To ask how much you think income tax will rise by?

[Wonderofwimbledon]

We’re absolutely financially at our limit… I’m so incredibly stressed. An income tax rise will break us and we won’t be able to afford it. We won’t have money to eat.

What do you think it’ll be? I just want to curl up and cry- we can’t take anymore increases our bills , mortgage everything has increased we have no spare money at all

You really do like to cherry picking don't you. Could you at least make an attempt to understand the data?

Unemployment is measured by the number of people who are actively seeking work. It has gone up because people are returning to the workplace.

Unemployment may have gone up but economic inactivity has gone down - which likely means fewer people are claiming incapacity benefits - isnt that a good thing?

Comparable rates for 16 - 64 year olds from the latest release show that we have a lower rate of Economic inactivity AND a higher rate of Employment. Yes, there has been a slight increase in unemployment, but only because more people are seeking work 🙄

Jul - Sept 2025
Economic inactivity = 21.0%
Unemployment = 5.0%
Employment = 75%

March to May 2024

Economic inactivity = 22.1%
Unemployment = 4.3%
Employment = 74.4%

March to May 2016

Economic inactivity = 21.7%
Unemployment = 4.9%
Employment = 74.3%

March to May 2008

Economic inactivity = 22.9%
Unemployment = 5.2%
Employment = 73%

What’s with ‘regular anti Labour poster’ stuff. That doesn’t wash either.

The current government which is reducing NHS waiting times and has increased education funding you mean?

The current government which is getting people off incapacity benefits and helping them to seek work?

The current government which has seen four consecutive quarters of growth in both GDP and NDP?

That current government?

Just to wade in…I run a business. The increases to employers NI, coupled with additional changes to the Employment Rights Bill meant we haven’t hired any growth roles this year. That is the first time in a decade.
We have also outsourced a couple of functions off shore that we usually service in the Uk.
Sure, AI will (and is) having an impact but that isn’t the full picture. The addition of increased costs has pushed rapid adoption of AI and exacerbated the issue.
If you honestly think the last budget had no impact on employers behaviours (and hiring trends), you’re wrong.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/uk-faces-jobs-drought-5HjdD4L_2/

Goodo there’s still hope in the old tank yet. Labour will be happy with this.

The budget is going to be difficult for them politically. Especially if they break the manifesto and increase benefits.

Well, Sunak gave us an actually recession in Q3 of 2023.

That was less than 15months into his tenure.

So no, there was no huge success, there wasn't even success & before you accuse me of fixation, i'm replying to your assertion.

I'll blame Labour when they mess up or don't do as promised

Unless this is sarcasm I’m not getting, I think we’ve well and truly veered away from reality.

No - they didn't 🙄

PFI was not inherently a bad thing - it was just set up badly from the start. It was also the brainchild of the Major government and continued being use the last Tory government until 2018.

The last Labour government did increase the percentage of GDP spent on health from less than 5% to just under 8%, with massively improved services as a result. The increase in health spending was not just needed to fix a broken service but also serve an aging population.

The last government reduced spending by less than 1%....and decimated services in the process which has led directly to an increasing benefit bill as more people become unfit for work while they languish on waiting lists.

I agree - if the pension rumours turn out to be true, I fundamentally disagree with what they are planning.

The changes to pensions and increasing the base rate of income tax are absolutely the wrong things to do.

But...that is a different issue to saying that they are bad for the economy, that services aren't improving or that they encourage more people to claim benefits - because all of those things are demonstrably evidenced through published data as not being true!

If you think they are doing well on that why do you think Reeves did a pre budget press conference?

I’d also ask why do you think they need to break the manifesto but that aside, why the conference?

Can you please post the published data showing tax rises are not bad for the economy and that benefits are not increasing.

From what I've read they used PFI to keep the budget and costs "off the books" and then the interest rate costs spiraled out of control. People used PFI to profit seek

PFI is a very small part of NHS spend.

