Labour’s fiscal incompetence & mismanagement - Part I

[MyNameIsX]

Ministers are poised to scrap the system which ensures pupils with special needs such as autism and ADHD get personalised support at school.

The Government is considering ditching bespoke-education plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) under a wholesale review of the current model.

On Sunday, Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, repeatedly refused to rule out scrapping education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – legally binding documents that spell out Send children’s individual teaching requirements.

Well unfortunately given economic stagnation since 2008 exacerbated by the economic impact of Brexit the system is unaffordable and frankly dysfunctional for all involved.

The system needs serious reform. This would have to happen regardless of the party in power.

Just listening to Labour MP usual nonsense lines and avoiding questions. Talk of MPs potentially rebelling again.

For fiscal incompetence and financial mismanagement, one should really be looking to the Tories who got us into this unholy mess.

I don't agree with Labour continuing with a policy of austerity but they've only been in government a year, the economic mess is of Conservative making.

I think Labour’s plans are great, and it’s a shame the back benchers refuse to acknowledge economic reality. And they are still streets ahead of the the Tories with regards to economic competence.

At what point will you stop blaming the Tories though? 2 years, 10 years, in perpetuity?

Are you saying that Labour are exemplary custodians of the economy and have made no mistakes since assuming government?

Labour have tanked the economy in a year, looking at the facts and figures (which is what we should be looking at). Employment was rising under the Conservatives, for example. Now it's falling and is about to get a lot worse, clearly. That's due to RRs budget and Angela Rayner's tinkering with the employment regs. Which was a fairly obvious outcome.

Unfortunately the VAT on private schools means that as one after another closes, there will be less SEND provision available that the taxpayer wouldn't have had to fund. But we all knew all this (apart from the zealots who are blind). It's not exactly a surprise. Actions have consequences, as Labour are discovering.

Right but it's Labour who are coming out with all these stupid policies instead of tackling the massive elephants in the room which they won't even acknowledge, they're just trimming cheaper and important things from around the edges that won't even touch the sides of the deficit because they don't know what to do about the big things or are too scared of the optics of tackling them. Aside from the financial "hot topics" that I'm sure others will argue over, they need to sort out the price gouging from every area of the private "care" sector to stop haemorrhaging money and stop overspending on people they can't sort out whatever they do. For example, as awful as it is, we shouldn't be spending £10k a week on average on a secure children's home placement for one child who very probably isn't going to grow up to be a net contributor to society. Or any contributor to society. Times that by thousands. We used to be able to provide care for people for a lot cheaper and the private outsourcing has totally fucked that and turned it into an excessively profitable situation that isn't providing better outcomes. Councils are breaking under the burden.

It’s a mess. They’re unravelling. I listened to an MP this morning answer on reforms to SEN at the same time as parroting the broadest shoulders like they use generally. That’s the wrong group, they really don’t have that.

Hospitals are bracing for a fresh round of strikes by resident doctors seeking a 29% pay rise, amid warnings that stoppages could lead to hundreds of thousands of appointments and operations being cancelled.
NHS leaders fear that a ballot of resident doctors, formerly junior doctors in England, which closes on Monday will produce a majority backing renewed industrial action.

If so, the health service will face prolonged disruption from tens of thousands of resident doctors once again staging a series of strikes in an attempt to secure a 29% pay rise. Huge numbers of outpatient appointments and procedures were cancelled when junior doctors went on strike for a total of 44 days between March 2023 and July 2024.

Soon after Labour took power last year, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, gave them a 22% pay rise for 2023-24 and 2024-25, which ended their stoppages. But they are threatening to stage six months of strikes, from this month into next winter and up to January 2026, after he awarded them a 5.4% pay rise for this year – the highest in the public sector.

LABOUR IS NOT WORKING.

Reagan nipped this sort of activity in the bud so it's been done before. Let the doctors leave. They won't. There's a limit to how many doctors Australia and NZ need with their small populations. The amount of money and benefits doctors get in the NHS is eye -watering. Employers pension...the state contributes nearly 30%! The "new to their jobs" doctors are on to a good thing and they need to stop being so greedy. I would presume these strikes are very much union led. Otherwise the thought of all of our doctors being so avaricious is really disturbing.

Great thread op, count me in. It's a shambles

'LABOUR IS NOT WORKING'
Although we need to talk royalties 😂😂

The increase in PIP and EHCP applications and those being refused and upheld at tribunal was a fact before the labour government. Because prior support mechanisms are failing.

Unfortunately, labour want a quick fix and are trying to cut support and block tribunal before delivering support that may meet needs before PIP or ECHP.

The crisis and uptick in claims, often not realised until tribunal with the stress and costs to both sides that entails, is a result of lack of funding. There is a huge cost to taxpayers of delaying funding to those that need it.

