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.

And? My Gran is in the same situation.

Taxes have to come from somewhere. No one ever thinks it should be them or their loved ones that should be affected, but it has to be someone.

Only a decade and a half? The neglect and downright cruelty I saw in the way old people were treated in my local hospitals in 2005 was what got me into care work. People left in extremely soiled beds while nurses laughed at their station, meals dumped at the end of beds with blind and severely disabled people in them and collected uneaten. Nothing was done then, nothing will be done now.

If you think Reform have the ghost of a chance without radical electoral reform, you’re deluding yourself, thankfully. Our FPTP system is set up to give power to either of the main parties; it’s not even common to have hung Parliaments or coalitions. A fringe party has never won power in the UK.
I can understand why it suits some to talk up Reform plc as though there were any feasible route to it forming government. Doing so is disruptive and has the potential to cause political chaos which is exactly what far right unelected individuals want. I question the motives of anyone who does so though; they’re either disingenuous, acting on a shadowy agenda or they’re stupid.

Brexit is way down the list on impactful factors. Supply chain (global unrest/war), energy and labour costs have been the driving impacts. It's interesting (to put it politely; it's actually biased nonsense) that Brexit is mentioned on virtually every pro Reeves post on this thread, but the cost of the pandemic response is entirely ignored (a pandemic response dictated entirely by public demand; and we all know Labour would've gone further, and run up a higher cost. 'Blaming' the tories for the nuclear economic impact of restrictions is clearly too much of a stretch for even the most partisan of Labour voters, so we'll just pretend it never happened).

I can't muster enthusiasm for any of the major political parties (it's a dreadful state of affairs). Defending any of them is an entire waste of time, because it requires SO much nonobjectivity.

People want better public services but no one ever wants to pay the taxes required to fund them, that's what it boils down to. They would rather whine on about small boats.

None of our politiians were acting in our best interests. I followed the figures at the time, and it became clearly apparent early on that it wasn't nearly as dangerous as thought. At around 3 months in, either the government or the shadow should have been considering returning the young and healthy to work in managed stages. And that was before we had the devolved lunacy from Wales and the fish wife in Edinburgh.

I actually hope Farage gets in you know. Put paid once and for all to the deluded belief his supporters seem to have that a) he cares about "ordinary" people and b) that he'll implement anything that makes any tangible positive difference to their lives.

That’s a cynical viewpoint yet one very much encouraged by those who see democracy as a threat. If we see elected individuals as purely self serving and all as bad as each other, we can be persuaded to give others a try - just look at the way people like Elon Musk have insinuated themselves into positions of power and influence without ever standing for election at any level. We need to resist this way of thinking because it’s dangerous.

I wish people were this up in arms when the Tories killed 330 000 people with their austerity measures, or when they completely redefined disability so that people who’d been receiving DLA and driving adapted cars had it all taken away, or when they were giving people employed by ATOS and Capita bonuses to get genuinely sick and disabled people off benefits. But no one cared, well some did, but the ones who branded us all scroungers ignored it and continued to vote them in again and again.

We can’t forget, either, that the Tories were going to reform Welfare, yet again if they had got back into power starting by dehumanising disabled people and giving them vouchers not money. But let’s all cry over the IHT measures that have been put in place to stop the likes of Clarkson buying land to avoid paying his way instead!

'For the 1st time in my life, I worry about where we are heading.'

So you never worried about where we were heading under nearly 15 years of Conservative governments? Not about austerity during the Coalition years, not about the hardest Brexit possible that people didn't vote for, not about the Covid corruption (VIP lanes, Michelle Mone), not about the 'lockdown' parties at 10 Downing Street? All that was OK with you?

I'm a Waspi woman and I think that the money would be better spent on reducing child poverty.

It really says a lot about the intelligence level of the general public that a billionaire is seen as an anti establishment figure.

Is anyone up in arms about Reeves' pledge to be far harder on welfare than the Tories? She's been public about wanting to remove WFA for a decade, she also wants to slash disability payments. Or is it just of case of not what's done but who does it?

You were implying that he wasn’t badly off. And, yes taxes have to come from somewhere but pushing pensioners on low incomes into fuel poverty is not the answer.

The NHS definitely isn’t the world’s second biggest employer! Walmart and McDonald’s hire more people for a start. In fact it isn’t even the UK’s biggest expenditure - that’s pensions and benefits.
By all means argue for NHS reform, as long as you have alternative suggestions, but let’s start from a position of accuracy.

I'm.not so sure Labour can be complacent about this. Look at the figures at the last election. Reform came second in a huge number of constituencies. They will follow the example of the Lib Dems and start consolidating votes in individual constituencies and now are getting money from more members to do so. There just needs to be a tipping point and they become the second party. Admittedly the Conservatives and Reform need to do a deal and presumably they will have by the next election.

There's nothing fixed in politics and no reason things will always be the same. The last party that broke through to be the second party was Labour itself.

If anyone started a job and proved themselves to be completely incompetent, they would be sacked. Labour need to go, and sharpish.

Who and what would you tax?

A real 'mumsnetter' is one that uses Mumsnet. Mumsnetters aren't some homogenous group

Amazon

Agreed. I voted labour and hoped for much better. It's been an awful start.

Did you also think that about the last five tory prime ministers too, out of interest?

I voted Labour and I agree with you.

I am really disappointed so far.

They totally failed to go after the mega-rich and profiteering utility companies and instead have continued to hammer average earners.

Yesterday pension compensation decision is disgraceful, the winter fuel allowance has a cut off point which is way to low and will leave many pensioners unable to heat their home and water companies are still allowed to put up prices while polluting our environment.

Businesses have been spooked by the national insurance rise and are not hiring anymore or planning on cutting their workforce.

There is no sense of hope and I feel even more miserable than before!

No wonder Starmer's ratings have collapsed.

I think Labour really need to remember why they were elected by people like me who want a fairer society, not Tory 2.0

I find your description of Sturgeon misogynistic.
What are your scientific credentials? Purely from interest, because what you’re saying was not what we were hearing from public health experts at the time of Covid. I have no idea whether lockdowns were the best course of action or not but I trusted knowledgeable, unbiased people - not the cabinet - to make those decisions on our behalf.

I wasn't impressed with the last, but it pales in comparison to the mess we're in now, and things are only going to get worse.

For a start, partners in law and other professional services firms should be required to pay full NI.

National Insurance for LLP Members