To wonder what could Starmer do, to turn things around?

[B0xes]

He was elected on fewer votes than Corbyn with very lukewarm support, the Tories lost that election, Labour did not sweep in on a tide of public approval, they just benefitted from peoples anger at the Conservatives. Since then, Starmers approval rating has tanked. He seems to have gone from one ill judged move to the next and seems totally tone deaf in speeches. Can he turn it around? What would he need to do?

What exactly do you mean by 'far right'? Only last week Labour accused anyone wanting a national enquiry of being 'far right'. Yet a national poll found 75 percent of people polled wanted a national enquiry.

The Reform party and its supporters get very defensive about being defined as far right.

https://bylinetimes.com/2024/10/07/why-reform-uk-is-far-right/

In terms of managing the economy and boosting economic growth the right and left wing had two different approaches:

1. Right wing promised to grow the economy mainly by cutting taxes funded through increased debt which could then be paid off through the economic growth.

2. The left wing promised to grow the economy mainly by additional state spending funded through increased debt which could then be paid off through the economic growth. (Keynesian economics)

The problem with both approaches is that whilst they work in the short term (say 5 years) the build up of debt will slow economic growth in the long term.

This is currently where we are. Given the eye watering levels of Government debt (30 % to GDP in the early 90s to 100% today) increasing debt to fund growth is now no longer possible.

Liz Truss found this out the hard way by promising to cut taxes funded by debt . And Angela Reeves is also finding out the hard way by funding increased spending by further debt and tax rises.

So the question is then where could the money come from to grow the economy if not debt?

Well the right would say by cutting Government spending they could fund tax cuts. The problem is that the two actions would negate each other.

The left would say by raising taxes they could fund additional Government spending. Again the problem is that the two actions would negate each other.

It's a really difficult trap to escape from and caused by decades of both parties adding and adding to Government debt to create short term economic growth for political advantage to get re elected every 4 or 5 years.

Who’s Angela Reeves?

And social care.

How? Family carers already save the state £445 million a year and a high proportion of older people who need care are self funding. 71.6% of the budget goes on social care for working age people.

Sorry meant Rachel Reeves.

Government spending for 2025.

I don't disagree with protecting spending on education and the NHS but this would mean harder cuts on other areas.

Also I haven't seen any solutions for growing the economy that doesn't involve tax rises or spending cuts.

Sorry with attachment

Ricky G has entered the chat 🙄😬

Resign

If the borrowing is invested in the appropriate areas - education, health, job creation, basically anything that will over the long term improve population health and decrease poverty - would this not put more money back in government coffers through more people working and reduced spending on benefits? Therefore debt could be decreased long term.

Or maybe I’m being naive.

Problem is I’m not seeing Labour do anything truly innovative that would tackle those issues.

Worship the Golden Ass, that's what USA demands.

That's my worry too! Warm is good; outrageously hot is a deal breaker.

@NameChangedForThis2025

"If the borrowing is invested in the appropriate areas - education, health, job creation, basically anything that will over the long term improve population health and decrease poverty - would this not put more money back in government coffers through more people working and reduced spending on benefits? Therefore debt could be decreased long term.

Or maybe I’m being naive. "

Not at all naive indeed what you are describing is Keynesian economics which for the period 1930 to 1980 was the established economic theory of Governments around the world.

The problem is that firstly the return on the state investment must be higher than the interest cost of the debt and as you borrow more the interest rate goes up. Secondly the state is really bad at investing money compared to the private sector because its decisions are heavily influenced by politics (and vote catching) and not just the return on investment. Thirdly investment by the state crowds out investment by the private sector so overall investment in the economy doesn't change that much. Fourthly not all the money from state investment stays in the country, for example if the state invested in a new solar farm then the panels will be coming from say China.

I could be equally critical about the right wing economic theory of boosting growth by tax cuts funded by debt.

The point is trying to grow the economy (either through spending more or cutting taxes) through increasing debt is no longer an option as Liz Truss found out and Rachel Reeves is finding out.

To grow the economy, more people need to be working and businesses need to be growing. There is no other way. Tax and spend doesn't work in the long term - it's a short term sticking plaster, i.e. after a catastrophic event like WW2.

I wouldn't say Malta is "outrageously hot" in Summer. I'd reserve that for Greek Islands and Cyprus if you're talking about the Med. I've always found Malta to be hot but pleasant in the Summer months. But Cyprus - not pleasant at all - too hot to even sit by the pool and mostly sheltering indoors with air conditioning when I've been there in July!

Depends what you call hot I guess. 40 degrees day after day would be too much for me. I wouldn’t want to be there from June to August.

Malta's average temperature in July/August is 22/23 degrees. I've never been there when it's been anywhere near 40!

@Badbadbunny

"To grow the economy, more people need to be working and businesses need to be growing. There is no other way. Tax and spend doesn't work in the long term - it's a short term sticking plaster, i.e. after a catastrophic event like WW2."

I don't disagree with you on tax and spend not working in the long term, indeed it doesn't even work in the short term.

To quote Churchill:

"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

The question then is how to ensure more people are working and what can be done to encourage businesses to grow. And if this costs money then where does the money come from given that increasing debt is now looking much harder.

It’s hotter than that in October. Or at least it was when I was there last year. Every day was 27/28.

Lonely Planet reckons that summer days in Malta (June to September) average 30-38C, which is too hot for me to enjoy sightseeing, BadBadbunny. But the other nine months sound lovely.

To be fair if you lived there you wouldn’t be doing much sightseeing as you can cover both the main islands in two or three weeks. It is lovely sitting outside without a coat in February. Ideally I’d like to spend November to March there but obviously Brexit’s made that impossible.

Right, I'm thinking that the first 90 days of 2026 would be good... but what to do about DDog? Anything to escape the low grey skies sounds marvellous ATM.

Anywhere can have unusual/freak temperatures. I'm talking about averages.