To absolutely hate this government, and what they are doing to our country? PART 2

[CoventryCity]

A continuation of Thread 1.

Strong words but is is how I feel at this point in time. All of them make me feel physically sick. Why? Well many reasons.. Here are just two.

Eg. They won't release sex crime statistics of immigrants / asylum seekers. Why? Other European countries have done, and it is not pretty. Our gvt gives out a leaflet asking them not to rape the locals. Why? Our gvt has said they won't house asylum seekers next to schools and nurseries, why?

Eg. UK now spends more on benefits than it earns in income tax. Labour have increased this - not reduced it. Astonishing. As they say - "Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?" That's Labour's Welfare Secretary. He's describing the priorities of Labour MPs.

In the last financial year, the UK government brought in £331 billion in income tax — and spent even more, £333 billion, on welfare, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility's latest economic and fiscal outlook (obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2026/#chapter-6).

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And many working UC claimants wouldn't be entitled to a penny in UC if they weren't paying exorbitant rents.

I'd love to know how much of the spending on UC goes to private landlords. My DNiece and my (step) DIL wouldn't be getting UC at all if they were in social housing instead of paying well in excess of £1k a month in rent.

And immigrants are only entitled to UC under very specific circumstances, one of which is being granted refugee status. Asylum seekers aren't entitled to benefits.

Sorry sorry sorry so sorry yes, I was indeed using ridiculous hyperbole to make a point. But thanks for attempting to correct me…

I'm not asking that. I'm asking what data the OP wants to see.

But the Isle of Man is an island of 85,000 people. A major economy cannot compete with their tax set up, because how would we pay for our hospitals, schools, roads etc etc?The likes of Sir Jim Ratcliffe will always leave if they want to - he left under a Conservative government, and I’m sure he would’ve done the same under a Labour one. I understand that his opinions make good headlines, but I don’t think we should frame our economy around them.

Ireland reduced their corporation tax rates and it benefitted them enormously with global firms moving there as their European headquarters, not just bringing in tax revenue, but also jobs.

London is highly dependent on financial services, stock exchange, etc., which is a highly mobile market and some firms have already moved abroad. If it becomes an exodus, London will suffer very badly.

Yes this

But again, Ireland is a small economy of roughly 5 million people, so, a few massive multinationals can transform its fiscal landscape. The UK has a population of 67 million. Cutting corporation tax drastically across the entire UK would cause a massive hole in the national budget. How would we afford it without brutal cuts to public services or higher taxes on working people? When Liz Truss tried to pull unfunded tax cuts, the markets took it very badly.

I’m genuinely not sure what the government will actually do in the budget, but personally, I very strongly hope it isn’t this.

Gut the welfare state?

What does the data say about that ? Where does the UK rank in % of GDP spent on social ?

Public social spending as share of GDP (ourworldindata.org)

UK is 18th. 23% GDP spent on it. 2025 data.

Doesn't mean we can't reduce it still

Nor does it mean it can't be left as is, nor increased.

Lets say the spend is reduced. What would you do with any money freed up ?

My forebears were Huguenots, who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, bringing with them their Jacquard looms and the silk-weaving industry. Entry was based on their Protestant beliefs.

The Tories are the ones who landed us with the 60p tax trap! They're also the ones who added more than a trillion to the national debt.

Labour are increasing the tax burden and the debt.

Cut the deficit balance

Start with the Triple Lock.

And so did the Tories.

Voting in the party who are obviously going to add more is only going to cost. Check out the debt servicing per month. That’s taxes going to interest not other stuff.

There's no need for hair-pulling or beating people with sticks though. Let security do their job.

The Tories do it as a last resort they don't actively want to do it

I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic - or if you’re seriously suggesting that the welfare state is gutted, in order to pay for a reduction in corporate gains tax?

Nobody in the UK voted for that. In fact, one of the main reasons the Conservatives were voted out was because they’d run public services completely into the ground (while somehow at the same time also completely failing to get the debt down).

Fair point

VAT came in a few months after I left school, so 1973. Prior to that, we had purchase tax, which was at different rates on different categories of goods. At one point, there was a big increase in the rate of purchase tax for things deemed "luxury" goods. I remember a neighbour rushing out to buy a colour tv to beat the increase.

One of the reasons for the introduction of VAT is that it was also levied on services, which made it harder for companies or individuals that provided services to minimise their tax bill. One of my uncles was an accountant, and he was something of an expert at stretching the definition of a "service" to keep tax to a minimum. And he was pretty pissed off that his skill in this area was about to become redundant!

Fair enough. And I am sure a bit more poverty won't harm anyone.