Best Of

Can we have a second election and give people the bring to get Sunak and Hunt back now they know the full facts about Starmer?

Hunt was hiding the public finance truth just as Reeves has done.

There was no £ for an NI cut months before the 2024 GE and he knew it.

Yes there was, the money would have come out of welfare cuts.

The one thing this Labour exercise in taxing working people to pay for welfare has done is swing the people who feel bullied by the "it's just being compassionate" nonsense about benefits to finally say enough is enough.

I think Labour are heading for a wipeout. The delusion that they can come back from this is truly laughable. They're actively wrecking the economy and destroying jobs as well as the life chances of young people by pricing them out of the jobs market.

I really can't think of a government that was worse. Even Liz Truss wasn't this bad as she had the wherewithal to resign and hand over to someone competent. The worst part is that there's no one in Labour who can take over and tackle the welfare bill because the back benchers are all twats.

Take a chill pill

Both blue and red Tories have been increasing the tax burden for the last 15 years whilst allowing the welfare bill to spiral upward.

The main element of welare expenditure is pensions and because pensioners vote in huge numbers all Govts have caved. To ignore that element of welfare and try to target the tiny percentage that makes up working age benefits is ridiculous.

Although i loathe SKS and austerity Reeves to claim they are worse than unfunded tax cutter Truss says more about your bias than having any basis in reality

Working age benefits are larger than state pensions.

Benefits going to those people of working age who are not in work are far lower than those received by pensiiners though

That may well be true. And it is also likely true that scrapping the two-child limit will do a lot to alleviate child poverty.

Unfortunately it is also true that WWC voters associate it with helping the improvident and immigrants. Scrapping the limit has the makings of a political disaster. Labour MPs are completely out of touch with the red wall. Voters won't tolerate paying more tax to support welfare recipients during a cost of living crisis.

The fabled red wall has a lot to answer for.

Seeing as over 60% in the polling after the budget oppose the measure it is far more than just the mythical red wall, getting its usual kicking here.

Also,when you have stories like the ones in the Mirror of a single mother with three kids pulling in just over 6 grand a month already it is no wonder people question it.

The story is plainly ridiculous. £72,000 for having three kids?

Misleading. Iirc her take home pay from her job is around £2,800pcm. Additional benefits for her and her three children bring that up to £6,000 pcm. That's quite a lot (obvs) but it includes childcare so she can go to work.

Giving anyone £38k a year in benefits is obscene, never mind giving that to someone earning earning £42k. Why should I, currently bringing up two kids on a fraction of that, be forking out a huge wedge of extra tax so she can get £72k/year? That the system funds people like her to that extent is wicked and iniquitous. It's also completely unaffordable.

And if the argument is that it's because of the cost of living in London - well, don't live in London if you can't afford it then. Pouring benefit cash into inflating London rents is insanity anyway, it's basically just a "greedy landlord subsidy".

I was shocked by it, but also saddened. I don't know how much money it takes to being up a family. I was surprised that it was so much. It made me feel rather poor. Some members of my family "married up" and conversations can be difficult, with one relative with a mortgage costing £4,000 pcm. Mine is less than a tenth of that.

So when I see people with benefits of over £3500 a month, I'm just wearily depressed. That's more than my takehome pay

Can we have a second election and give people the bring to get Sunak and Hunt back now they know the full facts about Starmer?

Hunt was hiding the public finance truth just as Reeves has done.

There was no £ for an NI cut months before the 2024 GE and he knew it.

Yes there was, the money would have come out of welfare cuts.

The one thing this Labour exercise in taxing working people to pay for welfare has done is swing the people who feel bullied by the "it's just being compassionate" nonsense about benefits to finally say enough is enough.

I think Labour are heading for a wipeout. The delusion that they can come back from this is truly laughable. They're actively wrecking the economy and destroying jobs as well as the life chances of young people by pricing them out of the jobs market.

I really can't think of a government that was worse. Even Liz Truss wasn't this bad as she had the wherewithal to resign and hand over to someone competent. The worst part is that there's no one in Labour who can take over and tackle the welfare bill because the back benchers are all twats.

