Starmer says he cannot ‘turn the taps on’ to fix council funding crisis

30 comments

1. >“I can’t pretend that we could turn the taps on, pretend the damage hasn’t been done to the economy – it has,” he said. “There’s no magic money tree that we can waggle the day after the election. No, they’ve broken the economy, they’ve done huge damage.”

   True, but not the answer many are going to be looking for.

2. So what is his solution? Clearly being the ‘lesser of two evils’ is his plan of action. A shit one at that.

3. People assume that Labour will just do a Patrick with finances once they get in…. Take it from one place and push it somewhere else.

   But with how much damage has been done by the Tories, that’s not possible… it’s gonna need a proper system change to ensure money invested where it needs to gets invested properly & not wasted.

4. “Can’t fix the council funding crisis”

   “They’ve broken the economy”

   Okay.

   What CAN you do and what the fuck are you going to do about it?

   Less ‘Tories bad’, more ‘this is how I will fix things’

5. Ok, so things are in the shitter, but how about telling us what you’re going to do, rather than telling us what you’re not going to do.

6. At this stage he only has to be slightly less shit than a really shit government to record a landslide. He’s managing expectations already to prepare for a second term. We are fucked

7. There’s no need to turn on taps just reverse all the fucking shit that got shoved onto councils responsibility list when it’s nonsensical and inefficient and make it central govts responsibility again.

   The way social care is done in this nation is idiotic ( unless you’re a profiteer )

8. He could borrow, tax the rich and generate wealth with publically owned industry though.

9. Well watching panorama or some show the other night the tax payers are funding disabled kids to travel over an hour a way in a taxi for some schooling or activities. No issues funding them but you don’t pay £120 per day on a taxi for this stuff, there needs to be local support for them not sending them off miles away, it’s not sustainable

10. Okay, but 5 years is a long time so maybe we could get an idea of what he wants to do to try and mend it.

    I’m not expecting magic, but by 5 years things should surely be on their way to getting a fair bit better.

    How’s he going to achieve that?

11. I mean he “can” this is just confirmation that he won’t.

    Basically because he doesn’t have to fix the last parties mistakes he won’t.

    Which is a bad message.

12. Does Labour have any idea how to fix this country? Are they committed to anything, or are we just going to get excuses? Yeah, so the Tories left a pile of sh*t, how are you going to get rid of it, or are you just going to play the “look at what they left us” game?

    Let’s have concrete proposals with 100% commitment. Not wishy washy slogans.

13. > There’s no magic money tree

    You cannot be fucking serious

14. I understand why everyone is saying “well what CAN you do then” but I think the meaning intended is

    “This is multiple stages of system failure, and it can not be fixed in a single term and it will not be soon”

15. So continuity austerity party? What’s the point then? If you’re not going to start clawing money back from the ultra wealthy that have been asset stripping our nation for 40 years then why even pretend to offer change.

16. At least he understands the seriousness of the situation.

17. It has taken 14 years to get to this level of corruption and incompetency. People need to understand there is no magic fix and we need to give things time. Things are not going to instantly get better when Labour take power, but it is a good start.

18. I mean, he’s not wrong? Could do with knowing what the plan would be, but he’s right not to promise a magic solution

19. Long conversation with another member on here: summary Starmer mustn’t upset (windfall tax) multinationals or they’ll pack up and leave.

    Best we can hope for us a continuity of Labour winning several times over at GE. Then “slowly” move towards something better…

    Hmmm not my preference at all but then I don’t like international tax thieves… 

20. No next government is going to fix anything in years . It’s just not feasible.Its a world crisis not just a UK crisis.The only injection of cash to help really comes from the upper echelons dodging taxes . The government needs to be bold and hold tax Dodgers to rights . They need to pay their way .End of .

21. So he publicly announces he doesn’t understand economics. He has no business being in politics.

22. Starmer is more of the same. He’s going to be gifted the job of prime minster through no merit of his own and then we’re going to get fucked just like we are now.

23. He is an indecisive, impotent and spineless as the torys themselves

24. Starmer enabling another Tory government by providing no opposition or difference.

25. no because tories *as usual* have cut all the taxing of the rich so theres no money. labour will be left with empty coffers if they get in *as usual*. right wing media will blame labour for rasing taxes to fix the economy the tories have broken *AS USUAL*

26. He’s right, the country is a shitshow under the tories, a shit show under tory/liberals and a shitshow under Blair. We are post imperial Post industrial, the only thing earning is the city of London, if we weren’t a fiat economy we would be more fucked . Just my opinion.

27. lmfao, it’s going to glorious seeing Labour struggle to explain why they can’t fix all the things they’ve criticised the Tories for being unable to fix.

28. No plan to lower the interest on the national debt?? That would put money into the council budgets. Maybe not today, but tomorrow certainly.

    In the grand scheme of things, four bilion is nothing… We are paying £112bn ever year in interest payments on our national debt. It is like cutting out the Starbucks, to put towards a £2k monthly rent figure.

    I never understand why governments get overly fussy over such small numbers, when there are absolutely huge numbers, that they are doing nothing about, staring them right in the face.

29. Yous taking the piss this guy isn’t turning the taps on anything! … his kids are Johnsons lmao

30. Crazy idea- nationalise the banks, energy / transport companies- Tax the corporations/ billionaires.

    Starmer: But! But that’s whose pockets I’m in, oh! Rishi, fancy meeting you here!