If Starmer and Reeves fuck this budget, Labour will be out of power for ANOTHER generation.

[Ozgirl76]

I was hopeful when Labour came into power - I hoped a calm sensible bunch of economic policies that would help to level things out a bit was on the cards and given that they had so long to prepare, I assumed they would spring into action and at least have some plans.

But now I’m just reading more articles about the huge swing towards Reform and I can’t believe it’s coming to this.

I actually live in Australia but I run a business in the U.K. and we have just had a second term of a very boring and sensible labour government over here who aren’t fixing things yet but they aren’t actively making things worse and I just think, it is possible to have a Labour government who don’t actively hate the richer people, but also are trying to work towards a more equal society.

What do you think is causing the main swing towards the right? Is it all the immigration stuff? Surely that can’t be everything?

Off the top of my head: Waspi women, winter fuel allowance, Chagos, Mandelson, China, the Ukranian 'models', Digital IDs, proposal of a wealth tax.

12 biggest lies Keir Starmer told us – they're coming back to bite him | Personal Finance | Finance | Express.co.uk
25 lies that Prime Minister Kier Starmer told at PM Questions in just 30 minutes | by William Lyons | Medium
Will the government introduce a wealth tax – and how would it work? | MoneyWeek

I have taken that data I quoted, from HoC Youth Unemployment Survey published 14th Oct 25.
The link above from you only goes to June 25, mine goes from June - August 25. Between those dates, youth unemployment rose

Labour have already lost the majority of their voters over their stance on Palestine. Everine I know who voted Labour is disgusted by this and has said they won't vote for them again. Including me.

In terms of the economy. We are fucked whoever gets in until somebody has the balls to tax wealth. And that definitely won't be Reform. Farage loves the bankers and wants to offer "foreigners" the chance to live here and pay no tax. He's the biggest, most dishonest toad of the lot.

I read a post by Martin Lewis today where he says it’s looking more likely the govt will reduce cash isas. He disagrees, and has spoken to the govt about this as it will deter young savers and older savers. But he doesn’t think they have listened. Why the hell are they not listening to people like him? Even if you don’t like him he talks sense and looks after us. They need to listen to the “experts” not the unions, mates etc

@EedioticSanity

I’ve been saying for years that if we cared about the high street that business rates for retail/hospitality should be abolished and VAT could be doubled on online purchases. No parties have the courage to do anything meaningful - they get “lobbied” to do exactly what big business wants. They are all corrupt imho.

I agree, but the big business lobby is too powerful whereas small businesses have no voice. Re business rates, it's insane that "per square foot" a high street retail shop pays more business rates than an Amazon warehouse, because there are different multipliers for different "quality" of business, and high street retail has a bigger multiplier than a warehouse. Utterly bonkers in this new internet age. Where are Labour's policies to help small business, High St retail, hospitality businesses, etc? They have none. They are wedded to the sixth form debating society standard of thinking whereby anyone in business is making a killing which hasn't been true for a good few decades! Now the fools sound to be wanting to reduce the VAT threshold to drag more small businesses into being VAT registered which will finish off many more and drive inflation. They're clueless.

Exactly. Labour and the Tories need to start adopting such policies that people actually want. Farage is popular because he appeals to the people, in a similar way to Boris. Starmer appeals to no one, nor does Kemi, hence why neither can win the next GE.

Jeez, I missed that about the NI. Beggars belief it really does. Good idea about the 1p vat.

The trend upwards started around 2023 when NI rate was still 13.8%.

I'm expecting a fucking shambles. Have they announced the amount that private school vat has raised for state schools? Be good to know the amount and when the schools will receive the funds, but can't seem to find note of it anywhere online.

And Reform do ?

Not sure wooden and soulless = a complete narcissist, but I may be biased because I hate that word being bandied around.

😂funny that. Last I heard, they said only 3k kids would move by a certain date and it’s been more like 25k? And the money (non existent) was to be redirected to pay for housing of some kind.

I was originally annoyed at having to pay VAT for child 1 - because that made private for child 2 pretty untenable. But now I realise I’m going to get all the money back and more because child 2 is SEN and will cost a fortune even in mainstream state school. Previously I’d have looked for a private school suitable for her and paid for it myself, but hey ho.

Where did I mention Reform?? No, I dont think they do either if you really want to know 🙄

Of course they haven't. If it had raised anything don't you think they would be shouting from the rooftops?

Instead we are at 6 x the numbers of DC hsve left between Sept 24-Sept 25 than they "predicted". They predicted 3K in first year when the real number was 17K. In Sept 25 there were 25K fewer DC in independent schools than in Sept 25.

It's a collosal fuck up BUT 1 of the original claimant groups has been allowed to appeal so we will see.

Schools aren't getting any of it, Starmer said it was going on housing 🤣

I’ve dealt with narcissists all my life so I know what one looks like and behaves like and I don’t just throw the term around. He’s in denial about his failure as a pm, he’s manipulative, lies, only cares about the British public to get their votes and then discarded them in favour of the world stage then starts a jealousy campaign against another party who are clearly doing better than they are in the polls. Power hungry, money grabbing, dismissing concerns of the British public and only caring about how he’s seen on the world stage. I could go on… the list is endless!

TBF, that describes all senior (and many other) politicians.

Starmer’s problem isn’t that he behaves like a politician. It’s that he’s completely fucking useless. He has no political vision, no principles, no standards, no intellect. He can’t even speak convincingly.

Yes and it has further increased between June - Aug of this year.
No-one denies it is an issue but you ignore the impact of Reeves policy on it.

I’ve never known another politician behave quite THIS bad tbh. He is the most unpopular prime minister ever by the sounds of it and there’s a reason why! He’s out of touch with reality, completely in denial and has discarded the British public for… the rest of the world basically! Because he wants to be seen as a hero on the world stage.

Can anyone saying things like "I can't believe how awful things are in the UK right now" set out clearly WHAT it is that's so awful?? I hear a lot of mood music about this, and clearly there are things that could have been done differently but I must admit that I'm still quite enjoying having people who give a shit in charge of the country rather than the last lot of chancers who clearly held the general population in contempt. Can you spell out what it is that's so terrible about Labour rather than making vague pronouncements about everything being shit?

He's not even good on the world stage. He should stop wasting our money gallivanting around and humiliating the UK (eg Chagos, Trump).

Is this a parody comment?

Immigration is the main thing.

I'm not sure how old you are but I'm in my fifties and can remember when public services worked well eg could get a Dr's appointment (and they even used to do home visits) I wasn't really scared that I'll need to go to hospital as I am now, there weren't potholes everywhere. Houses were reasonably priced, people were optimistic about starting businesses, there weren't 5 million + people on out of work benefits costing a fortune. Yes the rot started under Blair then the Tories but this lot are making things even worse with their taxes on jobs (ni), refusal to reform benefits, clamping down on free speech etc. I used to feel govt was working to improve our lives but now feels as if they're our enemy and finding out they're selling us out to China has come as no surprise!

You’re in a declining group who think Labour don’t do this.