Anew government

That would be good you have cheered me up now

It's an open secret that Starmer is pro jewish because his wife is jewish.  This will lead to an internal civil war in the Labour Party with its Labour muslim MPs and a return to a Conservative government. 

Being old enough to remember the Winter of Discontent and all the other problems caused by overmight unions, I dreaded the idea of a Corbyn government or more precisely one where the likes of John MacDonald pulling the strings. Some of what Corbyn wanted was great, but the way he wanted to go about it wasn't. I remember seeing MacDonald telling some interviewer that the elderly didn't need to worry about housing anymore as jeremy would build them a house! I thought what, with his own bare hands?

There's a grimness to their sort of socialism that I really don't like, having been involved in it and around it for much of my youth, I became very disillussioned with it and it all started to become more and more like Monty Pythons 3 Yorkshiremen sketch. The worse thing was the feeling that they were serious about wanting bleakness. I also think that they would of rolled back on womens rights in favour of "the working man", that's also something I remember from those years, the way that they wanted women to remain as housewives, how they didn't want women in their unions.

I agree with firemonkey about the antisemitism, Corbyn has never accepted it as an issue in the Labour party. The odd thing is that the antisemitic arguements I've heard from the left are the same ones that I've heard from the right.

I'm politically homeless, I don't support any party, in fact I think that parties are part of the problem with politics, which takes precedence, the constituents or the party?

Starmer seems to have the ground running from what I was reading earlier, he's met the leaders of the devolved nations because he wants to work more constructively with them, Lammy's been doing similar in Europe and the Defence minister has been in Ukraine reassuring them of our continued support. I hope he keeps on in this way and sort out some other problems as quickly.

I notice he seems to be reaching outside of the normal political networks and putting people with real experience into roles where they've been working privately, like Lord Timpson, who's been working with offenders, training them and giving them jobs in his shoe repair business for years.  Sir Patrick Valence as Science Minister, also seems a good appointment, actually having two people in cabinet that actually know something about thier brief and how it works in the real world is quite revolutionary on government terms. Usually people with experience outside of parliament are kept away from the roles where they have prior knowlege, so as not to upset any apple carts, no wonder government dosen't work!

I think it depends on which supermarket really, whether you shop at at Lidl or M&S, we might all pay the same prices on paper, but what we can afford to spend our money on is another matter. If all you can afford is cheap rubbish, then you will have an overweight and unhealthy population and a healthy diet becomes the preserve of the better off. It's not only about what food you can afford, but what food you can afford to cook with fuel prices being so high.

Oh no please no Jeremy Corbyn has some unpleasant views and is a Marxist perhaps a vote of no confidence and we get Tom tugenhadt

Agree however Labour are as bad they do not like success and my local council which is definately socialist has been very intolerant to my Autism.I find socialism has been intolerant to my Autism and my sisters OCD .We have experienced really stupid comments when we applied for a blue badge for instance under hidden disabilities a word I hate and they were awful.

So what I am saying is left and right there are bad apples I have tried to be less triple now and would like a parliament of talent not of the parties

I just wish we can move away from the crass, uncivilised, stance taken by the Tories whereby doing well in the genetic lottery of life saw such people being lavishly praised. Not doing well resulted in people being demonised. I want a more civilised,decent, and intelligent, UK than that.

But the point is as long as we make sure everyone can eat heat and live a dignified life I do not think we can decide who pays more than others a fair flat rate tax system is the best way then you maximise revenue it is just gesture politics Labour tried in the 1970s to have tax rates over 80% and it failed.

Also if we are going to take a view of who pays what why do we all pay the same price in the supermarket.

I think as long as people are not evading tax and being a good citizen good luck to them.

It is like in life I would love to be a professional footballer but I am not people that are wealthy have often done amazing risk taking things that I would not be capable of.Sorry for the waffle but I want what everyone wants which is fairness and a good society and you get the using the above

I prefer Ed Miliband to David Miliband(I don't dislike him)  but agree that it would've been more politically pragmatic if David Miliband had won the contest. More being raised is fine. What isn't fine is the increasing gap wealth wise between those who are already very well off and those who are less fortunate.

You also need to have attractive polices for the rich and those that takes risk wealth distribution although it seems the right thing to do actually leads to less revenue so that those you want to help end up poorer.

Thanks for your reply I find Corbyn as bad as Farage and he needs calling out.I still say with Labour their biggest mistake was not electing David Miliband he was and still is a tremendous person with so much to give.He also ended up with Andy Burnham leaving and many other heavyweight MPS.I took the view that if these people had stayed in the Tories being sensible which in my view they were until Brexit we would have had a political landscape where it would not have been worrying who gets in.

