As in believing the government are centre right when I’ve listed all the of the polices and decisions made to date that indicate they are anything but
I’ll address some of those points. British doctors are underpaid when comparing them to doctors in comparable countries. The UK is haemorrhaging doctors and other NHS staff and has been for decades. Paying them competitively is not left wing, it’s common sense.
They didn’t move any tax thresholds meaning that the burden of paying taxes was disproportionately put on lower earners. Very right wing, not in the slightest left wing.
They removed the two child benefit cap they did under duress. It was not volunteered by any stretch of the imagination. Then there’s other austerity measures on benefits that they’ve not reversed. If they were left wing at the bare minimum they would have turned the dial back to before the 2012 welfare reform act. They haven’t, very right wing.
Minimum wage has only gone up I think 25 times in 27 years so doesn’t even equate to an annual pay rise. There’s also the small issue that the cost of living has outpaced minimum wage increases for years now so in real terms it’s a wage cut keeping lots of hard working people in relative poverty. Couple that with the tax thresholds not moving meaning a lot of low earners started paying tax for the first time so a double whammy. Not very left wing by any stretch of the imagination.
The workers rights bill. Christ Steve you’re taking the piss now. It’s barely watering down what’s been happening to workers rights since Thatcher. If they were truly even centre left they’d have turned the dial back to pre thatcher, they haven’t even turned the dial back to the Blair/Brown government
Free school meals. A true left government wouldn’t means test free school meals.
Welfare state. I think it’s disingenuous to say that Labour have done nothing. If they hadn’t been forced to do U-turns they’d have gone a lot further. Plus look at who they’re targeting, disability benefits for instance. Existing claimants of UC health element has been frozen, new claimants are only entitled to half as much. They’ve changed the PIP eligibility criteria costing individuals something like £4K a year. Overall they’re predicted to push an extra 250k into abject poverty about a fifth of who will be children. You’re going to have to explain how that is anyway left wing.
Corporate/business tax. Our corporate taxes are not high compared to comparable countries and still lower than average compared with all OECD’s. They’re still lower than the USA for example and I think you’re be hard pressed convincing anyone that the USA is left wing.
Borrowing. You’re being disingenuous again. The key driver of borrowing in the UK is servicing existing debt in the face of increasing inflation and high interest rates. The other main drivers are just the state of the world effecting inflation especially. Coupled with weak growth not least because of the B word. You also contradict yourself. You want them to tackle borrowing but you don’t want them to raise taxes.
Literally the only thing Labour policy that’s remotely left you haven’t even mentioned. Nationalising the railways. Even then it’s only partially. Even the way they’re doing it isn’t left. They’re not borrowing the money to buy out private rail operators, they’re letting the the franchises running out and falling into public ownership by default. A true left government would be renationalising a lot more, starting with the water companies. The only reason they’re renationalising the railways is because it’s a good business case. They’re not doing it through ideology.
