[mattomac]

Parents are getting their winter fuel allowance this year, apparently 35k is the income limit.

If rumours are true and one of the big taxes such as income tax goes up without a resettling around NI I will again be out of pocket and won’t see any benefit from cuts on energy as I rent.

Think that will be the Labour Party done for me.

[Dalem Lake]

That promise before the election is certainly coming back to bite them in the arse but it has to be done though, doesn't it? Nobody wants cuts to triple-lock pension increases or PIP, and nobody wants austerity 2.0, so the only effective option is to increase taxes.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Unfortunately most people think somebody else should be paying the extra tax.

[Abernathy]

I do wish that there was a more honest attitude towards the payment of taxes in order to raise money for decent public services . The whole concept of the tax “burden” is an indicator of how corrosive the notion is. Would that it was referred to instead as people’s tax contribution. Much more positive. James O’Brien is one of those people to whom affordably paying a bit more in tax than someone who can afford to do so less is a matter of some patriotic pride. If only more people thought that way.

The manifesto “pledge” not to increase the rates of Income Tax, National Insurance, or VAT was clearly unrealistic in hindsight,and was probably unrealistic at the time, too. Lord knows Sunak and his chums did their level best to paint it as a lie, telling their own lie that Labour would raise everybody’s tax by £8,000, but I don’t think the “pledge” (we shouldn’t have called it a pledge, either) was strictly necessary. As should be recognised, manifesto pledges -anybody’s manifesto pledges - aren’t really “pledges” at all, but intentions, aspirations if you like, that may have to change in the white heat of actual government.

Politically, I do not think that Labour will necessarily pay a heavy price for increasing taxes in the prevailing economic climate. Even Reform UK has had to recognise reality and abandon their idiotic pledges to cut council tax because the reality is that there is no scope to do so - the Tories have already cut funding and services to the bone over 14 years. If it helps kickstart proper economic growth, people should be okay with it.

[Abernathy]

David Lammy is taking PMQs as Deputy PM, as Starmer is in Brazil for the COP30 Climate Change Summit.

The Tories have put up some joker called James Cartlidge, who is apparently the Shadow Defence secretary, to sub for Badenoch (I’ve never understood why Badenoch doesn’t just do PMQs as usual in these sort of circumstances instead of putting up muppets like this guy).

Cartlidge used all six questions to try to get Lammy to say whether there had been any further accidental releases from prison of convicted asylum seekers since Hadish Kebatu was briefly released erroneously then re-arrested and deported. Now, Cartlidge only asked his question because he already knew the answer, which is probably no. The question was pure Farage - “I’m just asking questions” - and Lammy was never going to fall into that bear trap. He did not directly answer the question, but it was obviously designed to make Lammy appear bad or incompetent. It succeeded to some extent, I dare say, but really, what a pathetic pile of shite.

ETA : Now the news is breaking that another foreign prisoner, an Algerian bloke, was erroneously released from Wandsworth clink yesterday. We can see that Cartlidge obviously was aware of this - Lammy probably was too. I guess Lammy might have done better just to front it up honestly, but to be honest, I’m not sure.

[Tubby Isaacs]

If the extra taxes get the cost of borrowing down, then there's an opportunity for Labour to do more investment. While the Reeves plans are much bigger than what they inherited, they are still not that big in historic terms, Rail in particular seems to have been affected by this, with the Midland Mainline electrification being paused and not very much happening in London (where nobody doubts that eg the Bakerloo extension or DLR extension to Thamesmead would quickly fill up).

I'm trying to avoid my own bugbear of demanding that the area I'm interested in get a load of money, even if other areas need it maybe more. But I don't think either of these are particularly big asks. I know there's the "not fucking London again" problem, but since 2008, London uniquely has gone backwards in productivity. Some solution maybe where more can go ahead, with London itself paying a decent share, could work.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Don't know where else to put this. The idea that bursting bubble could be positive like this appeals to my sense of humor.