To ask what you expect from Labour when/if they win the election?

[Welovecrumpets]

Just curious. I’ll be voting for them reluctantly but I’m not really sure what can or will be done about the state of the country. It seems we’re skint so they’ll just have to tinker around the edges.

Nothing will get better. I don't like the Tories and I won't be voting for either party.

Labour are the Tories with just extra bits of sh*t.

They are two sides of the same coin and the end goal for them is the same.

We won't need PFI because we've already got those extra 40 hospitals*remember.

(*definitions of 40 or new or hospitals may vary)

All of this.

im not expecting unicorns and rainbows. We have to be real with the lack of money. But in four years time I want to feel that the ship has turned in this direction for sure.

I'll say it aswell then, all politicians are lying, thieving, self interested bastards.

Neither party is being honest about the state of the public finances and the level of investment gap inn this country.
Both private and public sector investment in the UK is and has been woefully low.
Not only does that make public services shit, but the private sector is uncompetitive and less productive than it should be.
An honest conversation about the scale of the challenge is unlikely to be had. Even if we're only talking about not getting worse we are all going to have to pay more tax. All of us.... And those people and companies that tax avoid will need dealing with. The tax code will need simplifying to help lessen the avoidance and ridiculous industry that revolves around it.... And well (worth repeating) we'll all need to pay more tax....
Do I expect this from labour. Doubt it, third be pilloried. The conservatives will never say this because they lack economic competency/literacy and too many have borderline cult like belief in 'trickle down' economics (you can believe in fairies for all I care just don't use 'beliefs' to inform policy).

I agree.

I was talking with someone I know who sends their son to private school about my child taking astronomy GCSE in year ten as an extra curricular option. The look on her face. “But Doesn’t he go to a STATE COMPREHENSIVE???!”

Yes love. And some of them are amazing. it blew her mind when I said engineering, classical civilisation and Latin were also options. She had never even looked at the school.

And I get to go on lovely holidays every year with the money I don’t have to spend on private education.

Where people are lucky enough to have an outstanding state school on their doorstep (granted not everyone does, but where they do) it is nothing but snobbery to go private. Well that, or the tacit acceptance that they’re actually buying contacts and connections, which is the part that I disagree with the most.

Sorry that’s bollocks. I live in one of the more affordable parts of the South East and our Tate schools are great.

As the government are able to create the currency their 'debts' are in they technically don't need to find any source of funding.

Obviously that can cause issues, as the tories have so perfectly demonstrated over the last 14 years.

Their 'print money to give to private companies' policy has been absolutely disastrous so I've no idea why anyone would have even an ounce of faith in their ability to improve our economic outlook.

While labour aren't going to be able to undo the destruction 14 years of ineptitude has wrought, they might be able to at least put out some fires.

I mean, even simply moving from the current 'print money to give to private companies' to a 'print money to fund public investment' would be a great step and would likely be far better recieved by the markets than anything the tories have done since the took office.

state (won’t let me edit - wouldn’t want anyone to come back and say I was poorly educated when I just have fat thumbs…)

Yup pressure on toads is a massive problem.

The seeds of where we are now were sown by Thatcher - decimation of the manufacturing base, pit closures, privatisation, selling off social housing. Most of our current ills can be laid at her door.

I was a middle earner last time Labour were in. I wasn't hammered and all around me all the services I used - NHS, the roads, education, the environment, the situation for my ill, elderly parents all improved and we had a long, stable period of low inflation.

Why people don't feel hammered now by the general situation around them -including high taxes - caused by Tory policies and austerity I cannot understand. Just look at everything around you - it's a shit show.

Labour will get in and say 'oh dear it's worse than we thought'. They will then spend the rest of their term blaming the previous 14 years whilst simultaneously squeezing money out of anyone they can I.e. people who already pay most of the tax. Council tax will be restructured to squeeze even more. The middle classes will be pushed over the edge.

As an aside I find it worrying that Labour are saying they need to look at their stance on Gaza because it has affected them in Muslim areas. This is dangerous, no party should be allowing a groups, especially a group with such a strict religion, to influence policy in this way. I say this because these groups are concentrated in specific areas and follow a set belief structure as opposed to say pensioners who cover all areas of society.

However a large % of the country don't have excellent state schools on their doorstep. Funding per pupil is lower in the North than the South as an example and Labour have said nothing about levelling that gap. Most areas aren't grammar areas either.
It is easy to sneer at private schools when you are privileged enough to live near amazing state schools.

Poor old toads 🐸

New Labour, This Labour
Blair: Starmer
Brown: Reeves
Boom Years: This shit
Economic socialist policy: Post-modern, identitarianism word-soup progressivism

Tories hammer middle earners. Off the top of my head CB, the ridiculous uni loans system they refuse to do anything about…

Change the record. The pits and manufacturing where on borrowed time due to the direct results of rapid globalisation post-war with a smattering of unrealistic and bullish union demands mixed in, at one point you could get a ton of coal shipped from half way around the world for half the price they were scraping it out of the ground here, same goes for things like ship building; send over the plans to a shipyard in the far east and get a ship knocked up for a fraction of the price, and not have to contend with the shipyard going on a tools down walkout every few weeks because they justifiably sacked someone who turned up to work pissed or some other nonsense. See also the increase in imported cars being of a better build quality and value than the dross the likes of British Leyland etc. where pumping out at the time.

