Topic: Never mind 'Stop the Boats' - STOP THE TORIES

[Circa1892]

Pound is plummeting this morning already

It’s gone down 5 cents against the dollar in a week… decades can pass without that sort of decline…

[Circa1892]

The Tory benches are very very quiet.

Actually doubt they have the votes for all of the shit they’re announcing.

[killer-heels]

The Tory benches are very very quiet.

Actually doubt they have the votes for all of the shit they’re announcing.

Nope, they will vote it through.

They are quiet because its gone against loads of their manifesto, has loads of unpopular policies and comes with bucket loads of risk.

[Crosby Nick]

I’m thick but who’s paying for all these tax cuts?

[killer-heels]

I’m thick but who’s paying for all these tax cuts?

We are.

[killer-heels]

Good stuff by Reeves, bypassing Qusi c*nt and going straight for the chief bitch Truss.

[gazzalfc]

I’m thick but who’s paying for all these tax cuts?

Us in 5 years.

Borrow, spend, Austerity, Repeat

[PatriotScouser]

Rachel Reeves as shadow chancellor is extremely competent, knows her stuff and has the personality to stick it - like she's doing now - to the tories. That's what you need from a chancellor. Competence and knowledge of economics.

[Nobby Reserve]

I’m thick but who’s paying for all these tax cuts?

Our kids and grandkids.


Top (45%) rate of tax scrapped

It's a budget for the rich. But still plenty of the cretinous red-wall plebs will vote Tory.

[Kenny's Jacket]

I’m thick but who’s paying for all these tax cuts?

Specifically Id say the £50-£150k tax bracket earners.

Edit, scrap that, the 45%  bracket has been scrapped, lost for words

[Elmo!]

First thought on the income tax is that it will be interesting to see what the Scottish Government does in response. Thhey're being put in quite a difficult position by this.

We currently have slightly more progressive tax bands than rUK  but they haven't wanted to change it too much to stop people moving down south. With the 45% band being removed there is now going to be significant differences between Scotland and rUK and a big incentive for high earners to move (or for those who own multiple properties to shift their primary residence).

[PatriotScouser]

Rachel Reeves: “The Conservatives cannot solve the cost of living crisis.  “The Conservatives are the cost of living crisis and the country cannot afford them no more." LOVE this! Please let's use it in our literature up and down the country and reiterate it, everywhere we go!

[filopastry]

That is an attempted "Blue Wall" budget if ever there was one, I can't imagine Red Wall Tories will be happy in private, no matter what they say in public

[Red-Soldier]

I’m thick but who’s paying for all these tax cuts?

Our good selves 

[thaddeus]

Our kids and grandkids.


Top (45%) rate of tax scrapped

It's a budget for the rich. But still plenty of the cretinous red-wall plebs will vote Tory.

Was there any rationale offered up for that one?  I presume it will remove a significant amount of tax income for the government so there must be a clear benefit they're chasing.

Our workforce shortages seem to be in the lower paid jobs - or, at the very least, in jobs that earn below £150k/year - so it doesn't seem to be about resolving that issue.

Is it just to encourage high net worth individuals to have the UK as their primary residence and therefore pay their tax to the UK.  Somebody like Lewis Hamilton comes to mind although he's clearly never going to get comparable tax rates to those he enjoys in Monaco.

[TepidT2O]

10k tax cut for those earning over £150k….

Just profoundly depressing in every way

[redbyrdz]

Top (45%) rate of tax scrapped

It's a budget for the rich. But still plenty of the cretinous red-wall plebs will vote Tory.

Given the current level of emergency public spending, that is absolutely insane.

[thaddeus]

Rachel Reeves: “The Conservatives cannot solve the cost of living crisis.  “The Conservatives are the cost of living crisis and the country cannot afford them no more." LOVE this! Please let's use it in our literature up and down the country and reiterate it, everywhere we go!

Wes Streeting said something very similar, possibly exactly the same, on Question Time last night.  If it's a new line of attack from Labour then it's better than most they've come up with.

Streeting was always very forceful in his views that Truss had been elected by a tiny minority of the population and was pursuing policies that aren't in the 2019 Tory manifesto.  Therefore there surely must be a General Election.

