The amplification and legitimisation of newspapers whose readership numbers have been consistently falling for years is a big reason why the political discourse in this country is suboptimal...you shouldn't be joining in with it even if it backs your argument in this instance
I think the Kwarteng/Truss budget tops this! Note, the UK’s economic position is a lot more difficult now, and few commentators seem to acknowledge this. The left hate it because it touches the sacred cow of welfare, and the right hate it because, well, it’s Labour…
Sadly, yes - but nearly half wanted to remain and there are a lot with Brexit regret now. To throw away the deal we had is one of the stupidest economic decisions the voters of this country have been persuaded to take. Cameron’s decision to offer a referendum on a simple majority is the second.
I think I do. Just as I get the sense of frustration both in England and Wales from those who campaigned actively to Remain. And above all, the suspicion that the result was “bought”, illegally, with overseas money.
Have people taken the time to read this because it's totally different to the MSM & in your 🗞 this morning. And did you also read that the Chancellor has introduced the toughest measures for Tax Avoidance every proposed. As for taxing the rich I have sympathy for the idea in principle but with the🧵
Points I would like to get across Reeves has introduced IHT for rich landowners not farmers changes to Non Dom , Corporation taxes end of VAT relief for private schools. How many times can you go to the same udder before finding out the TIT has ran dry. One off taxes on utilities who are making vast
Profits during these times of hardship of families & removal of the obscene standing charges on utilities & a 12 month freeze on all utilities bills. We as customers have literally paid 10 x over collectively for improvements to the infrastructure on the water systems. Instead of paying out 🧵
Billions in dividends & bonuses to fat cat Ceo's our money that they have already had the ineptitude of offgem & offwat allowing these companies to still come after us for more & more its insanity.
I think what the papers say about a budget is less important than it once was, especially given that three of the pictured papers supported the Liz Truss mini budget. I’m sure the government would have preferred a better set of front pages, but a few of these outlets have 0 credibility on budgets.
What with the US and this, I have 3 options in Wales that don't involve farage and Kemi crews. Libs, Plaid, Green need to really get their game on here. But still want to keep trumps chums out of power.
Dilemma.
Last GE reform outdid Cons. Lib Plaid Green way down the list.
A timeline for the past 15 years and probably the next 15:
Growth falls
HMG cuts services and investments
Growth falls
HMG cuts services and investments
Growth falls
HMG cuts services and investments
Growth falls
HMG cuts services and investments
and so on
I didn't expect any less from her, she's always been a nasty piece. Just look at her politics over the years. She fits right into Starmer's zionist Labour cabinet.
Yet again, labour have fecked up in the eyes of the voters, the people who believed their shite and put em there. How many times will the red Tories keep on proving they aren't what Labour stand for?
Starving Children, freezing pensioners, kicking the disabled?
Letting the rich off the hook again?
There is no defence to this govts fiscal policy. None. Labour are toast in the local elections. Their core won’t even turn out over this. It is nothing short of political suicide. I doubt the party will even survive this - unless the MPs turn on Starmer and fast
I'm really disappointed. I no longer shout loudly to defend Labour. What are they playing at? Tone deaf. I'm happy to pay more taxes.... but I wouldn't need to if Brexit was reversed. They had a pivotal point in history. They've blown it.
Likewise, I’ve cancelled my membership. So disappointed that they choose not to tax wealth rather than work and ignore the obvious growth potential of getting closer to the EU. They have indeed blown it.
Whereas most of the press is r-w & the Tories invented austerity, they were never going to let Labour get away with it too.
And most ordinary Brits are compassionate, or know people with disabilities or long term sick (more since Covid with 1.2m with LongCovid) & can’t see why tf not tax the rich 🤷🏻♀️
We’re a country of growing inequality, with ever expensive housing, food, heating, the basics in life due to Brexit/Covid/Tories, but the least a civilised country can do is treat the sick/disabled etc with dignity & care. Aren’t we supposed to be Christian? Tax the rich, they’ll barely notice it.
The voters got rid of a government that did exactly this.
They voted in one that should redress the balance.
They got Tory lite.
Sad as Starmer sows the seeds of labours collapse.
Thinking getting the rich & powerful onside will be what keeps labour in power, is a legacy we will all regret.
