Labour win a historic victory

I believe the Conservatives will move further to the right, mirroring what is happening in Europe, so would expect Badenoch and Patel to feature.

Whatever the outcome in the leadership battle now for the Tories there’s going to be a lot of water under the bridge before the next election, here, in Europe and worldwide. The biggest issue they have at the moment is having such a small pool of MPs to choose from, with the majority of the front runners having failed leadership bids behind them-some fresh blood is needed I think. Hopefully there is somebody good in the wings.

dragonfly46

Worst news of the night - Farage got in! Be interesting to see how often he shows up.

An interesting question and well worth watching. His voting record as an MEP in the EU was very patchy

2022/23, Major & Bliar both claimed their full allowance for duties connected with being a fomer-PM, with Brown, May and Cameron only slightly less (still over £100K). What DO they do for that?!
It explains why none of them are really interested in the effect their actions will have on the pensions of ordinary people.

I have to say that’s a very unfair comment to make about Gordon Brown Mollygo. Whether you like him or not is immaterial when you look at his post political career.

Casdon

I have to say that’s a very unfair comment to make about Gordon Brown Mollygo. Whether you like him or not is immaterial when you look at his post political career.

My views of Gordon Brown are coloured by his impact on our mortgage tax relief at the time and on pensions now.
His post political career doesn’t make any difference to that.

His post-political career has been impeccable.
However, he was not a great PM and did cause problems for those approaching retirement when he was Chancellor.

All policies of all governments affect some people kindly and some adversely though, and it’s not just about us and our personal finances. He is a force for good now.

Casdon

All policies of all governments affect some people kindly and some adversely though, and it’s not just about us and our personal finances. He is a force for good now.

Good on him. He won’t have to worry about his actions impacting his pension either.

The problem with Gordon Brown is that he was a theorist and while his economic thinking was impeccable, despite his record as a humanitarian, he never really thought through how his policies would affect real people with real incomes and real lives.

M0nica

The problem with Gordon Brown is that he was a theorist and while his economic thinking was impeccable, despite his record as a humanitarian, he never really thought through how his policies would affect real people with real incomes and real lives.

Well put. His humanitarian actions made some people poorer than they would have been and less likely to be able to offer support to others.

Mollygo

Casdon

I have to say that’s a very unfair comment to make about Gordon Brown Mollygo. Whether you like him or not is immaterial when you look at his post political career.

My views of Gordon Brown are coloured by his impact on our mortgage tax relief at the time and on pensions now.
His post political career doesn’t make any difference to that.

The idea of removing reducing MIRAS had been discussed for many years before Gordon Brown actually did it. I remember back the 80s discussing it at work.Thatcher, interestingly, considered it but backed off because of losing Tory supporters.

Dinahmo thanks for that information
The removal of MIRAS had been discussed and Thatcher considered it . . . but it didn’t happen - any reason posited about why, will depend on your POV.

However, Gordon Brown did it.

You could argue that he didn’t favour either the young or the old.
After all he removed MIRAS, which affected us as young people with a new mortgage, then he affected the old as we are now, by robbing the pension pot.
Saying how good he is now, comfortably off with a generous pension, doesn’t help those his actions affected.
Truly a case of
The evil that men do lives after them . . .

OTT Mollygo. From the House of Commons Library:

‘Prior to 6 April 2000 individuals paying interest on a mortgage to purchase their own home were entitled to claim tax relief on their interest payments, subject to a limit on the size of the loan of £30,000 per residence. Tax relief on mortgage interest was limited to the basic rate of income tax from 6 April 1991, restricted to 20% from 6 April 1994, to 15% from 6 April 1995, and to 10% from 6 April 1998.
10.6 million single people and married couples with mortgages were in receipt of mortgage interest relief; about 10.3 million of these mortgages received the relief through the MIRAS - mortgage interest relief at source - scheme.1 It is estimated that in 1998-99 mortgage interest relief cost £1.9 billion, which represented a substantial decline from its peak in 1990-91 when this relief cost £9.8 billion.2
In his March 1999 Budget speech the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced that MIRAS would be abolished from April 2000.
It was a fiscal decision that affected people with mortgages, me included, but it had been predicted and worked towards by successive governments, look at the reduction before Labour came into power in 1997 - and it was no surprise.
Evil? Seriously?

Love the excuses.
You can talk about something, but it’s the perpetrator who is guilty of the deed.

And yes, depriving people of money in their pensions whilst knowing it won’t affect you is evil.

Not at all Mollygo, however in this instance you spoke a half truth, and called a decision evil when a government made a budgetary decision your mortgage was affected by. That was OTT.

Mollygo

Love the excuses.
You can talk about something, but it’s the perpetrator who is guilty of the deed.

And yes, depriving people of money in their pensions whilst knowing it won’t affect you is evil.

Evil is a word rightly and usually used to describe behaviour that causes devastation or death. I can understand its use in relation to the murderer who killed the ex girlfriend who wanted to end their relationship, alongside her sister and their mother.
To describe a politician who made a budgetary decision you disapprove of seems excessive.

Casdon

Not at all Mollygo, however in this instance you spoke a half truth, and called a decision evil when a government made a budgetary decision your mortgage was affected by. That was OTT.

In your opinion (s).
IMO, singing the praises of someone
who deprived others of financial support whilst it didn’t affect him as being humanitarian is equally OTT.
My opinion is as valid as yours.

I’m not saying your opinion isn’t as valid is mine though, of course it is, I’m saying that branding political acts, within the law and as evil is OTT, because that is what it is.

Mollygo

Love the excuses.
You can talk about something, but it’s the perpetrator who is guilty of the deed.

And yes, depriving people of money in their pensions whilst knowing it won’t affect you is evil.

It was the pension funds which suffered when the ACT relief was removed in 1997 so everybody with a pension scheme was affected.

That’s your opinion Casdon. I’m happy to let you have it.

Tbh I thinkMollygo is looking at those decisions in one way but I'd look at them differently why should people be given a tax advantage on buying a home, which is potentially an asset which increases in value, when someone paying rent for their home doesn't. Why should someone with surplus income get a tax advantage for putting that excess money in their pension pot when poorer people pay tax on all their income? Nothing evil about it, it's just about treating people equally.

Vintagewhine
I love your name!

Thanks Mollygo