[Politics] Are Labour going to turn this country around?

[highflyer]

The runway won't happen. It's nonsense.
It would be ecomically illiterate and environmentally stupid. Were it actually the case that either of those things were genuinely what this is about.

But i dont think they are thinking about about long-term growth or the environment. The Heathrow announcement is a signal to the rich dudes in the city that this government will provide them with ever more asset ownership opportunities. So they can continue to get richer. Eg. 'Nothing to fear here'.

It's a short term survival strategy.

 

[nevergoagain]

The logistics alone confound me on the runway decision. 750 houses to purchase and knock down, another runway and terminal to build which will mean moving a section of the M25 underground. It has project overspend written all over it.

I'm sure there are reasons but why wouldn't you look to expand somewhere like Brum where the airport is surrounded by fields and make a 2nd UK hub airport in a non London location. The amount of people up North who drive down to Heathrow for flights is huge. It's only a little bit more time (and a damn sight nicer) to get on a train into London from Brum than a tube from Heathrow.

 

[beorhthelm]

My understanding is that the seeds for the 2008 crash were sown by the deregulation measures put in place by Thatcher and Regan in the 80s.

As Cunning (sic) alludes to though, the labour government were right leaning enough to continue this trend.

Despite a while thread harking back to the good old days of the 60s and 70s it is totally apparent that the UK electorate has no desire for a left leaning government. Despite it being left leaning ideas that created the 'golden age' people pine for.

Nowt so queer as folk

this understanding is misguided. the root was in US during 1990's with regulations on mortgage lending eased to encourage "affordable" mortages, then anti-discrimination laws allowing low-income persons to take on mortgages - all very well meaning but a tad shortsighted, there was good reason bankers wouldnt lend there. later some changes allowed banks to cross over between commercial, retail banking and other finance, started to mix up the cash/debt profile of banks. main reason UK got so affected was Dutch bank ABN AMRO, which was heavily into the US market, got bought by RBS. we'd also eased mortgage regulation in the 00's, that led to NorthernRock offering >100% LTV mortgages and HBOS had a hot mortgage loan book too. it's notable likes of HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds were all unaffected directly, until government asked the latter to step in and buy HBOS.

 

[abc]

I still find it remarkable how many people try to pin things on Labour as the main culprit. I am mid 40s. In my lifetime we have had over 32 years of Conservative prime ministers and 13 years of Labour. Yet somehow it is labour’s fault.

I think the tories can take 32/45 ths of the blame and Labour 13/45 ths. None come out with glory

 

[Is it PotG?]

Madeley going full Partridge on ITV, attacking our Rachel on her CV.
Marvellous scenes.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Rachel Reeves obsession about bats and newts seems focus grouped to the half dozen Daily Express readers who buy the "boffins spend 1.4tn of your money to study an egg, everyone knows what an egg is!" anti-intellectualism and anti-environmentalism pandering.

 

[BadFish]

this understanding is misguided. the root was in US during 1990's with regulations on mortgage lending eased to encourage "affordable" mortages, then anti-discrimination laws allowing low-income persons to take on mortgages - all very well meaning but a tad shortsighted, there was good reason bankers wouldnt lend there. later some changes allowed banks to cross over between commercial, retail banking and other finance, started to mix up the cash/debt profile of banks. main reason UK got so affected was Dutch bank ABN AMRO, which was heavily into the US market, got bought by RBS. we'd also eased mortgage regulation in the 00's, that led to NorthernRock offering >100% LTV mortgages and HBOS had a hot mortgage loan book too. it's notable likes of HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds were all unaffected directly, until government asked the latter to step in and buy HBOS.

I don't think it is misguided l, I have read and seen plenty which plots what you describe here further back.

You said it your self by describing it as the 'root' which obviously comes sometimes after the seed.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Plans for a 3rd runway, a silicon valley between Oxford and Cambridge, re-generation of Old Trafford area and a number of reservoirs.........geez.........can't wait to see how quickly this boosts our ailing economy.
If they just did one thing and reduced VAT by 5%,it would have a massive effect, pretty damn quickly.

 

[AlbionBro]

The logistics alone confound me on the runway decision. 750 houses to purchase and knock down, another runway and terminal to build which will mean moving a section of the M25 underground. It has project overspend written all over it.

I'm sure there are reasons but why wouldn't you look to expand somewhere like Brum where the airport is surrounded by fields and make a 2nd UK hub airport in a non London location. The amount of people up North who drive down to Heathrow for flights is huge. It's only a little bit more time (and a damn sight nicer) to get on a train into London from Brum than a tube from Heathrow.

As a labour voter, it pains me to say Reeves has overspend written all over her face, and Keir backs her all the way, if only they could understand why we voted them in.
It won't be happening again from me.

 

[MJsGhost]

Released this morning: The plan to reform the NHS https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...y-the-governments-2025-mandate-to-nhs-england

Essentially, channel (mostly existing) money into front line services to improve outputs - access to GP appointments, ambulance response times etc.

There are lots of soundbites that are hard to disagree with - prevention over treatment, efficiency savings, financial discipline...

What I find interesting is a recurring theme: "bringing care closer to communities", "tough decisions need to be made and local systems should be empowered to make them", "There are many positive examples of local organisations and systems working effectively to successfully drive progress", "the top down centralised model of control will, over time, need to give way to a more devolved system".