Graves!
Always. I got phone banked in 2015 by Burnham's leadership campaign. It had been rumoured she might be his pick for Shadow Chancellor. Told them I was considering voting for him, but not if he chose Reeves.
I understand why the left dislike her - that goes back a long way. But I don't understand why the right despise her so much. Is it because she's a woman? Because she is stealing their sandwiches? Doing what they wished Sunak/Hunt had? If it were them, this would have been cheered to the rafters.
Still way ahead of the US, which has yet to figure out their imminent impoverishment is quite openly in service to cutting the miniscule taxes paid for the very wealthy.
Hard to believe but there it is. Good on the British! Here we're happy to force many millions into poverty to save Elon $1500
I (and many others) said it and said it and said it at election time: Labour had a unique opportunity to "trade in" some of their freebie massive majority in order to reset the dial, offering a strident progressive worldview.
But we were "helping the Tories" by suggesting it.
Hmmm, while I’m not onboard with some of her policies, could the strength of the backlash be more to do with which party she is in. Recall 14 years of some utter sh*t Tory economic policy and some of those papers barely blinked…
It’s not just the right wing press. People here are saying it’s the press coming for Labour. And it’s not because Reeves is a woman. Come on. She is awful. This government is the lowest of the low. It’s a betrayal. The Guardian, Mirror. Too much. They aren’t having it. Self imposed rules. Bullshit
Labour 🙏 heed advice in the old phrase:
"Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb"
Hypocrites, liars, r/wing views not news media will bash Labour whatever they do or say.
Ffs tell the truth. Brexit broke Britain but growth can happen painlessly & soon, without performative cruelty
#Breturn
Most of these right wing rags trumpeted The Lettuce Budget! So the Mirror and possibly the increasingly rudderless Guardian are the only ones of interest to your point.
To be fair, there's only the Mirror and Guardian who are usually supporters of Labour, with the rest of the papers owned by tories who slag off Labour no matter what they do 😀.
The Tory media you can ignore but for the guardian and the mirror to run with similar views points to the unease within sections of the Labour Party at its drift towards right wing economics picking on the vulnerable rather than those who are actively dodging their share of the burden
Precisely. If this was a Tory policy they would be cheering it on saying "Britain is fed up of scroungers" or "No one wants to work again Britain, how Tories are getting people back to work".
I haven't seen a single progressive organisation give an unqualified vote of confidence in this. Not a single one, even among those known to be close to this government.
Notable that the positive noises have been from right leaning think tanks alone, and even their support is limited to planning.
In my lifetime I could never have believed I'd ever see the day when the tories were more generous to the poorest in society than a labour party would be but here we are. This 'Labour party' should be ashamed of themselves.
I suggest we keep the receipts when the true “ cost “ emerges and like farmers will die ( inheritance tax) and private school parents will overwhelm the state sector ( removing tax breaks) pensioners will die( winter fuel allowance cuts) .. they can be binned in the same hysteria hyperbole bin !
PIP isn’t an out of work benefit, it’s there to enable people to off set heavy costs incurred via their disability, it’s a shocking betrayal of those most in need.
After 14 years of austerity & corruption from the last lot (Tories) who failed the country completely, you’d have
thought winning GE by landslide was indication to Labour that UK wanted a new & better approach. But no, we have Rachel Reeves attacking poor whilst they have their noses in the trough!
It’s painful to watch Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves just throw away so easily the support & benefit of doubt UK voters gave Labour to change the country
Tbf it makes it harder to get accused of ‘balancing the books on the backs of the poor’ if you are not, in fact, actually balancing the books on the backs of the poor. They’re not helping themselves.
I'm not sure that "yeah but they'd be praising the Tories if they did it" is quite the rousing defence of a Labour government that some commenters seem to think it is.
It wasn’t a cause, but it was a contributory factor following the financial crash. And decisions taken back then have meant a vast swathe of the country never really recovered from that. And now we have a Labour government targeting austerity against the most vulnerable in society.
She deserves every bit of criticism that is coming her way. There is an alternative: TAX EXCESSIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE WEALTH. But Labour is too scared of Murdoch and Rothermere etc. to do this, so the coward's will continue to hammer the masses.
