The Labour Government

Fair enough, I can admit I have misinterpreted, the Treasury provides the estimate. But then in that case, I’m inclined to wait for the OBR’s review to be complete before declaring it outright bollocks.

I think there are two questions here that get conflated - one is does the gap exist? My suspicion is that yes it does, and it is at least in part made up of differences in policy on things like public sector pay - things that were predictable.

The second question is whether there is impropriety in the March forecast, things like wedging in unfunded commitments. I think that is the bit that we won’t know until the investigation is complete.

There is a third question around whether the gap actually means anything in practice (it is based on guidelines, it’s not as if the economy suddenly crashes if a spending limit gets breached). But I think that’s an entirely different matter.
Lest we forget:

(Last March):
After placing a 2p national insurance cut at the centre of Wednesday’s budget – funded through higher government borrowing, stealth tax rises and a squeeze on public spending to come after polling day – Sunak's chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said the Tories’ ambition was to scrap the tax on workers entirely.

(£10bn a year, that 2p cut)
 
Im sorry but NHS waiting lists were still a problem under the last Labour government.

Using the like for like data which is only available since 2007 its increased from a RTT (Referrals to Treatment) value of 4m to around 8m. To say there wasn't a waiting list is misleading. Whilst im not saying that the Tories havent made it a lot worse with their austerity, you also need to take into account the earlier detection of illness over the past 20yrs, increasing age of the population and increase in referrals for mental health issues.

The picture is a lot more complex than an initial look at the figures might suggest.
I presume 4m is four months.

OK - not "no waiting lists", but better than when Labour came to power in 1997, and are you really wanting to make a virtue of the Tories' doubling waiting times?

Earlier detection should mean easier treatment. I'm not sure why mental health issues should mean waiting lists for gynaecology should be 100% higher than 3 years ago.

"The NHS elective waiting list in England was already growing pre-pandemic, as growth in demand for care outstripped growth in the service’s ability to provide it. The waiting list doubled in a decade from 2.3 million ‘incomplete pathways’ (where the patient has been referred but is waiting for treatment) in January 2010 to 4.6 million in December 2019. Waiting times also increased over this period, particularly the longest waits. The median waiting times for an inpatient treatment increased slightly from 9.2weeks in January 2010 to 9.6 weeks in December 2019, while the 95th percentile waiting time for an inpatient treatment increased from 23 weeks to 38 weeks over the same period."

 
I believed Labour would sort the mess out, the Tories left a 22 billion black hole and I thought the first to suffer the pinch would be those at the top of the food chain. I’m prepared to accept the WFP but today we are told the water board wants to put up rates by 50% between now and 2030. So add to that Gas and Electric rises, many old people face a tough time

To cope with climate changes 50% on rates, it’s never stopped raining in the north west

Ironically the increase in rainfall is part of the problem.
 
Don't you mean their "fully costed" manifesto?
In fairness a fully costed manifesto is based on predictions which are pretty much always wrong. There is no such thing as a fully costed manifesto nor is there such a thing as a surprise black hole.

Politicians lie and people choose to fall for it. Years we have heard from Labour how our pensioners are some of the worst paid in Europe. For years and years and it's taken a few weeks for them to forget it.
 

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