[TepidT2O]

There will of course be utterly massive cuts to public services to pay for the rich to pay massively less tax

You think things are bad now and that hospitals, schools and roads and in chaos.

Watch what happens now.

[Rob Dylan]

Kwarteng has that amazing Tory ability of appearing both clueless and smug at the same time.

[thaddeus]

With all these unfunded spending pledges and tax cuts the next government are going to be operating with both hands tied behind their backs.  I presume that is the intention.

The scary thing is that once the Tories finally get ousted they'll have taken our national debt to unimaginable levels even in 2010 and yet provided nothing of lasting value.  No significant new infrastructure to speak of, public services in disarray and hospitals/schools in a state of disrepair.

We're going to be hammered with decades of austerity and told that we must pay for all the spending of the Tories (spending which a lot of people will have had little or no benefit from, especially the case if you're a low/medium earner that wasn't eligible for furlough).  On a personal level I'm not sure I can be fucking bothered, there's plenty of other places to live and work!

[Red-Soldier]

There will of course be utterly massive cuts to public services to pay for the rich to pay massively less tax

You think things are bad now and that hospitals, schools and roads and in chaos.

Watch what happens now.

Yep.  It's going to be the worst we've ever experienced, for the next 2 years.  Doesn't bare thinking about if they win the next GE, or are back in after a single Labour term.

[KillieRed]

We’ve just lost 1/3 of our staff in the last “review”. 6 people asked to go for 1 job that was being retained. Others being forced into retirement. It’s not just the shoddy way people who have an average of 35 years service have been treated it’s the loss of all those years of experience with very little to replace them/it. It’s almost as if they’re doing the nhs trick of running down all services to justify shutting them down or replacing them with private contractors. It’s utterly ideological too: people who do not use certain services do not want to pay for them to the detriment of wider society. Because, as we know, there’s no such thing as society.

[Libertine]

@IanDunt
You can hear the relief in Labour's voice. It's not just the fact that they've been handed the next election, although I suspect they have. It's the return to the classic Tory archetype, which they know how to fight.

Not culture war stuff, or Brexit, or leveling up, or any of the other gambits which divided the party. What Kwarteng just announced would unite every element of Labour support - right to left, middle class to working class, cities to towns.

[killer-heels]

Rachel Reeves as shadow chancellor is extremely competent, knows her stuff and has the personality to stick it - like she's doing now - to the tories. That's what you need from a chancellor. Competence and knowledge of economics.

Not convinced, really worried she is far too much to the right in the party and wont be bold enough when she is chancellor (which she is all but confirmed to be after this morning).

[Nobby Reserve]

Was there any rationale offered up for that one?  I presume it will remove a significant amount of tax income for the government so there must be a clear benefit they're chasing.

The oiks scrabbling around on the floor might get a few more crumbs and chicken bones falling from the Henry VIII-style banquet table that the super-rich are gorging at.

[Fromola]

I absolutely despise Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson but this crowd are the worst of the worst politically. 

I suppose one solace is Boris had more of a en electability about him with the forelock tuggers. Nobody but the core Tories (and the biggest Stockholm Syndrome sufferers) are voting for this lot.

[killer-heels]

Kwarteng has that amazing Tory ability of appearing both clueless and smug at the same time.

Puff piece yesterday on Newsnight with mates and colleagues saying he is a deep thinker and dont underestimate him.

Its amazing how many times we are told not to underestimate dumb people like him, Truss etc. There is nothing to them behind what you see, they are dumb.

[Fromola]

The Tory benches are very very quiet.

Actually doubt they have the votes for all of the shit they’re announcing.

They campaigned on pretty much the opposite in 2019.

[Nobby Reserve]

Not convinced, really worried she is far too much to the right in the party and wont be bold enough when she is chancellor (which she is all but confirmed to be after this morning).

I'm fairly left-leaning and will share that dismay (and with the insipid Starmer) when they're in government, but I'm certain we're at the stage now where the prime objective needs to be to just get this shower of corrupt shite out of power.