What you get when you inherit a financial poison chalice, a lunatic gets in the White House, and another is planning to invade Europe. Then to top it off the previous lot have pissed in the well.
Putin just disposes of Russia's disabled citizens and pensioners by cold and starvation
I suppose we believe conspiracies or we believe the independent body that holds the govt finances to account and has a history of embarrassing govt when the numbers don’t stack up. 🤔
It's the neoclassical models and economists in the Treasury that are running things. Until someone is brave enough to shift the way the Treasury works we'll continue to get the worldview that just pushing a bit harder using the obviously wrong neoliberal model will eventually work. It's a shame
I agree with you and think that the poor and disabled shouldn’t be expected to pay for the shortfall.We mustn’t overlook the fact that these measures were necessary because of 14 years of Tory mismanagement.People can’t understand why the government are ignoring the problems caused by Brexit either.
Let’s face it Adam - the media will never support anything that a Labour Government does. They will do everything to get Farage in power. Then they will miraculously support his Trump like policies.
And Labour deserves the highest form of flattery for robbing the poor to feed wealth.
Unforgivable.
Unforgettable.
Unelectable.
Add to the cuts the hiked up, daylight robbery of services. What's left?
Broken people!
Why is no-one reporting that in the statement, were outlines for new laws targeting & criminalising the tax avoidance industry & tax avoiders in general. It’s the small stuff behind the headlines that will have the biggest long term benefits.
Look at what she does, not what she says. Labour caved in to lobbying by hedge funds and watered down its plans to tax capital gains on the same basis as income. It’s now planning to cave in to non-doms and big tech.
I don't mean a one-off performative hit on Farmers, I mean the Googles, the Amazons, the multi billionairs that would produce billions in revenue annually.
A greed tax.
It's not as simple as that, multinationals use clever/deceptive transfer pricing techniques to avoid paying higher rates of corporation tax. There'll always be a loophole that those companies will take advantage of.
There's always a plug to every loophole - if there's the will to find it.
It's easy enough to log their sales in the UK. Change the law, tax them on it.
Tariff are paid by them, not us.
Tax them on what is made in this country. It's not like they can take their customers here elsewhere.
They won't stop trading here because they are "only" making 9 billion instead of 10.
cobblers. It's a Labour govt. If not full on socialist how about progressive taxes and a deep and planned tax policy and investment in public services. It's about leading not be shit scared of The Mail. Get a grip.
"almost all parts of the political spectrum" give the Guardian's lurch right I'd expect nothing less.
If she gave everyone a £1m the MSM would still complain and fools on social media would still amplify it whilst calling it journalism.
These headlines could have been written before the statement, such is the press hostility.
Why didn’t she also focus on tackling tax-avoidance measures?
I feel like so much more is going on in the background and everyone is reacting to headlines and sound bites. I know that often happens, but it’s becoming infuriating!
I'm not, Labour has morphed into the Tory party and if people bothered to view their branch office within Scotland, then you'd see how indistinguishable they are from the Tories.
They seem Tories syphon off money and woo big businesses for cash, they're doing the same, enriching themselves. Time for Scotland to move on and govern ourselves, let England and the other nations do what they want.
To be honest, these are predictions. No one knows how things will work out in the next few months, let alone next few years with the volatility the world is facing.
Until Labour comes clean with the Country and with itself that we have to relook at Brexit and drop the idiotic red lines of never CU or SM the UK IS NEVER going to get 2% growth. They know it, you know it, we know it.
Disabled people have been here before and it’s easy to support something when most people don’t give a damn about the ill or disabled. If anything I’m surprised at the backlash. Where was this energy when the Coalition was killing us off with the last ‘reforms’? I’m glad of it even so.
The leadership spent the past 3 years making Labour in the image and ideas of its leader at the expense of the grassroots that would normally stand up for these people. To that end, no one should be shocked at this from today’s Labour Party.
Unfortunately the current Labour leadership was very successful in forcing out existing compassionate voices and stopping any new ones from standing at the last election. This is what Labour is now.
Ah yes, that politician who refused to allow the Labour Party to campaign against Brexit, as a result of which we are now dealing with all the horrendous economic and social consequences.
