Keir Starmer at it again..

[YoungWolf]

So no suggestions then.

Learnt from the best

 

[Tredman]

I get the need to be aggressive and angry but I am serious - I'd love for their to be a genuinely achievable and electable platform from the left. I'd love to vote green - I've spent my entire life working in international development and green-tech, but so much of the ideas from the left are just posturing statements which are easily made if you have no chance of being elected.

 

[Templeton Peck]

So no suggestions then.

Anyone left of centre has dozens of ideas how to improve things. Labours 17 and 19 manifestos were full of them. Fully 'costed' too for those who don't understand macro economics. None of its rocket science or utopian either, people have just been gaslit into thinking govts can't or shouldn't do anything.

 

[Templeton Peck]

I get the need to be aggressive and angry but I am serious - I'd love for their to be a genuinely achievable and electable platform from the left. I'd love to vote green - I've spent my entire life working in international development and green-tech, but so much of the ideas from the left are just posturing statements which are easily made if you have no chance of being elected.

In your opinion.

 

[YoungWolf]

I get the need to be aggressive and angry but I am serious - I'd love for their to be a genuinely achievable and electable platform from the left. I'd love to vote green - I've spent my entire life working in international development and green-tech, but so much of the ideas from the left are just posturing statements which are easily made if you have no chance of being elected.

“I am serious” but started off with your usual pithy comment in response to people criticising trickle down economics.

 

[Templeton Peck]

I mean if people are still advocating trickle down economics in 2025 there's no point engaging really.

 

[Tredman]

“I am serious” but started off with your usual pithy comment in response to people criticising trickle down economics.

I've read the speech from Reeves yesterday and it doesn't really talk about that - its mainly about how we can maximise incoming investment into the financial services sector. I don't like that sector but I imagine the share of tax income to the government from it dwarfs most other sectors. So maximising money in means more money for the government. In an ideal world this would be used to reduce NHS waiting list, which is something the current government seems to be doing well, and invest in growth for other sectors - something they are partially doing but could for sure do better.

 

[Tredman]

I mean if people are still advocating trickle down economics in 2025 there's no point engaging really.

again, that wasn't really the point but its pretty obvious that growing the tax income is a *good* thing no?

 

[Templeton Peck]

I've read the speech from Reeves yesterday and it doesn't really talk about that - its mainly about how we can maximise incoming investment into the financial services sector. I don't like that sector but I imagine the share of tax income to the government from it dwarfs most other sectors. So maximising money in means more money for the government. In an ideal world this would be used to reduce NHS waiting list, which is something the current government seems to be doing well, and invest in growth for other sectors - something they are partially doing but could for sure do better.

It's the same wank they've been dribbling out for 40 years now. And I wouldn't say it's been a huge success tbh.

 

[Tredman]

It's the same wank they've been dribbling out for 40 years now. And I wouldn't say it's been a huge success tbh.

What's the alternative, it wasn't the most inspiring speech but interested to hear your take on what else we should do.

 

[YoungWolf]

I've read the speech from Reeves yesterday and it doesn't really talk about that - its mainly about how we can maximise incoming investment into the financial services sector. I don't like that sector but I imagine the share of tax income to the government from it dwarfs most other sectors. So maximising money in means more money for the government. In an ideal world this would be used to reduce NHS waiting list, which is something the current government seems to be doing well, and invest in growth for other sectors - something they are partially doing but could for sure do better.

Great, you could have easily made this response in the first place though couldn’t you? You seem to make some good points and have a better understanding in this area than I do. It helps me. Then everyone is having a discussion instead of this petty points scoring.

I agree one of the things they seem to be making progress in is waiting times.

 

[EpsomWolf]

Perhaps we just have to accept that the UK has peaked and now its just about how much we can slow the decline

I think a lot of people have already come to that conclusion. No one likes making sacrifices but there’s an element of acceptance if we’re working to a brighter future, but a realisation we’re making sacrifices to simply slow the decline is demoralising and will make everyone look at their options. I’d like to hear solutions from all sides of the spectrum too, but I only see ideologies which will satisfy only those at the edges of either side.

