Labour isn't working - Thread 19

[TheNuthatch]

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

We are bracing for the budget 😬

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

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5441764-labour-isnt-working-thread-18?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Reform will solve your problems I hope you get what you want.

Yes, and assuming someone is a higher rate tax payer, that means they have to earn almost 16k gross - just to pay their council tax….

Absolutely bat shit. There comes a point where they are going to have to cut welfare and the state. We can be handwringing about it all we like. Who has the broadest shoulders, who deserves more tax payers money etc. When the very people who are bankrolling the whole country are paying this level of tax, it’s not sustainable. They really, really need to cut spending.

100% @Legolava

Starmer and Reeves have heaped mistake upon mistake - most of us are agreed on their level of spite and incompetence. The consequences of which are only gradually being seen now - but they are coming, every day.

If I had to pick one issue which is really going to screw them (and there are many), it’s the unemployment figures. I suspect they are really going to ramp up.

I honestly just wish they'd gone with across the board income tax rises. At this point handing over just a few hundred quid a year is starting to look appealing compared the alternatives.

They were meant to avoid any tax increases this budget, the last one was a one off.

It looks like the VAT situation again where a few will be hit and they’ll try to get political gain from it.

Idk what people can do, try to return the favour for their lying and incompetence.

The unemployment figures, I think led to this u-turn. Their jobs were at risk. You absolutely cannot increase tax on working people, shaft them whilst increasing welfare. Then in the same week, the UC figures came out with long term sick and kite flying of the two child cap. It would have been political suicide.

Ironically, it will still finish them off. Especially if they go for salary sacrifice as they are attacking jobs and employers again. The minute the last budget was announced, it destroyed the jobs market. I do believe many Labour supporters on here thought that was nonsense at the time…

They nixed that because of pressure from the back benches and/or the OBR.
I don’t believe a word that spews forth from Starmer or Reeves’s lips.

Going after ‘unearned’ wealth, will play well with their constituents, and crucially, is not a manifesto breach.

We all know that this will not be the last word - she will find some more ‘holes’ that need filling - holes, which they have dug themselves, by expanding welfare, or chucking more money at the public sector, or failing to get on top of immigration.

Fuck! Ouch. So much when you put it like that.

Bearing in mind council tax goes to the local council, how is an increase going to fill the national black hole? What's the mechanism for passing it on?

This whole budget thing is actually making me quite down tbh. It's incredibly bad governance. I think Clive Lewis agrees with me.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15293991/Labour-MP-call-Keir-Starmer-replaced-Andy-Burnham-Prime-Minister.html

The council tax increase feels very much like the school fees VAT where they were trying to punish a small group of “rich” people but the actual rich were not impacted and it was families who were already on the edge of affordability that were pushed over the cliff.

One of my colleagues who has recently bought a band G house was pretty despondent when I spoke to him this week and was talking about leaving the country. I told him that we would be off if our oldest wasn’t in the key exam years. I advised him to go before he has kids.

And then if they did earn that additional 16K gross, they'd be even more vilified for being rich, thus needing to be taxed more... and round and round we go 😬

Good Q NWFF.

Honestly, not sure how they will administer it. But, IF they have modelled this, I am willing to bet that they have not offset the losses from stamp duty etc., as the housing market grinds to a halt (it already has, I believe).

What a legacy they will leave the next government…

Labour's Clive Lewis has become the first MP to call for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to be replaced by Andy Burnham.

Speaking to Channel 4 on Friday night, Mr Lewis said the Labour Party must put 'country before party' and boot out Starmer in favour of the current Mayor of Greater Manchester.

The MP for Norwich South broke ranks from the rest of his party for the first time in September, when he called for the Prime Minister to stand down.
But last night he became the first to actively endorse leadership rival Mr Burnham, in a week in which a briefing to journalists put the Prime Minister in a precarious position ahead of this month's Budget.

Mr Clive said: 'We need to do what the Prime Minister once said, which is put country before party. And frankly, party before personal ambition.

'I just don't see how this can stagger on without any kind of resolution on the horizon.
'And I think the Labour party, the Labour grandees, the men in grey suits now really, seriously think, how can we get Andy Burnham back in to this parliamentary Labour Party and let him step up and become the next Prime Minister?

'That's my personal view. I know it won't be shared by everyone, but I don't see many other options.'

DM.

We already pay almost £5k per year CT. Higher rate tax payers, so if they double it we’d have to earn almost 20k just to pay it. We’ve just moved and paid a horrific sum in Stamp Duty too.

Or, the FT if you prefer.

Asked on Friday if Reeves and Starmer had made the right decision, one minister said “Fuck no”, arguing the chancellor’s claim, made just 10 days ago, that she would put “national interest” ahead of “political expediency” now rang hollow.

“The point of this Budget was to give us the best possible chance of winning the next election,” the minister added. “This Budget is now short-term survival over winning in 2029.”

One backbench Labour MP said: “No one is inspired, no one is confident, as it doesn’t feel like she has a plan. “She (Reeves) wanted to be the City’s chancellor, the grown-up in the room. What a laugh that’s turned out to be.”

Winning in 2029?

There's optimism and then there's delusion.

Quite so.

Labour have demonstrated that they can't govern. That is why the bond markets are so volatile. Reeves has proved that she can't cut spending and now she has proved they can't raise ordinary taxes either, given the ‘working/non working’ cluster fuck.

Their economically illiterate back benchers are making it impossible for this government to function.

Incredible and blunt, but yeh the 2029 bit is for the birds.

On that country before party line in the other article I recall that line pre GE, I knew it would come back to bite Starmer.

It’s just so much bullshit isn’t it? All of it.

Just got back: Will Council tax rises be the final nail in the nail for many Private School parents.

How, many parents have just by the skin of their teeth, managed to maintain the means to pay fees . If Council Tax goes up £2,000 a year say in house bands where the majority of Private School children live, it will mean in the space of 1 year Private school fees will have gone from £18,000 Pre -VAT and proposed council tax changes to £25,000. This, meaning Pre tax income required to pay for two kids in Private up from £37,000-£52000.

This will be the 'exodus' that Reeves and Philipson wanted, it is not the initial Earthquake that kills but the subsequent after -shocks.

DH told me how grateful he is that i was adamant the two DD's went to Grammar rather than his 'Public School' choice and £120K PA to find.

It's definitely tipping over into state appropriation and theft now.

However, where are all the independent school children going to go. Which state schools have places available. It could mean we might need to employ some WAG officers to ensure these private school kids are not wandering around the Arndale !

Absolutely agree with everything you said. What a lovely thread this is with lots of knowledgeable people.

To be fair I did think I was an outlier reading some of the other threads. I agree with mostly every post on this thread. Also notice there are still some posters from other threads commenting when it is clear what this thread is about!

As for Labour and reducing NHS waiting times, think the figures are being manipulated. Myself urgent referral, should be 2 week wait, been told over 12 months! Hubby serious illness, which will get worse and he will not recover from, discharged from his Consultant. These last few months his appointments have been cancelled. When I asked Consultant why, he said well he is on the maximum medication and we cannot do much more for him, however if anything changes please ring my Secretary, and you must also use the specialist nurses and they will contact me. He was very apologetic and said sorry, I said is that to get waiting lists/cancellations down and he nodded his head.

Anyway knowledgeable ladies thank you for this thread!