nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

New Government

wendy1

Is it just me that thinks Labour are not any better in power than the Tories were.

What is it with them that they have to attack pensioners and the disabled, why don't they take less of a salary, that would help the the money situation their talking about.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Albus_Alumni

I think it's far too early to tell really. They've only been in power for a very short amount of time and they have 14 years of muck ups to fix.

I'm under no impression that it'll all be sunshine and roses, it'll take many years to fix the mess we're currently in and I think we'll all feel the pinch.

Cantilip

@Albus_Scope Take your points, 14 years of incompetence is a very large pile of s*** to flush away, but this WFP business is just sordid, to my mind - and as PR walking disaster. I've said somewhere here I know pensioners who won't miss it, but the bar is far too low. Take it from Sunak! Peel money off those companies whose record profits we read of.

Albus_Alumni

I do agree the optics are not great! But at least the WFP is there for those who need pension credits too, so they've not totally removed it, they've just moved the goalposts. It was never meant to be a long term solution by the previous governments, just a hastily applied sticking plaster.

I'm hoping there'll be some give and take at least, so things may balance out more further down the line. Though it's far too early to say what will happen, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for everyone.

luvpink

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/121128/new-government

Yes I agree

Glad I never voted Labour but neither did I vote Tory.

Both are useless in my opinion.

Tumilty

Do any changes to do with benefits etc have to pass through other mp's, like a vote before they come in to action? Surely not all the mp's have a cold heart to focus on the unwell when there's lots of tax evasion from the wealthy & many people fit for work but just chose not to. They are the ones they should be focusing on.

wendy1

Sorry egister, I don't understand your reply

pburns1337

Reducing politicians salaries would make in practice almost zero difference to the national accounts. Cracking down on tax evasion by corporations might be a better way of raising money.

Jimm_Alumni

I will say, that our politicians are actually paid quite low compared to contemporary countries. Higher wages have been shown to make it less likely politicians will take bribes. Of course, some will always still take bribes and backhanders no matter how high the salary is, and some would never no matter how low the salary is. But the theory is it lessens the possible leverage of briber.

And as @pburns1337 correctly points out, it would make little difference. In fact because their salaries are that low (comparative with similar nations remember) and they often have to travel to and from, and stay in London, there is a lot of expenses required to enable them to do their job. Expenses are often more hidden and harder to detect. I'd actually rather they were paid more, but their ability to expense things to the taxpayer is more strict.

While we do pay a bit less than countries of a similar wealth to us, we also have quite a large legislative body. The only country similar to us with more members in their lower house legislative body is Germany who have 735 members in the Bundestag to our 650 members in the Commons.

wendy1

How do you know Politicians are paid low, their getting paid more than enough to ruin the Country

Jimm_Alumni

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/898788#Comment_898788

I was just making a comparison to other countries of a similar wealth level of the UK

JasonRA

Something I saw via the Guardian today but remember until things are set in stone I wouldn't jump the gun.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/11/chancellor-rachel-reeves-treasury-budget-tough-spending-decisions

UK ministers warned to prepare for tough decisions on spending - Guardian

Cabinet ministers have been ordered to search for cost-cutting reforms and prepare for difficult decisions over spending, as chancellor Rachel Reeves and her team formally begin the process of compiling a pivotal review of public spending.

“The Labour government will have to take difficult decisions about where to spend money because of the state of the public finances left by the Conservatives,” claimed a Whitehall source. “We are taking the tough decisions now so we can fix the foundations and deliver on the mandate of change we were elected on to rebuild Britain.”

She is planning to slash fraud and error from the welfare system, and to cut down on government consultancy contracts. A Treasury spokesperson said: “The chief secretary has now written to departments, kicking off the spending review process to fix the foundations, so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off.”

wendy1

Why should it be at the expense of pensioners and disabled people to fix the money crisis, why not get workers to pay more tax. Every money fault that's wrong with this country ends up leading to the poorest.

Meg24

I am extremely disappointed in them but will reserve judgement till the budget. So far it's looking like Austerity 2.0 with no change to the suffering for people reliant on the state. They asked us to vote for change, if they don't deliver that change they'll be punished at the next election and we could end up with an even worse government than the last one...

wendy1

I just don't believe what I'm seeing and reading, first their stopping the WFP for certain pensioners, next thing will be they stop benefits to people. As I've said before , I loved to see these people live on what certain people are living on

Tumilty

They say they are making decisions they don't want to & i guess that will be their excuse if making the ill work. If they do this surely it has to go through parliament by a vote and so hoping there aren't that many cold hearted to vote it in.

So angers me people in the media saying 'oh it's good for mental health to work who know nothing about mental health.. Why not focus on those on JSA who just choose not to work instead of those who are ill for no fault of their own.