General News Thread

[CornwallFox]

1 hour ago, Innovindil said:

Doubt it. Labour will firmly plant heads in sand and tell us all taxing workers to the high heavens is good for us 

Since Harold Wilson, taxes on employees were at their lowest under Sunak, and their second lowest under Starmar.

Cost of living is way too high. That's the issue. 

Prices won't come down, but they need to stabilise and then wages grow. But obviously any time the minimum wage is raised we get nashing of teeth on the right. Well how else do you propose cost of living is dealt with? 

Tax employees less, okay, so who do you want to tax more to make up the shortfall? 

[davieG]

11 minutes ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

I do wonder if these early results and the inevitable 'rise' of Reform that they seem to underscore, will be looked back on as the beginning of the end of that party.

There are already indications that where they do have control of councils, there are cracks beginning to show, with regard to council tax rises and so on.

Also, the fact that many of their policies have a headline grabbing and populist narrative, they are short on detail and practical implementation. 

I believe that they will be 'found out' and this 'upheaval' period will abate and the status quo (Lab/Con) will return.

That said; I do hope the traditional 'main' parties learn from what are genuine concerns an awful lot of the population have - we know what they are - and affect change somehow.

We had a similar situation although seemingly nots so big with the Social Democratic Party, the famous 5 they eventually merged with the Liberal Partly to become the Lib Dems. The Tory Reform Party (TRP) maybe.

[CornwallFox]

35 minutes ago, Sampson said:

The issues in the uk are the same in every western country - capitalism stopped working in 2008 for the average working or middle class westerner and since Covid the west been morphing into a Putin-inspired Oligarchism where a small number of US tech firms are cornering the western or even world economy and are becoming richer and more powerful than countries like the UK, France and Germany and probably within 10 years will be richer and more powerful than the US or China. 

 

Capitalism was great for a couple of generations in helping grow the economy for most people but as in football or F1, eventually the highest get so much money that they can squeeze the middle classes back down to the working classes and you’re now in a position where a couple of well educated middle-class engineers with Masters degrees in their 30s can’t afford a house or to have children and are probably going to have their jobs replaced by computers within a decade. 
 

Now the population has become old that people’s taxes are largely just spent propping up the pensions and healthcare system as well because it’s a closed feedback loop in democracy where politicians will just go after the grey vote as that’s where most of the votes are in an ageing economy. So they just say all our money is going on immigrants and disabled benefits when they money on pensions and healthcare largely used by those 65+ massively dwarves those things.

 

But away from the economy, the internet has been a net negative for society and AI will be even worse - it’s the most sophisticated technology humans have come up with and so much of the social internet been designed to make people get addicted and feel angry or like shit. Not only that but it’s massively increased the surveillance state, bureaucracy and the amount of data we have on everyone and people naively voted for this thinking “being tough on crime and immigrantion” in the 2020s meant more police and not the creation of AI facial recognition, data scraping algorithms which all employers will do quick AI searches of your entire digital footprint soon and god knows what else. And people are now made unemployable because of a post they made 10 years ago while half asleep on auto-pilot they don’t even remember.

 

Regardless of the economic side, I think the balance of technology has now become more oppressive than helpful in every day life. And your average person just feels more anxious and on edge all the time because of it. I know so many people who feel frustrated with how addicted they are to the social internet nowadays as well.

There's also something lesser spoken about: the rise of self employment. 

 

The self employed are often tradesmen who made their way in their chosen craft before launching themselves. As business people though, although they see themselves as working class, they don't vote for anything the working class traditionally voted for. They don't like minimum wage rises, employment rights etc. They like less tax on business. They actually vote against the working class at every turn. 

 

They apparently hate graduates. Graduates now often earn less, have huge debt, careers like teaching just don't pay, many highly qualified individuals go to the public sector where they are treated and talked about not much better than dirt. But they are actually the struggling strivers now, who still vote for wage rises, business taxes etc, but are somehow considered the middle class.

 

And, of course, the more self employed you have, the less tax revenue as they use every possible way of getting around paying tax. But with the numbers involved now that has a serious impact on what other tax rates need to be.

Edited 8 May by CornwallFox

[deep blue]

1 hour ago, StanSP said:

The loss of nuance, ability to have a strong sensible debate, social media, rich people taking control of the media (in favour of the right wing parties)... 

You've got that spot on.  I think, also, the lack of interest in politics (people who will say they won't bother to vote but being v quick to complain about parties, being topo lazy or unaware to understand the importance of the right to vote and their responsibility to try to effect change where they see things they disagree with).

