Fuck it - the government will look me

[Phonicshaskilledmeoff]

I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the way our country is run. I love my country, but what on earth can I do to fix it? the Rachel reeves pension and stamp duty rumours have tipped me over the edge.

I believe 90% of our lives is the summation of our own choices. Bar (some of) our own (and families) health and tragic life events, there is very little we can’t choose in this country.

I’m not saying that the playing field is fair - I absolutely acknowledge that some groups face structural barriers that make good choices harder. Others are unaware those choices even exist. That’s where government should step in—not to equalise outcomes, but to equalise access to meaningful choice.

I think we all acknowledge that bad governments are ones that take away choices. This government, however is also taking away choice by incentivising bad choices. Policies should nudge people toward self-sufficiency, not make state reliance easier than self-reliance, or rewarding short-term decisions over long-term

Our Government should be working towards equitable availability of choice (not equal - see below) to make sure those choices are as easy and available to everyone. Policies should be in place to make sure people are encouraged to make the right choices.

I increasingly feel like I make the right choices and think what was the bloody point!

I’m going to wish I never paid into my pension soon and went on holiday instead! Should I just spend my money, move into a smaller house and quit my job. At this point I think I’d be better off.

Jargon Buster - EQUALITY - It’s assumed there is a level playing field and everyone gets the same resources. EQUITY - Everyone gets what they need to succeed, which may mean different levels of support.

Me too! I miss working so much.

Believe me - I'm not!

I'm just sick to the back teeth of the Starmer bashing when Boris and Co got a free pass to run us into the ground and the amount of deluded people who think Reform are the answer when they are even more against the working people than the Tories.

If it was up to me we'd replace the lot of them with a whole heap of Northern Grandma's and let common sense take hold for a bit!

Alas, we have this shower of shite to pick from 😩

Absolutely. I am always 🙄when I see people posting about how easy it is to get ahead from the comfort of their leafy, six figure salaried middle class world. That the poor just need to apply themselves and their problems will disappear. Or alternatively how crap the middle classes have it in comparison to someone living in a damp flat on £400 a month. They just have no idea of some people's reality.

It doesn't confuse me.

Struggling benefit claimants - Farage says blame the immigrants! Vote Reform for no more immigrants!

Struggling working people - Farage says blame the immigrants and workshy benefit claimants! Vote Reform for no more immigrants and workshy benefit claimants!

And on and on it goes.

It is like a Ponzi scheme of scapegoating. But people are so blinded by hate, they don't see it. Even when they are the ones being scapegoated.

Farage is a scumbag, but he's a clever scumbag.

What if those middle class people are actually friends with those who you are referring to as poor? My child’s extra curricular takes place in an area that is considered ‘rough’ and I have friends who are in receipt of multiple benefits as they have SEN diagnoses alongside their children. No they don’t own their own properties, but live in lovely new builds on a clean and tidy new development. They are also able to fund things for their children through their children’s DLA that I wouldn’t be able to afford. Holidays abroad and in this country every year. Honestly there are no damp flats in my circle.

Work-wise neither of the women work although I know they did used to work in the care sector.. One does some side work as a beautician whilst her partner does a courier type job. The other has a partner but I don’t believe he works.

I grew up in poverty - with foster carers at some stages. Looking back I see how my child benefit, income support, family allowance (I’m 46) was spent. I grew on a benefits estate - I didn’t feel “poor” until I was taken in by carers. I was quite happy until I saw what I could have. It’s hard to acknowledge but some people will always be happy to scrape by.

You think people who have SEN and have children on DLA are just not applying themselves? Or do you think they should be living in worse accommodation and just get by on the bones or their arses?
Put all the people with SEN and/or claiming DLA in damp flats!

I’m saying the lazy generalisations on here about people in receipt of benefits being ‘poor’ is nonsense.

I don’t think they do get a free pass, that’s why Reform are doing well. People are pissed off with Labour but still angry about Boris and co.

We likely need to be realistic about what is affordable, not sure the electorate will go for that though.

That's what I thought. Either the OP has been lucky in life, or she's from a privileged background.

But it isn't lazy to generalise based on a few people you know?

Not at all unreasonable but your original post seems to be complaining that money is spent on improving the lives of children whose parents choices you disagree with. So there's an awful lot of hypocrisy here. All the socially funded schemes in place to help when I was growing up, university bursaries and funding, funding for teens who remain in education, sure start centres have been eroded by the Tories. And you seem to be arguing for the removal of MORE funding?

