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?

The highest cost to the NHS is actually obesity, and then an aging population.

That would make it the lowest number in a year for the last 10 years then.

I find it hard to believe you really voted optimistically for Keir / Labour if those are your values. Not saying I disagree with you though.

Cut minimum wage and I, along with millions of others, will end up bankrupt and destitute. It’s not some utopia where that’ll work.

15th richest in Europe per capita on a PPP basis, 11th nominal.

5th of 7 in the G7.

Housing is the main driver of the cost of living. If more houses were being built as Labour promised, the minimum wage could be cut which in turn would allow more small businesses to hire more people. It’s a chain reaction.

At the moment, regulation supposed to protect people is also stifling the very growth that could be good for them.

Neither would i

You’re desperate for people to live in poverty just to benefit business owners aren’t you? If minimum wage was cut, they’d just take in more profit.

We can't afford to ditch net zero.
We could generate jobs and growth from it. And change how electricity is priced.
Do people truly not get that climate change will cause 'economic' migration on a scale no politcal party would be able to cope with?
We are seeing the start of it now.
We cant sit on our island and not think climate change will affect us. Severe annual water shortgaes are predicted by 2040 in the south east. IMO what a government with our real interests at heart would do is

privatise water companies and get a grip of future supplies by building more reservoirs and ensuing homes/offices/ factories etc are built with grey water systems

stop allowing the building of data centres in the south east that are cooled by our drinking water

invest in the national grid to move cheap renewable energy around

stop the pricing structural issues which mean we pay an electricity unit price dictated by gas even on a day when this is only used for a very small amount of our supply

invest in nuclear power as the balancing item

sort out heating in peoples homes

build council housing.
All of which generates jobs and growth.
And for the love of god put up income tax.

And for those who deny the seriousness of the current state, have you checked out the bond rates recently? They are higher than Covid, financial crisis, truss mini budget. When they go up or debt interest payments go up (currently already £110bn of our spending). When they go up we have even less money to spend which means we have to borrow more which means higher spending and then we end up where Greece was a few years back. We can still escape the debt cycle - just - but only if we act decisively and seriously. One of the Labour MPs said yesterday that the bond markets will ‘simply have to fall in line’. That’s the level I’d stupidity were dealing with here.

We can continue to go from one party to another, blaming the party each time for it's failure to sort out our country, we will run out in a couple of decades...

The issue is worldwide. Developed countries have become full of spoilt and entitled people who think their government is responsible for their welfare rather than themselves. Societies that seek and values instant personal gratification over any type of investment for the future for themselves and their society.

However sad and dreadful to envisage, I think it will take a war and facing real depravity and needing to stick together again to reset the societies we have become.

Many of your ideas are in the Conservatives "Alternative Kings Speech" that was published on Monday. Indicative costings are given along with the reasons for each item, it is not just ideology.
We may be the 5th largest GDP but there is no surplus at the end of the month.
Loans to the UK: We now pay 5.1% pa on a 5 yr loan and 5.8% pa on a 30 yr loan. This is as much as you or I would pay for a mortgage.

Which small businesses are making a profit currently???

I know plenty.

Why should lower paid workers just continue to suffer and be absolutely pounded by everyone?

Ridiculous to cut benefits and lower minimum wage.

What have I said that implies I’m desperate for people to live in poverty? If housing costs were lower, a few pence off the minimum wage wouldn’t make a difference to you but to the employer it would mean freeing up more vacancies.

It’s about getting the balance right. Businesses have stopped hiring since the changes to the minimum wage and employers NICs. Can you explain how that’s good for employees who then end up stuck on long term benefits?

Completely agree…removing WFA on someone on a basic state pension of £12k per annum was predictably going to cause outrage, and unnecessarily squandered the goodwill the country had for the new Government.

Rachel Reeves needs to take much of the blame for Labour’s woes… It was things like WFA, along with increasing employers NI astronomically etc that set this Government off on the wrong foot.

It still hasn’t “completely and utterly stalled”.

Agreed. I was in favour of restricting it but the threshold was too low. Now it's too high. It was poorly executed and people have never forgotten.

They didn’t remove the WFA from people on £12k a year. You fell for the media lies. They removed it from people making a lot more than that.

So a person like me who is disabled works a minimum wage job. You would take away my disability benefit, reduce my wages and then create a health care system that I would either be completely uninsurable or couldn't afford the insurance as it would be sky high. Thanks

I think investing in nuclear is definitely a good thing (but I live in Scotland so we’re not seeing any of that…).

And as a tax advisor I agree with putting up income tax but it HAS to be across all bands. We cannot make our tax structure any more tax heavy. We cannot keep asking those on circa £55k to keep carrying the can.

I’d rather a higher minimum wage and kids waiting a little longer to get into employment than ending up bankrupt and destitute to be honest

That would be fine if we were responsible for more than 1% of the world’s emissions. But we’re not. Why are we happy to see the US, China and India continue to burn fossil fuels at a rate of knots while we cripple UK businesses with the highest energy costs in the world?

Net zero can still happen but at a more manageable pace.

Is healthcare inaccessible to disabled people in Europe? No. You’d still get healthcare. My employer currently pays loads to BUPA each money for my healthcare. That would go to the NHS instead. I’d you are severely disabled you’d still get help. If you need aids, the NHS should provide them.