Keir Starmer

[halfmist]

They promised to increase education spending, and did.

I can understand the need to avoid the Tory party that's tripled the national debt talking about a Labour magic money tree, but promising not to reverse the two-child benefit limit is daft.

For a start, it may be part of the reason for the falling birth rate. The Tory plan to reduce immigration is to have more Brits doing the jobs and the child benefit policy is a disincentive to having more Brits.

Families can have as many kids as they want, just don’t expect the tax payer to fund them.

 

[bluenova]

Families can have as many kids as they want, just don’t expect the tax payer to fund them.

Even if you think that's fair on the parents, you're punishing the kids for the actions of their parents.

There are plenty of reasons to disagree with the former - Many people seem to think of parents on benefits and out of work having more and more kids, when it's more likely to be a family in work, or a relationship breakdown, or job loss that forces families with more than two kids into this situation.

Not sure how anyone can justify the latter.

 

[Vic]

But they way they promised it was heavily caveated before the election.

The only commitments to spend were funded by cuts elsewhere (assisted places > reduced class sizes) - The main increase was to restore education spending to as much as it was in the past, and only if the economy grew.

If they simply answer yes to 'will you do x', then they end up writing their manifesto via media interviews. The hard-left twitterati and their 'evil Keith' memes are the useful idiots of the right.

It was the same in the 1990s - Blair was a Tory and they're all the same, so why vote for Labour?

It doesn't feel anything like 1997. Things can only be stopped from getting even worse.

That said, the gap between Major's Tories and Blair is probably as wide as between Sunak's fascists and Starmer.

They are absolutely not the same.

 

[Vic]

Families can have as many kids as they want, just don’t expect the tax payer to fund them.

Oh right. Most people getting chiid benefit pay tax, so it's effectively an allowance for not depopulating the country.

 

[Grassland Blue]

Families can have as many kids as they want, just don’t expect the tax payer to fund them.

What if a couple have a single child, then the next pregnancy yields twins or triplets?

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

Anybody know how the polling is going in the by-elections?

 

[ganganvince]

Anybody know how the polling is going in the by-elections?

It's supposed to be a secret.

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

It's supposed to be a secret.

Bugger. Don’t they ask them on the way out?

 

[ganganvince]

Bugger. Don’t they ask them on the way out?

Yes but they not allowed to tell us till 10pm.

 

[BrianW]

We actually need more children, not fewer. Our failure as a nation to replace ourselves is one of the roots of large-scale immigration, which strangely, the people who dislike subsidising children tend to dislike.

Secondly, child poverty leads to crime, disaffection and low educational outcomes none of which are a Good Thing.

There is this concept called 'Enlightened Self-Interest.' It seems to be over the heads of many or even most in this country.