[Innovindil]

10 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Since Harold Wilson, taxes on employees were at their lowest under Sunak, and their second lowest under Starmar.

Cost of living is way too high. That's the issue. 

Prices won't come down, but they need to stabilise and then wages grow. But obviously any time the minimum wage is raised we get nashing of teeth on the right. Well how else do you propose cost of living is dealt with? 

Tax employees less, okay, so who do you want to tax more to make up the shortfall? 

On employees wages perhaps, not the amount of money the government is taking off all of us in general. Stealth taxes are still taxes. 

 

The total tax take is expected to reach 37.1p of every pound generated, the highest level in 80 years, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Hardly suprising results. As I said before the next election will be a one issue election. 

[CornwallFox]

17 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

On employees wages perhaps, not the amount of money the government is taking off all of us in general. Stealth taxes are still taxes. 

 

The total tax take is expected to reach 37.1p of every pound generated, the highest level in 80 years, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Indeed, taxation has gone up. 

 

Good article here: https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/06/27/uk-workers-tax-wedge-infographics/

 

Thing is, we've hugely reduced taxes on the rich over the years and had to recoup it elsewhere. The public sector is in pieces after years of cuts, there is nothing more to cut except services, as reform have found out in local government where they've been cutting local services and still having to raise taxes. 

 

Cost of living is the biggest political issue of our time and the reason why focus is on immigrants, benefits etc is because nobody working has any money and sees those other things as unfair. They weren't such big issues before cost of living hugely increased, and really the economy never recovered from 2008 as it was stifled by austerity at every turn. 

 

The choices are either blame foreigners and benefit recipients, cut both them discover they weren't the issue .

Or spend some money as a government, get British businesses creating for the British people, fund them to invest. By actually turning on the taps for the first time in a generation.

Edited 8 May by CornwallFox

[st albans fox]

10 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Since when does attacking someone not break a ceasefire?

suppose it depends on what the terms of the ceasefire are 
 

1 hour ago, grth2004 said:

and we’re rounding up anyone with a foreign sounding name. 

Like ‘farage’ ????

[LCFCJohn]

4 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Like ‘farage’ ????

I’m sure he’ll deport his non-British wife 

[Asha]

How can anyone possibly vote Labour or Tory when they’ve proven… PROVEN… to be completely inept, useless, and the opposite of trustworthy. 

No wonder Reform is absolutely smashing it. People want something different. 
 

Starmer has to go tonight. He has to go. The overwhelming majority of British people think he’s a ****. 

 

[st albans fox]

44 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Since Harold Wilson, taxes on employees were at their lowest under Sunak, and their second lowest under Starmar.

Cost of living is way too high. That's the issue. 

Prices won't come down, but they need to stabilise and then wages grow. But obviously any time the minimum wage is raised we get nashing of teeth on the right. Well how else do you propose cost of living is dealt with? 

Tax employees less, okay, so who do you want to tax more to make up the shortfall? 

Funnily enough I was shredding a load of old stuff the other day - mainly pay slips 

 

back in 2006-2008 my tax and ni was around 37% come march 

by 2021 it had risen to 42%

 

seemed to rise mainly in the 2011/1015 period 

 

[grth2004]

59 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

To be blunt, I don’t give a crap if people who vote for them suffer. I care if those of us who won’t go near voting for them do.

 

If you’re stupid enough to vote for a one issue party, essentially out of racism, without having a clue about the rest of what they stand for, you deserve what you get. Make your bed and all that.

Agreed , maybe it has to get worse before it gets better again a bit like our Football club 

[davieG]

9 minutes ago, Asha said:

How can anyone possibly vote Labour or Tory when they’ve proven… PROVEN… to be completely inept, useless, and the opposite of trustworthy. 

No wonder Reform is absolutely smashing it. People want something different. 
 

Starmer has to go tonight. He has to go. The overwhelming majority of British people think he’s a ****. 

 

Reform is just Tory's under a different name, badge and colour so hardly a big difference. some may say the architects of the chief policy of Reform, Immigration. Just s devil, if you don't like the Torys in disguise.

[st albans fox]

I’m sorry ?  I bloody well hope that it won’t be like that ………
 

The MV Hondius is expected to dock in the Canary Islands at the weekend, where the government has confirmed it will be met by a chartered plane to fly the remaining British passengers and crew on the cruise ship back to the UK.

Although none of the remaining Britons are currently displaying symptoms, they will be asked to isolate upon their return home.

[EnderbyFox]

Can anyone get a streak over 10? 

 

https://guesstheparty.co.uk/

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Hardly suprising results. As I said before the next election will be a one issue election. 

Barring a world changing event like Covid, and considering how often those crop up these days...

