Keir Starmer Labour Leader

ivaldo

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The bit where you're still parroting a line, even long after a certain former Tory chancellor has admitted it was absolute bollocks.
Oh so now you want to believe the Tories. :lol:

This after Corybn refused to explain where the £50b would come from for the WASPI women pledge that wasn't even in his manifesto.
 

nickm

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I believe that all their policies could easily be paid for. Just look at how quickly the government could find £300bn quid for bank loans or £200bn for quantitative easing when the lockdown started. The problem is the Labour lot thought they'd won this argument that there was plenty of money in 2017 so they didn't even bother to explain and argue their case.
I dunno. We don't know what the impact of all this is going to be yet, on growth, taxes, inflation etc. Also, much of this spending isn't cash spending, it's the govt buying assets (which will be sold later for a profit), or guaranteeing loans, again which one would expect to be repaid when times are better. Not all though, clearly there's going to be a massive hole in the budget for the forseeable. Hard to see how that's not going to have an impact on tax, borrowing and spending for the next decade or more, especially when every other economy is also going to be in the same boat.
 

nickm

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Of course they would. That isn't the point though, is it? Most people would be happy to be given a free house, too, that doesn't mean they believe it's a viable option. This notion that the 1%ers are going to sit idly by while we take billions more off them in tax is the point Corybnites don't want to address. It's why when Corbyn was questioned on it he invariably refused to answer.
Taxes are going to have to go up after this, and I think they will realistically have to go up on everyone.
 

TwoSheds

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Fancy producing any actual figures? Any actual data to support it?
Forgive me, I assumed you had vaguely been following the news since the corona thing kicked off. Rishi Sunak announced I think it was £330bn in government backed loans to businesses (through private banks that demanded private collateral and extortionate interest rates from company directors anyway), and the Bank of England more or less simultaneously announced £200bn worth of quantitative easing. It's pretty recent, I'd suggest you Google it.

Then there's the furlough scheme, grants to small businesses, business rates holidays, increased demand for Universal Credit etc etc. The government seems to be able to afford it, shockingly enough given how necessary the austerity cuts were.
 

ivaldo

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£65bn wasn’t it? That interview with Neill was excruciating.
Sorry £65b. You're right. But what's £15b anyway? We shouldn't forget the ridiculous sums needed for free broadband either. After the resounding success Australia has had with nationalising their broadband, why should we remain dubious?
 

TwoSheds

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I dunno. We don't know what the impact of all this is going to be yet, on growth, taxes, inflation etc. Also, much of this spending isn't cash spending, it's the govt buying assets (which will be sold later for a profit), or guaranteeing loans, again which one would expect to be repaid when times are better. Not all though, clearly there's going to be a massive hole in the budget for the forseeable. Hard to see how that's not going to have an impact on tax, borrowing and spending for the next decade or more, especially when every other economy is also going to be in the same boat.
You're right, they'll try to load it on to ordinary people again like they did in 2008. It's a question of how much ordinary people are willing and able to shoulder the burden. Taxes on companies and the rich will have to go up at some point or else they'll have to give the debts "haircuts" or inflate them away.
 
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I "deliberately" couldn't be arsed.

You believe what you want to believe, most people would be happy for the wealthiest 5% of people to pay more tax to fund the NHS. Whether they care more about Brexit or immergants or whatever doesn't change that.

And the link even says, most other polls have found the same thing regarding the train service. Why are the French and German government's allowed to own bits of our railways and we aren't. Our current railway system has nothing to recommend it other than not having collapsed yet (because the government just agreed to nationalise their losses during the lockdown).
No need to get arsy, try reading posts and replying to what they say not what you think someone means because they'd didn't post an instant 100% agreement with your opinion.

Tax. Did I say anything (positive or negative) about it? I meant I deliberately didn't bold it because I think it's probably a good idea.

Hope that's ok.
 

Buster15

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Two important incorrect assertions here. Firstly, none of Corbyn's policies were hard left. Secondly, most of his policies were popular, they were just incredibly badly explained, announced too late for them to sink in, and sounded like bribes because they thought it was self explanatory why they were good ideas. Many of his policies were incredibly popular though, for example, increasing tax on the top 5% of earners and renationalising the railways.
Don't agree.
Even John McDonald said that the election manifesto was the most radical for a generation.
And in Labour speak, radical means left wing.

They may have been somewhat popular with left leaning people.

But that is my point.
Such voters are not in the majority.

