I am a Labour voter, a Labour supporter and I do not regret my vote.

[CurlewKate]

However, I think that Starmer has been incredibly stupid and/or very badly advised over this expenses issue. He has done nothing wrong, but his behaviour is not what he led us to believe he would do, and I am incredibly exasperated and disappointed.

In my opinion, he should admit that he made a massive misjudgement, and agree to take no more freebies from now on.

Apart from anything else anything which allows people to say "They are all as bad as each other" (they aren't) is a distraction from the real issues the country faces. He should be laser focussed on repairing the damage caused by 14 years of Tory misrule. Not scrambling around dealing with peripheral stuff.
Starmer-say sorry. Don't do it again. And get back to work.

I agree, we seem to have lost the true meaning of 'Racist' and 'Bigot' .

@Nordione1 the amount of abuse anyone got for suggesting 'smash the gangs' was a pile of rubbish was madness. And now the new security guy says the same

Safely after the GE of course. What a farce

It's just a lazy. And easy for unintelligent people to shout at other people. You can't really answer back other than insist "but I'm not racist" which is hard to prove either way as no one can read minds. Plus there's the phenomenon of unconscious bias where you don't even know if you have it (and all of us do apparently, no matter what race we are) so some nitwit can shout unconscious bias at you and you can't really reply. It shuts down a debate that is actually really important and affects people. Like transgender.

Anyway, slightly off thread there...

Right.

And say what you will about Sunak - he was bang on about Starmer and fiscal policy.

@MoneyNeverSleeps sadly we will see that

Starmer and the media went all gung ho about a tool maker and people thought it mattered

Absolutely.

My father was a tool-maker repeated ad nauseum in an attempt to burnish his working class credentials.

Didnt take him and his missus long to get stuck into the goodies though did it.

Do as I say, don’t do as I do.

Such rank hypocrisy.

As someone said in the press yesterday, same troughs, different snouts.

I don't recall Gandhi needing luxury suits and eyewear to make an impression.

People seem gleeful that the Starmers and rest are being shown up and exposed so soon. But do you really think they care? They've got four years to grab what they can, it's their turn for snouts in the trough and that's that.

I heard someone say they are going to save the NHS though, so it must be alright.

All this Trojan Tories dont like having Labour lifting the paving slabs to expose the slugs that have been parasiting off the backs of working families.

Landlords, tax avoidance....I'm sorry but it's been a long time coming and I'm glad Starmer is brave enough to challenge the status quo....good riddance to buy to let landlords and the pain they inflict....and all those greedy people sitting on huge treasure chests avoiding paying tax....

It was high time for change and we got it....closer links with Europe, brave enough to raise tax where needed and to put people before landlords and bad employers

The pp just outlined the consequences of policy

Limiting rentals more won't help people who are higher risk

An interesting perspective.

Presumably it’s also good riddance to the middle class? To the tax-payer, to the OAP?

Precisely how have these people been avoiding tax?

The post is naive in the extreme.

It's the sense of entitlement re the clothes. Stop saying it was within the rules ,, still doesn't sit well many people .

Except thanks to VAT on education, French and German diplomats are saying there will be no closer ties unless Labour reverse this policy.
You sound like a Labour bot ie "change" etc and look where that's got us so far! "Brave enough to challenge the status quo" is laughable, they literally are the status quo but without the understanding, or concern, about how to act.

We also have Rachel Reeves as Chancellor who as we all know, worked for the Bank of England so she must be really good. Although it turns out she went in straight from university and only ever had a junior role. Lucky us.

I just looked up the Blair Cabinet. Gordon Brown, Alan Milburn, Alistair Darling, Robin Cook, Mo Mowlam (I loved her!), Clare Short, David Blunkett and Jack Straw. I wonder if in years to come, the current incumbents will be as memorable.

I see that Labour are showing the morals and integrity to admit they did the wrong thing and take responsibility for their actions. The Telegraph reports from the Labour Party Conference "Dont forget Tory scandal" urges Angela Raynor amid donor row. Hahaha!! Just as we have been discussing on this thread So pathetic and predictable.

There'll be a new hoo-hah of the week.

Yes. Also, this is off-topic as this thread is about undeclared gifts etc., but nowadays there is surveillance everywhere that the Stasi could only dream of - eg Prof Neil Ferguson’s married girlfriend breaking lockdown rules to visit him and Matt Hancock being caught snogging in a lift.
There will be more of these incidents and ‘scandals’ as MPs and Civil Servants are only human.

Rachel Reeves could make a ton of cash really easily if only she started charging the equivalent stamp duty on gilts or foreign shares traded abroad by British people. Instead they put people off buying British companies on our stock exchanges because those do attract stamp duty. They literally killed industry etc. and that is why we have so many disillusioned poor people.

The main issue seems to be that those in charge are just not that clever, despite their Oxford education. We need far more people from industry with different types of degrees and actual real experience across the sector to get this country turned around again. And with integrity where they put the country above their own selfish needs.

This is correct.

I have former colleagues, now at the BOE, who say the same.

She's still leagues ahead of what came before. We've had a labour government for less than a year and all the Tory trolls just can't stand it.

We've had years of austerity where the poorest have suffered harm, child poverty, homeless at record levels, the NHS on its knees....and your complaints are about this government that is determined to try and help some of the poorest most vulnerable people.

Poor old middle class parents having to pay VAT on private education so they can beat the common kids to the best jobs ...how about they cut their cloth like the rest of us are told to do.

I have no sympathy for those having to pay a little more tax, I pay 40% tax and I don't moan because I know I'm still better off than most of the people I do work for.

I'm a tradesman and I work in homes that are rented all the way to palatial gated homes. The wealthy won't cut the private education because it's peanuts for them and it's about status....why should a private education not be subject to VAT....

Because no other country in the EU taxes education. France and Germany have already said they want this stopping. This isn't a tax on indy schools, it is a tax on parents. Parents who already pay their taxes.
The kids who will be impacted most are the 110,000 with SEN, 20,000 + military and 20,000+ on bursaries and scholarships.
State boarding has been exempted yet those parents pay £15K+ per year, why should they be exempt?
It isn't the wealthy who will be impacted as they will have been able to afford to pay upfront prior to end July, it is average MC/WC parents who choose indy for a massive range of reasons including because their local state schools don't meet the needs of their kids.
Maybe stop drinking Labour koolaid and actually do some research.

Be interested to see if you say that after the autumn budget.

You're right on one thing, the rich won't really be that effected. It's the pensioners and the poor who will get royally screwed because they're easy targets.

FFS They ve published their rental bill, no caps at all, i'd have thought anyone would know this.

CGT? irrelevant as i said, anyone worried about this was planning to sell anyway.

Greater security?? why would that increase rents, even if it ever happened.

I don't know your point, you've not made one, just scaremongering as the reasons the market is tight is due to interest rate changes and Tory policy/talk, esp on EPC changes, later dropped & not resurrected by Labour, so they do understand the issues.

average MC/WC parents who choose indy for a massive range of reasons

Give over. Truly 'average' MC/WC parents can't afford this. Anything else is just flannel from people who don't want to admit they are better off than most.

Really? Cos we are upper Wc/lower MC and we do. Please tell exactly what salary you believe will cover it? We choose education over a bigger house/foreign holidays/general "stuff".
It all comes down to choices. SIL on same household income as us has kids at state school but has a new kitchen/bathroom every 5 years, we choose education yet we are the ones vilified.