To think few lives have improved due to Labour’s policies

[Sandysandytoes]

I knew they wouldn’t benefit me - but I thought they might help some people.

Train drivers have more money but other than that I’m struggling. I’ve lost my job as a direct result of their policies, it would be nice to find some positives.

YABU = my life had improved as a result of Labour’s policies.

YANBU = it hasn’t improved or has got worse

How is populist politics detracting the government from doing its job? A government, with balls would be batting those attempts away.

This. Degrees are ten a penny nowadays unless they are in an in-demand subject/specialism and/or from a v.prestigious institution. Graduates seem to think they can walk out of university and into a high paying job and anything less is beneath them. We need a complete re-think of the role of schools in preparing students for jobs that will exist and not shoe-horn them into degree courses. It just results in aggrieved young people having wasted their time and saddled with a fortune in debt.

Exactly and what’s the ‘real work’ the pp thinks is happening? Increasing youth unemployment that kind of thing?

Do people not remember how high youth unemployment was in the past?

www.statista.com/statistics/280305/youth-unemployment-rate-uk/?srsltid=AfmBOoqsmOtZrI-o-iNkIiWBk9_kA279jiRqjAktQbdIzTvbIyRQm_xM

As we are middle class we are worse off. Always paying for others, but not rich enough to not feel it.
My main issue is that I cannot see much of a future here for my kids who are quite bright. One has already left.
To be honest, we have talented people coming out of our strong unis who could make a real difference here, but no Government so far is trying to retain them. That is the real issue with the UK now. They are massively shafting the young and that is completely nuts as we need young to support the future tax base more than ever.
Personally, I think they should just do tax deals with the super rich. As long as they pay something, we need the AI and tech etc. and we need the energy planning to support it.
Public sector is where the AI should be used to make the most productivity gains, but yet again, the Government is doing things the wrong way round. Every single political party we now have just seems to promise a few of their voters something better to just get enough voters to get into power/make gains. There is no thought as to what is best for all and the good of the country long term.

What I think is really sad is that too many university graduates still think a degree should be enough to guarantee employment. It’s not. They need a job strategy from y12. People sleepwalk into these problems by being under skilled.

I think it’s really unfair to blame young people for sleepwalking into this mess by being under skilled.

There is no thought as to what is best for all and the good of the country long term.

Its all short term thinking

It took the tories 40 years to kill this country and you want Labour to fix it all in an instant whilst at the same time shit stirring at every opportunity

you are financially shafted now because of the housing policies of the 1980s which mean you probably pay more to the bank each month on interest on your mortgage or your landlords mortgage than you do on anything else - but moan about the cost of eating out

focus on the big

what we have at the moment is a slow , glacial decline in house prices - because crashing the housing market bankrupts too may people

Employment Rights Act will have a lot of positive impacts on a lot of working people.

I agree but fiscal issues are being minimised due to the infighting. The only destraction Starmer is facing is knowing members of his own cabinet and some backbenchers want him gone. There's zero stability within the party. How that's meant to be a basis from which to address policies, I don't know.

@HoskinsChoice class far left values would mean Corbyn was against being in the EU and wanted Brexit.

Not sure how closely people are looking at the EU countries and I can't link stats but I can assure you it's not a fully functioning ,flying economic power house ! Not by any means and as one of the strongest economies in the EU ,weren't we second to Germany not sure I'm not sure what we've lost really ?
World trade is up and far stronger now. The entire world has been been affected by the same issues.
We are not the poor man of Europe by any means !

I can't follow the logic here at all. If the EU was suddenly thriving yes but it's still beset by all the problems it always had.

We only have two kids. I am a higher tax payer but not top tier. H is top end standard tax payer. I work pt and him f/t. We do not claim UC or benefits except child benefit which gets repaid.

We've directly benefitted from hugely reduced childcare costs, lower school uniform costs, this has saved us over £7k last year alone, the option to not pay consumables fees (we do actually pay this) DC's school is now fully staffed, reduced NHS waiting times and being able to actually see a gp face to face via the use of their online portal. Rail far has been frozen until 2027 which helps with commuting costs.

