What do you hope for in the budget?

Mollygo is SE something to do with cholesterol?

Dickens

Allira

they just don’t have the money for give aways

That is just not true and not how the economy works.

That is just not true and not how the economy works.

Do you think there's many people who understand how a national economy works?

There is no fixed stock of money.

If only this was understood.

There is no fixed stock of money but at the end of the accounting period either borrowing has increased or reduced. If the aim is to reduce borrowing spending has to be reduced or revenue increased, the indications so far are taxation of higher income/wealth will increase AND the universal benefits will be reduced. This should allow some spending on growth which has been sadly neglected recently.

It’s very good housekeeping to reduce spending on those that don’t need help, for example the Tories gave an additional IHT concession for couple up to £1m, they do not NEED that, it was money taken directly out of the mouths of the poor

ronib

Mollygo is SE something to do with cholesterol?

If it is, you could do a better job than the person who wrote that on my notes without mentioning it or explaining.

Mollygo try not to worry - the NHS doesn’t do communication!!

Allira

Anyway.

Training for:
More police
More medical staff
More qualified science and mathematics teachers
Reintroduce the SEN or similar so that not all nurses are required to be qualified to degree level.

A ban on MPs' freebies
Laws to tax the wealthy but not so punitive that they leave the country.
Close loopholes about tax evasion.

Investigate care home charging.

Support farmers so that they can continue to produce food in a sustainable way whilst still making a profit. Too many are in despair right now.

Expand SureStart

The old SEN role has been replaced by the Nursing Associate role ....theses practitioners are registered on NMC role ......the qualification is a foundation degree ....thing is there's no scope to progress with a foundation degree....as an NA you are neither a nurse nor a HCA ....so better to decide whether you want to commit to being a nurse.....or prefer to be a HCA .....a HCA can be a band 3......an NA can never progress beyond a band 4 .....I wouldnt encourage anyone I know to do it

I think it’s a bit misleading to make assumptions that ALL professionals wish to progress.

Some teaching and nursing staff, as well as some police officers and in lots of other professionals, not every member of staff wants to progress.

Those who fix to progress should be supported to reach their potential, those who don’t should also be supported to do their chosen role to the best of their ability.

My son is a long term psychiatric nurse who has repeatedly turned down promotion suggestions. He says that would turn him away from patients (his happy and constructive zone) and into non stop paperwork. I'm pleased he has stayed strong enough to resist the life of increased salary and less job satisfaction.

National debt is real and when the bank prints more money, also known as 'quantative easing' it fuels inflation.

We have all heard stories of the german inflation of the 1920s,that led to Hitler winning control of the country and all that ensued. Although the trigger causes were complex, it was when the previous German government tried to print themselves out of trouble by producing more and more bank notes, that the flak really hit the fan. In the morning a loaf of bread would cost 100 marks, by evening it was 250 marks.

Oh dear, Monica. Trotting out the old cliche about prewar German hyperinflation (and I'm surprised that you didn't add in Zimbabwe and Venezuela while you were at it) is not a killer argument against money creation. Analysis of the causes of these hyperinflation episodes has shown that it was shortage of supply leading to rising prices, that led the governments to create more money to enable the purchase of goods in order to keep the population on side with the government. The sociopolitical situation of a country explains a great deal. The countries cited had sociopolitical conditions peculiar to them which cannot be generalised across the globe to extrapolate a firm 'rule' which says that money creation causes hyperinflation.

As it is, we have recent experience of 'money creation' by way of Quantitative Easing (QE) ass a response to the Global Financial Crisis and the Coronavirus pandemic. In the UK this has amounted to some £900billion of 'new' money released into the economy without any adverse effect on inflation. Because we do know that the inflation of 2022/23 was primarily caused by the shock to energy prices caused by the Russian war with Ukraine.

Economic theory is not a series of rules set in stone by dead economists. It is in a continual process of development through empirical research, analysis of past economic phenomena and questioning of past theories. It may confirm or it may challenge accepted theories.

This article looks at inflation in such a questioning fashion.

Interestingly it ends with a quote from one of the economic giants of the 20th C.

There are not many who are influenced by new theories after they are twenty-five or thirty years of age, so that the ideas which civil servants and politicians and even agitators apply to current events are not likely to be the newest. But, soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.”

John Maynard Keynes

www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/economy/spotlight/understanding-inflation.html

A very informative post thank you MaizieD.

