If Labour raises taxes what will you think?

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Typing on my phone so not sure I can do a poll? But, if the government raises income tax or NI at the budget, will you think:

A - let’s get real, they had no other choice
B - those duplicitous / inept bastards

Increasing unemployment due to the NI increase as well as reduced business investment in the UK driven by anti-business policies, and deliberate deological targeting of taxes regardless of consequences are all Labour, Kier Starmer and Rachel Reeves' fault.

Far from turning the country round, they've massively increased debt, tanked the economy and driven inflation to twice the level of anywhere else.

The economic destruction of the last year was completely preventable.

As was the populist division they have instigated in our society. (Eg Rayner calling Conservative MPs 'scum'... only to then display worse scandals and corruption themselves)

That's why we hate them.

Of course it was avoidable. I doubt the same posters will be applauding Starmer in a couple of years when they come back for more at each budget.

I already think they are disgusting, so I guess I’m expecting the worst. 2p on the pound will wipe out that pay rise they keep banging on about.

I’ve decided that I can’t be bothered working full time like I am, when it’s going towards other people and I can’t enjoy my own money, so I’m waiting to see if income tax rises and if it does, then I I’m going to cut my hours. I will accept the lower standard of living, as that’s the direction we’re heading anyway, and I will enjoy more time at home.

The mad thing is, I believe that so many people will adjust their working hours, or what they purchase to afford this income tax hike, that the government won’t really see much money from it, and then they’ll be back in the spring looking desperately for more money.

Who do you think has paid for it for the last seven decades?

I thought NHS spend was 5 per cent of GDP in the 1970s versus 11 per cent now? It was never set up to pay for people into their late eighties, nor was the state pension. Medical advances have changed things. Current pensioners have not paid their way and there are too many of them. Nobody wants to kill them off, just make them wake up and share their wealth and face actual reality,

People are healthier for longer than they were in the 1970s too. As for ‘sharing their wealth’; the state pension, with pension credits, for a single person is just £11,809 per annum.

A.

Current pensioners have not paid their way

Really? I’ve been a taxpayer since 1971 and will continue to pay tax until I draw my last breath. I was a higher rate tax payer for 20 years. In 72 years my demands on the NHS have been one birth and one gall bladder removal, no long term conditions and still no medications. The state has profited hugely from me so please don’t have the audacity to tell me I haven’t paid my way.

While I’m very disappointed with this government and its ridiculous promise not to increase the three highest yielding taxes, it’s in the most appalling economic position since the 90s. Any government of any political persuasion would be raising taxes now.

Income Tax? About bloody time.

So @blossomtoes “The percentage of retired UK households receiving more in benefits and services than contributing in all taxes is 90.1%” -

you are in the top 10 per cent of pensioners? Can’t remember the exact figure per person per household but it was something like 17k required now? So are you paying that in taxes? Because 90 per cent of pensioners are not.

Which income bracket do you want to pay more?

B they do have a choice, they're protecting their.owm interests, as usual.

*My frustration (as a Labour voter in the past) is that Labour seem to have neither the vision nor the skills to fix things. Neither do the Tories, Lib Dems, Reform or Greens,"

That's because the country voted for something that hamstrung the economy. People forget there was a very good reason the country fought for years to get access to Europe.

We used to attract a lot of investment as the low regulation entry point to the European market. Ongoing Tax rises and a fall in business investment were an inevitable side effects of the sovereignty vote but it's easier to blame political parties for the "lack of vision " and immigration despite our having " taken back control"

*Can’t remember the exact figure per person per household but it was something like 17k required now? So are you paying that in taxes? Because 90 per cent of pensioners are not."

Most pensioners are not paying their way, once they have retired. This is kind of how being retired works. That doesn't mean that people haven't" paid their way " over the course of their working life.

As the PP sources suggested 50 years ago 2/3 of working people contributed more in tax than they took out in benefits.

Now only 50% do and wages have been stagnant in real terms for nearly 20 years so this will only get worse, especially as the number of working people Vs pensioners is declining.

There’s a whole host of people not paying their way in the UK and pensioners were not the ones who sprung to mind.

A

A.
Though of course I would prefer if rich people paid more
Ultimately we have too many retirees for every working age person - so there are less working people to support the hige welfare and NHS bill older people require

I wouldn't mind paying more tax IF it means by paying more, public services improve. And if DC isn't still on a 1 1/2 year hospital waiting list to be seen for a first appointment.

A

To be fair, the Tories slowed the growth in welfare spending (not actual cuts, just a slowing the rise) and it was called austerity and derided.

We have one of the most progressive tax systems in the western world. The “broadest shoulders” are exhausted, and we are starting to see capital flight.

There was some hope that Labour would have the political capital to grip out of control welfare/benefit spending, but they bottled it.

You said pensioners have not paid their way, implying that they haven’t done so over their working lives. The state was well in profit for most years of my working life, probably for at least 40 of them. Obviously that changed at the point I started claiming my state pension just as it does for most people.

I think the problem with the failure of the welfare bill was down to the fact that a lot of labour MPs have very small majorities and are very aware of losing their seats if they supported any cuts to welfare. The whip doesn’t seem to work as it used to - a terrible terrible failure of government to push through a bill when they have such a huge majority. No wonder RR was in tears - she knew she would have to raise taxes substantially.

I don’t think that the reason for raising taxes is to do with growth - it is just to avid avoid a financial meltdown aka liz truss - because we can’t balance our books otherwise.

and next year they’ll be in the same position.

Well- labour do have form for taking everyone’s money and pissing it up the wall so I don’t know what everyone was expecting