[Politics] The Labour Government

[Herr Tubthumper]

No, that’s not what I said.

I said that when you’re considering major career choices, part of the decision is how might this affect my lifestyle? Are you prepared to accept the sacrifices in exchange for the benefits?

And I’m saying he doesn’t need to consider this a sacrifice as he can still go to the football. I’m not really sure what point you’re trying to make.

 

[nevergoagain]

Corporate tax avoidance is where I would be looking at first. Legislation to force the big guns and others to pay tax in the country where revenue comes from ought on the face of things be possible but acknowledge there are a lot of discounts given for infrastructure investments.

My worry about blanket wealth taxes on individuals is we really don't want to drive away those who we want to continue to invest in the country for growth and run a lot of our biggest companies. To be honest if they've already paid tax once it's unfair to ask them to pay again but I know that will have me lambasted as a capitalist swine by some. Proving asset ownership and then how to extract that tax if those assets are not able to be realised is also another major issue.

 

[Zeberdi]

You can post all the ideas you want on here. It makes absolutely no difference if Starmer and Reeves repeatedly state that there will be no mitigation.

What GB was suggesting was something I also posted 10 days ago on the Labour meltdown thread - perhaps it is more timely to mention it now the discussion has moved on to alternatives?

[Politics] - Labour Party meltdown incoming.......

Hopefully as you say action is taken in the budget. I worry that local Government having to step up is piling pressure on local services already at breaking point after years of budget cuts. It also leaves us in the same position of the most vulnerable being among the least likely to claim.

Think we're in agreement that a Labour government should be seeking alternative ways to balance the books.

The money is being earmarked to local government as extra funding (to the tune of over £4 billion) as the bold highlights in my post above. The key though is that it is not means tested which is the root of the problem here.

The low threshold of wealth and sudden cut off of £1,000s worth of grants/concessions/benefits/discounts for those just above the cut off means that means tested benefits pushes millions of excluded people into hardship when the cost of living increases but creates a poverty trap for those on benefits who can’t afford to give up their welfare income a go to work.

 

[Guinness Boy]

They received a record £197m last month in CGT as folk binned stuff before the budget and anticipated increases, yet they persist with this WFA disgrace.

That’s less than Brexit should be paying to the NHS every week.

 

[LamieRobertson]

There is Warm Home Discount scheme which provides eligible households with a £150 reduction on their electricity bills annually & is available for anyone on benefits. The problem with this is once again you have to be on pension credit to qualify, so actually anyone of pension credit gets up to £450 per year. It's more a case of how you define 'vulnerable'. It could be argued that people on pension credit need the WFP less than people just over the £218 cut off as they have council tax & rent paid (I know not all their council tax), over 75 get free TV licence & as I understand it their income is made up to £218, obviously they should still get it but the way the government have done is completely wrong, ignorant, heartless & just cruel.

….and paid directly to the account with the energy company, so unless the company is asked for a refund it is spent directly on paying their energy bill

 

[Is it PotG?]

That’s less than Brexit should be paying to the NHS every week.

Wrong thread.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Wrong thread.

I’d hazard a guess that this thread wouldn’t exist if that bus had been right, as we all awoke from our silken sheets to a bath run from our gold taps and breakfast of milk and honey, safe in the knowledge that President For Life Farage had given us not only an economy but also a health service that was the envy of the entire planet.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Wrong thread.

Be gentle he’s still suffering like this LD councillor

‘I was diagnosed with PTSD over Brexit,’ Lib Dem councillor says

Exclusive: ‘I have not been in Sudan fighting in a war, but Brexit has had a profound impact on me,’ Antonia Harrison told The Independent

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Is it PotG?]

Be gentle he’s still suffering like this LD councillor

‘I was diagnosed with PTSD over Brexit,’ Lib Dem councillor says

Exclusive: ‘I have not been in Sudan fighting in a war, but Brexit has had a profound impact on me,’ Antonia Harrison told The Independent

www.independent.co.uk

At least he has some people in the same boat on here with whom he can discuss it.

 

[LamieRobertson]

At least he has some people in the same boat on here with whom he can discuss it.

I’m sure it’s a source of great comfort

 

[Is it PotG?]

I’m sure it’s a source of great comfort

A problem shared is a problem halved.

