Labour isn't working - Thread 15

[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.

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I don't know anyone in the private sector who got a 4.4% increase this year. There must be some outliers getting bigger rises to make up for those of us who got nothing (or at least no more than 2.5-3%, which are the most common rises I've seen).

In our case, they probably will. The toast is cheap enough. We don’t charge as people won’t come. However, they are getting highly qualified teaching staff (who are already burned out) for an extra 30 mins babysitting a day. These parents don’t work. They want the free toast and an extra half an hour child free. If teachers didn’t do this out of goodwill, it would not run. The school doesn’t have the money.

@Legolava what do you mean by "they probably will" please?

They've taken the video down. But I think it's been picked up by the papers already -and some bloggers.

@AbsentosaurusRex I’ve just realised that today’s TRI Money podcast is an interview with Art Laffer so thought I’d flag that for you.

Off to listen to it now.

Did they say per month? 🙄 That's the headline figure for saving per year. And obviously it's ignoring the fact that it's a "saving" which is paid through taxation.

As in. If you add the cost of all that expertise in the room, working for free. Then I would dread to think the cost of we charged for our time. Adequately funded it’s not. It’s at the expense of staff well-being.

It was a 6.7% rise for every minimum wage worker, iirc. So that will be doing some work.

I watched it.

Presented by a 15 year old (it seemed) who repeated the 450 quid benefit to parents.

More bullshit.

Agreed. I’ve not seen any increase in pay for 2yrs. I’ve not complained,I’m ok but it does piss me off to see utter jobsworths and lazy fckers coining it in on our taxes.

A PP mentioned working in the civil service. Many years ago in a different life (mid-late 90’s), I did a ‘casual’ job in the civil service. Just in the uni holidays. I was an AA (Admin Assistant). I started and it was processing Attendance Allowance benefit claimants, new forms. All good. Bit of cash. On my first morning they showed me what to do. I did it and carried on for the rest of the day. It worked like a chain. I do my bit pass on to the AO (Admin Officer) then she passes to the EO (Executive Officer). Etc.
Second day I did what was needed then finished by about 11am. I asked what I should do next. They said nothing. Now you just wait until time to go home. 👀

I was a bit confused so the next day I did the next steps too, it was simple and I had hours of time to spare (having done the next step I still had hrs to spare). I gave the case files to the AO and she looked at them and said ohh no you don’t need to do that bit! I said but I can do, I’ve got time. She said no it doesn’t work that way.. etc… That was my first experience with the civil service. I imagine that now, x a billion. Horrendous.

Oh, I'm sure that's true. I think teachers are being asked to provide way beyond what they should be. And I was in awe of the job they were doing before! Far too much expected of them.

But the point of my post was, how could they get as far as releasing an entire video saying that breakfast club would save parents £450 a month? And of all the people involved in that video, not a single person questioned that figure. The mind boggles.

Going back to what was said before about basic services falling apart - somehow a culture has been created where absolutely no one is paying attention. With my experience of dealing with public sector staff - I realise of course some of them will be very good - they're often not as understaffed as the rest of us. If the excuse for that video was that it was put together by overworked people running around like blue arsed flies, then maybe they'd have an excuse. But somehow I doubt it's like that for the people who put it out.

I don't want to hold the current lot responsible for this problem in its entirety. It's a pretty obvious consequence of lockdowns. But both the Tories and Labour should have got a grip on it ages ago.

Here's a blog

They have taken the video down, but the damage is done

order-order.com/2025/10/27/labour-overstates-value-of-free-breakfast-clubs-by-12-times/

Corlett said the tax break encouraged self-employment even where an employee job would be more productive, making it better to work as a freelancer with output worth £35,000 a year than as an employee with output worth £40,000.

Less productive - bullshit. What they mean is less money for their sticky paws, and completely ignoring the fact that the self employed have to self-fund sick pay and holidays, pay their full pension contribution etc.

Seriously - no private sector earned penny left unmolested by this lot.

Thanks - a tidal wave of bullshit.

That’s so bad. I’m glad someone captured their incompetence and lie.

Oh no doubt. The biggest cost or saving if you like is absolutely staffing costs. A full continental breakfast it’s not. Certainly no where near £450 per child on breakfast.

Do not get me started on lockdown. I feel like I was the only member of school staff against them. They have caused so much damage to to the younger generation. The ones who had to be locked away for some of their most important years to protect the very old and infirm. The same generations who will have to pay higher and higher taxes to support an ageing population.

The way the young were forgotten during lockdown was criminal. They are paying a heavy price for it now.

@Legolava oh definitely don't get me started on lockdown. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it!

Re self-employed and sick pay and so on - I actually don't know if there were any kind of adjustments for that before you could operate as a one person company.

all I want to know at this point is where Labour are going to save money. I do remember David Cameron talking about how much waste there was in the public sector but no one ever seems to want to tackle it. He even talked about procurement processes, which is one of my bugbears. But I don't think they actually did anything there either.

i'll get back to work and stop moaning 😂

Ah yes. Our employer gave us this as a reason the rest of us weren't getting much / anything. Along with the NI rise. 🙄

So, Bloomberg are modelling a high probability for an annual tax on property at 2m and above.

For those who think they have nothing to worry about, it will not remain at 2m for long - you can be sure of that.

Yep. Plus how do they propose knowing the value of a property?

To an extent, last sold price on the Land Reg, I imagine. Then extrapolating that out to similar houses without recent sales data.

Magic. They'll look out the window, stick a wet finger up in the air and stop counting when it's dry. Yep, that ought to do it.

There is huge waste. That’s the issue. Procurement processes are one of the biggest cons going. What they need to do is actually put the money on the front line. I’d abolish academy trusts. The billions that go on shiny office and CEOs which should be going to the children. Labour voters want to tax education but seem happy to have private companies creaming off billions from state schools. Bring it all back into the LEA. Yes there is wastage but think of all the academy office and CEOs we are funding.

The same goes for all public sector departments. Get rid of the layers of management and actually streamline.

Welfare needs to be cut. Basic rate of tax needs to rise. Triple lock needs to go.

Most importantly, we need a functioning and thriving private sector. Give the youth hope of prospects and wealth in their own country. Don’t punish them for aiming high and wanting to level up. Encourage it at every turn. Encourage the risk takers. Without people willing to risk it, there is no business, no innovation and no jobs.

The magic money tree only grows with a good economy and for that, you need a thriving private sector. This in turn funds a well functioning public sector and we can all thrive.

Plus how much of that is debt. A huge difference between someone who has a mortgage and one who does not.

Yes, implied value premised on LR data and/or an index (HPI or similar) - which is a very blunt instrument.

The market will simply bifurcate, and stagnate.

Houses will be divided into flats as a workaround etc.

So if you're mortgaged to the hilt in the SE you're screwed. Or if you live in London on a modest income because you've owned your home for decades - screwed again. The actual wealthy will just leave.
Another spiteful policy that will cost the country.