The Labour Government

[Blue Maverick]

Possibly Lifting the two child tax credit cap ?

Free nursery places ?

Breakfast clubs?

Changes to requirements for school uniform ?


It is always a political choice ..... but you seem to think Labour haven't done anything.

How do you pay for all that though, nursery costs are horrendous, in fact one wage seems to be paying fir just that alone these days, the school uniform should just be a standard for everyone, just generic fir every school able to be bought cheap, no need to have an expensive top with the name embroidered on it.
I don’t know what the answer is anymore I just know there’s a lot of unhappy and struggling people out there.

 

[Blue Maverick]

Low wages

UC ensuring work simply doesn’t pay for many so huge welfare bills

Cost of living crises

Inflation

Scandalous energy bills

We can play the political choice game all day long and it’s in every government, regardless of colour.

Labour are in charge now, nobody else.

What about raising the minimum wage to say £20 so these rip off big companies pay a working wage, now this may not help small businesses but it would make the conglomerates pay their fair share.

 

[Brewster's millions]

Wholesale energy prices down, energy cap up and another manifesto promise already in tatters.

More cheese gromit says Ed!

The policy cost element of the price cap has now increased by 25% since Labour came to power.

I suppose that’s what happens when you let someone like Ed Miliband have a degree of responsibility. Same with Reeves. They’re a pair of hugely over promoted incompetents.

 

[Blue Hefner]

Any government will have the problem of the cost of living ‘crisis’. Primarily as it’s not a ‘crisis’ I.e short term - it’s chronic and here to stay

We don’t say that the Victorians had a cost of living crisis, we say they were shafted and lived in shit.

The post war move to help working and middle class families gain assets, good jobs, good pensions etc are gone

The trouble is. No Party can say the good times are over and your kids are likely to have a lower standard of living than their grandparents

The energy companies aren’t suddenly going realise they’ve made enough and give us some back. Tesco and Sainsbury’s aren’t all of a sudden going to decide to charge us less for food and reduce their profits and the people that own newspapers aren’t going to champion thier class to pay more tax and inheritance tax

So what do we do? Yeah, we can throw a few foreigners out and take benefits off few people, maybe even make the fire brigade private again but I don’t see how anything gets materially better for the population as a whole in the next 5-10 years

Open to suggestions

 

[hampshireblue]

Thanks. Fingers crossed it has some impact because we cannot carry on inexorably as we are.

Hopefully, neither can your rantings on here.

 

[bluemick1]

Starmers claims re bringing breakfast clubs to all schools is a joke. He recently said in parliament “promise made, promise delivered”
He should visit Rochdale where only 1 school has it. The school is in Bamford, one of the most affluent areas in the Borough.

 

[blueparrot]

It’s because we can’t afford them.

Poland has just given huge tax breaks to families.

Meanwhile, here, families will get hit the hardest.

It’s always a political choice Vic.

No that's only a part of it, for many it's a lifestyle decision, there are many couples, my daughter included that have made concious decisions to not have children though they could well afford it.Alternatively had children when I was most struggling finacially and claiming Working family tax credits, because we decided we would make it work and gave up many thing including not going to football for about 8 years.
In fact looking around my area nothing scientific butI say the better off have less children than the lower paid couples,

 

[metalblue]

Farmers Guardian two weeks ago:


In other, more sombre news, milk price cuts continue as First Milk, Freshways, Muller and Arla announce further reductions. Arla has confirmed its milk price will drop by 2.63ppl from November 1, while farmers supplying Muller who meet the conditions for Muller Advantage will receive a milk price of 40ppl from December 1, a reduction of 1.5ppl. Freshways announced a December cut of 2ppl, and First Milk confirmed its milk price for a standard manufacturing litre will reduce from December 1 by 6ppl.

Underlying commodity prices routinely fluctuate and rarely impact shop prices and certainly a price decrease for December will not given we are not selling December milk yet. Bulk buyers will lock in their costs through derivative contracts to provide price certainty, or to give it its correct term they will hedge their price risk - for example British Airways will know the cost of aviation fuel because they will have brought aviation fuel futures for the next 9-12 months. This means they can sell you a plane ticket for your holiday next year at a fixed cost. This is how the world works. There are exceptions to that and they are always in the negative, petrol for example always “reacts” to price increase shocks instantly but slower to reduce on price declines… now that is profiteering!!

