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.

I think the abolition of the bus pass along with the abolition of the single person cancel tax discount are rumours which won't come to fruition.

It would be very difficult for Starmer and Reeves to justify people losing these concessions in England alone. I think it would be a cold day in hell before the rest of the UK followed suit.

But we'll see!

Utter cobblers

What a very persuasive argument.

Like i said @EasternStandard a poster who is aggressive and insulting, especially sad as this is supposed to be a forum supportive of women and Rayner is not here to defend herself, plus of the course he/she has never met AR.

I despise people who constantly seek to put down the UK, the UK has a very high standing in the world after the Truss debacle, also in science, education too.

Well said. It all smacks of misogyny, doesn't it?

Interesting after the many threads on Truss and other female non Labour politicians

And being pro UK after a long time of people complaining on here

But no answer on the 'he', women can work in finance too and have views on economics

As for skipping over migrant deaths it's going to be hard for Labour to pretend to be more humane than a deterrent

From the silence and 'people don't care' I'm guessing they have a willing audience on that one

Our high flying finance expert has been zapped.

Many times over it appears. We will never know what wisdom they shared 😆

All of their posts have been zapped. Oh dear.

Careful ladies. Thin ice.

I suppose. But they were really so bloody insulting.

There is an important point to make here though.
The British went to India, for example, and ruled by division, divide and rule was the motto.
In the last 50 years they have imported a huge amount of higher rate tax payers who come with their own cultural expectations of eg selective/private schooling. Now if you just take them and then try and churn them out again, put them off - well that is colonialism at its best.
I wish posters in that position who are now British would stay and fight for their rights. They have just as much right to voice their opinions as everyone else.

And quite frankly having a cabinet yet again full of people who all did PPE at Oxford is toxic to the extreme.

Personally, I am delighted Angela Rayner is there and I really hope she can reign in the Oxford lot.

@Araminta1003

I'm not clear on your point on India or the linkage to Labour / private school.

Personally I think it's bloody marvellous that the UK can attract higher rate income tax migrants from India.

I think that approach of @TTSSRPBT of leaving the UK because of higher taxation and a "let's punish the wealthy " is fairly exceptional and only really makes sense if you have serious wealth/ income and a lack of ties to the UK because let's face it, it is a lot of hassle.

What I think would be more common would be higher income earners either switching to four days a week or going for early retirement because of higher taxation and a perception "let's bash the rich" attitudes.

There was another thread recently about a lady who was earning £185k a year and wanting to switch to a 4 day week. Now you don't get paid £185k a year without a lot of stress and a lot of hours and not much family time.

If she did that then this would mean a gross cut of £37k. However this would be taxed at close to 60% so moving from a monthly salary of £6.58k to £5.46k or roughly £250 a week.

Now £250 a week less is certainly a lot of money for the vast majority of people. But for this person especially if she is also married to a high income earner it is not so much and something she might easily be able to make savings in other areas such as less childcare, no travel to work costs or less fancy holiday. So I can certainly see her logic in forgoing £250 a week for a less stressful life and to see more of her family.

Meanwhile her tax revenues have gone down by £1250 a week.

@Zonder

"If someone earns more, is asked to pay more tax and leaves the country because of it then they are clearly the ones who don't care.
*
I'm not a high rate tax payer - I happily pay my taxes towards our country. My DH is a higher rate tax payer and he also happily pays his taxes. That's a key point about being more left - we understand that taxes are necessary for the good of the country.*"

In this situation would you say that if someone earning more is asked to pay more tax but then chooses to work less days because of it or retire earlier because of it plus of course the benefit of more fee time and a less stressful life - do these people also not care?

Or should she continue to work 5 days a week in a stressful job or retire at 65 simply because taxes are necessary and for the good of the country?

@1dayatatime - I am reading the new book by Willian Dalrymple called The Golden Road and I possibly got a bit carried away…

But the point stands. The UK/Britain is an amazing culturally rich country and incredibly diverse and creative and actually doing fine economically overall, given our challenges. For some reason, the “divide and rule” used in India by the colonialists and used for years by Conservative politicians has been adopted by the current Labour Government through pointless and divisive policies like WFA/VAT on private school fees.
Now Putin when he faces trouble at home goes and tries and attack the Ukraine to bring home some old concept of Mother Russia, Rus, founded in the Ukraine. He tries to unite his country by attacking outwardly.

Whereas we have chosen Brexit which is a form of self harm and now pointless and further dividing policies against eg pensioners that make zero financial sense really. Because the fall out is not worth the minor cash it will generate. It’s bullshit just like the VAT on private schools.

So I am simply pondering why we are using the “divide and rule” on ourselves in this way?

There is a middle ground between highly educated Etonian "fools" and council estate comp kids who barely got any GCSE's. The "middle ground" consists of all kinds of people who are actually pretty clever, enough to get decent GCSEs and A levels, or even a bog standard Uni degree, but who didn't got to Eton.

Personally, I'd rather see more of the middle ground people and less of the Eton elite AND less of the council/comp without any worthy qualifications. Middle ground rules!!

You’d be hard pressed to get less of the council/comp without any worthy qualifications. There are barely any as it is. Rayner is clearly highly intelligent and has overcome the appalling conditions of her childhood to attain one of the highest positions in government. I personally would like to see more people like that in government. Major is a prime example of how much someone like that can benefit the country.

A shame the thread went the way it did.

I see Starmer is going to meet Meloni on what to do as his original plan looks like it'll go down the plug. Might just be optics, I doubt he can do what Meloni does to get the numbers down.

“ The "middle ground" consists of all kinds of people who are actually pretty clever, enough to get decent GCSEs and A levels, or even a bog standard Uni degree“

I disagree - I think we need a representation of everyone in Government and the civil service.
Plus it is not Eton that is the bubble, it is Oxford university politics that is bringing the country down. Argument for argument’s sake and an assumption of cleverness.

There is a middle ground between highly educated Etonian "fools" and council estate comp kids who barely got any GCSE's

Major barely got any 'O' levels. Three in fact.

The "middle ground" consists of all kinds of people who are actually pretty clever, enough to get decent GCSEs and A levels

Major doesn't fit into your "middle ground".

On the migrant boat crossing, we need laws to protect the children of migrants. I think anyone putting a child on a boat is not fit to be a parent, full stop. Regardless of circumstances. I know that is a bit radical, but these children do not have the ability to consent in the first place.