Struggling families have just seen Universal Credit cut by twenty POUNDS a week while energy prices soar
The complete lack of vision and ambition of Keir Starmer and his front-bench drones has been exposed by Labour’s ‘plan’ to cut VAT on fuel bills this week.
Finally announcing a policy, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the party plans to ‘pause’ VAT on fuel in response to soaring energy costs. But VAT on fuel is at 5% and the average energy bill for a family of four adults at the moment is around £30 a week.
At a 5p saving in the pound, that’s just £1.50 per week – or 35p a week for each of the four household members.
Hard-press people in this country have just seen twenty pounds a week cut from their already-inadequate resources, pushing millions into even greater hardship and tipping many over the line into having to decide whether to ‘heat or eat’.
Labour’s response? £1.50 a week, or about 7.5% of what those families have lost – and that’s before allowing for the effect of inflation and above-inflation increases in other cost areas.
Starmer’s other idea is a cut in business rates. Businesses pay 20% VAT and most can claim this back in full routinely anyway.
The utter famine of vision and ambition (for the nation) in Starmer’s party is an absolute embarrassment. Worse, it’s a betrayal of the many millions in this country who desperately need someone with a vision for real change to be challenging the Tories.
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What about single pensioners?
Here are the policies that Rachel Reeves either announced or confirmed at this year’s conference
Look at “every single tax break” and scrap it if “it doesn’t deliver for the taxpayer or for the economy”, including:
The tax break benefiting “private equity bosses who strip the assets of British businesses pay a lower rate of tax on their bonuses”.
Scrapping the charitable status enjoyed by private schools.
For next year: freeze business rates, increase the threshold for small business rates relief and increase the Digital Services Tax to 12%.
Scrap business rates.
Create a new, independent Office for Value for Money.
Putting an additional £28bn of capital investment into the UK’s green transition for each and every year of this decade.
And you believe that Reeves will ‘stamp on aspiration’, crush entrepreneurs etc. There was uproar when Corbyn suggested raising vat for public school charities. I’d bet anything they wouldn’t do any such thing. Murdoch wouldn’t like it and Keith wouldn’t be his best boy.
Hi folks, just thought i’d mention that my account with guardian comments has been disabled because one of my posts drew attention to former speaker of HoC John Bercow’s statements about corbyn, ie ‘i don’t believe he is anti semitic’. Just an observation really!
Jenw2049….Well the Torys killed two of my brothers last year in care homes one single who’s property was sold to afford care and the other married .whos private pension paid for the care.There was no discrimination they were actually put down like dogs.I have another four brothers and two sisters all elderly.lets see what this government does to them this winter.Some of them will actually have to manage on the seven hundred pounds a month maximum state pension that our “Betters” in parliament have deemed adequate for them to survive a British Winter….Thanks for mentioning some of the most vulnerable people in society the British state pension survivor.
Elderly people complain of the £700 try living as a disabled younger person (51) I dream of £700 we barely get half that and that’s on maximum allowance I barely scrape £380 a month try living on that!
So not trying to play the martyr but there is always someone worse off than you that whould love the amount you are complaining about I am an evil socialist that believes everyone should get a living pension and reasonable disability benefits. I am NOT asking for thousands each but £700 sounds fantastic to me, £900 is even better and sounds reasonable! Raising ESA and disabled Universal credit to the £600 mark whould help us immensely. Especially as we are now guardians to my 13-year-old granddaughter long story..
Oh before someone says about children’s tax credits you can’t get them with ESA and I don’t want to starve for 5 weeks just to maybe get universal credit! As then you lose out on Enhanced disability benefits it’s always catch 22 with this Tory scum and DWP lackies!
Hope you are all well and continue in good health if nothing else to spite the Torys! 😉 In solidarity with all my disabled and elderly brothers and sisters that have to endure this government…
Very interesting and kind thoughts DSG and I am constantly trying to draw the attention to vulnerable in society and I realise that all ordinary people are basically treated as second class citizens and I believe like you that the Labour party are as guilty over the years of ignoring the plight of many people including elderly,disabled,children,mental health problems and much more whilst ensuring that they will live off all of us like parasites .making a very good living thats no reflection on the lives of the working-class. Wealth is a great divider and thats why our mps vote to keep us in a poverty trap.
