We know all the anti Labour posts are really just about VAT on school fees!

[YouOnlyHateStarmerForVATOnSchoolFees]

Day in day out whining about Labour and looking for any reason to moan about Starmer, I’m honestly expecting to see a “Starmer ate my dog” post soon! 🙄

We all know you’re just upset as you’ll be charged VAT on little Arabella’s school fees!

So my AIBU…

YABU - It is not just the school fees, honest! I preferred ‘honest Boris’ and ‘man of the people’ Rishi. Or that lovely Liz, we were so much safer with them!

YANBU - The posts are so blatantly motivated by the VAT on school fees that it has becoming utterly boring. Jog on ‘disgusted of Hampstead’ and join the local comp!

😘

I'm not talking about money laundering and tax cheats who are being investigated for fraud. I'm talking about millions of benefit claimants. I don't believe the state should be snooping on people's private financial affairs.

What else should the state snoop on? Texts, phone calls, emails? Do you have any limits to the state?

I missed this. How many people does this impact? Ie is it just benefits, certain types of benefits that is

Yes. But the VAT on schools is popular, in the manifesto, does not affect poor people, is a choice, and appeals to the base. The only possible side effect is that so many private school parents push their kids into state school that it will raise less. But demographics mean they will be easily absorbed within the existing school system and budget, and the migration will be a net benefit to society.

I suspect, however, that it will raise funds, and PS places will not decline much.

Everyone on benefits. The state will have the right to access your bank account.

You might not care about it but it shows a lack of integrity amongst our leaders. It’s important. Everyone quick enough to jump on any Tory politician doing the same. And putting “grow up” at the end of your post frankly sounds pretty immature - the irony.

Nope. I can afford the VAT. I did feel sorry for the talented kids whose bursaries won’t happen as a result but hey ho. Never mind hey.

Surely this is to prevent benefit fraud though? What’s wrong with that?

It certainly is not. I'm far more concerned about the WFA and the very real impact that will have on millions of elderly people.

I'm a single mum with a DS on a scholarship. Money is tight in our house because I chose to let DS take up a scholarship he won at an independent school. VAT will cost me about an extra £3,000 in total. DS is in the 6th form. But I'll work it out. I'll sell stuff or get second job.

If we have a hard winter, the loss of the WFA could cost many old people their lives. And while Starmer has his nice new free (warm!) suits fitted (wool? cashmere?), and Rayner has her freebie holidays. The hypocrisy is nauseating.

If you can't see the difference, then there is something wrong with you. The elderly are frail, they often live in poorly insulated houses and need more warmth, not less. They dread the shame of debt. They are often reluctant to turn on their heating.

THAT is the difference !

I think we can avoid this tg

Do they bother with pensioners? Not that we are that yet

1% of kids get a full bursary and most of the rest are marketing expenses to attract already talented kids who will make the schools look better. It's literally no loss.

This might sound crazy but you can be critical of one party whilst also disliking the other. It's a ridiculous view that if you have concerns about Labour you love the Tories

Of course it is a loss to the dc who would have benefited.

But you could be talking about anybody. Plenty of non-pensioner working households cannot afford to turn the heating on. On average pensioners have more disposable income than any other demographic.

Newsflash - not all people that hate Labour are middle class or wealthy!

On a basic state pension? It's low

Why did Labour do a report on 4000 deaths in 2017 and refuse to do an impact assessment this time?

If you are on the basic state pension you can apply for pension credit and you still get the wfa

Yes. But that's not how tax works. The handful of people who will have to slum it in state schools with the other 93% will be OK. Overall, it's beneficial.

This trend of accusing anyone who isn’t a labour sycophant of being a tori or a bot is tedious.

Plenty of people didn’t vote for either of them. In fact plenty of people didn’t vote at all. And plenty voted labour to get the tories out, not because they thought labour were the answer.

I doubt it as a policy. Overall it could be damaging

a) policies shouldn't be in a manifesto because they're 'popular'. That's the very opposite of how policies should be designed.

b) there is already evidence that they will not be 'easily absorbed' into the existing system.

It's clear the plan is ideological because if they truly wanted this to work, Labour would have gone about it entirely differently.

Please show the data to support 1%

As a parent of a private school child, a lot of the parents at our school have moved their child from state as state was failing their child. Too rowdy, too violent. It’s these parents who will suffer. They can’t really afford to send their child to private school but thought it was that or their child school refusing so felt they had no choice. These children will definitely suffer due to this policy.

Personally, I can afford it and it doesn’t bother me.

No you can't.

The new basic state pension is £221 per week so £11,500 per year.
The cut off for pension credit is £218.15 per week.

That is what much of the anger is about, the threshold sitting at such a low level.

Whoever mentioned 'scrapped the 40 new hospitals'
Rachel Reeves has said when she looked in the department budget allocated for this building project, there were ZERO POUNDS allocated - so in fact the Tories lied about building the hospitals in the first place.

We should recognise that the election was more about the rejection of the Conservatives. Add up the Lib Dem, Reform, Green, SNP and Plaid votes, they exceeded the Labour vote.

Though I agree about the VAT on school fees complainers.