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.

It’s hard enough to get decent CEOs in the private sector, given the comp disparity with the US etc.

The lack of commercial acumen in the current govt is remarkable however.

So you weren't seriously asking for Labour plans (which are outlined in the manifesto), you are asking for people to guess at what they're planning on doing even though nothing has been announced.

I'm afraid that paying taxes to people you didn't vote for is part of democracy. I didn't vote, nor have I ever voted Tory.

I'm sure you're aware that Labour aren't responsible for the prison crisis as they've only been in for a couple of months. The prison service has been in crisis for years. I assume you only read right wing sources so didn't know about it.

Given the debacle of the past 14 years and the state of the country, the fact that only 34% voted Labour, is a sad inditement of the lack of critical thinking in this country - as though Brexit wasn't enough.

Everyone with income over the personal allowance has income tax to pay. Same rates and thresholds for OAPs as for everyone else.

Someone earning a wage of the same amount as that 85 year old will pay the same amount of income tax AND some NIC!

Not sure why people think the state pension should be tax exempt. Of course, if it's high enough, there'll be income tax to pay on the excess over everyone's personal tax allowance.

Googling about, it's not a missing 22 billion... It was/is an underestimate if what spending would be going forward. Fir example salary increases were based on 2%, Labour have given considerably more. Rwanda was cancelled, so there was not enough in the budget going forward for housing extra asylum seekers. So it isn't a "loss" of 22 billion, it's an underestimate of funds going forward, for which some is due to the decisions already made by the new administration.

So Labour blaming the previous govt is disingenuous therefore.

Ok but cancelling Rwanda was a massive faux pas if it’s true Germany want the facilities, they could have sold it! And covered some of the WFA. So in an attempt to politically grand stand they wasted 700 million or more of already spent taxpayers money! Just to show the middle finger to the Tories. I am also anti Rwanda but they might has well had a bonfire with our cash! How many hospital procedures could have been caught up with if they had approached this in a more business like manner. Bunch of incompetents.

I actually didn't vote for them for a few reasons but I have no complaints so far really, especially since until the budget we won't really know what they will be doing.
I AM happy with how the Riots were handled and the dropping of the insane Rwanda scheme though

"Haroldwilson" why are we always at fault , we haven't delayed retirement by choice, most of us have been working since the age of 13 !!!! Most younger people are still in education at 22 !!!! We haven't dumped all our debt on the next generation you accumulate that yourselves ie uni costs ....you can choose other paths than uni and enter the workforce at 18 debt free.
Again we are a generation who hasn't benefited from inheritance where you hopefully will due to the hardworking of us awful older people who worked long and hard and went without to buy and support the younger generation. A choice I would do again

The problem for me isn’t paying tax. It’s where it’s going. I want a Swiss system where most of it goes locally first to my local council. And only 10 per cent to Central Government! That’s what I want. I am happy for my Council to share our money to level up with other poorer areas. But what I want is someone who looks me in the eye and tells me where my money went.

I'm happy with my choice in general, thank you.

No I'm asking them to introduce sensible plans and tell me what they are. Releasing dangerous criminals early, with the crime rate as high as it is, is not a sensible or sustainable "plan".

Why are we not hearing about plans to immediately improve/reform/clean up the police, the judicial system and most importantly, address the knife and drug epidemic? It's basic common sense and should be top of the agenda.

We only have a malfunctioning/partial democracy, but that's for another thread.

You assume completely wrong, about the right-wing sources. I prefer the Guardian for info, although that can't be trusted either.

I'd say the 34% is a sad indictment of the broken political system. Although admittedly critical thinking is in short supply.

We'd all like to know what they are planning but they haven't announced anything yet.

What is your solution to the prison crisis? I believe there were only a hundred or so places in the men's estate. It's been reported on for years, so surely hasn't come as a shock.

council tax single occupancy, no free bus passes for old folk

Can you link to the announcements about this please @EverythingAllatOnceAllTheTime ?

I think the WFA decision is a mistake. I agree that if there is a cost effective way to not pay it to wealthy pensioners then that should be done, but paying it only to those on PC is setting the bar too low. Other than that I don't think Labour has so far done anything terrible.

On prisons, 10.5k prisoners are foreign nationals. A huge number. How about tackling that along with the asylum backlog. Too hard??

I didn't vote labour but they have only been in a few weeks so I can't see people regretting it. They haven't really done much yet maybe some back in a couple of years after they have implemented some policies. I don't expect to like a lot of what they do, I expect my tax will increase a lot and I don't like some of their policies like VAT on school fees (not because it directly affects me just because I think it's wrong) but I wasn't that keen on a lot of what the conservatives did over the last few years.
The prisoner release and some of the tax increases would have happened under the conservatives anyway so I don't see it as much different.
Finally on the WFA I don't agree on principle because I think universal benefits paid to everyone are helpful for reasons other than money i.e. it takes the stigma away because everyone gets it but that ship has very much sailed when they started means testing child benefit.

Well, to pay tax of £300 they must be getting State Pension and another form of income on top to take them to a total of £14,070 (i.e no tax on the first £12,570. To pay £300 tax they would need to have income of £1500 p.a on top of that = £14,070 if my maffs is correct).

Who brought in the freeze of tax thresholds? Hmm?

I'm going to wait to see what actually happens, but definitely no regrets so far. It's been a massive relief so far.

But I suspect if the Tories had made the WFA means tested, their followers would be falling over themselves to support it.

You didn't say owt when the Tories were causing poverty levels to rise and rise, did you?

Not necessarily, whilst "basic" state pension is within the personal allowance, there are several "top ups" that are paid as part of the payment, i.e. from the very old graduated state pension, or SERPS or S2P, or where there's a transfer of some entitlement from a deceased spouse. Quite a few people are already paying tax on a portion of their state pensions - I've a couple of dozen clients who've been in that position. Nothing new, I've had these clients for several years, who get income tax bills yearly but only receive a state pension.

I am no defender of the tories, and believe me,
had they done what Labour have, I would have been very vocal.

Fair enough, but the point is that no new taxes have been introduced (yet!).

The person @Bollindger is talking about would at the moment be paying the same tax they would have paid under the Tories, and the reason they are paying tax is because their income (whether SP plus the add-ons you describe or SP plus some other form of income) is above the tax threshold. So trying to blame Labour for a sudden £300 tax bill is incorrect.

That's good. Glad to hear that!

But their supporters absolutely wouldn't have had a problem with it if the Tories had done it. I heard not one peep when public services were being decimated.

Discussed and mentioned by who?

Apart from the WFA, nothing has been said by Labour about any tax changes, indeed Rayner specifically said there will be no changes to the single person discount on council tax.

To me, it just seems to be a load of crap talked about by Tory voters intent on seeing the new Govt fail and hence the UK fail also.

Yeah that would be it….

One wonders where the 1,700 prisoners will live?

Why you all still talking about riots and WFA when the discussion is now the NHS reforms? What are they going to do with ZERO cash injection? The reason NHS workers are off sick is quite obvious - they also can’t get GP appointments, blood tests or mental health support. DAHHH