£1.50÷4=37.5p per week for each of 4 people in a household. Slight correction but it is a disgusting joke of a pittance.
Brian precious you are correct its a pittance and it would be difficult in todays Britain to find anything on sale for37 .5pence.The sum is a insult and hopfuly people will wake up that it is nothing to do with what party you support because The “buggers are all the same” ..in this mutated version of a parliament for the people.
Single or couple pensioners are ignored by Budgets, again and again, with the lowest state pension of any rich country, losing what should have been 8 per cent state pension rise in April 2022.
Our pensioner Winter Fuel Payment was cut at start of Tory government that began 2010, and never risen since, yet energy prices have soared.
Single women pensioners are usually on least works / state pensions in combination or more likely to rely solely on state pension.
Seeking moral support to start Over 50s party (policies ages 1 to 100) that would help towards free electricity for all homes, to end UK having amongst world’s highest winter excess deaths of elderly when such as Norway, part in Arctic, has none.
over50sparty org uk
Reeves bizarrely said that the rich are feeling the pinch ! and it patently would have greatest impact, rather than targeting those who are most effected. Marr highlighted this minor anomaly which was swiftly sidestepped.But considering she had stated that Labour under her would be tougher on benefits than the Tories- say no more.
SM Rachel Reeves should know whether or not the rich are feeling the pinch – she’s one of them as is her sister and her sisters husband ( Ellie Reeves and Chris Leslie)The Reeves family have done very well indeed out of Labour- they have made it a nice little earner for them all.
Correction Ellie Reeves is married to JOhn Cryer MP not Chris Leslie- apologies
Is there anyone inhabiting the Labour front benches that can be thought of as inspiring?
Is there any policies from the Labour front benches around current issues that can be thought of as inspiring?
Since Starmer and his lots take over of the party the previous inspiration I felt has gone.
Policies announced by the party will have a minimal effect on those who need it most.
Bridget Philipson’s called for an increase of minimum wage to £10. It maybe 50p more but it’s still not the £15 hourly rate Starmer demanded Andy McDonald argue against.
I just wish the hierarchy of the LP would realise they’re not the Tory Party.
On Starmer’s front bench, being “inspiring” is automatic grounds for dismissal, if not expulsion.
As is turning up for work. Do the swine clock in and out? There should be a bare limit of attendance. Three strikes and they’re out. Exes should be checked frequently and the answers should be available to the constituents. They should all agree to this since we are constantly reassured that they have nothing to hide. Yeah I believe them after all they are honourable.
I just wish the hierarchy of the LP would realise they’re not the Tory Party.
And it’s about time the remaining members realised the PLP are – to all intents & purposes.
His 10 Pledgers amounted to nothing and his VAT pause adds mot much more ‘for the Many’.
Sir Keir is hardly managing these days. Hardly managing.
The pledges were lies. How can the public trust him?
Lundiel, how can anybody trust a person who has squandered a £13 million surplus in little over a year? The Party is now in deficit to the tune of £1 million at the end 0f 2020, so heaven knows how bad it is now. Donations went down by £13 million too in 2020. It’s clear whatever members are left in the Labour Party they don’t like donating to help Starmer destroy it even quicker.
The idiot couldn’t run a booze up in a brewery.
Hardly managing. Don’t worry Max we’ll picket your houses to stop the bailiffs.
To quote from the FT –
“Labour’s fiscal rules are in line with the same approach expected to be outlined by chancellor Rishi Sunak in his Budget next month”
and
“The binding elements of Reeves’ fiscal plan will be that Labour will pledge to balance the current budget in the medium term, ensuring that tax revenues at least match day-to-day public expenditure, and that the burden of public debt is on a downward trajectory. The rules are essentially identical to those in the 2019 Conservative manifesto that Sunak is set to announce in his Budget on October 27.”
So radical policies then?
No but plenty of austerity.
Reeves needs to read up a bit on MMT. I can recommend Stephanie Kelton’s excellent book for a start. Labour’s fiscal plans are nothing short of Primary School logic. I despair.
They hate it on ideological grounds, they’ve been programmed to tell us the economy is like a big family budget.
In other words, Reeves is pledging Labour to be a Tory government- that is the only possibility that can come of a pledge to balance the budget by midterm- nothing social democratic or even “progressive” can be done by a government that places the rich man’s goal of a balanced budget over all other objectives.
