UK economy heading for ‘worst of all worlds’, CBI warns after Labour Budget

34 comments

1. Part of me wonders whether, given how much stick Labour are getting on this, they actually got it right.

   I’d also like to know where these voices were in the last fourteen years.

2. Where was the CBI when the conservatives were running the country into the ground?

3. So we have gone from miniscule growth to no growth and now everyone is panicking. Think the problem has been there the whole time.

4. They taxed the wrong area. But politicians are scared of taxing the wealthy.

5. Step 1) put trade sanctions on ourselves.

   Step 2) discover it kills business.

   Step 3) increase taxes to keep government spending up.

   Step 4) never think about fixing step 1..

6. The grifters leave. The adults start clearing up the mess. The adults show us the mess was bigger than the grifters told us. Some people blame the adults.

   This is why the UK’s f**ked.

7. So ass blasting SMEs with extra cost when they were barely profitable wasn’t a good idea? 2025 is gonna be an absolute bloodbath. Say good bye to vast numbers of retail and hospitality. Watch our high streets decline. Watch the middle class and middle business get taxed out of existence. Watch the biggest mass transfer of wealth in human history continue. Then top it all off with a massive recession opening the door for reform to take us into the stone ages.

8. Previous government had 14 years but happily lined the pockets of already wealthy Tory goons. Trickle down economics is a total scam pyramid scheme

9. As an aside, presently there are varying signs of a global contraction (if non-economic signs are a favourite, then the number of US CEOs selling stock in the past few months is typically a sign of bad things to come).

   But I’m sure that we’ll soon be told that any global recession is the fault of Labour, just like how the crash of 2007 was the fault of *”Jock McBroon who sold are gold”*.

10. Can’t we just mess around with interest rates?

    That apparently solves everything…not.

11. The coverage on this has been ridiculous. It’s clear there had to be tax rises to fill that black hole/invest in public services.

    So where does that money come from? Could have rowed back the NI cuts but that’s a direct tax rise to workers. The company NI cut is an indirect tax but actually at least some of the slack will be taken up by companies.

    Ideally they’d remove the triple lock, but given the level of tantrums entitled groups such as pensioners and farmers have when a tiny amount of their income/wealth is threatened it’d be political suicide..

12. This would count if the CBI had any credibility.

    The fact Labour is making the hard choices and the rentier class are finally having to play and pay their part & all we hear is bleating says everything.

    The economy needs a major re-engineering and we are all going to have to suck it up. That’s if we manage to avoid slipping into a full fledged kleptocracy over the next 10 years.

13. I think the anger towards Labour is directed more at inaction than anything. People and papers understand the Tories caused this. But Labour have shown so far a complete lack of ambition or bravado required to fix the economy at this point in time. No actual vision, no willingness to make actually difficult decisions. Just more tweaks around the edges. It looks to me like Starmer / Labour is our Scholz and SDP.

14. We’ve been on this track since the financial crash in 2007. It’s probably too early to say if the labour budget is having a positive or negative effect. The revised figures from the obr are from the period before the budget was announced, so really it’s a consequence of the Tory budget and the assumed changes in the labour budget. Hopefully the commitment to large scale investment will generate growth, but it’s too soon to tell.

15. The very fact we can’t trust British Media and Politicians as to what is right or wrong is the biggest issue here.

    Politicians only out to point score – all the the expense of the Public.

16. The signs that we are entering a recession are everywhere.

    Worryingly, it doesn’t look a Christmas bump is even really going to arrest the slide.

    Lots of people will lose their jobs and the comments are full of ‘but the tories’…Incredible.

17. Let me guess, the solution is even more trickle down economics, the problem is we haven’t given corporations and the wealthy enough, if we give them even more surely things will improve, we just weren’t trying hard enough before /s

18. Pretty much EVERY western European country is facing economic difficulties. Brexit has made matters more difficult in the UK. The recent election of an unhinged, aggressive, unstable protectionist president in the US hasn’t helped either.

19. What about Brexit?

    It’s clear that the changes introduced in the budget will hamper economic growth, but let’s not forget Brexit. It’s still there, dragging down exports and inflicting constant damage on the economy every single month.

    Yet, we continue clinging to the same outdated red lines on Brexit, all to avoid upsetting a particular section of the electorate.

    Meanwhile, the economy stagnates when what we really need is bold action to drive growth again.

20. Media are desperate for labour to fail. We have had 14 years of the tories decimating the public purse and everything else they came with, and a budget from Truss which sent marketing into tailspin, but turns about it’s all labours fault, who have been in government for 6 months.

    Media really have it out for labour, because maybe they know their rich owners influence is being challenged.

21. As Labour say, it’s going to get much worse before it gets worse.

22. I don’t suppose he suggested what tax _should_ have been increased

23. I don’t like Starmer or this labour, but even I get the phrase “short term pain, long term gain”.

    Ok, I’m struggling to see the ‘positives long term’ right now, but isn’t it a bit too soon to spout this doom mongering?

24. More austerity…after trying austerity for the last ten years

25. Yet the tories will promise tax cuts and suddenly no one cares about anything else anymore because tax cuts yay! long term thinking, economic strategy, investment in the future, pay now to save later, all of that can fuck off for a tax cut party, yay tax cuts! Honestly the British people are so fucking thick it hurts.

26. Follow where the money went during COVID and you’ll find your answer.

27. People want immediate results but it’s just not feasible. The Tory government spent 14 years tying the country in knots, and unpicking them will take a while. It might be that it’s necessary for things to get worse before they get better. Unfortunately, a decent percentage of the public behave like petulant children – they demand results now and are unable to see the bigger picture. They are also unaware of the bias the British tabloids have towards the right-wing parties, and just how influenced they are by said tabloids, so when they are told “things are worse under Labour” they don’t bother to think critically.

28. It’s an accurate description of the British state of affairs, never have I seen a country go pick the worst aspects of both right and left wing policy with the benefits of neither.

    But for copium and whataboutism posters, things are only going to get even worse. The economic incentives under the former Government AND this Government are to go on the dole, get Motability and plunder the State why be productive when the tax man steals your money?

29. The CBI: Spends years lobbying successive Tory governments for tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts.

    THEN

    Bitches and whines at a Labour government because the country went to shit.

    Fuck the CBI. They’re a joke of an organisation.

30. Doesn’t matter what the Government do. The Tories have killed the economy permanently, unless you can get middle income worker salaries up by £10/20000 before tax and fix house prices rents at their current value then economy will continue to stagnate.

    If you are a UK university student/graduate and leave the UK there is nothing for you here.

31. Honestly, I am past caring what these think tanks say. We have been systematically run into the ground over the past 14 years and if the country is going to decline, I would sooner it be through incompetence whilst trying to do right than just being sold down the river by evil

32. Putting all tax rises on businesses was probably not the greatest thing to do.

33. Genuinely asking here. When was the last time the CBI had something positive to say about the UK economy.

    I’ve searched and it’s often growth is high but we need xyz

    They’re like the unions, police federation and every other special interest. it’s always doom and gloom and even when the sun is shining they want more.

    Happy to be corrected on this.

34. The big thing people are overlooking is – if companies are starting to tighten their belts due to the budget they’re also going to look at more cost saving measures.

    There are so many pencil pushing jobs that just aren’t needed, my girlfriends sister works in HR and she gets £60k per year and £6k bonus in the public sector. She works from home and she literally does nothing, she has “meetings” with other HR people in the company and all they do is talk about their personal life and then when someone needs advice she will “check with someone else” – literally a middle man.

    There are so many people in jobs right now that just aren’t needed – and the dominos will fall very soon.

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