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.

How paranoid. Strangely the UK has managed to be mixed economy, liberalized economy and state driven economy without any of this utter drivel coming to pass. But then it is democracy and a long term one. A big difference which you don’t bother to highlight.

You're overegging the pudding.

I feel like good old fashioned British embarrassment at people getting overexcited or extreme about, well, anything, goes a long way to stop us being a dictatorship.

Wow this has all got very dramatic. Watching the Euros last night I was discussing with friends the threat of fascism and the far right's re-emergence in a lot of Europe and our relief that we still have two major parties operating in the (largely) centre ground in this liberal democracy. And then I pop in here and discover that we are on the path to communism!

That's a huge amount of nationalisation and huge global commercial companies rolling over and abandoning their financial interests in the blink of an eye! Amazing. I think you may be over estimating the capabilities of the Labour Party!

Actually, on first sight of these two revolutionary guerilla leaders it can be difficult to see the difference between them. If you look closely however you can see that Keir's blouson has a more tailored aspect. Therefore I think his Labour party may be less extreme than rumnraisins fears.

@rumnraisins I don’t know how old you are if you still remember being raised up in a communist country, but those from Eastern Europe have managed to get rid more than 20 years ago and they are, generally, doing ok. Societies are open, economically managing, though obviously not at western levels. If you’re from China or elsewhere, my sympathies. I can see why you’re paranoid. Your view is extreme, really extreme. In established democracies I think we can cope with the middle ground.

I told the truth in that I do not read FB or Twitter, and do not watch/listen to MSM. To give you an example as to how my decision process has been for the forthcoming election - I emailed each candidate in my constituency, with the same set of questions. Thankfully they all replied. Any further clarification I needed (there was lots as some replies were quite clearly cut and paste, toe the part line answers which were easy to spot) I requested it by email. Following that, I asked where and when each candidate wouls have a presence in my nearest town. I then went along to meet them and asked further questions, face to face. Good natured discussions followed with points I agreed or disagreed with. Some of the candidates became defensive at certain discussions, others were more open.

From the time they gave, the discussion and emails I have not found it too difficult to cast aside candidates/parties I will not vote for, leaving those I may do.

A far better way to make a decision than sift through the various MSM info which tends to favour one or other opinion (or has done in the past) hence I do not even bother with it.

I wonder what Labour will do for those who work but receive universal credit as well? They don't seem to talk about tackling poverty.

You really don't need to explain/justify. Some people can not accept any other point of view than their own

Chances are there will be a lot fewer rural areas as they will relax planning laws and restrictions on migration and will be building shedloads of housing over vast swathes of green belt land.

This was an independent analysis so not all bad.
Do the squeezed middle use the NHS?

Christ Almighty.
I see plenty of non working people. People who haven’t worked in years, they do fine claiming off the tax payer. The conservatives have encouraged this. They have been in power for 14 years!
I also see people at the other end who do not work for a living. The Sunaks of this word. Ok he pisses about at supposedly doing a job, but he has never had to work for a living has he? He was born into wealth and privilege and so too was his wife. She incidentally stole over £300,000 of tax payers money on a loan for one of her companies. The company has gone bust so the £300,000+ will never be paid back, just added to her mind boggling wealth.
Both these extremes have been encouraged by the Conservative governments.
So they have done NOTHING for those of us who have to work for a living.
That is why, and I’ll say it again, I have always been better off under a Labour government.
Lets recap.
Cameron refused to scarp university fees.
Cameron forced BREXIT by promising to let fuckwits vote on it.
Gove changed the syllabus for many GCSE subjects mid way through.
The conservatives created academies which have allowed the CEO to steal money from the school whilst staff went unpaid. Check out Hemsworth secondary school in West Yorkshire.
HS2 - in brief- an excuse for the Tories to plough money into their own companies and then call off the project after wasting God knows how much of tax payers money.
Money stolen from the NHS funds including contracts given to their mates. Is this figure over a billion?
Rawanda. Aside from anything else a complete waste of tax payers money.
Oh but it cost the tax payer approx £40,000 for Tory mps to have a nice jolly visiting the country.
The current war between Israel and Hamas. Poor Sunak. Swore unwavering allegiance to the Israel government. Oh dear.
Rail fares.
Electricity prices
Gas prices.
All artificially hiked because this government is in bed with the CEOs and will not raise the taxes they pay.
When asked what would happen if taxes on energy companies were increased the head of Shell replied ‘ nothing.’
I’m not going to comment about Covid except to say Michelle Mone.
Oh go on then.
Boris was a big, fat liar.
Hancock was a big, fat liar.
The conservatives have made sure that nobody who lived through that shit show would ever comply again.

