We need a political party that will…

[Skippp]

I work in finance and this country is on the brink of collapse. It’s spending too much, it’s not growing the economy and needs someone to come in and make good decisions quickly if we are to survive. It’s in a really serious state now and action must be taken. I’vote Labour, and did so hoping Keir would be brave enough to take the hard decisions needed but he’s been a pathetic wet blanket. We need a government who:

1. get rid of the triple lock. It’s laughably unaffordable.
2. reassess the whole benefits system and get rid of disability payments for anything but the most severe conditions, increasing the amounts to those who have these conditions.
3. restrict benefit payments to those born outwith the UK to those that have been in full time work for a large proportion of their adult lives here.
4. Reduce the minimum wage to help companies hire again.
5. Reduce housing benefit. People will have to move to somewhere cheaper or landlords will have to drop prices to what people can afford.
6. Go to an insurance backed healthcare system like they enjoy in Europe.
7. Ditch 95% of planning regulation and get Britain building again.
8. ditch net zero. No one is going to run a successful business in a country with the highest energy costs on the planet.
9. Reopen Scotland oil and gas production (inc refineries) and explore for more areas.
10. Simplify income taxes. Roll income tax into NICs. Give everyone child care hours, child benefit, personal allowance and increase tax rates to pay for this. Stop artificially restricting people from earning more.
11. Simplify VAT. Drop the threshold to £20k to ensure no one has a ceiling on earnings.
12. Simplify IHT. 5% on everything. No nil rates or exemptions.
13. rejoin the single market and customs union.
14. Explain policies better! Tell people how unaffordable the triple lock etc is. Tell them what the single market and customs union non is and why you’re rejoining. Tell people what the ‘bond markets’ are and why they’re important. Tell people why paying for rich people’s child care is much better for the economy than forcing high earners to drop their hours.
15. Probably ought to start deporting economic migrants with no right to stay quickler to throw some red meat to reform voters.

We need a party to take on ALL of these policies and move AT PACE on them. Who’s the party that will do this? I thought it was Labour but BOY was I wrong on that!

What are people adding to the list?

Probably ought to start deporting economic migrants with no right to stay quickler to throw some red meat to reform voters.

Well, that and to save the astronomical sums they cost the tax payer 🙄

£4-5bn a year? Our debt repayments have probably gone up by more than that in the last week due to the name Andy Burnham being bandied about. No biggie and hard to solve properly. The triple lock on the other hand. X

Having an ounce of integrity would be a good start...

Stick to the plan - if you intend to remove the Winter Fuel Allowance do so, don't be thrown into a panic by Reform winning a by-election

No more U-turns, please!

Stop replacing leaders and worrying about the next GE and focus on implementing real and lasting changes.

I work in finance and this country is on the brink of collapse

But we're the world's 5th largest economy. 2nd in Europe.

Agree with almost all of this. Above all we need someone with the backbone not to cave every time someone complains about his policies.

I don’t agree with everything he’s done but he would have earned my respect if he had stuck to his guns on things. Particularly PiP. That was utterly pathetic.

Oh and things that are not relevant to a country in a crisis:

1. Men pretending to be women and wanting you to go along with it. You’re a man. Get over it and piss off.
2. Gaza. That’s not a country we live in and so isn’t our problem.

But we’re in debt up to our eyeballs, growth has flatlined, the £ is dropping like a stone, the number of people not in work is soaring, house building has completely and utterly stalled. Do you deny the economic consequences are dire? Is all rosy, keep churning out the bennies in your book?

I certainly wouldn't vote for your party!

Why not?

Growth has flatlined since 2008 but you’ve suddenly noticed now? Unemployment rates have been steady for some time. In the last year 191,000 new homes have been completed. Far from adding to your list I’d rip it up and write a new one.

I agree with much of what you said. Running a business is so hard right now, unnecessarily so in my opinion.

We need honesty and integrity back in politics, business and life in general.

I too liked Keir. But things like backpedaling on the fuel allowance, ham fisted IHT changes and the madness of the NMW increases has changed my optimism.

If he had just thought about it for a minute and capped the WFA at about £20k in the first place like he has now done at £35k then he could have avoided all the bother about that.

There seems to be a lot of these "project fear" type threads popping up.

You say "the number of people not in work is soaring". That is not what the data says:

UK unemployment rate 2026| Statista

Unemployment is going down. Fair enough, you say not in work. So the issue is the number of pensioners ?

And when you say " house building has completely and utterly stalled." do you have data to support that ?

Because the data I found with a few clicks does not.

Indicators of house building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Spending less time banging on about Nigel Farage and instead trying to pull the country out of the toilet would be a start

We need to stop the massive subsidies to Scotland as well.

We pay £25bn more to Scotland than they generate in taxation.

Replace net zero with nuclear.

A competent PM would also help.

Maybe capitalism isn’t the answer then. Let’s get rid of inflated wages in the financial sector and billionaires squirreling their wealth away. Let’s actually get banks to account for the crashes. Let’s redistribute some of that wealth to the poor.

I agree with everything you say OP. And I don’t work in finance! Particularly point 6 : NHS funding. So much money could be saved here and channelled into education instead. And, it’d probably lead to better health care outcomes - you are correct to use the word ‘enjoy’. I don’t know who will have the guts to do it, though. My fear is that we will ultimately end up with something like the American system under a future Tory government.

That’s based on ‘nominal GDP’ which can artificially inflate an economy. Based on real GDP (our actual purchasing power), we’re the 10th largest economy in the world and 3rd in Europe.

People can’t afford to live as it is. How will they survive if the minimum wage is cut and they can’t access any government help?

They won’t. The people with the most would be better off though. I guess that’s all @Skippp cares about.

Seemingly so.

I’m on 20p an hour above minimum wage, and things are really very tight indeed. If my wage was cut I’d probably just end up on the streets.

Why not?
Too focused on negatively impacting the elder, foreigners and disabled. However much I believe the welfare system needs reforming, it needs a more gradual and balancing support approach.

Also, you seem to lack some understanding of some subjects you mention:

• landlords are already selling in bucket. You are proposing to make it yet worse for them. You are proposing a rental crisis.
• you seem to have no understanding of what you call the European health system. Like many Brits, you seem to have this utopia that it works well in Europe. Scoop: it doesn't. Most countries are facing the same issues. Healthcare systems are overwhelmed because of the significant increase in unhealthy people with long term conditions living longer. Diabetes is the highest cost to the NHS and will be in other developed countries. It's not the system that is wrong, it's people's lifestyle that no system can cope with without significant higher taxes going to pay for it.

But cut minimum wage, businesses can afford to employ more people, the cost to the government in out of work benefits is reduced and they can afford better support you in other ways. The current situation where we are making it unaffordable to hire staff means we have more people on unemployment benefit and getting out of the habit of work at all.