What would the country have done during Covid without the Hospitals PFI funded?
How would we have borrowed during CV and Ukraine if the money spent had been on the books?

However, in many cases the PFI contracts were v badly drawn up, by Major, Blair/Brown and the Cameron Govt, until they stopped them.

Yes Rachel’s speech last year on the 6th November, how the tax rises were a reset (blame Tories, black hole etc) and she wouldn’t be back for more this parliament. I don’t know about you, but this wouldn’t inspire me to buy gilts for a reduced rate. I can’t believe people still defend them.

https://www.tax.org.uk/no-more-tax-increases-in-this-parliament-chancellor-tells-mps

I mean I hate the NHS in the first place and would have rather European style social insurance models

Because whoever was in power would be looking to increases taxes.

My defence if thats what it is, is to counter you and others constant v bias attacks on Labour, there is zero balance, not even a pretence of it.

The country voted out the Tories because they were awful... Recessions, Fines, Truss, huge increases in borrowing, multiple GE's & PMs.

I'll give Labour a little more than 15months, thats fair, esp as there wont be another GE for another 3.5years.

Dear me, are there any Tories in the room with you right now? Are they telling you to do anything?

Again, this is what I wrote

‘Relative to the last 14 months it was a huge success and that was with Brexit and a global pandemic that shut down the economy for months on end’
The implication being, it wasn’t a huge success at all but better than the last 14 months. Does this clear it up for you?

ha ha more condescension, is this your "go to?"

what i replied with....

"Brexit was their fucking idea!
And the idea the UK was doing well at anytime from 2010 2020 pre pandemic, is a joke, we had piss poor growth, no investment, huge amount of immigration.
They even took borrowing from 65% to 87% whilst giving us crippling cuts to public services which we are still paying for now.
Staggering anyone would see their tenue as a "Huge Success"

Nothing Labour have done, matches the Tories levels of incompetence.

Yes , the first time she gets a pass. But you understand she’s increasing taxes again right? and you understand that if there’s nothing pro growth or to reduce costs in this budget then she’ll be back next year? You understand that lending to a Government widely regarding as fiscally incompetent is not really going to be great for gilt yields?

Yet more condescension...

Are you incapable of having a normal argument ?

Gilts yields are falling, markets know we need tax rises and spending cuts.

BBC comments section

Inflation high
Unemployment rising
Taxes going up
Spending going up
Immigration measures not effective

Bad times for the UK
Reply
2565 likes
240 dislike

Yes you were right, it was a joke about the huge success.

Nothing Labour have done, matches the Tories levels of incompetence

This is madness. Let’s try a different approach, what metrics would you accept that the Tories aren’t responsible for and we’ll pick this back up in a couple of months? Further 10% rise in unemployment, weaker pound, increase in gilt yields, % debt to GDP. etc

Well, unemployment reached 8% under the Tories, Debt to GDP went from 65% to 87% pre Covid and then to almost 100% by 2023, £ to $ fell to 1.08 in july 2022.... interest rates to 5.25%, its now 4%.

I'm answering your points with the above

Back to what i'll attribute to Labour.... for starters, a total failure to fix dentistry, thats now... they ve had enough time to at least lay out their plans...

Atm the world economy is all at sea, the tariffs issue, AI, Ukraine and European energy costs.

So i'm afraid, i cannot judge them on 15months, its simply not long enough, i didn't judge Cameron in 2011 either, when he'd had just 15months..... he inherited a GFC but by 2015, it was clear he was following the wrong policies & then came Brexit.

You also seem very dismissive of the growth we have had, its better than most other G7 economies..... though it is relative to v poor pre & post pandemic growth.

So there’s no metrics you’d accept to demonstrate that Labour’s policies and ideology are damaging, even in the future?
Like a region I guess.

The Tories did do some good. Cut a lot of carbon emissions and massively expanded our renewable energy generation. Air quality massively improved across the country as well. I commend them for that.