Labour in line to get the largest majority since 1832......

I’m expecting stamp duty to be raised for houses over £1m. That will have an effect on the market. Many people will be thinking of moving sooner rather than later.

Staying in our family was a decision I re-visited when my husband died. I decided to stay, I’m happy here with good memories over 35 years. It’s still ‘coming home’ for our adult children. Grandchildren have bedrooms when the stay over.
It meant accepting less disposable income but my choice and I realise one I’m lucky to be able to make.
I’m happy to pay more council tax -
I share Starmer’s belief in public service which includes contributing financially now I’m too old to work

My purely personal view is , as regards council tax, so many people - mostly elderly - need social care.
We cannot leave people in situations so often described here in GN as regards carers and shortages in SSD etc.

To me if that means more expensive properties pay a little more, it only seems fair.
Many people have worked all their lives and worked hard at cost family lives and leisure but don't have the resources you allude to.

However before too much doom-mongering goes on, Labour has pledged not to change council tax bands

However I do recognise that its very post code dominated as to where you live in this country - ie higher mortgages etc.

No government yet ever has really been able to address this effectively and I'm not sure how it ever can be.

cc

The threat of high council tax on expensive properties is worrying, but like many we've downsized since retirement so would not be threatened by this, I hope.
It looks pretty certain that Inheritance Tax would also be affected which could affect a larger proportion of the population that many imagine.
We should remember that not everyone who has money inherited it, many have made it for themselves, sometimes at great cost to family life and leisure.

Exactly, DH and I sacrificed a lot of family time to build up our SME, and the thought of our AC having to pay even more IHT I find extremely difficult to swallow!

There are going to be some very busy lawyers and accountants in the coming weeks/months, for those who haven’t already made their affairs watertight

What is going to cost a lot is if we have to change from gas central heating to electricity. There will be SO many windmills all over the UK.
One just hopes after 5 yrs in government the Tories will get a lot of their seats back

Why would anyone be worried after what we have been through all these years with the Tories it can’t get any worse than it is now

Casdon

I’d be very surprised if that happens. I think it’s being hyped up by the media and the Tories, so when the Tories get more seats than predicted they will be able to salvage some dignity.

But it does look as though it is happening. Frankly I think that many of the Tories do deserve the drubbing that they are getting at the hands of the electorate. So many of their MP's appeared to be in it for the glory and the money, rather than for serving their community. And so many of them were not from the area which they were supposed to be serving.

The threat of high council tax on expensive properties is worrying, but like many we've downsized since retirement so would not be threatened by this, I hope.
It looks pretty certain that Inheritance Tax would also be affected which could affect a larger proportion of the population that many imagine.
We should remember that not everyone who has money inherited it, many have made it for themselves, sometimes at great cost to family life and leisure.

Yes, It's democracy - and thank the lord we're not in a dictatorship.
But I am very concerned about the possible/probable extension of wokery, and the effect it may have on women.

Well, if some voters in Wales , just interviewed on ITV, are anything to go by it's anyone's guess!
Shown a picture of Keir Starmer, one man said "Starman, is it?", another said "Who is he?" and two older ladies said "Never heard of him".
Some of us Welsh folk must of heard of him - not conservative in sight at the end of the election

So it is Friday and i am ecstatic! My useless MP has gone! We have more women in Parliament than ever. I am not expecting overnight miracles but I am expecting dignity and honesty! My new MP is definitely in that league!

Not worried at all,relieved.
Hope it all goes well for them.

Casdon

I’d be very surprised if that happens. I think it’s being hyped up by the media and the Tories, so when the Tories get more seats than predicted they will be able to salvage some dignity.

So you must every surprised this morning !!

I’m very worried about the ‘independants - including Corbyn ‘ and very worried about Reform - thank goodness Galloway has disappeared.
Nothing is going to change for me: life will stay difficult. Don’t believe in miracles or unicorns

Gutted today had bbc on Laura around gloating and called Sunak a brand between 7am and seven thirty today Is that acceptableits so depressing need to turn bbc off.

Yes yes and yes. Going to be an interesting night.

Hallelujah🙏🙏🙏

Exit polls 😃😁🙏🏽

State-sponsored forced labour, really.

