You can forget about the Tories, they’re behind the LD’s in the polls now. They aren’t in the running for the next government or the one after that. It’s a straight shoot-out between Starmer and Farage to become next PM. I reckon Starmer will close the gap by a few points when the next polls come out. I think he should keep his beak out of Israel, though. That won’t go well for him with Labours history on antisemitism.
Rocky road ahead for Starmer... https://www.theguardian.com/busines...ected-energy-bills?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other Jumps to 3.5% when 3.3% forecast... Annual rise in April follows upturn in national insurance contributions and higher household costs
Raising NI contributions for employers would always be passed back onto the consumer one way or another. It kicked in last month, so this isn’t a surprise and it looks like it’s been managed okay. A raise of 0.2% isn’t excessive and once the investments and trade deals kick in we should see that come down by the last quarter. He’s doing alright. I think he’s trying to divert attention away from the boats. That’s only a temporary measure, people will go back to that at some point. He needs to do more because this smashing the gangs isn’t having any impact on the evidence, so far. Whatever people’s opinions of Israel/Palestine, he should keep his nose out. It’s too divisive of a subject and he could lose a lot of support and face new accusations because of it. Leave that to the Yanks and the Arab world to deal with. It’s not our business.
Just listened to the Labour bloke on this morning saying pensioners are getting a £1.900 rise over the 5 years they are in government but from then on it’s £1.900 a year. Slip of the tongue you would think, but I’ve heard others do the same. In reality once you take off the heating allowance you are £400 better off over 5 years, so really about £1.50 a week.
We've been heavily involved in the affairs of the land known as Palestine including Israel,for well over 100 years ,notwithstanding any involvement we had during earlier centuries. The Arab and Jewish money sloshing around the City of London and the consequent effect on our economy and general prosperity is absolutely massive. It is definately our business.
It’s not our business. We can still have them invest in us without getting involved in their fight. These days, we have very little influence over that area, if any at all.
Disagree mate. It's in our interests to have a secure Israel,free from terrorist threat,and living peacefully side by side with an independent Palestine,with a democratically elected govt.,free from extremist influence.
I agree with that. I’m just not sure why we need to get involved. The yanks would never let any country defeat Israel, so the country will always exist. This absurd ‘coalition of the willing’ had zero effect with their statement. In fact, Israel upped the bombing straight after it. I’d like us to call for peace out there and that’s it. Starmer shouldn’t be calling any side out on this, it’s a bad move on his part.
Agree,it's a bad move from Starmer to try to curry favour with the human rights brigade. It's the easy thing to do,to join in with condemnation of Israel, but it needs to be allied with condemnation of Hamas for creating,and perpetuating, the current conflict. No-one wants to see the misery inflicted on the suffering people of Gaza, but it's patently obvious the Israelis are not going to put up with this threat any longer. If the Palestinian Authority don't accept this and somehow force Hamas to release the prisoners, and then to come to the table,to negotiate a proper peace,it's going to continue. They had their opportunity to do this in 1947,but spurned it. To do so again now,in the midst of the awful suffering of their people,will be a travesty. If they indicated their willingness to seek a lasting resolution,that would be the time for Starmer to put the pressure on Netanyahu.
U-Turn on Winter Fuel Allowance good to hear. More pensioners, excluding Elton John, or some other rock star who made the headlines recently, will be eligible... the timing interesting due to welfare concerns...is this a sign of strength, a willing to listen government who are pragmatic to change, or, a sign of weakness from an ideological unmoored government who doesn't know what it is all about? Broader tax plans from Rayner include 8 tax rises yet to be announced... the autumn statement is going to be interesting.
Some don’t need it. I’m all for helping the vulnerable but the old wealthy vulnerable don’t need money, they need other help. The threshold is way too low though as it stands.
Weak leadership, again. He should have stuck to his guns, I never agreed with the decision but I think he should have seen it through. A bit of pressure from his backbenchers and he’s instantly folded. Encouraging people to claim pension credit who originally weren’t just to roll back on this a few months later, will probably be costing us money, now.
Great start to getting the numbers down. Really hope Labour can keep it going and continue to bring the numbers down to 5 figures. It’s clear from the figures that the big falls in net migration are down to both restrictions on visas introduced by the outgoing Conservative administration and a delayed effect of the pandemic. The near halving of the numbers includes a big increase in the number of people emigrating from the UK to another country. There have been big falls in the number of people coming to work and study - and there’s been a fall in the number of students bringing family members with them. That was a key objective of changes that tightened visas, introduced by both Suella Braverman and James Cleverly, the last Tory home secretaries
South Western Trains nationalised today. As someone who did a Wandsworth Town to Waterloo commute for years I can only say geed-up.
Starmer having a dig at Farage after his uncosted fantasy economics... BBC News - Keir Starmer: Nigel Farage's Reform policies 'fantasy' economics - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3n4zwq6v9o
