The problem that the labour party has is that Brexit has brutalised the economy so there’s less money to go round, and they’re too chicken to start up that fight again (plus they already know that they won’t get as good a deal from the EU second time around), so they’re stuck doing the cuts that the Tories were too stupid to understand the necessity of post-Brexit, which is exactly what their voter base don’t want. Plus some absolutely unforced errors with stuff like water quality, and the whole Gaza thing - they’ve been pandering to a centre who doesn’t exist any more, and now everyone hates them.
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Restructuring post brexit was done very very poorly by the conservatives no doubt and even now the UK still has a better GDP than all EU countries.
Starmers biggest issues started with cancelling the fuel allowance for pensioners. He eventually reversed that decision but has made 16 U-turns at last count.
Shows a lack of leadership, strength and direction and that’s what did him in.
The biggest issue for the UK is the debt. Leaves very few options for government in providing improved services if you don’t raise taxes and that is of course very unpopular.
Also the UK lost its industrial base during EU membership as UK countries were able to produce products cheaper.
Unlike Australia, they do not have natural resources to provide some income for the government. Yes, we don’t tax them enough of course but at least we get some taxes in which they do not.
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It was all downhill after he mentioned the sausages
Maybe it was when he said he is the son of a toolmaker. So many jokes about him when he said that.
He was not suited to be a politician. Just like Johnson and May.
The emulsified high-fat offal tubes?
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If the UK were to rejoin the EU they would get whatever deal they asked for, as long as they stand their ground and don’t do an Essendon and cave in. The major players in the EU would be getting hard ons at the thought of them re joining.
Yeh, tap the sign.
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You would think they would be better off by rejoining but modeling doesn’t show it.
Seemed to work okay for Jim Hacker.
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In the UK VAT is now 20% but the UK is nowhere near the highest taxed European country overall, and lower than numerous countries VAT rates.
I imagine having a high GDP and a reasonable tax to GDP ratio is cold comfort for battlers ekeing out a living where there are fewer industries and fewer jobs, in the north when London makes the greatest contribution to UK GDP.
Rumours are a revolving front door is going to be installed at No. 10 Downing St.
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Very kind on here the bloke was an absolutely horrendous leader.
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I think the cat has been living there the longest.
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I reckon what people underestimate is the effect of having a massive majority. Often means a weak Opposition and certainly many Labour MPs are scared of losing their seat so they don’t want tough decisions made.
I would argue the Gillard Government was progressive and worked well because it had no majority and it hence had to get things done.
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The Essendon football club, on the other hand…
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I notice the main push of Reform according to Farage is migration.
He often quotes “Migration” figures during the 3 years post COVID, not Net migration, which is far less. Nor does he quote thes figures in per capita levels .
During the Tory post COVID period, an Australian “points based” system was introduced, but automatic permanent residency was allowed after 5 years and the concern Farage has is that vast numbers of migrants taking advantage of that will go onto social services. Lets park that argument for the moment.
The fact is that when compared on a per capita basis, the levels of net migration, emigration and migration are far less than Australia and have dropped precipitously since the Tories were wiped out.
In 2025, net migration into the UK was 2.5 per 1000, for Australia it was 10 per 1000 population.
So, who has a better case, Farage or Hansen?
Farage is certainly much smarter and smoother as a political operator, but on those figures of 2.5 net migrants per 1000, its no wonder he keeps going back to the “Boris Wave” gross migration figures of 4 million over 3 years to justify his alarmist claims. But the permanent residency fear has some merit, when the motivation of the government was to redress skilled labour shortage post COVID
Per capita, we have been inundated with migrants under Albanese.
But we also did have some room to take in the high numbers initially.
Another difference is our migrants are generally a lot better than the UK ones. Most want to study or work and not cause trouble.
The UK migrants would generally be fine, including students etc.
Its the Uk “illegal” migrants are mostly men coming by boat and happy to get provided with housing and social services and no real prospect of working as they are content with the funds. Same issue in Ireland.
Now its no doubt that Musk, Farage, Katie Hopkins and Michael McCarthy have been highlighting the issues they face and almost creating alarmist content.
The other issue is Net Zero, UK like Australia importing asbestos windmills. And buying Gas, but not exploring for gas and their coal reserves have already been used up.
Pocock did a great reel recently about how Australia should be training more doctors in Australia, and rather than taking doctors who are also needed overseas, training them here.
Approx 51% of Ausssie doctors were born overseas…is it a skilled labour shortage…or is it done on purpose to get cheaper labour?
The former I believe.
There’s always a huge demand for admission to medicine courses at tertiary level, which is why the required scores for admission are so high. I’m no expert on the field, but I think we’re just not training enough doctors here. Whether responsibility for tgat lies with govt, unis, medical associations, or all of these or something else, I don’t know.
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My understanding is our real bottleneck isn’t the unis but the first training job (can’t remember the title). There aren’t enough places.
Hospitals love the placement of training doctors. They get paid fark all in comparison and put in crazy hours.