I am so worried about this. I live in a very beautiful, very rural county - not for everyone as it is remote and it is the proper working countryside - and I would be heartbroken to see it disappear under swathes of identikit new build rabbit hutches. There is much brownfield land available in the town but I understand that this is more expensive to develop.

That's happening where I currently am. It's changed out of all recognition. Houses upon houses on former farmland. It used to be quite a sleepy town and the population has gone through the roof. No investment in infrastructure though.

Yes farmers are selling land here too and several big estates have already gone up. As you say, no infrastructure to support the influx of people. It's a bloody tragedy. Relaxing planning laws would be a green light for much more of this.
Once it's gone, it's gone forever.

How is it the tories fault for every single family who is poor.

Did poor people not exist under labour? I'm pretty sure they did.

People want Labour in just to pay them stuff they can't be arsed to earn

Anyone on MN who dares say anything negative about Labour gets slated. Very high earners and middle earners will leave the UK leaving only low earners. It frightens me to be honest.

They didn’t in 1997. And seeing that many of those high earners are voting Labour your fear is irrational.

Well some of us are old enough to remember the same dire predictions being made in 1997. Funny how high and middle earners didn't leave the UK then.

Why? Which one are you? A contributor or a taker? I think that’s how the Tories view people.

Ha, Blossomtoes!

Honestly, some of the posts here are verging on the unhinged. Starmer's Tory party is centrist, more so than Blair truth be told.

I reckon they’ll be even more batshit by Thursday.

Brexit put paid to this easy move.

You're brave! The attack dogs will be along soon with their blind faith and infinite wisdom!

I have to say this thread has been a real eye opener for me. I spend a lot of time in parliament with MPs, Peers, prospective party candidates, think tanks and when they are in post Ministers. I've done lot of reading and going to events to assess what the Labour Party manifesto will mean for my area of interest. I'm regularly reading analysis by serious bodies and publications and I've never heard any of the more extreme views from the IFS, the Economist, FT or think tanks (or not for 20 or 30 years). That Labour would re-nationalise all our infrastructure and utilities (excepting Thames Water which is on the brink of collapse), that we will be living in a communist country, that all the wealth and capital, the very rich will flee the country. I've read the risk register produced by Sue Gray for Starmer and there's no mention of these things, though there are issues like the potential collapse of universities, over-crowding in prisons and ongoing massive deficits in the NHS. Most of those issues link to the real risk of lack of economic growth and the public funds to address these huge challenges.

So its been interesting to say the least to hear the unedited views of the Tory heartlands. But be encouraged - this is a democracy and we have successfully navigated changes of government without chaos and revolution. Despite some extraordinary political moments. I remember the nationalisation and de-nationalisation in the 70s, the electricity cuts and 3 day week and the winter of discontent, the miners strike and poll tax riots, the interest rates rising to 13% on mortgages, the Falklands war, crashing out of the European Exchange Rate mechanism on Black Wednesday. I remember the years of boom under the 97 Labour government, the cash for honours scandal and death of Stephen Lawrence, and then the disaster of the Iraq War. ME too, Black Lives Matter, Brexit, Covid,

And so on. And yet here we all still muddling along surviving. With a silly old royal family, a free press and a humorous cycnicism.