[Politics] Suggestions for what an incoming Labour government should do, once it has blagged its way in

[KZNSeagull]

Introduce a proper but simple means testing system and apply it to all public services and benefits. If you are a rich bastard, you contribute more and get less benefits and handouts. And yes, I would include the NHS is that.
There is massive untapped real estate in this country that could be exploited instead of solar farms on farmland. Roofs. Every roof in the country should be plastered in solar panels. Get on with it.
Get Britain farming again. Get as self sufficient as possible.
Introduce a cross party commission to create short, medium and long term plans for the NHS including funding and reforms using experts not necessarily involved in politics. Businesses are very good at reducing waste, get the expertise in to sort it out.
Fix the NI issue and if that means rejoining the single market in some form then just do it.
Sort out ultra-processed foods. Get the nation healthier by eating properly.

 

[Peteinblack]

Well, where we can agree is for the short term let’s get the Tories out. And the only option to do to that is Starmer’s Labour (a bit like “Wayne Rooney’s Birmingham” )

I am very surprised by so many Labour supporters being anti Starmer when it means having a Labour government. Very strange to me.

Because desperate though I am to see this current shower of shite removed, I fear that Starmer's determination to distance himself and Labour from Corbynism - electorally understandable though that is - means that he is becoming Tory-lite. He abandons policies almost weekly in order to appeal to disillusioned Tories, to the extent that I am genuinely not sure what a Starmer-led Labour government would do differently, except be less corrupt or nasty. Welcome though that would be, I really want a more positive reason or vision to vote Labour.

At present, on so many issues, Starmer seems to be offering 'more of the same - but a bit nicer'.

And if Starmer does not improve things by 2029 - which he won't if he continues to be too timid - I can see a Farage-led Conservative government getting elected.

 

[rippleman]

Elect a new leader with compassion and radical policies.

 

[Peteinblack]

Pre

Genuine question - What is the improvement you're expecting out of this?

Presumably this would make many more houses available for renters to buy. Many renters cannot afford to do so currently, because so many homes are owned by private landlords. But of course, the housing shortage is blamed on immigrants.

I know of a landlord who rents-out 47 homes - to me, that is 47 fewer homes for people to buy, and also pushes up the price of homes which do become available to buy - if demand exceeds supply, the price goes up.

Also, at present, £18 billion is paid ever year in Housing Benefit to landlords via their tenants - landlords create a shortage of affordable housing to buy, then exploit desperate tenants via high rents, and then cost the taxpayer £ billions in Housing Benefit - never hear the Tories or the Daily Mail complain about this flagrant abuse of the welfare state.

 

[Peteinblack]

What Labour should do and what they will is another matter.

Slimy Starmer, Streeting et al firmly are in bed with big business, corporate donors and Murdoch press so there will be no incentive / motivation for them to change much.

There may be cosmetic tweaks to policy but ultimately don't think there will be much of a divergence to the trajectory of current travel. Based on the noises that Streeting is making, one thing that Labour may fast track is increased private involvement in the NHS.

Starmer might make some big claims as to what he will do but based on the reneging of his leadership campaign pledges and his many flip flops you can't trust a word that man says.

What a choice we have...

Indeed - Tory-louts or Tory-lite

 

[Zeberdi]

Big list here- people do realise I assume that by the time Labour will get in, the public debt the Tories have run up in addition to low labour productivity will be so astronomical- that under a responsible Chancellor we will probably be looking at tax rises and austerity measures if we are going to get back to the sort of long term investments that will be needed to turn the economy round.

I’ve been waiting for Labour to talk about specific policy plans but it all sounds a bit vague at the moment - I do think people will be disappointed that we probably won’t see a radical departure from middle Tory Britain.

Labour are on the whole much nicer people though imo so that’s a good enough reason to vote for them

 

[abc]

Who do you consider rich?

Anyone who earns a penny more than the person saying 'tax the rich'

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I agree. I despise Farage/UKIP/Brexit Party/Reform UK, but if they won seats in the House of Commons via PR, people could see how they responded and voted on non-immigration issues - tax evasion, re-nationalisation of railways, employment protection/rights, building affordable housing, public services.

