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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Aibu to think that Labour needs to offer alot more than four additional bank holidays

125 replies

strayduck · 23/04/2017 09:13

Surely they need to bring more to their manifesto!!!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39682388

OP posts:
TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin · 23/04/2017 11:14

What an important issue for britain

TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin · 23/04/2017 11:14

We must make it cheap to go to private school

Moanyoldcow · 23/04/2017 11:17

I work in a private school and I'm all for the VAT on fees. It's a choice to send your child there and if more wealthy people sent their kids to state schools you'd see how important education policy would become.

Ferrisday · 23/04/2017 11:18

I'd be paying more with vat on school fees, and inheritance tax is very important for my son, but really I think it's more important that more children get a better basic education.
I actually cannot believe that people are so narrow minded as to vote for what is right for their particular circumstances.

GaelicSiog · 23/04/2017 11:19

No, of course we mustn't make it cheap to go to private school. But it's about being realistic. Where is Corbyn going to draw the "rich" line? Not everyone who pays for private school is mega rich, lots scrape the money together. Add VAT and the number of people doing that will drop because they won't be able to scrape together the VAT. Which will equal more demand on the state system, where some areas have a major shortage of places as it is. Which means government investment in new schools. That's not adding to the tax pot, that's adding to the tax pot by creating a need for more money to come out the tax pot Confused

Ferrisday · 23/04/2017 11:22

It's very difficult to draw 'the rich line'
You see it on MN every week.
People complaining about salaries of £40k, when that's a fortune to some.

bumbleymummy · 23/04/2017 11:24

I saw the 'scrap tuition fees' thing yesterday. I'm not impressed.

deblet · 23/04/2017 11:25

Obviously people vote for the policies they agree with. And you need to walk in somebody else's shoes before you judge the choices they make. Not everybody who puts their child in a private school is wealthy, and who is to say state education is not important to people? I have one in state school one in private and one was home educated. But I am not willing to sacrifice my little girl's education while fighting for a better state education, been there done that with my eldest and in the end to stop him being completely uneducated I had to home educate. It was a choice between private or home for her and I need to have a job to pay the bills. I still think Corbyn be talking about defence and Brexit instead of bank holidays.

pieceofpurplesky · 23/04/2017 11:26

Deblet so you choose to send your child to private school and pay. No doubt you choose to pay because the local school are not good enough ... so labour taking money off the privates to improve the state system that has been broken by a Tory government (and stands to be more so) is a bad thing!
Would you not rather work one job and have your child go to outstanding local school and be able to spend more time with him/her?

JustAnotherPoster00 · 23/04/2017 11:27

For those that are interested:

20 Labour Party policies

Ban companies based in tax havens bidding for government contracts
It's astounding that this isn't the case already. How on earth could anyone even attempt to justify taxpayers' cash being paid to companies based in tax havens for the purpose of dodging tax?

£10 minimum wage for all workers over the age of 18
The UK is the only country in the developed world where workers' wages are declining in real terms, while the economy is actually growing. A £10 minimum wage would help to reverse this scenario, and it would also significantly reduce the cost of in-work benefits like tax credits and housing benefit (most of which goes to working families these days).

All rented accommodation to be fit for human habitation
Again, astounding that this isn't the case already, but in January 2016 the Tories (over 1/3 of whom are landlords) deliberately voted down a Labour Party amendment to their housing bill to ensure that all rented accommodation is fit for human habitation.

Renationalise the railways
This is a very popular policy that is supported by an overwhelming majority of the public. Do you support rail renationalisation too, or are you one of the minority who think that the current shambles is acceptable?

Renationalise the NHS
The Tory party have been carving up the English NHS and distributing the pieces to the private sector, Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to reverse this process. Are you one of the 84% of people who thinks the NHS should be run as a not for profit public service, or the 7% who agree with the ongoing Tory privatisation agenda?

Free school meals
The policy of providing free school meals to all school children between the ages of 4 and 11 is based on evidence based research showing that universal free school meals lead to significantly improved grades. It will be paid for by ending the generous tax breaks (public subsidies) for the 7% of kids who go to private fee-paying schools.