Official figures from the government show wholesale milk prices have gone up 5.6% September YoY (the last official figures). Retail milk prices have gone up 4.5%, I gave the average price chart an eyeball and it looks likely retailers are absorbing more cost without fully passing it on to consumers (on average). Final full year figures will need to be provided for a complete assessment.

UK farmgate milk prices | AHDB

UK farmgate milk prices

ahdb.org.uk

Latest UK milk prices and composition of milk

Monthly UK averages of the farm-gate price and butterfat and protein content of milk delivered to dairies.

www.gov.uk

 

[cpa]

What about raising the minimum wage to say £20 so these rip off big companies pay a working wage, now this may not help small businesses but it would make the conglomerates pay their fair share.

Am I being Clarkied ... minimum wage of nearly £40000 a year.
Would love to see those inflation figures and unemployment rates.

 

[We've got Guardiola]

What about raising the minimum wage to say £20 so these rip off big companies pay a working wage, now this may not help small businesses but it would make the conglomerates pay their fair share.

Pay rises would only move the goalposts due to inflation. The simple problem is we have surrendered our way of life to conglomerates who we totally rely upon for everything.

20+ years ago you went to a local baker or butcher to get a loaf of bread or meat but now you will likely go to Tesco. The problem is your local butcher benefited 100% from his profits whereas the employees of Tesco benefit very little from its profits. Tesco made £3bn profit last year and yet it doesn't pay people much above the minimum wage.

If people shopped locally and bought locally then local people get more of the pie however their food bills would be higher. They could increase the working wage but the problem is we want to shop as cheaply as possible. Paying people as little as possible is part and parcel of how conglomerates compete to keep food bills low.

The conglomerates also employ tens of thousands of people so they might just employ less people or open less stores which means that UK growth stalls. Governments don't like this, they prefer to look good with pointless decimal point percentage increases in GDP growth versus actually helping people.

 

[Metal Biker]

What about raising the minimum wage to say £20 so these rip off big companies pay a working wage, now this may not help small businesses but it would make the conglomerates pay their fair share.

They then lower working hours to around 8 per week per employee.

Many in retail are on 'minimum hours' contracts so they must legally be given around 8 hours a week. Then put them on skeleton staffing shifts expecting them to do the work of three people yet expect the same work output.

Don't get me wrong, I want them to raise the living wage so it matches the cost of living, just highlighting it's what businesses do every single time there's a wage increase.

 

[Palerider]

I don't think it's a left-right thing. It's more about being willing to act in unpopular ways for the long term benefit of the country, which successive British Governments have been unwilling to do. And you can´t really blame them, look at the WFA palaver. Although not brilliantly managed, the reasoning was correct, and people who can afford to pay for themselves, should.

Also other countrie have "agreed" long term strategies that all parties abide by. In Sweden, for example, Government borrowing is restricted by praxis so the country has to live within it's means i.e. a chancellor can't spend more than they take in revenue. There are exceptions, large scale building projects, for example, that are payed off over 75-100 years. You can spend in the boom years, but not in a recession. It's understood by everyone.

The same with benefits, although nobody starves, a life on benefits isn't an option here, it is a subsistence level of aid. On the other hand, childbenefits, parental leave, disability alowance and care are at a much higher level.

Now I have got myself to a position where I can just about afford a relatively comfortable retirement...
As of 1st January Sweden will abolish the retirement age and instead each individual will get advice on when it is "financially sustainable" for them to retire. It's a huge change, but it's clear the current system will be unsustainable in the future, so something has to be done.

What a great post. Common sense really, unfortunately we seem addicted to fantasy economics and tend to blame each other when that fantasy does not materialise.

 

[Ifwecouldjust.......]

They then lower working hours to around 8 per week per employee.

Many in retail are on 'minimum hours' contracts so they must legally be given around 8 hours a week. Then put them on skeleton staffing shifts expecting them to do the work of three people yet expect the same work output.

Don't get me wrong, I want them to raise the living wage so it matches the cost of living, just highlighting it's what businesses do every single time there's a wage increase.

Now lets hear your argument for weakening the power of trade unions ....

 

[metalblue]

What about raising the minimum wage to say £20 so these rip off big companies pay a working wage, now this may not help small businesses but it would make the conglomerates pay their fair share.