Well, quite😆

I recently had a little exchange with a guy on X who said it was fine for rich people to get richer because their 'earnings' didn't put up the prices of anything. But raising workers' pay meant that their employer would have to raise their prices to cover the cost of wages. So workers shouldn't get pay rises.

It struck me that applying that 'logic' would mean that workers never, ever got a pay rise...

Of course, he hadn't really thought it through at all. But he wasn't terribly keen to continue the discussion. I assume that he thought I was just an ignorant female ☹️

I was in a similar situation to you growstuff, in that I was also retired but not on a SP, vulnerable but not clinically so, and my university work dried up. As I am no longer salaried but work on a consultancy basis I am paid for hours claimed, but they reduced to almost nothing until remote learning got into its stride.

Meanwhile, I was doing a 'recreational' MA at the same university (different subject obviously) and we students got no reduction in fees, so they 'clicked' both ways - charging students but not paying a lot of staff. I was paying full fees with no student loan, as I already had qualifications at above Level 7, but I had no earnings to set them against, so my savings took a further hit. I was living on savings anyway, as I had no pension.

Luckily, Mr Dog has a decent pension and we share resources anyway so I wasn't going to starve, but I agree that the much vaunted help didn't go to everyone. My sister got full furlough because she was office-based and on a regular pro-rata salary. As you say, I don't begrudge her (or others) the help, but it wasn't evenly distributed.

Thinking back, I got through it and I'm still here - and I still haven't had Covid, so it could have been worse. I'm afraid it makes me cross when people go on about how everybody was supported financially because they most certainly weren't.

MaizieD

^I would also be interested to see whether the fall in employment includes people on insecure contracts who still have to claim benefits to survive.^

Do you mean the fall in unemployment?

I will once again point out the startling fact that when the figures for employment are prepared individuals are counted as being 'in employment' if they are employed for 2 hours a fortnight.

It's not my imagination, I have checked this figure so many times...

Yes, I meant unemployment. I'll have lost the plot altogether by the time the election results are announced .

I thought it would be something like that, although not as bad as 2 hours a fortnight😲. I keep hearing that vacancies are hard to fill, but always assume that this is because people need jobs that give regular and predictable wages that allow them to pay the rent or get a mortgage and commit to nursery/childcare fees. I don't blame people for not applying for those that don't.

I think a more honest way to show unemployment would be to count anyone in a job that requires state subsidy to bring the wages to a minimum level as unemployed. That would show the true picture - many employers paying as little as possible whilst workers make profits for them that are subsidised by the taxpayer, and who are sanctioned if they don't take them. State-sponsored forced labour, really.

What a tough time growstuff. I was classed as clinically vulnerable but hadn’t expected food parcels. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and quantity that arrived. We gifted the box via our local Labour group so a struggling local famiky got extra help. M
I cancelled the food parcel, we (mr I still alive then) had our l.a. Pensions and had arranged tesco deliveries. The system didn’t catch on quickly so two more good parcels arrived and were re-cycled then they stopped as requested.

Quite! I don't resent the help some people received, but I wish people would get their facts straight.

The issue for me was that I hadn't reached state pension age, but had been forced to retire early through ill health. I was in receipt of my teacher's pension, but it wasn't enough even to pay my rent, so I had been working as a private tutor, mainly with GCSE and A level students, to make up my income. That all stopped one evening when public exams were cancelled and there was no work.

In order to qualify for state help, I would have had to receive over half my income from self-employment, which I didn't - it was just under, so I wasn't eligible. Not only that, but I was classified as "vulnerable" (or whatever the classification was). This meant that I was advised not to leave the house, but I wasn't "clinically vulnerable", which meant I didn't qualify for food boxes. I had to spend the savings I had, just to survive.

I signed the "Excluded" petition. The government knew that there were about 3 and a half million of us, but just shrugged us off, claiming it didn't have any money to do any more.

Eventually, I did receive some Universal Credit, but because I was below state pension age, I was expected to live on just over £70 a week.

Same with my self employed daughter growstuff, and her partner.
My dog trainer /boarder friends got no government support, they had to go into debt to keep their homes and are still paying off loans.

Not everybody benefitted. Worse, some made fortunes - Baroness Mone