Don’t you love social media. All bar one reply to this wrongly assumed I’m defending Starmer et al. Most took the wrong interpretation of my post from other replies and had a go. It’s just like Twitter, but with Corbynistas slagging off rather than Farajists. I’d been expecting better here.
Blaming brexit on jeremy,thats a first,
there is a lot more to it than his stance on brexit and you know it.The party intended to leave the EU with a deal, unlike oven ready bojo.You forget about the naïve and gullible who voted and believed right wing smear https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-corbyns-changing-brexit-stance
That’s not what my post said and you know it. My point, which many have observed previously, was that if the Labour Party had actively campaigned for Remain, then the result would almost certainly have been different. Many Labour Party insiders have said the reason they didn’t do that, was Corbyn.
i am fully aware of his stance, of sone I agreed, including what cameron said that it needed to reform with the times. However, we would of been better off in to be able to do that, but gullibles believed right wing propaganda , lies and smear
Reeves like seemingly everybody near power is totally ensnared by neoclassical thinking. Tax before spend. We have to get away from this destructive and incorrect idea.
Two wrongs don't make a right. They shouldn't react wrongly now just because they reacted wrongly before. The fact our media is poisonous (and it is) doesn't mitigate Labour's actions in any way, shape or form.
Bingo. The current govt could literally have copy pasted the last Tory spring statement and they'd still have the same backlash. Labour were always going to be lucky to get a second term so presumably they're hoping everyone will be well chuffed by the tenner a week extra UC by 2029?
Voting against the UN attempts to address tax evasion, tax breaks for the big tech companies, cosying up to Blackrock et al....paints a rather clear picture
Whilst I’ve found Starmer disappointing and frustrating as PM, the decisions his government have taken are mostly the sort of thing the RWM would be celebrating of it were one of their own in No 10. The policies they don’t like-VAT on schools, IHT on farms-are generally the more left of centre ones.
Nonsense, the media hate Labour and since July it has been a vicious assault because of giving the Tories the biggest loss of seats sweet F all to do with Sir Kier
for most of the written (and TV/radio) media it could be the best statement that ever existed and they would still poo poo it because of who their allegiance is towards, however they are correct in this case !
I would think that sorting out 14 years of economic vandalism would take, I don't know, about 14 years! So 9 months is far too soon for judgement, but small signs of looking to reverse transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich would be welcome. Welfare cuts look like the opposite.
They had a long time in opposition to devise a strategy. The sorry state of government finances was well known to them. All they managed to then come up with is to be Sunak light.
The overall goals seem to be to reduce waiting lists, build more houses and sort out the management of the immigration process. All worthy aims and a big improvement on the last lot, but they are too worried about upsetting the Daily Mail in terms of where the money is coming from.
Not off to a bad start: private school fees VAT; inheritance tax for wealthy farmers; removed WFA from wealthy seniors; increased national living wage; free school breakfasts; new worker and renter rights; capped bus fares…more to do but not all bad. They never get positive press.
The WFA move was lazy because they couldn't be bothered to police a better cut-off point. And the bus fare cap went up by 50% didn't it? Otherwise, good points. I was thinking of more direct measures to transfer wealth back from corporate shareholders to the general public.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but I noticed when Sunak published his tax affairs that, despite raking in an enormous amount of money, he was overall paying a lower percentage in tax than me because of all his shares! (And people with shares don't actually do anything to gain money from them!)
Yup, tax on profit from shares is lower than income tax. The reason is that you can lose money on shares (i.e., it’s a risk to invest). Also people might not invest in the U.K. if the tax rate is too high.
Interesting. You'd expect the r/w media to find hostile angles, even if they support cuts. But they're on to sth and scent blood: Reeves' economic strategy (if you can call it that) isn't working on its own terms. Also huge opposition from charities, unions, economists etc. Her days are numbered...
Calm down. RW papers have been nowt but doomsayers since day 1, & LW papers are annoyed she's not splashing the cash. The LW hand-wringing on welfare ignores the need to improve the system, & reforms need to be coordinated with NHS & work improvements.
Nothing hyperbolic about it, austerity is the policy of killing the very poor. Labour austerity isn't some magic austerity that's different to the Tories austerity which killed 300,000+ people.
