The "uniting the party" pledge went out the window in the first week when he tried to cover up the Labour Leaks document, gave a big cash payout to the saboteurs and set up a enquiry to find out who was responsible for writing the document.
The "progressive taxation" pledge went early 2021 when he whipped the party to vote against increasing corporation tax.
The "nationalise gas and electricity" pledge was ludicrously dropped as soon as the energy crisis started and the weaknesses of leaving ourselves open to the volatility of private market interests was exposed.
Sorry Andy this just doesn't wash. The policies aren't changing in response to external factors. They're changing as Starmer's factions grip on the party becomes more assured.
haha just thinking about the idea you'd need to be a mindreader to know the tories had increased the national debt in 2020.
Back on the labour leaks thing I see, I'm sure I covered this the other day? The investingation was found to play little to no part in an any results and which acknowledged L:abour had massive problems on both sides, and was poorly run. If you're going to use something don't be disingenuous.
Increasing corporation tax just hurts small/ micro business owners disproportionally. The mid to large ones R&D their way out of it, or are large enough to funnel money abroad. I'm all for tax increases, but this isn't a good one, especially not at a time when businesses are getting screwed by brexit etc. Cutting tax loopholes would penalise the rich more, and without impacting the small/ micro businesses also.
Nationalising energy suppliers and distributors at a time when energy prices are hiked would be an absolutely ludicrous decision. You would have to buy the companies at a local peak, with over-inflated valuations, which valuations would then drop like a stone when energy prices dive, and they will dive, it's just a case of when. If we were to nationalise this, now isn't the time.
Nationalising energy production is a good idea (for what we can produce), but it would need to be funded somehow. I'm not against foreign investment in providing renewables (but no fossil fuels, and very little nuclear) but they need to be tied to the strike price, not like how the Tories let them off the leash to charge what they want and delay the contracts starting, that was ludicrous.
We can't do anything about the companies based offshore, and those supplying us from abroad, like gas, and electric which largely comes from gas, and gas being the most reliable of our major sources when the renewables are low short term etc.
Do you not accept that priorities have to change after a pandemic, war, energy crisis, hyper inflation, 100% debt etc? If not, why?
I'm not on about national debt in 2000, when it was 80-85%, and the curve had finally stopped going up, I'm on about the 20-25% rise which came in the space of three years since Starmer came in. It's forecast to be 110% by the time of the next election, nearly a 40% increase over 80%.
Again, why so disingenuous? My bet is he would have been basing the pledges on ~80-85%, not the 110% that it's likely to be when the next election comes, do you not agree, if so, why?
