This big idea of theirs to tax school fees is blowing up in their faces. Now all the private schools are registering for Vat their are able to do some big boy reclaim. For example; all capital expenditure for the past ten years can be reclaimed. That’s buildings, improvements, vehicles, additions to infrastructure etc.

Anyone familiar with even basic levels of accountancy will have spotted this so why didn’t Labour? their bid to fill their coffers will result in a huge loss to HMRC in big VAT reclaims.

Wow, if correct.

It’s a mistake in any case to me. The parents involved in sending little Tim to private school have already paid through their taxes for state education, then they pay large school fees, effectively paying twice. Little Tim’s parents are helping to keep state schools class size down by funding another system.

Another one that caught my eye was with the WFA….the Labour spokesman stated that those registering for the for the pension allowance have extra time to register…sorry, but if you’re entitled to it you should surely be able to apply for it any time, not just in some window of their choosing.

When asked if their National no increase pledge over National Insurance they reply no increase for ‘working people’ but refuse to deny there won’t be an increase for Employers.
But, this could be equally disastrous as suddenly employers mah have to tighten their belts financially affecting job’s numbers in regard to current staffing levels or future recruitment..
They seem to be slogan rich but financially illiterate…

They just work out the figures using abacuses same as they do for any government projects like HS2.

Bunch of amateurs. The trouble is we all know who'll end up suffering from their antics.

You’re right there Jamie, suspect the prices fo most of these big projects are worked out the multiplied by throwing a dice….with six dots on every side.

wonder how many in the labour govenrment were privatly educated at some time of their lives. know if i had the money i,d have sent my lad to a private school and there are better reasons now to do it. doubt they,ll be as woke as the state system is and will learn what the parents want em to learn. my lad and his partner are all over this and question every day what the kids are being taught. if any trans or change of history comes up you might hear about it on the national news.

Look at Yarm School and it's
Music venue. Wasn't this built from.public money, anyone on this site who has had a private education? I guess that's most of us who haven't so why support an archaic PPE driven system that screws towns like Hartlepool. VAT catch ups happen regularly and it will happen once. After that the schools stand in their own feet, charities my arse.

PPE as in politics, philosophy, and economics not the Tory equivalent of NHS rip offs

Ah, Yarm School ..the school where our Labour MP was Head of Psycholgy and before that Head of Psychology and Politics at Newcastle School for Boys.

I just had to settle for passing the 11 plus, which stood me in good stead, funny how working class parents back in the 60’s loved it when one of their kids passed for the bragging rights ( bike guaranteed) because you passed through the system on your merits not what could be bought.
If someone wants to send their kid to a private school, let them, I wouldn’t even if financially comfortable because it has no appeal to me…… I have no political dogma pricking my conscience… it’s their choice as long as they pay their taxes.

I agree but as long as they stand on their own 2 feet and not hide behind the joke of charitable status.

We agree then, it’s a business.

The ones who go to private inevitably end up running the country via university and have no idea what it’s like at the grass roots level.

When the chancellor cant even do her own tax return then it shows she is not good enough to be in government, never mind in charge of the nations finances.

its the same the other way as i doubt many from state education fully understand the problems of those higher up the ladder. the best situation is a total mixture of both types of people in charge of things. problem with this country is its not the best man for the job but who looks the part and how many boxes they tick.

I’m afraid those days are gone, there’s too much competition all higher levels of education…might have been in the day when University education was a lot more limited.
There’s plenty of people from the grass roots ‘level’ now who suddenly get airs and graces when they get their degree …though deny it.
Seen it with my own eyes.

Ha your description to me conjures up a vision of Bryan Ferry. Just a normal North East working class lad, who on obtaining far too much money for his awful crooning and limited musical skills, starts to behave like Lord Cowshit from Cowshit Manor. Acting mega posh, dressing ridiculously, hunting, that sort of thing.

