We are condemned to an eternity of decline. We'll spend our lives being told by politicians they need to cut some more, claiming this time prosperity will come. We have to save ourselves from this nightmare 👇 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... - ThreadSky

owenjones.bsky.social • 4 days ago

We are condemned to an eternity of decline.

We'll spend our lives being told by politicians they need to cut some more, claiming this time prosperity will come.

We have to save ourselves from this nightmare 👇

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/26/britain-decline-labour-groundhog-day

Comments

deanburnett.bsky.social•4 days ago

Before it’s too late!
It’s already too late!

litterygeniarse.bsky.social•4 days ago

Incompetent people in any walk of life can make cuts to give the semblance of competence. It will ALWAYS cut costs but the costs resulting take longer to reveal themselves especially if the incompetent aerosols in question control the narrative.

Learnt mostly from post-privatisation BT

poems4themasses.bsky.social•4 days ago

I grew up during the Thatcher, Reagan neoliberalism years…… I’m still waiting with bated breath for trickle down economics to trickle down to me. It’s almost as though I’ve been misled.

antonyillahiwarren.bsky.social•4 days ago

I think we all know that wasn't money trickling onto our heads. 🚽
#VoodooEconomics

gillymg.bsky.social•4 days ago

The same. My entire political life has been framed by cuts and austerity. Even Brown imposed nonsensical fiscal rules and tried to avoid any notion of public spending, to keep the ‘markets’ happy. Decades of economic insanity. For what?

poems4themasses.bsky.social•4 days ago

I’m guessing to not destabilize the establishment, and to maintain the wealth within the same privileged hands.

heckinhound.bsky.social•4 days ago

50+ years of Reganomics/trickle-down economy has more or less proven that the wealth does not in fact trickle down but rather concentrates in the hands of the rich while the gap between the wealthy and poor grows steadily wider.

It’s high time for a new economic model.

opinionlassie.bsky.social•4 days ago

can we have them detained under the mental health act being as they keep doing the same things and expecting different results??

imagetree.bsky.social•4 days ago

The Western governments are going to do what they want until folks say enough instead of embracing their own demise.
They do what they want bc they know you won't really fight back or risk life and limb for real change.

nuker.us•4 days ago

Should we create a buffer zone around the City of London?

So the rich can live peacefully there, and the poor can have a sweet life outside! 😍

nuker.us•4 days ago

You know you want to, Owen 🥰

mrmoog.bsky.social•4 days ago

Constant sacrificing for a future that never comes.

mangydog.bsky.social•4 days ago

I have this insane idea... Bare with me.... We increase taxes on the rich?

Heck we create a new higher tax band for the mega rich. Say 90% income on earnings above a few million a year.

Simply put 100%tax on anyone earning a billion... No one ever needs to be a billionaire. And the fact they

mangydog.bsky.social•4 days ago

Exist is an insanity.

nyebev4eva.bsky.social•4 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/nyebev4eva.bsky.social/post/3llca4hoi5c2h

notnerb.bsky.social•4 days ago

these people think we should be impressed by billionaires getting richer, while we struggle to pay bills and are being told to get second jobs to make ends meet. tax the rich

silentsounds.bsky.social•4 days ago

Labour was elected (not by me. I want Scottish Independence) on the basis they promised change.

They've certainly delivered on that. After 14 years of Tory corruption, incompetence & cruelty, they've brought new levels of cruelty, corruption & hypocrisy.

All while offering austerity & cuts...

silentsounds.bsky.social•4 days ago

... to people already struggling - rather than offering hope & the promise of a better future.

In the same week that Labour gave themselves a £2500 pay raise, they (with smiles) told us it was their "moral duty" to cut benefits to the most vulnerable. They told us thus was necessary & would...

silentsounds.bsky.social•4 days ago

... raise £6billion. In fact it will, at best, raise £4.5billion.

So ministers are scrambling to find further welfare cuts.

Here's a crazy thought, I'm going to just throw out there:

Do something to tackle wealth inequality, a start would be...

silentsounds.bsky.social•4 days ago

... taxing those with £10million+ 2%, affecting just 20,000 people, costing them just £200k & raising £26billion.

You could not give yourselves a £2500 pay increase.

Germany has proposed that the UK rejoins the customs union, to cut the 2 billion additional bits of paperwork caused by Brexit...

silentsounds.bsky.social•4 days ago

... this would raise £8 billion annually in taxes. Which is already more than the cuts forced upon the vulnerable & those least able to bear it.

Thtas 2 viable, workable suggestions, I have others.

Both of which bring in more £ than Labour cuts.

Labour = advert for Scottish Independence

derventia.bsky.social•4 days ago

Enough of austerity 2.0.

