Can someone explain to me why/how the Labour government has directly made them worse off in the last 15 months?

[MotherofAdults]

Can someone explain to me why/how the Labour government has directly made them worse off in the last 15 months? I see this claim a lot on these pages, but I don't understand why. Sorry if I sound stupid, I am just trying to get clear.

I totally understand that the cost of living keeps going up - that inflation keeps rising (3.5-3.8%?) and that mortgage interest remains relatively high, but I don't understand why or how this is the fault of the current government? What have/haven't they done? Are people angry that they haven't curbed inflation? What should they be doing?

If we could avoid mentioning the things that didn't actually happen (eg the Winter Fuel Allowence cuts) and speculation about what the next budget will do (doubling of council tax, rise in minimum wage etc), that would be really helpful. I am looking for actual changes made by this that have directly affected your financial situation since Labour got it.

Ik I think I’d avoid for that alone.

Of course, there will inevitably disagreements about specific issues. But a shared moral compass will typically result in shared values and shared beliefs about right and wrong.

A diverse group of friends is unlikely to universally agree that VAT on education is a good thing in my experience.

Who said that they would?

I haven't said anywhere that all of my friends support the VAT policy - I haven't even discussed it with some of them so in some cases, I haven't actually got a clue what they think. I was responding to the surprise expressed by some posters about the fact that I have friends who are ok with paying the VAT and that those friends happen to have political views which are similar to my own. I'm not sure that that's particularly surprising?

Completely agree - are entire economy is geared towards helping the rich get richer.

We just need enough of our best and brightest to not want to just use their talents to increase their own wealth, but make a difference for the country and the world at large.

That's the issue with Billionaires - they don't need their wealth - there is no way they could spend it all, even in a 100 lifetimes, but net worth is how we measure success in society.

These people don't want to more because they need it - they want more so that they can claw their way to the top of the Forbes Rich List and so they can get a say in politics.

We need to limit personal wealth to something like £200 million - after that money compounds faster than you could ever spend it.

We then need to develop another measure by which society measures success - instead of the Forbes Rich List, maybe a Forbes Social Capital list which measures success by contribution rather than personal wealth.

Either that or we implement a wealth limit and just start handing out medals and stickers instead!

It would really help people to buy into your story more if you flesh out the characters. For example, continuing the story of Jennet, Pauline and Raquel.

‘What about taxing their education?’ Jennet said cautiously. Pauline smiled ‘Yes, we could apply VAT but just on children, Damien and Louis are at university‘. ‘Of course, Damien and Louis recognise their privilege. The funds could go to under privileged donkeys in Syria’ Jennet shouted excitedly. ‘NOT DONKEYS’ Pauline screamed, stroking her shin where a donkey savegly head butted her in 1996. Raquel startled by the shouting, jumped up, her Karate training taking over she adopted a fighting stance and circled the table checking perimeter for threats. ‘Calm down Raquel, it’s okay’ Jennet said reassuringly. ‘This is a great idea for people to recognise their privilege and It doesn’t matter where the money goes as long as we tax the children. We can just make something up about 6000 teachers or half a breakfast muffin. Our kids won’t be affected as we have the grandparents trust fund. I can’t wait to get on mums net and explain to parents I’ve found a way to tax their children without forcing kids to smoke’. ‘We’re good people aren’t we’ she said looking around the table with her good eye. They all held hands and chanted in unison ‘we’re good people, we’re good people’

I'm not sure if you think you're being clever, but it's falling rather flat.

You're welcome to sit and scoff at me with your imaginary friends because I don't actually give a shit whether or not you believe me. Your opinion isn't that important to me

Mortgage rates were over 6% for a while in 2023 after the Truss budget when the base rate went up to 5.25%.

And Labour would most likely have been a lot better at managing Covid - the likes of Michelle Mone would certainly not have been able to hive off tens of millions into off shore accounts and Matt Hancock's local pub landlord would not have got a contract for testing equipment.

They would also have had government time to be able to react to the recommendations from the 2016 Cygnus and Alice prep exercises which exposed the flaws in our pandemic planning because they wouldn't have been spending all of their time messing about with Brexit and in-fighting!

Do you mean some don’t support it?

or that you just don’t know whether they do or don’t

The VAT policy has raised far more than even Labour thought it would, there hasn't been an exodus to state sector.

But as usual, we all want better public services but someone else can pay.

Well I am enjoying both @BloominNora ’s posts and @PeninsulaOfDoom’s! So what does that make me?
AI would have been Karl Marx’s dream surely, if planned properly and centrally.

