To feel utterly miserable about a future with Andy Burnham as PM?

[OneWarmHazelQuail]

I feel like I'm being stung in every possible way at the moment- £15 a day on tube to work, high mortgage costs, high energy costs, private schooling for SEN child (I was told state wouldn't be unlikely to assist him as he isn't mute or violent). My parents have had to help fund schooling it felt like my only hope as son has behavioural issues.

I also have an unsold old home that I have to rent out as it wouldn't sell. Buy-to-let mortgage costs, agent fees, maintenance and tax put me in a loss position.

I can't bear what the future holds with Andy Burnham. I have no doubt that he will find new and imaginative ways to keep me in this financial nightmare. I'm literally struggling from food poverty but regarded as rich by policy.

YABU- Andy Burnham is actually going to make things better

YANBU- I'm screwed

What a lot of nonsense.

You are judging someone who has not even started making any decisions/policies about the country and the economy...

We had 14 years of Tory mismanagement and the madness of Brexit which damaged our standards of living.

Also you should really learn to count your blessings.

You have two homes, a job, you live in a great city and you have enough money to send your child to private school. Taking on a large mortgage and living in London is your choice.

Do you really expect people to feel sorry for you?

He also claimed £17,000 a year from the tax payer in expenses to rent a flat in London, despite already owning one in London. All good socialist stuff.

I agree that he isn't fake humble though. I don't think humble is a word that many people would associate with Andy Burnham.

Why? You were not patient enough with Starmer to finish his term. Why should people give Burnham, a mayor, who has not participated in national level politics until now, a chance?

I'm sure that someone who by the accounts of his own team has been plotting for a year against his own party leader and prime minister knowing full well all the difficulties the government was facing to do a power grab, is going to be a genius prime minister

I give it about oooh a month before Chris mason, Laura kussenberg, Lewis Goodall, pippa crear et al are doing serious faced opinion pieces on how burnham is losing the trust of the people/his party and announcing that his 'honeymoon is already over'

politics in this country is run like a live action role play for bored first year politics students

Sorted our transport
Festival of arts
Homeless charity.

Generally did a lot.

People always seem so shocked to discover that public services cost money!

Tube costs; Inflation is affecting us all and proportionately that expensive tube ticket is going to affect a less well off person much more

SEN school; every child deserves an accesible education. I sympathise. However private education is only even an option for about 5% of the country. What does OP think the other 95% have to do when they're in this situation. What does she think will ensure more SEN school provision? Tax surely? If she's not willing to pay this then who does she think should?

The 2nd home; She has a second home which she is renting and generating money from. She can't sell it right now but come on?! You van't possibly tell me that somebody that's savvy enough to own.a second home doesn't understand how privledged that is when compared to the majority of the country.

Her post is seriously out of touch and on the offchance that it's genuine I'd love to know what OP thinks the solutions are not just for her but the vast majority of people who are in a worse position than her.

I moved out of the home suddenly as I was a victim of a traumatic crime. I moved out and rented it whilst I tried to move on with my life.

For those that don't understand- no capital repayments on the house. It's operating a loss, it's not that there is any kind of profit from it

It's also not about the sale price. I even tried auctioning the property.

I have assets on paper. Unfortunately that doesn't put food on the table.

The house won't sell - it didn't even sell at auction

You don’t see how you put the horse before the cart there?

Starmer made a number of fundamental political errors. Like it or not the role of PM is a political role. Thatcher was ousted when she made similar errors, as was Johnson.

Politics is politics, voters these days seem not to understand how parliamentary politics works, what it actually is.

We have the highest tax burden now in history which is crazy honestly. Everyone pays taxes and I don’t think anyone is against that are they? I certainly have always had no issue with it. They don’t want to pay what feels excessive taxes and being punished for working hard and investing their money for their future/retirement rather than frittering it away.

If you want to move to socialism/communism where a corporate lawyer earns the same income as a bin man then just say. They both hard and why shouldn’t they get the same? That is ultimately what the government is trying to get to but not obviously. Take the person who earns £100k and , via a huge amount of different taxes, Ensure that the net amount after all taxes means their take home pay is about that of someone earning £50k and so forth.

i can totally understand the attitude of some people to just spend all their money whilst they are young enough to enjoy it and then go cap in hand to the state when older. You can’t take those assets with you so you might as well just enjoy spending the money!

The horse should be before the cart, what do you mean?

It’s not, the aspiration should be to be able to have a good life on the money we earn.

The country needs to attract industries that will generate income and high skilled jobs that pay well, it needs to develop a work force that are capable of doing these jobs and it needs people to be driven to take these jobs.

I agree, most people are happy to pay taxes. They just want to be left with enough left after taxes to afford a fulfilling and comfortable life

Weird? Who has mentioned either of those things. Quite the reverse.

I have an asset on paper that I am unable to sell.

The SEN situation is bad enough that my husband and I, at our lowest ebb, both contemplated suicide. People often underestimate how difficult SEN situations are. I've done courses through the council, the autism charity, we pay for private therapies. The schooling is out of pure desperation.

Second home and a child in private school. And this is Andy Burnham's fault how exactly 😂😂😂😂 fucking hell.

One of the most ridiculous posts I've ever read.

Your 2nd home will sell. Maybe not at the price you want it to, but price it correctly and it will. That's not Andy Burnham's fault.

I'm sorry that your child cannot attend mainstream school but you are extremely fortunate that you can privately educate him. Do you know how many people do not have the financial ability to do this?

Blaming Andy Burnham is fucking ridiculous.

I don’t understand what
you are saying? In the 60s the highest rate of tax was 90%. We pay less tax than many of our neighbours. We are bankrupted by Covid, Ukraine and Brexit. We need to pay more tax. We also need to ensure that those who are benefiting from high house prices- ie the very rich- are taxed appropriately. We are a society not just people grabbing the most we can.

Why the f are you spending £15 a day on the tube? Do you not have a travel card?

Same here.

We live in a 3 bed semi in London. What is being "proposed" (of course no idea if this is the new govts plan) would be quadruple our council tax. I have no opinion on the man but raising costs so drastically for normal families and punishing us because we live in London would be problematic.

Oh great, the anti Burnham posts have started just as the anti Keir ones did. We had anti Keir posts on here every other week. Exactly which government would you be happy with? He isn't even in office yet, give him a chance.

I would imagine it was VAT on school fees

I feel for you @OneWarmHazelQuail - you are still better off than many but as you say, your assets aren’t putting food on the table.

I think you’re catastrophising a little - why not just wait and see what Andy Burnham does? Even the civil service don’t yet know what his plans are in any detail.

And I agree with other posters pointing out that the UK’s problems are deep and structural. Even if Burnham is good at what he does, he isn’t going to magically put more money in our pockets.

I would try to be strategic - make a plan to strengthen your finances in the longer term. Get some professional advice on the house you can’t sell. Maybe consider what you can do to get better state SEN provision for your child. A friend of mine took the local authority to court and the state now pays for her child’s place - I don’t know what options you have but look into it.