Thread 1 Burnham: Esperanza en cada Corazón

[DuncinToffee]

New PM, new thread

Welcome to our long running thread for political discussion, general chit chat, a friendly hug and taxes in kind

🍦 for anyone who needs them

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5552800-thread-54-starmer-grev-soppelbottefjes-sommergalskap?page=38&reply=153652516

Completely agree

I think they need to work on messaging. I'd not have headed with we're removing VAT on electricity to save you a whole £45 a year!! For obvious reasons.
I'd have gone with we're scrapping digital ID, an idea a lot of people don't support, and we're going to use money we would have spent on that to remove VAT from electricity this winter.

If they want to tinker with energy, and help people more, scrap the standing charge. The whole point of this coup is that they felt Starmers government wasn't doing enough with the majority.

The uncertainty and upheaval that has been caused by this change now needs to count. Tinkering around the edges is not enough. He promised change, he needs to deliver.

The cabinet is just jobs for ABs mates it seems. Never mind if they are up to the job.
I really had hoped he was smarter than that.

It is be quicker to lose the VAT than the standing charge (which is baked into energy company profits, lest we forget).

I'm istening to Heidi Alexander being interviewed now and yet again in the last couple of days a cabinet representative is fudging the issue, ducking the question and selling us unicorns.

I know it's early days but I'm worried. There doesn't seem to be a plan, other than fulfilling his ambition and delivering jobs for his mates.

That's the message I heard though!

The one thing that hasn't come through strongly (perhaps because MN on the whole doesn't care much and because the BBC ignored it) is that this helps people in relative poverty most because they use more electricity than gas, on average.

Instead the BBC wanged on about how rich people would save more because of swimming pools??

I think jobs for mates is harsh - all cabinets are a bit like this - and maybe it's high time we had more people from the regions on a cabinet. There are more women than ever before. I haven't seen the stats on state school. If these are Andy's mates, they are better than Boris's or Liz's mates.

My impression of left people is we are idealists and we tend to pick and fuss over decision that our own lot make. The right are more defensive and more positive (overlooking glaring flaws obviously) - I do think the left could learn some of this bullish optimism. We give material to the right!

That's how I received the messaging, rather than the PP's version.

£2 cap on busfares to return in January.

Lucy Powell has said before that leaders need to look more at people on merit. She is an advocate for women and has said lots of interesting stuff about laddish politics.

I don't want quick fixes from him. He promised change, he needs to lay out what that will look like, and how it is to be funded. We are getting a series of pointless vanity gestures- the vat reduction will be swallowed by a spend cap increase (he could always lower this through the winter but I won't count on it).

We need firm plans, timeliness and how it is to be funded, this wishy washy approach reminds me of Johnson. That kind of politics leads to failure of trust and that's dangerous.

It was obvious that Burnham’s cabinet choices would be people who are his supporters, who else would he choose? And the change of the guard was inevitable, it’s the most obvious way to signal a break with the past. I can’t believe the criticism after less than 48 hours. I know we live in an impatient society but this is absurd.

We hear that yes. But the responses have been grumbling about how £45 is nothing etc.
Whereas if they'd headlined with we've listened and heard that most of you don't think digital ID is a priority so we've binned that and will do this instead, then the conversation may have been about the good idea of abandoning DID with the bonus of the £45, rather than moaning that 'if that's the best he can do..' already.

Re state school representatives.
Starmer had 7% privately educated, Burnham 24%

https://bsky.app/profile/suttontrust.bsky.social/post/3mr5mnswqlc2a

Inflation has eased for now.

Again Trump's war will change that, oil prices have rocketed again.

Interesting thanks. Still far better than Tories though! I like more women on there . This is something I am currently battling in my workplace which has a 92% male SLT... I also like that he is bringing Sarwar in. Let's the Scottish voices in. Scottish Labour used to be such a force.

We do need to learn more optimism though. The British are so bad at this. Can we do it? Yes We Can! (Obama or Bob The Builder - you choose!)

Cabinet jobs should go to the people best able to do the job.
We've seen the result of not doing this since 2010.
There are many "easy" wins imo...
Just no appetite to do any of them 🤷‍♀️
20% NI
Get rid of the £100k cliff edge
Raise PA
TAX THE FUCKING BILLIONAIRES (sorry for shouting but...ARGH)

If we want to obsess over messaging, then the clearest message here is to move away from oil as quickly as possible.

I agree with @BIossomtoes - we need to give the man a chance!

While I didn't like the engineering to get AB into office, I think from what I read at the time, he wasn't expecting to become PM until September, but Starmer insisted on it being earlier. Which I thought was also a bit unnecessary. So AB and his team have had less time to plan for their first days than they expected.

Knowing what you're going to do when you're 'on the outside' must be very different from when you're finally in office.

I also think - regardless of the comms - that the two announcements so far, VAT off electricity and capping bus fare, do at least signal that AB is focusing on COL issues/issues that affect the less well off, first.

£45 isn't nothing to quite a large number of people. Those people are also more likely to use buses.

Its not how we recieve it though. We are a done deal because we see these things and care about them. The popularity of Farage has shown us very clearly that there is low appetite amongst a huge swathe of the electorate for benefitting the more vulnerable. People have had decades of being told that the disadvantaged are the reason their lives are not going well, and that's stuck fast.
People need to see what's in it for them rather than for others. And the thing people will like about this is the binning of DID, so I'd have put that front and centre. People who care about green issues and less wealthy families will join the dots themselves and see the added benefits.

Get rid of the £100k cliff edge?

There has to be a cliff edge somewhere.

Does anyone have any thoughts on why he's not committing to the 2% tax on billionaires? Its hugely popular with 77% support, and seems so obvious. I'm no economist, but have listened to Gary Stevenson. What am I missing?

Maybe it takes longer than two days to run the numbers and assess the full impact.

The £100k cliff edge isn’t a priority I wouldn’t have thought. Or a meaningful win. Only 3-4% of the country earns over £100k and significant numbers of that small percentage will earn enough over it that the cliff edge ceases to matter. Salary scales will already be drawn up to ensure nobody ends up taking home less after a pay rise - those moaning are not the voices a Labour government should be listening to. Apart from anything else, how many are potential Labour voters? Or, perhaps more importantly, potential Reform voters? There are better places to focus time and money.

Ha. Fair enough.