Maybe so, but I tend to look at the bigger picture when it comes to politics. I firmly believe that no-one can really agree with everything a political party stands for and everyone has to compromise in some way. I've been accused of being a rabid SNP sheep and a cult follower - usually by donkeys who couldn't even explain why they vote the way they do, but I don't for a minute think that the SNP are god's gift to politics. They certainly stand for some things I disagree with, but overall they are the best party for the people of Scotland - and to me that's what matters.
She's hated Starmer for ages (she said Sunak was really nice), used Labour to get elected, didn't vote against the WFA allowance removal that she cares so much about, took loads of gifts, had record expenses then now quits to be an independant.
There aren't too many MPs who didn't use a political party to get elected - and more than a few have crossed the floor after being elected - so she's not on her own there. As for the WFA cut, she didn't vote for it either - which is fairly normal for Labour MPs to be honest. Not for nothing are they known as the Labstention party up here. Record expenses? Compared to those of which MPs? They look distinctly average to me, not particularly higher or lower than those of similarly placed MPs. And as for hating Starmer - who doesn't these days? As the results of this poll suggests, his popularity is melting faster than a Greenland glacier.
The Starmer hatred is the right wing press lashing out. He's not my ideal PM but I'd much rather have him in charge than Sunak. The WFA payment removal was clumsy but had to happen, pensioners have been spared since Cameron took power, why should only the youth suffer? It's a few pounds a week too, not hundreds. I'll judge them once the budget details are public, not before. They inherited a ****show from the previous 14 years, I never expected them to start throwing billions around this year or next, there's a lot to fix...
The WFA cut is a big kick in the teeth for retired people... another pot of money to find...and income not going to go up...and we paid for our pensions all our working lives and pensions some of the lowest in the big economies.... Coupled with privatised utilities. Ironic that EDF has cuts its energy prices in France whilst putting them up in UK.
There must be a totally different view of Labour in England - up here they and the Tories are generally seen as two cheeks of the same arse. Both are viewed as right wing, with Labour slightly further to the right than the Tories. It doesn't the press leashing out for people to realise that. It may only be a few pounds a week - but try saying that when all you have to live on is a pension - and are now staring down the barrel of yet another energy price rise next month and are already struggling to both feed and heat yourself. As for pensioners have been spared and why should only the youth suffer - why should either of them suffer when there are multiple other options available to the government? It's a major flaw in any society when the poor regardless of age are attacked often and ruthlessly rather than those who can well afford it. Who should Labour tax? (youtube.com)
Don't get me wrong, I'd rather they kept it, but everyone else is suffering too. I doubt Elton John needs his WFA, but they should have put the threshold higher for sure. I'm just aware that the lives of young people nowadays are much more limited. When I was paying rent it was probably 50% of my income, houses are extortionate and (present company excluded) Tories/Brexit to thank for recently from a section of society that's had most of the good breaks in life. I'd be happy to pay more taxes, we need to raise money from somewhere, along with proper taxes on businesses/wealth taxes/etc...
Labour are in no way further to the right than Tories This lot aren't Corbyn, who I voted for as MP/PM, and it's a shame. I dread to think what another Tory government would have done though. Rwanda scrapped, train privatisation stopping, free school breakfasts, green initiatives...There are positive things in the works too.
I think the whole country needs a move to the left.... in terms of public services, healthcare and education, youth clubs, mother and baby centres, libraries etc etc I am not a rabid leftie, maybe i was once, but just a return to the economic culture of the 70s........ I know it costs............... Trouble we as a country are all geared up for a more capitalist model, media controlled by the wealthy etc etc
Perhaps you should consider moving to Scotland - where the SNP introduced all of that a good while ago - bar the Rwanda scheme which they would never have countenanced in the first place. When I was a young person my life was pretty limited - worked for BR for the princely sum of £10 per week - lived in the YMCA paying £5/15s a week in rent. A friend and I decided to look for a flat together - the cheapest we could find was in St Albans Rd, owned by a Watford player (Roy Low). He was asking £10 per week each - that motivated me to seek promotion and then, a year later, to emigrate as I could see no future for me in Watford. Funny you should say that you'd be happy to pay more taxes - Labour delighted in accusing the SNP of turning Scotland into the "highest taxed area" in the UK when they restructured the PAYE bands here. It's not true, of course - the restructuring simply meant that over 50% of workers, the lower paid ones, pay less whilst those on large salaries pay more. Labour still constantly tell that lie - and have probably lied themselves into a corner. If they increase taxes across the board, they're hypocrites - and if they follow the SNP and restructure the bands, they're hypocrites too.
What we are seeing is the result of thatcherite and reaganomics: this trickle down baloney has cost us dear and is now, especially since covid profiteering, biting hard. We need to be taxing the top earners as in the 1940's, 50's, and 60's. The problem is that the rich will not ever be satisfied. I'm all for a meritocracy and I'm more than happy that my boss (proprietor) pays himself (and I'm guessing here) 3 or 4 times my salary, but when CEO's are paid 20, 30, 40-100 times their workforce basic salary, then that's not just wrong, but immoral in my book. We need to claw that money back from off-shore!
What is getting to me is how because of the freezing of the tax threshold, people on very modest pensions are getting picked out to pay tax on them for the first time. This is all too easy when they see what they are paying you, so can send you a demand to pay tax, on what the French regard as poverty levels of retirement return on what you have paid in. Once again the government is taking the easy option of taking tax from the poorest who do not hide their wealth offshore.
Who would have thought the Labour Government nearly everyone wanted would rob the poor to give to the rich...........themselves
Netenyahu is a bloody menace to the world. As much as I support the concept of Israel, the governments that the Israelis keep voting in are clearly as uncivilised as hamas and hezbollah.
This is a monster of our own making Fez. Israel is mostly dependent on imported weapons - 60% of them from the USA and 30% from Germany. All of this to defend a post colonial European land grab, which is what the creation of Israel was.
You're not wrong. I've just watched the Al-Jazeera investigation into war crimes in Gaza - a rather harrowing 80 minutes which had me close to tears in places. They are absolutely disgusting - and what's worse is that the main parties in Westminster support them, and are in hock to them.
You can criticize every country on this planet with immunity BB, but do it with Israel and you open yourself up to having the charge of anti semitism thrown in your face - and they have been hiding behind that protective shield for as long as I can remember.
