The Labour Government

[BlueHammer85]

Ticket resales 'to be capped at face value' under government crackdown on rip-off prices

Music stars from the worlds of rock and pop, including Coldplay and Dua Lipa, have been urging the government to get moving and announce firm proposals to protect fans.

news.sky.com

Another much needed piece of legislation.

Whilst some desperately harp on about trans, flags, people being locked up for 'hurty words' etc Labour are getting on with governing and passing legislations like this.

 

[Don Karleone]

They just need to go a bit further to the right, I'm sure it'll work next time. I can feel it.

 

[Palerider]

Your problem is the likes of investment companies such as Blackrock who are powerful enough to make and break governments. Blackrock alone holds over $12 trillion of assets, many of the assets being utilities. They are also the holders of billions in government debt and hence set the rate at which governments can borrow.

Even if you could take back ownership from these the costs would be huge. If you wanted to take back generation, transmission and distribution, you’re not getting much change from £200Bn.

How much would the average household save ? About a quarter of their annual bill or around £400 per year for the average household.

28.5 million homes in the UK, saving £400 is around £11.5Bn per year, so to break even about 17.5 years if you brought it back in to public ownership. That’s not taking into account the borrowing which the government would need to do, which of course would require the issuing of gilts which Blackrock and their ilk effectively sets the interest rates on.

The word checkmate comes to mind.

And if you think that’s outrageous, the latest from Blackrock is that the UK’s housing stock is “an undervalued asset” and as such they are providing funding, but on the basis of the properties being built are for rental or shared ownership. Meanwhile their old buddies Blackstone (was the same company until 1994) are hoovering up properties to rent out. So far they have bought over 11000 but intend to keep buying more.

Great post and a reality based reply.

 

[Palerider]

tiny obscure examples blown out of proportion, the same tactics MAGA uses.

In fairness, it's the same tactics everyone uses.

 

[maxwellblue]

Yep. We're now in a situation where the country needs a hard reset, which is why it needs a completely new government unhindered by its previous failings.

Sadly, we have engrained into too many in our population the idea that "feeling a bit cheesed off" = "I can't work, it's affecting my mental health". We need to get 1m+ off their backsides and back into a job, paying taxes, and crucially, improving their own lives not just the country's economy.

Our idiotic woke ideology is responsible for SO much damage. Hiring the wrong people due to idiotic DEI policies. Kids being taught that it's perfectly fine for men to want to become women. That it's right that a convicted sex offender cannot be deported because he might get persecuted in his own country. ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC. Starmer epitomises everything that is wrong with the country. And people now realise it, which is why he is the most unpopular prime minister on record.

All of this bullshit must go.

Spot on

 

[hilts]

Whilst some desperately harp on about trans, flags, people being locked up for 'hurty words' etc Labour are getting on with governing and passing legislations like this.

Yes seeing Dua Lipa for less money is certainly more important than getting arrested for terrorism or being sent to jail for words :-)

Somewhat bizarre slant on priorities.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Yes seeing Dua Lipa for less money is certainly more important than getting arrested for terrorism or being sent to jail for words :-)

Somewhat bizarre slant on priorities.

just a small piece of the pie, stronger measures on immigration controls, Renters rights bill, Employment rights bill, Hillsborough law, Planning & Infrastructure Bill, Regulating Water companies, Public ownership into railways and loads more.

 

[metalblue]

You know it’s bad when the speaker calls it the Hokey Cokey budget

 

[Palerider]

Stellar performance from Mahmood yesterday. Be interesting whether the Labour MPs vote for it with many of them representing high immigration areas and therefore, understandably, fearful for their jobs. Mahmood has taken the legs from beneath Reform with that speech and the liklihood is that both Labour and the Tories will benefit with a drift back to the 'main' parties. Having watched Power Ranger Zach (Green Leader) and The Wicked Witch of the South (Reform councillor) shouting at each other (again) on Newsnight I think the rise of the populists has peaked and the next election will, once again, be fought by the relatively sane and centre parties of Labour and the Conservatives.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Nigel loves it.

Well done Labour. The so called party of the repressed.

 

[hilts]

just a small piece of the pie, stronger measures on immigration controls, Renters rights bill, Employment rights bill, Hillsborough law, Planning & Infrastructure Bill, Regulating Water companies, Public ownership into railways and loads more.

