2024 UK politics - now with Labour in charge
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I really hope that Starmer allows himself to be less scripted as time goes on. My impression is that his can marshal arguments in his head and articulate them well (not a surprise, given his legal background): he sounds much more 'authentic' and less stilted when just speaking his mind. His reflection, of course, recalls the electoral defeats of Corbyn.
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For all the criticism of Reeves being disingenuous, perhaps not.
what on earth were the Tories doing
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OBR suggesting that HMT may not have been entirely forthcoming with them.
This will still be being brought up in 2040.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
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'kin hell, look at the stoney face on the Tory bench when Reeves goes through, department by department, on all the overspending.
They look absolutely broken.
They knew it, didn't they?
Bunch of c*nts.
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Given the things that are being chopped to bridge the gap I find it a bit odd that they don't reverse the NI cut. Especially seeing as part of the justification for that cut was what seem to be some pretty spurious claims about departmental spending.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
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It's always annoying when people lie. We all know Reeves is setting us up for worse tax rises by exaggerating the problem and claiming that they only realised 'once they looked at the books'.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
So, I'd be inlcined to agree, but the books are literally worse than was publicly known, so much so the OBR is doing an unprecedented review into the information they were given for the March budget.
Which would indicate that indeed, it is actually worse than we knew in public.
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I was wondering how the Telegraph would spin it. Now we know. It's the fault of people who work.
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It's weird that I don't remember the Conservatives running on a "the public finances are really terrible this year - and we should know!" platform.
Half of this bad news seems genuinely news.
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Cheeky feckers wanting a pay rise too... maybe they should ask for a triple lock to match pensioners.
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What were the conservatives playing at? The tax cuts were never gonna turn the tide of their unpopularity. Instead they just went about trashing their reputation for fiscal responsibility...
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Think that might have sailed a while ago.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
I guess Reeves' strategy is to expose the absolute shambles the Tories left as quickly as possible, get as much of the necessary pain out of the way early, and hope that they can loosen the belt a bit later. I suspect that the messaging will be aided by apparent obfuscation carried out by the Tories... if there's any sort of paper trail about what's been held back from parliamentary scrutiny, Tory claims of fiscal competence will be even more laughable.
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The fiscal rules are clearly no guarantee of competence or restraint. They should make them more helpful.
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They’re basically doing what I suggested they should - “we’re not going to raise taxes” “the Tories have left us a bigger mess than expected so we’ll have to raise taxes”. The main difference is that it appears to genuinely worse than even they expected.
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The fact they were actually planning to spend £10 billion on Rwanda, a scheme with no legal practical application or moral legitimacy to play to a miniscule % of the population shows the extent to which they lost the plot.
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I'm very much enjoying the Tory line that Labour 'already knew' what a mess they were inheriting
“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!1 -
From Hunt's aggressive tone and head-shaking, I guess they still think it's 'politics as normal', but if what Reeves is suggesting is true, then anyone involved in hiding stuff from Parliament really shouldn't be anywhere near the place, at least without hanging their heads in shame.
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Hunt looked properly annoyed I thought.
- Genesis Croix de Fer
- Dolan Tuono0 -
Hunt has just been on R4 and floundered when asked two questions. First was whether the OBR could legally have told labour what they know now, while in opposition. The second was whether the.Tories did regular forecasts.
This was more interesting, because the answer he gave was that like all responsible government, they only did this once each parliament and then carried the policies through.
This is clearly utter hogwash, but does it infer that the Tories didn't lie because there were (intentionally) no up to date data?
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Comes in to "rescue" the party and left with the legacy of being an outright liar and leaving the finances in the most perilous state since the war. Good job.
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And apart from that, politically tone deaf. He might think he's playing to the Tory gallery, but given it's such a small gallery and the loathing that the majority of the electorate have for them, it's not a wise choice of tactic.
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I found the indignant tax rise "betrayal" argument oddly premature, given they've not announced any tax rises yet. I mean, if you've only got one match, surely be careful when you strike it.
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My MIL has gone apoplectic about pay rises for doctors and losing the winter fuel allowance.
"it's a vocation, why should they be paid while I freeze?"
My wife had to hang up when she started explaining how expensive it was to heat her 4 bed house....
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