Why do you support Labour?

I think it might have been better to ask, 'Why do you support the CURRENT Labour party?'

I'm surprised at some of the responses on here, as I'm sure most voters are bitterly disappointed with what is happening. How can you place your trust in a man who keeps changing his mind about things....who seems more concerned about helping people in other countries rather than his own?

mum2three

I think it might have been better to ask, 'Why do you support the CURRENT Labour party?'

I'm surprised at some of the responses on here, as I'm sure most voters are bitterly disappointed with what is happening. How can you place your trust in a man who keeps changing his mind about things....who seems more concerned about helping people in other countries rather than his own?

Because whether you like Starmer or indeed any PM or not, you are not voting for ‘the man’, are you? You’re voting for the party which is likely to adopt policies which most accord with your own belief system.

Because whether you like Starmer or indeed any PM or not, you are not voting for ‘the man’, are you? You’re voting for the party which is likely to adopt policies which most accord with your own belief system.

So when people didn’t vote Labour, after Gordon Brown, and when it was Jeremy Corbyn at the head, Labour was unlikely likely to adopt policies which most accord with your own belief system and Conservatives were seen as likely to adopt policies which most accord with your own belief system.

Interesting idea.

Perhaps people who vote Labour are open to the fact that people in other countries may need help and support and don’t grudge it to them. In terms of the UK’s overall annual budget the money given to ‘other countries’ is not excessive.

Though I do understand that with Starmer & Reeves going on and on about what a terrible financial state the UK is in (which it wouldn’t be if they were to be less restrictive in their thinking) why people find this difficult to accept.

Mamie

Music has suffered too. When I was an LA inspector during the Blair years, we had an amazing peripatetic music service with projects that included the loaning of instruments and teaching by specialists to entire year groups of primary age children; many of them in areas of deprivation.
All lost by cuts to budgets by Conservative governments.

Leicestershire in particular was renowned at one time for the standard of music teaching in state schools

Must have been specific to certain areas MayBee70. We have had peripatetic music teachers for a variety of instruments as long as I have been teaching. The only change has been the instruments on offer, which now include guitars, and keyboards, but no longer French horns.

Mollygo

^Because whether you like Starmer or indeed any PM or not, you are not voting for ‘the man’, are you? You’re voting for the party which is likely to adopt policies which most accord with your own belief system.^

So when people didn’t vote Labour, after Gordon Brown, and when it was Jeremy Corbyn at the head, Labour was unlikely likely to adopt policies which most accord with your own belief system and Conservatives were seen as likely to adopt policies which most accord with your own belief system.

Interesting idea.

People didn’t vote Labour in 2010 because they had been in power for 13 years and they wanted a change, as so often happens. Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t popular because he was a radical, and therefore his plans for government weren’t trusted by the electorate. The leader is important, but not the reason why most people vote for the party they do. It would be pretty dumb to only vote for.a party on that basis, because leaders frequently change during the course of a government anyway.

The small primary school next door but one to my house definitely has music lessons in breaks and after school as well as on the curriculum, including drumming, keyboards, guitar. I gave GC who attend the school and in the summer months can hear the drumming.

The other primary school in our road also has music lessons including violin, we have GC in that school also (AC attended this one also)

Corbyn won the leadership election because activists supported him as more left wing than his opponents. During that leadership contest, I went to two of the hustings - Corbyn got more applause from the audience. I voted Cooper and Burnham. I’m old enough to have wanted Michael Foot to win the election. I never forgot the lesson I learned then, Britain won’t elect a party with a someone they see as extremist, especially left extremist
The last election was lost by the Conservatives because trust had gone and the devastation of services, especially the NHS was clear to all.
Starmer had shown strong leadership. The LP takes some managing and left leaners still blame the media for fibbing about Corbyn. I continue to support the LP . WFA should always have been means tested. I’d like to see the pension credit level increased but I’d prefer to see pensions increased. Those of us with savings or private/work pensions would pay more tax so fairer all round. I’m ok with the way the government is working, yes it’s not perfect but it’s so much h bettee

Iam64 What!? You save in your working life so you can enjoy a more comfortable retirement. Then you pay more tax because you have savings. And you think this fair????? I most certainly do not!

