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You’ve had one party in power for almost 14 years, and you’re trying as hard as you can to spread the responsibility evenly?

Do you recall what was happening when Jeremy Corbyn was the leader of Labor? The guy was getting bombarded by the press and the media. Could it be that his policies were actually going to change the status quo?

I'm not trying to spread the responsibility evenly, I'll say outright the responsibility almost entirely lies with the current party. But my criticism of the opposition is, it's been so unconvincing and has often lacked any real opposition that I don't hold any hope for them being able to make any significant change either. I include Jeremy Corbyn in saying the opposition has been unconvincing, his proposals on the economy were often naive at best. But I agree that the media in this country seems entirely designed to maintain the status quo at this point, rather than challenge it.

To add to vegancap's response, I'm quite confident Labour will raise taxes (they said as much). But what will they do with them? Will they be able to turn the ship around? Or merely increase the tax burden and leave people scrambling to pay the same bills from a smaller net income.

My concern is the latter. Though of course, no way of knowing for sure.

> If you're hard-working and a skilled worker, it barely pays off these days.

Part of me cannot stop thinking that people should just stop converging where already too many people live. If you can only find a job in London or San Francisco, start looking for something else, somewhere else.

Megalopolis are wrong. Stop accruing them!

I don't actually live in London (there's no way I could afford to), I remote work in the midlands and get the train in to London every couple of weeks. But I do agree that everyone living in London and San Fran for decent wages is part of the problem. It essentially makes those places unaffordable to people who've lived their all their lives, and actually doesn't even make that much sense for tech workers for example, who could work remotely and live anywhere anyway

> Megalopolis are wrong. Stop accruing them!

What makes you say that? In theory they are much more efficient way of living for a given number of people ( assuming you invest appropriately in shared infrastructure ).

I'll stop living in a megalopolis when I can make a decent living outside the megalopolis. As it stands, friends who moved out of London over Covid are now trying to move back.

> The two main parties are virtually identical at this point

Below is a counterpoint to this idea, which I think is captured well in the first line, "Petrified fucking terror. That's the first thing you think when you look at Labour. A barely-concealed, buttoned-up, can't-sleep-at-night anxiety, lurking just behind the eyes. They're scared they'll fluff it. They're scared that in the white heat of the election campaign, the Tories will find some policy in their manifesto to weaponise against them and the whole thing will come crashing down."

https://iandunt.substack.com/p/labour-is-going-to-be-more-ra...

I'll give this a read, thanks! I'm slightly desperate to be proven wrong on that statement I made, gives me some hope

Muneera Lula - the head of Labour party domestic policy graduated from university in 2017!

1. Makes me feel old 2. makes me wonder whether UK policy always driven by 20 somethings?

Absolutely this. The current Labour leadership is, for all its faults, laser focused on actually winning the next election rather than making the party's long-term loyal supporters purr.

The PAYE system seems designed to plug the gap created by the wealthy through pushing what they should be paying onto the middle class. You can never expect to get ahead under such a system with wage stagnation and an increasing cost of living. The only way to address this is through closing the loopholes, which is less likely to happen under fourteen years of tory rule.

Absolutely correct. We just can't have a situation where multi-millionaires are paying less taxes than people working their arses off from the ground up. It seems like the most glaringly obvious problem in our society and economy. And it's clear that avoiding fixing this problem is just blatant protecting their own. I used to think the notion that the Tories were here just to protect their rich mates was slightly unfair and conspiratorial. But they've had 14 years, and the've let everyone but the super rich fall into decline, what else can I take from that?

The tories seem to have given up all premise of actually implementing a single manifesto pledge, which is pathetic given their time in power.

It's going to be even more infuriating when they try to pull some big ideas out of the bag just before the election, because they've had so long to make meaningful change, but only decide to when their grip on power loosens...

Why not move then? Afaik Ireland has much lower taxes

And way higher real-estate prices?

than London?

Believe it or not, yes. The UK has cheaper housing than Ireland, and comparable or greater salaries (depending on industry of course). Even moreso comparing Dublin and London. Both are expensive, but in Dublin even if you earn loads there are physically not enough houses. In London there is

Because then he has to live in Ireland?

I have a partner that's not willing to compromise over 20 miles in where we choose to live, unfortunately. And I have a terminally ill father to think about, so can't really up sticks. Plus, I lament the situation in Britain, but it doesn't seem meaningfully better in most other European countries at the minute either. If I was 23 again and single, I'd be on the plane to Norway right now. Yes their taxes are even higher, but at least you get functioning public services in return. Which can't be said about the UK. As for Ireland, their income taxes aren't much lower I don't think, although I love Ireland and have Irish blood.

Not for people earning more than 50k or so a year. Ireland’s income tax system is progressive in the extreme - those earning over 50k pay over 75% of the income tax collected despite constituting about 20% of the workforce. About a third of the workforce pay no income tax at all.

Have you heard of the trash future podcast. You might find it a laugh.

Nope, but I'll check it out, thanks!

I'm in a similar situation. High earner, not expecting much in inheritance. It feels like sitting on PAYE is the worst possible tax option. Sitting on large amounts of wealth is super easy, its just impossible to get there.

> The two main parties are virtually identical at this point, bar some minor differences in rhetoric on none issues like 'woke stuff'.

I disagree with this. Labour aren't floating the idea of scrapping inheritance tax.

True, but inheritance tax pales in comparison to some of the other loopholes, especially around capital gains and corporation tax. I'll keep an eye on Labours policies, but every time I try to go and read about their actual concrete policies, there don't seem to be any. I'm guessing it will all become clear when all the manifestos are released. So, hopefully I'm proved completely wrong here. I want to be proved wrong because then there's a hope someone will do something about it.