Sir K claims "a budget for Working People", ha!!!

Caravan parks do benefit local economies. Owners tend to use the local shops, pubs and restaurants etc on a very regular basis, and unlike in seaside villages the parks are additional to, rather than part of the area. There are several units in a field on the outskirts, rather than half a village being unused for most of the time.

When winter comes the village carries on as before, rather than seeing the shop, pub etc closing down for lack of customers, and holiday park owners don’t pull out of schools, GP surgeries, the WI and so on when the weather turns, because the parks were never in the catchment in the first place.

I would not recommend ownership of a caravan or lodge on a park, as they are money pits, but they take nothing from the areas where they are sited, and contribute a lot to the local economies.

Increase in stamp duty on 2nd homes

I'd have liked to see a hefty local tax levy on holiday homes too (of any description) that aren't available for rent to the public. I include caravan parks and the like in this. Too many are kept for occasional use by the owners and spend more time unoccupied than actually being used. The local economy gains virtually nothing from these, and while the rich can always absorb the costs at least the levy could benefit permanent residents in the area in some ways.

Lizziedrip from what I've read the VAT on private schools may turn out a bit of an own goal. It seems places like Eton that will register for VAT will gain from being able to reclaim VAT paid on some aspects of their provision? I'm no accountant so don't understand the full extent. I've long questioned the charitable status of many private education providers. Fine if they really do act as charities but..........

Yes, there certainly was a lot

Well done Rachel👍

Thanks, both. Remembering it all got a bit like the Generation Game .

Minimum wage increase
Toaster
Bus fare subsidies extended
Cuddly toy

6 million to councils for care support.

I’ll add to that list Doodledog.

I’m pleased to see:
Increase in stamp duty on 2nd homes
Increase in capital gains tax
Increase in inheritance tax
VAT tax break for private schools abolished
Increase in passenger duty for private jets

It’s looking like a socialist budget👏👏👏
Perhaps socialism has arrived in the UK at last! Thank God🙏🙏🙏

Can you be a bit more specific, Molly? Which bits of the budget had they decried?

I did think they’d be better than the Tories for all of the last 14 years, and I know I’m not alone in that.

Time, of course, will tell, but just saying you’re unimpressed isn’t much to go on.

I am pleased to see:
Minimum wage increases
Compensation for infected blood victims
Compensation for Postmasters
No increase in the Tory fiscal drag duration
Action against tax fraudsters
An extension of cheap bus fares beyond the December cut off that the Tories had announced
Money for the NHS
Money for schools
Money to eradicate homelessness

Probably more - I can’t remember it all, but that’s all pretty impressive to me.

What a shame that people didn’t think Labour would do any better in 2015 and again in 2017, then it wouldn’t be the last 14 years. Obviously some of the current voters didn’t think the LP would be better back then, not even with two elections opportunities so close together.

This time, such a build up of how good they’d be. Even I couldn’t support the Conservatives this time, though I didn’t trust LP any more than before.
So what did we get?
Instant introduction of actions they’d decried in previous government, freebies from people wanting more involvement in the government etc.

I’ll be delighted if they achieve what they propose, but at the moment, I’m not impressed.

biglouis

Taxes are a legalised form of theft.

What a ridiculous statement.

MaizieD

I think that if many of you would accept that your taxes don't actually pay for anything you'd be much happier people...

(or perhaps not, you'd have nothing left to whip up the hate about..😁)

I wonder if there's some kind of pathological urge to whip up hatred.

Doodledog

*I think that if many of you would accept that your taxes don't actually pay for anything you'd be much happier people...*

(or perhaps not, you'd have nothing left to whip up the hate about..😁)
I don't go in for hate - I certainly don't 'whip it up' - and I don't mind paying tax. Like everyone, I just think that they should be organised in line with my beliefs, though. Put basically, that means 'from each according to ability, and to each according to need'.

It doesn't matter whether taxes (conceptually) pay for things or not - they are taken out of earned income, so people have a vested interest in how much is charged and who pays what.

I object to paying for people to do nothing, and I don't like seeing people in need when others have far more than they need. Whatever it does or doesn't pay for, taxation reduces the income of some and enhances the income of others, which in a capitalist society makes a difference to pretty much everything. The idea that we all pay tax even when we don't produce or earn anything doesn't compute with me . Whoever does the shopping, the tax is paid by the person who earns the money.

It's not unreasonable for people to object when their taxes pay for things they don't approve of, and that means different things to different people. It comes down to basic values. I value people doing their bit, and also the strong looking after the weak. Others value self-sufficiency and looking after their own. Neither view is right or wrong, but they are different.

I don't mind at all paying towards others getting expensive healthcare I hope to never need myself - for one thing you never know what you might need in the future. I also prefer to live in a society where the vulnerable are looked after, but I understand (if not approve of) the view that what someone has is theirs and should remain so, and that other people's misfortune is their own problem, not society's.

It's understandable that people get annoyed when taxes are taken from them and not from others, and when they see public money (whether it's from taxation or the Man in the Moon) spent on things they see as a waste of resources that could be better spent on other things. For the last 14 years I've been utterly fed up with seeing 'my taxes' used in ways I see as wrong. It's human nature to object, whichever view of economics you take.

That’s exactly how I feel but would never have been able to articulate it so well. Thanks.

Definitely not less threads

Casdon since you are so fussy may I point out that grammatically correct will be fewer threads and d

I think that if many of you would accept that your taxes don't actually pay for anything you'd be much happier people...

