[Politics] The Labour Government

[beorhthelm]

And then when they might need someone else in the future do they give the minimum wager they hired earlier a pay rise, or hire another body on minimum wage? It’s a bad excuse IMO.

can a person getting 10, 20, 50 even 100% more pay do the same as two people?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I’d suggest if a business can only afford to pay minimum wage and can’t pass on a small increase it’s probably not a great business.

Have you run a business?

 

[Weststander]

That is wrong Running a small business is not easy. Many when deciding whether to try and expand and employ a youngster hold back because cost will be £20k plus. So much better for all when able to employ on low wage for initial trial period. Appreciate he could afford it but my son tri

Lots of entire sectors run on small margins too.

 

[dsr-burnley]

Unfreeze fuel duty. It's been a huge subsidy for gas guzzlers mainly owned by rich people, which oil companies and fuel retailers (including the big supermarkets) have used to maximise profits. It has been encouraging more driving thereby maintaining surface transport's share of carbon emissions.

I suspect the average electric car driver is richer than the average ICE car driver. The two biggest reasons not to have an electric car are that you can't afford the capital cost, and that you don't have a drive. Either reason applies more to the less well-off.

Increasing fuel duty would certainly increase costs for rich drivers of big gas guzzlers, but it would also increase costs for the people who have to scrimp to run a car.

 

[Ike and Tina Burner]

Single bus fares to rise to £3 from £2 in England under new cap

The new limit replaces the existing £2 cap but some have criticised the decision.

www.bbc.co.uk

Why can't everything be confirmed on Wednesday in the budget?

If someone works 5 days a week and commutes via 1 bus there and 1 bus back then that is rise of about £480 a year. Not a trivial amount of money for people who scrape by month to month.

It's a very Tory policy descision actually. Making things meanigfully harder for the people on the bottom of society for a trivial amount of saving whilst also being antigrowth and shortsighted because it discourages people from being in the workforce.

 

[Curious Orange]

Okay, this story is a result of Welsh Government policy, but it is useful when you want to give some context to the potential impact of environmental policy - in this case it has had the unintended consequence of making pollution worse.

BBC News - Train smoke is making us sick, say residents

Caernarfon: Train smoke is making us sick, say residents

Families living above a tourist railway believe thick acrid smoke from trains is making them ill.

www.bbc.com

 

[Chicken Run]

To be fair, he called on Hamas to release the sausages.

Beyond that, I’m not sure what more he can do?

And to stop torpedoing Israeli targets….

 

[Springal]

Have you run a business?

Part of - Yes I was a founder in a bootstrapped business, hired and built a team over 6 years which was turning over £1.5M when I left. I never paid anyone close to minimum wage.

FWIW I’m a fan of https://www.livingwage.org.uk/what-real-living-wage and will seek out companies signed up for it when I buy things

 

[abc]

The impact of an increase in employers NI:

A business has four choices:

1. Absorb and accept a reduction in profit. Very few SMEs can afford to do this. It’s tough out there
2. Cut other costs. If that were possible then it would have been done already
3. Reduce wages by 2% or reduce the number employed to compensate. Those remaining will have to pick up the slack.
4. Increase prices to compensate

Option 3 is obviously not a good option for ‘working people’.
Option 4 is easy to say but much harder to do. But if it’s possible then this act feeds inflation. Increased inflation means higher interest rates which damages businesses further. It also hits those with mortgages. People spend less and the economy stagnates.

It’s the economic illiteracy that is astounding and deeply worrying

 

[Is it PotG?]

At last, some calm, intelligence amidst this madness.

Labour’s private school VAT raid is “simply not going to work”, one of its own MPs has warned ahead of the Budget.

In a stinging attack of one of the Government’s flagship policies, Rachael Maskell said children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) who are forced out by the raid would have “nowhere else to go” as state schools are “not working for these children”.

 

[Machiavelli]

Top work Guy Shrubsole. No more complacency and indulgence of the aristos, go get them RR:

Loophole exempts 355 landowners in England from inheritance tax, data shows

Chancellor urged to cancel tax break that uses scheme to register land as heritage asset and worth at least £68m

www.theguardian.com

 

[BrightonCottager]

I suspect the average electric car driver is richer than the average ICE car driver. The two biggest reasons not to have an electric car are that you can't afford the capital cost, and that you don't have a drive. Either reason applies more to the less well-off.

Increasing fuel duty would certainly increase costs for rich drivers of big gas guzzlers, but it would also increase costs for the people who have to scrimp to run a car.

I agree with the main point you're making but proportionally the rich gaz guzzlers will pay more in duty. The lack of recharging infrastructure for those of us without a driveway is a different issue. I also believe that EVs should pay a charge based on the additional damage they do to road surfaces, being heavier. The fairest way to pay for driving is a tax based on how much we drive ie road tolls. With the amount of cameras up already, this is probably quite achievable.

 

[bazbha]

Single bus fares to rise to £3 from £2 in England under new cap

The new limit replaces the existing £2 cap but some have criticised the decision.

www.bbc.co.uk

Why can't everything be confirmed on Wednesday in the budget?

