To find Rachel Reeves an irritating pain in the neck

[Viviennemary]

Just been listening to this Spring Statement. What a load of total waffle. About how great things are going to be. Absolute and utter nonsense.

Rachel’s mum wrote this.

Same here - l felt safe with Rishi

No. Just someone who's sick to the back teeth of paying tax and getting nowt in return. I thought the tories were meant to be the party of fiscal prudence. Ha ha don't make me laugh. Honestly what have they done in 15 years? Nothing. Apowasing their core voters as always
I think labour have done a good job with the shit hand they've been dealt. Who do you think should pay? Don't say PAYE people with no assets.

She’s so useless it has to be deliberate. No one can be that incompetent. It’s like she is trying to bankrupt the U.K. The tories were shite too.

To be honest I’m £500 better off a year as I have cancelled my TV licence - BBC is now propaganda. Stopped buying takeaways - I’m not wanting to fund tax avoidance and fraud and it seems deliveroo etc are allowing people to share accounts. I can make my own curry and homemade pizza and it’s far healthier too. That’s easily £500 saved this year - probably not what the government want me to do. I am now using the money I have saved to buy directly from farmers. I have donated a fair bit of it to the grooming girls charity (Maggie Oliver) and a Southport charity.

Next to go will be using my expensive convenience shop. I now get milk delivered from the farm mid week and that cuts out the required visit (where I ended up spending far too much). I haven’t visited the expensive shop once this month. The milk is a bit more from the farm but it’s organic and is actually saving me money as I don’t go to the shop.

inews.co.uk/news/delivery-riders-account-sharing-facebook-black-market-2957089?srsltid=AfmBOoqKFBESB6vQchG_ikcYRMHaPjHYh_BHkd_GUHh6PGEyDclGH0hG

The treatment of pensioners on 13k a year and Starmer attending a party the night of Southport when he will have known little girls were in surgery - I will never vote Labour again.

www.pressreader.com/uk/the-scottish-mail-on-sunday/20240922/281608130832310?srsltid=AfmBOorPr3zAtTghrUTpd4A9-lGmYkRZTYYTpcHYcWJd_9ommrU3dqA6

Sorry my link is a paid for link. Here’s a free one. It’s the daily mail but I read many papers. You have to nowadays as so much is going on one paper won’t cover it all!

It may be the daily mail but at least they published what happened. I sat all evening with my kids giving them extra hugs. Our PM went to a party - grim. (I don’t think the celebs who attended did the right thing either).

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13877291/amp/Keir-Starmer-floral-tribute-children-killed-Southport-knife-attack-Labour-drinks-Downing-Street.html

As chancellor how did everyone find Gordon brown (on the whole)

She's always smiling and cheerful looking and full of confidence that her decisions are good. Fiddler on the Titanic I'd say.

Headlines are scathing this morning. A mix of ruining the economy and balancing books on backs of the poor.

You only need to talk to a range of people to know the vast majority think the economy is heading in a very bad direction. Those in business, finance, small business owners, disabled.

Redundancies are coming. Recruitment frozen. Pay for those on more than minimum wage frozen (especially in the private sector). This will reduce spending. Bills rising. I’ve reduced mine significantly and invested in shares (not U.K.) this is despite not feeling the pinch yet.

Yes papers are finally reporting. But this was obvious from her autumn statement.

As I said upthread I can only assume it is deliberate - no one can be that incompetent.

Just imagine the outcry on here is this was a Tory government doing this. But because it’s a Labour government there’s hardly anything. I had to look on Google to find this thread.

The rate at which professionals and higher earners are leaving the UK is terrifying. Two of my three children are currently in the process, so sad.

Trouble is that by encouraging more people to mix, it almost certainly caused the Autumn lockdowns, which will have done more damage to the hospitality sector - probably overall worse than had he just let hospitality open up normally and be "busy enough" without it being rammed full of people only going out to shovel discounting food down their throats, in places that would be more overcrowded because of the EOTHO scheme. Hospitality didn't need it and certainly didn't need the subsequent lockdowns it led to. People were eager to get out and socialise after the lockdowns anyway - just being allowed to re open was enough. By EOTHO, places were too busy, too crowded, and it was no surprise at all that infections started to soar. At our local dining pub, they had to rent in security barriers and security staff to control the queues when they re-opened after lockdowns - the demand was already there! EOTHO also gave the impression that Covid was over and was no longer a threat, so it caused people to stop caring about social distancing etc - not that it was even possible in the ridiculously over-crowded restaurants that was caused by EOTHO!

Yep, said it a few times on MN. At my son's firm (one of the largest UK insurers), literally ALL the graduates are planning to emigrate once they've qualified, and virtually all the leaving "dos" he goes to, roughly one a month from his own office alone (one of a dozen in the UK), most are newly qualified actuaries moving abroad, rather than moving to other UK insurers. Son is definitely planning on emigrating himself, as it's basically the talk of the building among the actuarial and accountancy graduates, so they're all discussing options/opportunities etc. The UK needs to wake up and realise we're heading into the abys, and Rachel's incompetence and envy politics and sixth form debating society standard of policy making is just accelerating us towards the abys. She's managing to screw everything up - it'd be quite impressive if the damage wasn't so disastrous!