Take a chill pill

Both blue and red Tories have been increasing the tax burden for the last 15 years whilst allowing the welfare bill to spiral upward.

The main element of welare expenditure is pensions and because pensioners vote in huge numbers all Govts have caved. To ignore that element of welfare and try to target the tiny percentage that makes up working age benefits is ridiculous.

Although i loathe SKS and austerity Reeves to claim they are worse than unfunded tax cutter Truss says more about your bias than having any basis in reality

Working age benefits are larger than state pensions.

Benefits going to those people of working age who are not in work are far lower than those received by pensiiners though

That may well be true. And it is also likely true that scrapping the two-child limit will do a lot to alleviate child poverty.

Unfortunately it is also true that WWC voters associate it with helping the improvident and immigrants. Scrapping the limit has the makings of a political disaster. Labour MPs are completely out of touch with the red wall. Voters won't tolerate paying more tax to support welfare recipients during a cost of living crisis.

The fabled red wall has a lot to answer for.

Seeing as over 60% in the polling after the budget oppose the measure it is far more than just the mythical red wall, getting its usual kicking here.

Also,when you have stories like the ones in the Mirror of a single mother with three kids pulling in just over 6 grand a month already it is no wonder people question it.

The story is plainly ridiculous. £72,000 for having three kids?

Misleading. Iirc her take home pay from her job is around £2,800pcm. Additional benefits for her and her three children bring that up to £6,000 pcm. That's quite a lot (obvs) but it includes childcare so she can go to work.

Giving anyone £38k a year in benefits is obscene, never mind giving that to someone earning earning £42k. Why should I, currently bringing up two kids on a fraction of that, be forking out a huge wedge of extra tax so she can get £72k/year? That the system funds people like her to that extent is wicked and iniquitous. It's also completely unaffordable.

And if the argument is that it's because of the cost of living in London - well, don't live in London if you can't afford it then. Pouring benefit cash into inflating London rents is insanity anyway, it's basically just a "greedy landlord subsidy".

Andrew Lilico
@andrew_lilico
·
40m
What were the exact words here? Did Starmer lie to Parliament?

https://x.com/andrew_lilico/status/1994485042756948211

He must have known what the OBR had said in September, that the increase in the shortfall from productivity was going to be almost entirely (actually it turned out more than 100%) offset by higher taxes caused by inflation. So he was dishonest. Much more seriously, he and his woeful Chancellor let speculation of £20bn of immediate taxes run rampant for weeks paralysing the economy and investment decisions and destroying the housing market. They are both an utter disgrace, not only playing politics with our economy but playing it so badly they have emptied a double barrelled Shotgun at their own feet.

Zelensky's top adviser resigns after Ukrainian anti-corruption raid on his home

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg9nd2wddno

Corrupt crony of Kiev crackhead culled

One of the awkward truths blurted out once by PB's resident lunatic, Dura Ace, was that when it came to corruption the Ukrainians could teach even the Russians a thing or two.

Here's the thing: there's lots of corruption in the world, from the small to the big. There are imperfect democracies and imperfect people.

Ukraine has its fair share of corruption, and that is one of the reasons Zelenskky's TV show was such a hit, and why he became President.

None of these things justifies Russia's actions, and attempts to use them to downplay the invasion or the suffering of the Ukrainian people is fundamentally evil.

So on one side the government is fucking over private sector workers with tax charges to salary sacrifice pension contributions and on the other it looks like they are reducing tax charges for defined benefit pension holders who receive surplus payments from their scheme.

Labour stealing from the private sector and handing public sector workers tax cuts. I can't wait to be rid of them, I'm considering voting Reform if it's the best way to be shot of these absolute criminals.

Er ... not that I want to spoil your fun using public sector workers as a collective dartboard. But if the pensions in question are (a) DB and (b) have a surplus, then they're not being paid out of taxation. They're *private* pension funds.

And indeed lots of them are *corporate*.

https://www.pensions-expert.com/defined-benefit/data-shows-uk-businesses-are-poised-to-put-pension-scheme-surpluses-to-work/69714.article