To add, you should be rewarded for saving and being responsible for yourself. Not penalised!

Iam64

Corbyn won the leadership election because activists supported him as more left wing than his opponents. During that leadership contest, I went to two of the hustings - Corbyn got more applause from the audience. I voted Cooper and Burnham. I’m old enough to have wanted Michael Foot to win the election. I never forgot the lesson I learned then, Britain won’t elect a party with a someone they see as extremist, especially left extremist
The last election was lost by the Conservatives because trust had gone and the devastation of services, especially the NHS was clear to all.
Starmer had shown strong leadership. The LP takes some managing and left leaners still blame the media for fibbing about Corbyn. I continue to support the LP . WFA should always have been means tested. I’d like to see the pension credit level increased but I’d prefer to see pensions increased. Those of us with savings or private/work pensions would pay more tax so fairer all round. I’m ok with the way the government is working, yes it’s not perfect but it’s so much h bettee

Yes. I was a Michael Foot supporter, too. Lovely man. But I learned from it.

Pension credit level def needs to go up, but not pensions all round as you then get the situation claimed by most people that well off and actually wealthy pensioners don’t need it, which was said of the WFA.
I want this government to have vision, not tinker about at the edges.Social care is is a confusing muddle, mental health care virtually non existent and some things would be better privatised.

What do you think should be privatised, Oreo?

Water and gas and electricity.
And yes, expensive to take them over but a priority in my view.

Maybe trains too.

Sorry!🤭 sleep deprived, meant nationalised of course.

ronib

NotSpaghetti 48 percent acceptance rate for Classics at Cambridge and the entry requirement is two A stars and one A at A level. Not exactly an open door course is it?
The point is that pupils who were working towards GCSE will now have funding dropped in February. Is this in preparation for a future where the government minutely controls every aspect of life? Who is in control of an individual’s choices? Not the individual.

48% is a high acceptance rate - I'm aware that people will self-select out but it's a much higher rate than most of us faced when we were applying to university years ago.

February is not the right time to change funding in my opinion however the exams are in May so I believe it would be a very odd school who actually pulled courses 3 months off exams. My son had a non Italian specialist take him through to GCSE Italian from roughly February when his teacher abruptly left. I believe most, (if not all) schools will find a workaround this year.
I accept this is not good.

Data for "Ancient languages" (Latin, Greek, Ancient History) shows a 2% drop in 2023. It peaked in 2020 with 12,215 and has dropped year by year to 11175 people would have taken Greek or Latin or Ancient History last year. I don't know the demographics off this. Info was from Government statistics at a .gov website. I think the numbers were over A level and AS as well as GCSE.

I'd like to know how many schoolchildren are affected by the LEP - the MEP (Mandarin) was a success but I don't know the data on the LEP.

I hope someone has a link.

Oreo

Sorry!🤭 sleep deprived, meant nationalised of course.

Thank goodness. I was completely baffled for a while

I agree with your list for renationalisation.

Rail is on its way, though as it's being taken back as franchises end. Though, unfortunately, we're not renationalising the manufacture of rolling stock.

NotSpaghetti I know that Italian is taught online and there are some excellent Zoom classes. A reasonable fee is charged so that is one way of getting around any deficiency in teaching time in school. I suppose some enterprising teachers could do the same with Latin?

Pension credit level def needs to go up, but not pensions all round as you then get the situation claimed by most people that well off and actually wealthy pensioners don’t need it, which was said of the WFA.
But there has to be a balance between penalising people for having pensions and ensuring that people aren't suffering hardship. Too many people IMO expect that 'someone' will look after them with no real input from them, and it's just not realistic.

