Does anyone still support this Labour government?

[PutTheCakeDOWN]

I know NO ONE in real life who still sticks up for them (apart from my mother, and she would support Labour even if KS owned up to creating Covid). Apart from that, all quiet on the western front.

I haven’t seen any support on here, or SM for weeks now.

Is it my algorithm bubble, or are people genuinely disappointed with them? I don’t think it can be the algorithms though, as until a few weeks ago there were still words of support popping up.

For full disclosure I think this government is a total shitshow intent on dismantling British culture, and taxing the private sector to death in order to pay for the public sector. With no long term plan once the private sector is squeezed totally dry. I am BEYOND disappointed with them.

I do. Real change takes time. Everyone expects results quickly which won't happen. Could they do more, probably. Are they doing things to move the dial in the right direction, IMO, yes. Nationalising train lines and buying back public assets I think is a great idea. Breakfast for school children is another policy I'm pleased about. No party will be perfect and we are in an economically difficult time.

Boris Johnson couldn’t even manage to open a Durex packet.

Starmer can’t even manage to open his wallet to buy his own specs.

I’m not wasting time writing out (more) detailed responses to posters like you who are just looking for an argument. This latest post is case in point.

You said that trail hunting was not accessible and only for the super rich. I replied saying that’s not true at all, it costs £10 for children to ride with my local hunt, and as the many boxing day posts have shown you get all walks of life out, and all are welcome. I have also answered other points up thread. You’ve replied with the above 🙄 so I can only assume you’re being goady.

Your posts about trail hunting have mainly been that you have a problem with it because of the class issue, which is exactly what Labour are going for. You admit you have no experience of trail hunting as it doesn’t happen in your area, but you seem to think yourself remarkably well informed, better than someone who’s trail hunting every week even 🤔

You mention the animal welfare reforms and why I have a problem with them. I’ve answered up thread which you have ignored. That is totally your right to do so - but it’s then disingenuous to claim further down that I’ve disregarded your posts.

Im not answering anything I’ve already answered, or anything goady. I answered in detail about why IHT taking farms and estates out of the hands of long term private owners to be sold to corporations for carbon capture (as everyone informed can see is going to happen, and which is what Labour want) is a bad thing.
You replied asking why I think one person owning land is a better idea. When it had been answered in detail. And which anyone who actually lives and loves and knows rural life already knows.
Your posts just echo the Labour ideal that one person shouldn’t own lots of land because it’s ‘not fair.’ That’s what IHT is all about, it’s not about the money.

So yeah, that’s why I think you’re just being goady and why I probably won’t be arsed to reply to you again. That and the big reveal ‘my family are farmers’ well so what?? I have family members who could claim that, but they also know bob all about it as they live elsewhere and do other jobs.

I lost the will to live halfway through this thread-but I do have to say that judging a prime minister on his ability to use a cement mixer is just insane. And the idea that we should pay our Prime Minister to do his own car maintenance is equally, if not more insane.

OP , reading all your posts it is vanishingly unlikely that you are anything other than a Tory voter as you fit the demographic and share many of their values . This is neither an insult nor a compliment. It just makes me wonder what your motivation for starting the thread is.

A disenchanted Labour voter wanting a chat is one thing. Someone who shares no common ground with Labour at all is another. You are not their traditional allies anyway so are bound to be rather pissed off. they can't please everyone all of the time. I posted upthread about the adjustments for children brought up in care to extend free prescription charges, for example. Is this not a good thing they have done? The good stuff gets ignored.

Re the former- someone once started a thread on this and it was impossible to keep going as it got populated by people right of centre to right slagging off socialism. It is possible to be disenchanted with Labour because they have drifted rightwards but that gets mocked by posters claiming we live in some kind of Communist state.

Re Starmer and DIY, just a reminder for everyone. His father was a toolmaker...

I doubt this thread is that aligned to how people are feeling. It doesn’t show the loss in support or mirth at toolmaker even.

That Cornwall result below is under 1% for Labour, I thought they’d be able to rely more on that area for votes.

reading all your posts it is vanishingly unlikely that you are anything other than a Tory voter as you fit the demographic and share many of their values . This is neither an insult nor a compliment. It just makes me wonder what your motivation for starting the thread is.

I absolutely fit the Tory demographic, but I don’t feel I can vote for them anymore so no, wouldn’t describe myself as a Tory.

I was very open about the motivation for starting a thread in the OP.

And yet you're the one who started the thread.

This post has really made me laugh.You have an opinion. You clearly have no desire to actually hear what others think unless they think like you. You drop in a few anecdotes and yet you can't be bothered to present anything fact based. And then you call me goady. Oh the irony!

I'm from a farming family, own a (much smaller) farm myself, and as it happens I'm also a tax advisor specialising in IHT, trusts, and estates.

I wouldn't personally have removed the uncapped APR for IHT, however I do think that long term it will have benefits such as better succession planning (very poor among most farming families, and a big part of the reason we are losing so many young farmers), and more alignment of the capital value of land with its yield (currently there is a huge disparity, in no small part because of investors - not farmers - buying land for the tax relief and not for the food production). Nor am I the only one who thinks this. I was surprised to see quite a bit of commentary in Farmers Weekly in agreement!

