Labour hate people like me

[Meadowtrees]

I feel sick at the thought of how much our lives are going to change.

This is not a thread to bash or criticise people nervous about Labour. It’s a place for those of us who are feeling very anxious to have a bit of space - it’s not something we are ‘allowed’ to say in public without being called ‘scum’ ‘selfish tories’ or similar. I’m not particularly linked to any party and not sure how to vote, I may spoil my ballot.

Labour have made it very clear that they intend to make us poorer and our lives harder.
I’m a woman - Labour intend to remove women’s rights
I’m rural - Labour aren’t interested in rural areas
I work in a private school - enough said
I have teens - I expect Labour to put vat on uni fees
We both work full time and have slogged our guts out to now be in a position where we have a comfortable (but not high) income - I expect to be taxed more heavily.
We have elderly parents - I expect the cost of care and inheritance tax to increase.

Maybe it’s selfish but we’re screwed and I don’t expect that what we lose will be put to efficient or good use. It feels like we will be punished for having worked hard and being ambitious.

It always happens this way. When one party swings further, the other has to follow in order to capture the disenfranchised voters. In the current case, Labour is probably further right than Cameron was in order to capture the disenfranchised voters who are disgruntled with the extreme right. Starmer has to do this while keeping as many of the lefties as possible, or at least trading that the gain will be greater than the loss. And then there are those who think the current government isn't far enough right, so they go to Reform.

I suspect it is why he is being vague about many policies as, once he nails his colours to the mast, there is less of a grey area between those segments. He is trying to appeal to as wide a catchment as possible.

Of course, once he is in, we will see what he truly thinks, but that's the same with all of them. Today they are courting, on Friday we will be married, at least for the next five years.

I laughed reading the Conservative manifesto still blaming the last Labour government without a hint of irony that they've had 14 years to achieve at least some inroads.

But if the OP is anything like us she cannot afford to pay more tax!

Can she - and you - afford public services deteriorating any further? Do you really want to live in a third world country?

Briefly on women, Labour are fudging transgender issue though dial is shifting in right direction. There are though positive policies on other womens rights. They aim to provide more protection to victims of domestic abuse. “Raneem’s law” will require police to respond faster to reports of domestic violence and to consider immediate use of orders to protect women. The law will put domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms to make sure victims are responded to urgently. They plan to establish 80 new rape courts across and England and Wales to fast-track cases as part of wide-ranging plans to tackle violence against women and girls.

"But they don't know what a wooomaaan is" 🙄

From where do I get the money? I cannot magic it up can I?

Third world country is not really a term used any more btw.

I baffled by the OP!

I am was not born in the UK, I have lived here for almost 3 decades and can see in the last 14 years the decline and how things are getting closer to looking how they are in my home country

trust me OP, the way the conservatives are managing the country will only mean a further decline inall our lives. What good is it for you, if those around you are poorer, if there is more crime, if young people have no hope? Those of us who have lived and have families in poorer countries (which coujd be doing so much better if it wasn’t for bad governments) understand what is happening.

Kier Starmer is the right person for the job.

You're right, and you've just summed up exactly why I cannot vote labour. Their failure to nail their colours to the mast on issues that I really care about has completely put me off.

Obviously it is because I just used it. 🤷‍♀️

Just how much worse are you prepared to see things get?

Blossom- active is trying to gently point out that ‘third world’ is no longer used because it’s pretty offensive for what should be obvious reasons to most people. ‘Low income country’ is a better term, amongst others.

I didn't think there was a shortage of jobs in schools?

I don’t care what she - and you - are trying to point out. It’s just rude. Anyway, is that the way you want to live? In the sixth or seventh richest country in the world?

What do you have to earn to be part of the "squeezed middle"? I think people often assume other people earn much more money than they do.

Soliv - it depends where you live and what subject / leadership level you are. Newly qualified teacher in a big town - not a problem. If you live in a rural area (like me) with only a few schools in reach then someone who does what you do has to be leaving, if you are a history teacher or deputy head it’s pretty unlikely!

@TheNuthatch "Their failure to nail their colours to the mast on issues that I really care about has completely put me off."
What specifically?

If Starmer is the best the UK can do for a political leader, we are absolutely and completely fucked.

My family member is teaching subjects at A level that they aren't qualified in or even studied at A level themselves. Surely you could teach any humanities subject if you needed the job?

You have seen the last three?

Starmer is a follower, not a leader, desperately trying to appease all the different factions within his party. Just like Johnson was, and look where that got us.

Is your family member capable of teaching authoritatively and answering questions posed by the class? I don't see that they can be in the situation you describe.

He doesn’t have to appease them and he certainly hasn’t to transform a rag tag party that got its worst election result for 40 years into one that’s consistently been 20+ points ahead in the polls for two years. The party discipline must be cast iron right now, Labour’s barely put a foot wrong in this campaign, in stark contrast to the Tories’ catastrophic performance.

Unfortunately, yes.

That doesn't make Starmer good by definition.

There is nobody uniting the country. The system has to change.

People can kick and scream all they like, but it has got to change.

Sorry, maybe their halos are shining where you are, but Labour has fucked up massively in certain parts of the country.

I wouldn't know, I'm not in the classroom. They were teaching the subjects through an agency and have since been offered a permanent role at the school so must be doing a good enough job. My point was if the OP loses her job then she should be able to find another.

How very odd that the media has failed to pick those fuck ups up. The right wing press is usually on them like a tramp on chips.

If that's the case, why couldn't he give Jane a straight answer? He's trying to pander to the identitarians and the women's rights activists at the same time. How he failed to have Rosie Duffield's back tells me whose tune he really dances to, but he can't quite bring himself to be honest about it.