So, a more localised/devolved chain of management/governance, but does that mean cuts to NHS England to free up money for the 'coal face' and maybe more power to integrated care boards?

There also seems to be a lot of hope pinned on digitisation helping efficiencies (which it will, if it all works as it should).

Slightly more concerning:
"empower patients with choice and control over where they receive treatment, including from the independent sector"
More privatisation creeping in perhaps?

It's going to take an awful lot of hard work and money to turn the NHS around, so I'm not expecting miracles. This doesn't seem like a bad start but,as ever, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating (and this one's going to take a long while to cook).

 

[Titanic]

Europe's Silicon Valley in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor sounds so much more enticing than one in Luton and Bedford.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Just nice destinations.

What if you don't want to go to France.... Chortle

I appreciate you're in the game, but I'm a little sceptical on your first point (but not the other three). Can you link an article or two that you think captures where we are on that front please -- specifically in terms of flying + fuels.

The airlines/Governments/fuel companies are
putting billions into this, realistically the third runway isn't happening for 15 - 20 years (if at all) plenty of time to get to a cleaner fuel with the next UK cleaner aviation fuel target being in place for 2030

bp have put billions in alone for cleaner fuel -https://www.bp.com/en/global/air-bp/lower-carbon/sustainable-fuel.html

The government must believe it's possible as well, they have changed the objections on the third runway since the last vote when the Tories put it to a vote.

Virgin flight to prove SAF is 'only viable solution' for cleaner long-haul aviation

Virgin Atlantic will operate the world’s first flight fuelled entirely by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on Tuesday

www.ttgmedia.com

Virgin are already trialling it, albeit at a low level so far

A quick win to cut emissions would be to ban domestic flights, but unless you force rail companies to match the price of an airline ticket it's not happening.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

The runway won't happen. It's nonsense.
It would be ecomically illiterate and environmentally stupid. Were it actually the case that either of those things were genuinely what this is about.

But i dont think they are thinking about about long-term growth or the environment. The Heathrow announcement is a signal to the rich dudes in the city that this government will provide them with ever more asset ownership opportunities. So they can continue to get richer. Eg. 'Nothing to fear here'.

It's a short term survival strategy.

I am doubtful it would happen, we just don't do things like this here anymore.

But one run way compared to the rest of the world building new airports is really making zero difference, China is apparently planing to build 136 new airports (lol) but they are currently building a brand new one with 4 runways

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

The number of new homes in England continued to fall during the first six months that Labour was in power, analysis by BBC Verify suggests.

The BBC's housing tracker shows every region of England had a year-on-year fall in new homes in the second half of 2024.

About 107,000 new homes were recorded since last July's election, down 10% on the same six months a year earlier.

 

[fly high]

What if you don't want to go to France.... Chortle

The airlines/Governments/fuel companies are
putting billions into this, realistically the third runway isn't happening for 15 - 20 years (if at all) plenty of time to get to a cleaner fuel with the next UK cleaner aviation fuel target being in place for 2030

bp have put billions in alone for cleaner fuel -https://www.bp.com/en/global/air-bp/lower-carbon/sustainable-fuel.html

The government must believe it's possible as well, they have changed the objections on the third runway since the last vote when the Tories put it to a vote.

Virgin flight to prove SAF is 'only viable solution' for cleaner long-haul aviation

Virgin Atlantic will operate the world’s first flight fuelled entirely by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on Tuesday

www.ttgmedia.com

Virgin are already trialling it, albeit at a low level so far

A quick win to cut emissions would be to ban domestic flights, but unless you force rail companies to match the price of an airline ticket it's not happening.

Clean fuel is all well and good but what of the millions of acres of agricultural land needed to grow it instead of food?

 

[RandyWanger]

Rachael From Accounts.

 

[pb21]

The number of new homes in England continued to fall during the first six months that Labour was in power, analysis by BBC Verify suggests.

The BBC's housing tracker shows every region of England had a year-on-year fall in new homes in the second half of 2024.

About 107,000 new homes were recorded since last July's election, down 10% on the same six months a year earlier.

Considering homes take a good few years to go from initial thought to completion, I don’t think much if any blame can be laid at Labour’s door for this. It more shows the directon we were headed under the Tories, question is how will it look in a few years...

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

Rachael From Accounts.

More lies, none of them seem capable of answering a question

 

[Rdodge30]

All the plans announced this week, whether you agree with Heathrow or not, are extremely long term plans and would certainly develop economic growth in the long term.

From day one, this Government has set out its long term intentions of a second and even third term. Their projects- from Great British Energy right through to this weeks announcements will all take many years to achieve.

I don’t agree with all of those plans but it is certainly a project of worthy intentions and at the very least we have a Government that has a clear direction, whether you agree with that direction or not, it’s the first time since Tony Blair that we have a Government with any clear direction at all.

Whether this Government has the ability and skillset to implement this plan remains to be seen.

The biggest challenge they will face however is in the short term day to day governing of the country - specifically the economy- If they cannot get a handle on that in the next six months I think they will spend the next four years firefighting on a daily basis - and the following ten years in opposition while all the long term planning will have been for nothing.

 

[AlbionBro]

Rachael From Accounts.

Lies with no shame or remorse, and she is controlling our destiny. Why hasn't Starmer seen through how bad she is for the party? My guess is she is giving him some freebies, what else could it be?
Ironically it won't end in a happy ending for Starmer, or the party.