This is what needs to happen but it will be over time to avoid inflationary shocks. The question is will pay ever catch up.

Ideally you’d want a government to start by cutting taxes, using MW to push pay up, increase public sector pay then letting it play out. To do that they will have to borrow money which is typically frowned upon unless you can make a coherent case for resetting the way the country works… and we simply don’t have the headroom to do it.

 

[metalblue]

Pay rises would only move the goalposts due to inflation. The simple problem is we have surrendered our way of life to conglomerates who we totally rely upon for everything.

20+ years ago you went to a local baker or butcher to get a loaf of bread or meat but now you will likely go to Tesco. The problem is your local butcher benefited 100% from his profits whereas the employees of Tesco benefit very little from its profits. Tesco made £3bn profit last year and yet it doesn't pay people much above the minimum wage.

If people shopped locally and bought locally then local people get more of the pie however their food bills would be higher. They could increase the working wage but the problem is we want to shop as cheaply as possible. Paying people as little as possible is part and parcel of how conglomerates compete to keep food bills low.

The conglomerates also employ tens of thousands of people so they might just employ less people or open less stores which means that UK growth stalls. Governments don't like this, they prefer to look good with pointless decimal point percentage increases in GDP growth versus actually helping people.

The government could send a message out by using local firms to deliver local projects.

We seem fixated on using major national firms like Tarmac PLC to be delivering everything on our roads no matter how trivial the job. I recall reading a while back about a mile or so ditch being dug on a country lane verge costing £100k, that didn’t feel like something any builder couldn’t have done who doesn’t have 5 layers of management and shareholders that needed paying on top.

Obviously some things need that whole structure but it’s not a one size fits all.

 

[hampshireblue]

Thanks for the advice, but I was only asking. The thing is, i've worked my arse off all my life doing some really shitty jobs, highly stressed. Not being funny but most people I think would not have been able to put up with it and would have quit citing "stress". Now I have got myself to a position where I can just about afford a relatively comfortable retirement. Not excessive, just enough. If returns on investments take a tumble, it will be squeaky bum. If not, I shoudl just about be OK. I have no "spare" money.

So funnily enough I am rather paranoid about some **** in No. 11 deciding well done, you've amassed a few bob so we will take it off you to pay for the lazy twats who DID quit their jobs citing stress.

Why does he think he is any different to millions of other-he's not? At least he's spreading the blame for his own issues from immigrants to those that didn't quite have his level of fortitude in earlier life. And the Cotswolds is a pretty nice place to live out his remaining years.

 

[We've got Guardiola]

The government could send a message out by using local firms to deliver local projects.

We seem fixated on using major national firms like Tarmac PLC to be delivering everything on our roads no matter how trivial the job. I recall reading a while back about a mile or so ditch being dug on a country lane verge costing £100k, that didn’t feel like something any builder couldn’t have done who doesn’t have 5 layers of management and shareholders that needed paying on top.

Obviously some things need that whole structure but it’s not a one size fits all.

Indeed and it probably comes down to how public procurement contracts work centrally. IE, Tarmac PLC gives a 10% discount on anything offered by anybody else so they get selected to do the lot.

It probably works out cheaper when done as a whole versus selecting many different local companies at different prices. The problem then becomes that Tarmac PLC is incentivised to make its profit and keep its shareholders happy and again one way to do this is to pay people basement wages whilst directors and shareholders get the big spoils.

Farmers have this problem too, many people shop at Tesco so a farmer has to sell to Tesco to sell anything at all. The problem is Tesco then have a huge bargaining chip to dictate the price which is always as low as possible. The profit that the farmer should be putting in his pocket is instead given to a Tesco shareholder sat in the Cayman Islands.

Globalism and corporatism came with its benefits but unfortunately it is breaking the economic and social fabric of the country. It is what led directly to things such as Brexit and it will probably even propel Reform into government who are just liars who seek to grab a piece of the pie that they're currently not really getting.

 

[.db.]

Sorry but deciding we can’t have immigration because of recycling & the state of water companies is a joke, these industries havent maxed out, they’re underfunded and poorly managed. 20% of the water supply is lost to waste because of bad infrastructure and management by water companies that have doubled their profits in 5 years. Your water supply concerns would be entirely addressed by nationalising a public resource and investing the money we pay for water in the infrastructure instead of paying dividends to their foreign owners and relying on the state to bail them out.

