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?

I think we already have a windfall tax on energy, think is like 30% or something. I guess you could raise it.

Pensions I suppose is an easier one, get rid of some reliefs etc.

She spouted some opaque guff about “growing the economy”… aka don’t frighten the horses until the election is in the bag.

Look, people have to live with the consequences of any incoming government. The tories have made an appalling mess in their time. It’s reasonable that people ask questions. Not every thread that you don’t like is going to be started by a tory spad. I acknowledge that some may feel like they are shit stirring but if people genuinely have concerns about any particular area it’s important that it is discussed.

In a healthy democracy debate and discussion are essential.

It is never a bad thing to ask questions, what exactly do you think will happen if someone asks a question? To me someone saying “ohhh nooo this question should be ignored because it’s a tory/labour/green spad” are basically saying “I don’t have an answer or I think the answer will make my party look bad”. Which is a poor response. The response should be “I don’t know” or “I think they will do xy and z and I think thats good because….”

Yeah this is the bit that’s left me a bit befuddled. Theres no real explanation of costings, I assume it may get a bit clearer the closer we get to election day. I haven’t really read any solid numbers or plan. Reeves strikes me as someone who does her homework so she must have an idea of what she is actually planning to do.

The point about incompetence vs opacity strikes me as very true.

I have no issue with genuine questions. But so many of the threads being started are not done with genuine intentions.

Reeves has been very clear that there will be fully costed details of all policies in the manifesto. Maybe we should all wait until we can read it before we complain about opacity.

She has @blossomtoes but the “fully costed” nonsense from the Corbyn manifesto doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence that their definition of that is the same as mine.

Reeves is a very different shadow chancellor to McDonnell and this is a very different Labour Party to Corbyn’s.

I really hope so because I’m not voting Tory!!

But this will not be the Corbyn manifesto, or anything like it.

Increasing VAT and putting VAT on private schools are two different things, despite all the threads on Mumsnet 90% of people don't give a shit about VAT on Private Schools

Is it though? I wonder and think that some hard left MPs are just biding their time.

Also, where do they think the homes are going to come from for the immigrants to live in? We already have a massive shortage of homes which is driving up prices, particularly rental costs, where there can easily be 10 people chasing every rental property that comes onto the market. We can't build homes fast enough to cope with demand.

As you say, we need to get more people already in the country (both immigrants and those born here) actually working, whether in their chosen trade/profession to work more hours (i.e. reverse the trend for part time and early retirement), and/or by a massive retraining/skills initiative to get people trained up to do the kinds of work where there are staff shortages. That's a much more sustainable path to take rather than forever relying on immigrants.

I think Labour have said they want to build an extra 1.5 million homes by changing planning laws.

Even if they aren’t I would expect that someone could put up a good defence to whatever the issue is.

@Scavernick I don’t know anyone who is worried or cares about immigration

Labour will have more available money than the Tories if they just decide not to give it all to their mates. That will save billions. Oh and if they properly tax everyone and don't turn a blind eye to rich mates them also have billions more.

where do they think the homes are going to come from for the immigrants to live in?

https://www.local.gov.uk/about/news/empty-homes-england-rise-nearly-10-cent-five-years

Where has all the money gone ? Services cut to the bone, savings made apparently but zilch to show for it …
@taxguru in London and the south east maybe. The economy is overheated precisely there. Levelling up was supposed to improve things up here but never happened. How can a country prosper if there isn’t much investment outside the capital and young people can’t move there because it’s so costly.

Huge shortages in nursing for example but no one wants to do it or lasts a few years then leaves because pay is poor and conditions appalling. Job opportunities in the north are abysmal. My oldest son wanted to do an IT apprenticeship, didn’t get a single interview despite excellent GCSEs, A’levels and a decent CV. We were told things ‘were very quiet’. He ended up going to uni.
Tories had 14 years to do all this. They promised to level up and to make Brexit
work. Still haven’t done it.

I'm not. I'm more worried we've spent £500m on sending no one to Rwanda as a gimmick.

Me too.

Yep
Communism

Births have been declining 140,000 a year since the boomer years.
All Party’s since then have failed to appreciate we can’t keep using a model of taxation where those working pay for the rest who are not.
This only works if the number of the working population is higher ( and the majority actually work ) than the number of non working ( kids, elderly )

We Are out of the boomer years working and now less are paying for more.
Therefore taxes have to rise, minimum wage has to rise and more have to work.
Retirement age has already gone up and despite the fact that life expectancy is not currently rising I can see the retirement age rising again.

How do you actually make people work

And me.