bconcrete
VolksFAGGIN
Alright Riz, I'll play a round. I'm going full Bucky on your ass:Apparently net immigration is way down. How true? IDK. I'm sure that doesn't measure illegal immigration and its effects though. I'm not a proponent of mass immigration. I'm also not an expert in it and I don't have any good solutions to it either. Japan is experiencing a wave of totally necessary immigration and it seems to be going well. I hope they don't put immigrants in specific places or pander to their language and customs TBH. These seem like recipes for resentment, hatred and failure to assimilate.
Here is a summary of what the current Labour government would list as their achievements. It is copied and pasted from an artice in the Guardian. Yes, UK kinda sucks and so does every administration we've had since Michael Foot, but I don't think this government is all bad. I think they at least have/had a better shot at solving the massive problems facing the UK than those completely corrupt and devoid of any desire to do better Tories FS.
In fact, this Labour government has ruined my pension, but I kind of get why so I'm not madd about it. It is the biggest portion of public welfare spending by miles and so who would you want to take money from first? Foreign residents who have no intention of returning seem a good idea. I also believe this gov't wants to partly privatise the NHS, which is necessary. It's failing. I am not kken on the way they caved in to striking doctors and overpaid train workers though. Mainly the train workers. That was nuts to me, but I guess they needed to buy time whilst they figure out how to replace those ingrates with AI.
recap: in under two years Labour has ended the two-child benefit cap, projected to take 450,000 children out of poverty, provided breakfast clubsfor primary schoolchildren in England, made 500,000 extra children in England eligible for free school meals. Free nurseries liberate families to work, with a crucial early years educational boost and up to 1,000 new Best Start family hubs in England. The young have come first, with arts back on the curriculum, a lost youth service restarted with 250 centres to be built or refurbished in England – and new further education colleges with extra construction courses and apprenticeships. This is Labour turf; it’s not nearly enough, but it’s a start at tackling neglected training for the half of young people in England not bound for higher education. British Steel is set to be nationalised, alongside train operators, with rail fares frozen in England and pay-per-mile road pricing for all electric cars by 2028.
Business and its press protest at a real living wage raised by 6.7%, plus a 4.1% increase for the minimum wage, shifting power towards working rights that ends zero-hours contracts and beefs up union recruiting. Rightly the national insurance increase to raise £25bn fell on employers not workers. The Renters’ Rights Act protects 11 million people in England from no-fault evictions. Net migration plummeted by 78%. Green energy surges aheadwith priority investment. Today’s NHS waiting-list figures show the fastest fall in 16 years, aided by more than 2,000 extra GPs and 170 new community diagnostic centres.
No space here for everything, but Starmer’s government has done the good that only Labour governments do. Enough? No, but it’s dangerously frivolous to dismiss its advances. How unjust that only 26% feel that Starmer has brought any change compared to its Conservative predecessors; 60% feel there’s been little to no change. That’s plain wrong.
Ok, now let's present the other side of the argument just for fun, because fellating framing like this annoys me greatly (I know it's not you):
-There are 12.7 million children in Britain, with an estimated 4 million living in poverty. Even if their projections are correct, they've only moved the ~10%. Which is not noticeable improvement, and that's best case.
AND the two child benefit cap was estimated to save £3.6 billion per year. Even if we go with the conservative £2.5 billion, that's still £5 billion to "lift" 450,000 kids out of poverty. That is not what I would call an efficient ROI for taxpayer funds.
While the arts are important sure, should they REALLY be the priority in this day and age? With the ever-quickening pace of life and technology, I would have liked to see something more pragmatic if I were over there. Some sort of vocational training would be nice but, hell, basic fucking life skills that don't involve a screen in front of your face like I'm typing on now would be if immense value. Its like when my old condo building was found to have major structural issues, and they spent the money on a new paint job for the building. I mean, great, it did need it but I think there are more pressing concerns to get ahead of first.
Don't even get me started on nationalizing British Steel. Ok, you (reminder, not you Riz, the author of the puff piece you posted) want to say it's a national security issue and worth eating the cost, I'm listening and can get behind that. But do not paint this as a net positive all the way around. There are big taxpayer costs to propping this up, and there is high risk for the creation of a stagnant, tax payer funded, money drain of a monopoly in perpetuity. National security, you gotta bite the bullet, sure, but are we really going to cheer a poor investment of national necessity?
Hey, the real living wage hike is nice, but the UK is still playing catch-up from eating the COVID era inflation to the face pretty hard. They're still digging out. So while it's improving, workers lives have not yet improved. You don't really feel good about digging out of the hole, until you're actually out of the hole.
And while the Renters Rights Acts have some positives for tenants sure, there's no mention of the downsides. As we see anywhere increased government regulation enters renting and housing, landlords start selling instead of dealing with the increased government crap, scarcity goes up, prices follow, and rent is already the biggest expense an average individual in the UK has. Which, ironically, hits the people most affected by the real living wage increase they were just bandying about. Because the most likely landlords to sell are catering to the lower socio-economic classes, driving scarcity and prices, up the most in that group. So you can see how Labour has punched a hole in the very bucket they were just trying to fill.
And the NHS is the same thingas the real living wage increase. Yes theyve shown improvement in wait time percentage, but cmon. They were at 59% of patients waiting less than 18 weeks in early 2025 and they're at 66% now. Their stated target is 92%. They haven't met that target since 2015. .