O/T the budget.

[KerrAvon]

If Ivan Pavlov were alive today, he wouldn’t need to use dogs in his experiments on conditioning. He could simply say ‘benefits claimants’ to Twitter users and readers of the Daily Mail and wait for them to say ‘scroungers’ in response.

What a nasty and mean-spirited people we are in danger of becoming.

How about a little bit of nuance? Many of the people who will benefit from the lifting of the two-child benefit cap will be in work (I have heard a range of figures from 40 to 60% and haven’t had the time to try to pin down an accurate figure). Are they scroungers for having the misfortune to be low paid? On here, it seems that they are, irrespective of their circumstances.

Many of them would probably love to have car to scrape the ice off at 5am.

I am not wildly enthusiastic about the budget nor slitting my wrists over it, but it seems to me that something had to change. We have failed to invest in our people or the country’s infrastructure for the last 15 years or so and neither that nor choosing to impose barriers to trade with Europe seems to have made us happier or better off.

I am obviously a loony lefty liberal etc. (but also someone who is a higher rate taxpayer, has regularly worked 60+ hours per week and has only been on benefits for two weeks in his entire adult life) and I am sure that everything that I say will be viewed through that lens.

[KerrAvon]

I think the budget has wider appeal than just Reform followers

In fairness to Grist, the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap was a policy of Reform 2025 Ltd.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/nigel-farage-calls-lifting-two-child-benefit-cap

In fairness to you, the Daily Mail, Telegraph and Express and other Farage supporting organs don?t seem to have noticed.

[Back of the net]

If Ivan Pavlov were alive today, he wouldn’t need to use dogs in his experiments on conditioning. He could simply say ‘benefits claimants’ to Twitter users and readers of the Daily Mail and wait for them to say ‘scroungers’ in response.

What a nasty and mean-spirited people we are in danger of becoming.

How about a little bit of nuance? Many of the people who will benefit from the lifting of the two-child benefit cap will be in work (I have heard a range of figures from 40 to 60% and haven’t had the time to try to pin down an accurate figure). Are they scroungers for having the misfortune to be low paid? On here, it seems that they are, irrespective of their circumstances.

Many of them would probably love to have car to scrape the ice off at 5am.

I am not wildly enthusiastic about the budget nor slitting my wrists over it, but it seems to me that something had to change. We have failed to invest in our people or the country’s infrastructure for the last 15 years or so and neither that nor choosing to impose barriers to trade with Europe seems to have made us happier or better off.

I am obviously a loony lefty liberal etc. (but also someone who is a higher rate taxpayer, has regularly worked 60+ hours per week and has only been on benefits for two weeks in his entire adult life) and I am sure that everything that I say will be viewed through that lens.

Disagree with you. Of course some work or want to work. However there are those who have no intentions of working. I have one in my family 6 kids and never worked or wanted to work in his life. Why should the hard working people have to pay for them? If you can?t afford kids don?t have them. And what about the cultures where they have loads of kids. I wonder what the breakdown is on how many of them work or claim benefits. My sister in law has cancer and can?t claim a penny yes I know that fits under a PIP she?s never not worked and has savings. The government have made these choices not to increase people livelihood but to try and appease a certain demographic. It?s a political choice and nothing to do with fairness.
Benefits should be a support mechanism in times of need not a career choice. Feck em lazy scroungers.

[mygiddypant]

Yes the workshy scroungers who want freebies. Maybe you are one of them so welcome the budget. Do you detest anyone working hard to make a better life for themselves. Bitter and angry that people have worked for a better life.

I showed your nasty little comment to my nice Pakistani Benefits Scrounger Advisor, as it caused me some mental anguish.

She has booked me on a TR Mental Recuperation Cruise over the December holiday (we don't call it xxxxxmas), paid for by yourself and others.

Thank you.

[mygiddypant]

In fairness to Grist, the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap was a policy of Reform 2025 Ltd.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/nigel-farage-calls-lifting-two-child-benefit-cap

In fairness to you, the Daily Mail, Telegraph and Express and other Farage supporting organs don?t seem to have noticed.

Grist was making his usual holier-than-thou comment from the comfort of his beige cardigan.

[Back of the net]

I showed your nasty little comment to my nice Pakistani Benefits Scrounger Advisor, as it caused me some mental anguish.

She has booked me on a TR Mental Recuperation Cruise over the December holiday (we don't call it xxxxxmas), paid for by yourself and others.

Thank you.

You had me then but I read it again and I can?t have caused you mental anguish. You don?t have any mental capacity so it?s not possible. Maybe get your care worker to respond next time. 👍

[animallittle3]

What would you all have done?

I would definitely have gone a bit heavier on taxing the gambling industry , I'd fall short of treating it like tobacco and high taxation but at the same time since the Internet entered our lives gambling has got huge because it's so easy to access through phones and tablets .

I've seen the consequences of this in my own family and gambling addiction can and does destroy lives just as many other addictions do .

