To be worried about what the Labour government will do next?

[Scenicgirl]

Let's be honest, Labour has been a massive disappointment for this country, pissing off the pensioners with taking away the WFA, the farmers, NI changes which impact employers, immigration etc and today refusing compensation to the WASPI women after they ridiculed the Conservatives when they didn't commit to a solution. Don't we deserve better than this constant shit show of lies and deceptions which were clearly spouted out purely to gain power?
For the 1st time in my life, I worry about where we are heading.

It’s not looking good anywhere in Europe @Boohoo76. As the link I provided shows.

I get the impression from the backlash to any info that pp stick to mn Labour threads and avoid economic news

https://www.ft.com/content/8dcadbd2-57a1-4fff-b2e2-9ff2704fe209

for those upset the FT has a negative headline take it up with them. Or get into journalism and change it from there

How do people get to being so tediously partisan they have to attack Labour for every little thing whilst ignoring every disastrous Tory policy? Is it some kind of mental illness?

It’s rude in the extreme to tell people you’re trying to convince to “find it”.

Blossomtoes it’s also pretty rude to say about someone who disagrees with you
‘Only someone with very few brain cells’

This. Rude and patronising (as is often the case)

Why would people respond well to this anyway.

Get me a link, here’s info, attack and insult no where near a thanks

Why bother

Thank you for the link @EasternStandard. It’s very much appreciated.

Tbf I was thinking Reeves and co ignoring those economic indicators in pp in a similar fashion

And people so partisan none of the economics right now is registering

Applauding 'difficult decisions' I mean at what point do people say yeh that's not great, when it hits them I guess

The austerity the Tories inflicted was brutal. I don’t think Labour are too bad, the right wing media always goes for them. Every decision they make seems to attract a scrutiny even the last terrible Tory government were not put under. This plus Farage being bankrolled by Musk, makes me think the electorate are about to be led astray more badly than they were during the Brexit vote. Starmer may not be perfect but he deserves a chance. Personally I don’t care that tax avoiders can no longer claim to be farmers. Good. Maybe we can get some much needed money for the NHS and education.

Yup, “difficult decisions” and “having to account for every penny of taxpayers money” God it’s tedious

We were outperforming most of Europe in the first six months of the year. It’s also interesting that you blame the Tories for the end of last year but this year has nothing to do with Labour!

What would you have them do? We always knew proper government would be boring. I guess people got addicted to Tory drama, nobody could accuse Truss of being tedious.

Because Labour are in government now. At what point do Labour stop blaming Tories for everything. They are making choices whilst ignoring all the evidence about the impact of their policies.
Guardian/BBC etc are both reporting potential recession, rising inflation yet Labour supporters are denying it all.

To repeat what I've previously said, this is exactly what will enable Reform to sneak in. Labour and Tories are too tied up with fighting each other and playing tit for tat, voters are sick of it as the lives of the average person constantly gets worse, no matter who is in power. That's how Farage etc end up winning votes.

The highly aggressive and downright rude comments on here bashing anyone who disagrees with Labour just makes people turn away even more.

Yet there seems to be money for some things.....

FT = Paywall.

but from S&P December 24 - themselves -
*United Kingdom
The actual manufacturing PMI for November 2024 was 48.0, which was revised lower from a preliminary of 48.6. This was a contraction in the manufacturing sector that was the most since February

So lower in February...under the Tories.

However, Services PMI, rose to 51.4 above expectations of 51 they went onto say "employment falls are due to companies not replacing voluntary leavers"

Source: Trading Economics Dec 24.

Perhaps people don't realise there is a host of PMI indicators?

Like i said, the overall PMI is positive.

More good news - NHS waiting list down again, latest fall is 70k in just 1 month.

It’s tedious because they (Reeves and Starmer) say it always just before justifying another wrong move. As if they care about taxpayers’ money.

UK factory orders fall to 4 year low: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/business/live/2024/dec/18/uk-inflation-forecast-climbed-further-above-bank-england-target-federal-reserve-business-live

UK inflation rate hits highest rate for 8 months:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgmndllpz9o.amp

I don't think the FT can be any clearer

UK private sector employment shrinks at fastest pace since 2021

And that's only the pandemic without that it's 2009

There's the overall PMI figure below as quoted

You are wasting your breath

Ben Jones, CBI lead economist, said manufacturers are facing a combination of weakening external demand on the one hand, amid political instability in some key European markets and uncertainty over US trade policy

Inflation is up at 2.6% USA is 2.7% and EU 2.4%

the UK is not a significant outlier and pretty much all of this is driven by higher oil prices, something we can do nothing about.

But please keep up your negativity... as you're a former life long Labour voter... lol!

Agree with this, especially the farmer comment.

You need to read full detail to understand the government's ( sensible) policy. The press and social media are spreading soundbites so the electorate are once again misled, as was the case with Brexit. This article explains the tax position more fully with proper example calculations .

blog.burges-salmon.com/post/102jpaa/smaller-farms-inheritance-tax-the-3m-claim-and-the-residence-nil-rate-band

Why should farmers children ( unlike everyone else) inherit a business of more than £3 m tax free? I appreciate they work hard and some years their earnings can be limited - but anyone else inheriting such a sizeable business would have to pay double the amount of tax at 40%. People forget that the tax bill can be spread by taking out a mortgage too as other young people have to do.

@twistyizzy the below response is odd and usual 'braincell' attack as if economics shouldn't be heard, but it's probably close to Reeves and Starmer and pretending it's not happening

Yes that does seem to be the m.o

Certainly won't be voting Labour ever again, at least not with it's current lineup.

Well, I think it is still a bit soon to judge the government. But on the things you've stated:

WFA - Correct decision in principle. Pensioners are the wealthiest demographic with 1/4 over 65s living in a household with >£1m assets. Blanket subsidies from those with a fraction of their income/assets is offensive to me. That said, the threshold was too low. I realise admin costs are prohibitive but my starting point would be average property price in assets plus equivalent income to NMW per household. So maybe no WFA for those with £300,000 of assets including house, plus a household income of £25k-ish.

Farmers IHT - I agree with them in principle but if we mess up farming we mess up our food supply. This was a difficult one and applaud their bravery in being decisive.

WASPI - I'm tired of hearing about this. It was the right decision to equalise SPA and the right decision to speed up the increase in SPA given life expectancy and the burden on the taxpayer. Paying billions in compensation to the wealthiest demographic because a few women apparently live on the moon is an insult to the working population bearing the biggest tax burden in generations.

Immigration - Well, they seem to be using tougher rhetoric than I perhaps imagined. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating once the figures come out. Fingers crossed we can get some logic to our policies where we welcome productive people to fill our vacancies and keep out those who hate our values and are a drain.

What I fear with this government is that they are dragging us ever deeper into the Ukraine war which is dangerous and ultimately futile. I also fear the government are proving to be a flaky ally to Israel in their hour of need.

Closer to home, I fear that the government sees middle earners as a cash cow, even more so than the last government. VAT on school fees and continued freezing of tax thresholds are evidence of that, but I hope this is the end point and not a thin end of the wedge of the raid on the lower-middle classes.