Autumn Budget

[OccultOctopus]

Key points so far:

• Upper tax threshold dropped from £150k to £125k
• Other tax thresholds frozen until 2028
• Windfall tax on energy firms to go up to 35%
• Electric cars will have to pay VED from 2025
• Review of a further pension age rise brought forward
• More people on UC to be given 'support coaches' to help them find work
• Spending squeeze on all depts except health

But if you like these type of policies why not just…vote Labour?

The Tories are only doing this because they’ve got nothing left. They literally have had to steal labour policy as their own policies have failed. Labour have been screaming windfall tax for months for example. Now suddenly Tories are passing it off as their own.

Will child benefit go up? Or is that not a means tested benefit?

CB is going up by 10.1%

But what about those who choose to only work a few hours a week so that they can claim as much benefit as possible?

I didn’t include the disabled in that fgs. As you probably know. I’m talking about people who choose not to work as a lifestyle choice. There was a time when people were sanctioned if they didn’t prove they were looking for work, but since covid that’s dropped off, and people are just sat on their arses claiming job seekers who have no intention of looking for work, and nothing is done about it.

I agree with this. Something should be done about people who take the p*ss. Benefits for job seekers should be limited for a set period of time (say, 12 months max)

After that, perhaps people could do a few hours community service per week to keep their benefits? I'm sure that most places have litter that needs to be picked, graffiti that needs to be scrubbed, and poop that needs to be scooped.

Child Benefit, yes. Married Persons Allowance, no. No benefit top ups, no unemployments giros, no subsidised childcare, no free school lunches/breakfast clubs/uniform grants etc.

Most of it didn't exist to take then.🙄

But I wasn't saying they have broader appeal than Labour, I was comparing them to Boris.

I think a lot of people (including myself and my colleagues, working in a school) expected this budget to be harsher than it was towards certain groups - people on low incomes, people on benefits, the NHS, education ... but in fact it was better than expected. Labour didn't have much to be outraged about after the budget as the reality is, cuts do have to be made but at least he didn't target the most vulnerable.

As I said, I'm a floating voter. I won't decide until close to the election who I will vote for. Corbyn meant that I couldn't vote Labour in the last election and I wasn't impressed with the way Labour wanted to keep us in lockdown for longer & extend the furlough scheme, which the country couldn't afford.
However, after the Boris/Truss fiasco I felt completely disillushioned with the Tories and had decided I would vote Labour next time as they couldn't be worse.
Now with Sunak/Hunt and with this budget being fair (in my opinion) I feel open minded again. We'll see how they perform over the next year or so.

I'm so bloody glad I clung on to my Classic Civil service pension. They did everything they could about 20 years ago to get everyone to switch.

Less likely to attract votes than Johnson currently - the party is polling less well. Johnson was marmite, Sunak is generally 'meh'. The coalition that won the red wall + blue wall has currently broken and no one knows if they can get it back without Johnson.

More likely to attract votes than Johnson, surely?
**

No, currently the Tories' are less likely to attract votes in the red wall than under Johnson. The blue wall is improved under Sunak - but still a long way behind 2019 with more considering the Lib Dems.

I don’t know about this blue wall/red wall stuff. I just feel like Sunak - on his current performance though it is very early days - seems more capable of winning the next general election than Boris who had become a liability to the Conservative party.

But the only reason Johnson won the 2019 election was he won the red wall + the blue wall. Tories' are facing demographic changes, so whatever your personal feelings, the reality is that whilst you like Sunak better, the Tories' have an electoral puzzle to solve. Johnson v Corbyn was a specific solution for them.

And never forget the Lib Dems, they are now detoxified and suddenly appealing to their old voters. They won't get aything like 70 seats in 2024, but everyone expects them to go up - all from incumbent Tories'.

The Guardian, not a natural ally, ran a headline that Sunak was polling higher than Starmer so it’s not just personal feeling, he does well on most attributes. Anyway a while to go - but you are not the only floating voter who will switch back after not voting Corbyn but being put off recently

I think Johnson went down to 11 points behind labour, Truss was 31 points below labour and Sunak has made up a bit of ground but not much. I think Tory's still about 26 points behind labour.

Sunak is polling better than party which is not surprising. Still a while to go, hard to say what will happen

So are you! banging on about how you are a floating voter! Your instinct is Conservatism, as i'm sure you'd agree but my comment wasn't specifically aimed at you, more the general comments of "labour have no policies" but when they do and the Tories adopt them, these same posters then say they'll vote tory.

There is no need to make personal insults such as "tiresome" is there? one reason these threads always end up being so negative.
I'm not going to change my view to pls you but if Hunt funds the NHS and gets investment going, then thats a thumbs up from me - i'm not dyed in the wool Labour, esp on the EU.

No never voted Corbyn.

I’m not engaging with this. Can you stop quoting me on threads.

It’s relentless and pointless.

ha ha You have a habit of asking for this don't you? maybe its your posting style?

Yep I do because you seem to quote me on every thread. I get you might want to but I’m out.

Engage with another poster.

Actually Marsha i quoted Twiglets and then no poster at all, YOU then quoted me in a post i hadn't even mentioned you in - Pot and Kettle?

Anyway, moving on - i do agree with the Posters who say Sunak has a far greater chance against Labour than Truss or Starmer & as i said earlier, hunt is the acceptable face.

But this budget wont do it for them.

More than happy to end it there so just engage with other posters from now on. It’s not worth it. So I say adieu and wish you well (slightly tongue in cheek) but have a good day.

Yes this. Labour still above 45pts, 20+ PT lead.

Sunak is polling just slightly behind Starmer for best PM in the period where his bounce should be highest and has just put everyone's taxes up. Time will tell, it's still a long road to the next GE but the problem the Tories' have is how do they move forward without trashing their own record?