Scared of what labour will do

[Wantachangefor2024]

Is anyone else terrified of what labour will enforce. The tax on farmers. Will they means test pip? Will they tax state pension more? What else will they do and where will it all end. They ruthlessly without no care took away the winter fuel allowance. Means testing and taxing state pension would massively impact my family

Maybe the tories should have done what Labour did and just not bother putting their plans in their manifesto eh? Where was WFA? Farmer IHT? Employer NICs? What page were they on when asking for our votes? Why does Reeves think that taking a scythe to small business improves tax receipts? How many relaunches have we seen from this inept government that you so admire?
Whatabout the tories no longer holds water.

Jonny Reynolds is catching up to her.

They didn't keep their manifesto promises when they were in power, and I'm sure they had no intention of doing so this time round even if by some miracle they had won the election.

Seriously, was anyone under any illusion that Labour wouldn't have to make some very tough decisions given the shitshow they inherited?

Well they are not in power are they! Labour are so that's who we need to hold to account.

To say nothing of the fact that they were still proposing to throw millions at nonsense like Rwanda while happily brushing the PPE scandal under the carpet.

Tough decision? Is that lefty speak for politics of envy?

Struggling with basic definitions? Can I recommend the use of a dictionary?

@Convolvulus how many millions is Labour spending instead on the same asylum issue?

'Difficult decisions'

It's ok if it's to someone else

Indeed! It looks like they have given up with 'smash the gangs'. It's now 'smash the migrants' whilst filming it for clicks.

Ah but Reeves would say they had to do all this because of the “black hole” Labour inherited. Wouldn’t be surprised if she was still referring to it in her spring statement.

Of course she will, whilst introducing austerity#2.

How would you have paid for the unfunded compensation claims? Blood and Post Office - around 20 billion in total, then the billions required for Nurse, Soldier and Teacher pay rises.. all unfunded... or should they have a 0% pay rise, which is what Cameron gave them for 3 years running....

..and before you reply with "ah but the Train Drivers... " the total cost to settle that was £135 million... the strikes cost the UK economy £2 billion... so money well spent.

Which services would cut to pay for Hunts NI cuts? thats £10 billion per year to find....

Easy to throw insults and criticisms but have no alternative spend and tax plans... bit like Badenoch.

As for Reeves has reduced tax take, its actually £5 Billion higher that predicted, trouble is, Reeves has had to borrow to pay for all of the above....

No there shouldn't have been pay rises that we couldn't afford. Particularly the train drivers as it was handed over without any demands for reform. You're scraping the barrel a bit there going all the way back to Cameron.

Hunt's NI cut was a trap for Labour. They could and should have reversed it. Any Chancellor worth their salt would have done so.

Where is the evidence for tax take being £5b higher than predicted?
The tax take in January was nearly £5b less than predicted due in part to changes in behaviour by the self employed.

The tax take in January was nearly £5b less than predicted due in part to changes in behaviour by the self employed.

Yep £20bn down to 15bn

@TheNuthatch "Tough decision? Is that lefty speak for politics of envy?"

Please could you define "politics of envy"?

@TheNuthatch "No there shouldn't have been pay rises that we couldn't afford. Particularly the train drivers as it was handed over without any demands for reform."

It was an entirely pragmatic decision.

Really? I suppose Lou Haigh can no longer answer for her decision on that one.
To answer your other post, I would say private school tax and WFA are very much politics of envy. Also business =bad, rich people =bad.

They’re not illegal. If the UK wants to stop immigrants it needs to pull out of the UN convention on rights of refugees, say no, we’re not giving anyone refugee status anymore. To do so would be fairly controversial internationally but they could do that. But they don’t. They just continue dodging their legal obligations and go on calling those who arrive by boat illegal when they are not doing anything illegal.

There are certainly some older people who feel let down. An income a few quid a week over Pension Credit limit, denied the WFA. What was the point of a low earner making sacrifices to pay into a very modest pension, when her next door neighbour, who earned more, didn’t? It’s mainly women living alone who feel the pinch. Now the neighbour gets Council Tax benefits, a free TV licence and the WFA. Particularly hard on the oldest cohort of pensioners, as the old basic state pension is about £50 a week less than those who retired later.

I see a few sometimes having a free hot drink in our local library, which is a designated ‘Welcome Space’.

Labours biggest mistake was to promise not to increase taxes on the working people. They should merge NICs into income tax, put 1% on each tax band, make child benefit, tax free allowance and free childcare hours universal. We need growth. Ridiculous disincentives to earn more such as the 67% tax rate on earnings from £100k - £125k (far far worse if you earn that and have nursery age children) is farcical and should be binned.

So what is the point of an independent pay review body.. if the recommendations are ignored?
Cameron, ignored these, leading to the strikes we've had over many years.

I note you ignore the compensation payments of £20 billion....

Reverse the NI cuts? how would that go down with the public and what consequences would it lead too in terms of even less consumer spend? .... one cannot hand people an extra £800 on average and then months later, take it away....
Plus had Labour said they'd do this, they may well have ended up in opposition and we'd have Tory Reform Govt....

On the tax take.... HMRC's receipts for the month of January 2025 were close to £112bn, nearly £3.9bn more than the prior record haul of January 2023. Leading the way were income tax receipts which rose by £6.8bn to just under £50bn for a single month, another record

The Tories would look pretty silly now having to renounce their plans for tax cuts. The point I was making which you deliberately missed is that the economic landscape would be exactly the same regardless of who was in power. The only difference is that you’d be purring with approval if we had a Tory government regardless of what they did. Economically we’re in the shit and that didn’t suddenly happen last July.

The WFA cut is welcome in that there are many many wealthy pensioners. It should only be cut with those who’s income is over say £20k a year.

The farmers IHT ought to be tapered. If you have worked the land personally for over 30 years say you should get the full exemption. Less than that should get less exemption. And if you lease to tenant farmers or your farm is over a certain size there should be no exemptions.

£20k is far too high for the WFA cut off, it wouldn’t save enough to be worth doing. The income tax personal allowance would work as the threshold.