To help the children you first help the parents without dividing into the deserving and undeserving poor. That's the only way to benefit the next generation

Well, I guess people voted for Labour - and are going to be punished for it.

Manifestos evidently count for nothing.

Yes I think your post doesn’t go against what I meant?

If Labour hit people over £45 or £50k it’s been determined that a whole raft of teachers, train drivers etc are in that group

The we won’t tax working people nonsense falls apart. They’ll find it hard to get MPs to defend it.

Some posters would disagree with you, because it does not fit the inequality narrative.

Bless you, that sounds hard.

In the same vein as your reply, I didn't choose to be adopted, born to heroin addicts, have a head injury and post concussion syndrome before being injured by psychotropic drugs and then have a movement disorder... I think it's all about the circumstances of someone's life but equally the way they respond to life events and the hand they have been given.

Sometimes those circumstances are easiest to get through than others, and of course, everyone is different so will react differently.

Life isn't as black and white as some people say. I do think that some people actively choose to live with a lower standard than they could, and it isnt beyond them to improve things. They sometimes just choose not to.

I think actual people talking about their community are just the people to believe over politicians and activists. That is not to say there aren’t people living in squalid places and children living in poverty. How people choose to spend their benefits is a whole other discussion. We all know that there are those who spend their money with their children in mind and those who prioritise addiction and dysfunction.

I'm so sorry, that's really sad. My life is definitely something that was a result of my drug addict parents' choices. Luckily my birth mum made the right choice when I was adopted.

Oh, absolutely. I'm just not sure that essentially punishing the majority who spend their benefits sensibility is the answer or that it would actually save money to implement new systems such as vouchers etc.

I don’t want anyone punished but I do want work incentivised and this government is certainly not doing that.

That is not to say there aren’t people living in squalid places and children living in poverty.

30% of children are living in poverty.

Correct.

The covenant between government and tax payer has been broken.

The perception (and increasing reality) is that work does not pay because tax is becoming punitive (read redistributive).

The government is a parasite to the tax payers host, and the host has simply had enough.

People can be as pissed off as they like but if they're going to be lazy and not look into what Reform actually stand for and what policies they back and want to implement then they are being idiots, IMO.

Reform are NOT for the working people of this country.
They are NOT for workers rights.
They are NOT for women's rights.
They will CUT funding to the NHS, education, mental health and child services.
They want to REDUCE buyers rights, food standards and drug standards.
They are FOR tax breaks for the rich.
They are FOR privatisation of the NHS.

NONE of this improves life for me or the majority of the country.

AND they can't stop the bloody boats!

It's all lies and propaganda.

The bastards are Tories on acid and they're using the Trump playbook to rile up the lower classes to vote for their own demise.

I confess that I am a little bit baffled. You keep talking about choices but with no clarity as to what these choices might be or how the government could offer them. I'm also puzzled that this only bothers you now, but doesn't seem to have bothered you in the past. If you genuinely believe that a Tory government offers people more of these "choices" I fear for your sanity. I strongly suspect that the choices you refer to are confined to the middle class and above - those below that line having already chosen to be poor, ill or both.

You also seem confused about the nature of PIP. It is not an out-of-work benefit, nor is it means-tested. Many of us can and do work, using our PIP to run mobility vehicles, or engage paid help. These are the choices having PIP offers us. It therefore stands to reason that the removal of PIP, ostensibly for the purpose of allowing us the "choice" of being independent (for which read unemployed and starving) would have the opposite effect, propelling us out of work and onto Universal Credit. I'm not going to pretend that those who advocate this so-called reform don't know this. The truth is, disabled people who work are mightily inconvenient to the welfare reform lobby. We just don't fit the mould, really. We are, in many cases, far more productive in relative terms than our able-bodied counterparts. We pay tax and NI, we own our own homes, and we are forced by complex medical conditions to take proper care of ourselves. So we are not mentioned at all. Far easier to pretend we don't exist, rather than admit that the proposed reforms to PIP would be a massively counter-intuitive act of abuse. If you really want to see equity in action, look at a PIP recipient. And then hang your head in shame at being the citizen of a country that wants to remove the only thing that has given us anything approaching equality of opportunity.

I mean yeh I’m fine if people want to focus on Reform as you are

Idk what will happen but I think Labour will struggle next GE