Are you glad you voted Labour ?

[Noangelbuthavingfun]

Sir Keir is firmly in his new seat and appears to be making waves... winter fuel, VAT on private school fees, UEFA watchdog type scenario, budgets... increase in CGT, 20% increase for Jr doctors, immigration learnings from Italy to pay other countries to take Immigrants and that's only what I briefly followed.
So my question is - are you still glad you voted Labour, or that they are in Power if you didn't? And what if you are not happy anymore - why ?
I'm on the fence so trying to be objective ;-)

I voted tactically with intention to GTTO and yes I’m still very pleased that I did.

I think the terminology is fascinating. Criticism of the multiple examples of corruption during the last years of the Tory government tended to be quite sophisticated. I don’t remember critics referencing “snouts and troughs”, I fully anticipate “gravy train” turning up sometime soon. It’s the language of right wing red tops.

Having read the BBC coverage of Sue Gray’s payrise, it’s clearly based on leaks from disgruntled junior special advisors who are disappointed with their new salaries now that they’re funded by the taxpayer.

170k is not a lot compared to private
E.g. Chris O'Shea
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68029653.amp

I think this is really divisive. Willing to bet many of the parents who are complaining about private school VAT are earning well, well over £100k

Yes. They are far from perfect but better than the tories!

Just googled
Dominic Cummings was paid £140,000-£144,999 in 2020.

Adjusted for inflation, that would be approx £172,000-£179,000 today.

Sue Gray's salary is £170,000.

Here ends today's economics lesson.

https://x.com/henrymance/status/1836383403563790488

What's the point of Labour if they're just another bunch of greedy bastards lining their pockets at the public's expense?

Leaving aside the absence of any evidence of unlawfulness (aside from a VIP lane transgression in public provision so minor the court refused to grant a declaration) in all the GLP’s relentless judicial reviews, these were contracts awarded in the middle of a pandemic. If the government hadn’t awarded PPE contracts its opponents would have accused it of reckless negligence.

And the NAO said there was no evidence of ministerial wrongdoing.

(There was fraud - the DoH estimates it as 1-4% - but all public procurement suffers from fraud. It’s fraud on the government not by the government.)

So, really, yes. To add to Starmer’s award winning freebie snaffling.

Yes.

Completely misleading. Until July 2024 the comparable figure was at most £145k. Cumming’s job had been done by a later cos for less, relatively. So the period for adjustment for inflation should be at most a single day.

It also seems Sue Gray wanted Spads paid less before she joined Labour.

OK.
I can't help but feel a lot of the vitriol for Gray is because she nailed Johnson for partygate. Its a shame people can't move past it and get behind Britain. We can't succeed if people don't support the Will Of The People, which at the moment is a Labour government.

I didn't vote for them but to narrow the margin of loss. And, as I am old and have some savings, I actually quite like the idea of living in another country. DH likes Portugal but it's too hot in summer, and right now it all seems to be on fire. I would have moved to France where I speak the language well but their intransigent stance seems to close that door.

Surely Brexit has put paid to that possibility, anyway?

It is amusing when people go on about get behind Britain or whatever

This site has been crazy over tearing it all down for years.

Oh well. Now Starmer has tripped his own public backlash, only himself to blame

Oh I didn't know about the fires.

Yes. 14 years of Tories with their snouts in the trough was far too long. However, I want some proper policies to start taking shape now, be radical, be bold we need to change things for the better.

It is possible to retire in most of mainland Europe IF you can meet property purchase qualification thresholds and income requirements. Portugal has the D7 visa which is easier. But in most of Europe if you can buy a house for 500k euros, and are not planning to work in the local economy, there are workarounds. Usually one is required to buy one or two years private health insurance too.

@EasternStandard central belt of Portugal is enduring big forest fires at the moment. Climate considerations are not to be dismissed.

I listen to the world service these days and the amount of floods and climate pressures reported daily is immense, I had missed this but I agree on considering it for any move. Especially for dc if they go too, although yours will be older if you are retiring

Good luck @fussychica , I thought I wanted that sort of thing too, and then I got older.

Yours is a kind thought @EasternStandard but our one and only is just 25, and the UK is a better bet, workwise. But yes, listening to the World Service is a useful jolt to the everyday.

I think I’m older than you and I still want it.

If "unlawfulness" is the bar you're concerned about, then there's nothing unlawful about Sue Gray's salary either. So what's your problem with it?

Why did you refer to “politically connected” companies if you weren’t implying corruption and wrongdoing? If you weren’t implying that, what could be wrong with government panic buying PPE in the face of a pandemic? How could that be relevant to Sue Gray’s pay hike?

My point about Sue Gray isn’t that there’s anything legally wrong. It’s just greedy. “A few grand” is a £25k pay increase. Which means the PM’s COS earns more than he does.

I do agree that Sue Gray’s pay isn’t especially newsworthy. But it tells us something about the personal priorities and choices of senior Labour figures, just as Starmer’s willingness to sanction crony appointments and accept freebies do.

Do you think other civil servants, like Case, should take a pay cut?