I voted Labour. I'd hoped for more, but overall I would vote for them again.

The Conservatives have proved to me over the last decade and more that they're not interested in farmers, and Reform would sell us down the river as quick as you could say 'chlorinated chicken'.

I don't think there is one party who I would say is truly focussed on British farming, food security, and rural areas. This is because no party will want to tackle the very thorny issue of food in this country being too cheap - imagine the outrage in the general population when the price of milk and bread doubles or triples when we are already in a cost of living crisis.

Nor would any sane government restrict cheap imported meat (see above) or prioritise a less varied but more seasonal diet (see above - imagine how the public will react should green beans and other vegetables from Africa be reduced in favour of aisles of cabbage, turnips, and swede).

No party is going to properly support farmers and tackle the supermarkets and conglomerates and make the price of food realistic. The public may loudly exclaim about how much we should value and support British farmers but the moment you suggest that means bananas are off the menu, you can't have fresh berries in winter, and you'll have to pay significantly more for staples like eggs, people tend to go quiet.

I won't be voting labout again as they seem too idealistic with their policies, some of them may have worked in boom times but to stifle the economy at a time of economic recession in favour of idealistic policies isn't very wise. No point having more workers rights if many can't get a job - plus employers will pull workarounds like employing contractors resulting in less rights.

Most of the western world seems in the shit right now, so it's a tough brief for whichever governnent got in but no, I don't think they've made the best of a bad situation, they've made it worst.

Null points from me.

The main problem people have with this government is disgust, in my view.

Labour spent most of its time attacking the Tories as corrupt liars and freeloaders (much of which was itself dishonest allegation by Labour). So now that Labour has left an extraordinary trail of greed, self-interest, hypocrisy, spinelessness and in-fighting after just 18 months, the electorate is disillusioned.

I’m disappointed in them, definitely, but I’d take them over Reform or the Tories any day.

That's why I'll be voting reform. For change. That will then put a rocket up the arses of labour and conservatives for the next 5 years to really sort their shit out and present a properly thought through and evidenced manifesto that actually represents the majority of their voters, that they then agree to stick to should they get in power!

We can then all review how reform have performed against what the other two parties are offering and hopefully in a decade this country will actually start to improve if it hasn't been damaged irreversibly by then.

Reform might seem scary but there is only so much 'bad' they can possibly do in 5 years with the restrictions placed on them by the civil service, public sector management and house of lords.

It's a long long game though!!

I’ve been a Labour supporter for a hundred years (actually 51 years). I have been a Labour Councillor. I’ve canvassed, leaflet dropped, the lot. I have rescinded my membership and in all likelihood will vote green for the foreseeable future.

I'm not sure you are as you say you are beyond disappointed which suggest you had high hopes.

Anyway, to directly address your OP, I don't know any Tory voters -or Reform (not to my knowledge anyway : it doesn't often come up in everyday chat). Everyone I know who voted not Tory at the last GE (which includes Labour, Lib Dem, SNP and Plaid) are sticking there or a few have gone from Lab to LD or Green. As far as I know.

The poster who claimed teachers are a key voter and none of them vote Labour now is not talking based on any survey. All Teacher Tapp polls suggest Labour remains the dominant party, followed by LD. All my teacher friends tend centre left to left. This includes private school teachers.

The West Country has never been traditionally Labour.

And just to repeat :

I posted upthread about the adjustments for children brought up in care to extend free prescription charges, for example. Is this not a good thing they have done? The good stuff gets ignored.

You'd be surprised. Camborne and Redruth were Labour way back in the 60s, as you'd expect from a mining constituency.

(St Columb however, hmmm....🤔)

Yes, I have been through Redruth and can see it is very different from how people imagine 'Cornwall'.

Well we’ll see for ‘traditionally Labour’ next year and how people feel.

It's easy to say they're against it while in opposition. Had a different party been in power during Covid, I bet the Tories would have spoken very loudly against Vaxports. (And I bet Johnson would have been an extremely vocal critic of lockdown, if he was in opposition - he would be one of the few who dared to speak against it, until being silenced.)

As for those who like an educated PM - in theory, Johnson had the "best" education that money could buy: Eton, Oxford. It didn't make him competent. There's a line in a film called Eskimo Day: "Ask me why the highest seats of learning produce cabinet ministers with the nous of the lowest earthworm."

If people who are most against digital ID still vote for them they won’t mind. I agree with the objections but in the end politicians want votes. So if they’ve got that Starmer will be happy.

Fascinating that Starmer actually comes from a background that means he is more likely than his predecessors to be able to change his windscreen wipers (I neither know nor care whether he actually can) but is somehow perceived as not being able to…..

How? They are awful on so many things?

(I’m also locally elected / worked for party and region plus was a political adviser to various shadow SoS / ministers) the answer to our current issues are never the greens and definitely not either the leader or deputy. They used to be about the environment- not so much now.