For transparency, as I said, I am last of Gen X Reeves Oxbridge contemporary, London City professional. My friends who sent their DC to private schools did so largely out of their own pockets (not grandparents), are big taxpayers and many are worried about their jobs and facing redundancies. And apparently double council tax too potentially, as well as still having mortgages. I think private school for many was just something you provided for your DC, because typically your own parents probably did. So like a generational guilt thing, rather than saying anything about anyone’s values. Valuing education and your DC’s childhood experiences is quite a middle class thing, after all.
The privilege is in the double and sometimes triple passports some of my friends have, not the private education of their DC. I think that is more a burden now, given the State’s penalties in this regard.

The ones who stayed post Brexit are actually the loyal ones. Many did leave in the first wave.
Central London house prices are already down. This will ripple out. Government cannot on the one hand complain about no kids left in London, and then shaft everyone with Council tax threats to prop up the regions.

Like I said, Doom Loop Galore!
You cannot throttle your key worker tax payers into an AI boom replacing them anyway and still hope to invest! That is going to equal zero productivity.
I am not an economist but I do know people.

I now know hardly anyone who is self supporting (not generational wealth[) not considering their options abroad. And no, it is not Dubai or a tax haven necessarily.
Just anywhere where society values these types of families and their highly educated kids.
I actually think I am more worried than after Brexit and Covid now and that is saying something.

Also if the Budget is a complete disaster, do people accept Reeves needs to resign?

I thought the OP was talking about the present day, not 40+ years ago! Try dragging yourself into the 21stCentury.

I read 4% increased to 5% which is a 25% increase in unemployment since Labour took power; always the same under Labour as they punish businesses regardless of the cost to workers jobs.

I am happy to take your more precise 17% over my 25%, the point is the same.

The point is lots of workers are suffering under Labour as they always do, which is why the working class have largely long abandoned Labour.

This post was about whether Labour has made us worse off since coming into power. My answer is yes.

1 - Last year we had tax hikes as a one off to fix the Tories £20Bn black hole. RR is going for a second tax hike this year to fix Labour's £40Bn black hole (or however much it is now). That £40Bn has arisen AFTER she raided us to fix the Tories black hole so mjust be attributable to Labour.

2 - Black hole attributable to Labour's inability to get a grip of any of the runaway public spending.

3 - Unemployment up 17% due to NI etc increases by Labour that everyone warned would increase unemployment, but they did not care one bit about the working class that get made unemployed.

These are Labour caused issues, they played the Tory card in last year's budget.

(And yes I agree the Tories were c_ but Labour are making it worse. You do not need to be tribal and defend your trive come what may).

I’m not sure but it’s equally on Starmer if not more so if it is.

There are people in my wider circle who disagree with the VAT altogether, I have one friend who is ok with the principle of it but very cross about the way in which it has been implemented, and others who aren't really interested either way. And then there are some who I have no idea because I haven't ever discussed it with them.

If it is an absolute disaster, then of course she should go. But obviously, we would have to define what an "absolute disaster" might look like.

I actually agree with this. If it is an absolute disaster (however that is defined), then they will be collectively responsible for that.

That is because their idea that private schools would be able to cut fees to ‘absorb’ VAT turned out to be a myth. Schools were not sitting on excess so families were faced with having to pay more than Labour claimed they would. This in turn has lead to a greater exodus than they predicted. So the higher return resulting from the midyear change may well not be sustained when parents move their children/choose not to send them to private schools.

Excuse me?
The corruption shown by Starmer, Reeves and Raynor prove they would have been just as bad during Covid.
Starmer and co loved freebies didn’t they, from their rich buddies?

Budget being a disaster would be the pound crashing further, increase in sovereign debt.
Essentially, if they only raise taxes primarily and stifle growth, but do not also cut welfare spending = business won’t like it. People pull money.
And what they do spend has to be investment in growth.

It really is a question of how the financial markets respond both here and internationally.

It's not up to either of you because at the moment you're both powerless to do anything about it.

You cannot just raise taxes for workers and break your manifesto pledge there, but keep the triple lock to buy the pensioner vote. Prime example of complete hypocrisy that may well go down like a led balloon.
If you are already propping up the NHS, you are already doing your bit for pensioners.
You cannot keep plugging the votes of one group of society especially if you do not really need them financially. As heartless as it sounds.

This now boils down to finance more than anything else.

On an individual level people are not powerless though, they vote with their feet by withdrawing their labour, downsizing, leaving the country. You have a small amount of people and businesses you rely on to prop everyone up, you really cannot just ignore what they say. Because they do have power? Actually probably more power than you as a politician in many ways.

Please provide the evidence for this