[Politics] The Labour Government

The Clamp said:

Listening to Labour Minister for schools, Catherine McKinnel, flounder on Any Questions.


Struggling further with the question “What’s a working person”

We’ve heard various definitions this week of what isn’t a working person;

Anyone who can afford to fix a problem in their life.

Someone on 6 figures

Landlords

Anyone who owns shares.


They shot themselves on the foot with that phrase and being unable to clarify what they mean.

What I suspect is that the wobbly phrase “working people” is going to be so weakly defined that Labour will cheerily get away with taxing the middle bracket to within an inch of our pensions.

They have brazenly taken away a payment from some of the poorest in our society. Don’t think they won’t come after your quality of life.

Brace for impact.

Click to expand...

chip said:

They'd needa lot of help to define a disabled female worker then, imagine the confusion

Click to expand...

The Clamp said:

Ha!

Well the problem as I see it is that they keep failing to really explain what they mean.

We all know the clamp down on winter fuel payments is actullay sensible idea to means test a benefit that is being paid to wealthy people as well as poor people.

But Labour was so bad at explaining this and allowed themselves to be railroaded by right wing journalists that people simply thought they are attacking poor pensioners.

Now they are failing to explain what they mean by the phrase “working person”

They may have good intentions. They may do good things but their failure to explain themselves properly is making people uneasy.

Yes, there is an argument for just letting them get the work done rather than spend all their time explaining speculation or bad slogans.

But perception counts and there is a valid argument for claiming the perception of the Labour government is that it is dishonest and incompetent. When I don’t necessarily think they are those things.


For now.

Click to expand...

beorhthelm said:

the tragedy of the "worker" issue is that politicans wrap themselves in knots trying to avoid offence. it's so easy to define: someone who gets there income from their time at work. yep, that means pensioners, landlords, and investors aren't in the group. having floated the term, and it becomeing an issue, why hasn't Labour HQ just told everyone the approved line, couple of counterpoints to obvious interview questions and move on. for some reasons our politicans have forgotten how to do politics. we know they'll hammer savings and captial gains because they've been saying they'll go after unearn income them for 10 years, why does anyone think they'll not?

Click to expand...

beorhthelm said:

the tragedy of the "worker" issue is that politicans wrap themselves in knots trying to avoid offence. it's so easy to define: someone who gets there income from their time at work. yep, that means pensioners, landlords, and investors aren't in the group. having floated the term, and it becomeing an issue, why hasn't Labour HQ just told everyone the approved line, couple of counterpoints to obvious interview questions and move on. for some reasons our politicans have forgotten how to do politics. we know they'll hammer savings and captial gains because they've been saying they'll go after unearn income them for 10 years, why does anyone think they'll not?

Click to expand...

chip said:

I agree with you in a sense, in reality that is how most of us behave. But it isn't a good practice as the boundary is subjective and it's interpretation leaves it open to abuse. Would we apply this thinking in domestic violence or child abuse? You and I might have very different ideas about what constitutes a twit - I doubt this is the case. It's also bad law if it acceptable to break it to some degree and the state sanctions it.

Click to expand...

Giraffe said:

Starmer has lost a lot of people with his comments this week. People are up in arms in the business community. The notion that someone running a business is not a worker is an abhorrence.

Click to expand...

Giraffe said:

Starmer has lost a lot of people with his comments this week. People are up in arms in the business community. The notion that someone running a business is not a worker is an abhorrence.

Click to expand...

Guinness Boy said:

When you say “lost”, who do you think they’re turning to?

The Tories crashed the economy, Reform’s economic policies are back of a fag packet lunacy, Lib Dems manifesto was more left wing than Labour and Green would only support ecologically sound business.

Where are your chips and why?

Click to expand...

Giraffe said:

I think they’ll return to the Tories and possibly Reform. Depends if those two come to some kind of alliance. The truth is this country is not a socialist state and the people won’t tolerate a socialist government. Starmer needs to move to the middle or he’ll lose next time.

Click to expand...

Giraffe said:

I think they’ll return to the Tories and possibly Reform. Depends if those two come to some kind of alliance. The truth is this country is not a socialist state and the people won’t tolerate a socialist government. Starmer needs to move to the middle or he’ll lose next time.

Click to expand...

Guinness Boy said:

Well he is in the middle.

Which Reform policies do you think businesses will go for?

Click to expand...

Giraffe said:

I think more will return to the Tories but since you asked these are all very business friendly Reform policies:

Reform said it would reduce the main corporation tax rate from 25 per cent to 20 per cent and raise the threshold for paying the tax from £50,000 to £100,000.

Its other proposals for the economy include the abolition of IR35 regulations introduced by the Conservatives in recent years to govern off-payroll working.

Business rates would be scrapped for small and medium firms, while an online delivery tax, levied at 3 per cent, is intended to “create a fairer playing field” for high-street businesses versus online competitors.

The VAT threshold would be raised to £120,000 to “free small entrepreneurs from red tape”.

Click to expand...

Giraffe said:

I think more will return to the Tories but since you asked these are all very business friendly Reform policies:

Reform said it would reduce the main corporation tax rate from 25 per cent to 20 per cent and raise the threshold for paying the tax from £50,000 to £100,000.

Its other proposals for the economy include the abolition of IR35 regulations introduced by the Conservatives in recent years to govern off-payroll working.

Business rates would be scrapped for small and medium firms, while an online delivery tax, levied at 3 per cent, is intended to “create a fairer playing field” for high-street businesses versus online competitors.

The VAT threshold would be raised to £120,000 to “free small entrepreneurs from red tape”.

Click to expand...