I'll give you privatisation and social housing though, that has been catastrophic.

If you're an investor looking at the UK you're not thinking long-term, your thinking quick buck before it all comes crashing down.

You can see that the infrastructure (roads, power, rail, communications, housing, etc) you need to run your business isn't being invested in.

You can see the health services you need to keep your work force productive are not being invested in.

You can see that the education that you need for your next generation of workers and innovators isn't being invested in.

You can see that the climate change mitigations and adaptations you need to ensure the long-term viability of your business isn't being invested in (and whether you personally agree with it or not it's a factor that is now considered by virtually all investors).

You can see that everything you need for long-term success isn't being invested in by this tory government.

I mean energy is a excellent example. At the latest COP there was a commitment to treble the amount of renewable energy by 2030, with a huge programme of investment supported by 127 countries.

The UK has huge untapped renewables potential (Scotland alone has something like 25% of Europe's offshore renewables capactity) but are we trying to capitalise on that? Of course not! Instead the tories are funneling money (some £80bn since 2015) into North Sea oil and gas, a resource that even the operators admit is not viable long-term. That £80bn could have been invested in renewables which would have provided energy security, cheaper energy and long-term, high-skilled jobs in a growth industry.

As long as the tories are in power there will be no improvement for the majority in the UK. Will a labour government make things better? Maybe, maybe not, but right now it's the choice between 100% certain decline for all bar the very top and a chance at making things better for everyone. I'll take the gamble.

• make sure big corporations and wealth individuals pay their fair share of tax: no more non Dom status and loopholes; no more big corporations finding ways to pay little tax (Amazon, eBay,Google...)

• look into the Tory administration corruption: dodgy PPE, contracts for mates and claw back some of that money

• prioritise NHS and social care

• Some real action to combat violence against women ad improve conviction rates for rape and sexual assault

• get rid of the Rwanda scheme and address illegal immigration with practical solution, not headline grabbing nonsense like Rwanda...

• Renationalise railways and look at what is possible to do with utilities to end profiteering and give a better deal for customers

• stop the current attack on disabled people and make it easier for people to work from home, maybe by offering tax break or other incentives to employers

Some really bizarre comments on this thread by the way.

If you think that another party, whether Labour or a Labour/Lib Dem coalition, won't be able to do better than the current corrupt, lying, entitled, greedy Tory government who have destroyed the UK in the past 14 years then you are either a Tory plant or completely lacking in common sense.

89% of schools are good or outstanding

And re the levelling gap I’d trust labour more in a heart beat to put it right as opposed to the ex Etonian controlled party that has been in power the past 14 years.

Just because they have an Ofsted rating of G/O doesn't mean they are actually good for the kids who go there. Maybe if you understood about education you would know that. You can have Ofsted Good schools with bullying issues etc.
If so many state schools are so great why are there so many threads on here decrying the appalling situations in them? 2 of my good friends are state teachers and have chosen to send their kids private because none of the schools around here are good!

Even though there are more than double the % of Labour MPs who have been privately educated than the national average? Or that Keir Starmer was privately educated?

All the Tory voters on this thread insisting a Labour Government won't be able to improve public services because "there is no money".

There's plenty of money to forcibly deport vulnerable people, including children, to Rwanda apparently. £370 million over the first 5 years alone. According to the Government's own figures it will cost more per individual than keeping them in the UK but there's always money for racism.

There's money for HS2, an absolute shit-show with billions wasted on elements that have now been scrapped altogether as completely unworkable.

Then there was the Tories spectacularly inept and wasteful response to the Covid crisis. Like our "world beating" test and trace programme that cost £37 billion, didn't meet any of its targets and the Government was eventually forced to admit had made no discernable difference to the progress of the pandemic. £10 billion wasted in unusable PPE because although there's "no money" the tories couldn't wait to throw eye watering amounts of cash at hundreds of private companies run by their friends and associates, circumventing anti-corruption safeguards by handing their Eton chums the contracts instead of putting them out to tender.

Austerity is and always has been an ideological choice. The Tories have been telling us for 14 years that "there is no money" to restore our crumbling public services all while wasting hundreds of billions on Brexit, on performatively cruel foreign policy and measures to line their own pockets and that of their already wealthy donors.

To answer the question in the OP, if Labour get in I am not expecting miracles as it will take a long time to fix the mess the Tories have left us in. I am expecting an end to performatively cruel, racist and wasteful foreign policy, a gradual re-investment in our public services over time, and an investment in 'clean' energy paid for by proper taxing of oil and gas corporations. I am also expecting them to clamp down on water companies polluting our rivers with actual shit as they have been allowed free reign to do under the Tories. There is no magic wand and we will still be feeling the impact of ideological austerity and Brexit for a long time to come but I believe things will gradually improve. The doom-mongering and straw-clutching on this thread from Tory voters who couldn't care less that everything is on fire as long as long as they still get tax breaks on their child's private school fees doesn't concern me.

The Tories will sabotage everything before Labour get in. Labour will try their best but it will look like they're inept. Tories get back in and blame Labour.

How about the 95,000 DC who are in private schools because state schools can't meet their needs?