Completely forgot about this post!
awooga83 some of this is having a party that doesn't actually appear to know what it believes in so it just lurches around reacting to stuff rather then actually implement ideas.
I think that sums up Keir Starmer quite well, when you don't believe in anything you don't really have a vision of what you are trying to achieve. He wants high growth but their policies work in the opposite, you can't have high
awooga83 The BBC stuff is awful but I don't think they were caught I think their own internal board flagged it originally and then add to the fact trump presents it about the truth which is totally absurd. All sides criticise the BBC they have faults but they aren't championing one cause.
I think the Telegraph making it public is what caused the chaos and the for the BBC to own up to what was going on, up until that point the internal memos had not been acted on nor do I think they had any intension on doing so. The BBC was always seen as the gold standard but the reputation is really taking a hammering and they have bought it upon themselves. MPs jumping to defence of the BBC just further adds to people's suspicion that the BBC are not behaving in an impartial manner.
awooga83 The economy is fucked for almost all countries and the elephant in the room an increasing proportion of ageing population who don't contribute significantly once there are retired but draw a lot of resources in social care and NHS but including the triple lock pension but this isn't in the debate about choices society will need to make.
Thing is I get the world economy is in a bad way so not expected the UK put up 4% growth but the decisions that are being made are only making things worse and there is nothing in today’s budget or the previous which will bring any kind of growth, infact it will have the oppositive effect. I agree about the triple lock, it simply is on its way to bankrupt the country but making tough decisions is not what this government are interested in. People are not stupid, OBR is forecasting that welfare spending will rise by £73.2bn to £406.2bn. by the end of parliament and half of that is from the triple lock, it is getting out of control and there is no desire to get on top of this. Instead they have lifted the two-child welfare cap. A policy which will be popular among some of their MPs who have been mouthing off about it but something which recent polling has shown the public support.
Today's budget is basically an exercise to try and save their own skin rather than actually do something for the country! What is astonishing is Starmer won with a 170 seat majority and is simply on borrowed time, he'd be very lucky if he gets through 2026. With that kind of majority they should have been putting in major tax reform.
Reeves said last summer that they wouldn't come back for more and here they are coming back for more because the budget last year has been exactly the disaster that most people thought it would. The OBR leaking this out is embarrassing but this whole budget has been drip fed to the public for weeks now so not like we didn't know what was coming. And with policies being changed in recent weeks after being briefed it has just added more and more uncertainty into the markets..
IMO this budget has had the whole business world holding their breath, seems to have completely ground the economy to a halt wondering what is next and that is a very bad look for the government. I have spoken to a few people about it in recent weeks and can't remember any past budget where this has come up in casual conversations!
