Has Labour taken it literally when people said they are ‘doom and gloom’ and are now giving discounts to theme parks and kid’s attractions as a bit of fun?

[speckledpinkhen]

Whilst these are all quite ‘sweet’ initiatives and will help some families. Lower price theme park entry and cinema tickets don’t really help average working families with the cost of living crisis. Am I just being a grump?

We watch “Rich House Poor House”. Every week, we see a family in the “Poor House”, with about £60 a week left over for food, clothes, etc after bills. It usually emerges as the week goes on, they are also in debt of £10,000 plus due to uncontrollable events like divorce, needing a new boiler, etc which they just can’t afford.

If a family has £60 a week left over, they still can’t afford to go on a family trip to theme parks, etc, even with free child bus fares and a cut in VAT on the children’s park entry?

Who does the government think it’s helping, because it’s not those working poor families?

Why does the government think it needs to help families having days out?

I’m 59 and when I was a child there was none of this, I don’t understand why it’s being done at the expense of the taxpayers 🤷‍♀️

https://www.worldhappiness.report/ed/2026/social-media-is-harming-adolescents-at-a-scale-large-enough-to-cause-changes-at-the-population-level/
We show there is now overwhelming evidence of severe and widespread direct harms (such as sextortion and cyberbullying), and compelling evidence of troubling indirect harms (such as depression and anxiety). Furthermore, we show that the harms and risks to individual users are so diverse and vast in scope that they justify the view that social media is causing harm at a population level.

We probably should ban it.

Fixing the foreign branches exemption on trading income? Probably a good idea. Could go either way though because trading is a global activity and that’s generally the sort of thing we should want to attract.

Further raising O&G taxes, in general? No, I don’t think it’s a good idea. UK already has about the highest tax on O&G in the world, which alongside other measures has led us to importing Russian oil rather than using our own.

Whether the source of the tax funding makes a difference to whether the summer fun scheme is a good idea? Obviously irrelevant. Tax revenue is fungible.

It’s not at the expense of taxpayers.

The costs of Great British summer savings will be partly met by changes to the “foreign branch profits” regime to crack down on companies that use complex corporate structures to reduce the amount of tax they pay to the UK Treasury.

This, however, is good news for some taxpayers:

Reeves said she would raise by 10p the tax-free mileage rate for workers claiming back the costs of driving, in a move she said would benefit those who needed “to drive for work, from care workers to plumbers”.

Wouldn’t the money be better allocated to the NHS? Say, oncology, or palliative care?

Surely this is more worthy than kid’s meals and trips to the zoo?

The cost is likely to be peanuts. It might even be cost neutral if enough people take it up. From seeing oncology up close and personal in the last few months it appears to be one of the best funded corners of the NHS anyway.

I think it's a good idea PR wise. It cheers up the "squeezed middle" who are cutting back on non-essential spending/often feel they contribute more than they get back, and it helps local attractions stay in business (which is good for young people looking for summer jobs).

Yeah, about those local attractions…erm…

Families visiting the nation’s best-loved tourist spots face a holiday tax of as much as £300 under a Labour “cash grab” to prop up crumbling councils.
From Whitby to Cromer, Sandbanks to Bamburgh Castle, mayors and local leaders across the country are planning to seize on new powers to impose tourist taxes on staycations, The Telegraph can reveal.

As many as 10 of England’s 14 regional mayors are planning to or considering implementing “overnight visitor levies” in a move that threatens to add hundreds of pounds to the cost of the average family getaway.

The Government has said it wants the new tax to be based on a percentage of accommodation costs, but is also considering a flat rate model.

Overnight visitor levies - so common as to be universal in other countries - don’t affect days out.

It makes one wonder why they bring up this particular part of the NHS.

And what is has to do with this scheme.

Tourist tax is common in many countries, it hasn't stopped people from visiting.

Jeez. Tough on the poor kids.

Only if an overnight stay is involved.

Whatever it is tax it more, that’ll fix stuff. Even as the IMF points out how high taxes are.

It’s a local tax to be used to improve areas with high visitor numbers. Nothing to do with the IMF.

Those days out that could have become an overnight, are less likely.

A couple of days at the beach, as opposed to one.

depending on what the tourist tax is charged on, surely some of these are double taxed. We always self cater in a holiday let. That will have the income taxed, double council tax and then potentially tourist on top of it. You shouldn’t have to pay tourist tax in the country you live in.

Many of us have been touched by cancer, hence oncology.

You use their local facilities just like you do when holidaying abroad. What is the difference?

Exactly. It’s like they’re pointing over yonder, and shouting ‘Look over there! There’s a monster!’ and hope no one notices what a useless bunch of cunts they are.

If we have we know it’s the NHS at its stellar best. It’s also one of the causes that receives the most charity support. If anything needs more funding it’s dementia services, it’s the biggest cause of death now and the worst funded.

I’ve paid taxes for services I’m not using whilst away so all in govt coffers I will be paying for parking, entrance fees, grocery shopping, entertainment etc etc all in the local area so contributing there also.

its a money making scheme and they think we are too stupid to notice, by giving it a name.

We went private, so I wouldn’t know about the NHS.

Hence my comment.

Probably best stick to things you actually know about then. It’s always safest.