This is what Rachel Reeves wrote yesterday in response to the budget.
https://labourlist.org/2021/10/people-are-tired-of-tory-bluster-here-is-what-a-labour-budget-wouldve-done/
“Labour would lead a new era of industrial strategy working hand-in-hand with businesses and trade unions, whereas the Conservatives work with neither. Our climate investment pledge of an additional £28bn a year would meet the challenge of climate change, avoid greater costs of inaction and create the jobs of tomorrow.
We’d tax fairly, spend wisely and after a decade of faltering growth, we’d get Britain’s economy firing on all cylinders. That is what a Labour budget would have done today.
But but but….it’s better than the 25p rise the pensioners got the last time the bliarites were in government…
Weekly energy bill £30 in your dreams. Maybe in a well insulated terrace. Mines going to be more like £45 with the recent rises. And thats only having central heating on in the evening. Nothing would surprise me about R.Reeves shes as much empathy as a block of concrete
Maybe it was £30 for each of the 4 adults in the household which was referred to.
Weekly energy bill £45??? Seriously? Do you have a private landlord who’s shafting you on the Leccy meter or do you mean monthly?
I prefer the jumper option unless I’ve got company!
Living in a tower block, I seem to benefit from the heat from those below and our bill is £58pm.
Funnily enough, so do I, though being only on the 2nd floor there’s less benefit!
Tories have a special way of heating tower blocks.
bedroc 56….You probably have already tried it ,but set your Boiler stat on low and your roomstat dependent on were its situated and set at 18c keep the heating on all day and see the result.You should get a suprise and find that your bills are not a lot different being as it takes a lot of fuel to raise a cold house to civilised temps and you have the added bonus of avoiding condensation and damp.I have nearly forgot the fear of a British or Normandy winter which saw me dailey togged up feeding a log burner and worrying about the gauge on the oil tank in the barn.My monthly bill for everything including Fans (noaircon)is around fifty dollers for a family of seven with our cooking on LPG.here in Cambodia and a outgoings on food from the open market about six hundred dollers for a family of seven a month
… My daughter spends an enormous amount at Wallmart and Costco in Florida and her utilities are off the richter scale.The West more than anywhere else is in the middle of a Reset “lets hope you survive it with Britain coming through it.unscathed and the working class rising from the ashes of the mismanagement of the economic future by parliament….regards!
A modest idea would be to give everyone the £200 Winter Fuel payment in December.
But I was more radical, take utilities into democratic public ownership but have it as a co-operative, one bill payer one vote & we pay an annual divi which can be offset against bills to address fuel poverty.
It would then be nailed down if a future Tory Govt or Right Wing Labour of carpet baggers tried to privatise it as people would feel it was theirs.
One modest idea could be to give everyone the £200 Winter Fuel payment.
But I was more radical, take the utilities into democratic public ownership then turn it into a co-operative, one bill payer one vote and pay an annual divi which could be offset against bills to address fuel poverty.
It would then be nailed down if a future Tory Govt or Right Wing Labour tried to privatise it as people would think it was theirs.
You could even have both?
so good, it needs ‘liked’ twice 😄
Well…Thirty pounds per week fuel bill to survive for the average family of four?.Thats an enormous amount and I genuinely didn’t realise that.Now I realise that I say most things in black or white but once again I can only look at those that represent us and wonder what sort of people have we got that have a system where many within that system cannot afford to exist on this system of entrenched poverty .At the risk of being labeled anti Labour and anti left ,so be it because on my veiw I see whats happening in parliament is effectively wilful evil,not ignorance or blindness just plain old evil across the board amongst all the parties.They have voted themselves massive amounts of money only last week to protect themselves from the public.Anyone that continues to fund these parasites in the Labour party are basically guilty of the same crimes against the people as the fat cats they funded to represent the Labour party. Their are a few notable exceptions but by and large this is what you have put inside parliament to represent ordinary people.How many people elderly ,children,vulnerable on poverty state pension and welfare can hope to survive.Murders a crime,but it seems that parliament are exempt from this accusation by the people who fund them.Do Somthing now and stop feeding the parasites infesting the Labour party…simple,effective and the very least you can do.
