| Topic: | Re:Forget aspiration with Labour | |
| Posted by: | David Turner | |
| Date/Time: | 20/08/25 23:18:00 |
| She has not created the £50billion deficit, that is a lie. (And I thought it was 40 not 50). The £20bn gap you mention was well known even before the general election and was highlighted in the OBR reports as well as by other economic think tanks and economists. It was also widely reported In decent newspapers and on say LBC. Look it up. There is a further disputed £12 billion gap left behind by the previous government. Yes, labour have spent a bit more e.g. on pay rises for teachers and nurses and doctors. But these were modest rises given years of pay stagnation and was urgently needed to address increasing shortages. Even now, more doctors are leaving the UK to go and work abroad for better money. Much of the black hole is due to Jeremy Hunt who cut 4% from employee NI which was unaffordable and at least in part uncosted. Again, this was well known before the general election. Look at the OBR report written before the general election if you want the details. Labour willingly fell into the trap left by hunt and refused to reverse the NI cuts as part of their tax pledge. Of course, if they had not promised no tax rises, they would have been eviscerated by the media. Instead, labour have put up employer NI which obviously hits business and consequently employment. Not a good move. Reeves attempts at balancing the books have been hampered by her own party who do not want to reduce welfare spending. But there is a bigger picture: The UK, like most countries in the west, has insufficient numbers of people in work to support the growing numbers who have retired. Baby boomers are all retiring. This means that pension payouts and the demands on the NHS have increased. These are two massive expenditures for the state. That’s why things like the winter fuel allowance and even the triple lock are simply unsustainable. It’s also why the state pension age is likely to rise again. The UK has an additional problem that other Western countries don’t have: The long-term drag of Brexit. It may not be talked about very much anymore, but it’s still costing us about £5 billion a year. The idea of a sellers tax has been doing the rounds for a long time and is intended as a replacement for stamp duty. Personally, I don’t think it is a good idea nor do I think it will happen. Whatever party was in government, the question would remain: what does it do to raise taxes or reduce spending. it’s one or the other. If it’s reducing spending then on what? Personally, I think that most working people are paying enough income tax and I would agreed that there are some disincentives to work within the tax system. But some unearned income remains taxed at a low rate. Rishi Sunak was famously taxed at a 23% rate on his income of £2 million. This is a far lower rate of tax than many working people who are on a much lower income. factor in council tax and the disparity is even greater. One further point on tax that I stumbled across the other day; latest estimates are that HMRC failed to collect £46.8bn in tax last year bringing the total to £500bn since 2010. Neatly the amount they failed to collect in tax, much from corporations, is almost the same as the deficit. |