Then launch public inquiries into all the corruption - the Covid contracts, the dirty Russian money swilling around the Tory Party coffers, etc.

Oh, and then bring in some form of PR to make another Tory government unlikely.

[Fromola]

That is an attempted "Blue Wall" budget if ever there was one, I can't imagine Red Wall Tories will be happy in private, no matter what they say in public

They've give up on the red wall, let's be honest. That was a one off vote for Brexit in shittownsville up north. They're not going to win those seats again unless Labour campaigned on rejoining the EU or something.

[Nobby Reserve]

Rachel Reeves: “The Conservatives cannot solve the cost of living crisis.  “The Conservatives are the cost of living crisis and the country cannot afford them no more." LOVE this! Please let's use it in our literature up and down the country and reiterate it, everywhere we go!

Doubt any of the RWM will bother to write any response said by the opposition parties, especially soundbites like this. And the far-right/Brexit zealots will be smothering social media with their pro-Tory/anti-Labour propaganda.

Remember the coverage Blair got for his 'Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' soundbite? It struck a chord and stuck (as did a few others prior to 1997). The RWM won't make the same mistake again, ther tax-dodging super-rich owners won't allow it.

[thaddeus]

We’ve just lost 1/3 of our staff in the last “review”. 6 people asked to go for 1 job that was being retained. Others being forced into retirement. It’s not just the shoddy way people who have an average of 35 years service have been treated it’s the loss of all those years of experience with very little to replace them/it. It’s almost as if they’re doing the nhs trick of running down all services to justify shutting them down or replacing them with private contractors. It’s utterly ideological too: people who do not use certain services do not want to pay for them to the detriment of wider society. Because, as we know, there’s no such thing as society.

As I said in an earlier post I really hope people have the comprehension to target their anger at the right people when they require a service and it's no longer available or now gaffer taped together on a shoestring budget.  Senior people in the media need to call out the "efficiency savings" for what they are; a running down of YOUR services.

It's definitely a deliberate ploy to run the services down.  Public sector organisations bring nothing but unwanted competition to the shareholding classes.  Removing that competition and invigorating a sector for people to invest in and make profit from is classic Tory ideology.  I don't think they'd even deny it except for the NHS because they're too cowardly to openly admit that one.

As the recent scandal with private care homes in Blackpool showed there's pretty much no avenue they won't go down if there's profit involved.

[Father Ted]

Oh, and then bring in some form of PR to make another Tory government unlikely.

Not happening. At the minute Labour have loads of people over a barrel, they would like something more leftwing and better but then they also want the Tories out, so they're obliged to vote Labour despite their misgivings. Labour wont ditch that.

[Kenny's Jacket]

Rachel Reeves as shadow chancellor is extremely competent, knows her stuff and has the personality to stick it - like she's doing now - to the tories. That's what you need from a chancellor. Competence and knowledge of economics.

Do you think she will re-introduce the 45% tax bracket?

[TSC]

£ currently falling against the $ by a cent per second currently so sky is reporting

[Fromola]

I'm fairly left-leaning and will share that dismay (and with the insipid Starmer) when they're in government, but I'm certain we're at the stage now where the prime objective needs to be to just get this shower of corrupt shite out of power.

Then launch public inquiries into all the corruption - the Covid contracts, the dirty Russian money swilling around the Tory Party coffers, etc.

Oh, and then bring in some form of PR to make another Tory government unlikely.

At this rate it'll be 1997 again. Labour will win big and therefore abandon any voting reform which 5-10 years down the line allows these crooks back in to destroy the country all over again.

[TSC]

Apparently the OBR will publish its full forecast by the end of this year.

Nothing to see here.

[Elmo!]

At this rate it'll be 1997 again. Labour will win big and therefore abandon any voting reform.

And it will be a huge wasted opportunity. It could be decades before Labour have such an opportunity to bring about radical changes again.

[thaddeus]

Do you think she will re-introduce the 45% tax bracket?

The next government will have to and also raise/introduce other taxes.  We're in such a financial mess and the next two years will compound that massively.

Even Sunak knew that and he's definitely to the right of Reeves!