Other benefits which we have yet to see or potentially use is the £63b investment in green energy, scrapped the ban on on shore wind farms and more investment in solar energy farms with an aim to being energy prices down, greater investment in national security and defense an increase to 2.5% which is an extra £13.5b, better trade deals and rebuilding the relationship with Europe (the reinvestment in Erasmus), banning zero hour contracts and employee rights from day 1, investment in infrastructure including £9b for maintenance of health, social, educational and justice buildings. Investment in apprentices and apprenticeships which is hugely needed as finding skilled tradesmen and women are harder to come by. Plus as already mentioned for many the uncapped child benefit and incread to NMW etc huge investments in AI in regards to R&D and services - which will create jobs and outside investments which will hopefully feed back into the tax stream.

I think they have made a positive impact if you can filter out the negative.

It's not all doom and gloom. They have definitely made fuck ups and lack any personality or charisma but there have been improvements and I believe every single person will benefit from their policies somehow.

• classic

AI is the opposite of green energy though and that is where I am struggling conceptually.
The US is all pro AI and leading the new tech revolution and hence they are going all out on massive energy consumption and will probably let their super scalers even have their own mini nuclear energy (god knows how they plan to deal with the waste long term). They are letting the private sector lead there fully and Trump is using more control than congress used to have to enable that hence the executive orders etc. At least that is my understanding, that they think this is their way to remain a superpower and it is worth going full steam ahead.

Whereas here we do have the talent in theory, but we do not have the energy needs to support it and are not planning it properly just making AI noises hoping that fools the voters.
Now well managed AI tech revolution should lead to efficiencies and massive productivity gains in the public sector thereby enabling the private sector to flourish and in theory, people as a whole should be gaining more leisure time. The whole thing needs to be navigated and planned carefully and I do not think they are. How can you go on about people being green but at the same time knowing full well how much energy and water AI actually consumes and how many social problems may come with it, if they just gain control and employ fewer people. The solution is for the Government to be investing in AI to make the public sector more efficient and to be planning the energy use their very carefully and to be recruiting top notch staff. At the end of the day, like any progress, there are going to be more jobs in theory if managed properly, not less, but people are going to need to be smarter as they will have to be using and cross checking what the AI does and will need to have a very deep understanding. And hence we need the young to go to uni and be smarter not less smart.

Improved resident doctors pay and ended that strike (on being elected).

For people who have larger families and struggling (not my area) then more child benefit and associated benefits for larger families too.

Pensioners income increased.

Wow not bad.

Erasmus is a poisoned chalis coming at a time of huge financial stress on our students and on our universities

The reason it was scraped and not kept along with Brexit was because it was a poor scheme re our pov.

Our universities are far more desirable than those across Europe with exceptions

So far more students came to us from Europe and they pay their fees to their home country.

Maybe the new arrangement will be worked so we are better off ? 580 million is a lot of money for this when students on plan a2 loans are drowning in debt and misery though and uni staff are striking.

Well we’ve suddenly got lots of nhs dentists available (our local one is advertising every week) so I guess plenty of people with manky teeth might feel better soon.

Unfortunately yes. Telling people what they want to hear is much easier than admitting everything is shit and we're all going to have to tighten our belts and pull together for a while.

Reform (or any party) can't fix an ageing population. They can't fix a global economic growth paradigm that has expanded beyond the capability of the human population to sustain it. They can't fix the reliance we have on dwindling finite resources (fracking is a sticking plaster). They can't boost the NHS back to what it should be - the number of beds has more than halved since the 80s - at least not overnight and not at great expense.

If anyone is expecting any party to sweep in and pave the streets with gold and turn Britain into a land of milk and honey, they are going to be severely disappointed.

This is aside from actual policies impacting jobs. Do you usually vote Labour? There seems to be posts to on forgetting the impact of policy rn

We're all doooomed, Captain Mainwaring!

Resident doctors have been on strike three times under Labour - to date, with further action planned. What we are awaiting is a detailed cost breakdown on exactly how much tax payers money has been frittered on private service providers to cover the periods of strike action.

No, I'm a floating voter. In my lifetime I have voted Tory, Lib Dem, Labour, and once for an independent candidate. I have no particular attachment to any political party.

The "actual policies impacting jobs" are implemented because the current govt is trying to a) raise taxes and b) boost productivity, in an environment that is entirely unconducive to the latter - see my previous posts.

It's like trying to turn the Titanic. It's not going to work.

But not if employers decide to lay off, or simply not replace leavers.
Where's the good in having extra rights if it means there is no job?
The ONS reported this morning that unemployment has hit a 5-year high. Well done Starmer and Reeves.
Source.

Did you work at William Hill, the betting shop? Maybe you could explain a little more.