Yeah, Prime Minister actually does their job probably isn’t the stinging criticism that the right-wing press think it is. In fairness, there were still travel restrictions in place in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic, so it isn’t the best period to compare with, but I seem to recall that it didn’t stop Boris Johnson spaffing £900,000 on a garish paint job for the plane, thus rendering it useless as a military jet.
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Bluster Force 1
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Shit Hair Force One.
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I had this exact conversation at work the other day, and when it came back to where the money comes, predictably the answer was to tax the rich.
It made me want to fucking scream.
They can’t just go and get money from the super rich. This isn’t the seventies. The super rich don’t have their (or rather our) money in the local building society. It’s all tucked away and untouchable in the fucking Cayman Islands. We can’t get to it.
Medium term Labour have to target wealth, but the wealth they have to target is what the super rich can’t help but keep in the country. But look what happened when Labour put forward an 20% inheritance tax on farm estates over £1m (less that anyone else pays). The country lost its fucking shit. Labour we’re copping it from all sorts of people, strung along by that fucking gammon Jeremy Clarkson - who had previously boasted of buying a farm specifically to avoid inheritance tax.
Longer term they can look at changing domicile rules and offshoring rules, but that’s going to be phenomenally hard given the public narrative is controlled by the same pricks this would hit in the ball, and the idiotic public lap it up.
In the short term they need cash urgently. And there are very few places to draw that money from. I would love them to be more bold. But the whole nature of political discourse in this country is absolutely fucked, it really is.
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We’ve had this conversation before. Like in their 2019 manifesto they could introduce 45p and 50p tax rates for the highest earners, that would have no impact on 99% of people.
Who gives a fuck if Clarkson, the tabloids and the sheeple lost their shit. Labour can still choose to do the right thing while they have this majority.
So you can scream and defend Starmer all you want. But it’s factually untrue to say there’s no money. They just don’t have the conviction and the balls to tackle wealth inequality
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Once again: proof that neoliberal brainwashing has dragged the political landscape so far to the right that anything remotely socialist is immediately deemed unacceptable.
I just can’t wait until everything is privatised and yet average wages are so low that people are dying en masse in the streets.
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This is where I’m at. If they want to start to actually drive change and turn the ship round they need to get stuck into at least selling the narrative that the reason we are in the shit is because all of the country’s financial resources are now owned by fewer people.
A large part of the problem is that people dont understand this and why Farage and tories have been in power.
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Of course there is. I’ve set out some stuff in the last post, but the point I’m trying to make is that even when Labour make good progressive policy moves (which they have), they get absolutely hammered, including by the people that would benefit the most.
The people that Labour need the support of to remain in power gave their opinions shaped by the right wing press if they are older, and toxic social media if they are younger.
And it is certainly true to say there is a lack of money. Certainly money that Labour can draw on quickly. And while my instinct is to want to tax the rich fuckers until the pips squeak, I’m too old and jaded to believe that if Labour introduced a levy on the highest 1% of earners money would flow into the treasury as a result.
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But the problem is this.
Even if that’s the narrative Labour want to sell, who is going to carry it for them? How do they get that message transmitted?
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If only the super rich owned multiple properties, farmland, shares, paid school fees and or owned pensions…
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Taper corporation tax.
Currently, there’s a single rate of 25% for companies making an annual profit of over £250k ( I think)???
Ramp it up to 30% for £500k, 40% for £1m etc etc.
Sounds simpler than it probably would be, but not even exploring it while simultaneously freezing pensioners is as Tory as Tory gets
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Door to door like in the ‘good’ old days?
At least like that they appear présent and concerned.
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Reach isnt the issue these days, the message is. Currently people don’t believe they have a government, Labour or Tory that will stand up for them.
Get the message out there, explain what it is and start to lay out what you’re going to do to rebalance the money in peoples pockets.
Get it out there, and let it build momentum.
Currently the message is we need to grow and balance books but you’re paying for it. Change the message to billionaires will pay for it. Or something like that.
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Hasn’t Starmer done his best to get rid of them? 
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Got me there, but as an engineer anything that involves mass and movement I get kind of interested.
Even gravity is cool.
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If only more people had it.
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Potholes, telescopes and gravity.
Anyone wanna put their hand up to sit next to @Noo_Noo at the next TAN Christmas dinner?
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I’ll even natter away to myself too.
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Big fan of this today:
Countering malicious lies with undeniable facts while still maintaining the opportunity for diplomacy by avoiding getting drawn into a transatlantic slagging match with purposefully cunty counterparts looking for a fight.
Statecraft.
I was saying the other day imagine if Truss was here now (for obvious reasons) or Rishi (looked like a schoolboy on the world stage) or even Boris (competent speaker but ever a blagger). I’ll add to that Corbyn who would be been an utter disaster in this situation for many reasons.
I think, despite many reasons people have to dislike Starmer (whether I agree with them or not), that we are lucky to have him as PM right now.
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Christ! Have you ever heard that buffoon actually string a coherent sentence together?
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