords iyet, but just:

1.Rent controls (we all know who ends up paying for those - tenants who actually pay their rent)
2.Abolishing Right to Buy (I'm actually with them on that)
3.Lots more taxes in landlords, airbnb and empty properties (less supply of rental properties, and as usual ultimately paid for by tenants)
4.Giving councils the Right to Buy when landlords sell properties, when the property doesn’t meet insulation standards, or when a property has been vacant for more than six months. (OK, this is properly loony tunes. )

Unfortunately, the people I know who vote Greens will probably be all for these proposals 🙄

Scarily, they could actually have some influence if it becomes a Lab/Lib/Green alliance after the next GE. Reform suddenly sound much less worrying...

I only half heard it on the radio but something about requisitioning £200bn worth of shareholder owning, which is fine apparently because a lot is o/s and won’t affect investment here at all.

Plus let all people who want to come for asylum to come because migration is circular, people leave too. When asked if 100k would be too many the usual ‘no arbitrary limit’ and deflect.

He’s going for it on the say whatever, and will probably get young people voting. That age change will likely backfire on Labour.

He won’t work with Starmer though, would someone else, apparently.

Migration certainly is circular with those policies - the 16,500 millionaires leaving the UK in 2025 probably would increase quite a lot with these measures.

Do you think he realises that raising the £1,286 billion the government spends every single year will become quite a lot harder if we replace all our high-tax-contributors with state-dependent asylum seekers?

This actually starts to make me more inclined to believe @twistyizzy 's theories that it's an attempt to bring about a socialist revolution by deliberately destroying the economy. I simply can't believe that anyone is actually that clueless.

It seems that there is a race to ‘out-left’ each other in some political quarters.

Go for it, I say - it will simply increase Reform’s popularity, and help crystallise the current economic nightmare.

It’s the continuing uncertainty that is killing investment and any chance of growth - the sooner there is a reckoning, the better.

I suppose with the imminent collapse of Labour after the next GE, it's a contest between the Greens and Your party to become the new party of the Left.

Dangerous times.

It makes a horrifying sense.

Agreed @strawberrybubblegum

You can feel the tectonic plates shifting beneath your feet.

Labour is a tiny cog within some very large wheels, globally.

I scoffed at first but I'm now convinced this is being done on purpose. Like you say, how can any group of supposed "intelligent" people make this much if a shit show?

Ah, but that smacks of eliteism(sarc). Only the well off could afford to pay for breakfast club and every child needs a good breakfast (sarc, again).
I've mentioned when we discussed this before that the government breakfast club is grim, this article and photo just proves it.

LMAO

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy852jq7v25o

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) spends around £1m a year sending children to private schools in north Wales because "state schools teach some or all lessons in the Welsh language".

Hope they paid the VAT!

That and just stealing £200bn ownership from shareholders.

The impact of that internationally would be nuts. We still have a load of debt what happens to that, we’d go stellar.

I think the most helpful thing he said was he won’t work with Starmer, if the left want to survive they don’t need mad policies like these.

Despite my rhetoric, I'm afraid I'm close to not giving a flying feck. Every demographic will be screwed in some way whoever gets in. The only winners will be the wasters who haven't worked a day in their lives.
There are times I wish I'd listened to my dad. He worked a menial job his whole life, never put a penny in the bank and didn't earn enough to pay much tax. When he retired, he got his state pension, rent and rates paid by the benefit of the day and he had a massive wadge of cash (literally thoudands in cash!) to spend how he pleased.
I on the other hand, worked my way up the chain, bought and sold several houses of various sizes and paid into a pension and savings plan. I reckon I've paid nearly half of my lifetime earnings in tax of some shape or another and I see my son's inheritance being sucked into the government coffers. Who's the winner here?

Just to add, I'm also close to spoiling my Ballot paper at the next election.

How have you been adversely impacted specifically as a result of this government’s decision on something @GabrielsOboe

genuine question

Agreed. Pay any inheritance to DC now over a period of time.