Labour

[EverythingAllatOnceAllTheTime]

No questions the Tories were bad, but Labour are on another level.

Are you still happy you voted them in? Be honest now, you are having your doubts aren’t you?

If not, you really should be.

The early release scheme was in place long before Labour came to power. Nobody blinked when the Conservatives were releasing prisoners early, but suddenly were being governed by the devil!

This hysteria and hypocrisy makes me sick to my stomach. For 14 years we’ve had the most vulnerable people in our society systematically destroyed by the previous government. The middle classes didn’t give a shiny shite about children or disabled people living in extreme poverty. Suddenly they think they might be a few quid worse off and the world is ending!

Why didn’t they think the Tories were evil when the homeless numbers shot up? Or when disabled people died from the effects of benefits sanctions because they were too ill to return to work when they were being forced?

And for the record, I didn’t even vote Labour.

I agree with this. They are just so effung downbeat and depressing. Focusing on negatives all the time. It's hair shirt politics. Yes, I know not everything's perfect, but not everything is shit. Let's have some optimism that Labour will be able to make some positive changes where the Tories were unable to tread, the NHS specifically.

Fortunately I didn't vote for them so I have a clear conscience. They are every bit as bad as I thought they would be

Blair was in when IT companies were taking off making loads of money for shareholders, so lots of tax revenue, oil /car industry booming.
That all fell apart after banking crash 2008

I beg to differ -everything is shit -please list your non-shit things.

You're desperate for some spin.

I don't understand why investing in the public sector is unpopular. We need to invest in everything, across the board. The country is on its knees after years of neglect

I don't think it is unpopular per se. But, with that investment you need reform and increased productivity, which public sector is not known for.

Yep totally happy with them so far, decisively dealt with rioters who were making peoples lives a misery based on ethnicity. The far right and their poison needs to be contained rather than encouraged as by the last government. They got rid of the ridiculous Rwanda scheme, even Rishi Sunak must’ve known that wasn’t going to happen yet they spent billions on it, all to appeal to the worst kind of voter.

They’ve met with the EU hopefully to try and create a more adult, cooperative relationship. We badly need that again.

The fuel allowance - this is being made such a lot of. So many pensioners including my parents are so much better off than working age younger people. I know it’s politically seen as poor PR to target anything to do with elderly people, but why get a benefit if you don’t need it? My parents were decent and gave it to charity. Many others will be using it to fund part of an expensive holiday. The last pensioner I talked with about it was living mortgage free in a £1million house with a huge pension that’s way above the average national salary. He said ‘they’re coming after us now’. Does he really need the WFA? No he doesn’t but was kicking off anyway.

I got child benefit removed from us because we’re above the threshold. I thought fair enough.

Thus far, all of them.

Couldn’t agree more.

And on prisons - if you incarcerate someone you have a duty to provide decent standards of accomodation, not plush but not mouldy/filthy/overcrowded and full of rats and cockroaches.

We keep making sentences longer because it sounds good but no one wants to spend more on prisons because it's not a vote winner. It makes things worse overall as prison has less of a chance to reform prisoners. So they come out and offend again.

Anyone could end up in prison, or with a close family member in there. None of us are perfect and gambling, alcohol or drug addiction etc can happen to anyone. They should be somewhere to turn your life around, not a chaotic holding pen.

You're really speaking to the wrong forum here,its Labour massive , if an elderly dies in their own home due to hyperthermia, or depression due to no longer going out due to expensive public transport.

They will celebrate..
Population control baby

Too right! I broke open the champagne when Johnson let COVID run riot in care homes. Look at all the money saved on care home fees and pensions.

It's a party captured by the rightwing "thinktank" Labour Together. Most people knew what they were going to get.

Imagine if this shower of shyte had been in power in 1945, we'd have no welfare state, no NHS and no council houses.

I'm becoming increasingly warm to the idea that Starmer is an establishment crony sent to destroy any chance of ever having a progressive government in the UK again.

Scrapping the £86K care cap wasn’t great either. The current £23K cap hasn’t increased in line with inflation for years, there will come to a point where it will cover funeral costs and that’s it. This really has clobbered the most vulnerable in society (And I mean older people with dementia in care homes, not drag Queens).

I'm surprised that the first two significant policies have been:

1. Taxing education midway through a school year - impacting children, in particular those with SEN
2. Taking heating allowance from most pensioners.

There are so many other - better- ways to raise money and save money.

I'm hoping the budget reveals taxes on fat cats whose earners are taxed as CGT not income, energy providers profiting whilst pensioners freeze, the ultra rich, something sensible regarding final salary civil service pensions, something sensible regarding paying for social care.

Increases in Inheritance Tax and scrapping the care cap will mean less wealth passing down to generations, fewer young people able to get onto the property ladder before fertility declines, a reduction in birth rates and a continuation in population decline which is going to be a major challenge when people get to retirement age in the next 20 years. No one in the party is thinking about the long term consequences of their policies, they are just bashing the right people over the head to appeal to one hard core section of their supporters, a lot like the Tories did! I mean, council houses, that would be great wouldn’t it? No word on that yet.

It would have been easier to give all those eligible, an increase equivalent to the WFA then those who have more would have simply been taxed more on any alternative income.
Applying for pension credit or other help is yet more form filling, yet more admin and there won't be the increase in staff to cope with the influx of even more benefit claimants across the board adding to even more delays before people receive help.
I'm only too happy that the ridiculous pay rises handed out recently by Labour will end up being taxed even more. The fiscal drag although annoying to many -needs to be applied to those in benefits too as there must be many whose income must exceed the total of their benefits plus whatever 16 hour per week jobs they maybe doing to hit the basic rate of tax. Why shouldn't they contribute too?
I didn't vote Labour but I'm willing to watch what they are planning to do - but they are not projecting a positive spin on anything. At least with the Conservatives there was always a feeling of we can get through this and pointing people in the right direction for help.
With Labour, I can't help but feel that although life is difficult now - that they are going to make it harder still and be really miserable and pessimistic about it all while its happening. No joy to be had there!!

And now no more money for the NHS
without reform.

It cannot reform.

I call bullshit on that.

This suggests all older people live in poverty.

In reality we're talking about doling out £300 just because people are over 65 or whatever the age is - that might be someone in full time work, someone living in a mansion, someone living with extended family. It's mad.

The people most at risk of fuel poverty will still get it. It will probably drive greater uptake of pension credit and leave them better off.

It's not genuine "investment" that's unpopular.

It's the tax rising to fund it - everyone wants it to be "someone else" who pays more tax, not themselves.

Also there's the monumental waste and inefficiency. No point pouring more money in to a leaky bucket until you plug the holes.

If people can see a genuine improvement in public services, proportional to the extra amount they're having to pay, then I'm sure it would be popular.

We've had 2 or 3 decades of "reform" of the NHS, but it just gets worse.

Blair claimed to have "cured" the shortage of GPs some 20 years ago with his new GP pay and conditions contract. It made things worse.

We've had the internal/business market within the NHS, fragmentation into different trusts, etc. All made things worse.

Early release of violent prisoners I was not expecting.

One of those released was met outside the door by the police and instantly arrested for a number of charges including rape, and taken down the police station.

Well done Labour.

If people can see a genuine improvement in public services, proportional to the extra amount they're having to pay, then I'm sure it would be popular.

That's very optimistic of you. I think people want good public services but don't want to pay for them.

That kind of thinking also leaves us at an impasse. People don't want to pay to improve public services until they see an improvement but they can't actually function properly without investment.