The figures are not good but to me it just highlights what mess we are and nobody has a plan to turn it around. A lot of our economic challenges are self inflicted. Everybody wants services but nobody wants to pay for them. Almost like we've created a perfect storm for ourselves.

3 minutes ago, Rooney said:

The figures are not good but to me it just highlights what mess we are and nobody has a plan to turn it around. A lot of our economic challenges are self inflicted. Everybody wants services but nobody wants to pay for them. Almost like we've created a perfect storm for ourselves.

Maybe some truth in it but I saw this earlier

Welfare spending as a percentage of GDP.

- France: 31% of GDP.

- Finland: 29%.

- Belgium: 28.9%.

- Italy: 28%.

- Germany: 26%.

- Spain: 25%.

- Denmark: 25%.

- Sweden: 25%.

- Norway: 25%.

- Japan: 22%.

- United Kingdom: 21%.

And yet it’s only the UK that is attempting to cut such a thing. So where are the plans outside of just cutting spending and raising taxes? Surely Labour should have came up with some while being in opposition for 14 years

I mean it’s been 6 months…..

2 hours ago, Liam S said:

Maybe some truth in it but I saw this earlier

And yet it’s only the UK that is attempting to cut such a thing. So where are the plans outside of just cutting spending and raising taxes? Surely Labour should have came up with some while being in opposition for 14 years

It’s apples and oranges though, some of those countries have much higher taxation levels than us and all of them are also in the EU, which is the single biggest thing we could do which would improve our economy in the short term. We wouldn’t even need to rejoin.

My issues is I haven’t seen any other serious alternatives proposed by anyone. I think the idea of a wealth tax is going down the wrong avenue too. It’s why they’re going after Land taxes with the farmers. The value has shot up way above inflation and you have so many private holders of agricultural land.

12 hours ago, Liam S said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/20/growth-forecasts-halved-keir-starmer-labour/

So they based a budget on growth did not get the growth and now they’re making huge cuts everywhere. Very predictable but there you go.

Growth has been pitiful since the 2008 financial crash. That's why Labour are making it such a high priority. Most incoming governments inherit a struggling economy. That's why their predecessors lost. However, this government inherited a worse mess than most.

Spring Statement was appalling. Labour could be damaging their brand for generations

This is why the evil Tories were grinning when they left office. They KNEW the country was in a right state, snd they wouldn't have to fix ir. Let Labour get all the blame.

First thibg's first, rejoin EU. Thst might help kitigate soke of the major damage those evil Tories did. Bur that, combined with their mishandling of the oandemic AND their majoe mishandling of the economy following Gordon Brown's plan - which wss working - has left permanent damage. Rejoining tje EU will help, but the scars are still going to be there.

It was obvious for at least a year before the election that the Tories were deliberately leaving an almighty mess for Labour to clear up. Unfunded cuts to NI and a string of unfunded spending commitments mean that Rachel Reeves has probably the worst inheritance of any Chancellor in my political lifetime.

From what I’ve seen so far there are a sizeable number of Labour MPs saying they’re going to vote against a lot of it. What that means for the economy I do not know but it’s probably the best decision they vote it down. You cannot put people into poverty when other options are available

Yes I think rejoining the EU would probably be the best option, especially with what's happening in the US. The UK should align much closer with the EU and on top of the general benefit, Canada is also working with the EU for a closer partnership which would benefit the UK as well. Or perhaps not rejoin the EU but rejoin the single market.

The boost to the economy from that alone will help to balance the books a lot more easily.

Edited March 26Mar 26 by Envoirment

It is predicted that the benefits cutbacks will see another 250,000 people descend into poverty. 50,000 of these are set to be children.

Supposedly, the anti-tax-avoidance measures are very rigid and well put together, by criminalising well-known loopholes. https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/03/26/radical-anti-avoidance-measures-hidden-in-the-spring-statement/

Beyond that, what a fucking disaster of a Spring Statement in terms of its mission in restoring trust in the government's direction. Taking away so much welfare from disabled people is despicable, and it barely moves the needle on the public finances. All of it does, it's tinkering around the edges. The rules are really hamstringing them and they can't do anything more radical to fix it.

The thing is, this characterisation of Reeves as incompetent by the right-wing press really misses the mark, and blinds them to the scale of the problem. She's competent alright, she knows what she is doing, within the limited constraints she has set for herself. She does not have the courage to attempt the sort of changes that would actually lead the country out of the problem, so instead she is putting a bet that numbers will start moving in the right direction if she chips away at them. It will lose, and it's completely uninspiring, but that's her strategy.

The thing that made me the most disgusted was upping the age from 18 to 22 for claiming incapacity benefit. What was the reason for that? At 18 you are an adult. You should not be punished for being a young adult with a serious long-term illness or disability.

I am a little alarmed at what seems to be across spectrum an ideological war and shift against what age an adult is.

Depowering and disenfranchising legal adults to be reclassed as dependents allows a government to do a lot of things to figures - reducing the number of 'adults out of work' by reclassification, removing all kinds of rights or making that person reliant on institutionalisation and not having personal power or veto rights, and all manner of authoritarian moves.

I criticised the Tories for similar moves, I said it then and I'll say it again, it's a bit rich for people who may themselves have been married or parents or homeowners or holding responsible work roles at a young age to then misleadingly frame 'young people' of a similar age in a disingenuous and inferior light to 'real' adults in a No True Scotsman esque argument.

You see the 'children' line already used in the trans wedge issue in which the 'children' or 'child dependents' who are being discussed are frequently 18 year olds who are only dependent on their parents due to cost of living forcing them to share living space, which is framed as 'living at home with mum and dad' even when in reality the younger person is often paying for the space in their parent's house and should legally have lodger status and control over their living space as they see fit.

The worst thing about it is that the chancellors team have repeatedly said this week that they don’t know how many people will move from PIP/UC into actual employment and yet they are just going ahead and doing it. This suggests it’s all about the stats being reduced and not about actually moving people into work that can work.

As if my MP Dan Norris has just been arrested!

Labour supporter in 2024 who has just inherited an ancient monkey’s paw - “I wish that Jacob Rees-Mogg loses his seat to a Labour MP, who makes a name for himself in the next parliament.”

*Monkey paw retracts menacingly*

UK economy far exceeds forecasts to grow 0.5% in boost to Rachel Reeves

babe wake up, it's time for the latest entry in my favourite genre of headlines: 'UK economy number slightly goes up/down in boost/blow to Rachel Reeves'.

Notable because the number, 0.5% growth for February, is higher than we were expecting. Probably will get revised down, but economy growth good, right?

9 hours ago, Iz 🌟 said:

UK economy far exceeds forecasts to grow 0.5% in boost to Rachel Reeves

babe wake up, it's time for the latest entry in my favourite genre of headlines: 'UK economy number slightly goes up/down in boost/blow to Rachel Reeves'.

Notable because the number, 0.5% growth for February, is higher than we were expecting. Probably will get revised down, but economy growth good, right?

The expectation was growth of 0.1%, so overshooting that by 0.4% is a good sign. Although some of the reasoning given was companies rushing before the US tariffs as there was a big uptick in trade from the UK to US. But it was a number of sectors that saw better than expected numbers and not just the US tariffs responsible. Good news either way!

It's nationalisation without compensation* day (for steel), based.

Emergency session for Parliament pushing through the nationalisation in Scunthorpe seems to be going well and well received across the political spectrum, always nice to see.

*sure, there is some cost associated from it, but from my understanding it's mostly ripping it out of control of the owners no matter what they say.