To despair at this government??

[IllTakeACheapSeatPlease]

This shambolic government - its utter chaos, the Tories were bad but Christ this lot are on another level.
Im really worried about where we’re heading, riots breaking out everywhere, the armed forces imploding, the police untrustworthy, we’re a laughing stock on the international stage.
Id say to call an early GE but I’m not a fan or reform either. At this point - I’d take the Tories back.
WTF is going on? I’m approaching 50 and I’ve never known the country in such a state.

AIBU to think we’re literally on the edge now? And what can actually be done to save it??

I am prone to anxiety so feel free to tell me on catastrophising

Regular IRA terrorist attacks
on mainland Britain, over 700 people were murdered in the 80’s alone!

@SoftAsSteel I would have thought murders were much higher? In the 90s it was about 6k

The simplest explanation to give to you is that they (like you) saw with their own eyes how shit the last government were, yet they learned nothing from this and having been given the opportunity to have a fresh start with new ideas they have made things even shitter!

This is true across defence, justice, police, benefits, health, immigration, culture wars, women's rights, and I am sure other areas too.

Is everyone around you Nigel? You sound a bit upset at how it’s going for Labour. I can understand why.

Not gonna lie, low key, giving desperate and all that.

😆 🤣

I think that’s highly unlikely, given how Theresa May had that same idea, and the cards are a lot less favourably stacked for Burnham. I think he’s clever enough not to try that.

Like I said; GE in several years time

They are though. They can mobilise millions and ignore the losses...at present he hasn't done it because of the fact that he thought Ukraine would be easy and doesn't want to lose face. China is more than able to kick our arse.

But a strong military and especially the navy gives us a voice on the world stage.

Plus the military take out terror threats, keep small boats away and defend our fishing rights...only They don't because they've got no fucking money

Easy to support wokerati and left wing loonies when you have enough money. Not to ;eed the NHS, state education, public housing, when you live in "nice" areas, and have clever accountants to help you dodge paying tsx. These talentless freeloaders live in a different world to the rest of us, their lives aren't blighted by useless governments. When they are down to their last million pounds they do a "reality" show or 2, and us plebs actually pay to warch them. We're the idiot enablers. They endlessly jet around the world snd then lecture the rest of us about the environment. They get freebies at every party, event and envelope opening and us plebs pay for that when we cough up for ridiculously expensive shows, films and festivals.

But they are a labour government
With a human rights lawyer as their leader
What fresh ideas were you expecting?
I don't remember any from their campaign,other than they were going to smash the gangs
What were people actually expecting
All things considered,it could be much worse
I think they have done exactly what a labour government would be expected to do ..give or take the odd woman in prison for a post on Facebook
We should all
Be careful what you wish for ,

You would be lucky to find a 2 bedroom house for that price where I live (not the UK).

I remember base rate at 17% at the peak but that means a mortgage rate could have been even higher.

I didn't say the interest rates were 20%, I said that mortgage rates were. An BoE interest rate of 17/18% can easily mean a mortgage rate of 20%.

Salaries were much lower, average salary in 70's was about 2.5k.

Average house price in 70's was around 10k. Add into that childcare being scarce so most houses single income- the average house was 4 times the average household income.

It was as high as that but not for long. I remember nearly being sick on my shoes on Black Wednesday.

Don’t be so silly. You’re obviously too young to remember the dreadful Thatcher years!

No, the highest ever mortgage rate was 17%. It was in 1979, the average house price was just shy of 20k.
The average house price vs household income in 2023 was 8.3.
Accounting for average income and inflation 17% interest rates were still more affordable than 6.8% rates in 2023.

It costs a lot of taxpayers' money to hold a GE. There is no need for one with Labour's majority. Remember what happened to Mrs T May when she called an unnecessary GE after the Brexit vote...she lost their majority because of her social care proposals mainly.

How would Russia get all those millions of soldiers to our island though?

They can't even beat Ukraine on their doorstep.

They billions are far better spent on the NHS and schools.

Could you do a better job? If so, get involved in politics and show them how it should be done.

And the UK has been in a much worse state a number of times over the last 50 years under both Labour and Conservative Governments. Miners Strike, 3 day week, Brixton Riots, Football casuals, Poll tax riots, Falklands war, Yorkshire Ripper, various serial killers, base rate tax at 33%, mortgage rates of 15%, negative equity, crash of 2008, financial issues of mid 80s etc, etc.

This is how I am feeling. It’s like we are being governed by a load of idealistic students.