 

[Weststander]

Sorry, you've lost me. I don't understand what this means.

You said "... lost their go at having their party in Government".

As if only Tories are annoyed/angry with Labour over this.

Wrong.

 

[pocketseagull]

You said "... lost their go at having their party in Government".

As if only Tories are annoyed/angry with Labour over this.

Wrong.

Got it. GB offered an alternative of energy companies cutting bills for vulnerable customers but said he expected people might react that it's anti-business, I was just suggesting that anyone complaining of a policy being anti-business were likely to be more on the tory voting spectrum. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[jcdenton08]

4,950 excess winter deaths caused by cold homes last winter

Excess winter deaths have increased as records show that when winter temperatures drop below 4 degrees, deaths caused by cold homes increase.

www.endfuelpoverty.org.uk

These are the statistics for the last few years including this winter past, which included the WFA.

In April 2022 there was a 54% increase in the domestic energy price cap, leading to several thousand further deaths year on year.

On October 1st this year, the price cap raises again a further 10%, after a minor drop in price in the last 12 months. On average, households are paying over 29% more than two years ago and now with the poorest and most vulnerable without WFA offsetting some of the difference.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9714/

The year after WFA was introduced, confirmed deaths from cold homes have fallen in line with mean winter temperatures. Here are the government statistics showing a correlation between colder temperatures and numbers of deaths from cold homes.

View attachment 189116

@Zeberdi

You’re having a mare with this one. Strange hill to die on, every single official report, even ones from your own side, directly contradict the point you’re trying to make. I appreciate you’re being “loyal” and don’t actually believe anything you’re saying - you’ll be the first to admit that - but it is a fact that deaths from cold homes rise when poor people can’t afford to heat them. Unequivocal fact.

 

[Chicken Run]

@Zeberdi

You’re having a mare with this one. Strange hill to die on, every single official report, even ones from your own side, directly contradict the point you’re trying to make. I appreciate you’re being “loyal” and don’t actually believe anything you’re saying - you’ll be the first to admit that - but it is a fact that deaths from cold homes rise when poor people can’t afford to heat them. Unequivocal fact.

It’s an incredible performance from @Zeberdi seeing as 48 hours ago he was placing this thread on ignore

 

[jcdenton08]

Did John Prescott pay for his luxury seat at Withdean when we were trying to sway him on Falmer?

Luxury was the that one which came with half a pork pie and flat lemonade at half time in a decrepit portacabin?

 

[jcdenton08]

As an aside, Victoria Starmer looks rather cute in that white polka dot number she was gifted.

Surely we can all agree on something?

Would.

 

[jcdenton08]

I find it sickening the way the right wing press have been so faux outraged by it - its absolutely a policy that if it were the Tories they would be fully behind as a rational and sensible cut to make - it's more of a Tory policy anyway on the face of it.

Such is the gutter press in this country, though

“But but but The Tories!”

 

[jcdenton08]

You haven’t properly looked at these threads. People who were openly anti Tory the last many years, damning of the WFP cut off.

The vast majority of us.

Furious about the WFA cut. Still hate the Tories. It’s possible to be politically agnostic and call out bullshit from the government even if I’d rather them than the alternative.

 

[Machiavelli]

Is it not possible that when you’re weighing up the pros and cons of entering politics and thinking of having a crack at being PM, you take into account that you’ll no longer be able to ‘go down the Arsenal’ as he likes to say in blokey podcasts, or go to the pub with your mates on a Friday night, or even slop around town unshaven in an old teeshirt and shorts and sandals? It’s a career and lifestyle choice. 'Going down the Arsenal' is not a human right. It’s something available to some people and not others, for a whole host of reasons.

He's a genuine football fan, who has had a season ticket for decades, and you're saying that he needs to ditch it because he's now PM. Presumably it was OK when he was Leader of the Opposition for you? Or when he was in the Shadow Cabinet? Or DPP? How else do you want to manage his time?

That last question will probably get some trite response. PMs work incredibly long hours, apart from Johnson. Starmer (wrongly, in my view) cut short his holiday to deal with the far right on the rampage on our streets when keyboard warriors were all a frenzy.

Why can't he have about 20 weekend afternoons off, and 10 or so weekday evenings, just so he can relax, like most of us do?