Trouble is that the Tories wouldn't do a better job. We've had a succession of incompetent Tory Chancellors too. And before the Tories, we had an incompetent Labour Chancellor in Gordon Brown. I really don't know what the answer is. But if RR doesn't get a grip soon, the next election WILL be won by Reform or a similar extreme party as the voters have had enough of the "two cheeks of the same" arse. It's why we ended up with Brexit - people didn't want to leave the EU, it was another protest vote against the Tories and Labour!

I could think of a few words, none of them as nice as 'irritating'.

There is nothing remotely 'Labour' about Rachel Reeves.

She's on the dinner party circuit with Osborne. That tells me everything I need to know. It's one big circle jerk, and we're mugs for believing that there are only two options to vote for. If we keep voting for one or the other, we'll keep getting the same old shit.

She needs to tax unearned wealth. Leaving it untouched can only mean one thing. She's a neoliberal Thatcherite in all but name.

@taxguru
i agree I have already said to my school age children they need skills to leave the UK.

I hope we turn ourselves around but it’s looking less and less likely.

We have spent years poaching other countries bright kids - now countries with good economic policies and growth will poach British kids. Looking at crime and tax data published in Europe, British kids are a good bet - economically active and low levels of crime. It makes good economic and community sense - kids who work and are low cost (crime/community cohesion). If I moved to a country I’d embrace that countries festivals, holidays etc. I am sure many of our kids would too.

I have mentioned this to a few people and some of them are looking at leaving too. Nurses, IT people, education staff - they are not talking about it but happy to discuss when I brought it up.

What I have realised this past 6 months is that people are afraid of airing their thoughts but when they know you won’t judge them or defriend them they have a lot to say. This is a huge issue for a Western country that is meant to embrace free speech.

@hairbearbunches passive income is taxed already.

@hairbearbunches

Those with houses and savings are very aware that Labour want more money. Luckily stats from Van de Beek and Denmarks ministry of finance show British citizens are net contributors and low at committing crime.

A country will never tax its way to wealth. The rich will leave and those that have no money will stay.

1% of people fund 30% of Income tax. Do people want this to be more?

the very rich are mobile and wont stay. All their wealth and spending such as eating out, shopping etc will go to another country.

The benefits claims were going through the roof. We all know people who are claiming all sorts of benefits but doing cash in hand work. People who are claiming to live alone but have their partner living their as well.

Something needed to be done about the balloning benefits bill and looking at the BBC who as soon as this was announced brought out the extremely disabled people. Everyone knows those are not the people this is being targeted at.

If I hear one more 'its my health and well being' or I have bad mental health I will scream. its OK to be anxious occasionally. It doesnt mean that you dont work. There will be something most people can do but its that benefits are easier to claim.

@43percentburnt A country will never tax its way to wealth. The rich will leave and those that have no money will stay.

The group Patriotic Millionaires would refute this. The ultra high net worth bunch are fleecing us, they don’t pay a proportionately fair share of tax. It needs to change.

£1bn is 1000 x £1m. There isn’t a person alive who needs this much money. Or even half of it.

I agree. Back in the noughties a newspaper did a huge graphic as to the ministers and shadow ministers and other influential political positions, and how they were linked, lots of links as to where they were educated, where they previously worked together, marriages and relationships, broader family and friends, etc., and the links between the two main parties were really surprising, when you have, say, a Labour minister living with a Tory researcher, or two opposing cabinet positions who'd been educated in the same place, worked in the same place, saw each other socially and did sports/hobbies together. It really is all two cheeks of the same arse except for a few exceptions. I think it's all a game to a lot of them, just in it for themselves and a bright prosperous future after the end of their political careers due to contacts made, promises of jobs for favours, etc.

But nowhere near as highly as workers wages. That's the problem and it needs addressing. Passive/unearned income needs to be taxed more heavily than workers wages.

The middle class definitely need to be taxed more. In fact they are the only people who can support increasing taxes. Poor people have no money and rich people are mobile.

They don't need taxing on earned income though, because this just persuades people not to work. The only exception to this IMO should be the tax relief on pension contributions, which should be changed to 50% of what it is currently. This still gives a reasonable incentive to save while raising extra revenue. We also need to ensure pensions are ring fenced for inheritance tax - that is once money is put into a pension and receives tax relief it will become liable for inheritance tax.

All the other extra taxation should go on assets and unearned income.

I think the problem with this government is they really had a opportunity to change round the way things are done, but they have fluffed it. Why ? I think maybe three reasons, one is because the need for change is not pressing enough (we will get there, just not at the moment), the second is because the government is running scared of making significant changes due to what happened to Truss. The final one is the promises they made in order to get themselves elected, which have led to them being hamstrung. They are simply out of options to implement any significant change without breaking the promises they made.

Thus we are getting the same old old, another 5 years of Tory government.

Starmer has a choice, he can be the journeyman policitian who no one remembers or he can try to do something different and change the country. That comes with a lot of risk of course. And the longer he leaves it, the more risky it is to Labour regaining power at the next election, because changes often lead to things getting worse before they get better and we are already getting close to 1 year in power for Starmer.

Benefits do need to be cut. That’s the one thing she is is not wrong about. She just isn’t cutting them deep enough. Everyone knows that the millions claiming disability benefits are not all genuinely disabled, unable to work. The system is a joke and people are milking it.

Trying to get growth while further disincentivising anyone to invest would be a spectacularly stupid thing to do. When ever anyone suggests this it makes me think that they either really don’t understand how the economy actually works or they’re just desperate for someone else, anyone else, to pay for an easy solution to their problems and that’s blinded them to logic.