Sick of Starmer relentlessly using the words"difficult " & "painful"

This isn’t accurate, but gives a flavour of the impact.
‘While the relative poverty rate for pensioners fell from 18% in 2019 to 16% in 2022, the proportion of pensioners who report being unable to afford key material items ('in material deprivation') rose from 6% to 8% over the same period, and the fraction who could not afford to heat their home rose from 2% to 5%.’ 19 Jul 2024 IFS
There are 11 million pensioners, and if 84% of them lose their WFP, given that 1.4 million already get pension credit, the profit made by the government will very significantly exceed the payment to more who need pension credit, including those who will meet the threshold without the WFP.

Another 1 million are eligible to claim pension credit?? Dead right it’s not accurate Casdon

One million times £3900 is? Plus??

Starmer and his supporters have spent the last five years criticizing every aspect of the previous government while portraying themselves as paragons of virtue. I really did expect the advent of the New Puritans, Right but Repulsive.

No surprise then, at Starmer's spectacular fall from grace as he does exactly, and so speedily, what he attacked the Conservatives for. And it will keep on appearing on social media, just as Labour did.

GrannyGravy13

MayBee70

My Facebook page, on which used to pop up threads from people and groups that I follow, is full of anti Starmer stuff on a daily basis even though I always click on the ‘no more threads like this’ option and block them. There seems to be a concerted effort to criticise him in any way possible.

Of course he will get criticised he is the PM.

All previous governments and PM’s have been criticised as well all those in the future.

Are you suggesting KS should not be?

No. And I’ll criticise him if I feel I need to. But the amount of criticism in the press and social media seems to exceed how much there is when there’s a Conservative government. I will always give praise where it’s due and criticise when necessary regardless of which party is in power. I even wrote and thanked Nadine Dorries for something she said in parliament one day!

ronib

Another 1 million are eligible to claim pension credit?? Dead right it’s not accurate Casdon

I took it that the savings on WFP are additional income for the government, whereas you assumed that the savings would be used to offset the rise in pension credit claims?

It’s 880,000 households (as opposed to individuals) according to government figures.

Not all will claim, even when eligible.

Pension credit payments are staggered depending on the claimants total income, most claimants will get less, particularly as the most vulnerable are more likely to already be claiming.

There has to be a reserve already in DWP for the unclaimed pension credit, this isn’t a new issue.

If a million households claim £3,800 (average, guess) and 9.4 million pay £250 each on average from the WFP then it would take WFP being taken from 14 households to pay one household pension credit, but in reality it won’t work like that because there will be less claimants, less than average payments, and as existing older pensioners die the tipping point for post 2016 pensioners will mean less are eligible for pension credit.

The important issue for me though is not the cost, but that the poorest pensioners will be supported, it will reduce pensioner poverty when more claim pension credit. That is where the focus should be.

eazybee

Starmer and his supporters have spent the last five years criticizing every aspect of the previous government while portraying themselves as paragons of virtue. I really did expect the advent of the New Puritans, Right but Repulsive.

No surprise then, at Starmer's spectacular fall from grace as he does exactly, and so speedily, what he attacked the Conservatives for. And it will keep on appearing on social media, just as Labour did.

But why do we hear nothing on the opposition? Are they doing anything at all? (excerpt electing a new leader, and there is precious little on that).

eazybee

Starmer and his supporters have spent the last five years criticizing every aspect of the previous government while portraying themselves as paragons of virtue. I really did expect the advent of the New Puritans, Right but Repulsive.

No surprise then, at Starmer's spectacular fall from grace as he does exactly, and so speedily, what he attacked the Conservatives for. And it will keep on appearing on social media, just as Labour did.

I seem to remember Labour espxpelling some of their MP’s during that time so don’t understand the accusation of portraying themselves of paragons of virtue ( mind you during that time how many Conservative MP’s were discredited for various misdemeanours only to be then reinstated in the cabinet). And, as I keep pointing out, Keir has always said he will never oppose for the sake of opposing but will always do what he thinks is in the best interest of the country.

But the amount of criticism in the press and social media seems to exceed how much there is when there’s a Conservative government

Really? The plethora of complaints about the Conservative government and its various leaders far exceeds anything that’s been said about Starmer &Co so far.

That may be to do with the amount of time in power, I think, quite apart from anything else.

MissAdventure

That may be to do with the amount of time in power, I think, quite apart from anything else.

Exactly. But I can’t see how anybody can have missed all the complaints and criticism of the previous government and various ministers thereof.

MissAdventure

That may be to do with the amount of time in power, I think, quite apart from anything else.

A valid comparison would be taking the first 9/10 weeks when BJ came into power not 5 years.

I’ve lost track of the timeline but wasn’t Johnson pretty tied up sorting out his divorce when he became PM and it was soon after that that he illegally tried to prorogue parliament? Starmer is going to get his act together if he wants to outdo Johnson’s mistakes. People have very short memories when it comes to the way the previous government with its various leaders behaved. Imo

Yes, Johnson became PM in 24 July 2019 and tried to prorogue parliament 28th august 2019. It was oven ready time.