Create a National Education Service
Jeremy Corbyn believes that education is a right, not a commodity. He wants to create an integrated National Education Service to ensure that education is freely available to anyone who needs it.

Scrap tuition fees
Thanks to the Tories (and their Lib-Dem enablers) UK students now face the most expensive tuition fees in the industrialised world for study at public universities, meaning students typically leave university with £50,000 of debt, and two thirds of them will never pay off their student debts. Labour would end this lunacy by getting rid of student fees.

Restore NHS Bursaries
One of the first things Theresa My did when she came to power was to scrap NHS bursaries for nurses and other NHS workers. This removal of financial support for nurses has caused a huge 10,000 decline in the number of applicants to nursing courses. This collapse in nursing recruitment would be bad enough in its own right, but in combination with a record increase in the number of EU nurses quitting the NHS and a mind-boggling 92% fall in nursing recruitment from EU countries, the UK is clearly facing a massive NHS recruitment crisis. Labour would reverse this calamitous state of affairs by restoring NHS Bursaries for trainee nurses.

Increase the carers allowance
Labour are proposing to increase the Carers Allowance for the 1 million unpaid carers in the UK. This would be paid for by scrapping the Tories' Inheritance Tax cut for millionaires. Unpaid carers save the UK economy an estimated £132 million a year, and they're doing ever more work as a result of the £4.6 billion in Tory cuts to the social care budget.

Create a National Investment Bank
This is actually one of Jeremy Corbyn's best policies, but few people actually understand it. It's absolutely clear that allowing private banks to determine where money is invested ends up in huge speculative bubbles in housing and financial derivatives, while the real economy is starved of cash. A National Investment Bank would work by investing in things like infrastructure, services, businesses and regional development projects, and would end up becoming a kind of sovereign wealth fund for the UK.

End the public sector pay freeze
Under Tory rule UK workers suffered the longest sustained decline in real wages since records began. The public sector pay freeze contributed massively to this. You'd have to be economically illiterate to imagine that repressing public sector wages with below inflation pay rises for year after year would not exert downwards pressure on private sector wages too. Ending the public sector pay freeze would actually boost the economy by putting more money in people's pockets, meaning an increase in aggregate demand.

End sweetheart tax deals between HMRC and massive corporations
David Cameron (the son of a tax-dodger) repeatedly lied through his teeth about how serious he was about confronting tax-dodging, whilst allowing HMRC to concoct sweetheart deals with corporations like Google, Vodafone and Starbucks. One of the main reasons the corporate press are so strongly opposed to Jeremy Corbyn is that they know that unlike David Cameron, he's serious when he talks about clamping down on tax-dodging.

Stop major corporations ripping off their suppliers
Major corporations are withholding an astounding £26 billion through late payment, which is responsible for an estimated 50,000 small businesses going bust every year. The scale of this problem is so massive that it should be a national scandal, and Jeremy Corbyn is absolutely right to align himself with small businesses to defend their interests.

Reverse the Tory corporation tax cuts
Since 2010 the Tories have cut the rate of corporation tax for major multinational corporations from 28% to just 17% (by 2020) meaning the UK has one of the lowest corporation tax rates in the developed world. The global average is 27% and the G7 average is 32.3%. Theresa May has already threatened to lower the corporation tax even further to turn post-brexit Britiain into a tax haven economy. Corbyn is proposing to do the opposite and increase corporation tax rates so they're more in line with the rest of the developed world.

Defend Human Rights
Theresa May has repeatedly expressed her intention to tear up Winston Churchill's finest legacy, the European Convention on Human Rights. Labour would oppose this Tory attack on our human rights.

Zero Hours Contracts ban
Almost a million UK workers are now on exploitative Zero Hours Contracts. Last year the New Zealand parliament voted to ban them, and Labour is proposing to do the same. Long-term employees and workers doing regular hours would be protected from Zero Hours Contract exploitation.

Holding the Tories to account over Brexit
Labour have said that they won't block Brexit, but they will seek to hold the Tories to account over it. A landslide Tory victory would be a disaster for the UK because it would allow Theresa May to pursue the most right-wing pro-corporate anti-worker Brexit possible with almost no democratic scrutiny. The only way to make sure the Tories don't push a fanatically right-wing Brexit on the nation is to ensure that there are plenty of opposition MPs to hold them to account.

