"National Security can't come at the cost of Social Security" - WTAF?

[Binnyforthewin]

Surely our PM releases that without National Security there is no Social Security? One is entirely dependent on the other.

Slashing corporation tax would. Obviously.

Am I reading the graph right that vacancies fell by about 500k between 2022 and the Starmer government, and then another 100k since?

I had not known the fall was so steep under the last government.

Labour predicted 3,000 would leave. Its 30,000 and rising and that doesnt include those children that would have gone to private school but for the VAT rises.

I think we live in the world of real politic now not virtue signaling. And ethnic cleansing as far as I know has not been proven. Labour's decision was premature and achieved nothing. If they wanted to stop ethnic cleansing why not do something that actually stopped ethnic cleansing?

YABU, especially if you plan on scraping the cuts from HB. Not only are YBU, but you are being shortsighted. Do you know how much more expensive temporary housing is? Cutting HB will hike the welfare bill up.

And how many working homeless people have you met recently?

We could save money on housing benefits quite easily and without causing mass homelessness by capping private rents, but no one has the guts to do that.

Even from your description there’s more than one factor - automation, efficiency, rising costs including but not limited to NI, and falling revenue.

it absolutely does. If the government slashed business rates and Ni tomorrow we would hire about 5 more people and invest in new more modern facilities. The plan is ready to go. We just need to free up the capital. Those people should pay taxes, the business would grow and we’d end up paying more corporation tax. But we can’t so we are holding out for some future time when things get better.

Yes of course that happens but new jobs are created as businesses grow. There is no growth at all.

But then you're back to this issue we discussed before of 50% of Con/Reform voters don't want to see disability benefits cut, and you yourself said only 60% of Con/Reform voters want unemployment benefits cut. And those are the groups of voters most in favour!

Labour will only be near people who reinforce high taxes and spend at every meeting. Or were with Starmer.

Burnham is yet to do much other than light headlines.

Do you believe that increasing NI helped with growth? You can come up with other impacts but fundamentally you either have to believe it helps growth or hinders growth? I think increasing the cost of employing people hindered growth.

If given a choice between defence of the country and a reduction in disability benefits (such as for depression or ADHD) then presumably most people have the sense of self preservation to chose defence.

And I suspect if the Russians invaded they won't be dishing out too many benefits to whoever is left..

Plus hospitality and retail were hit hard, there’s not much AI there.

I’m early retired.
I was a consultant with a portfolio of dozens of businesses (profit and not for profit) with total annual revenues over £30 billion.
The NI increase of 1.2% was peanuts. If you can’t handle such a small change that was completely offset for micro businesses by the doubled employment allowance , you really are in trouble.
Brexit was a much bigger fish to fry with loss of jobs for young people in sectors like hospitality plus the shocking increases to import/export business costs and EU market loss.
The impact of automation and AI to jobs especially the elimination of entry level jobs cannot be understated.
There are also long term trends finishing out like the move away from high street and shopping centre to online shopping.

But yeah, go ahead and blame a 1.2% increase in labour costs.

I don't think anyone can assume to speak for others, the polling speaks for itself. There's no majority support for the cuts being proposed here.

Do you believe that increasing NI aided growth?

Why doesn’t the government add another 5% on if any increase has no effect?

The ISC says 30k fewer private school admissions, but state school admissions have also fallen by about 140,000 since the VAT introduction. Nothing to show those 30k private school places were pupils who went into state schools and even if they did they’re not costing more because state school admissions are falling.

No doubt it’s not yet been proven - how long did it take to ‘prove’ in the Balkans? And still there’s debate over whether Srebrenica was a genocide (guess what Israel’s stance is in that?) I don’t want to wait until it’s proven, let them prove it’s not. We can see with our eyes what’s happening and it’s wrong. For me it matters that we are brave enough to say that. For some clearly they’d rather be quiet in case of opprobrium.

I really don't think these two are connected, however, a few days (?) ago Putin promised "significant consequences" for UK which might come from unknown sources. NATs issue followed shortly.

I really do think it's prime time to cut working age welfare and invest in defence

Hospitality and retail have had AI and automation for years. Self-service tills, service check ins/outs, automated/AI stock-taking software that is also capable of ordering new stock as needed, AI agents running online/phone customer service...

Labour are responsible for poor decisions.

On this do you want to see more tax hikes?

If you had a decent business plan, you wouldn’t need the government to give you a handout. Your business would have the investment capital already.

The ones they make, yes. But currently, they are trying to correct over a decade of economic self harm by the tories.

What do you mean the ones they make?

Do you mean whatever they hike in taxes is fine with you?

I don't think we've seen a reliable source - we need to see what questions were asked in survey.

Its ENI not NI.
Obviously if an employer can get away with 4 employees they won't employ the fifth person they may have before the Budget.

AI hasn't worked its way through yet to many businesses. I don't accept that as the reason to explain the unemployment rise.

You don't seem to understand how tight margins are in an SME. Often business owners go without paying themselves a wage just to ensure their employees are paid.