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Labour isn't working - Thread 22

996 replies

TheNuthatch · 26/11/2025 19:56

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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50
Julen7 · 30/11/2025 09:40

I can’t really understand, if the black hole had indeed been filled, why Reeves wasn’t boasting about it rather than trying to hide it?

NoWordForFluffy · 30/11/2025 09:41

justasking111 · 30/11/2025 09:39

Most of them have never earned this much money in their lives re salary and perks. They're gonna milk that cow dry

I had this conversation with my mum yesterday!

Our Labour MP also doesn't seem so bright.

TheNuthatch · 30/11/2025 09:41

twistyizzy · 30/11/2025 08:53

Daily reminder that there is always a tweet

🤣🤣

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twistyizzy · 30/11/2025 09:43

Julen7 · 30/11/2025 09:40

I can’t really understand, if the black hole had indeed been filled, why Reeves wasn’t boasting about it rather than trying to hide it?

Because she wanted to raise taxes to fund welfare increases. If she had admitted there was no "black hole" then there would be no reason for tax rises.

TheNuthatch · 30/11/2025 09:44

Julen7 · 30/11/2025 09:40

I can’t really understand, if the black hole had indeed been filled, why Reeves wasn’t boasting about it rather than trying to hide it?

Because that would have been the intelligent thing to do?
Whatever most intelligent people think she should do, she generally does the opposite. Starmer also.

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TheNuthatch · 30/11/2025 09:44

twistyizzy · 30/11/2025 09:43

Because she wanted to raise taxes to fund welfare increases. If she had admitted there was no "black hole" then there would be no reason for tax rises.

Edited

....and no reason to blame the tories.

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justasking111 · 30/11/2025 09:47

twistyizzy · 30/11/2025 09:23

Oh on VAT.
Eton has claimed back over £4M in historic VAT since Jan 25. That's 1 x school. So when Labour claim they have "raised more than expected", again they are lying.
25K pupils left Vs 3K predicted in 1st year
Schools claiming back VAT in the £millions (which was NEVER accounted for in the initial figures)

It's really not hard to see an overall loss to the taxpayer.

Friend is a bursar in a private school. They've been working on their VAT reclaim too which is going to be huge because of recent building improvement projects 😀😀

Julen7 · 30/11/2025 09:48

twistyizzy · 30/11/2025 09:43

Because she wanted to raise taxes to fund welfare increases. If she had admitted there was no "black hole" then there would be no reason for tax rises.

Edited

Yes I can see that.

A but of a surprise that Lab managed to fill black hole though? All that public spending!

twistyizzy · 30/11/2025 09:51

justasking111 · 30/11/2025 09:47

Friend is a bursar in a private school. They've been working on their VAT reclaim too which is going to be huge because of recent building improvement projects 😀😀

Yep never been able to reclaim it before but now they can.
Our school refurbed the swimming pool and created new netball courts 2 years ago plus did a re-build + refurb of part of the school around 5 years ago. Probably going on over £1m which they can now re-claim VAT on.

CruCru · 30/11/2025 09:52

Rishi Sunak has written a very gracious column in the Times.

There’s also a thing by Camilla Long. I usually don’t like her (she has the habit of describing people she doesn’t like as “mooing”) but this was quite funny: “Reeves … can’t listen to the radio and hides copies of the Daily Mail. Is this who we want - someone who’s frightened of open letters from Sarah Vine?”.

TheNuthatch · 30/11/2025 09:54

Julen7 · 30/11/2025 09:48

Yes I can see that.

A but of a surprise that Lab managed to fill black hole though? All that public spending!

I think (iirc) that the OBR said that inflation (caused by Labour imo) had pushed up wage growth = higher tax receipts. Coupled with Reeves hammering businesses last year.

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Julen7 · 30/11/2025 09:55

TheNuthatch · 30/11/2025 09:54

I think (iirc) that the OBR said that inflation (caused by Labour imo) had pushed up wage growth = higher tax receipts. Coupled with Reeves hammering businesses last year.

