to wonder if people expect the government to solve all their problems?

[LadyHarmby]

Just listening to the news, interviewing people in the street.

No government can change the fact that some people are rich and some are not. Or that wars in other countries and/or pandemics will affect the price of things.

Inappropriate content on social media. Unsafe cladding on blocks of flats put there by private developers. Being housed outside of your area by the council. Zero hours contracts. All issues that the government seem to be expected to sort out? Is it reasonable?

BTW I’m a Labour voter so this is not about the Tories, more government in general.

My expectation is that I give my money to the government via my taxes and they use that money to create a society that benefits everyone as best they can.

So yes I would except them to make unsafe cladding illegal for private developers to use because I don't want people living in fear of another Grenfell. I would like them to search for a suitable alternative to zero hours contracts because they keep many people trapped in a cycle of poverty and only benefit the employer. I expect schools and hospitals to be well funded before millions of pounds are given to someone else to help prolong the government's power.

Well if the government want a third of our earnings, yes they should make laws that a) make it possible for people to live their lives without unscrupulous landlords burning them to death in their beds without consequence and b) ensure people can live off their incomes if they work 35-40 hours a week.

That's their job. It comes from the word "govern" meaning to steer or to rule. They should make laws that steer behaviour and they should maintain the rule of law. This government has run the rule of law ragged in more than one way.

I wish they would fund Surestart type of arrangement - to catch disadvantaged families at the beginning. And sport for children - athletics, footie, darts, anything - all children have an opportunity to do out of schools sport. Instead our sportspeople largely come from private schools (not footie).

I spoke to one of my Indian colleagues and he told me that unlike in the UK, in India , you would bout have to wait 6 hours for a chest xray once admitted to A and E or 3 weeks/ months for a gp. India has a bigger population and probably less resources than the uk...so what are we doing wrong? I DO blame the government for these problems.

Would not*

I think there are people who expect others to solve problems and never contribute to reducing them themselves. Complaining about traffic levels when you drive less than a mile and could walk to and from school, for example.

However, a competent government could at the very least not make things worse, and some of the things the OP mention are the responsibility of government.

Yes there’s a lot of ‘they’ when it comes to funds. And idea of that probably went up during pandemic.

It’s taxes or borrowing.

Ith examples in op aren’t great but generally more recognition of tax receipts and where it comes from.

A government obviously has certain responsibilities to make life as good as it can be for the citizens of the country, and of course those citizens should expect them to perform accordingly.

However, many people these days seem to believe they don't need to take any responsiblity for their own lives. They make poor decisions and then expect to be bailed out, and everything which is wrong in their life is down to "the government".

The OP didn't use particularly good examples, but I get what they are saying, and I agree.

👏

A huge amount of our current problems were caused by government incompetence. It isn’t unreasonable to expect them to sort that out, and especially to regulate social media. It isn’t right that most children have seen violent misogynistic porn hundreds of the time by age 14 yet the online harms hill isnparked unable to provress while the tory party lurches from one internal power struggle to another.

Obviously no government can solve everything but the purpose of government is to serve the country. So I would expect legislation on social media content, on cladding and on zero hours contracts. I would also expect them to be proficient enough not to spook the markets and make people's lives worse. I would also have expected that we had energy storage capacity.

Inappropriate content on social media
UT government can pass laws and police this area better.

Unsafe cladding on blocks of flats put there by private developers
A change in building regs should catch some of the issues.

Being housed outside of your area by the council
This is a compex issue and we can't please everyone.

Zero hours contracts
Change the employment law.

All issues that the government seem to be expected to sort out? Is it reasonable

So some of it would be reasonable for the government to change.

But yes, I agree, the government can't change everyone's life for the better.

Has anyone noticed that when it comes to austerity savings, the Government take the funding from excellent initiatives like Sure Start, or Social care across all sectors, but never tighten the belts of anything they can personally gain a benefit from (the Kwasi budget being a prime example of feeding the poor to the rich by tanking the £)?

I don’t expect the Government to solve my problems, but I do expect them to stop passing legislation that benefits themselves & their donors first & pulls those who really need extra help & support further into the shit.

Like the billions spunked to their friends for PPE at the start of the pandemic which was either substandard or never appeared.

But they’re Tories, so I don’t expect bloody miracles. Greed is king.

some people are rich and some are not

But they can change the difference between rich and poor - I think for example one country has a 10 to 1 rule in company salaries, working poverty should be a thing of the past whereas it's growing

They can make rich more closely related to merit by reducing the impact of inherited wealth - better state schools paid for through higher inheritance taxes as an example

Expectations from the government should be commensurate with the tax you pay. Some people are paying more now than they have ever paid before, since we have the highest tax burden is the highest since WW2.

Some, on the other hand, graced this planet to only take from the taxpayer. Their sense of entitlement doesn’t match their sense of responsibility to do anything for themselves.

And often without having actually voted!

being housed outside of area

Need enough council houses / the profit from the sell off should have been reinvested

This will alos reign in property prices

It's much more expensive to achieve now but that was a Tory choice

In fairness OP, politics isn't something most people understand (including myself) or where the lines are drawn. So it's not unreasonable to ask what the role of our government is.

But pretty much all of what you've posted falls under their remit 🤣

Obviously the government aren't entirely responsible if someone becomes rich (to some extent) but they are definitely responsible for how wealth is redistributed, opportunity to become wealthy etc etc.

Are we so used to the government being incompetent that we’ve reached the point of ‘expecting the government to function is unreasonable’?

It's not absurd, you see it everywhere.
There is plenty of work but people don't want to do it.
They think someone should pay them to sit at home and normal, fit, healthy people go to food banks instead of working.
Before anyone starts I'm not rich but I've never expected handouts like people do these days.
All while moaning that others who have studied and worked hard have more than them and its not fair.

Bizarre

They think someone should pay them to sit at home and normal, fit, healthy people go to food banks instead of working.

I'm not convinced that there are a lot of people that fall in to this category....

in reality an awful lot of benefits are in work benefits because people's wages are not sufficient to buy luxuries like food...🙄

You are being completely obtuse. Available interest rates rose by around 5% overnight due to the Trussenomics of the mini budget, how are you possibly blaming that on covid lockdowns?

Yes the lockdowns would have resulted in repayments from the public finances over a period of decades, it was not responsible for an almost overnight crash along with a crippling rise in energy.

On the basis the current government has

1.wasted billions on useless track & trace system for covid. In doing so , given Tory donors and supporters. huge parents as they won the contracts.

1. Stripped public services to bare bones. Outsourced some of it to private health companies (see above)
2. Made a right hash of the economy. From austerity to the recent mini budget onmishambles, it's a mess.

I could go on and on with how useless they have been. And they've had 12 years to sort something and in that time we have had precisely no real terms in teases in pay or living standards for anyone except those who are in the top 10% of earners.

I am not precisely sure what government is for
if it is not for providing decent public services, responding intelligently to threats and problems and putting the needs of its citizens first.

I'd like a government to do that please. Put the needs of the people it serves first. That's it.

Payouts, not parents #fatfingers

Actually I think that zero hrs and cladding are things that can be sorted with legislation and least damage to public funds. It is private companies and their profits that will be impacted and that is problematic for a Tory government- especially one that is losing public confidence fast. They are reluctant to make decisions which will hit the only supporters they have left.

You do realise that there are over 500,000 civil servants working behind the government?