To think this budget will finish us off

[BurnoutGP]

I am a GP Partner of over 20 years. I am now senior partner for the last few years. We have seen year on year below inflation funding increase. With an explosion in demand and massive shift of work from secondary care. We have issues wirh recruitment.
Our partner income is shrinking year on year. We are now always overdrawn and this gets worse every month.
We just cannot soak up the MLW and NI without adequate resource uplift.
I think we will be done. I'm so very tired of the constant battle and the demand and anger while working "part time" 60hr weeks.
We will have to hand back our contract. And we wont be the only one. That will leave one surviving practice in my area.
I'm done.

The financial markets considered such an aggressive budget to be comparable to Kwartang’s budget. The debt is eyewatering. So I am not sure I agree with your conclusions, the bond markets were smashed to pieces.

So far the new Labour government have got off to a terrible start. They have already been overtaken by the conservatives in the polls, so the public don’t agree with you.

You really think those polls are truly representative?
The ones that want to complain, shout the loudest.
The ones that are happy/satisfied generally don't do them.

People need to give them longer than five minutes before deciding they are a 'disaster'.

I genuinely don't think I've met a bunch of sorer losers than Tories/Tory voters!

Of course I think the polls are correct. Labour have somehow disappointed everyone!

Hard left are miserable because they wanted to ‘rinse’ the rich and redistribute wealth, that is not legal so didn’t happen.

Nornal Labour voters are desperately disappointed, they have just realised nothing is going to change. The money tree doesn’t exist after all.

The pensioners are horrified - they were the first in line to be stripped of allowances. Ditto small business after this budget.

Other voters are unimpressed and unsurprised they saw this all coming.

Don't fool yourselves that the Tories would have done one bit better. There's no magic money tree. It's this or just more of the same, more cuts, more shuffling. The Tories are out of ideas, and shouldn't be back until they've actually got some. The UK is at the point where they've run out of things to cut. I'm perfectly prepared to hear that they should have raised income tax instead of NI or some such, but someone is going to have to pay. Or there won't be an NHS very soon.

You really think those polls are truly representative?

Well yes, of course they are. The process doesn't just follow the 'loudest'

Starmer has tanked on ratings, and Labour have lost their entire lead. In very short time, the fastest possibly for a new gov. As for your last line it will include Labour voters who atm wouldn't do the same.

I think its going to prove a very painful period for the Govt - the budget faces backbench dissent, the markets are febrile - and if the BOE keeps rates higher for longer and public sector wage settlements prove inflationary (they will), then Labour will be in serious trouble.

They can’t pin these policy screw-ups on the Tories.

No they didn’t. The reaction was, to quote, “far smaller”:

news.sky.com/story/amp/markets-react-on-second-open-after-budget-as-traders-concerned-over-some-announcements-13245812

One poll - another one from the same period showed a Labour lead of 6 points.

Opinium have just dropped one showing Starmer's approval going up seven points since the Budget.

Neither of these things are terribly significant, however. The GE is four years away and will come down to whether people can see actual improvements in the NHS etc.

I was there. The bond market was smashed my friend, how they report it is just semantics.

Agreed. So just how hopeful are you with no brakes on immigration and millions arriving in the next 4 years that the NHS will even tread water - forget about improvements?
I am not hopeful at all, despite the billions upon billions - paid for by us - that is going to be sunk into it.

Yes I looked at other polls and saw that the one quoted as showing a Tory lead was quite an outlier.

This is fantasy.

Sorry what is fantasy? This is reality.

What is this? Bohemian Rhapsody?

But we already have brakes on immigration, and there are firm plans being actioned to improve processing of asylum claims so that non-genuine claimants can be deported more quickly - something the Tories should have sorted out years ago instead of spending a fortune on the ridiculous Rwanda scheme. Your premise is false.

See the post just below by @GoldenPheasant

Not sure why some people are pretending that the Tories are the ones who did so much to stop immigration and that Labour are letting anyone and everyone in. That's fantasy.

Not aware of any firm plans or anything else. Labour have been pretty silent on any immigration policy.

It's not really working to 'smash the gangs'. October numbers were the highest this year and deaths weekly

I suspect the truth is that neither party actually want to reduce immigration very significantly. It would result in an even more obvious drop in total GDP than is going to happen anyway, less tax take and shortages in essential sectors.
The Tory Rwanda scheme was obviously ridiculous from the start and a massive waste of money.

Hey Blossom, question please, given you are such a prolific poster, with a profound knowledge of UK politics.

Do you ever initiate a thread of your own?

Thanks

How much is it costing now with the higher numbers and more thrown at a policy that just results in higher numbers?

Not specifically aimed at you OP but I find all the whining and hand wringing about ONE Labour budget after the Tories have shafted all but themselves and their rich mates for 14 years whilst running public services into the ground a bit tedious

I do think the government needs time before the supposed gang-smashing can be judged a success or a failure. What both its proponents and its doubters are doing is forecasting. Tracing, collecting evidence, making arrests, seizing proceeds and bringing cases to court all takes time. It might work.

But the common sense forecast is that this policy is clearly just hot air and cannot work. So long as irregular immigrants travel and gather to cross the channel, there will be unscrupulous people willing to make money from them. You can’t change human nature by soundbite and slogan.

It’s the ‘war on drugs, all over again.

The EU’s new willingness to examine off-shore processing may well change the government’s mind about suitable policy anyway.

You can blame Corbyn for 5/14th’s of that - had he not been leader during charges of anti-semitism in the party, you might have had a Labour Govt.

Cause/effect.

I’m not so sure as 2019 seemed to be all about “getting Brexit done”. Its the idiotic British electorate who prioritised that before a competent government that have to shoulder more responsibility than Corbyn IMO