UK Politics Thread

Yeah, that one got a big eye roll from me too. Wonder how long Tim Davie has left on his contract..

*Not* just thick, but very definitely evil too. Getting others to gang up against the parent of a dead boy:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/06/nadine-dorries-whatsapp-messages-broke-mothers-heart/

I think there almost certainly are a lot of people that are pissed off that they aren't going to get the money they put towards a nice evening out or chuck into the Christmas present fund. Let's be honest, the introduction of the universal winter fuel allowance was almost certainly a bribe to pensioners and the majority were quite happy to pocket that money for lots of things that weren't their fuel payments.

But, there will also be certainly people that are no longer going to get the money that desperately need it. Some of that will be self inflicted, as there are a lot of pensioners that could claim pension credit and don't (either because they don't know they are eligible or out of a silly sense of pride). For others, they will just be outside of the requirements.

I do think they needed to change the rules around it and not have it completely universal. The approach they have gone with is a bit of blunt instrument though and could have had greater thought put into where the cut off will be.

Hopefully they can stagger the releases or something to avoid the homelessness issue. The "ex-prisoners with accommodation are 50% less likely to re-offend" figure is pretty striking.
www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj08g87r8j4o

they'd better be careful though, or the constant cramming of the buzz phrase of "tough decisions" into every response is gonna start reaching Tory levels of eye-rolling.

My gran is on double pensions and she's complaining about it. She's the kind of person who will see her neighbour get a wheelchair ramp and be straight onto the council to get one for herself. If someone else is getting something, she wants it. Or will be judgemental that they don't deserve it. You know. An old person.

To be fair, she keeps her house at a balmy Center Paris Sub-Tropical Swimming Paradise all year round so I dread to think how much he bill is but she has the wedge to pay it.

Tbh, I am in two minds about this. On the one hand it should be a universal benefit but on the other, lol reap the whirlwind, old people.

The problem, fundamentally, is that not once have the words 'we have made the tough decision to tax billionaires' ever left the lips of a politician. Squeeze someone else, fuckheads.

My in-laws were moaning about not getting it.

They’ve just booked a £20k cruise.

Its really the principle of a universal benefit vs taxing the fuck out of the most wealthy people in our society. Anyone who is angry about it is a communist.

I think means testing it is fine - but using pension credit as the benchmark is probably too low. Issue is to do more, you create and cost more in admin.

Has the narrative become that? It feels to me that everyone seems to be getting increasingly angry about it. The announcement itself felt like it was met with "oh well, that is a shame", but mostly a shrug. Now the people on both the left and the right seem to have smelt blood and are getting increasingly vocal about Labour killing pensioners. I guess the vote tomorrow has brought it front and centre into the news again. A big backlash from Labour back benchers feels inevitable and it is only going to get messier.

Personally, as I said before, I don't think the level has been set right, as there will be a lot of people that do need it no longer receiving it. It did need to be changed though and I expect the same people would have been furious no matter what the changes were.

I think we also can't really judge this until the full budget is announced. There might be plenty of other elements that will benefit the most in need. I expect we also see things, such as changes to capital gains and inheritance, that will give a better picture as to what they are going to do with the economy beyond "punishing pensioners". Until the full picture is revealed, all the analysis, think pieces and ravings seem a little pointless.

None of that denies that the way they have gone about this was a massive misfire though.

As far as I'm concerned they can eat shit with the triple lock but the winter fuel stuff is a bad look. If you really need to raise some money, take it from the top 0.1% of people who won't even notice it's gone for fucks sake instead of immediately coming for the most vulnerable people.

The only problem with taxing billionaires is that generally they’re the ones that are able to trickle down that cost to everyone else.

It should be done but ‘how’ without them it is very hard.

It's not like they will sell all of their assets, tax those instead.

Pensioners should form a union, then they'll be able to get whatever pension and benefits they want.