The Labour Government

[metalblue]

I see the King is getting a pay rise of £45 million.

It's good to know that in these hard times, essential public sector workers are being looked after.

(Looks around for Tories claiming the King's rise will cause inflation. No? Mmm, must be a magic sort of money not available for the rest of the public sector.)

Proof that men get paid more than women.

 

[Brewster's millions]

It's been three weeks. We've not even had a budget.

If that's your logic, you could say that about absolutely everything the Tories did over the last 14 years.

Any public sector worker whose pay hasn't risen with inflation over the last 14 years? Unless Labour immediately give them all huge page rises, it's a Labour policy now.

I notice they haven't opened all the Sure Start centres again. Closing them is now a Labour policy.

Nice bit of mental gymnastics there, deliberately choosing to misinterpret the post.

There hasn’t been a vote yet on public sector pay. But there has been a vote on the child benefit cap, and the government chose to maintain it. Therefore government policy is to maintain the child benefit cap.

You vote for it, you own it. Stop bleating.

 

[bluenova]

Have they voted on sure start? Have they decided on public sector workers pay yet? No, so to compare the two is absurd.

They voted on the 2 child cap limit and voted to keep it. For whatever reasons and however justified. It’s now labour’s policy as a consequence.

It's not absurd. They didn't choose to vote on this.

What you're suggesting is that the SNP, with their 9 MPs, can choose what is now Labour policy, simply by putting forward an amendment.

 

[bluenova]

Nice bit of mental gymnastics there, deliberately choosing to misinterpret the post.

There hasn’t been a vote yet on public sector pay. But there has been a vote on the child benefit cap, and the government chose to maintain it. Therefore government policy is to maintain the child benefit cap.

You vote for it, you own it. Stop bleating.

Another person who thinks the SNP won the election?

 

[west didsblue]

My wife is a doctor in mental health and she is never going to pay off her student debt. Partly because mental health is worse pay than physical health but also because the interest grows faster than a “solid” wage can pay off.

If a doctor can’t pay it off, what hope does anybody else have?

Whenever people ask me about their kids going to university and whether it’s worth it these days, I tell them that depends if they can accept they are effectively going to be taxed an additional marginal rate of 9% for their entire useful working life. Graduates earn something like 30-odd% more by their thirties on average - but that is skewed by people in business/finance. So for a lot of people it will still make sense, but there are many academic careers where this system is actually economically disincentivising people to go to university. The whole thing is a mess.

But the golden rule is never pay student loans off in full unless you are 100% certain you will pay it off in full eventually. Otherwise you’re just giving money away.

Like I said, if a parent wants to help with the debt they’d be much better advised to invest the ~£60k that would be needed to pay it off to generate an income of at least £3k for their child which will be more than anyone earning less than £60k pa would be paying extra in tax.

 

[Brewster's millions]

Another person who thinks the SNP won the election?

The government voted to maintain it.

If the government had intended to abolish the cap, then they would have included that commitment in its manifesto.

Was that commitment in its manifesto? Yes or no will suffice.

 

[metalblue]

It's not absurd. They didn't choose to vote on this.

What you're suggesting is that the SNP, with their 9 MPs, can choose what is now Labour policy, simply by putting forward an amendment.

You can only hope someone had warned them this is how parliament works. They don’t get to choose what is voted on, only how they vote.

They voted to keep it. It’s what having a majority allows you to do, decide on policy.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

Can someone balanced summaries this 2 child policy vote ?

What is Starmers reasoning ?

People bang on about politicians who ditch commitments in manifestos. I think once a bit of time has passed you have to accept that things change.

But this rabble have literally just been elected on a manifesto that made it very clear that tough decision would be required on spending. To vote against that commitment in the very first meaningful vote is quite frankly ridiculous.

Where were the morals and principles when they were campaigning.

I think they are lucky to get 6 months. I'd be tempted to permanently kick them out.

 

[lazerblue]

People bang on about politicians who ditch commitments in manifestos. I think once a bit of time has passed you have to accept that things change.

But this rabble have literally just been elected on a manifesto that made it very clear that tough decision would be required on spending. To vote against that commitment in the very first meaningful vote is quite frankly ridiculous.

Where were the morals and principles when they were campaigning.

I think they are lucky to get 6 months. I'd be tempted to permanently kick them out.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

 

[metalblue]

The government voted to maintain it.

If the government had intended to abolish the cap, then they would have included that commitment in its manifesto.

Was that commitment in its manifesto? Yes or no will suffice.

Quite a strange stance really but when you’ve not been in power for 14 years I guess it takes a little getting used to that you’re making policy now and it takes a little while to appreciate you can’t just blame everyone else - like the SNP in this case.