I agree with both the defence and the criticism of Starmer on here. Reeves is clearly floundering and it feels like panic is setting in. Her flip-flopping makes her look like she’s have a stab at anything she reads on a message board and backtracks when talking to anyone who understands the true ramifications.

It looks to me like the next big target is assets. That’s going to appeal to those who have none, and alienate those with some. It’s the group in the middle striving for a better future who worry me. Reeves, and Labour generally are between a rock and a hard place, economic policies are failing and in a managed decline it’s a terrible look when people realise they’ll tax you hard on your journey and then strip you of any reward too. Good luck to anyone working to a better future. Oh and remember another reward for that graft will be unless you haven’t got a pot to piss in you can kiss goodbye to that state pension you thought you were paying into too.

To a large extent I don’t blame anyone for clearing off abroad. There are certainly elements of racism amongst many who do and all sorts of levels of hypocrisy too not to mention a good deal of selfishness, but it’s delusional to expect anything else when you’re asking people to effectively finance what they know or believe to be a managed decline.

I do think the tipping point is being reached and it’s troubling.

 

[Tredman]

Great, you could have easily made this response in the first place though couldn’t you? You seem to make some good points and have a better understanding in this area than I do. It helps me. Then everyone is having a discussion instead of this petty points scoring.

I agree one of the things they seem to be making progress in is waiting times.

I have purposely stopped engaging in the section of the forum as it has just become 2 sets of people sneering at each other - I don't like that in myself or others.

 

[lemonjelly]

Green tech and the like would have been an exceptional opportunity to place ourselves as leaders in R&D but the current culture war vs net zero etc seems to have scuppered that. Not long ago, we were leaders in many areas.

 

[Tredman]

But we are in a lot of areas - some of that is despite the government but some of that is because of the government. Don't let all the nonsense from the torygraph cloud your views, the UK may not be a leader in EVs etc (but then they are no longer innovations) but we do do a load of very cool early stage stuff.

 

[AndyWolves]

Back to the ISAs thing, I do agree with Rachel that more people should be investing in equities for better returns but slashing the cash ISA limit was never the way to do it. Stocks and shares ISAs are a much different use case to cash ISAs.

A better way is to increase education around investing (not saving) so people feel more confident around investing. Some of the messaging firms have to use around investment products is very scary too.

There also needs to be more education around what inflation does to the pounds in your savings account Vs equities. The risk of inflation is massively underplayed and it's the one risk that will definitely happen.

 

[Jolemai]

Labour suspends four rebel MPs for breaching party discipline

Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Rachael Maskell all voted against welfare reforms.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[visage]

Sixteen and 17-year-olds will be able to vote in next general election

Up to 9.5 million more people will be able to vote by lowering the age.

news.sky.com

Promises made, promises kept.

 

[Tredman]

This superb, the rules previously were explicitly made to prevent young people being able to prove ID

Bank cards allowed as voter ID

As part of the strategy, voter ID will also be extended to include UK-issued bank cards.

Conservative shadow local government minister Paul Holmes raised concerns using bank cards for ID will "undermine the security of the ballot box".

When other IDs that are already accepted, such as the veteran card and UK driving licences, become digitised, they will also be accepted in that form.

A digital Voter Authority Certificate will also be created to ensure electoral registration officers, who maintain registers of electors and absent voters, will be able to accept digital forms of ID.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Sixteen and 17-year-olds will be able to vote in next general election

Up to 9.5 million more people will be able to vote by lowering the age.

news.sky.com

Promises made, promises kept.

No doubt this is a good thing. But it has to be backed up by education in schools about politics and voting and educating young people about social media and how it influences voting intentions and pushes confusing and blatantly wrong messages.