A rise in the Bus price cap is almost exclusively going to affect the working class. As someone who uses a bus regularly this is a kick in the teeth. I guess their champagne socialist voter base don't use buses much though.

I agree with the main point you're making but proportionally the rich gaz guzzlers will pay more in duty. The lack of recharging infrastructure for those of us without a driveway is a different issue. I also believe that EVs should pay a charge based on the additional damage they do to road surfaces, being heavier. The fairest way to pay for driving is a tax based on how much we drive ie road tolls. With the amount of cameras up already, this is probably quite achievable.

Its fair if fuel duty and road tax are scrapped or reduced considerably and "pay per mile" is used in its place. Not as another tax rise on the "working man".

 

[A mex eyecan]

A rise in the Bus price cap is almost exclusively going to affect the working class. As someone who uses a bus regularly this is a kick in the teeth. I guess their champagne socialist voter base don't use buses much though.

It’s fair if fuel duty and road tax are scrapped or reduced considerably and "pay per mile" is used in its place. Not as another tax rise on the "working man".

The trouble with pay per mile is the effect it would have on the cost of transporting goods around the country. I would imagine the vast majority of all goods are moved by road.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

That is wrong Running a small business is not easy. Many when deciding whether to try and expand and employ a youngster hold back because cost will be £20k plus. So much better for all when able to employ on low wage for initial trial period. Appreciate he could afford it but my son tried

Running any business has its trials and tribulations. Cash flow is vital. Some businesses have daily income, others less predictable. One thing that never goes away is fixed costs. Once driven down to as low as one can get, then savings have to be made elsewhere. Business spends as much if not more time cutting costs as trying to boost turnover.
Governments work differently. Their first thought is to raise more revenue to cover outgoings. They have the power to do this through direct and indirect taxation. What we all want to hear and never do hear, is how much they project to save/raise through cost cutting exercises. i.e behaving just like business.
No area should be safe from analysis. No area is too sensitive to remained untouched. If money is disappearing down a big black hole, then it needs looking at, be it the Civil Service, NHS, Education, Utilities, Transport and so on.
I want to hear more about cost cutting and less about increased taxation.

 

[rippleman]

The current cap was temporary and due to expire at the end of the year. Without a new investment fares would have gone back to what they were.

They are not 'putting prices up', they are simply not able to maintain the current subsidy levels.

The problem is - whatever they do is going to have repercussions. If there is no rise on NI, VAT, Income Tax, Employers VAT, IHT, CGT, and no reductions in subsidies - then how on earth are the Government meant to get any funding to start fixing stuff?

If we want the £2 bus fare cap - where does the money for it come from if they can't raise any of the taxes they will be criticised for raising?

But I think they are. Worthing fares used to start at £1.60 then £1.80. When the cap was introduced all the previous "low fares" were increased to £2. Well, there's a surprise eh? Now they will no doubt "put the prices up" again.

Great value if you are bussing it from Worthing to Brighton. Total disincentive to use the buses if you want to get heavy shopping from say town to the train station.

Keep putting the prices up and folk will return to their cars.

 

[Hometownglory]

At last, some calm, intelligence amidst this madness.

Labour’s private school VAT raid is “simply not going to work”, one of its own MPs has warned ahead of the Budget.

In a stinging attack of one of the Government’s flagship policies, Rachael Maskell said children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) who are forced out by the raid would have “nowhere else to go” as state schools are “not working for these children”.

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Eurgh she has probably been lobbied by some well to do constituents of a private school, who are suddenly appalled at the prospect of their well earned government funded tax break being removed from their schools fees. If they can't afford it, hard luck. They'll have to join the majority, who by the way, also want the best education for their children.

 

[Mustafa II]

A rise in the Bus price cap is almost exclusively going to affect the working class. As someone who uses a bus regularly this is a kick in the teeth. I guess their champagne socialist voter base don't use buses much though.

Its fair if fuel duty and road tax are scrapped or reduced considerably and "pay per mile" is used in its place. Not as another tax rise on the "working man".

They could have removed the cap completely. I think increasing the cap slightly is fair, especially considering inflation since it was originally brought in.

Also, plenty of working people rely on long commutes or long-distance driving for their work. Pay per mile could ruin them, unless they were somehow made exempt from such a tax.

 

[Guinness Boy]

A rise in the Bus price cap is almost exclusively going to affect the working class. As someone who uses a bus regularly this is a kick in the teeth. I guess their champagne socialist voter base don't use buses much though.

Its fair if fuel duty and road tax are scrapped or reduced considerably and "pay per mile" is used in its place. Not as another tax rise on the "working man".

Again, because people don't seem to understand:

1) Bus fares are not a tax.
2) Bus fares never used to be capped
3) The funding for the £2 cap was about to run out. Labour could have abolished any kind of cap making buses exactly like they were for most of mine and your lifetime.

 

[rippleman]

Speaking to a contact yesterday in the demolition / groundworks business. For the first time in over 20 years he has no work. It's not just him but the entire sector has ground to a halt. I expressed surprise given HMG's commitment to build millions of new homes. He said that since all the Budget leaks started coming out, everything has been put on hold until the potential damage to businesses (particularly SMEs and OMBs) can be assessed.