Live debate? Protests

[Theordinary]

What on earth is going on outside the university where the live debate is taking place? Sounds pretty crazy!

Israel have said they won’t stop until Hamas are destroyed.
Hamas are a terrorist organisation so hardly likely to engage in diplomatic discussions with outside forces.

Theres every chance Hamas could attack Israel again. This is a complex and horrific situation.

Bit what the fuck do these protesters want the UK government to do? Both sides aren’t likely to just stop fighting because little Britain tells them to.

This.

Also really annoying when Michal Husain mentioned Rosie Duffield, then stopped, and moved on to another question. Obviously got told to drop that question by the Biased Broadcasting Company.

The stealth tax system we have now (of not raising the personal allowance) means that the tenner gets paid by people earning least who desperately need that tenner.

A fairer system closing tax avoidance loopholes will mean those who can spare the tenner pay it.

I think that question was pretty rude.

I'm so grateful to the few posters here who are saying they wouldn't actually mind paying MORE tax to live in a country where public services actually work! I couldn't agree more, especially as regards the Health Service. I don't understand why people will vote Conservative so that Rishi can cut their tax bill by a few quid. I've already been forced out of NHS dentistry. I'm convinced the Conservatives will end up also privatising GP services if they get the chance. I can't afford private medical insurance and treatment as well. I'm on a low income, with no hope of increasing it due to being almost 64 and medically retired, therefore on fixed ill health pension from my previous employment. Currently this is supplemented by some contribution based ESA, but I am terribly worried I will lose that if the Conservatives press on with their plans to further slash ill health benefits. I've never claimed PIP as I'm not strong enough to endure the claims process - I have long standing problems with anxiety and depression. I know many on MN will consider me lazy and inadequate because of this. I assure you that I worked as long as I possibly could, and have paid enough years National Insurance to qualify for full State Pension, so please don't come at me. I just hope younger people will think long and hard about the type of government they want. Change of circumstances can happen to any of us, a decent safety net is not unreasonable in a country like the UK. I'm tired of hearing about 'Great' Britain, a country happy to have mass housing insecurity, increasing homelessness, a failing health service, almost bankrupt education system, decrepit roads etc etc etc. Please vote for anyone other than the Conservatives!

I read this a lot, what are Labours plans to resolve those issues? Or is it blind faith that they will do better than the Tories? Not being a dick - genuinely curious.

PKNI · Today 22:43

I'm so grateful to the few posters here who are saying they wouldn't actually mind paying MORE tax to live in a country where public services actually work! I couldn't agree more, especially as regards the Health Service

Yeah - I would pay more tax to get better public services - even though I don't use many.

Pensioners are taxed now. It's the torys that haven't raised the threshold. Jeez

I do worry about what Starmer isn’t saying.

Labour maybe won’t higher income tax or NI but what about fuel tax or council tax ?

Here's how the BBC fact checked this point.

Will Labour bring in a retirement tax?
Rishi Sunak said under a future Labour government “the state pension will be subject to a retirement tax”.
Pensioners relying solely on the state pension are on course to potentially pay a small amount of income tax in 2027-28, because the state pension in that year (£12,578) is forecast to marginally overtake the tax-free personal allowance (£12,570).
The Conservative triple lock plus policy - which raises the personal allowance for pensioners to £13,710 by 2027-28 - would remove that risk.
Labour haven’t said yet whether they would match it or not. But note, the Conservatives only unveiled the policy within the last couple of weeks, so to present this as a planned Labour tax rise is a bit disingenuous.
And bear in mind that the Conservatives’ triple lock plus would only save someone living solely on the state pension around £29 a year.
Furthermore, some people are already paying tax on part of their state pension.
Analysis by former Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb, who works for an actuary firm, also suggests that around 2.5m pensioners (one in five of the total) are currently paying income tax on their state pension and would still be even if the triple lock plus were introduced.
That's because many people receive additional state pension payments due to their participation in the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS).
By Ben Chu

Absolutely

No other EU country allows people to claim asylum from outside their borders @ghostyslovesheets

I'm sure Greece and Italy would love it if France agreed to do such a thing as it would take the pressure off of their countries. I see a lot of people on MN criticising the UK for not doing this but fail to understand that no other country does it? Have they considered why not?

