UK Politics Thread part II

[Jimbuna]

Whitehall spending spree makes higher taxes inevitable, warns IFS

Rising taxes are inevitable if the Government keeps spending heavily, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned.

Taxes are already on course to hit their highest share of GDP since 1948, according to official forecasts, although the IFS has warned recent policies could drive up levies further.

The prospect of a greater tax burden on households comes after a surge in Britain’s borrowing bill since Covid.

Martin Miklos, an economist at the IFS, said: “The increase in taxes, while historically and internationally large, has not matched the growth in spending.

“Hence, it has not been able to prevent debt from rising by more than in any other comparator country bar Japan.

“Countries can and do make very different choices about the size of their state – but choosing a higher level of spending without a commensurately higher level of taxation is not costless and is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.”
The Government has recently cut some taxes, including the headline rate of National Insurance.

However, it has also embarked on a programme of stealth taxation by freezing thresholds, while it has already increased the corporation tax rate from 19pc to 25pc.

Decades of heavy spending have led to a significant increase in the size of the state since the turn of the century.

In 2001, government spending in Britain amounted to just under 35pc of GDP, around eight percentage points lower than the average across advanced economies.

That gap narrowed under various Labour and Conservative governments, peaking during the pandemic as it hit around half of GDP.

Following a recent fall, that figure is now expected to settle at around 43pc of GDP, which represents a permanent increase in the size of the state.

The IFS added: “Pressures on spending on areas such as health and social care are unlikely to abate any time soon.”

Rising spending requirements have coincided with a jump in Britain’s national debt bill, which has risen from a third of GDP in 2000 to more than 90pc today.

Forecasts from the International Monetary Fund show how Britain’s debt will account for almost 100pc of GDP by the end of the decade.

This comes at a time of higher interest rates and weak economic growth.

The IFS said: “The UK is now forecast to have the seventh-smallest cumulative growth among the 37 comparator countries in the period 2019–29.

“With low growth (and the era of very low interest rates seemingly having come to an end), much tighter fiscal policy is needed to get debt falling.”

A Treasury spokesman said: “Thanks to our responsible action with the public finances and our progress on the economy – with inflation falling and wages rising – we have been able to cut National Insurance by a third while sticking to our fiscal rules, with debt falling in the final year of the forecast with a larger buffer than last spring.

“The Chancellor has been clear that growing the economy and improving productivity is vital to improving public services, and that any further tax cuts will be delivered in a fiscally responsible way.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...c7344a87&ei=53

[Moonlight]

There's nothing about the cost of the Migrant Invasion then?, thought not, swept it under the carpet as usual have you?, everyone will pay extra taxes to pay for those scroungers, except the Migrants of course, they'll not pay a penny as usual.

[Jimbuna]

One fact is beyond any and all reasonable doubt....whatever is currently wrong with this country, the Tories having been in power for the past fourteen years and can blame nobody but themselves.

[Moonlight]

Sick note squads to crack down on workshy Brits: Rishi warns 'spiralling' benefit bill is 'unsustainable' and 'life worries' are not a reason to shun work

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ring-2-8m.html

I remember the explosion of the sicknote culture after the miners strike, Thatcher couldn't sort it out in the 80s and these politicians wont sort it out now.
Sicknotes, PiP/DLA claims are all done in the same way I've been reliably informed, it goes right back to Thatcher and John Majors days in power, from the 80s and 90s they've tried to fix it and have failed every time. Some people will always try to get a slice of something for nothing, it's human nature, assessments were always a hit and miss affair, many claimants who needed DLA didn't get the financial aid it would have provided and a lot of claimants with nothing wrong with them did, it was a disaster.
The same thing is going wrong with the sicknote brigade, most of them are taking the piss as usual and something needs to be done about it, it can't be right that people in their prime of life are experiencing mental health issues, we old gits took our knocks on the chin and just moved on with life, these pillocks today can burn their toast on a morning and have to go to bed for a week to get over it, it's ****ing madness on steroids.

Governments have tried to sort these things out before, they've had some successes but overall they've failed miserably, Thatcher, Major, Blair and Cameron all failures. One thing I do know for definite and that is Sunak wiil soon be on that list of failures as well.

[Jimbuna]

Should be fun and games then.

[Jimbuna]

Only 100? Surely theirs room for two or three times that number.

100 MPs to stand down at the next general election

The number of MPs who have said they will leave Parliament at the next general election has reached 100.

Conservative Tim Loughton, who has represented East Worthing and Shoreham since 1997, became the 100th MP to announce he was leaving the Commons.

Most - 63 in all - are Tories, and they include former prime minister Theresa May.

That said, 56% of the 650 MPs (365) who won their seats in Boris Johnson's landslide general election victory in 2019 were Conservatives.

A total of 17 Labour MPs are also standing down, along with nine from the SNP, two from Sinn Fein, one from Plaid Cymru and one Green - the party's only MP, Caroline Lucas.

Other big names departing Westminster include former deputy PM Dominic Raab, COP26 president Sir Alok Sharma, and former deputy Labour leaders Dame Margaret Beckett and Harriet Harman. Dame Margaret also served as foreign secretary.

Another seven MPs who now sit as independents - five elected as Conservatives and two as Labour MPs - also won't be standing again.

With the next election not needing to be held until January 2025 - and the prime minister pointing to it happening some time in the autumn - the total figure may well grow substantially.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68839793