What Rachel Reeves does next? Surprised no thread on this yet. It's all over Twitter

[Sharingsomewisdom]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13764547/Rachel-Reeves-mulls-tax-hikes-spending-squeeze-raising-rents-social-housing-Chancellor-sees-Government-borrow-3bn-forecast-month.html

Or am I the only one interested what she is eying next? Any comment on the reasonableness or otherwise of Rachel's next focus?

What a great electoral system we have. And people still believe we live in an actual democracy.

Did I say that you said all? I don’t think I did.
I referenced the MN trope of all the wealthy pensioners who can afford it which is appearing regularly on any thread discussing the WFA.

Do you think it’s a reasonable thing to take the WFA off female single pensioners who are living on a grand a month?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/12/lowest-turnout-in-uk-general-election-since-universal-suffrage-report-shows
This says a 52% of voters did make it to the polls, which is a very low turn around, lowest in UK indeed.
I do not think that the apathy of the electorate can solely be blamed on labour, to be honest.

No, because a couple of years from now, when they decide they need another big pay rise, they would do the same again if they think this is the thinking behind it. We can’t be held to ransom.

There was another thread a while ago that worked out that with all the 'extras', people on pension credit will now receive less than people on pension credit. Which, if true, is horrific. I'm actually surprised there's not a lot more pushback on this, I guess Labour's correct in thinking people really don't care about the elderly anymore. Maybe when their corpses start piling up, people will protest? Or maybe just celebrate all the houses being freed up...

The IFS here in March 2010 - so much for Labour's 'joke';

Alistair Darling admitted that Labour's planned cuts in public spending will be "deeper and tougher" than Margaret Thatcher's in the 1980s, as the country's leading experts on tax and spending warned that Britain faces "two parliaments of pain" to repair the black hole in the state's finances.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said hefty tax rises and Whitehall spending cuts of 25% were in prospect during the six-year squeeze lasting until 2017 that would follow the chancellor's "treading water" budget

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/mar/25/alistair-darling-cut-deeper-margaret-thatcher

Our LA are already holding a consultation on this

Glad we agree then.

Not really. I'd also not take if off the single men living on that much either.

Do you though think it's reasonable to give pensioners spending more money than the average working family the WFA?

I do agree that we cannot be held to ransom by the railways, other transport or any of the essential services.
We cannot just freeze their wages year after year either.
A fair culture of trust needs ti be established. With the essential services as a pillar to the government and a mutual respect between them and from them to us, the poor users that aleays seem to pay for it all.

I do agree with re- nationalising railways. I have great hopes for it. Real growth!

And I would like to see a minimum services strike law introduced in near future. It has to be a fair give and take.

The elderly can't strike nor do they have unions so they're an easy target. Sadly

And I would like to see a minimum services strike law introduced in near future. It has to be a fair give and take.

We had this law just put in but Labour are now repealing it?

Ideas like what? Seriously not taking the p...

No I don’t. I think having some sort of cut off around the equivalent of the living wage would’ve been a reasonable balance.

I think current pensioners as a whole will be some of the luckiest ever to have lived! Because of falling birth rates and longevity there’ll be a lot less money to support future pensions. We already have to
Work longer, it’s likely to get worse

Quite a few pensioners just have the state pension which is about £12k a year so not exactly living in clover. I will work until I die as did my father and he spent £130k in his last year of life using up last of his savings for his dementia care at home. I am not a current pensioner but when and if I get my state pension the state will take at least 40% of it back in income tax as I will still be working and the balance might pay the council tax (nearly £5k a year as I am kind enough as a single mother to house adult children so don't even get the 25% discount) and some of the power bills.

You know that successive governments do that note thing as a tradition right ? Sadly this time the Tories really did leave the Treasury empty…. Thieving and corrupt to the end.

Not necessarily, the robots are coming (apparently). Not that this country's doing anything to invest in them.

I agree £12k isn’t massive but it will be hard for the country to afford this for pensioners going forward, because of the low birth rate, so it is likely to drop in future, or taxes will go up, or retirement will be latwe

you need to charge your adult kids board!

and I’m not going to feel sorry for you earning enough to pay 40% tax, I work bloody hard and am a single mum but don’t pay that much

I do favour the idea.
Not sure the one in place is a fair one, I have not read the ins and outs. It may need changes to actually work.

But I was born in a country with it. Live through the equivalent NHS strikes and patients were ok. The pressure was put on the government through newspapers and the mere fact that the health system was on strike. It took two rounds (two days, separate occassions, 24 hours per strike), then the government had to call for GE and lost them.
We had good health care cover all through it.
They were also facing rail strikes. These resulted on more hassle to the population, but the country did not come to a standstill at the stations IYKWIM.
At the threat of general strike, GE happened.

You do need to create a culture for this. When nurses and ambulances were about to strike, Sunak and Steve Barclay refused to talk to the unions. That is beyond crazy to me. Total disrespect to the population of UK, who pays their wages and needs nurses! It needs a culture of trust. Unions will not milk their very important position. The government will listen to unions, meet up and commit to sort the issues.
This would not work with the exiting government LOL the law that they created or were on the go to make may reflect their attitude to the essentisl services and service users.

But they have to. Whatever you think of Reeves - and I’m not a huge fan - the government has to hammer home the message that the Tories failed dismally and made a dreadful mess of the economy and the country. Otherwise, when they can’t fix 14 years of chaos and disaster in five years, there’s a good chance that the Conservatives may get back in, and then we’ll be truly sunk.
Much of politics is about manoeuvring and playing the right wing media.

They haven’t ’agreed terms’ though. The train drivers took their massive pay rise, then announced fresh strikes the following day. So we have exactly the same problem, we’re just paying more for it.

Not sure if this has been addressed but Sunak actually said Labour would increase taxes for working families by £2000 and that this figure had been provided by the civil service. The Treasury’s most senior civil servant then had to write to Sunak to remind him that this was not a statistic provided by the civil service (I.e. he was lying) and that he couldn’t repeat the claim in those terms.

Much of politics is about manoeuvring and playing the right wing media.

You can't just pretend you won't do something eg tax and borrow due to the media and wanting to get in power. The media go after all politicians in any case

If Labour promising stuff then reneging makes people go off them then that's down to their actions

Who are these people you speak of? I don’t believe we have a democracy at all.

JT69
You know that successive governments do that note thing as a tradition right?

I know that John Major left a note for Tony Blair that read;

"It's a great job – enjoy it."

Have you got any other examples?