I would like to see child care for the under fours subsidised. This has no personal interest for me, parents helped me, and no grandchildren, but I am saddened by a recent suggestion from a business man that 'regulations on early child care should be relaxed so we can get more mothers back to work, and sooner.'
I don't like seeing mothers of very young children having to return to work so early, and then sacrifice their wages in expensive child care.

So, why is Rachel Reeves giving us Austerity2?

Whilst I was a "stay at home" mother, I helped raise thousands of pounds to help the schools my children were at, I was a voluntary Safeguarding Officer so that my children and other children were safe and I was a primary carer for my Grandad who had dementia. All of those jobs would have had to be paid by someone without a "stay at home" mother and all contributed financially to society...they didn't contribute financially to me with the exception of my pension stamp. Personally, I feel that I gave good value at that price!

Maggiemaybe

^Would it be better if police officers, teachers and doctors were spending their time doing admin? There has to be admin, who sorts out payroll, who answers the phones, who orders the stationery, who negotiates the electricity/gas deal for the year? I'd much rather someone good at admin was doing it and the reality is they will be doing it cheaper than using the police officer/teacher/doctor.^

Well said, theworriedwell. The thing about admin is that if it’s done well it just rattles on in the background, and the people doing it aren’t appreciated by the public in general, sometimes not even by the people they’re supporting. The fact is that the frontline staff couldn’t do their jobs without the admin team.

I have a client, a former police inspector, now retired. He now works for the police in a desk job. (Lower salary). Maybe more retirees should do that - very useful with all the trawling through paperwork that they sometimes have to do for a case.

I should like to see an increase in taxation at the same time as an increase in the level at which taxation comes into effect. I would be happy to pay more in taxes to help fund things like the NHS, carers, the disabled etc etc. An across the board increase is fine by me as opposed to picking and choosing the groups to be penalised as in the WFA affecting less well off pensioners or the increases to inheritance tax affecting people who have saved and been careful all their lives and now want to pass their hard earned savings to their children.

ronib

Mollygo is SE something to do with cholesterol?

I think it is side effect(s).

Having just returned from another short break to Northumberland I would like to see a budget of investment in jobs and equality of opportunity. So many unloved towns in our country. We need investment in energy, factories, in skills and in public transport. The economy needs to grow slowly by investing in people and allowing them to earn enough to be able to live a decent life. Many pensioners ( not all) have more than enough to live on so do not require more. I would l8ke to see either the tax rate lowered to 10% or personal allowance to £15k
Those who earn, receive less , spend more !

FriedGreenTomatoes2

So, why is Rachel Reeves giving us Austerity2?

Because she's hidebound by the economics she learned before she was 30 😁

keepingquiet

I have a long 'wish-list' for the country but mainly for me it is about:

Housing, particularly social housing
Education, particularly recruiting and retaining more teachers'
Health, including investment in primary care and prevention
Social care, increasing wages as in the LIb Dem policy

Exactly my thoughts. More sensibility and compassion wouldn’t go amiss either . .

Interesting news - discussing the WFA is off today’s agenda. What a surprise

in two words...'A Miracle' ....

MaizieD

FriedGreenTomatoes2

So, why is Rachel Reeves giving us Austerity2?

Because she's hidebound by the economics she learned before she was 30 😁

There is nothing wrong with borrowing per se, investing in future growth or infrastructure is acceptable. What is not acceptable is borrowing for social or political handouts, that is exactly what successive governments have been doing.

In the UK we dont have the right to unlimited healthcare, pensions and other benefits paid for by others, they do not owe us a living. If anything we owe them aid because we have exploited others for centuries.

Keynes and the other theorists assume that the governments are responsible and don’t deliberately borrow for political gain

The nurses have rejected their pay deal (5.5%)

I guess they will be offered more, if not I envisage a winter of strikes…

GrannyGravy13

The nurses have rejected their pay deal (5.5%)

I guess they will be offered more, if not I envisage a winter of strikes…

Yup.

For me the trouble is although I understand the different economic approaches broadly speaking, I don't know which is "right". Aren't there compromises which allow a little more borrowing?
I'm hoping the National Wealth Fund will work to kick start growth.

The number of people living alone is increasing according to the ONC

file:///C:/Users/norma/Downloads/Families%20and%20households%20in%20the%20UK%202023.pdf

and I would like to see a much fairer deal for them. Single people have a much lower carbon footprint than "families" in terms of the goods they consume and the waste they produce. They also spend a higher proportion of their income on basics such as rent/mortgage, fuel and services.

Council tax should be a 50% discount - not 25%. Many singles are outrageously subsidising the family next door in a similar dwelling.