Rock and a hard place for the government…
No doubt the junior doctors will be wheeling out their bullshit claiming to care about patient safety as a justification for a strike, before that evaporates into thin air as soon as a suitable pay offer is forthcoming.
I have no idea if their current pay offer represents a shafting but I hope so. Awful, awful profession.
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Reeves is on borrowed time
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Plenty more U-turns to come. They roll-back the welfare cuts in the Autumn. Rightly so morally and politically too.
As much as it depresses me, the Labour Party stand between us and an authoritarian mini-Trump becoming our PM.
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freebies for boomers.
Eating shit for the young.
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Sadly the Boomers have plenty of spare time to leave their un-mortgaged 4 bedroom houses and vote. There needs to be an alternative that the young (and crusty old lefties like me) can get excited about because this managed apathy towards kids to turn them off politics could open the door to the Loony Right.
It all seems bleak right now, possibly because it is. Still, tax loopholes for corporations remain open. If you’re rich, you get richer. So that’s good news, yes?
How long you giving her?
I back restoring the payments but let’s be honest they’ve made an absolute mess of this. Hasn’t even been one year and we’re already at the reactionary stage of governance.
All that talk about blackhole in the finances seems to have vanished too.
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I think they’ve shut up about the finances because they’ve been in charge for a year and the economy isn’t getting better for most people. They’re waiting for the first bit of good economic news so they can brainwash us into thinking they’re doing a good job.
Just like every government before and just like the next government will do. Fucking establishment cabal, including hedge fund millionnaire tax exile Nigel Farage. He’s good at brainwashing too.
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People will turn back to the Tories. They’ve managed to do some Jedi mind trick and made people forget they were the ones in charge for the last 15 years.
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I think it’s more like people have just forgotten that the Tories exist. Badenoch is fucking useless and Jenrick has resorted to chasing fare dodgers to get even 5 minutes of attention. They’re cooked til at least the 2034 GE imo
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Restoring the WFP is the right political move but the reasons for the U turn is flimsy and the numbers still don’t add up.
Within the cabinet and PLP she has zero authority. Labour’s economic poll ratings are in the bin as well as Reeves own approval within the Labour Party. I’ll be amazed if she’s still in the position this time next year, the fallout from the upcoming spending review and next budget should sink her.
Economy isn’t growing at the rate the government hoped so the solution must be to increase taxes.
Council tax is going up
Income tax threshold remains frozen
Income tax increases seem likely at this stage
National insurance for employers went up
At what point do they realise that squeezing money from everyone is not the way to help the economy grow? We’ve been living this austerity life for so many years now and it’s gotten the economy nowhere. People need greater economic power so they spend more.
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The UK might be cooked, time to start working an exit strategy lol
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This is a misrepresentation. The Government wouldn’t increase taxes in an attempt to boost growth - such a measure would restrict growth for the reasons you have outlined. However, the Government does need to balance the books and specifically it’s spending commitments.
To it’s credit (IMO), the Government is taking a long term approach in seeking to address some fundamental issues and to stimulate the economy at the same time by increasing capital investment in infrastructure projects. All of this will take time to have an effect on the wider economic picture. In the short term, if growth slows and the Government can’t meet it’s spending commitments, it either has to cut spending, or it needs to raise taxes - what taxes get raised I’m sure is up for debate, if they have to address this later in the year.
Also important to note that the Government doesn’t set Council tax - this is set by local Council’s who have seen budgets cut and costs increase year on year. This is one of the reasons the Government is looking at local government reorganisation to address this issue.
Keir Starmer and the Labour government could make you homeless and you’d find a way to give them credit.
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No. I’m just explaining economics.
An official Labour position is automatically fantastic.
Did you attend the same dodgy school of economics Reeves did? Even left leaning fiscal institutes think the economic approach completely orchestrated by Reeves lacks any coherence or wider thought.
It all ties back to election where Reeves unnecessarily boxed herself in with rules that she’s already ripped up less than a year in office. Capital investment is fine to pursue, even though the ROI for the treasury on areas like social housing or net zero based tech is close to nominal in the long term.
What’s not fine is borrowing to invest when the cost to do so for the UK is the highest in the western world at historical highs. The only long term approach this government has taken is making sure your adult grandchildren will be paying off the interest on the spending accrued in this parliament under Labour.
Literally by any economic metric or indicator, the economy is performing poorly. That’s in large part due to decisions made by Reeves.
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