Nobody seems to be asking where all these jobs are coming from. Take Fife; 10100 active job seekers, 7940 people on benefits, 233 full time vacancies. Just taking the people on benefits means we are over 7700 jobs short.
And just think all they had to do was realign with EU regulations to get the growth forecast they wanted. They’ve put out a welcome mat for Farage and practically handing him the keys all because of what? Boris Johnson’s red lines they didn’t want and didn’t implement. Bravo
Imagine the headlines had she increased benefits. ‘Economy Sacrificed For Benefit Scroungers’. Not stating my point of view just the duplicity of the press.
And it is fully deserved. What a disappointment these cowards have turned out to be. And I didn't actually have high hopes for them in the first place with all their vows and red lines and lack of plans before the GE.
I do remember the jubilation from the press when a former Tory chancellor made his first mini budget and that aged like milk left in the sun. which lead to the shortest serving PM and a financial crisis which leads me to believe the press haven't got a clue
That is because it is a Labour government. Most of the press are right wing and the left always want more. A lot of criticism but not too many viable alternatives.
Rejoining is difficult- no mandate to do so.
Wealth taxes are complex, it will take ages and the rich will run.
Think they are trying to sort infrastructure- relaxing of planning rules etc
Agree re CGT but again not an easy and it affects not just the wealthy.
No easy solutions thanks to 14 years
I never said they were easy. I said there are alternatives. Equally they don't have a mandate for welfare Cuts. They didnt have a mandate to remove WFA. They have realised they were left a worse position than they had ever known. But there are alternatives.
Land/property taxes cannot be avoided. Let's not parrot the myth that there are no taxes on wealth that will work. Then there's cannabis legalisation and other ways to make a few billion.
As for difficulty of rejoining, I thought this was about taking the right difficult decisions?
For the rich to run to avoid taxes they would need to divest themselves of their financial holdings within the uk. At which point them running doesn't achieve anything with respect of uk tax income.
Except prevent them leeching yet more wealth and respurces out of the economy
Nah, this is a choice. Plenty of things to attempt before targeting disabled people. Land taxes/tax reform targeting wealthy, single market, cannabis legalisation, different fiscal "rules", plenty more. This choice is bad for the economy and cruel as well.
None of them said a word when Kwarteng and Truss delivered the most damaging and economically destructive budget statement in living memory. A budget that is still being paid for today. For they can all go to hell IMO
Not really. I’ve had hard times, and got out of them by cutting my spending and increasing my income. Every financial problem she has was inherited from the previous administration. Blame them.
Or even the moderately rich. I’m a high rate taxpayer. I can afford to pay another £1,000 per year much more easily than my disabled sister can afford to lose it.
Well yes you're correct but my opinions are backed up by supporting evidence from almost all quarters..media, social media, economists, results since the budget, labour MPs rebelling etc etc.
Really respect your views on all things economics but no one seems to be offering an alternative policy for Reeve’s (only criticism- justifiably). They inherited a bag of crap so what do they do? Can she change the fiscal rules?
It’s fascinating that Starmer considers himself a football fan as does Pat McFadden because when you’re 1-0 down, you really can’t logically park the bus & play the out the clock; a loss is a loss whether 3-0 or 2-1 or 1-0.
Comments
She compounds the economic fck ups if the last 14 years.
They will not listen.
@teamlabouruk.bsky.social
Planning reform may well represent the biggest ever OBR upgrade to the medium term level of GDP at 0.2% of GDP.
No mention of the 4.0% entirely reversible hit to medium term GDP from Brexit, even when trade wars are in the headlines.
But indeed... They're all very correct.
Never forget we allegedly have a Labour Party Government.
Dilemma.
Last GE reform outdid Cons. Lib Plaid Green way down the list.
Growth falls
HMG cuts services and investments
Growth falls
HMG cuts services and investments
Growth falls
HMG cuts services and investments
Growth falls
HMG cuts services and investments
and so on
Anyone see a pattern here? HMG can't.
Starving Children, freezing pensioners, kicking the disabled?
Letting the rich off the hook again?
Do you think any of these or their owners want a Labour Govt under Starmer in unprecedented times to do well or succeed?