(or perhaps not, you'd have nothing left to whip up the hate about..😁)
I don't go in for hate - I certainly don't 'whip it up' - and I don't mind paying tax. Like everyone, I just think that they should be organised in line with my beliefs, though. Put basically, that means 'from each according to ability, and to each according to need'.

It doesn't matter whether taxes (conceptually) pay for things or not - they are taken out of earned income, so people have a vested interest in how much is charged and who pays what.

I object to paying for people to do nothing, and I don't like seeing people in need when others have far more than they need. Whatever it does or doesn't pay for, taxation reduces the income of some and enhances the income of others, which in a capitalist society makes a difference to pretty much everything. The idea that we all pay tax even when we don't produce or earn anything doesn't compute with me . Whoever does the shopping, the tax is paid by the person who earns the money.

It's not unreasonable for people to object when their taxes pay for things they don't approve of, and that means different things to different people. It comes down to basic values. I value people doing their bit, and also the strong looking after the weak. Others value self-sufficiency and looking after their own. Neither view is right or wrong, but they are different.

I don't mind at all paying towards others getting expensive healthcare I hope to never need myself - for one thing you never know what you might need in the future. I also prefer to live in a society where the vulnerable are looked after, but I understand (if not approve of) the view that what someone has is theirs and should remain so, and that other people's misfortune is their own problem, not society's.

It's understandable that people get annoyed when taxes are taken from them and not from others, and when they see public money (whether it's from taxation or the Man in the Moon) spent on things they see as a waste of resources that could be better spent on other things. For the last 14 years I've been utterly fed up with seeing 'my taxes' used in ways I see as wrong. It's human nature to object, whichever view of economics you take.

Taxes are a legalised form of theft.

MaizieD

I think that if many of you would accept that your taxes don't actually pay for anything you'd be much happier people...

(or perhaps not, you'd have nothing left to whip up the hate about..😁)

Actually our taxes pay for politicians.

Of course it wouldn't work.

And pointing that out doesn't involve 'cries'. Whether you say it or as I did upthread.

MrsMatt

I think that ANY person that wants to be an MP no matter which party they lean towards, should have to spend at least 6 months living in basic accommodation, on minimum wage while doing a menial job. If they are single then all they get is the current state pension. No help from family, friends or access to their own money. Let's see how many last the 6 months

Wait for the defensive cries of
they’d need to experience being rich too
or other whatever other get-out clauses appear.

Withdraw their travel expense claims.
Cries of that would mean they couldn’t afford to work unless they lived in London.

Sadly, the strategy would not work any more than the TV programs showing life swap sort of programs. It’s easier to manage when you know there’s an end to the task and no evidence that they’d remember afterwards.

M0nica

Greciangirl

Let’s all pick on Keir Starmer, shall we?

Give him a ruddy chance.

A Prime Minster is meant to hit the ground running. This Prime Minister is still scrabbling around in the locker room looking for the key to his locker.

The Labour party have been in power now for over 3 months. Certainly it is too early to see the implementation of their policies, but so far we haven't even heard which policies come first and how they intend to implement them, and with so many of them not even getting a mention in the budget, we can be pretty sure that many priorities, like education have been put on the back burner.

All we have had is cloth-eared and clumsy policy statements that show that they have not been thought through clearly (WFA) and silly arguments about definitions that any half savvy government would have completely avoided.

This government has 60 months in power before the next election. 5% of it has already been wasted.

I disagree with you MOnica. If you listened to the budget speech, Reeves mentioned a number of key policies and the ways the government is intending to achieve them.

My MP is a single mother who lives in a pretty run down town and admits to having had mental health problems in the past. She has fought long and hard to become an MP and represent the sort of people that she relates to. Which is why she joined the Labour Party.

This labour party are we are ok so that's ok why did they take all the freebies they must have felt short of money Yes MPs should live in awful ft ul areas and damp housing and work a month or so on minimum wage and have nothing to look forward to not even a nice pair of glasses when is he putting them on

No people struggle a life time sometimes and sometimes no career prospects are the result of parents cruelty to begin with Sometimes people ruin other people's lives thank you Angela Raynor

MrsMatt

I think that ANY person that wants to be an MP no matter which party they lean towards, should have to spend at least 6 months living in basic accommodation, on minimum wage while doing a menial job. If they are single then all they get is the current state pension. No help from family, friends or access to their own money. Let's see how many last the 6 months

Well we have, I believe, a cabinet made up of more people that attended state schools than in previous governments so I think they’re more in touch with ‘ordinary’ people.

MrsMatt

I think that ANY person that wants to be an MP no matter which party they lean towards, should have to spend at least 6 months living in basic accommodation, on minimum wage while doing a menial job. If they are single then all they get is the current state pension. No help from family, friends or access to their own money. Let's see how many last the 6 months

That would show how a percentage of the population lives. Should they also live in mansions, have three cars, a second (or third) home and money in the bank to see how that feels, too? And then some time in a suburban semi, or an agricultural cottage? It could take some time before they qualified to stand as an MP if they had to experience numerous different ways of life.

I think a lot of people can use their imagination when it comes to what people need. A good MP will talk to constituents and understand their problems.

I think that ANY person that wants to be an MP no matter which party they lean towards, should have to spend at least 6 months living in basic accommodation, on minimum wage while doing a menial job. If they are single then all they get is the current state pension. No help from family, friends or access to their own money. Let's see how many last the 6 months