General Election - 4th July 2024

Who will you be voting for in the General Election?

  • Labour

    Votes: 266 56.8%

  • Conservative

    Votes: 12 2.6%

  • Liberal Democrat

    Votes: 40 8.5%

  • Reform

    Votes: 71 15.2%

  • Green Party

    Votes: 28 6.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 51 10.9%
  • Total voters
    468
FUCKING sick to death of both the main parties, my vote has gone in the bin.
The country has gone to pot.
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
A wise choice. Binface raises some excellent ideas in his manifesto.
Click to expand...
Mate everyone I speak to is saying the same thing.
Voter apathy will be rife and who can blame people?
The tories have trashed the economy, Labour will not be much better.
 
It’s probably for the best that all the people who (after the last 14 years, and especially the last 4 or so) think they are all the same don’t vote.
I’d be surprised if they could muster the energy to get up from their bar stool in Wetherspoons to do so anyway.
 
So what is the first thing Labour do when they come in, the first 100 days are very important, I’m assuming there will be a budget, but parliament are on summer holidays aren’t they? Or is that stopped now because of the election. I’m assuming Labour don’t know the true state of the finances, they could be in for a real shock, what would you do at the start, there are so many issues, do they settle the doctors pay dispute, what about Rwanda, stop the boats etc Im glad I don’t have to do it.
 
chesterbells said:
I love an election all-nighter it has to be said. Get stocked up in front of the telly from 10pm onwards and bring it on.

I might break the habit of a lifetime and give BBC1 a wide berth. Not sure I can stand a full night of Laura K without a high risk of hallucinations/nightmares.
Will have to hop between ITV, Sky or Channel 4 who look like they’ve got an interesting mix of on air talent lined up.

In fact I’m even sad enough to watch those occasional re-runs on BBC Parliament when they replay election night coverage from yesteryear.

Anyone else looking forward to it, or is it just me?
Click to expand...
I love it.
 
Blue Maverick said:
So what is the first thing Labour do when they come in, the first 100 days are very important, I’m assuming there will be a budget, but parliament are on summer holidays aren’t they? Or is that stopped now because of the election. I’m assuming Labour don’t know the true state of the finances, they could be in for a real shock, what would you do at the start, there are so many issues, do they settle the doctors pay dispute, what about Rwanda, stop the boats etc Im glad I don’t have to do it.
Click to expand...
Don't worry. Sunak thinks the economy is fine. There's plenty of money. How else could they have cut NI? (Oh, yeah... froze allowances.)
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
Yes I’m working in London on Thursday but will be home before the polls close and then home to watch the outcome. Lots of the more interesting results won’t happen early on, because Tory seats are generally larger in physical size.

Obviously really interested what happens in Stratford. And Cheltenham. As Alex Chalk is a ****.
Click to expand...
Bring me the head of Gullis. That’s the one I want above all else. I know the Stoke NEU are trying to get as many of our members in for the c(o)unt.
 
Blue Maverick said:
So what is the first thing Labour do when they come in, the first 100 days are very important, I’m assuming there will be a budget, but parliament are on summer holidays aren’t they? Or is that stopped now because of the election. I’m assuming Labour don’t know the true state of the finances, they could be in for a real shock, what would you do at the start, there are so many issues, do they settle the doctors pay dispute, what about Rwanda, stop the boats etc Im glad I don’t have to do it.
Click to expand...

Need to get the economy going, all the red tape from Brexit is hampering and costing businesses money to actually trade in Europe it’s the elephant in the room and no one seems to want to address is so they don’t upset voters that voted for brexit. We need to be back inside the single market but that’s not being talked about by either parties.

Interest rate cut needs to happen to make borrowing cheaper for companies.

Rwanda needs to be scrapped as it’s a money drain and not exactly deterring people form crossing.
 
There's been a lot of talk about the UK's tax burden - i.e. its tax revenues as a % of GDP. Specifically, the fact that it is the highest it's been since the 60s. While it's great that the Tories are getting a kicking over it, this narrative worries me a bit, because it seems to suggest that high tax burden is inherently a bad thing and it should be used as a stick to beat anybody who increases it. But this is a vast oversimplification (as usual), it's not just that the tax burden is high that is the problem - it's the compounding nature of this when you pair it with wage stagnation, high inflation, and tepid growth over two decades. Ultimately, it's not about the value of the tax burden, but upon whom that tax burden ends up falling.

I found this useful article from the IFS that demonstrates the point with some charts. Our tax burden is now circa 35% - high for us, no doubt. But the EU average is more like 40%, in France it is close to 45%. In the US it is drastically lower (and the quality of their public services probably reflects that).

When you look into the differences between us and other EU nations, we are pretty close to the average for most forms of taxation. The big difference seems to be social security contributions on median earners (in our case NI), and it's not the employee contributions that are a lot different, it's employer contributions. In Sweden an employer would contribute about 3x more on an average earner's salary into their social security compared to our NI system. Combine this with the fact corporate tax contributions are actually also often slightly lower. The word of warning here is that social security systems differ greatly from country to country, and what people get for that will vary.

So in sum, this narrative that we are a high tax country is actually not a correct assessment. It would be more correct to say, we are a country that places a similar tax burden on individuals as most developed nations, but because of lower taxes and contributions from businesses, the services we get for our individual contributions are comparatively lacking. This is compounded by problems around things like planning laws, project/change management, and inefficiencies in public services, which also don't help.

https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-key-questions/how-do-uk-tax-revenues-compare-internationally
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top