Labour government

[DoNotBlameTheMessenger]

With Starmer now, apparently being the most unpopular PM we've ever had - and all the things he's done since they got into power, are you still pleased you voted for them?

@Araminta1003

"The question for me is how do we maintain democracy whilst at the same time having Governments who actually do think long term."

The answer is inherently you can't. Democracy in the UK is an election every 5 years so political parties only think in 5 year timespans - of course they can try and think longer term it's just that they won't elected for a second term.

Equally most voters are only interested in what policies benefit them (or don't harm them) in the short term,not what is in their and the country's long term interests.

I keep coming back to the quote from Alexander Tytler (Lord Woodhouselee) in the early 1800s:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

We are currently close to fiscal collapse.

It's correct but it's not, the problem is populism, the promise of everything for nothing. Labour never promised that...they promised to rebuild social services like the NHS.... unfortunately that costs money and so do roads and adult social care and education. Labour did say that certain groups would be taxed more however, due to the mess the last lot left the pledge has unfortunately been broken and we are all facing some cuts and some tax increases.

It's people like Trump and Farage that make huge promises of tax cuts without saying what the costs will be. Those are the ones you need to be weary of ... because you can't have good public services and low taxes ... America is a good example of this ...no healthcare and poor education for those that can't afford the fees....if that's how you want to go then fair enough vote for him but the vast majority value our NHS, our schools and libraries...

There is no magic wand...it will take time, money and patience. The right wingers were calling for Starmer to resign from day one....give Labour 10 years then decide ... don't be e foolish and vote something that will mean a continuous decline and growing wealth gap.

@dubsie

"It's correct but it's not, the problem is populism, the promise of everything for nothing. Labour never promised that...they promised to rebuild social services like the NHS.... unfortunately that costs money and so do roads and adult social care and education. Labour did say that certain groups would be taxed more however, due to the mess the last lot left the pledge has unfortunately been broken and we are all facing some cuts and some tax increases. "

I'm sorry but all the political parties are the same - if they were honest with the voters then the voters would never vote for them. I'm not saying Labour are worse than the others but they are certainly no different.

Labour certainly did promise not to raise taxes on ordinary people. Instead they raised NI taxes on companies which as another poster described is a tax on employability rather than profitability.

Labour certainly has increased Government debt which in turn leads to higher interest payments and less money for Government services. The Government now spends as much on interest as it does on education.

Blaming teachers n the last lot is what every new Government does often with justification but it doesn't change where we are.

Populism is simply dumbed down democracy focusing on meaningless sound bites "let's take back control " make America great again" or "for the many not the few", "workers of the world unite".

Sounds great but doesn't really mean anything and both left and right are guilty of it.

It is clear what policies are needed to reverse the managed economic decline. It's just no one would ever vote for a party with those policies.

I didn't vote for him because, having observed his behaviour on women's rights, I didn't think he could be trusted. I so wish we had a better calibre of politicians.

I think the genie is well and truly out of the bottle with this one but a large part of our problem is that politicians promise simple solutions to complex problems...flog them with simple slogans ( bloody Boris and his three| words..Get Brexit Done. Oven Ready Deal etc) and there's no attempt to explain things properly or in depth. The media/press encourage this.

See ‘smash the gangs’

I think the only hope for us is if things like Education and the National Health Service have guaranteed Ring fenced budgets and Central Government Politicians cannot interfere in the same way as they have to date. I think it is completely unacceptable that they can use Education and Health for political football in the way that they do. That is probably the most urgent thing to sort out. Let them focus on taxation and foreign affairs primarily but essential services need to be separated out as much as possible.