Housebuilding
Under the Tory government the level of UK housebuilding has slumped to the lowest levels since the 1920s, even though demand for housing is extremely high. Labour are guaranteeing to invest in a programme of housebuilding, and committing to ensure that half of the new houses are social housing. This wouldn't just alleviate the housing crisis, it would also stimulate the economy by increasing aggregate demand by creating lots of construction jobs and demand for building supplies.

Combat inequality
George Osborne's ideological austerity agenda resulted in the longest sustained decline in workers' wages since records began and condemned an additional 400,000 children to growing up in poverty, meanwhile the tiny super-rich majority literally doubled their wealth. Labour is pledging to reduce the inequality gap and introduce progressive policies to reduce the gap between the incomes of the highest and lowest paid. There is plenty of evidence to show that the least unequal societies are more economically successful places where the people are happier.

TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin · 23/04/2017 11:27

The policies they agree with =self interest

MrsSherlock · 23/04/2017 11:27

#dontjustreadtheheadlines

pieceofpurplesky · 23/04/2017 11:28

Also - scary that you want a leader to use nuclear weapons. You do know that you would most probably die if they were used don't you?
ShockHmm

TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin · 23/04/2017 11:28

Thanks justanother Thanks

pieceofpurplesky · 23/04/2017 11:30

Monkey and benefit the people not just the elite ....

TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin · 23/04/2017 11:32

Pieced I was answering deblets post saying she votes for the policies she agrees with..ie not adding VAT to private school tax. Which is self interest and typical Tory

bumbleymummy · 23/04/2017 11:32

I don't think 'free school meals for all' is a good idea. I don't want my children to have school dinners. It's a terrible waste of money to be giving food to families who are perfectly capable of feeding their children and would prefer to do so.

TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin · 23/04/2017 11:33

I do not think the Labour policies she self interest at all

pieceofpurplesky · 23/04/2017 11:33

Yes monkey I got that - should have added a Smileso it was clearer - sorry!

TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin · 23/04/2017 11:34

Show not she

JustAnotherPoster00 · 23/04/2017 11:34

What the rich dont seem to get that the more money you give those at the lower end of the income chain the more likely it is to be spent locally therefore boosting the economy. Give a poor person £10 nd its going to be spent locally, give a rich person £100 and thats either going to sit in an account or not spent locally so will not boost the economy.

Those that complain about the rise in minimum wage, either your business model is useless and therefore you should have costed better or youre happy to exploit your workers while expecting the government to fit your bill, socialism for the rich and you guys seem happy about it

TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin · 23/04/2017 11:34

Ok cool pieceof, it's so fast paced here

OkyDoke · 23/04/2017 11:35

So four more dictated days i have to take rather than get to choose when i take my annual leave? No thanks unless theyre going to increase how much annual leave i get in a year!

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 23/04/2017 11:42

I am well aware of the party policies

What is missing is how these can be implemented

But in the meantime I get email after email (as I'm a LP member) asking me to join Jeremy and listen to him speak, informing me of meetings around the country on how we can drum up support and pating themselves on the back on how thay have increased membership

They are utterly fucking useless at the moment as the real work in politics is complex (far beyond Corbyn's ability not to mention it would take hard work something he obviously isn't keen to do) and tedious its far more fun and so easy to spout crowd pleasing proposals Hmm even under Miliband there was more substance to the proposals

CopperRose · 23/04/2017 11:44

*What is the point of more Bank Holidays when a huge proportion of working people are in jobs which choose not to recognise those we already have?

How about reintroducing time and a half/double time for BHs, and making it illegal for employers to force people to work them? That would be a good start.*

YY to this.
Much more sensible and beneficial to those in the working classes, who Labour purport to represent.

I used to always volunteer to work all bank holidays as the pay was double time, and Xmas & New Years I got triple time; the people with kids were able to guarantee the day off as there were childless, money hungry people like me who jumped at the chance to work.