I say this as someone who enjoys a weekend flutter but I think the government could have done more in my opinion .

[Stovicmiller]

I showed your nasty little comment to my nice Pakistani Benefits Scrounger Advisor, as it caused me some mental anguish.

She has booked me on a TR Mental Recuperation Cruise over the December holiday (we don't call it xxxxxmas), paid for by yourself and others.

Thank you.

still trying to be funny but you will always be a coward.

[frogmiller]

If Ivan Pavlov were alive today, he wouldn?t need to use dogs in his experiments on conditioning. He could simply say ?benefits claimants? to Twitter users and readers of the Daily Mail and wait for them to say ?scroungers? in response.

What a nasty and mean-spirited people we are in danger of becoming.

How about a little bit of nuance? Many of the people who will benefit from the lifting of the two-child benefit cap will be in work (I have heard a range of figures from 40 to 60% and haven?t had the time to try to pin down an accurate figure). Are they scroungers for having the misfortune to be low paid? On here, it seems that they are, irrespective of their circumstances.

Many of them would probably love to have car to scrape the ice off at 5am.

I am not wildly enthusiastic about the budget nor slitting my wrists over it, but it seems to me that something had to change. We have failed to invest in our people or the country?s infrastructure for the last 15 years or so and neither that nor choosing to impose barriers to trade with Europe seems to have made us happier or better off.

I am obviously a loony lefty liberal etc. (but also someone who is a higher rate taxpayer, has regularly worked 60+ hours per week and has only been on benefits for two weeks in his entire adult life) and I am sure that everything that I say will be viewed through that lens.

It amazes me how you see things on X before people you accuse of taking their info from X!

Your profession is going through a crisis! Interns are being replaced by AI bots which means in a few years your profession will lose a generation of scholars and be left more at the mercy of governments world wide.
It wasn?t that long ago your younger coll?gues were on strike because the 60 hour week you talk of left them earning less than the minimum wage. At the same time scrounging KC?s or QC?s at the time were scamming the British taxpayers out of ?800 per hour by using the legal aid system!

Clean your own house up before criticising others!

[howdydoo]

The chancellor has admitted that the government is asking ordinary people to pay more following her budget.

I've seen Keir Harmer saying the same thing. When did they 'ask' exactly. Clueless.

Working class party my AR$E

[UlleyMiller]

What would you all have done?

Above all else, remember the point of the Labour Party. It is supposed to exist to give a voice to the working class, and it's missing the point. The working class has seemingly become a catch-all for anyone on benefits (any kind), and people on NLW. The press has done a wonderful job of encouraging people who finance a cheap Audi of thinking they're fast-tracking to the elite, and (admittedly, other parts of it) that pensioners are all 88 year olds in need of every penny, and everyone on any sort of PIP/similar sit in the same boat as each other, all as morally upstanding and deserving as the last. Politicians have latched onto this and forget that it's neither the long-term unemployed (or unemployable in many cases), nor the elite who really keep things going.

I get hammered by the 60% tax trap, and along with pension changes, EV taxes, the 2028 freeze being extended to 2031, it's just a continuing assault on middle earners. The problem is (for me), there's little sympathy if you earn above a certain level because people often assume that your net is wildly higher than most. But... when you consider that the real terms impact of taxation is pretty much in the 60s for many who creep over the supposed 40% threshold, you're pretty deluded to think of yourself as anything other than working class. For me, the budget was a reminder that political games come before any sort of incentivisation for workers.

I support NLW and pensions going up at a sharper rate than most salaries because it's necessary. I'm happy with the so-called mansion tax (albeit it seems very basic and a bit 'fag-packet-y'). Finding ways to address self-employment being a route to disproportionately lower taxes makes sense but this in particular, along with the lack of attention on benefits reform, seems like another half-baked idea which needs some real focus.

All in all, a wishy washy budget of minimal consequence (despite some of the hysteria), but not one which has moved the needle the right way for me one bit. Financially worse off, disappointed in the thought behind it, rueing the lack of a credible opposition party to keep them on course... but pragmatic enough to know that it was so unadventurous that we neither fall into another Truss/Kwarteng calamity, nor expect to get excited about growth in the next 12 months.

What would I have done? Acted like Labour works for 'labour'.

[Back of the net]

So Rachel from accounts lied about the black hole amount just being revealed. Who would have guessed.

[mygiddypant]

still trying to be funny but you will always be a coward.

I'll leave others to judge the quality of the funniness, but I'll admit that you've got me on being a coward.

That's why I wear a balaclava when I go out painting roundabouts and hanging flags where they're not wanted.

[MillerBill]

So Rachel from accounts lied about the black hole amount just being revealed. Who would have guessed.

This is VERY, VERY serious.Clearly misleading the public, by continually saying they inherited a black hole of 22 billion.This govt. is not at all fit for purpose and the public is suffering through all this total mismanagement.All the promises pre election are just lies and lies and lies.

[Yak]

Genuinely can?t understand how anyone can defend the lies from this government. It?s abhorrent