Labour are trying to block appeal to tribunal because tribunal after the normal system fails is overwhelmed and it costs too much. This is not a good thing for the rule of law.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The evidence is clear that this government inherited a Send system left on its knees – which is why we are looking at changes to improve support for children and stop parents having to fight for help. We have been clear that there are no plans to abolish Send tribunals, or to remove funding or support from children, families and schools.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/send-reforms-starmer-ehcp-rebellion-labour-b2783773.html

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-ap-green-paper-responding-to-the-consultation/summary-of-the-send-review-right-support-right-place-right-time

if anyone wants to read the proposals not the headlines

The chief executive of Lloyds Bank has compared Labour’s pension plans to policies used by communist China.

Charlie Nunn said new powers allowing Rachel Reeves to force pension funds to invest in Britain were akin to capital controls used by Beijing.

Mr Nunn told the Financial Times: “Mandating allocations of pension funds is a form of capital control. I have spent 10 years of my working life in China and many jurisdictions where there are capital controls.

"At what point will you stop blaming the Tories though? 2 years, 10 years, in perpetuity?"

You are kidding right? How long did the Tories blame Labour for the financial crisis of 2008/09 resulting in Austerity which has been a disaster?

I love the “Part 1” in the title. Assuming that there would be so many people clamouring to lay into Labour that the thread would soon be full.

OP - the Tories sell themselves as being the financially responsible party. But the last fourteen years prove otherwise, comprehensively.

No, I am not ‘kidding’.

And, please be serious too - how can the Tories have possibly blamed Labour for the GFC. I was in the markets at the time, and it was fundamentally a liquidity crisis which originated from mortgage-backed securities in the (subprime) US housing market - not the UK.

As to the subsequent policy of austerity, which you characterise as a disaster - you had Brexit and the pandemic during this period, of course. One shudders to imagine how Labour would have managed these events. Many of us are otherwise evidently supportive of a diminished welfare state.

I was there too and I remember a quick search and here is some evidence if you fail to remember...

David Cameron (then Conservative Leader, 2009):
“Gordon Brown didn’t fix the roof when the sun was shining. He spent too much, borrowed too much and failed to regulate the banks properly.”
This quote became a central Conservative slogan in the run-up to the 2010 general election, encapsulating their argument that Labour’s economic mismanagement left the UK exposed when the global crisis hit.

🗣️ George Osborne (then Shadow Chancellor, 2009):
“Labour claimed to have ended boom and bust, but they built an economy on debt and unsustainable spending. Now we’re all paying the price.”
Osborne frequently used this line to argue that Labour’s policies were reckless and that the Conservatives would restore fiscal responsibility.

Feel free to search.. there is plenty of evidence to show this is exactly what they did...

@MyNameIsX AI is your friend -

Timeline of Blame:
2010 General Election: The Conservatives, led by David Cameron and George Osborne, heavily emphasized that Labour had “overspent” and failed to regulate the banks, leaving the UK vulnerable to the crash.
2010–2015 Coalition Government: The blame narrative was used to justify austerity measures, with frequent references to Labour’s “economic mismanagement.”
2015–2017: Even after winning a majority, the Conservatives continued to refer to Labour’s record during the financial crisis, especially during debates over public spending and debt.
2017–2019: The narrative began to fade somewhat, as Brexit became the dominant political issue. However, references to Labour’s “legacy of debt” still appeared in speeches and campaign materials.

Some people have selective memories about this (helped largely by the Tory leaning rags) or they're not paying attention - it has been a master class in manipulation of the general public...

Tbf that's all true. And the Conservative did turn the economy round after Labour's profligacy. Unfortunately they (or someone better than them) will need to do that again in 2029 looking at how much Rachel Reeves has increased spending (taxes will need to rise again) and how she has tanked the economy so won't be able to pay for it.

🤨 funny that most reputable economists would disagree with you but hey what would they know?

Doubt it.

Britain’s public finances are in a “vulnerable” position, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has warned, with the cost of the pension triple lock to balloon by as much as £15bn a year.

The fiscal watchdog said Rachel Reeves’s financial buffer to meet her already-loose borrowing rules was wafer-thin, with the UK extremely vulnerable to economic shocks.

The Chancellor is under pressure to bring down Britain’s ballooning debt pile, with speculation mounting about tax rises and spending cuts in the autumn.

The UK’s long-term borrowing costs surged following the bleak OBR prognosis, jumping by the most of any major European economy and breaching the levels reached when Ms Reeves cried in the House of Commons last week.

The problem is there are just so many massive and costly issues that need sorting and no money to sort them.
SEND issues with thousands and thousands more kids needing support, massive rises in the number of people claiming disability benefits, social care which needs sorting and keeps being pushed back, the NHS. They just don't seem to know where to start do they. they just don't have any plans as to how to fund them .