I suspect a lot of the angry (mainly) working class voters who vote for these populist anti-immigrant parties would be shocked to see how little these parties care about ordinary working people on issues other than immigration. From what I can discern, on most issues, they are to the Right of Thatcher; certainly, they appeal to a strong element of authoritarianism, but I can't imagine the likes of Farage or Tice ever cracking-down on bad employers or landlords, or condemning corporate greed.

This.

 

[borat]

Elect a new leader with compassion and radical policies.

The 2019 Labour manifesto looked pretty good

 

[Gwylan]

BHe abandons policies almost weekly in order to appeal to disillusioned Tories, to the extent that I am genuinely not sure what a Starmer-led Labour government would do differently, except be less corrupt or nasty.

TBH, that in itself would be massive improvement. I dream of a government that's not trying to flog everything, that's not nailed down, to its mates

 

[Pavilionaire]

In order to manage expectation Labour needs to get across the point that this rebuilding job is going to take 10 years. However, that will beg the question "What are you going to do about Europe / Brexit?" because we cannot hope to trigger real growth in the UK until we've either opened up new market conditions by utilising Brexit or else re-negotiated with Europe to get better terms. They better have some answers for that.

Liz Truss was right about one thing, and that is only growth will give us sufficient cash to pay the public sector workers who look after us and get us to work. As a country we embarked on HS2 because we thought we could afford it, but now we can't. We're now left with an expensive link from Birmingham to London that will further accentuate the North/South divide.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I really don’t think that the result of the next GE is a forgone conclusion. Opinion polls will narrow between now and then. Sunak will cherry pick some Reform UK / Farage inspired policies that appeal to the Brexiteer / anti immigrant hordes and we may well end up with a hung Parliament. I hope not but wouldn’t be surprised.

 

[stewart12]

I really don’t think that the result of the next GE is a forgone conclusion. Opinion polls will narrow between now and then. Sunak will cherry pick some Reform UK / Farage inspired policies that appeal to the Brexiteer / anti immigrant hordes and we may well end up with a hung Parliament. I hope not but wouldn’t be surprised.

they'd have to narrow a remarkable amount to even make it close. It would take an astronomical swing for a hung parliament

Sunak doesn't have the charisma or political skill to make that happen. A (another) change of leader may be a different story though

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

they'd have to narrow a remarkable amount to even make it close. It would take an astronomical swing for a hung parliament

Sunak doesn't have the charisma or political skill to make that happen. A (another) change of leader may be a different story though

I hope you’re right, but all the polls for the Brexit vote showed Remain as a shoo in, and looked what happened there.

 

[happypig]

Because desperate though I am to see this current shower of shite removed, I fear that Starmer's determination to distance himself and Labour from Corbynism - electorally understandable though that is - means that he is becoming Tory-lite. He abandons policies almost weekly in order to appeal to disillusioned Tories, to the extent that I am genuinely not sure what a Starmer-led Labour government would do differently, except be less corrupt or nasty. Welcome though that would be, I really want a more positive reason or vision to vote Labour.

At present, on so many issues, Starmer seems to be offering 'more of the same - but a bit nicer'.

And if Starmer does not improve things by 2029 - which he won't if he continues to be too timid - I can see a Farage-led Conservative government getting elected.

Labour isn't going to reveal detailed plans and policies yet; with the GE up to a year away that would give the right wing press lots of time to make up lies rubbishing them. The policies will be revealed when the election is announced and the manifest published.
At the moment the Tories are doing a pretty good job of making anyone but them electable, all Starmer has to do is keep chipping away and pointing out their many shortcomings , gaffes and dishonesty

 

[Hastings gull]

Offshore business tax - Any company not resident but trading in UK has to pay an annual levy (based on a percentage of it's turnover) if it wants to legally trade in the UK

Renationalisation - It sounds great. But the sums are astronomical. Instead regulate all these private companies up the arse

I really wonder if you are getting a better deal when you re-nationalise the railways. For all the criticism of the current franchises, you would be replacing them with a nationalised franchise which you cannot change. It is a massive leap of faith to assume that a better service would ensue.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

• The health service
  • More GPs and nurses. Make it easy for overseas trained bods to come here

It's time GP practices were actually part of the NHS rather than being private, profit making, companies. So I'd do that. Equally bring dentistry back under the NHS - "free at the point of delivery" - none of this charging rubbish. It's the National HEALTH service - teeth are part of your HEALTH.

