Rachel Reeves, the first female Chancellor in history, was greeted with much fanfare amongst the wokerati as she announced her Autumn Budget was for “hardworking families up and down the country who have been crying out for change” (honestly, you’d think women had never been in control of the purse strings before). But that was about the extent of the celebrations, particularly when the details of the Budget emerged.
Taxes have been raised by £40 billion, with annual spending increased to £70 billion. National Insurance and Capital Gains Tax are up, energy costs have risen, borrowing has reached its highest levels since October, and pensioners are feeling the squeeze.
In short, Labour has lied.
A montage of videos on social media posted by Reform shows the number of times Labour promised not to raise taxes and pledged economic growth. Instead, they’ve implemented absurd policies that the British people did not vote for.
If you run a business, drive a car, own a house, and manage to afford a holiday every year while enjoying a relatively comfortable life, Labour genuinely despises you. Those with fewer resources will also pay the price—for workers this tax hike will make living unaffordable.
Throughout the campaign, Labour promised change and pledged to improve lives through pragmatic decisions, focusing on working people and ensuring retired pensioners received more support, as outlined in the Pension Bill, part of their legislative agenda in July. In every speech, they reiterated that taxes would not be raised. Keir Starmer even shared a sombre anecdote about a pensioner who couldn’t afford heating and pledged to eradicate such hardship. Yet, the Winter Fuel Allowance has been cut and State Pensions will increase by only 4.1%, although the Triple Lock will be reinstated.
The British people have been dealt a series of heavy blows.
Where we would expect inflation to drop, wise investments to be made, and tax cuts to be a priority—allegedly, so the manifesto stated, values central to Labour’s identity—we instead face inflation-busting handouts to trade unions, spiralling welfare spending, neglected farming families due to inheritance tax reforms, and a minimum bus fare increase from £2 to £3. Rail fares are also set to rise by 4.6%.
Although wages have slightly increased, and the price of a pint has dropped by a penny, £22.6 billion has been added to the NHS, with billions funnelled into education, despite Labour’s previous emphasis on reform over funding. Rachel Reeves—who claimed she didn’t plan to be a big tax-raising Chancellor—has plunged the country into more debt, while refusing to rule out future tax increases.
With taxes at record levels, Reeves celebrated her ‘success’ by visiting a pub with her civil servants shortly after the Budget, presumably taking advantage of the cheaper pints. Labour continues to blame the Conservative government for a so-called £22 billion black hole, but this claim is now confirmed as unsubstantiated by Britain’s economic watchdog.
The only black hole in this country is the one Labour has dug for itself, one that they will inevitably fall into. For people of my age who have never seen a Labour government in action before, our eyes have been well and truly opened.
The approval ratings of both Labour and Starmer continue to drop as they dangerously pursue their socialist agenda. The country mistakenly voted these moral relativists in—and now we must endure five gruelling years of betrayal and bitterness. Unless of course Starmer continues on his downward trajectory, in which case he will soon be as unpopular as Liz Truss – and we all know how that ended.
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It was entirely predictable and yet people were stupid enough to believe otherwise. When will any political party have the strength of conviction to rationalise taxation so that after a certain £ all income will be taxed at x% and with no exceptions BUT all other taxes will be abolished? Never of course, because that would be simple and transparent and would lead to unemployment for the tax accounting industry and many, many civil servants.
On the principle that you get less of whatever you tax, income tax is mainly a tax on working. Do we want fewer people working and each working fewer hours?
I see that the Trumpster is attracted to reverting to the old American system: no federal income tax and instead reliance on tariffs. Insofar as tariffs are a sort of clumsy consumption tax I suppose there are worse ideas. I recommend he also institute (if it be constitutional) sumptuary taxation on stuff that only the very wealthy buy. And if the revenue from those taxes is much smaller than the current revenue from income tax then cut expenditure by the federal government.
Given that politically it is essential to fund Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, almost everything else will need to be cut heroically. Good.
It won’t happen of course, not least because though he might win the election he won’t win the count. And if he were by some miracle to win the count They’d shoot him or jail him.
Can’t comment on USA taxation situation, but my single tax preference (should it bring in less taxation than the current proliferation and avoidance mess) would be to cut expenditure to match the tax receipts. I’d also abolish Council Tax and he ability of Local Authorities to levy extra charges and fund it centrally from national taxation at £per head of population – economies would then be essential.
Can this oldie say “we told you so”? Nothing new about a Labour Government, they will never change.
UK Local government – another huge waster of taxpayers’ money – has got out of hand and needs drastic pruning at administrative level. The 1970s ‘triple layer’ model (county, district, and parish) is inefficient, over-complex and outdated. Unitaries (based on counties?) should now be mandatory everywhere, with councillor numbers (44 at districts and 70+ at county!) cut and chiefs and senior managers being consolidated and taking pay and pension cuts; local frontline services can still be provided from local depots but without the bloated and costly bureaucratic superstructure.
There is now, more than ever, a desperate constitutional need for the voters in our nominal democracy to be able to dismiss a peacetime government – ie one that is seriously inept and/or does not reasonably and substantially keep to its published manifesto commitments. Relying on Parliament and opposition MPs to do so (eg votes of no confidence) is vulnerable to all sorts of internal influences and pressures, including sheer lack of opposition numbers, and is slow and opaque. A series of broken electoral promises should be seen as a breach of contract with the electorate and punishable with penalties – the more egregious and heinous the executive’s deeds being grounds for dismissal and a fresh election. Otherwise, we are always doomed to live up to five years’ hard rule totalitarian under what is only an elected oligarchy.
If as it now seems Labour have told lies about taxation, lies about winter fuel payments, lies about university fees, lies about the non existant “£22bn black hole” and Reeves “embellished” her CV about her time at the Bank of England (and her apparent chess champion status) why are these fibs not being challenged by other MP’s and the media? Why is more not being made of the clothing, use of fancy New York apartments, pop concert tickets, clothing and spectacles given to various MP’s etc?
Where are the legal challenges and lawyers leaping to the defence of those imprisoned with such haste? – and don’t get me started on Tommy Robinson! Are they afraid of Starmer and his ilk and prefer to keep quiet lest they be “outed” by their fellow lawyers or afraid their lucrative legal aid gravy train will grind to a halt?
I had hoped Farage might get stuck in, but he seems rather quiet on the whole business.
Sadly I’m not sure if Badenoch will gain much traction either.
Because it’s a club and we’re not members (nor likely to be allowed to join). Farage is though top drawer enough to be tolerated by the club – don’t bother recommending that everyone gets behind Reform (one commentator always does), they are just another part of the problem.
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‘For people of my age who have never seen a Labour government in action before, our eyes have been well and truly opened.’ Yeah…bit late to discover this.
Unfair, the writer is 16 and if Labour lowers the voting age to this then hopefully those previously deemed to young to vote might just reflect on what socialism really entails and vote accordingly (they won’t of course and will predominantly vote Green and Labour as those without much life experience are easily conned).