Lively too, as "Police were called to the home of Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, in the early hours of Friday morning after neighbours heard a loud altercation involving screaming, shouting and banging" 21st June.....

MissAdventure

*sharon103*,

I don't use any particular technique, I just poke any seeds or pips into the earth and water gently.

I regrow lettuces, onions, and things like that by standing the cut off bit in water until it roots, then potting on.

It's been the worst year, though, with the wind, rain, and the two little darlings opposite and it's all a mess, really.

I have no idea where those melon plants can go when winter arrives, for example, or the tomatoes.

That's interesting MissAdventure. I'll try that next year.
Thanks very much.

eazybee

Starmer does seem to have a limited vocabulary, and the belief that if something is repeated enough times it becomes true.

Well, he’s not alone in that - unfortunately, the practice of politicians saying things repeatedly to get them into the voters’ heads, regardless of whether they are seems to have grown over the last 15 - 20 years!

MayBee70

I’ve lost track of the timeline but wasn’t Johnson pretty tied up sorting out his divorce when he became PM and it was soon after that that he illegally tried to prorogue parliament? Starmer is going to get his act together if he wants to outdo Johnson’s mistakes. People have very short memories when it comes to the way the previous government with its various leaders behaved. Imo

Why does this excuse keep appearing?
People don’t have short memories. The justified criticism of some of what the previous government or its PMs did, doesn’t make everything Starmer and his government are doing, right.

People’s memories are sharper because they remember what it was like and they expected better of this government, no matter how long it has been in power.

They also know, because of all the publicity, about the gifts and other unacceptable things that went on and are more aware of any such incidences occurring now.

Despite all the cries of the right wing press trying their best to discredit Starmer, The Guardian headline today informs us that he has accepted £100,000 of freebies, more than any other party leader.

£76,000 is what I have seen, and that is more than any other labour leader to date.

Mollygo

MayBee70

I’ve lost track of the timeline but wasn’t Johnson pretty tied up sorting out his divorce when he became PM and it was soon after that that he illegally tried to prorogue parliament? Starmer is going to get his act together if he wants to outdo Johnson’s mistakes. People have very short memories when it comes to the way the previous government with its various leaders behaved. Imo

Why does this excuse keep appearing?
People don’t have short memories. The justified criticism of some of what the previous government or its PMs did, doesn’t make everything Starmer and his government are doing, right.

People’s memories are sharper because they remember what it was like and they expected better of this government, no matter how long it has been in power.

They also know, because of all the publicity, about the gifts and other unacceptable things that went on and are more aware of any such incidences occurring now.

Two wrongs do not make a right!

I expected more from Sir Starmer, so far I am disappointed.

I think it's always surprising when a politician who has substantial means are willing to let a third party pay for what is essentially personal stuff like glasses, does Lord Alli also pay for the Starmer underpants too I'm wondering. After all that rhetoric about decent above board politics returning blah blah, the optics of some Machiavellian sycophant providing our PM and his wife with clothing and other freebies, to presumably have his ear and access to stalk the the corridors of power for whatever reason is as unpalatable as David Cameron telling us it was his intention to do away with lobbyists, and then come back as one himself. Same old! same old! it's the political class, once they're in that's it, all the "it's going to be different" goes out the window. I mean what would be wrong with saying to Lord Alli or any other donor, "I'm going to raffle the Taylor Swift/Coldplay/football tickets and give the money raised to a charity. Keeping all this stuff for their own use, at best makes them appear tight wads, at worst just grabby. All at a time when so many people are going to be detrimentally affected by the removal of the WFA. .

TerriBull

I think it's always surprising when a politician who has substantial means are willing to let a third party pay for what is essentially personal stuff like glasses, does Lord Alli also pay for the Starmer underpants too I'm wondering. After all that rhetoric about decent above board politics returning blah blah, the optics of some Machiavellian sycophant providing our PM and his wife with clothing and other freebies, to presumably have his ear and access to stalk the the corridors of power for whatever reason is as unpalatable as David Cameron telling us it was his intention to do away with lobbyists, and then come back as one himself. Same old! same old! it's the political class, once they're in that's it, all the "it's going to be different" goes out the window. I mean what would be wrong with saying to Lord Alli or any other donor, "I'm going to raffle the Taylor Swift/Coldplay/football tickets and give the money raised to a charity. Keeping all this stuff for their own use, at best makes them appear tight wads, at worst just grabby. All at a time when so many people are going to be detrimentally affected by the removal of the WFA. .

I saw Emily Thornberry on Sky News this morning being interviewed by Kay Burley about Starmer and his wife being clothed by Lord Alli. She said she couldn’t see anything wrong with it. She said he is our PM and representing our country so needs to look the part. KB asked why his wife also accepted all this stuff and ET just blustered through as she normally does saying it was all OK.

It’s not all ok tho and we all know this in our hearts.

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Sue Grey the PM’s aide gets paid more than the Sir Starmer, and is a firm friend of Waheed Ali.

She did say it has come to notice because it has been declared.

I don't care really; certain jobs have more perks than others, so nothing new there.