 

[Zeberdi]

It's time GP practices were actually part of the NHS rather than being private, profit making, companies. So I'd do that. Equally bring dentistry back under the NHS - "free at the point of delivery" - none of this charging rubbish. It's the National HEALTH service - teeth are part of your HEALTH.

NHS needs a massive restructuring-

Cameron was’t telling the truth 8 years ago and isn’t true now

Tories are failing the NHS

The Labour government between 1997 and 2010 oversaw an average annual increase in per capita health spending of 5.67%.

commentcentral.co.uk

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

It's time GP practices were actually part of the NHS rather than being private, profit making, companies. So I'd do that. Equally bring dentistry back under the NHS - "free at the point of delivery" - none of this charging rubbish. It's the National HEALTH service - teeth are part of your HEALTH.

And so is your mind. Mental health support to be included as well

 

[mikeyjh]

I don't think that soaking people who can't afford to buy their own home, as a business, is morally acceptable. Some years ago I met a bloke in Macclesfield who owned a house someone I knew was renting. He had crossed an event horizon whereby he was earning so much money from his rentals he was buying more and more new properties, with no end to this in sight. He was buying houses in new 'estates' of the sort we see springing up everywhere. It strikes me that this is a lovely self-sustaining racket, enabled by the fact that house prices are out of the reach of so many. It is a reversal of the gains working people made after the war up to the late 1970s, when people like my dad, a humble GPO engineer, was able to buy a bungalow in Rottingdean, and eventually scale up to a 3 bed semi in Portslade. A house that I could afford to buy only after working 30 years as a university lecturer.

I don't doubt the veracity of your story but it's a very simplified view of the reality. Many who have overstretched themselves in this manner have ended up on their arses because most of them are borrowing to do so and, maybe contrary to popular belief, a good landlord doesn't always make massive margins. There is always maintenance, there will be fallow periods and tenants who don't pay.

I (predictably) don't agree that people are being soaked because they can't afford to buy their own home. I doubt there's more than handful of people who haven't rented for a reasonable amount of time. Believe it or not, some people are comfortable renting, don't want to buy, should they not have that choice?

If there is a housing 'crisis' in this country, then rather than it being due to illegal immigrants, it is due to this little racket.

I think you've conflating housing with home ownership. The crisis in the former is critical, the latter less so.

I could be persuaded to think again, however. Do you think the rental sector is working well, and providing a satisfactory outcome? I suppose it could be argued that people who can't afford to buy a property and have to sink £1000 a month in rent are simply getting what they deserve, for not being smart enough to get the sort of job that would put them in bricks and mortar. And at least they have somewhere nice to rent, and I should probably just jog on and forget all about it. If, on the other hand, you think the rental sector does not work well, how can it be fixed?

No I don't. There are too many amateur landlords out there, people who see their tenants as a mechanism with which to pay off their mortgage - I hear them on phone ins etc, explaining that they have to put the rent up because they can't cover their mortgages due to interests rates - Tough titties, you take the risk of borrowing beyond what you can afford, you suffer the consequences. Tenants should be far better protected from such behaviour.

I don't have all the answers but there's a clear and obvious need for a rental market. Wales is far more progressive in this area, you have to be registered and licensed if you want to let the place yourself. One thing I would add would to the training in Wales and the UK is to explain to idiot landlords that putting the rent up all the time won't pay dividends. Good tenants and good landlords are a great match, at some point, you'll get a bad one and then you'll regret those increases!