That Starmer fella...

I think the smoking crap and Maggie daub squirrel stories are all flares for whatever Reeves is up to.

Tru Labour have already got themselves caught up in setting the daily news agenda with midwit fuckery rather than anything approaching policy. Expect more nothing burgers from the empty suited flabby greyman. Trebles all round for the fifth sector lobbyists and the union blobbyists..

Two shaggy dog stories so far today..

• NHS to identify fatties at work
  
• the 4 day week
  
  
  

What would you say are the missteps so far?

Smoking ban seems like a good policy. They’ve banned smoking in outside areas in Spain and it seems to have worked / though all the smokers and vapers just go across the road from the bar.
4 day week - also seems good. Hope they do it for teachers but I doubt it! When I had an office job, many moons ago, I did spend at least a 5th of the time looking busy whilst doing nothing.

I'd say it is more how things could have landed rather than the policy, but the winter fuel allowance thing and the bleak, hopeless vibe around this week's press conference. My feeling is both could have been communicated much better in a way that allowed people to get onside. Maybe you will disagree and there hasn't been that much to judge on so far. I'm sick of the language of austerity and suffering at this point and I hope they aren't planning to trade in it for too long.

The austerity stuff is part of a very deliberate attempt to cement in the public mind the view that the Tories have left behind a failed economy

As per Liam Byrne 'there's no money left' circa 2010 which Osborne and Cameron made very good use of

It will be reiterated all through autumn and winter

The multi year spending review in spring will be the start of more spending and hopeful announcements, to give off 'we are turning the country around' vibes

Yes, this!

Classic under promise and over deliver.

Missteps, so other than the Winter Fuel Allowance, it more your feelings, rather than any actual things they've done?

Let's hope that's true but what about the corruption that set in so quickly with Starmer
taking personal gifts left and right?

in positive news Labour reached a compromise with aslef which the tories totally fucked and the reset with europe went well

Just like the Tories did 🤣

No, I said the way they have communicated their actions so far, I didn't say 'feelings'.

People who don't like Labour, not liking Labour; quelle suprise!

I’m surprised about the hoohaa from many Labour quarters and the Guardian, about Starmers cut to universal winter fuel payment for pensioners.

I’m reading very little in the narrative about the fact that most pensioners are actually pretty well off and frankly don’t need it. Are the politicians afraid to state the facts for fear of looking uncaring? Nearly a third of all pensioners are millionaires!

I'd assume what is driving the vast majority of that wealth is property values.

Which has the double whammy of being in large homes which cost more to heat and not having the liquid assets to do that.

Although a policy which drives downsizing may not be a bad thing.

The means tested part of the policy does seem to be very much glossed over with all the focus being on pensioners who can't afford to heat their homes. I've no idea what the means testing is based on though and whether there is an option to tweak that to make the policy more palatable.

On holiday with daily mail/gb news reading in laws. Hot take is that pensioners are always the first to get money taken away from them and they’ll miss the £300 a year. And the lie that it’s to cover the blackholey in public finance is a cruel lie to let pensioners die because they don’t care.

£300 a month year

There's no way my parents need the payment and the fact Alistair campbell said he is currently eligible shows that not everyone needs it.

I'd have thought if labour demonstrated this was a decent bit of wealth distribution people would be more behind it.

Why the unions are being so anti it I've no idea. It frees up government spending for those that need it.

I assume it's helping to pay for some of the public sector pay settlements

I could be wrong but I imagine a lot of the unions still have actively members who are already pensioners, and thus advocating for those that have already retired

Some of the phone-in comments from pensioners themselves have been mildly amusing, not least the ones who are up in arms but openly declared stuff like regularly donating to charity...

To be honest the labour messaging has been gash.

Edited (too many afternoon beers)

Which has the double whammy of being in large homes which cost more to heat and not having the liquid assets to do that.

I accept that is indeed an issue for many. But we don’t subsidise other life essentials this way, should society be subsiding pensioners to live in big old houses when everyone else has to make daily decisions to make ends meet with what they can afford.. it’s odd.

To be honest the labour messaging has been gash.

This too. I think they underestimated the pushback. They could easily have found a way to close the universal benefit whilst raising the benefits bar slightly to ensure more of the marginal pensioners are covered as a reasonable compromise and still make a big saving overall.

I think what a lot of people (unions included) are upset about is that Labour have been signalling another round of austerity and this seems to be the start. £300 a year to pensioners is ~£1.5 billion in savings. It's peanuts really.

Why make all these cuts when Reeves just needs to shift her (the Tories) fiscal rules slightly and all of a sudden instead of needing to make cuts, there will be extra money to invest back into public services.

£300 a year to pensioners is ~£1.5 billion in savings. It's peanuts really.

It’s 7% of the missing £22bn, definitely not peanuts.

After 14 years of coddling by the Tories, it’s high time the portion of the retired that can afford it started repaying some of the damage that was done to the economy during the pandemic in order to keep them safe - the young and working age of the country have already paid a lot more. I hope the triple-lock is scrapped in the budget, it’s wrong that pensions go up by more than average wages.

You're clearly not fsctoring the saga cruise liner industry. That cannot be allowed to collapse.