As a mid-level PAYE employee, with no major investments apart from ISAs, it doesn't looks like anything in there will affect me directly in the short term at least. I'm guessing I'm in the majority?
30 Oct 2024
25
-
What are we proposing as the alternative? Let the health service decline, make sure that kids never have a chance of being able to afford somewhere to live, deny them any opportunity - including eating daily, keeps us all as good solid renters of every service, at the whims of business to hit us with on demand pricing, routing all profit to shareholders and then coming back to us with higher prices to pay for any infrastructure maintenance or development?
Do you want to build a society and invest in a better standard of living, or return to serfdom for future generations?
That's the stark choice. There's cost both ways. My judgement would be better try to end up with something for your money. Your mileage may vary. We are where we are because as a society we have headed the wrong way for too long. If you don't fancy actually believing in your country, being proud of it, and investing in it, Vlad has a cushty alternative for you.
-
Snap.
And if the public sector mess does get sorted out then my kids (two of which are yet to start school) should get a better education and we might even be able to receive adequate healthcare.
-
Sort of. Although the employer NI changes don't hit my pay packet directly, I'm fairly sure they will kick off yet another fraught planning cycle to work out how we cover it organisationally.
I'm for tax and investment as a general rule and we really need the public service position balancing, but I would like to see it less bloody complicated. Some of the stuff on the BBC site explaining that this rate will go up but that allowance will change too, so these people won't be impacted by the rate change, is bonkers.
I also think we need some serious re-thinking of the way we set up as a society, though I doubt it will be popular after decades of promoting the individual as the only meaningful entity. Things like multi-generational households that help to alleviate housing, cost of living, energy, childcare and social care "crises", for example.
-
Stop shitting money to global corps like Amazon?
-
I'm not against much of the budget, but some of this type of thing would have been nice. Plus more taxes on the very rich.
I'm most annoyed about the 15th (?) year of freezing fuel duty, while bus fares go up by 50% and train fares continue to rise at 5%+ every year without fail.
-
But isn't the cost of fu going up (a bit) regardless of uk duty anyway? And buses still run largely on diesel...
-
I'm for it. I've not really seen a credible suggestion of how we can legally achieve this, while maintaining a place as a (diminishing but) leading capitalist economy. And no way without a furious tirade from the fascist conspiracy about how our government care about their mothers, and are kind to donkeys out of their own pocket...along with a likely global business trade war conspiracy, and a financial cost of living attack on us.
When engaging in war, first build up your supplies and arms, campaign to build a big army, bolster morale and skills with victories in skirmishes, before going into campaign altering battles without preparation. Tilting at windmills, or taking a half arsed gang up against a fortified town, when nobody is really sure what you are fighting for, is a recipe for handing your opponents your arse on a platter.
Starmers early time in office shows meticulous preparation, no sizeable chinks in the rearguard, and a programme of change more profound in terms of movement on the ground than anything (at least in a positive sense) since 2016. Not that you'd notice that from the coverage of it. It's a hell of an oil tanker to turn around when when it's already been driven into the rocks, and sunk.
-
What happens if you don't feel any of that for this country or any other country?
-
How about believing in the people who live in this country (all of them, not just the priveleged few), being proud of them and investing in them?
-
Then you are probably not a brainwashed retard, that I was mildly lampooning. So hopefully you will have enough brains left to realise that without the support of society you can do almost nothing. I mean you might be a billionaire who can pay for your own armies of facilitators....but if you are an ordinary member of society you will quickly suffer unimaginably without social structures around you (including being nourished, protected from harm, and not spending every waking hour growing turnips). We all, even the very rich, benefit massively from our society.
So the question is not really how important it is, but how dim would you have to be to let other people damage it significantly without wanting to do something about it?