They promised 6k extra teachers. Actually number of WTE teachers is now lower than when they came into power.

They promised free breakfast clubs in all primary schools - only 10% actually have them 2 years in, and mainly in labour heartlands.

They promised VAT from private schools would go direct to improve stare schools - it didn't, and real term school budgets are lower than when labour came to power

My nhs team budget is in real terms 10% lower than when they came into power.

With labour I expected higher taxes with higher national debt and higher funding for nhs and education. We got the negatives (higher tax and debt), but we haven't got the positives to go with it.

It’s because it’s all going into an ever more inflated benefits bill that we cannot afford. The 2 child cap lifted. I just DON’T GET IT. And kids being pulled out of private school because of VAT and putting even more strain on the state schools. I just DON’T GET IT.

The two child cap was lifted because of the number of children in poverty. If you ‘just don’t get’ that then maybe you need to be more empathetic. Children don’t deserve to be punished.

Note that the overall benefit cap hasn’t been lifted.

Exactly, but Labour is always held to a harsher standard than the Tories for some reason even though the latter dismantled the UK and destroyed everything good about it in their 14 years. Brexit has been an utter disaster for the UK and has seen standards of living drop for most people.

Labour has annoyed me too for the way they are gunning for disabled people but at least they’ve done things that will benefit ordinary people.

From the notoriously left-wing Financial Times: What has Labour actually achieved? Archive copy here: <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/20260427001658/www.ft.com/content/231c0637-3171-431e-8982-32e338622178#selection-2139.0-2155.252" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://archive.is/20260427001658/www.ft.com/content/231c0637-3171-431e-8982-32e338622178#selection-2139.0-2155.252

The Employment Rights Act is controversial with business leaders, because it gives greater workplace rights to millions of people, strengthening sick pay, maternity and paternity leave and tackling zero-hours contracts, while also making it easier for unions to go on strike.

The Passenger Railway Services (public ownership) Act has begun the process of nationalising Britain’s railways, albeit only as existing contracts with private companies expire.

The Water (Special Measures) Act gives regulators powers to bring criminal charges against water industry executives for environmental damage, bans bonuses for polluting bosses, and mandates real-time monitoring of all sewage outlets. However, key tranches have yet to be brought into force, limiting regulators’ ability to crack down on bad actors.

A Great British Energy Act has set up a new quango in Aberdeen to invest in, develop and own renewable energy projects.

A Renters’ Rights Act has abolished “no-fault” section 21 evictions, eliminated fixed-term contracts in favour of rolling tenancies and capped rent increases to only once every year.

Two significant new laws were originally introduced by the last Tory government: a smoking law, which means someone born after 2008 can never legally buy cigarettes in the UK, and the football governance act, which established a new regulator for English football.

Labour has also removed the last 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords. However, Starmer’s ambitions for a smaller, elected second chamber have fallen by the wayside: even some hereditaries may be allowed to stay as life peers.

Starmer’s government is far less popular than many of its flagship policies.
That is partly because the public know much more about the unpopular policies — such as higher taxes on farmers — than the popular ones, according to polling by Ipsos. The fragmented media environment makes it harder for government messaging to penetrate the public consciousness.

The government’s own communications strategy may also be to blame. By targeting largely older, working-class voters, it had been “pulling in an opposite direction” to the legislative agenda, said Saunders.

“The irony is that the government thinks it’s been quite busy but looks to the public like it’s inert and rudderless.”

The government’s first two years will also be remembered for two failed bills.
It was unable to push through reforms to disability benefits designed to save £5bn, after a revolt by Labour MPs. The emasculated final legislation could now even cost the Treasury more money overall.

An assisted dying bill proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater — and backed by many ministers, including Starmer — ended up in the long grass.
It passed the Commons by 314 votes to 291, and enjoyed wide public support, but <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/Zt6B8/www.ft.com/content/d85d8344-9b39-4d2d-b57e-c8a662089e63" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">collapsed in the Lords, where Labour does not have a majority.

The government was also forced to drop cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel payments.

“For me, there are three things that didn’t happen which will define our time in government,” said one senior Labour figure. “The fact that we retreated from welfare reform and cutting the winter fuel allowance, and that assisted dying didn’t make it.”

You could also take a look at this, tracking how Labour's performing on its election promises:

https://fullfact.org/government-tracker/

Some of you really have a memory of a goldfish if you think this government is the worst. Where were you in 2020-22?