Labour don’t get it because of ideology over practicality.

[LouiseTold]

AIBU that the remaining Labour supporters simply don’t understand why Labour are so unpopular because they’re too caught up in the ideology ?

Job tax, farmer tax, education tax, pension tax, salary sacrifice scrapping, employee legislation, landlord tax, renting legislation. All ideological policies that are economically illiterate and are having negative impacts across the board, yet we see Labour saying it’s because they’re not far enough left.

Ideology!

good grief - PRACTICALITY is the reason Labour can’t wave a magic wand and give everyone more money overnight and solve all their problems overnight. Practicality is why things take time to get better

dont change anything as something might get worse as others get better is a recipe for steady decay / which is what the UK has experienced under the right wing for decades

Ideology yes but not for the reasons you state OP. I can no longer vote Labour, they ditched class analysis for identity politics which undermines the very fabric of society. Safeguarding.

They’ve waved a magic wand and increased unemployment by 25%, lowered private rental supply by 20%, increased independent school closure by 50%, increased small business closure by 18%, increased the 10 year gilt rate by 25%, increase the tax burden to highest ever peacetime and caused the suicide of at least one farmer. Welfare budget has increased by 9% though,

you want a magic wand

you expect them to keep failing businesses going ? You expect me a tax payer to subsidise a failing business ? Because a business that pays staff so little that they need welfare to live is a failing business

I don’t give a shiny that independent schools close. why should they - schools that serve the rich - have special treatment that takes money from schools that serve the poor ?

welfare budget - yes money to those less well off than you ? You begrudge that ?

Their back benchers wouldn’t allow them to do the things the country required to get back on its feet, so now the country has voted to get some real extremists in. Slow hand clap to Labour.

Absolutely! Omg. What an enraging original post.

As it happens I am extremely frustrated with Labour both locally and nationally. But my god, the “ideology” isn’t the problem here.

I don’t give a shiny that independent schools close. why should they - schools that serve the rich - have special treatment that takes money from schools that serve the poor ?

Tosh. You might not care less about the rich history of this country and want to go around throwing statues in the river, but those schools had existed for hundreds of years very successfully and didn’t just provide an education for rich kids. They offered scholarships and burseries for families who might not have afforded it and those who could just about afford it had an option for their SEN children when mainstream had failed them.

Many of those schools also allowed their facilities to be used by the local community and provided jobs to local people.

Your race to the bottom politics has served to only keep the large, elite schools open where the clientele are so rich they wouldn’t notice and again punished ordinary working people. Another slow hand clap to Labour. Its working well so far isn’t it. Socialism personified.

Just to add I’m also incensed by the portion of the post that inferred people that use state schools are ‘poor’. More bullshit.

Labour are full of shit. No tax rises for working people, reform welfare, smash the gangs.......

What they are actually doing is ramping up the tax burden to eye watering levels, disincentivising work, and crashing the economy. Like Labour governments always do.

This post is a good example of ideology before practicality. Thanks.

Labour (and Tories) don’t get it because the have very low calibre people running the show. Look at the 2024 intake of Labour MPs. Most are fairly unintelligent with not much practical experience to speak of. If you were uncharitable (or more direct) you’d say thick as mince.

Parliament is now stuffed full of activists, ex public sector workers, quango leeches, or ex charity workers. Running a business takes business acumen, requirements for long term thinking. It requires sound money management, understanding of fiscal rules, global economy, wealth generation. Do you look at Labour MPs and go ‘yeah what a genius’.

Yeah this government isn’t an ideological government.

it’s possible to make a lot of valid criticisms of it but I really really don’t think that one sticks.

I think anyone who believes that there are simple, painless solutions to our problems is extremely naïve. If anything, no party is being anywhere near harsh enough. Reform certainly ain't it. They seem to want to double down on many of the approaches that have put us in this mess of a tanking economy and heating planet.

I agree. Eg the VAT on school fees is costing the taxpayer money overall but they’ll stick at it for ideological reasons

Perhaps Labour supporters do 'get it' but what they can't get is why people think Reform is a sensible alternative for ordinary people.

Given all we know about Farage and Reform e.g. The 'gift' money from billionaires living in Thailand, the 'Trump' cap, the hops back and forth to America rather than turning up in his constituency, The 'all I know about women I learned by getting so many of them pregnant and the cosying up to Andrew Tate, the Notts Reform council putting up council tax and spending tens of thousands on putting up flags rather than mending roads, Farage's voting record - against workers rights for example.

Where is the evidence that Farage and Reform will deliver anything. I guess we'll see what they're capable of now.

People perhaps see how Labour might not be the answer but why Reform, given all we know about them. I think that's what has people scratching their heads.

Very original post OP, really says a lot I've never heard before a million times.

Thank fuck this (local) election is over.

And what an informative and persuasive response from you. Well done @Locutus2000

I’m not sure, they seem to just not understand, I agree these are the issues, they fucked it so hard with all the new taxes. But for some reason Starmer is in there havering on about fixing it by breaking brexit. Which will give us huge financial burdens, I didn’t think we should,leave don’t get me wrong, but this is not going to fix it, it’s going to make it worse. By a long way.

it’s like they are genuinely clueless.

I saw on sky news someone said Keir is unpopular due to the policies, and changing him but keeping the policies won’t change it, and that’s correct in my view. The more they screw over working people. The worse it’s going to get, and getting us back into Europe so we can be a net contributor again,isn’t going to be some magic fix. I can’t honestly grasp how he and the rest of them can’t see it.

or maybe they can but he’s no authority to change the policies due to all the infighting, so the poor bastard is grasping at straws and this is the only thing he can offer, even though he knows it’s fucking stupid and going to compound the issue.

some of the shite I see on line is crazy, people proper burying their heads, some arguing for raynor, or burnham to take over, neither have the experience or capability to do it, raynor is still in dispute over her dodgy tax affairs and burnham isn’t even an mp,

its such a mess.

They spend time on things that don’t matter, and they made a massive mistake by bottling welfare reform on their first budget when they still had a big mandate for change.
That said I like Keir Starmer and see no better alternative. I liked Rishi Sunak.
I really struggle with the idea of a privately educated Nigerian who has only lived in the UK since age 18 representing me, although I do like that we have a black female in a high position. I do not think in this case she wants the best for the UK, she’s about herself.
Reform have no capability to govern.

I don't know about ideology but their total lack of practical ability I find so frustrating. To take my own case:

1. I am a pensioner so I lost my winter fuel allowance.
2. Then there was a u-turn and I got it back at a reduced rate.
3. Then I got a letter from HMRC saying my pension was too high to qualify and they would adjust my tax code next year to claw it back

Multiply that by the number of pensioners in the UK to whom point 3 applies and the cost far exceeds simply continuing to pay the old WRA to all pensioners.

All this is compounded by Reeve's self-imposed, and totally un-necessary, fiscal restrictions.

I am half-seriously starting to look back at Boris as being "the good old days".

I agree they cannot "wave a magic wand" but surely they could manage basic competence????

Their first budget was a disaster from which, I believe, they will find it impossible to recover.

Because although it affects everyone negatively, it hurts rich children more than others. That’s the mentality unfortunately.

A lot of children with SEND go to these independent schools. It's not just rich kids who go to them. Also we now have an influx of students into the education that we now have to pay for.

There’s some taking out reactions to results on here today.

I’m gobsmacked that KS is still not listening.

I just heard someone say on the radio that it’s going to take the SAS to get him out of no. 10 and I think they’re right.

The arrogance of the man is astounding.

He has a saviour complex. Thinks he’s the one to save the country, and these issues he has to shoulder are just his stations of the cross.