Starmer responds to questions from the Big Issue journalists and from vendors. Nothing particularly groundbreaking here but it all sounds good.
Austerity never ended.
He’s just going to keep public services underfunded and carry on the Tories legacy of austerity under the banner of “economic stability”. Starmer is a neoliberal.
It was only called austerity in contrast to the previous vaguely social-democratic settlement. After a decade or two, it’s just the way things are. The Tories themselves announced the end of austerity a few years ago, without changing a single policy.
Yeah, because it never ended.
Is he gonna reverse that HS2 decision for example?
The annoying thing is he can’t reverse hs2 as they are selling/sold all the land acquired for it including around Euston. He’s also always been very cool on it anyway, one of his few truly consistent stances.
I don’t think this is true. Last I heard they might be in the process of trying to sell, but that takes time due to bidding and making sure the value is right and all that comes with government stuff. Labour could still cancel the sales I think
no return to austerity because he’s gonna just keep pursuing the austerity we’re already under
A number of major forces (e.g longer lifespan and that Russian twat waging war) will continue to increase pressure on public finances like an ever tightening screw. Pretending that economic growth will solve the problem is wishful thinking, to put it mildly. Either one substantially cuts some publics service or increases taxes to a whole new level. Quite possibly both at the same time.
I’m deeply disappointed that the UK political parties wishing to have power seem only able to obfuscate things. “Let me be very clear, yadi-yadi-ya” - bullshit! It is tiring to hear only media optimised, content void word salad.
I’ve been a sceptical old git for quite some time, but perhaps I’ve still held a glimmer of optimism somewhere deep down. This election campaign has only pushed me deeper into cynicism.
Increasing taxes is just taking a larger and larger slice of a shrinking pie. You have to make the pie bigger. We have to grow.
Austerity hurt us. Brexit hurt us. We need to repair those things and accelerate growth.
Christ. He’s got a bold vision to be not quite as progressive as Scotland already is.