This may be unpopular - but what about the squeezed middle?

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They are talking about raising taxes on the average person now. Which will really effect lower middle class families who are already feeling the pinch due to increases in cost of food, gas and electic, increasing childcare costs and rent or morgage increases. They are going to increase pensions and benefits with inflation but lots of middle class earners are not having their wages increased with inflation but will now have their taxes increased. What about help for the middle class, especially lower middle class and working class who earn slightly to much to qualify for any help but will now stuggle with all these increases.

Posters pointing out the short sighted politics are absolutely right

They only care about the next 5 years.

And so do voters

Look at climate changed. Been know about since the 80s

Not a lot has changed. People certainly don't want to change behaviour if it affects them directly.

We that will mean we will pay more in the long run Firstly with money and then with health and life's.

Countries that take the long game will come out best. Not us.

Former millionaire trader Gary Stephenson explains how the super rich increased their wealth under covid in this short video.

Gary here six months ago talking to Times radio says tax the rich like him more.

If you believe this, then you obviously don't work in the private sector! Public sector workers are generally doing a lot better than those in small businesses in particular. It's horrendous at the moment.

I'm a single mum too, but old enough to have been through this before.

I'm going to cut back hard, home cook, eat cheaper, turn the heating down, concentrate on keeping my family warm, fed and healthy. No major purchases unless I absolutely cannot avoid it. Essentials only. Hide the credit card and try to come out of this without a major increase in debt.

We're in for a couple of tight years but we knew that would happen after Covid. 🙁

Bloody typos. You get the gist.

Small business owners tend to vote Tory though. What do you expect?

People were taking bounce back loans to use as house deposits when stamp duty was frozen. Or taking the money then running abroad. I know this my OH earns 6 figures as a self employed contractor and some of his colleagues were doing it.

This ^^ unfortunately. The money has to come from somewhere.

As a thought….would people like the U.K. to stop immigration and giving international aid, so the money could be used to help the poorest in this country?

I honestly think the west is in decline.

well yes because we have had no investment or growth (except in housing) for years plus we are ageing.

Yep and the short termism policies will do absolutely nothing to fix it. The next few years are going to be hard I only hope we can come up with solutions.

I think there was always going to be a shift in standards of living as the world starts to become more equal in terms of pay, but the fact remains that the uber rich - I'm talking FTSE 100 directors and above in salaries - haven't shifted in their standards, in fact they have only become richer as they hoover up more of the available money at any one time. So if they were made to be a bit less greedy by proper global tax systems - no loopholes, no hiding places, then the wealth could generally be better distributed and everyone can have a good standard of living!

Lockdown simply would not have been workable without furlough. I'd agree this wasn't made clear enough at the time though.

No it wasn't and they didn't make clear what the economic consequences would be. Many people thought the magic money tree would go on forever surely people knew inflation and depression was coming after printing so much money ?

People were taking bounce back loans to use as house deposits when stamp duty was frozen.

so you think no pay even if you can't work because some people are fraudulent? Do you believe benefits should still exist?

I've just read the full interview and he speaks a lot of sense.

This is what I've never understood. If the vast majority of people are struggling on low wages they can't pay much tax nor can they boost the economy by spending as they have no free cash. It goes on mortgage, commute, utilities and food.

If all the wealth bottlenecks at the top it can't trickle down. If the super rich were forced to pay a healthy living wage to all their employees, if we changed the law so that companies could prioritise wages, customer value and work environment over shareholder dividends, then surely, eventually everything would start moving again. We'd all be richer, we'd all spend more. Even the most extravant wealthy people can't eat out in more than one restaurant at a time - how can that wealth trickle down?

And if we were all better paid, then we'd all pay more tax instead of the money being siphoned off into tax avoidance schemes for the super rich. So we could then invest in NHS, schools, transport. The wealthier the minions, the healthier the economy, I would have thought. But it's never put to the test.

Many people thought the magic money tree would go on forever surely people knew inflation and depression was coming after printing so much money ?

who are these people you are talking about?

logically people are always going to care what they have in their pockets now then in 2 yrs time.

People now asking for energy and mortgage bailouts.

Agree with this, very scary to be what it feels like to be double charged for this. But I've found you often get vitriol for saying that. "Oh well it's your fault for choosing these outcomes/lifestyle. Just move or earn more"

HMRC are methodically combing through small businesses and prosecuting those were evidence points to loans not being used for business purposes. Sole traders and 'one-man companies' are a specific target as are those put into liquidation or an informal 'strike-off' at Companies House. Banks are routinely supplying HMRC with details of borrowers, company numbers and bank records. Not using a BBL for business purposes is likely to be fraud and this includes drawing the money back out to pay the sole trader or director's domestic costs. There are regular prosecutions and being banned from directorships for 5 plus years. Voluntary disclosure to HMRC will avoid this. Business insurance policies will shortly be asking the question if BBL / CBILS were used wholly for qualifying purposes - lie and the policy is invalid.

People now asking for energy and mortgage bailouts.

so most of the population then?! 😆

energy prices have been hugely impacted by the war though so not sure how the gov could have warned people about that?

No but they should have told the public the reality of printing lots of money. We can hand out this money but things will get very painful for UK PLC going forward. They simply don't have the money to bail everyone out now, interest rates are going up including the national debt. Taxes will need to probably rise.

This. Neoliberalism was a theory that promoted international movement of capital, and paid no attention to actual production and how the things we need are made. Similarly home-grown sustainability was waved aside in favour of the idea of a globalised market and - can’t remember what it’s called - the idea that each region of the world should specialise in one area. Lovely idea if all the world cooperated and was at peace and there were no transportation impacts on the environment. London’s economy boomed with all that “lovely” international investment they went on about, and with deregulation freed up those who made money from everyone else’s work to buy the country out from under us. The house prices were the start of the practical impacts, coupled with the reduction in jobs that saw the massive competitive push into more qualifications, which then had to be paid for by someone.

To a pp who asked why ‘we’ allowed it, it was because money for nothing was waved at the boomers, who were the first generation to face consumerism and teenagerdom. In large part they got irritated with complaints from what was then the much smaller population of under-30s who they exploited to make their wealth. They concocted every excuse they could to ignore us. It’s only when the millennium generation grew up and sheer numbers tipped things over that we had the numbers to make them hear.