@Joseph
It’s occurred to me on more than one occasion that the loss of your home in France was fate. And she was grinning at you.
It’s also occurred to me about the gravity of the attacks on Corbyn. He’s certainly not anything to do with the reset. I can’t see the UK being like it is with Jezza at the helm (how much worse does it need to get before the sheep start to think what it could have been like? A lot probably…)
Finally, this 35p offer. They aren’t messaging us. They’re telling Klaus, Charlie and other friends that the ship won’t change course with us at the helm.
Stay safe all.
Actually NVL….I only have had a report yesterday on my farmhouse and somones interested in taking everything including the furniture beds,linnen and the Diesel 1.3 Skoda rotting away on the driveway.My cloths personal possessions,tools sitonmower,chainsaws,logchopers etc etc,photograhs and lifetime memorys including my granfathers Harrods engraved tea set commendation for saving the son of Lord Venables 1914Nov 10nr Ypres..ITs a reality check and almost like being a dead person,at least thats what Carol my wife says….I have said that it is far too dangerous for us to ever risk going back now the fascists are in control of the west….I have said the photo of shaking the hand of bliar and Harold Wilson can go in the logburner.The House is crawling in Cobwebs,snakeskin,and a dead mouse..Sad really but I do feel blessed to have had our flights cancelled and our lives continuing on another journey.Hope in the future and remember that we nearly got there with a socialist leader and a socialist Britain.You are so very correct people will regret the sheer mindless vandalism done to the Labour party by the Labour party and members that voted for the knight of the realm.
Looks like Blair was right, the class war is over, at least in the Labour Party.
“They have the watches. We have the time.”
Goldbach Youve reignited my love for poetry along with a few others on here who have the “gift”
Brilliant! Where’s the quote from?
It’s a quote from one of the senior Taliban government members who had fled the US invasion.
It proved to be well founded around 20 years later.
Well, the tories’ 59p increase in the Living Wage and Sir Keir’s give-away of 35p per person assures me that our betters do actually care for us. Even in the midst of an economy-destroying covid pandemic. our lords and masters are looking after our interests.
We’re so lucky!
quertboi….yes 👍 it takes a certain calibre of person to think in starvation figures.Most are locked up in Broadmoor Hospital for the criminaly insane. The rest of the bunch are inside parliament and scattered amongst the Police and crown forces..Those who object are basically locked up for ten years or more like the Kill the bill protesters in Bristol…..Who “Protested” and are banged away were the sun 🌞 doesn’t shine.
What is stunning about figures of this kind, always, is the huge distance between them and the fortunes of those who make the decisions. Starmer is worth a million or two. Blair turned himself into a very rich man by leading a party whose name implies it stands for those who work. Their median gross income is c £30,000. Why do people put up with this? Why do they accept that fiddling with petty sums of a few quid a week is reasonable while no one on Labour’s front bench would think of such amounts as anything but derisory? Starmer and Reeves could drop down the drain what is offered to the common folk and not notice the loss. Why don’t people rebel? They don’t because they have swallowed the lie that we need the rich. They deserve their wealth because of their special contribution to society (the name for that is hypocrisy). Without them, the economy wouldn’t function. We must be grateful for whatever scraps they can spare us. What is missing from the minds of the majority of people is the recognition that if you trace back the threads, the origin of all wealth turns out to be work. It’s our work which make them rich. Our work belongs to us. It is merely the capitalist sleight of hand of the employment contract which robs us of it. Our GDP (the measure they like to use) is some 2 trillion. No one needs to be cold. No one needs to go hungry. What we produce we should own and there is easily enough for everyone to live decently; But there will never be enough for a tiny majority to live lavishly without forcing others into poverty.
Some people have voted and selected them from CLPs up to the polished benches of Parliament. They didn’t sneak through, lied perhaps but in the open.
Correction: tiny MINORITY.
Eminent health professional, Professor John Ashton, was offered the position of Public Health Consultant, by St Helens Council(Merseyside), on Friday of last week.
On Saturday morning, the offer was withdrawn by the Chief Executive, of the Council.
Professor Ashton is unsure if the Councillors were consulted on the withdrawal decision.
Will any of you be protesting outside the Royal Courts of London tomorrow?
https://www.change.org/p/free-julian-assange-before-it-s-too-late-stop-usa-extradition/u/29768575