Do you want to discuss boring politics? (23 Viewers)
- Thread starter mrtrench
- Start date
Grendel
Well-Known Member
Grendel
Well-Known Member
So you think this is good news and we need to massively reduce migration
Brighton Sky Blue
Well-Known Member
Well clearly having a net entry of nearly a million people in a year isn’t sustainable and I’ve said many times that I want the country not to rely on importing foreign labour.
Do you think it’s a big step in the right direction?
Captain Dart
Well-Known Member
I see Reeves announced lower energy bills but she is robbing Peter to pay Paul because the costs will be transferred to even higher income tax rates, tax payers pay more and more. This lie Labour told about taking £300 of electricity bills is going to be met by increasing the basic rate of income tax to 25% isn't it. 
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
The public’s first impression of the budget, lol.
Sky Blue Pete
Well-Known Member
Unfair????
Mmmm don’t quite get that
Is it the rich guys saying the reason it’s so shit middle class is cos of those on benefits
fatso
Well-Known Member
Those who work pay more
Those who chose not to work continue to take the piss.
Tbf, Starmer wanted to overhaul the welfare system, but was shot down by the wanker back benchers who are purely interested in maintaining their own seats, and couldnt give a fuck about the economy.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Despite the headline of business rate reductions for some businesses, a lot of pubs have had their RV increased significantly so will be paying more. Reeves genuinely does not have a clue about managing an economy, her background of fucking about in the BOE is her problem not her advantage.
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
No Pete, it’s tax thresholds being frozen for another 3 years pushing people into higher tax brackets.
Teachers and nurses will be dragged into the 40% tax bracket as will more and more earners. As will lower income workers start paying tax when they shouldn’t be.
The average employee and employer putting 6% into pension pot will also be taxed on contributions after £2k.
Whilst private sector workers have wages suppressed by the governments tax hikes last year, it’s only public sector workers and benefits claimants who get rises above inflation (driven up by government policies). Deeply unfair.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Which public sector workers get above inflation increases? Never ever happened in my working life. (I don't work in the public sector and haven't for a long time)
Reeves is shrinking the size of the private sector with tax increases for people and businesses. She is a disaster.
I just saw a pub owner on Facebook show that its RV is increasing from 22k to 86k. That'll mean roughly £3k extra per month in tax to pay. That is completely unreasonable and unsustainable.
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
It’s going to eviscerate retail and pubs unless it’s corrected… businesses folding and rising unemployment is about to a hefty chunk to a welfare bill already expecting to rise £70+ billion in the next 5 years.
First female chancellor she proudly says, probably will go down as one of the worst.
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
Public sector wages increased 6.8% in Q3 alone…
Either way, we agree on the fundamentals that this government is a disaster. The budget robs Peter to pay Paul.
Starmer is a liar. He lied to Labour members to get elected as leader and he lied to the electorate to get elected as PM. This exchange shows why he’s despised. In the face of being called out for U-turning on why he told the electorate last year, he gets po faced and acts like he’s been asked an offensive question.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
The second one is the one I was on about, I think this kind of tax increase is incredibly cynical as it isn't widely understood how it works. As if the prospects for the hospitality industry weren't bad enough already. Still, it's not all bad, that lovely local employer Amazon getting around a 10% increase
He was given the easiest of rides to the election last year, it's remarkable how ill prepared he is for even the most obvious question
On business rates increases...
- Transitional Relief – To support ratepayers facing large bill increases at the revaluation the government is introducing a redesigned Transitional Relief scheme worth £3.2 billion.
- Transitional Relief Supplement – a 1p supplement to the relevant tax rate for ratepayers who do not receive Transitional Relief or the Supporting Small Business scheme to partially fund Transitional Relief. This will apply for one year from 1 April 2026.
- 2026 Supporting Small Business Scheme (SSB relief) – bill increases for businesses losing some or all of their small business rates relief or rural rate relief will be capped at the higher of £800 or the relevant transitional relief caps from 1 April 2026. The 2026 SSB relief scheme has been expanded to ratepayers losing their RHL relief. The government has also announced a one-year extension of the 2023 Supporting Small Business scheme from 1 April 2026. This support is applied before changes in other reliefs and local supplements.
