Starmer says we are going to have more money in our pockets (new year's speach

[JoyousPinkPeer]

Do you beleive him or do you think he is a liar?

Someone prepared to reverse Brexit would be great.

It would, wouldn’t it? Sadly it’s never going to happen, particularly with Farage giving it large.

You are not going to say ToryHQ or Bots are you

Thatcher had a coherent plan though, and was able to articulate it, even if we don’t all agree with all of it. All Starmer has is Pledges, Missions, Milestones, Foundations and whatever the current buzzword from the Blair Foundation is. No coherent policies, because if they did they wouldn’t be shooting themselves in the foot so regularly!

Buy paying £8,000 VAT on school fees? Yeah right!

Come April, I will have more money in my pocket as Carer's Allowance will increase. I will get £1.40 a week extra and receive £83.30 a week for providing round the clock, live in care. I wonder what I should do with it?

What’s any of that got to do with popularity? Political historians are all in agreement that without the Falklands War she’d have lost the 1983 election.

No just the political allegiance of readers of meet

I honestly can't see it myself
Most people are feeling worse off and a bit fed up with everything tbh.
It's going to be a tough year

It’s a fair point. Why didn’t Corbyn, or Starmer for that matter, when in opposition mount a robust ‘remain’ campaign? Why are all the UK, and for that matter European (and US) politicians so wilfully ignorant, arrogant and unable to articulate a clear case for anything. Is it that they were always so, but we saw less of them pre 1990s internet / rolling news days, or have they actually got a lot worse?

He's on his way to becoming a war criminal too ALREADY.
Less than six fucking months.
Even Blair had a bit more long termism thinking than this shit bag.

Well yes, that’s right. But, what the war did was buy her time to implement the policies, and the public liked the result so voted her and the Conservatives back in multiple times. Then Blair could ride on the back of those successes, until he’d spent all the money and handed the poisoned chalice to Brown ;)

That’s all tongue in cheek by the way, but… are you saying, short of a war, Starmer is doomed? 😂

Of course I’m not saying that. Simply pointing out that unpopularity at this point after an election isn’t exactly unusual.

Me too

@Tryingtokeepgoing When Edward Heath wanted us in the common market, Labour was against it. Corbyn was cut from that cloth. Starmer didn’t want to upset the Labour faithful who supported Brexit. They had voted Brexit (and Starmer realised that Labour strongholds would) so he played the long game to get them back. He has no backbone though. It’s all about votes. Not what’s best for the UK.

No bashing in my post, unless you can specify otherwise. Just quoting what he's said and asked if people beleive him. Do you?

I guess he isn’t referring to the families who are going to start paying VAT on private education
from now. They’re going to have thousands less in their pockets.

I haven’t heard his speech. I don’t want to hear it.

Yes we'll all have less money but we will be world leaders in net zero. I'm sure that's the one thing we'll all be grateful for. Only going to cost 100's of billions over the next few years......

I'm asking if people beleive what he has stated. I don't beleive him, lacking in integrity ... no write as much as deputy pm but still ....

He's a politician, its always robbing Peter to pay Paul. If you have more money in your pocket will depend on who you are.

No big surprise really.

Being this unpopular this quickly surely is unusual, if the nearest example is 45 years ago!

Just taking the simple fact check approach on his statement, there are five ways we can end up with more money in our pockets as I see it.

(1j taxes go down. He’s in control of that, and it’s not happening. Indeed, the reverse.

(2) the government can hand out more benefits, both in work and otherwise. He’s in control of that, and it’s not happening.
(3) the economy grows. He has influence over that, and is influencing it negatively with his chancellors budget.

(4) people are paid more. He has influence over that, and for the majority the budget means that pay rise will be less than inflation, or zero
(5) things can get cheaper. But, council tax is going up, the energy cap is going up, interest rates are falling more slowly and NI is going up so services will cost more.

Totally agree. One thing I have to admire about Farage is he doesn’t ’sit on the fence’ . I don’t agree with the vast majority of what he says but we know what he stands for. Same with Trump.

Why oh why can’t we have a strong, forceful remain politician stand up with an argument to rejoin the single market, for instance? Not that they would have us.

I think politics in this country needs to change desperately l. The conservatives are damaged by the last 14 years and Brexit and Starmer has had a very poor start. We desperately need a better alternative.

A whole £1.40, I mean, you could get yourself a 5 pack of Freddo chocolates for that!

What a gift from Labour.

Looking on the bright side, some people can look forward to improved job security due to all these children entering/re-entering the state system instead of wondering whether their schools are going to close due to the falling rolls from the huge drop in the birth rates.

But they're generally some of the lowest paid women in society. I can see how an improvement for them where they may have a job and even some discretionary spending would not matter to somebody on the other end of the social divide.

Inflation would lead to more money in our pockets, though it would buy less.

That’s a great summary, and something that’s a constant tension in the Labour Party as far as I can see.