My issue with Labour is they raise taxes and Rachel Reeves although relatively centre ground has plans on CGT pensions and non does that will lower our tax take.Blair understood let the rich be successful and you actually raise more

Corbyn replacing Starmer would be the death knell of Labour as a serious political party. I didn't vote for him as leader of the party in 2015, as I firmly believed he wasn't capable enough to do the job. I voted for Yvette Cooper instead. When he became leader I hoped against hope that he'd prove me wrong. I regarded him as an ineffectual but decent politician.  Over the course of time  he failed more and more to prove me wrong as to his leadership qualities. Despite that I voted Labour in both 2017 and 2019. It's his behaviour after being replaced as leader that has resulted in my thinking he's neither a good person or a good politician. Much of that centres round his  narcissistic refusal to denounce the atrocious behaviour of many of his most ardent supporters. That's not the behaviour of a decent person.

And you would be quite happy if these austerity measures were aimed at the disabled and/or vulnerable? I will never wish reform well. Given half a chance it would turn the UK into the jingoistic,ultra intolerant, cesspit of Europe.

I am afraid all I will say is I take the view I want to maximise the tax take.This did one by having a sensible level of tax that encourages people to want to earn money and invest.if you over tax and go after the rich it does not work.I had a lot of time for Blair and mandelson who said they were comfortable people getting filthy rich.I liked Brown on the bank rescue and I like him as a person however he was responsible for complicating welfare and stealth taxes  and giving away Gold.

New Labour fine and the jury for me is out on Starmer but if he starts discouraging non does and just taxing the rich ti look match it is counterproductive.So that is why I am in favour or  small state and lower taxes it leads to everyone being better off

I doubt if they had the collective wit to organise something as cohesive as losing an election, Labour had such a massive lead in the polls and Sunak was unpopular. Whilst they mmight look at the way Starmer turned Labour from a similar electoral position over 5 years to wining, I still think the Tories incapable of doing so. Labour only had their own party to fight with, the Tories will have Reform to fight over and with as well as themselves. I don't think them capable of learning the lessons sent to them by the electorate as quickly. I think they will go further to the right and that dosen't seem to be where the country want to be

Personality over politics is what's become the problem. But the media are the real problem. How long is it going to be before things start unnecessarily trying to be dug up on politicians of the new government. No one is perfect and they need to be allowed to get on with running the country. 

I'm hoping this new government will restore some much needed integrity to proceedings. That politics is about just that rather than sleaze and scandal and complete ineptitude. 

As for tax, I wonder that people wouldn't mind paying more if we actually got value for money.

Re Starmer being boring, and other thoughts. Personally I prefer boring but brilliant to charismatic but crass(Farage,Boris Johnson). It amazes me how many people have a myopic and somewhat  irrational  mindset about taxes. They want good public services but don't want to pay a sensible price for them.  The  Tory policy of penny pinching results in more than was saved having to be used to fix the damage it caused. I think Labour have a hard task in front of them. The Tories have crapped all over the living room of politics, and Labour has to get rid of the stench before much can be done in the way of much needed renovations. Realistically that's a 2 term task. Can Labour do enough to persuade  voters that they deserve that 2nd term in charge? That'll require bucking the trend whereby the Tories f***  up the economy, Labour don't do enough in voters' eyes to fix things - and the Tories get voted back in. 

but yet we also can say the same about islam and say that we have witnessed a single muslim that says he wants to murder all none muslims and so claim that all muslims are bad.... you see what he means when put this way?

not all of a group is bad because of one person in it being bad.... there are millions of bad people in labour too is all of labour bad?

Dear Martin,

Although I disagree with Nigel on many issues he is not like Hitler.I would not vote for him but look at the good he has done highlighting that banks have de banked people for having an opinion not aligned to their values.He also believes in democracy and he also. believes we should pay less tax these are good things.

if we look at Farage I think we also need to look at the far left  like the greens who want to tax success and also are anti car drivers and many other things.There are also people on the hard left that use strikes to bring the country to its knees.I just think we need balance he is wrong on immigration but not on everything

Except it is more than one Reform-connected person. I have the impression that Farage's party, like Le Pen's in France, are busting a gut trying not to let their true opinions become publicly known. Remember that Hitler was voted into power - he quickly dispensed with any real democracy very soon after - he did not present his policies as kill all the Jews, Roma, disabled and Socialists and gear up for another cataclysmic world war, no, he claimed that he would sort out Germany's economic problems create jobs and make the trains run on time. Farage and Le Pen are offering similar inducements, but their hidden agendas are vile.