They are gonna have to get the big things right and start to look more unified and competent, its not your vote that will do for them as it seems that is set in stone anyhow. Being a constant cheer leader on here wont save em mate.
By their own words they admitted they have had a terrible few weeks with all that Streeting malarkey.
Let's see how the great British public react to their latest attempt at trying to be popular.

 

[hilts]

Stellar performance from Mahmood yesterday. Be interesting whether the Labour MPs vote for it with many of them representing high immigration areas and therefore, understandably, fearful for their jobs. Mahmood has taken the legs from beneath Reform with that speech and the liklihood is that both Labour and the Tories will benefit with a drift back to the 'main' parties. Having watched Power Ranger Zach (Green Leader) and The Wicked Witch of the South (Reform councillor) shouting at each other (again) on Newsnight I think the rise of the populists has peaked and the next election will, once again, be fought by the relatively sane and centre parties of Labour and the Conservatives.

I wasn't expecting the Tories to be called sane this morning I must say:-)

 

[blueinsa]

Whilst some desperately harp on about trans, flags, people being locked up for 'hurty words' etc Labour are getting on with governing and passing legislations like this.

You fail to grasp that it’s a governments job to deal with everything and that sorting one issue doesn’t give them a free pass for other things.

It’s never worked like that in the real world and it certainly has never worked like that in this sub forum so quite why some seem desperate for it to be like that now I’ve no idea.

 

[blueinsa]

Stellar performance from Mahmood yesterday. Be interesting whether the Labour MPs vote for it with many of them representing high immigration areas and therefore, understandably, fearful for their jobs. Mahmood has taken the legs from beneath Reform with that speech and the liklihood is that both Labour and the Tories will benefit with a drift back to the 'main' parties. Having watched Power Ranger Zach (Green Leader) and The Wicked Witch of the South (Reform councillor) shouting at each other (again) on Newsnight I think the rise of the populists has peaked and the next election will, once again, be fought by the relatively sane and centre parties of Labour and the Conservatives.

She performed superbly well and has taken a lead for sure.

All credit to her if she can get this issue sorted in a meaningful way.

 

[BlueHammer85]

They are gonna have to get the big things right and start to look more unified and competent, its not your vote that will do for them as it seems that is set in stone anyhow. Being a constant cheer leader on here wont save em mate.
By their own words they admitted they have had a terrible few weeks with all that Streeting malarkey.
Let's see how the great British public react to their latest attempt at trying to be popular.

we live in times of constant scorn and negative rhetoric, nothing will please. the media will make sure of that.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Stellar performance from Mahmood yesterday. Be interesting whether the Labour MPs vote for it with many of them representing high immigration areas and therefore, understandably, fearful for their jobs. Mahmood has taken the legs from beneath Reform with that speech and the liklihood is that both Labour and the Tories will benefit with a drift back to the 'main' parties. Having watched Power Ranger Zach (Green Leader) and The Wicked Witch of the South (Reform councillor) shouting at each other (again) on Newsnight I think the rise of the populists has peaked and the next election will, once again, be fought by the relatively sane and centre parties of Labour and the Conservatives.

Cunningham really was awful last night, wasn't she? A hair's breadth a couple of times from indisputable racism.
Not sure Polanski offered an alternative plan.
No sign of Conservative/LibDems/SNP on the show for their opinion.

This morning, Zia Yusuf was repeating the same points when he was interviewed on BBC Breakfast, although Nugent did try pulling him up for avoiding the question. Yusuf was awfully sneery.
No sign of Conservative/LibDems/SNP on the show for their opinion.

Then a BBC hack (Zeffman, maybe?) actually saying what you put above - that a number of Labour MPs don't like the idea, but are aware that their constituents do want something done.
Without making a comment on the policy, that seems to me to be how MPs need to think.

 

[Chippy_boy]

The problem with that list is it's basically a who's who of tax havens so you're not really comparing apples with apples. It's not reflective of day to day spending capacity.

GDP itself is flawed, but to seriously compare our economy to the Cayman Islands is silly

OK remove the Cayman Islands. How much better does it look now? We're still lagging behind most of our major competitors, and some.

The other thing is, why don't we try having a competitively low business taxes and incentives, like say Ireland? Their GDP per capita is 2x ours. Ireland FFS.

Why do you think Google (Alphabet Inc.), Apple, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Intel, Pfizer, Airbnb, PayPal, LinkedIn, eBay, Twitter / X Corp., IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, Dell Technologies, Oracle, Cisco, Salesforce, TikTok (ByteDance), HubSpot, Stryker, Boston Scientific, Abbott Laboratories, Accenture, Qualcomm, Adobe, VMware (Broadcom), Workday, Electronic Arts - and countless others - are all HQ'd in Ireland? All employing people, paying decent salaries, paying corporation tax and hugely stimulating their economy.