Tax Wealth.

greenpaul.bsky.social•4 days ago

The weird thing now is austerity is being promoted by those who spent the last 14 years condemning it.

mactakeshi.bsky.social•4 days ago

Also the gambling industry in the UK is ripe for plucking. Gamblers don't even pay tax on the bet. Imagine adding 10p to every bet in the UK on a £1.00 stake

mactakeshi.bsky.social•4 days ago

Legalise the drugs market. It is a war that the government's of all hues lost years ago. It is Westminster that doesn't control oor borders but blames the people for their plight. Imagine the VAT alone on the => £8bill market an overnight boost to the economy and not on the backs of the poor

garriecoleman.bsky.social•4 days ago

That’s the problem. Year after year after year, we’re told to shoulder the burden of cuts in the short term to benefit at some unspecified time in the future yet that time never comes. No wonder people are attracted to populists who aren’t tainted with that insanity repeated by Govt after Govt.

adamskihg.bsky.social•4 days ago

Great article 👍

kjeveryday.bsky.social•4 days ago

It's time for a new progressive left party. This current Labour party seems right of Thatcher.

buzzbomb11.bsky.social•4 days ago

Vote SNP

metaphorqu.bsky.social•4 days ago

I'm going for the double block. Stuff off Owen and all that #journobollox

peterwelsh68.bsky.social•4 days ago

Wealth not Health Tax

yossarian34.bsky.social•4 days ago

We desperately need to get the neoliberal ghouls out of power!
Socialism or barbarism is the stark and urgent choice

twicebitten.bsky.social•4 days ago

Nicely put Owen. It is the absence of optimism for the future which poisons society. Lack of vision, a total lack of courage in our political leaders has led us to a dead-end doldrum of decay. Where is the light?

mysteryhour.bsky.social•4 days ago

Well, instead of writing tripe, go and invent something to sell the world. Bring money into the pot instead of encourage your lickspittle to claim for their idleness.

nrunky.bsky.social•4 days ago

Neoliberalism and shareholder capitalism fails the majority, time for bottom up economics

fuctifano.bsky.social•4 days ago

there seems no end to the politics of "jam tomorrow" . . .

timetraveller19.bsky.social•4 days ago

Austerity didn't work under the Tories. It won't work now. It won't work under the next government.

johntonks.bsky.social•4 days ago

Hear, hear. With deregulation now on the cards Labour are moving ever closer to fascism. There are no more voices loud enough to protect the people.

badpictures.co.uk•3 days ago

To certain groups affected, who believed Labour were the alternative, their next alternative will be fascism

socialistnan123.bsky.social•4 days ago

tbhoy.bsky.social•4 days ago

The sad reality is that inequality will rise under Labour all because they are bed with money, and that matters more than the people they say they represent.

jennifereccles.bsky.social•4 days ago

When are we going to start taxing the rich?
Evening the playing field.
Wealth in the hands of a few is killing the many.

plasticgoose.bsky.social•4 days ago

They are not. But it looks like they will cut tax liability for digital companies. It isn’t a Labour government. And with the Tories now completely unelectable they are pushing people to Reform. I can’t help thinking this must be a plan. They are acting so strangely.

carrieetter.bsky.social•4 days ago

Owen, do you have a ko-fi account or the like? I'd love to buy you a pint sometime. I'd love to do in person, but I'll settle for from afar. ;)

ronaveyron.bsky.social•4 days ago

Vote for Jeremy!! 🥱🥱

waynereynolds.bsky.social•4 days ago

Well said Owen. Also, once they've killed off the poorest in society, those who aren't currently considered poor will become the poorest, and then they'll go after them.

nikkihack.bsky.social•4 days ago

It’s already happening. Those of us who were just treading water are finding it more and more difficult to cope. Labour are going to sacrifice us on the altar of trickle down economics. Frightening.

sandratofriends.bsky.social•4 days ago

To the death of the party known as Labour.

sandratofriends.bsky.social•4 days ago

thelanguagewarehouse.uk•4 days ago

https://surveymars.com/q/eLmxaRDy4

squigglelaw.bsky.social•4 days ago

What was the point of electing Labour when they do the same things as Tories expecting a different result. Is that not the definition of futility?

damonthedemon.bsky.social•4 days ago

As Owen knows, its not just about taxing wealth. Its also about myriad other bare faced idiocy in our society. The list is long, but eminently achievable with right ideology and some common sense. None of which successive administrations have. We are in a doom cycle instigated by imbeciles.

neilfromneath.bsky.social•4 days ago

Two words: Citizens' Assemblies

One extra word: NOW!

damonthedemon.bsky.social•4 days ago

👏👏👏

bazley.bsky.social•4 days ago

Well at least the private sector is on the rise and inflation is down.
Although I don’t believe you can physically eat either of them two things nor can they heat houses

simplyian.net•4 days ago

Welcome to "Labour managed decline" which looks a lot like "Tory managed decline" but with a sprinkling of performative sadness because they "have no other choice than to make the vulnerable suffer"

antonyillahiwarren.bsky.social•4 days ago

Rachel Reeves would rather rip the skin off a seal pup's back than tax a rich person. Labour is dead.

monkeymanmiggins.bsky.social•4 days ago

I know you like to be honest and straight forward, but this is just bleak. At some point we are going to end up with a massive social reset, if the government doesn’t tax more fairly. I really don’t want to see what that reset looks like and hope the government wakes up in time!

gillymg.bsky.social•4 days ago

Keynes said something like, when there’s new evidence I change my mind. Our politicians are devoid of any ability to even look at the evidence let alone change their minds. There is an alternative and it’s called MMT. https://findingmoneyfilm.com/

askmehow.bsky.social•4 days ago

I don’t think this is about knowledge of mmt.

purebaltic.bsky.social•4 days ago

Shouldn't assume they don't know exactly how the money system works and the rest is purely gratuitous.

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