Pepe LeFrits I refuse to believe those numbers could jump up the way they have in 6 years. I don't doubt there are these issues but not to this extent. When you can make as much as you would working by sitting at home on benefits the incentive to work is hard, this isn't me being horrible but purely human nature. Job market in this country is flat, businesses are not investing, wealthy people are leaving the country. Real time wages are not going up and inflation in recently years has gone through the roof. Almost a perfect storm is brewing here, government costs are spiralling out of control, tax rises won't bring in as much as they think when the economy is in this state.
awooga83 We saw how the markets responded, she is one of the most important people in the country, if there was something going on she shouldn't have shown up today and they should have said she is dealing with some personal matters. The press would have created rumours but it would have been better than what happened today. If that was a male chancellor crying today he would have been ripped to shreds by now.
The problem with Starmer is he is a pathological liar and has no principled stance, they just make things up as they go along, they were always going to raise taxes and they should have just been honest about it. Everyone knew the Tories were leaving a shambles and all they needed to say was they won't commit to anything before they take office. It might have cost them 15-20 seats but they still would have had a huge majority and could have come in, done what they needed to do and put all the blame on the Conservatives. Instead they've boxed themselves in and now don't know what to do. They created this fictional story about a £22b black hole they needed to address, funnily enough some analysts are saying she has created her own black hole, estimates ranging between £10b - £20b. They'll try to blame wars and tariffs but these upcoming tax increases will fall on them and they'll need to own them. What little trust people have will further be eroded.
The bill today wasn't very good, Welfare reform is needed but not the way they were proposing but after their climb down they have left themselves with a financial hole but also all Starmer/Reeves credibility is gone. Saying that the markets reaction today might be a silver lining for Reeves, could be spun to say the markets still trust her.
