Thread 38 Starmer: Tax your Hamster

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5440759-thread-37-starmer-pinko-commie-slimeball?page=1

Political and general discussion with bonus recipes

Taxes optional but greatly appreciated

Shout out to the political bods on here: we've heard a lot about what will go wrong with Reeves budget (thanks, Telegraph!), but little on what could go right.

What's the best outcome we can hope for?

i don’t know about anyone else but I’m not clairvoyant so I’ll wait until the 26th before I start pontificating.

My kids had some very lovely Syrian hamsters that we were happy to share our home with - one then got a Russian hamster that was downright nasty and vicious and had to be kept in his cage at all times, even during slopping out time, when we had to corale him into various tubes and block them off - he was called Trotsky though probably better names nowadays! - we went back to inviting the very pleasant Syrians in instead - but I did enjoy all the small pets from mine and my kids’ childhoods. Loving all the pictures 😃

I don't think a hamster would last five seconds with little Tennyson around.
Tax of Tolkien enjoying his fluffy bed before little Tennyson got in and disturbed him.

Thanks for the new thread, tax paid with a little hedgehog we saw at the weekend when one of our local rescues had an open day and Christmas fair to raise funds. They have 80 at the moment to feed over the winter. I already have some in the garden, but have volunteered to have some released if they can’t be taken back where they came from.

@bombastix DH and I have been in stitches over the freeloading hamsters 🐹, it makes the rhetoric over asylum seekers etc look ridiculous.

@BIWI what a beautiful elegant lady 🤩

slopping out time 🤣

@Deafnotdumb I think we'll all experience some sort of budget-related pain and there will be many threads on MN about it. But I also think some of the dire predictions that are bouncing around won't come to pass.

Well I'm not happy paying more tax just to give these foreign rodents free Mobility Wheels!!

Hammunists

The pictures are slow to load tonight

@Deafnotdumb I am another one who says wait and see with the budget.

Has anyone seen the feature 'X amount of viewers'? Just read about it in site stuff but haven't noticed it myself.

My mum was a teacher, and at one point led the senior team at the school Liz Truss claimed so disparagingly. Had she been there when The Wet Lettuce was there, she would have thoroughly dispatched her.

A friend of mine had a friend whose daughter was in the year below Liz Truss at the school. She wasn't very highly thought of, to put it mildly.

Sorry all, I’ve asked for my post to be deleted as it was a bit too personal/identifying.

But thank you for all your lovely comments.

Perdy always looks grumpy! It’s her natural state.

We once had a hamster called Cat Food, on the premise that if DD didn’t look after him properly that’s what he’d end up being…we run to rather dark humour in this house.

Lovely company

🚨EXCLUSIVE: Dinner with Mr Brexit: Bannon’s European Revolution – Planned with Farage, Backed by Epstein

'The Movement'. Farage's partner Ferrari started it. Steve Bannon and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were providing almost daily support
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/11/19/dinner-with-mr-brexit-bannons-european-revolution-planned-with-farage-backed-by-epstein/

I think the Covid Inquiry report on political governance is due out today. I hope the current administration study & learn from it. It shouldn’t slip under the net because of the (understandable) furore over the Epstein papers.

More bad news for Reform in Wales, although not sure it will have much impact on its voter base.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/nov/19/reform-uk-senedd-member-laura-anne-jones-suspended-for-racial-slur

A Lancashire councillor, Tom Pickup, has also been suspended for being in a racist whatsapp group.

He shouldn't be allowed to sit as an Independent. It sounds as though he's unfit for public office.

Funnily enough I have seen versions of some of what he posted here on this very site. For example, the stuff about Starmer and Ukranian boys that has been posted on MN.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/nov/19/reform-uk-councillor-suspended-over-whatsapp-group-featuring-extremist-posts

My thoughts exactly @ilovesooty

I've been reading the people who are mean and stingy thread, which has some very sad and horrific posts on it. It reminds me of all the multimillionaires who would leave the country rather than pay taxes to help the UK recover and prosper. Eta Wouldn't post that there because I don't want to derail with a political post.

I think it will get very nasty on here on Budget day. I will be on a short holiday and intend mostly avoiding it all.

So have I. Many of the posters on Mumsnet have recently been as disgusting as he is.

I think Budget day is going to be an absolute bloodbath on here. Very wise of you Pandora. I hope my resolution not to post on any thread other than this one holds firm.

We'll have to see if the so called 'gentleman agreement' holds on budget day.

I am alright in ignoring threads.

At least if will be over and done with.

Sometimes when I take a wander around the non-political part of MN it is striking how people are mostly just going about their lives and posting about everyday things, just as they did before July 2024. Plenty of the usual run up to Christmas talk. Same in real life.

Things are not great, of course they are not. Some people are struggling hugely. Businesses are going under. It is very tough. But at the same time, the picture painted in the RW press etc. of the UK close to civil unrest and collapse is very far from accurate. Why that narrative is being pushed and who is ultimately pushing it is something to ponder...

Some people have been pushing it since way before the election and log on assiduously every day to keep pushing it.