What do you think of Farage's "shadow" cabinet?

[MellersSmellers]

Would you vote for them? And do you think they would do a good job?

• Robert Jenrick, Chancellor
• Richard Tice, Business, Trade and Energy
• Zia Yusuf, Home Affairs
• Suella Braverman, Education & Skills, Equality

To be precise 'a handful of middle-class women of a certain age'.

Yeh it’s nonsense. Labour will get jumpy about Reform as per. She will continue to make Starmer react in a way that doesn’t help him.

National Min Wage went up almost 28% in 3 years under the Tories from 2022 to 2024, its gone up 6.7% under Labour....

Tell me again who thinks Business can absorb wage rises.....

Again, it doesn't matter, making profit in property is easy compared to developing a product, bring to market, supporting that product, on going R&D.

Tice walked into a ready made business.

I don't have much confidence in approval polls. Being popular doesn't mean you're doing a good job or that you haven't been part of a government that screwed the country over. But I know you so I'm not going to waste too much time here.

I know you so I’m very glad to hear it.

She’s happy where she is.

Suella Braverman on equality, who thinks the Equality Act is about victimhood. I mean, no.

Well, it’s not a shadow cabinet because there are only four of them 😂 They should be really embarrassed that out of the whole of the reform party that’s what they can muster up as there absolutely top team. It’s not a shadow cabinet because they’re not the opposition so they could well choose to position other people who are counsellors at the minute as MP‘s in waiting. But no, they’re all so shit that this, mainly Tories, is the best they can do.

And funnily enough without the
Equality Act we can freely treat white men less favourably.

Word is that Pochin is pissed off not to have a "shadow cabinet" 🤣 job and may defect to Lowe's nazi party.

Well, it's yet another reason on a phenomenally long list for this white, working class woman to NOT vote for them.

It did give me a chuckle that Anderson and Pochin were overlooked - can see them now defecting, losing him more MPs. If they stay they'll start in-fighting. And the ex Tories will start jostling for more power. It'll be a shit show of Farage's own making. 🍿

That "shadow cabinet" looks like the cast of a dark Dickens novel.

If Farage wants to surround himself with the people responsible for the collapse in votes for the tories at the last election, I for one am all for it.

The Shadow Cabinet is defined legally and constitutionally. He can call this bunch what he likes but it isn’t a shadow cabinet. His relationship with the truth is elastic even for a politician.

2022 was actually real terms decrease and most of the rest was due to inflation and not a real terms increase. The increases were from a base which was widely recognised as too low, in an attempt to shift towards a living wage. They were also across the board, so rates for the young remained much lower than for older people.

I should have made it clearer but the increases I was particularly concerned by were those for the young. The cost of employing an 18 year old rose by nearly 20% in Reeves first budget and has gone up beyond inflation again in her second. The cost increase was even greater for the part timers suddenly caught in the NI for reduced hours trap that Reeves set. They hit employers particularly hard because businesses employing a lot of young people are very often those operating on low profit margins with a product or service with limited scope for raising prices without losing sales.

The rise for young people in the last 2 rounds of rises has deliberately been well over inflation because Labour has forgotten that the lower rates were designed to encourage employers to offer people with no experience a chance to get into a job. Instead, Labour are focusing on the equality agenda that two people ostensibly doing the same job should be paid the same no matter their age.

The real terms increase in the cost of employing a young person on minimum wage in the last 2 years has been huge.

Which is fine until the young can't get an entry into work because if it's going to cost the same employers would prefer to employ someone older, steadier, with some experience of work and life. And that's exactly why Labour is currently mulling yet another u turn, this time on the latest rises for young people, having seen the rise in youth unemployment.

This bit of your comment has surprised me..

Which is fine until the young can't get an entry into work because if it's going to cost the same employers would prefer to employ someone older, steadier, with some experience of work and life. And that's exactly why Labour is currently mulling yet another u turn, this time on the latest rises for young people, having seen the rise in youth unemployment.

As in my experience many employers actually don't want to employ older more experienced worker. Not sure how old you are but age discrimination is a thing anyone over 50 worries massively about this. I'm sure this varies from job to job. But definitely a problem for many of my friends. I would also suggest that the rise in pension age is not helping to free up jobs for young people either... many 60 year olds are being forced to work longer for various reasons which certainly is not helping.

I meant 22 instead of 18

Weirdly, I worked with Robert Jenrick on the remain campaign and once got banged up in a country cottage for an absolutely dreadful hen weekend with Suella Braverman.

Imagine if these things actually do come in threes vom emoji

Thoughts and prayers.

I'm not sure I would class a 22 year old as older and more experienced... if you had intended 32 then maybe, but not sure 22... as I'm sure most employers wouldn't see that much difference between a 18 and 22 year old - hence why so many 16-25 years are struggling to find jobs?

😱

I hope she had a better time than your post suggests ;

But also the remain campaign wasn’t very good compared with the leave one.

Harriet Harman helped Braverman fight for her maternity leave when she was Attorney General and now she’s pulling up the drawbridge behind her!
And I thought Brexit was going to push up people’s wages by eliminating the cheap labour coming from the EU? You know one of those elusive Brexit Benefits! I don’t understand why everyone is so cross about the Govt doing it?

Perhaps call it the Ghost Cabinet or The Dementors Locker.

You've moved the goals posts... now moving on from NMW to NI rises & youth employment.

So wage increases of 27% in 2/3 years under the Tories, is explained away by inflation (large wages rises can drive inflation, as employers hike prices....) which they failed to manage (we had far higher rates than our competitors, esp food, reaching highs of 30%) but with Labour its all their fault.

Youth unemployment is about 1.4% higher than it was when they took over in 2024, not good i agree, but also not the catastrophe you are making it out to be.

On rate differentials, its still £2.21 between over 21 and 18 to 20 per hour, similar increases in under 21 rates occurred under Sunak too.

What this means in practice is an older worker gets offered less shifts working in hospitality then a 18 to 20yo (happening right now to my partners son) & why employ a 21 yo in a bar when you can get a 18 yo far cheaper?

I accept we need to give younger workers work opportunities but in "low skilled" work, is it really fair to pay people doing identical work, significantly lower pay?

On a U-turn, the nmw increase was in the manifesto but never a policy or as Farage would say an "aspiration"

When I saw your thread title @MellersSmellers , the "cabinet" was on the next line. I thought you were asking what we thought of NF's "shadow", suggesting that he has constructed a fake shadow as he doesn't have an actual shadow.

That is the level that on which I would prefer to engage with him and the Reform party TBH.

I don't have the best track record with this stuff, I thought Brexiteers and Trump were absolute loons and look how that turned out.

@Alexandra2001
In June 2024 the unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds was 13.4% and now it is 16.1%.
The rise in employer national insurance combined with an increase in the national minimum wage is making employers much less likely to employ young people. It is more important for young people to have a job of some kind than be unemployed even if the wage is low. If young people have not got a job by 24, they are more likely to rely on benefits for the rest of their life (not including those in education or training).
Many businesses cannot afford to pay young people the increase. Apparently pubs are closing at a rate of around one per day. This will lead to more unemployment. Home-to-home care costs are increasing and some companies may struggle to survive due to higher wages, employer national insurance etc. Operating costs for home-to-home care increased by 10-12% over the last year, while local authority funding has only risen by 5-6% so the disparity means some companies have a risk of going out of business.