How is Racheal Reeves planning to raise money?

[Chickenuggetsticks]

Exactly that really, I wouldn’t be surprised by a pensions raid. I read an article in the telegraph talking about using PFI again (which is horrifying as the article suggests the total cost of pfi is forecast to be 555% of the original loans.

I just haven’t seen much discussion and I’m wondering if anyone has seen anything concrete about Labours plans?

Are they? Most people I know don't give a stuff about immigration, beyond wanting the people smugglers dealt with on an international basis. They want the NHS to function, schools to have decent teachers, and councils to be able to afford to mend potholes and collect rubbish.

This, exactly 💯

Link?

I think it's more likely to be a windfall tax on the energy companies.
Then trying to recoup money from those who profiteered from COVID, following an enquiry about the use of public funds by some people.

An energy windfall tax is already confirmed but is ringfenced for the new public energy company which was supposed to be a publicly owned generator but is now going to be an investment vehicle with 3:1 private to public investment so gov will have a minority stake assuming it’s all equity funding. I still broadly support it but it’s definitely not as radical an idea as it was made out to be initially

It's alarming just how often governments (Labour, Coalition and Conservative) have messed around with pensions tax. It makes pension planning extremely tricky. Now, cry me a river, as it only affects high earners but most high earners are only in that bracket because they have skills that society values...

It doesn’t only affect high earners. Tell WASPI women that.

Well obviously they're going to open a new circus where rich Americans can watch Tories perform amazing tricks with their tails.

Maybe there'll be an extra special burger stand attached.

Honestly Tory HQ shouldn't you all brushing up your CVS by now? Or at the very least learning to juggle geese.

Yawn.

@NoPowerInTheVerse the good ones have already gone. There was an insulting memo on the quality of the remnants this week which accidentally got a wider audience.

Well the 'most' people who don't care about immigration are in for a bit if a shock. Where do they think all the money needed to pay for the NHS, education etc is going to come from?

Surely bringing people in to do jobs that people won't do is a false economy. I suspect many of these are low paid and require benefits top up. These people then go on to have families and need more benefits. I wonder what will happen when they realise that they don't have to do those jobs or don't want to?

We need to pay and train the people we have here before we start importing people.

Taxpayers only have so much to give.

Immigrants pay taxes and historically have paid more tax than their cost.

I'm expecting there to be more money available when it isn't all going to Tory funder companies set up on the premise of cushty licenses. Also more taxing of big business, fewer tax loopholes, and fairer taxation of very high earners. (And to be honest I would include well-off pensioners - my parents are in their late 70s, very comfortably off, and do not need tax breaks. My MIL is not comfortably off and does.)

Brexit has made it abundantly clear that there are many jobs we simply don't have people in this country who are able or willing to do. Many are low waged, but they would be whoever was doing them. If there were hoards of willing Britons just waiting for the chance to work in care homes, pick fruit or work in Pret, they would be doing it by now. And the narrative that immigrants only work in low-wage jobs is incredibly obtuse and damaging - the department I work in lost three fantastic EU professionals who went back to their home countries during Covid because they needed to be near family, but could no longer work from abroad for a British company. Such a waste.

This country has always had immigration, we are an island with a temperate climate and a widely spoken language. We are really bloody lucky to live somewhere so attractive to others. There is a massive difference between illegal, desperately dangerous immigration - which no-one wants because it so often ends in tragedy - compared to sustainable immigration of young, healthy people who come here to work, raise families and contribute to society.

I think I read somewhere once that the misspellings in this kind of post (primarily on social media) are deliberate to make them more easily searchable/trackable so that whoever is planting them can more accurately see the reach & impact.

Really? It seems to be one of the main talking points in the GE! NHS, schools, Council expenses are all affected by the level of immigration , so I think we should all “give a stuff!”

I don't personally know anyone talking about it. Media, yes. Actual people I know, no.

To be honest I'd say potholes comes up more than anything else!

Whoever is in is surely going to need to raise taxes as services need the money & we have an ageing population.

Doubt whether there will be many radical ideas for this election.

After all, radical idea = money and money has got to come from somewhere. And no one wants to give any up when they are squeezed after the COL crisis.

Labour were talking about £8 billion I think for "great british energy" but that doesn't really touch the sides when Dogger Bank alone will cost about 11 billion USD.

Concerned, I don’t think we can afford a lot of the stuff we want tbh. I think we need a different model for the NHS, perhaps charging for appointments. It doesn’t make me happy but what we are doing now is unsustainable.

Tbh given that the numbers of pupils is supposed to be going down I’d like total spending to stay the same and funnelled into smaller class sizes or more places for SEN students who can’t cope in mainstream.

Er yes I am being transparent, I want to know how Labour are planning to pay for stuff because they will most likely be the next government.

It takes some really disordered thinking to believe people shouldn’t ask questions during elections. Why do you think the question shouldn’t be asked?

Immigration is a red herring. Successive governments have encouraged it to bolster GDP and it does, but look at output per hour worked: its fallen since 1997. What they really should do is relax visa's but with no recourse to public funds (so housing, healthcare, schooling etc you pay for yourself). As someone has previously pointed out, we can't afford to have low skilled immigration while paying for people already here to stay at home.
Unfortunately we need to cut back spending - I know this is unpopular, but it really is the only way. The tax rate is already too high, despite all the guff there is nowhere left to squeeze and any raiding of pensions will just impact future contributions. Likewise windfall taxes prevent future investment - very short term thinking, and the impact of this can already be seen in oil and gas sector. Look at the Laffer curve - you raise taxes too high and total tax rate falls.

And you only need to look at what happened to Germany's green energy plan to know spending on this is a very bad idea.

Apologies for the misspelling, I’m not tory HQ, the paranoia is silly. Whats wrong with asking questions!? I ‘m genuinely wondering about it as I haven’t heard much apart from about the private school VAT thing.

Ok sorry yes I misspelled her name.

It's not paranoia @Chickenuggetsticks. Have you not read all the threads that have clearly been started by obvious Tory HQers? Tedious.

we need to cut back spending

Public services are already cut to the bone, there’s nothing left to cut. Redistribution and reprioritisation are what’s needed.