If they were, when was the last left left wing government ?
 

nickm

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You're right, they'll try to load it on to ordinary people again like they did in 2008. It's a question of how much ordinary people are willing and able to shoulder the burden. Taxes on companies and the rich will have to go up at some point or else they'll have to give the debts "haircuts" or inflate them away.
Financial services taxes of one sort or another. Wealth taxes will have to be looked at. Capital gains. I'm sure there are options. Income taxes, even on the top 1% or 0.1% just won't give you as much as everyone thinks. All those people hoping their inflated home equity gains is going to be funding a luxury retirement.... I wouldn't count on it.
 

ivaldo

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Forgive me, I assumed you had vaguely been following the news since the corona thing kicked off. Rishi Sunak announced I think it was £330bn in government backed loans to businesses (through private banks that demanded private collateral and extortionate interest rates from company directors anyway), and the Bank of England more or less simultaneously announced £200bn worth of quantitative easing. It's pretty recent, I'd suggest you Google it.

Then there's the furlough scheme, grants to small businesses, business rates holidays, increased demand for Universal Credit etc etc. The government seems to be able to afford it, shockingly enough given how necessary the austerity cuts were.
Forgive me, I was expecting you to understand that Coronavirus wasn't a planned event. So let's say Labour get in power, spend the hundreds of billions they planned to spend, and then we are hit with a global crisis. Wouldn't that be fun?
 

ivaldo

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It was literally a Tory attack line, before you decided to adopt it after they'd admitted it was bollocks.
Are you under the impression I'm a Tory?
 

TwoSheds

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No need to get arsy, try reading posts and replying to what they say not what you think someone means because they'd didn't post an instant 100% agreement with your opinion.

Tax. Did I say anything (positive or negative) about it? I meant I deliberately didn't bold it because I think it's probably a good idea.

Hope that's ok.
Apologies, I misread your post because you wrote "hold" instead of "bold" and my brain went on a tangent. Yes, you're right, there are almost certainly better ways of determining the popularity of a policy, I just haven't seen anyone doing it so I provided the evidence I found first. I am pretty sure (anecdotally) that those policies are fairly widely popular, even amongst a lot of conservative voters.
 

ivaldo

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:lol:

Oh God! You really haven't watched the news lately.

Anyways, good luck to the Starmer people in trying to win over this lot.
:lol: Oh God! You really do believe it's an infinite pot of money with no repercussions. Imagine trying to deal with a global crisis after Corbyn has buried us in debt. You might need to plant some more money trees.
 

nickm

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You're right, they'll try to load it on to ordinary people again like they did in 2008. It's a question of how much ordinary people are willing and able to shoulder the burden. Taxes on companies and the rich will have to go up at some point or else they'll have to give the debts "haircuts" or inflate them away.
On the other hand, arguably this torpedoes, or at least massively complicates the Tory's plans to spend money to "level up" their new northern constituencies (whatever that means). There is definitely a huge opportunity for Labour in this, if they can keep a lid on their loonier element.
 
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Apologies, I misread your post because you wrote "hold" instead of "bold" and my brain went on a tangent. Yes, you're right, there are almost certainly better ways of determining the popularity of a policy, I just haven't seen anyone doing it so I provided the evidence I found first. I am pretty sure (anecdotally) that those policies are fairly widely popular, even amongst a lot of conservative voters.
Fair enough and apologies for my phone's autocorrect.

Regardless of people and policies in any party, I want good challenge and opposition. I don't vote for a party regardless, I decide each time depending on lots of variables.
 

TwoSheds

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Don't agree.
Even John McDonald said that the election manifesto was the most radical for a generation.
And in Labour speak, radical means left wing.

They may have been somewhat popular with left leaning people.

But that is my point.
Such voters are not in the majority.

If they were, when was the last left left wing government ?
And that is basically my point. "Hard left" in a country where the politics has been heavily right wing (economically) for 40 years is not actually hard left. It's very much centre left.

For example, doesn't South Korea have nationalised broadband? They are traditionally a very right wing country (economically) and yet nobody seems to have a problem with it there. I think they also have heating oil subsidies and all kinds of other Venezuela-sounding schemes to the British ear. Doesn't mean they're not operating pretty unrestricted free market rules for the most part though.

Just because something has become normal in a certain society, doesn't make it objectively normal.
 

BobbyManc

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:lol: Oh God! You really do believe it's an infinite pot of money with no repercussions. Imagine trying to deal with a global crisis after Corbyn has buried us in debt. You might need to plant some more money trees.
Debt rose from 65% of GDP in May 2010 to a peak of 86% in September 2017, before falling back to 83% as of March 2019.

I don’t believe Corbyn was in power from May 2010 to March 2019, perhaps you could tell us who was?
 

ivaldo

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Debt rose from 65% of GDP in May 2010 to a peak of 86% in September 2017, before falling back to 83% as of March 2019.

I don’t believe Corbyn was in power from May 2010 to March 2019, perhaps you could tell us who was?
The Tory's were, and they were doing a really shit job.
 

Sweet Square

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:lol: Oh God! You really do believe it's an infinite pot of money with no repercussions. Imagine trying to deal with a global crisis after Corbyn has buried us in debt. You might need to plant some more money trees.
Are you feeling alright ?
 

ivaldo

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This current is shit, therefore the alternative MUST be great!