Blind-Faith
Well-Known Member
Just starting to get into politics , I’ve just read we are paying over £100 billion a year on debt interest. Madness. Surely instead of increasing spending on welfare and pensions and foreign aid etc , we need to bring this number down??
That money could then go to ( I imagine this along way off ) NHS, education , increasing the tax thresholds for people , more money for people to spend, creating jobs etc
The country is £2.8 trillion in debt??? Who in the hell let that happen?? Fooking madness
That money could then go to ( I imagine this along way off ) NHS, education , increasing the tax thresholds for people , more money for people to spend, creating jobs etc
The country is £2.8 trillion in debt??? Who in the hell let that happen?? Fooking madness
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
After experience Sunak and Starmer, it’s bonkers how anyone can go from MP to PM in less than 10 years. Their inexperience clearly hampered them.
What’s even more mental, if an election was held tomorrow, Farage would be PM and he’s a complete novice. In fairness, he’s been an MEP for many years but not sure that counts for much and the fact he’s a complete outsider probably bodes well for him (and Zach Polanski for the Greens). The electorate are clearly washing their hands of Labour and Conservative.
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
The government isn't a household, it doesn't owe debt to commercial banks like a household does. Most of its debt is held by its wholly owned bank. It issues its own currency so would never ever ever ever ever ever be unable to pay any debt denominated in pounds sterling. Government debt is bought by long term investors like pension funds because of this. Government debt is private sector savings.
Blind-Faith
Well-Known Member
Cheers
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
Returning the welfare bill to pre-COVID levels saves £47bn alone. Any serious government wanting to get the public finances on a good footing needs to start here.
This impacts any left or right leaning government. Forget increasing sums on public services or cutting taxes if you’re continually raising taxes to service welfare spending.
Reeves has had 2 budgets and has already raised taxes by record levels.
Blind-Faith
Well-Known Member
All I understand at the moment, is she initially raised £40 billion in taxes and said she wouldn’t be back for more and then yesterday, she puts another £26 billion on top of it.
And it would appear, the people who get up and go to work 5/6/7 days a week, aren’t on minimum wage , are the ones yet again, being screwed over with no real reward in the budget.
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
My advice: don’t trust tax and spend political parties. It’s never enough.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
Ah so people that are struggling is due to them and not the govt.
What a cuntish thing to say.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Don't trust the idea that spending is dependent on taxes, that's a good start
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
I sort of agree here.
I can understand why some legislation has become so long-winded because someone, somewhere has taken the piss and loopholes need closing, but on the whole I think a lot of the stuff is absolutely unnecessary and just there so the accountants and lawyers can get a nice pay day and can make it look like they're really clever by making it so complicated.
It really doesn't need to be if everyone just stop being such self-serving arseholes.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
In fairness it was a case of "I'm alright Jack" from Pete. Sums up the modern labour party.
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
We’re on the same page here, just not much elseDon't trust the idea that spending is dependent on taxes, that's a good start
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
It's a real shame that this bloke isn't front and centre of the BBC economics news because he gets it
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
Interesting thread. What he says is technically true on the point that we can’t go bankrupt…
If we get to a point where we’re printing money (because that’s how government “creates money out of nothing”) though and inflation gets out of hand, it’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.
Hence the point about household debt because a fundamental weakness of the UK economy is the asset price boom. Approx 50% of household spending is on household bills. Back in the 70s when interest rates were 17%, households obviously struggled but could mostly cope. Anything above 8-10% in today’s economy would be cataclysmic and people would lose their houses. No government wants to willingly devalue the property market or causes thousands to lose their houses.
In any case, Andy Verity kinda contradicts himself because his end point is that to restore ‘fiscal credibility’, levy windfall taxes on corporations rather than households… Windfall taxes on energy companies have had negative impacts and NI increases had similarly bad impacts on unemployment already.