So they have filled it but not in a good way!

CruCru · 30/11/2025 09:59

The top story in the Sunday Times is “Starmer will move to rescue budget after Reeves row”. I know I’ve said it before but he really is a terrible boss. He’s let Reeves take all this flack over the budget for months (plenty of it was self inflicted by her) and had her leak and brief to the press while he’s been jetting off to have fun with world leaders. Now the thing is done, he has to step in.

I wonder if he’s really pissed off that he actually has to get involved in domestic politics and can’t get on an aeroplane?

redange · 30/11/2025 10:12

twistyizzy · Today 09:51

justasking111 · Today 09:47
Friend is a bursar in a private school. They've been working on their VAT reclaim too which is going to be huge because of recent building improvement projects 😀😀
Show quote history
Yep never been able to reclaim it before but now they can.
Our school refurbed the swimming pool and created new netball courts 2 years ago plus did a re-build + refurb of part of the school around 5 years ago. Probably going on over £1m which they can now re-claim VAT on.

This Government don't understand that 'stupid' and financially wrongly added up policies have unforeseen consequences. In this case if you turn Charities in to Businesses, they act like Businesses . However, I do hope that the 'wealthy' Private schools use reclaimed VAT for Bursaries and for 'Community' work. Thus, highlighting the benefits they bring to education in the United Kingdom, also showing up that the VAT policy was not about bringing any benefit, but just ideology. I have said if they wanted to reduce the number of Private schools in order to 'improve' education and not have an economic bloodbath allow a large number of provincial 'Grammar' School type Independent Schools to join/re the state system. However, of course they have no intention of improving education nor any real interest, in ensuring the numbers predicted to leave the Private Sector were accurate. This, again shows the Labour Government could not give two 'hoots' in running accurate budgets,just a desire to engage political damage to hundreds of years of British educational history.

hamstersarse · 30/11/2025 10:28

I endured the LK interview. It is staggering the level of self deception she has - it is very clear to me she doesn't read any news or commentary first hand.

Anyway, it sent me into understanding this 'child poverty' claim and I learnt a bit more about what she is actually claiming to have done. And it makes it understandable as to why people say things like "oh more nail appointments" or "lip fillers".

Others probably already knew this but I wasn't totally clear so maybe there are others who didn't so let's go with it! The measure of poverty they are using is relative low income: i.e. children living in households with income below 60% of the (equivalised) national median income in that year — often after housing costs.

That means when they say “31% of children live in poverty,” they are not actually refering to some absolute “bare-minimum subsistence” threshold despite the fat they use that sort of language - think of all the comments about mould and hunger they make. They lead you to think there are millions of children in squalor, but the reality is that the comparison is against a very high standard of living in the UK. So basically however far our living standards increase overall, there will be still people in 'poverty' because there will always be people in the below 60% of the median income, because maths.

I just find that misleading and a slight of hand - but also explains the real life observations people make about who is actually receiving these additional benefits.

AlexandraBee · 30/11/2025 10:34

God that was a waste of time, LK. Bit of David Gandy afterwards but even gandy isn’t that much eye candy any more. And he had good points to make about the male need for good role models, but sadly he wasn’t articulate or interesting. More disappointed in him really. At least I Knew Reeves isn’t either.

RR and KB were both on actually. Both just said what they’d said on budget day. Waste of an hour really, should’ve known! I did resort to the hand held hoover for cat fur whilst reeves was talking, tbh.

AlexandraBee · 30/11/2025 10:37

hamstersarse · 30/11/2025 10:28

I endured the LK interview. It is staggering the level of self deception she has - it is very clear to me she doesn't read any news or commentary first hand.

Anyway, it sent me into understanding this 'child poverty' claim and I learnt a bit more about what she is actually claiming to have done. And it makes it understandable as to why people say things like "oh more nail appointments" or "lip fillers".

Others probably already knew this but I wasn't totally clear so maybe there are others who didn't so let's go with it! The measure of poverty they are using is relative low income: i.e. children living in households with income below 60% of the (equivalised) national median income in that year — often after housing costs.