I was in a hospital setting the other day, and one of the staff was complaining to another patient that she wants to retire but can't just yet. I understand that POV totally. Then she said that she couldn't afford to go for a few years yet, as she wants to have some more good holidays (fair enough), but also that she and her husband would have to spend some serious money before retirement as 'you are not allowed' to have more then £23k when you're retired.

There was a definite suggestion that she thought there was no alternative but to go on benefits, or that she didn't see the point in not doing so. She said she had worked in the NHS for over 25 years, so I assume she was entitled to an occupational pension - she certainly would have one unless she'd chosen to opt out.

Why should it be the case that people who choose not to have an occupational pension should get PC benefits? They haven't paid in, but expect to be paid for by those who have. At least this woman has worked and paid tax for years - many people choose not to work, as opposed to being unable to. Why should those who have worked pay for them?

It's not just pensions, all sorts of things are affected. I was at the theatre earlier in the week, and there were cheap tickets available to 'the unwaged'. My friend claimed one, as she doesn't work, and hasn't done since her marriage over 30 years ago, which was her choice. Mr Dog and I paid, as we have pensions, despite the fact that we paid into them and pay tax on them. My friend will pay no tax on her pension when she gets it, as it will be her only source of income because she hasn't worked. Her husband has a good pension, and she has other money from inheritance, so they are not poor by any standards, but as she paid the voluntary fraction of NI (significantly less than the amount paid by workers) she will get the full new pension free of tax, which those who have worked and paid into an occupational pension do not. If people don't want to work it is their choice, I know, but that choice shouldn't put them at an advantage of those who do work.

Deciding that those with occupational pensions 'don't need' more money, but people who have chosen not to work should get more is unfair. That would bring everyone to the same income, give or take, and remove all incentive to provide for ourselves. As ever, it would be ok for the rich, and for those claiming the benefits, but be clawed back from the people who have worked and paid tax all their lives - the 'squeezed middle' if you like.

I don't know what would be both fair and not have a built-in disincentive, though. It's an inherent flaw with a welfare state that the options are either to penalise those with very little by tightening up on claims, or to allow 'chancers' to play the system. Who decides what others 'need' anyway? Of course those who would otherwise do without the basics need to be provided for, but equally, people on modest incomes should be able to save for a retirement doing whatever they like with their own money, and not see it clawed back because they 'don't need it' when those who haven't saved get benefits for not doing so. I don't know the answer though.

I don't support any political party, never have, never will. Every single one of them promise people the moon, get voted in, then it's a different story. My late mother was a Labour voter all her life. I often wonder what she would think now. The only reason I vote is women died to get me my vote and it is the only voice you have. You don't vote, you cannot complain.

ronib

NotSpaghetti I know that Italian is taught online and there are some excellent Zoom classes. A reasonable fee is charged so that is one way of getting around any deficiency in teaching time in school. I suppose some enterprising teachers could do the same with Latin?

It's already been done. The lessons are free. Schools could either offer the lessons outside school hours or within the normal timetable. They would need an adult supervisor who wouldn't necessarily have to be a teacher.

www.thenational.academy/teachers/programmes/latin-secondary-ks3-l/units

An advantage of using these lessons is that any school can access them (including home-schooled pupils), so they would be available to more than the 40 schools which currently receive LEP funding and don't rely in finding scarce staff.

Casdon
People didn’t vote Labour in 2010 because they had been in power for 13 years and they wanted a change, as so often happens.

Cotton, I have been saying that for so long it’s unbelievable thank you for agreeing with me

^ Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t popular because he was a radical, and therefore his plans for government weren’t trusted by the electorate.^

But the Labour party, was the Labour party and people didn’t vote because they wouldn’t vote vote for the man, regardless of Labour's policies.
If somebody different have been out the head of the labour party, they would have got in on the same basis as the Conservatives got in in 2010.

I think Corbyn was popular with left-leaning voters, Mollygo and I think he might have won but for the muddled approach to Brexit

If Labour had come out as "Remain" I think they would have won. Unfortunately he wasn't a remainer and they were scared to put off the Brexiteers in the core anyway.

Johnson won because of Brexit I believe. It split the Labour vote.