Fuel tax rose less under the last Labour government than it did under the previous Tory government so maybe don't wast too much time worrying about that.

Some other things Labour did last time they were in power in case you were worrying about other things that Keir Starmer hasn't said.
https://www.shrewsburylabour.org.uk/labours-top-50-achievements/

Luckily for you, you don’t live in a country where Hamas will come and slaughter innocent civilians.
Hamas won’t stop if Britain asks them to..they can’t just be left to be destroyed by a terrorist organisation..

Demand would be immense plus I don’t think people are keeping up to date with France as they have their own incoming issues and a GE which could bring a far right result

That won’t help the U.K. their politicians will not be inclined to help us out

The extra tenner won't make a blind bit if difference when prople can't get dentists and are paying out hundreds of £ more for private, or they have to get thrir car fixed gor hundreds because the roads are crap or they have pay for basic healthcare they haven't budgeted for because they expected it from.the NHS. £10 is what I spend on gluesticks because the schools are so underfunded parents are having to subsidise their resources.

They say where the money is coming from but not how they arrived at the figures. The data behind the figures is just as important.

Taking the £1.5bn that will be raised for state schools. Labour won’t clarify how they came up with that figure as being generated by the VAT. One think tank has investigated and Labour insiders said it is based on data from 2011 that they used for the previous manifesto. It is flawed as the pupil numbers included nursery and preschool children at independent schools. It also hadn’t been updated to take into account current figures or trends for 13 years.

This is nothing to do with whether the policy is good or bad, so is not a VAT debate. If the calculations don’t add up then it’s state educated children who will not receive the improvements promised.

This is a key question as if this calculation is flawed, how will they be funding the improvements needed for state schools?

Just a shot? You've missed an opportunity.

I had £10 on "ran the CPS" and another on "Dad was a toolmaker". Expecting a call from the Gambling Commission in the next few days.

@LlamaTwirl here is Labour's manifesto pledges in a nutshell: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/all-labour-policies-election-manifesto-green-2899366?gadsource=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw-O6zBhASEiwAOHeGxQhLcBh9drbJd7XufPpnuwm3IAAaa1eXXLdbWzJqnssXfngnBZOY-hoCpPYQAvDD_BwE

On policing and domestic violence for example:

Boosting police numbers:
Labour has pledged to put 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs on UK streetsin a bid to tackle crime and ensure every community has a named officer they can get in touch with.

Tackling gender-based violence:
The party has said it will halve levels of violence against women and girls within a decade. Policies to help achieve this include introducing new specialist domestic abuse workers in 999 control rooms and requiring police forces to target repeat offenders.

On housing:

Building 1.5 million homes:
One of the main announcements from Sir Keir’s 2023 conference speech was his pledge to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five-year parliamentary term. He said his party would achieve this by reforming planning permissions, creating a generation of “new towns”, giving local mayors more development powers, and fast-tracking building on brownfield sites.
Affordable housing boost:
Speaking to ii* in November, shadow Levelling Up Secretary Angela Rayner said Labour would make sure that money to build council and social housing is spent properly, and also review the Right to Buy policy for council and social homes to make it “fair” to both council tenants and taxpayers.

The IFS have said their manifesto is flawed so I’m not sure why “fully costed” is still being said

I agree, I can't get over the way he's being lauded. It's also a closed question. And we don't vote for these two anyway. We vote for our local mp. If Labour win it's no guarantee you get Starmer for any length of time.

He then said on the BBC programme afterwards that he wanted someone with 'more personality'. What, like Boris? God help us.

Pretty soon we’ll have a Labour government with a massive majority and a PM who is basically a socialist. It’s the woke left who are the real threat to democracy and free speech. The far-right have about as much influence as the Mormons.
The Hard Left have pretty much been marginalised by Labour. There are very few MPs left from that group now and none left in the Shadow Cabinet. The groups you talk about pretty much loathe Starmers Labour, which is pretty centrist. All the ones I know are voting Green. The Tories have embraced and pandered to their Hard Right and put them in government to disastrous effect.