To think that with over 1million pensioners in poverty, removing the WFA makes Labour the nasty party, who tell blatant lies?

[TealTraybake]

And hypocritical lies at that. Just a few months ago Labour ‘vowed to be the party for pensioners’

‘Nearly 1 million people aged over 66 in the UK are living in deprivation, according to government statistics, the highest number since comparable records began.
Labour, which analysed figures from Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) records, has vowed to be the party for pensioners, with plans to insulate millions of homes and reduce energy bills. It has also “committed to retaining” the triple lock which guarantees annual rises to the state pension’

I understand the WFA should be means tested - but the current threshold is far too low. Food prices have gone up. Energy prices have gone up. Some pensioners need that WFA 🥺.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/16/nearly-1m-uk-pensioners-deprivation-official-figures

Is the Guardian right wing as well? Because they have been squawking quite a lot these days.

Sorry! How could I miss the post above!

Apologies.

Probably a cross post. Love a Guardian headline these days ;

The fact that you keep referring to Keir Starmer as 'Sir' and to Angela Rayner as 'Ange' tells me that somehow your position on the Labour party was never neutral to begin with. So you aren't giving them a chance.

The WFA had to be means tested. There's broad agreement on this thread that the threshold needs to be moved to the Income Tax cut-off, but that wealthy pensioners should not be getting it. So that can be tweaked.

VAT on school fees? Nope, I have no issue with that one.

Resolving strikes that have cost the economy billions so far is a sound move - and of course you know full well that the train drivers' strikes were mostly NOT about money, you just choose to ignore that part of it.

If you come out with smears and slurs, you aren't going to get a grown up discussion, you're going to get replies in kind.

Are they perfect? No. Does the gifts stuff have to stop? Absolutely.

But today they set a start date for the enforcement of buffer zones for abortion clinics, an issue the Tories spent 15 months sitting on after legislating because they were too chicken of their own right wing. That's the sort of thing I want to keep seeing.

Option 2 isn’t viable because it has to be means tested in some way - pension credit is lazy thinking. But someone else is going to suffer anyway. Disability benefits will be next.

@pointythings ‘But today they set a start date for the enforcement of buffer zones for abortion clinics, an issue the Tories spent 15 months sitting on after legislating because they were too chicken of their own right wing. That's the sort of thing I want to keep seeing.’

On that, we agree.

Frankly I think you lose all credibility with this comment. The point at issue is the rank hypocrisy shown by Starmer in hoovering up every conceivable freebie he can stick his snout into at every possible opportunity over a period of years, all the while presenting himself as a champion of integrity against sleaze.

Now we all see the truth of our PM’s hypocrisy, dishonesty and greed despite his penchant for skewering others for exactly the same. It is sickening and embarrassing for us as a nation to have a PM who has made himself seem so clueless and hypocritical on a global stage.

Kindly spare us your minimising and whataboutery trying to change the subject. We see you and we see KS - free gear Keir indeed.

OK. Well the government are going to be around for bit and throwing nicknames to see what sticks is not going to change the price of fish.

I'm not impressed with him for it but equally it pales into insignificance compared to the Tories and so its just a bit meh.

Nicknames - if the cap fits it will stick, and it’s an excellent fit in this case. I’m so very disappointed in him.

’A summary of his (Starmers) finances released during the election campaign showed that Starmer earned £404,030
last year, on which he paid £99,431 in tax’

Not including freebies of course.

Why did he only pay £99,431 in tax? It should have been more like £178,000 in tax if he paid tax at the rate the rest of us have to.

He is a sham.

Pensioner harmer Starmer
Free gear Keir

hmmm not quite as catchy as the milk snatcher but still…

People love a nickname

They can work

Name calling plays such a key role in a grown up discussion which what I believe you said you wanted earlier. It’s like the playground on this thread.

Please refer to my previous comment @Blossomtoes. My accusations of hypocrisy, greed and corruption in allowing favours for accepting undisclosed bribes by KS are certainly not playground jibes. They are very serious.

As per my comment to Cassie Maddox, please stop minimising. This is disgraceful. We voted for him in good faith and now we discover he’s a goddamn greedy charlatan. We see you.

Having a difference of opinion is not "minimising"
Starmer has paid both his expenses and Grays salary by cancelling Sunaks private helicopter contract.

And you've no proof whatsoever about bribes. That's a pretty outrageous thing to say - but then lies seem to be absolutely fine these days

I don't have much time for any politicians right now. There are people whose commitment and ethics I respect in both major parties, and I expect some new names to come to the surface after such a big election result. I would have been a member of the SDLP if it were still operational. Fairly conservative on finance and economics, but liberal on social issues. The exclusion zones around abortion facilities is a good thing; nobody attends one with anything other than a heavy heart.

Oh FGS @CassieMaddox, why can’t you give it a rest in the face of damning evidence?

IDGAF about Sunak’s helicopter. Start your own thread. This thread is about Starmer’s hypocrisy and corruption which has been exposed and is now splattered all over the media.

And yes, I do regard it as a bribe. I undergo anti-bribery training annually and it is drilled into everybody that any tickets, money, gifts and equivalent must be promptly declared. Which he did not do according to his own admission. And then allowed Alli access to no 10 premises. It absolutely stinks, and I keenly await KS sharing evidence publically that this was not bribery, because it certainly looks like it on the face of it.

Hmm. OK.
I'd prefer people to give the government at least some time to sort out the deep shit the country is in, but it seems we've got so addicted to psychodrama that constantly trying to oust whoever is PM is just part of our DNA now.

It's very tedious. I'd rather Starner was asked about the rape backlog or what they are doing about the NHS.

Much more prosaically, my DH's SME was warned that gifts (think along the lines of a big box of posh biscuits) even at department level were prohibited. Like taking a box of shortbread to an NHS ward that had been kind to a patient.

And I’d rather he did that whilst not appearing like a corrupt hypocrite but we can’t always get what we want eh Cassie.

Oh look! It IS Tory psychodrama, it's Tugendhats leadership bid. Nice to see the Tories are as focussed on the country as ever

www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/questions-raised-after-huge-scale-of-starmers-gifts-and-freebies-revealed-says-tory-leadership-hopeful-13217344

I was quite ready to have a calm period (riots aside) while the newly elected government worked out its priorities. I would have respected a three month hiatus in major policy announcements until after the party conventions. But no, the first thing they have to do is add VAT to school fees, and next they remove the WFA. One affects relatively few, but very noisy people, yet the second hits a large fairly vulnerable group which is unlikely to mobilise effectively to oppose the policy.

Aargh, you whataboutery is off the scale. @CassieMaddox. This thread is about STARMER’S GREED AND HYPOCRISY.

And all you can say is “look, a squirrel!” It is so obvious, not to mention tedious.

Name calling doesn’t help, does it? It’s descending to the playground. And don’t accuse me of minimising because that’s exactly what puerile name calling does. And ffs stop with “We see you”, it sounds more deranged every time.

I’m pretty sure there’s no bribery here. It’s disappointing to discover at best naivety, at worst crass stupidity but it hardly makes him a charlatan.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/18/keir-starmer-100000-in-tickets-and-gifts-more-than-any-other-recent-party-leader?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It says in here it's mostly football tix.
I'm pretty sure I read that Arsenal give him "hospitality" because otherwise he'd be in the stands as a season ticket holder and that is a risk to health and safety.

So it's categorised as "a gift" but is really risk management.

Liz Truss' high spend on airport lounges when she was PM is the same. And Theresa May I believe.