Don't you think that would be good for our economy? This is just one example of how LOWER TAXES makes everyone better off. And higher taxes makes everyone worse off.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Absolutely. It's total fallacy to think that we are near the top of the pile, sadly. And it's worse than I remembered. According to the IMF (2025) the following countries are better off than us in raw GDP per capita terms:

Rank Country GDP per Capita (USD)
1 Tax haven $256,581
2 Tax haven $201,150
3 Tax haven $141,080
4 Tax haven $125,842
5 Tax haven $111,716
6 Tax haven $107,243
7 Tax haven $97,583
8 Tax haven $93,956
9 Oil rich small country $90,320
10 Tax haven $90,111
11 United States $89,678
12 Tax haven $84,276
13 Oil rich small country $72,760
14 Denmark $71,967
15 Netherlands $70,606
16 Australia $67,979
17 Micro state $61,518
18 Austria $61,080
19 Sweden $59,508
20 Belgium $58,248
21 Germany $57,914
22 Finland $57,183
23 Canada $55,890
24 Micro state $55,608
25 Israel $54,370

We are 26th with $54,280. Allowing for how much your money actually buys you (Purchasing Power Parity, PPP) we are 31st! Just look at the list of countries where people are better off than we are in the UK. It's really quite depressing.

I mean technically you're not wrong, but the majority of that list is some combination of micro states/city states, tax havens, and countries with massive oil wealth in a small population. If you remove those countries, the UK is more like 11th or 12th. Even if you don't, it doesn't necessarily mean the population are seeing the benefits of that GDP per capita anyway. A perfect example is Ireland, who apparently have $107k GDP per capita to the UK's $54k, yet if you look at median wages of the population, are actually about $3k a year lower (PPP) or $230 a month higher (nominal) depending on which set of stats you believe. Either way, that massive GDP per capita earned by running a tax dodging scheme for huge corporations doesn't seem to have trickled down to the wages of ordinary workers, certainly not without an equally huge increase in living costs.

One thing I would say is that, if I remember rightly, in about 2014/15, the UK, Netherlands and Germany all had roughly the same GDP per capita. Then something happened in 2016 that allowed those two to quickly pull away from the UK over the next 9 years.

 

[hampshireblue]

OK remove the Cayman Islands. How much better does it look now? We're still lagging behind most of our major competitors, and some.

The other thing is, why don't we try having a competitively low business taxes and incentives, like say Ireland? Their GDP per capita is 2x ours. Ireland FFS.

Why do you think Google (Alphabet Inc.), Apple, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Intel, Pfizer, Airbnb, PayPal, LinkedIn, eBay, Twitter / X Corp., IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, Dell Technologies, Oracle, Cisco, Salesforce, TikTok (ByteDance), HubSpot, Stryker, Boston Scientific, Abbott Laboratories, Accenture, Qualcomm, Adobe, VMware (Broadcom), Workday, Electronic Arts - are all HQ'd in Ireland?

Don't you think that would be good for our economy? This is just one example of how LOWER TAXES makes everyone better off. And higher taxes makes everyone worse off.

Ireland (FFS) has a population of about half of London. Yes, they have a very beneficial tax regime for business that leads to the following statement:

"The high GDP per capita figure is influenced by the tax and restructuring activities of these multinationals and doesn't reflect the living standards of the average citizen as well as other metrics might"- so maybe "EVERYONE" is not necessarily better off.

Of course it would be good if they had their European HQ in the UK, but guess what, 52% of the population decided to make it more difficult for a corporation to operate from the UK across the rest of the biggest trading block on the planet.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Don't you think that would be good for our economy? This is just one example of how LOWER TAXES makes everyone better off. And higher taxes makes everyone worse off.

It's not. It's a demonstration of how lower taxes can make your country appear rich on paper, per capita, if you have a very small population, and basically run a bunch of massive corporations' profits through the books in your country. Large countries can't do that, because large countries are the ones actually generating those profits in the first place, and tax havens like Ireland are 'getting rich' (not that it's translated to the wages of ordinary people) by effectively allowing companies to avoid taxes on wealth created in those bigger markets. It's just absolute bollocks that a country of 60 or 70 million can get rich by following the model of some microstate or tax haven.