That means when they say “31% of children live in poverty,” they are not actually refering to some absolute “bare-minimum subsistence” threshold despite the fat they use that sort of language - think of all the comments about mould and hunger they make. They lead you to think there are millions of children in squalor, but the reality is that the comparison is against a very high standard of living in the UK. So basically however far our living standards increase overall, there will be still people in 'poverty' because there will always be people in the below 60% of the median income, because maths.

I just find that misleading and a slight of hand - but also explains the real life observations people make about who is actually receiving these additional benefits.

Well quite. Poverty to me is the slums of India. Not growing up in a 3 bed semi with water on the inside of windows and blankets to help with low heating (as I did, which i’d never claim was ‘poverty’, unlike this load of chancers). They do make me feel sick.

CambridgeSingers · 30/11/2025 10:37

It’s not in any way tied to outcomes - unlike sure start which was measured on outcomes. They love that cap change because it’s an accounting win, you give people more money and they’re magically out of poverty, that they can bank for the next election as an easy to prove win.

the snp did the same thing. And many poverty groups here are now saying that money needs to go to the deeper causes….

CambridgeSingers · 30/11/2025 10:39

Yes and Keir, if he comes out and ‘backs’ her (better late than never!) will rehash the same lines again.

AlexandraBee · 30/11/2025 10:40

CruCru · 30/11/2025 09:59

The top story in the Sunday Times is “Starmer will move to rescue budget after Reeves row”. I know I’ve said it before but he really is a terrible boss. He’s let Reeves take all this flack over the budget for months (plenty of it was self inflicted by her) and had her leak and brief to the press while he’s been jetting off to have fun with world leaders. Now the thing is done, he has to step in.

I wonder if he’s really pissed off that he actually has to get involved in domestic politics and can’t get on an aeroplane?

He’s probably going to do his press conference from foreign shores. We’d never know, nice green screen at the back. With Westminster and the Union Jack. Meanwhile after his speech he’ll go and hob nob with Very Important foreign folk, over a canapé.

LeakyRad · 30/11/2025 10:47

I just finished listening to the This Is Money podcast about the budget and unsurprisingly they're unimpressed. The big thing they latched on to was the fiscal drag pulling more and more people into paying more tax.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/podcast/index.html

Not sure whether the "hurrah for rinsing the Bad Rich" crowd on MN actually understand how this is gradually affecting more and more people, even those on tiny incomes who they purport to care about.

TheNuthatch · 30/11/2025 10:53

LeakyRad · 30/11/2025 10:47

I just finished listening to the This Is Money podcast about the budget and unsurprisingly they're unimpressed. The big thing they latched on to was the fiscal drag pulling more and more people into paying more tax.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/podcast/index.html

Not sure whether the "hurrah for rinsing the Bad Rich" crowd on MN actually understand how this is gradually affecting more and more people, even those on tiny incomes who they purport to care about.

Exactly 💯
The fiscal drag created by this budget will drag just shy of 800,000 lower earners into paying tax.

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EasternStandard · 30/11/2025 10:57

LeakyRad · 30/11/2025 10:47

I just finished listening to the This Is Money podcast about the budget and unsurprisingly they're unimpressed. The big thing they latched on to was the fiscal drag pulling more and more people into paying more tax.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/podcast/index.html

Not sure whether the "hurrah for rinsing the Bad Rich" crowd on MN actually understand how this is gradually affecting more and more people, even those on tiny incomes who they purport to care about.

Yes to this. It’s £26bn for lower tax payers. It impacts people moving up bands.

Labour trying to get £400m from ‘mansion tax’ is optics. Smoke and mirrors so people look away from paying the bulk of the tax burden.

Tbf people aren’t buying it. And they know higher taxes are for welfare.

EasternStandard · 30/11/2025 11:01

I think most people on here asking for higher taxes mean someone else. When they realise Labour mean them they won’t be so smug about that.

It'll leave Labour with a few retired supporters who are not impacted by tax bands.