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

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
Agreed - I mainly post on the cat threads - they tend to be remarkably free of any conflict 😺

I need to get a cat and join you all!

Interestingly I'm finding that's true in RL as well. My work is undergoing cuts - but there are remarkably few people screaming about how shit the current government is - it's more about what to do next if the axe falls. But pragmatism doesn't sell papers...
I have noticed more overt racism raised in conversation though from taxidrivers, fellow traders at shows, and my hairdresser, etc.

You would be very welcome with or without a cat.

I do'nt have a cat or plan to get one, I am busy enough chasing them from our garden so I don't have to clean up after them.

Happy enough with pictures

I always have football to fall back to on MN, moaning about VAR.

I have started posting on Christmassy threads. I love Christmas.

I head off to Style and Beauty when I want a bit of light relief. I can always come up with a shoe or lipstick recommendation!

I love my hairdresser. I've been going to her for over 40 years and she tells clients who make racist comments to pack it in or accept that they're ex clients.

I like it there too.

@ilovesooty good on your hairdresser.

I lurk on weather, books, gardening and recipes mainly. There are loads of very knowledgeable/skilled posters, I’ve learnt a lot over the years.

I ended up hiding style and beauty because of some of the batshittery there!

Sometimes I can browse through active and find something refreshingly daft and sometimes it's full of threads so obviously like reddit karma farming, even though we don't have karma here, that I wonder if they're there purely to keep the boards busy.

Bemused by the vitriol around an unannounced budget - did Truss get these levels of trouncing? Thing that really, really irked me post Liz the Lettuce was no one even acknowledged the disastrous mini budget let alone said ‘sorry guys, that was shite’ - just pretending instead it either didn’t happen really or was part of some long ago pre civilisation government that was now irrelevant 🤷🏼‍♀️
Cats are the best - I recommend regularly that people look at pictures or videos of cats first thing to set them up for the day - or when stressed. I miss having one, I miss my previous cats, but I love pictures, real life ones I find and cat cafes - this thread too 🐈🐈‍⬛🐈🐈‍⬛

The Truss budget was bizarre on MN. Posters celebrating it by bragging about how they were going to spend spend spend and everyone should be happy with the trickle down effect.
The same posters are probably complaining about mansion tax now.

John Major has called Brexit an ‘act of collective folly’

'Britain's enemies celebrated and our friends despaired.'

Not sure my dubious fiscal intelligence will be up to this.

Could you do better than Reeves as chancellor? Play our interactive budget game
Could you keep the markets calm and your MPs happy as you pull the economic levers to deliver.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2025/nov/20/you-be-the-chancellor-play-our-interactive-budget-game?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I've raised £75 billion. @Spandauer

"You've made nine policy decisions, reducing the fiscal shortfall by £47.8bn. Your advisers think the backbenchers will accept the budget, and the markets will not be overly troubled. Because this is a silly game and not real life, you can keep fiddling and making as many screeching u-turns as you like. In real life, eventually you have to take it to parliament ..."

If I can do it, so can RR 😅 I didn't even cut spending and I abolished the two child benefit cap. I didn't introduce a mansion tax or penalise higher rate tax payers. I put tax up by 1p across the board. I abolished the NI increase.

Kent Council could do with a helpful tool

Kent council report £46.5m overspend following Reform takeover
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/kent-council-report-46-5m-overspend-following-reform-takeover-400497/

I reduced the fiscal shortfall by 52.3 billion. I lifted the 2 child cap, increased basic rate tax by 1p, higher rate by 2p and reversed the NI increase. There wasn't an option to make pensioners pay NI on their earnings from employment or I'd have put that in. I got the same message as @PandoraSocks

I'm now imagining Reeves sitting watching TV at home and playing the Guardian budget game. 😁

In fact some of the "But Labour... But Starmer... But Reeves" posters who've been carrying on since before the election could play it and tell her how to do it. After all, whatever she does they'll have their fingers poised over their keyboards to say it's wrong.

I got the same message as Pandora as well.

May I recommend P J O'Rourkes "Parliament of Whores" ?

He balanced the US budget in about two pages.

I meant to say that I reversed Hunt 's employee NIC cut. That was a cynical bribe intended to sabotage the incoming Labour government. I imposed a gambling tax as well.

I massively imposed the gambling tax too. If it means a shut down in poor areas then happy days - because gambling shops are always on the high street in a deprived area. They feed greedily on the knowledge that those who are less well off will be the most vulnerable.

You've made 10 policy decisions, reducing the fiscal shortfall by £69.6bn. Your advisers think the backbenchers will be unhappy, but the markets will not be overly troubled. Because this is a silly game and not real life, you can keep fiddling and making as many screeching u-turns as you like. In real life, eventually you have to take it to parliament ...

2p on income tax. But I'd increase the level at which the basic rate of tax kicks in so wouldn't quite ger the 69.6bn quoted above...