Is The IMF taking Over perhaps just what the country needs

[WaitingInForMyFoodShopping]

Ok bear with me. This sounds like an idiotic thing to say because if the IMF are involved it means the country is officially in a mess and the IMF will slash spending and enforce their own budgets and rules. So anyone on benefits might lose them, NHS funding will likely go down, same for the police force etc

It just occurred to me today that the country is in a complete mess and there isn't really any end in sight.

Headlines today - I didn't read the detail but I am just getting more angry, helpless feeling and frustrated and want 'somebody' who has some balls to step in and say enough. Things change from today. Todays headlines are rising taxes, 1/10 high school kids on benefits, families of migrants can claim benefits from day 1 even if they don't speak english.

Now i will caveat this by saying the housing market does need sorted but lets be honest that's not what they are trying to do here - it's just about raising taxes. I also say there is another articles claiming ' a crackdown on bring families into Britain' - something that made me snort with derision giving the whole small boats/protests going on just now.

I mean lets just get to the point. Does ANYONE think RR/KS are able to fix this mess. I know they didn't cause it. I know they have been in office less than a year but if we give them another year are they able to fix it. I personally don't think so. It is going to need someone very tough to brave the mess and take it in hand (Maggie Thatcher where are you now).
So what are we left with - voting Reform - which I have joked about doing but i don't actually think that is the way to go. That's borne out of desperation. So who is going to fix it then.

AIBU to think a complete reset, painful as it will be by the IMF is just what the country needs?

House prices drop unexpectedly amid property tax fears - latest updates

The ‘ludicrous’ migrant family rule pushing councils to breaking point

One in 10 secondary schoolchildren on disability benefits

I mean yes, clearly. Elsewhere in this thread someone is talking about moving their tax presence abroad in the same post as complaining about what a shambles the NHS is. These people have more than enough to have an exceptionally high quality of life and yet would actually let an unwell baby die because we’ve “reached the maximum” we can pay in tax.

I think it may be true that we can’t tax the super wealthy much more, simply in practical terms, as they’ll just move, but we can try to close as many loopholes as possible. At least we could do more to make it inconvenient for them.

People in the middle could certainly pay more. I earn around £45k and I would happily pay more tax if it would be spent on better services and investment where it’s needed. I honestly don’t even think about the tax I currently pay; it’s just not money I consider mine.

My concern is it would be pissed up the wall on stupid government contracts and weapons we never use and endless administrative reorganisations of things. This concern is not specific to the current government (although I do despair of the current government).

OP could you please address the point many posters have made about this situation being absolutely the norm for other countries too?

I don’t think this quite works as a counter argument as @GasPanicposts below.

Do you understand how much public money is wasted every single day on absolutely ridiculous crap? Why is everyone going straight to leaving disabled people to die in the streets as the most obvious way to save? A civilised society should cut almost everything else before resorting to that. We are so so so so far off even needing to contemplate something so unconscionable and yet certain posters are almost salivating at the prospect.

Why don't you sign up to the HMRC voluntary additional contributions service then. You can choose the amount of extra tax you pay. That will ease your conscience.
Otherwise it just sounds like virtue signalling.

Lol. I was surprised to google that they have 11 per year. Maybe I should not be surprised.

I think the biggest issue is that pretty much any change to benefits will be red carded and be ripe for exploitation by the right.

Some might consider the UK to be pretty hard to govern atm, but France looks practically impossible.

I guess we wait for Sept 8th.

I’ve heard this so many times before and it’s so clearly daft. Obviously everyone needs to pay more tax for it to make any difference. And I’ve already said I have no faith in the government making sensible spending decisions so no, I won’t be unilaterally giving them money I could spend on my kids so they can spend it on implementing some new civil service IT system through 100 layers of subcontractors that won’t work and needs to be replaced in 2 years anyway.

I don’t care if you think i’m virtue signalling. I’m simply stating my belief that more tax is the solution and i’m willing to be part of that solution if and when it’s sensibly implemented, rather than just “taxing the rich”. Whether you believe me or not I don’t care.

I’d do that if there weren’t so many people considerably better off than me cramming their pensions and cutting their hours to minimise their tax contributions. I’m not about to subsidise them.

My comment wasn't directed at you. You didn't need to respond to it

Perfectly put. It's not called The Torygraph for nothing.

It’s an open conversation. Anyone can join in. 🤷‍♀️

I don’t think it is as Labour have already increased taxes and borrowing and it’s resulting in higher debt.

They also said the last budget was a one off hike.

Whatever you are in the world you got to work for your food. Only countries with benefits systems give free lunch option. Do they need the international m fund? Tough of they do, because there are always to be lazy people

Argh! Not working in your 50s is absolutely contributing to low growth. Jesus. What do you think happens to economic growth if 15% of the labour force withdraws their labour? But yeah, moan about the govt...

The idea that your only cost to the public purse is your prescription is fucking hilarious. Do you use streets, roads, benefit from the provision of police, military, libraries, street lights, education, and presumably you're planning on claiming your pension?

The absolute irony.

Do you mean this nonsense @EasternStandard ?

@GasPanic

We're slightly off topic but re France, bank holidays and

Lol. I was surprised to google that they have 11 per year. Maybe I should not be surprised

Be wary when comparing with the UK...if a bank holiday is tied to a specific date (and a few are such as VE day, 8 May, Armistice Day Nov 11) if that date falls over a weekend you don't get a day off in lieu...you simply lose it...some years the UK does better with it's various Bank holiday Mondays which of course are always on a Monday.

Also worth being aware the French don't tend to shut down enmass for the whole of Xmas.

Anyhow I guess that's enough off topic but it maybe demonstrates why it's hard to compare across borders.

@placematsthis. If you disagree there are constraints to borrowing can you say more than rookie or nonsense to say why?

My "ignorance is bliss" as you put it was simply me making the point that you not being able to get a GP appointment (not ever? Really?) - which you most certainly used as part of your 'evidence' that we need the IMF to wade in - wasn't evidence of this at all, because some people CAN get a GP appointment.

If you're going to make an argument, at least use relevant evidence.

Right. So we can afford to allow people to retire in their 50s, a phenomenal privilege absolutely unimaginable to the majority of the population.

Yet fundamental rights like the right to life-saving healthcare may have to go.

Firstly it's government, which as gas panic rightly said elsewhere is wealthy. Most households in the UK are not wealthy. From that stand point, the two cannot be compared. Thatcher was wrong to compare the two.

No I don't mean a man (although it could be a man).

I mean a person with a steel will who can make hard decisions and stand up to public backlash and start digging us out of the debt hole. I was actually thinking of Maggie Thatcher when I used that expression.

Yes thank you I was well aware that using credit card debit was an oversimplification of what happens when you can't even repay the interest each month never mind the capital. I honed in on this very simple example because several posters appear to not have a clue about the UK economic state.

I've been accused of 'I can't get a doctors appointment thus I want an IMF bailout'

'I want disabled children to die when they shut the NHS down'

'I can get a GP appointment, thus the NHS must be fine and by default the UK's finances must also by fine, thus I am talking rubbish'

I do have trouble believing that people could be this silly but either they truly are and don't understand (thus me trying to make it a simple example they could relate to) or they are deliberately being obtuse which is (I hope) what they are doing.

It's austerity.

Which of course is evil when the Tories do it.

But fine when Labour do it according to the flag wavers.

The hypocrisy of it is off the scale.

You're the one who is deliberately being obtuse @WaitingInForMyFoodShopping

And you know that.

The pp is correct to say high debt has constraining factors and is destabilising.

I think some feel it can go higher without repercussions.

Oh give over and acknowledge that this particular thread has failed.