No? There’s your answer
And most ordinary Brits are compassionate, or know people with disabilities or long term sick (more since Covid with 1.2m with LongCovid) & can’t see why tf not tax the rich 🤷🏻♀️
(but yeah, that's a low bar)
They voted in one that should redress the balance.
They got Tory lite.
Sad as Starmer sows the seeds of labours collapse.
Thinking getting the rich & powerful onside will be what keeps labour in power, is a legacy we will all regret.
Graves!
The monster.
Eight months in, ‘disappointed’ doesn’t begin to cover it.
*awkward silence at the other end of the phone* 😅
They're repeating the past 14 years..
Hard to believe but there it is. Good on the British! Here we're happy to force many millions into poverty to save Elon $1500
And they wonder why people are angry.
But we were "helping the Tories" by suggesting it.
https://bsky.app/profile/hectorthehog.bsky.social/post/3llc6gi3z3c2b
"Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb"
Hypocrites, liars, r/wing views not news media will bash Labour whatever they do or say.
Ffs tell the truth. Brexit broke Britain but growth can happen painlessly & soon, without performative cruelty
#Breturn
Notable that the positive noises have been from right leaning think tanks alone, and even their support is limited to planning.
all right wing rags - quelle surpris.
thought winning GE by landslide was indication to Labour that UK wanted a new & better approach. But no, we have Rachel Reeves attacking poor whilst they have their noses in the trough!
A truly useless government. Tory Lite.
Putin just disposes of Russia's disabled citizens and pensioners by cold and starvation
Do you include Osborne's pasty tax?
See also 👇
https://bsky.app/profile/chrisgiles.ft.com/post/3lleixo6ke22f
Bless.
Unforgivable.
Unforgettable.
Unelectable.
Add to the cuts the hiked up, daylight robbery of services. What's left?
Broken people!
#SackReeves
#IDidNotVotForThis
#AusterityKills
Very small stuff.
1billion is chump change.
From The Independent:
There's nothing this government can do to illicit a positive headline from most of these institutions.
A greed tax.
It's easy enough to log their sales in the UK. Change the law, tax them on it.
Tax them on what is made in this country. It's not like they can take their customers here elsewhere.
They won't stop trading here because they are "only" making 9 billion instead of 10.
It seems you've changed the topic entirely to let some rage out 🤷🏼♂️.
rags to say anything different?
Really?
If she gave everyone a £1m the MSM would still complain and fools on social media would still amplify it whilst calling it journalism.
Why didn’t she also focus on tackling tax-avoidance measures?
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/closing-in-on-promoters-of-tax-avoidance/closing-in-on-promoters-of-marketed-tax-avoidance
Great thread (before & following this post) setting out how & why these measures may be more effective than previous attempts.
I had to reread it despite what the front pages are saying.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
#UKpolitics
*puts finger to ear*
Oh.
there is a lot more to it than his stance on brexit and you know it.The party intended to leave the EU with a deal, unlike oven ready bojo.You forget about the naïve and gullible who voted and believed right wing smear
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-corbyns-changing-brexit-stance
It’s also important to note that the press are biased scum.
The media in this country is out of control.
https://youtu.be/uTd75lWhPs4?si=TdtNwP6PHc7353d2
Guess what that tells me about you?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2ljyrv8kjjo
https://bsky.app/profile/danneidle.bsky.social/post/3llcbummrf22o
How do we transfer wealth from corporate shareholders to the public. Do you mean increasing capital gains tax?
Quelle surprise.🙄
2) introduce a wealth tax which even the wealthy support
3) increase public spending on infrastructure so as to increase productivity and money in peoples pockets
4) link CGT rate to IT rate (even if temporary)
Wealth taxes are complex, it will take ages and the rich will run.
Think they are trying to sort infrastructure- relaxing of planning rules etc
Agree re CGT but again not an easy and it affects not just the wealthy.
No easy solutions thanks to 14 years
As for difficulty of rejoining, I thought this was about taking the right difficult decisions?
Except prevent them leeching yet more wealth and respurces out of the economy
No parties to vote for
How about she taxes the super rich instead?
National economies are NOT the same as household budgets.
1. Plan A isn’t working & we’re on track to defeat; changing plans will make us look a little bad & might not work either but might work
Do we
2. Keep going with Plan A & see if it starts to work
OR
3. Change to Plan B