Labour La La Land?

Paddyann
Guardian 17/05/2010
^The former chief secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, has reignited criticism of Labour's stewardship of the economy with a note for his successor which said "there's no money left".

Byrne's note was discovered by David Laws, the Liberal Democrat MP who was appointed by the coalition government to succeed Byrne as No 2 at the Treasury.^

Yeah, trisher is correct, prescriptions are definitely already free in Northern Ireland, Wales & Scotland...it's only in England that there's a charge.

To maintain an equitable balance, the onus will fall upon the ordinary worker to pay for all of this through both direct and indirect taxation

Taxation has never paid for everything in the national budget. That is a complete fallacy. Did anyone notice taxes increasing to 'pay for it' when the Bank of England injected some £200+ billion into the economy by way of 'quantitative easing'? There isn't a 'magic money tree,' but a country with a sovereign currency can issue as much money as it likes so long as there are resources available to purchase. They can use taxation to dampen down inflation.

At the moment a great deal of extra spending into the economy would have no problem in finding resources to purchase and it would provide a huge boost to the economy. It has to be directed to the poorer people, of course, because they would actually spend it. No good giving it to the already wealthy; they don't actually need it... Most of it comes back to the treasury through taxation anyway. It's not a problem.

Of course, one of the reasons* that the wealthy Brexit backers are so desperate to leave the EU is because the Tax Avoidance directive comes into play next year which will mean that the wealth they have squirrelled away offshore in tax havens will be taxed.

*Another seems to be that they visualise themselves making a killing on things like shorting the pound...

The way I see it is that Labour recognises that there was a democratic vote ( although seriously flawed) and this must be recognised, but the overwhelming vote is for remain, so I suspect the vote will be for neutrality

We shall see

Apparently about 90% of prescrptions is already free. Wales and Scotland have free prescriptions so why shouldn't we?Something has to be done about the cost of housing and the obscene amounts of housing benefit some landlords are getting. (Isn't it strange how people on benefits are scroungers but landlords getting HB from the same place are business people?)
A four day week might mean more jobs for younger people. More jobs means more spending power and a growing economy.
Student loan debts are not doing what was forecast and may need to be wiped anyway.

I am watching the Labour Party conference.

I have two observations -

1- It is very badly organised so that the important debate on the LP brexit policy is interrupted by speakers on foreign policy. Why can't they sort that out?

2- There are some very impressive and erudite speakers but there are also some very poorly informed speakers, like the Leave supporter who did not understand the difference between Liberalism and neo-liberalism (which are in fact diametrically opposed).

3 - It is a more participtary conference than we will see next week from the Conservatives, but nowhere near as free and impressive as last week's LibDem conference

I await with interest to see how the LP members vote. On the one hand, I care a lot about stopping brexit, but on the other hand if Labour keep sitting on the fence, my party, the Liberal Democrats will do better in the GE to come.

I don't think Private Schools should be banned- by their Charitable Status should go.

As a matter of interest- do you believe that wanting to provide good quality education for all is a Liberal Leftie LaLa wish?

Joelsnan with all due respect and I'm NOT a labour supporter but its the tories who have taken the debt to the dizzy height of nigh on 3Trillion pounds ..they only inherited 800million SO who IS DOING THE BANKRUPTING?

I think it is Boris who is in la la land along with his money tree. Labour has in my min talked a lot of sense.

Don’t forget renationalising Utilities (which I wouldn't mind).
Abolishing private schools and Ofsted to raise Education standards. Building millions of affordable homes. The utopian dream sounds fantastic...but how will it all be funded? Many (not all) of the rich are the entrepreneurs who took the risk and started many of the businesses that employ the workers (CEO and Snr Management salaries are a different issue). These folk can only be squeezed so far before they move out and new entrepreneurs will avoid the UK.
To maintain an equitable balance, the onus will fall upon the ordinary worker to pay for all of this through both direct and indirect taxation. Will this provide Utopia for the already struggling, just managing workers?
Or will labour once again take the country to the brink of bankruptcy through borrowing.

Rosina have you really really not heard/read any of BJ’s totally uncosted promises re spending/tax cuts? Really?

They must have found the money forest that Boris Johnson has been shaking lately.

The private landlord thing isn't quite right, I don't think. As I understand it, it's private landlords who have multiple houses on buy to rent mortgages & are currently the biggest recipients of housing benefit. They're certainly raking it in here in London.

I do strongly agree with stripping schools like Eton of their charitable status. They're not charities by any stretch of the imagination, they're businesses that serve the rich. I have a feeling this rescinding of charitable status has been the policy of the Greens and the LibDems too, for longer.

I don't think it would be a massive loss for the super-rich to leave the UK anyway, it's not like they pay their fair share of tax, anyway.

btw, I'm not a Labour voter although there's one local Labour councillor I vote for because she's really good on local stuff and she actually turns up to lmeetings in my area on cold winter evenings whereas I've never once seen the other two once, at meetings or anywhere else for that matter.

Men in white coats will be collecting them after the conference---if not before !