Labour isn't working - Thread 22

[TheNuthatch]

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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Checking in.

Over the next five years, the OBR is forecasting that welfare spending will rise by £73.2bn to £406.2bn.

Guardian

Amen to this.

No one is more aware of the dispirited national mood than Reeves herself. In her pre-budget video, she acknowledged the public’s continuing frustration and anger. What she did not acknowledge – although she is painfully aware of it in private and it shaped big parts of her budget – was that the same frustration and anger that carried Labour into government is now threatening to sweep Labour out of it again.

Only an incorrigible Labour optimist – and there are very few of these at the moment – could say the 2025 budget has calmed those feelings, let alone laid them to rest. In some respects, indeed, the 2025 budget has made things worse, and not simply because of the many tax rises which, do not delude yourself, are never popular. All this will be overstated by a largely hostile press, but it seems inevitable that the 2025 budget will be remembered for the many taxes Reeves put up, rather than for the big one, income tax, that in the end she did not.

Good morning 😁

Welcome to the new names on the thread 👋.
A few festive name changes too, its like the masked singer on here 😂.

They’ve given up on growth.

So that leaves taxing more. Not ‘tax and spend’ either unless it’s welfare. It’s more tax to fill the hole they’ve created.

@Catatemyhomeworktake care, avoid the usual Labour lot on here and know that most are with you.

I see more lies from Reeves re keeping tax rises to ‘the absolute minimum’ - most commentators say she didn’t have to increase tax at all, she did it to increase welfare and appease backbenches as Kemi rightly called out.

I've just seen that the family in The Mirror article linked upthread who are thrilled their 'Christmas has been saved' (4 children, one on the way, both parents out of work) have also launched a 'go-fund me for their own Christmas as well. It's inside the article itself, I haven't gone looking. They have raised £130.00 so far.

There was nothing in the budget for SMEs, just more hardship which will result in less jobs.
Labour’s pre election promises of prioritising growth was another lie. Its just tax and spend, as many of us suspected.

😡

I believe the term 'cheeky fuckers' was invented for people like that!

27, pregnant, 4 kids. How about sticking to the number of kids you can afford? Contraception and / or abstinence is a thing.

Yep, even the Guardian can see how this will go down with the public, not that Starmer and co care as long as they get to keep their jobs.
They've raised taxes by £67bn over just 18 months.

And the spend part of this budget is welfare.

Absolutely.

It was a horrible budget simply designed to buy Starmer and Reeves some more time. In the interim, people suffer.

There will be a reckoning - the mood is palpably febrile, and my belief is that this government will ultimately lose control of law and order.

Many have had enough.

My main issue is I'm genuinely at a loss as to how things are going to get better. Tax rises would be far more palatable if there was a genuine pathway of accountability to ensure people aren't spending a lifetime on benefits. Instead it feels like we are stuck in a 'be kind' loop rather than asking 'what will actually work, what makes a cohesive society, what is fair?'

Lifting children out of poverty is a good thing for us to do in society but increasing child benefit is really a case of 'the emperors new clothes'. Most of us will see in our own communities that this won't help the children who need it the most.

Matters will not improve.

Public services will not improve, immigration levels will not decline, spending will not be brought under control. There will be no growth.

The only certainty is that Reeves will be back for more.

At least we can be honest with ourselves, even if Labour cannot.

As It all starts to sink in, I just can’t see how Starmer & Reeves survive. They are so out of touch with the tax payers / working people it’s staggering.

Starmer tried to make some pathetic jibe to Kemi yesterday to ‘spend less time on Twitter’ but that just made me think of his absolute disastrous X account. Grok did an analysis of the comments on his account and it was 100% negative comments. 100%. 100%!

He is so ideologically driven that he won’t go on X ‘Bevause Elon Musk’, and also because he actually hates free speech, yet still gets some person to post on there as him (no one credible does that anymore) and has literally no idea what people really thInk of him. He should spend more time on X.

All waffle to say they are so out of touch I don’t think they realise just quite how unpopular they are. It’s not just about policies either, which you can potentially recover from, it’s about character. And that, you can’t recover from

The tragic thing is that so many of our friends have spaced children at 4 years apart as childcare is so expensive. Most didn't have children until their 30s, when they could afford them, so 4 kids isn't going to happen easily. My friends spent their 20s paying off student loans and their 30s paying for childcare, they will get between £50k -£100k less in their pensions due to this recent budget.

Exactly.
The amount being raised by income tax tallies almost exactly with the amount of welfare rises. How did they think that would go down with the public in the current climate? Idiots.

Kemi's 'Benefits Street' line seems to have stuck, its on a few of the front pages.

Morning all. Listened to Ed & George’s “Hot Take” last night - both agreed this was a purely political budget - one for The Party, not the economy.

Interestingly they said when the Budget is published it has to have any political statements redacted so that it is purely about the numbers. Both reckon this one will be the most heavily redacted for decades.

Will listen to Robert/Steph and Rory/Alastair today.

I recommend listening to the Daily T from the Telegraph,
it’s very funny and always on point

Absolutely @Forgetmenot9 the pension hit looks exactly in that region for me…just a small invisible tax rise…

Yep I think only the Mirror has been as positive as some mners

Mansion tax is forecast to raise 400m or the cost to open the NHS’s doors for 24 hours….

Right on.

Yep. All the comments on his IG are scathing and all were positive for Kemi.

It really is a tiny number now for anyone assured they’re doing well.

I saw they froze the student loan rate at 7.9% so it doesn’t come down with interest rates and inflation,
I’m not sure of the history of this rate for student loans but it’s definitely a very very high rate and doesn’t exactly look like they are helping the poorest kids go to
uni!