 

But if not, you could well be right, and that would be equally if not more grim. 

 

18 minutes ago, Asha said:

How can anyone possibly vote Labour or Tory when they’ve proven… PROVEN… to be completely inept, useless, and the opposite of trustworthy. 

No wonder Reform is absolutely smashing it. People want something different. 
 

Starmer has to go tonight. He has to go. The overwhelming majority of British people think he’s a ****. 

 

The problem arises when people believe that different always = better. 

 

Again, fast food thinking that doesn't end well. 

[Lionator]

2 hours ago, Innovindil said:

Doubt it. Labour will firmly plant heads in sand and tell us all taxing workers to the high heavens is good for us 

Unless pensioners will be willing to take a pension cut, this will be an ongoing issue even though nobody wants to talk about it. 

[leicsmac]

Also, what a paradox that one of the most loved and important British figures of the last century turns 100 today, while a lot of the public on the same day votes in favour of policy on the natural world that is the very antithesis of what he stands for. 

[st albans fox]

2 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Unless pensioners will be willing to take a pension cut, this will be an ongoing issue even though nobody wants to talk about it. 

And yet we read that our state pensions are low in comparison to most western nations ??

[Lionator]

The goal of Reform and to a less extent the Tories and Labour is to transfer your money to big business so that the market’s stay stable and that everything can function as is. There is no democracy because ultimately each party is a slave to the ultra wealthy. For Reform the easy path is to utilise immigration as a political point to keep that process in place. 
 

There is no viable future for this country without mass migration. Boris Johnson realised this and invited half of sub Saharan Africa to come and work in British care homes because no British people would do it post Brexit. Farage will face the same dilemma, either massive poverty, decline in living standards or maintain migration rates to keep the economy working.

 

The fact immigration is the main issue at our local elections is also a damning indictment of our ‘democracy’ but there we go. 

[Lionator]

2 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

And yet we read that our state pensions are low in comparison to most western nations ??

Yes because we have lower taxes and an even more skewed population towards older adults. We also have a highly dysfunctional health and social care system whose failure adds massive burden onto the welfare system. 

Edited 8 May by Lionator

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, Lionator said:

Yes because we have lower taxes and an even more skewed population towards older adults. We also have a highly dysfunctional health and social care system whose failure adds massive burden onto the welfare system. 

I think our overall tax burden is comparable to some of these countries. The mismanagement of the health and social care system is v relevant. 

we still pay a lot of people to do not as much as they could be doing I can’t see that changing anytime soon.

 

 

[Innovindil]

17 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Indeed, taxation has gone up. 

 

Good article here: https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/06/27/uk-workers-tax-wedge-infographics/

 

Thing is, we've hugely reduced taxes on the rich over the years and had to recoup it elsewhere. The public sector is in pieces after years of cuts, there is nothing more to cut except services, as reform have found out in local government where they've been cutting local services and still having to raise taxes. 

 

Cost of living is the biggest political issue of our time and the reason why focus is on immigrants, benefits etc is because nobody working has any money and sees those other things as unfair. They weren't such big issues before cost of living hugely increased, and really the economy never recovered from 2008 as it was stifled by austerity at every turn. 

 

The choices are either blame foreigners and benefit recipients, cut both them discover they weren't the issue .

Or spend some money as a government, get British businesses creating for the British people, fund them to invest. By actually turning on the taps for the first time in a generation.

I literally said "on employee wages perhaps" and you post a link talking exclusively about wages. I get that bit, now you get that when you tax everything else too, it's always the generators (for example the workers) that pay it. 

 

As for the rest of the rambling, not sure what it has to do with me bringing up taxes but I'll have a bite at it anyways. If the government of the day want British businesses to grow, like the one I work for that does generate goods and income for the British public (and the world at large) maybe taxing them to the point where it is difficult to afford to expand is a bad idea too. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

17 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Barring a world changing event like Covid, and considering how often those crop up these days...

 

But if not, you could well be right, and that would be equally if not more grim. 

Yeah you said this when I mentioned it last time and since then it's just become even more of a one issue discussion. I just can't see how even a major world event shifts the focus of the next election away from migration. 

[StanSP]

38 minutes ago, Asha said:

How can anyone possibly vote Labour or Tory when they’ve proven… PROVEN… to be completely inept, useless, and the opposite of trustworthy. 

No wonder Reform is absolutely smashing it. People want something different. 
 

Starmer has to go tonight. He has to go. The overwhelming majority of British people think he’s a ****. 

 

I can't stand Starmer and he's ruined what could have been a good government. But that doesn't mean Reform is the answer even if something different is needed...