Britain has half the population density of the Netherlands, a country which is a net exporter of food. You present these things as insurmountable problems that just can’t be gotten around, but that’s simply not true.

And if it upsets you that your main anti immigration talking points are straight off a 1970s NF flyer and have as much legitimacy now as they did then, that’s not my fault for pointing it out.

That’s not to say I, or anyone, is a supporter of completely unchecked, unlimited immigration, it’s just pointing out “The island is full” rhetoric is far right bollocks and always has been.

I actually think all public services should be nationalised, even to the extent of broadband and telephone network providers. It wouldn’t be as simple as doing it would solve it, though.

Your Netherlands example is typical of the short term thinking of increasing the population. Great, Netherlands are a net exporter of food, that will be benefitting their economy… for now. However, intensive farming and their urban coverage of land has damaged their soil to rank up with the most degraded soil in Europe. It’s called the Dutch Nitrogen Crisis.

Poor soils mean poor crops and poor grass therefore poor meat. Nutritional value of food is decreasing as a result of intensive farming to meet the unnatural surge in populations. Poor soils also pollute water. Poor grass quality increases the nitrogen content of manure which then becomes a cycle because that then becomes a Climate Change issue which exacerbates it all further and that manure laid on soils degrades the soil even further. What also happens with high population increases to places like Northern Europe is more people adopt our high meat diet (the developing world eat far less meat than we do) which puts even more pressure on animal husbandry intensive farming which is now not far behind the energy industry as the biggest contributor to climate change.

Intensive farming is not sustainable, the population increases we are seeing in Europe is not sustainable.

It doesn’t upset me because I’m not averse to agreeing with the far right. The far right can be right on a few things. That’s what upsets a section of the left so they dismiss or shout down anything that the far right may agree with so it’s not taken on board as a wider discussion. But the issues we are seeing with pooulation increases and mass immigration are not a one-strand of politics issue or rhetoric; they’re a green, health, economic and social issue covering every point from far left to far right that everyone should be concerned about.

I’ve seen it twice on this forum in just a couple of weeks now with you here and someone in the Green Party thread. It’s like burying your heads in the sand with a message on your arses saying ‘MUST DISAGREE WITH THIS IN CASE I’M SEEN AGREEING WITH PEOPLE I’M SUPOOSED TO DISAGREE WITH’.

 

[Blue Hefner]

The government could send a message out by using local firms to deliver local projects.

We seem fixated on using major national firms like Tarmac PLC to be delivering everything on our roads no matter how trivial the job. I recall reading a while back about a mile or so ditch being dug on a country lane verge costing £100k, that didn’t feel like something any builder couldn’t have done who doesn’t have 5 layers of management and shareholders that needed paying on top.

Obviously some things need that whole structure but it’s not a one size fits all.

It’s not just governments, big companies do the same. Ever heard the phrase “no one got fired for choosing IBM”?

Essentially, if people are going to be wrong, they want to be wrong for the right/logical reasons

If I take you to Domino’s and it’s shit, you blame Domino’s. Whereas if I take you to a local pizza place that you’ve never heard of and that’s shit, you’ll likely blame me for recommending it in the first place

 

[.db.]

The last time the UK population was 30m was in the 1860s.

Seems unlikely any serious source would argue something that stupid, so perhaps link to something if you’re going to claim it as a source?

It’s not that the population should be 30m, the report from about ten years ago said that the current and planned infrastructure of this country was suitable for between 30-60m people. It’s an infrastructure issue for a growing population, not a need to reduce the country to a 30m population.

But it highlights the huge issue we have of not being able to sustain the population we have. You called the first two points of my post a joke but they all contribute to the wider issue. They’re not a joke when they all come together because we can’t afford to overcome them all.

It’s never been as simple as ‘well let’s just make the infrastructure better then’ because the infrastructure has been lagging behind the need for years and years and the population increase is running away from our infrastructure development which we can’t keep up with.

I’ll try and find that report, but as I say it was last decade. There was a think tank report last decade that said the infrastructure we had was only suitable for 20m people! Think tanks can be ignored but they’ll have had some reasoning behind it… maybe intensive farming and soils came into it.