I literally encountered someone who told me that as she had a degree, she was obviously more knowledgeable than me on most subjects. Along with fact that living in student accommodation she had a unique view, by meeting lots of people and interacting with them.
I told her that she spent a lot of time therefore with….other students, hardly a heady social mix when they nearly all think the same …. She was gone within 24 hours when given her 7 day shift rota.
Pity we can’t restrict degrees to Science, medicine and teaching…everything else can have a diploma by bringing back ‘Poly’s’.

The funny thing is Snowy is that the really clever people, the ones that truly are bright, well read, and well qualified - they won’t brag about it or feel the need to big themselves up. They are intelligent enough to value others skills and opinions and are usually pretty humble.

It’s usually the same with class and wealth too, proper upper class people in the main aren’t too bad, it’s the middle class wannabes that are desperate to get more and will stab you in the back.

Aye ….you’re so right. The ‘social climbers’ with a ‘meeeja studies’ degree who think it’s a passport to glory as they look out at the queue of cars coming into the ‘drive thru’ contemplating the loan they took out while checking the time on the fries…..
Someone told me the hours of actual tuition they got face to face in a week and was shocked to find that on the five years day release course I went to at the Boro I did more hours face to face in that day that they did in the week.
Everyone wants an ‘ology’ and not to get their hands dirty….but that’s where the money is now

I was in a pub in Seaton yesterday young girl behind the bar, she was at uni studying film production, what sort of career is that degree going to bring her ?

That’s the stupidity of it Jamie, colleges banging out appealing courses to students and not taking into account supply and demand….. no good having courses for which there is a very limited demand……surely the type of role learnt in house with a studio……?
Uni’s having a thousand students graduating with degrees in something there are only 30 vacancies for, makes you question their intent.

How many policies are these idiots going to roll out without understanding the consequences of their actions. Simple stuff really, basic impact analysis or cause and effect. 14 years of preparation for a bunch of uni activists to be put in charge, it's going to be another 4.5 years of this and they'll continually bleat it's the fault of the big boys who did this and ran away (Torys). Embarrassing a once great nation.

All you have to do is look at the top of the Labour foodchain.

He looks and acts like someone who’s had their personality surgically removed, if indeed he had one in the first place

Labour to help run the USA.

Who knows where that degree may lead her. Hopefully to a well paid job in the film industry. Remember Ridley Scott. Also the institution that she is going to is bringing an awful lot of money, into the Hartlepool economy. Don't knock it.

You really are an optimist….I bet you believe Glenn Miller’s flight is just delayed..
Ridley Scott was 60+ year's ago and Hartlepool received zero financial benefit from his presence .

Major cock up, openly assisting one side in a US Presidential election….because if the other side wins we will get a backlash from such a dumb action as it would be regarded as hostile.
Totally idiotic behaviour by Labour, the sort you expect from student activists not governments. Would we like it if the boot was on the other foot and the US Party of government was backing a Party in this country …?

Like Trump backing Johnson?

It’s funny how our Tory friends are very quick to jump on Labour when something goes wrong/is a bit dodgy but they’re also very quiet when their own preferred political party makes an absolute arse of being in power, is just as corrupt and successfully runs the country into the ground.

Whilst I have a hole in my arse I’ll never understand how or why a working man would ever vote Tory.

And if Trump wins?

Did Sir Clueless Starmer authorise this?

seen it, i,ve suffered it and could be the reason why i ended up a rolling stone with so many failed marriages and relationships behind me. at least those from public school who get a degree are the same person as when they began their 3 years of indoctranation.

a better pub to work in.

worst thing is many equate intelligence with peoples wealth or degrees they have. i have met both wise labourers and thick graduates with rich mummy and daddies.

Working as a bricklayer, I have too. We once had a labourer with a degree in Astrophysics who could barely push a wheelbarrow straight.

This 100%

What a feeble gesture from Labour.Farage and Trump will sort out these cranks,just wait

on the whole through my life my own life i have never been affected differently which party has ever been in power. its just people feel more happier with a certain one over the other. it seems well before even i was born that labour was for the working man. more like the party for the shirking man and immigrants.

Well, you’re lucky you’ve not had to use the services eroded by successive Tory governments then.

Just for the record, I’ve been working non stop since the age of 16, hope that helps.

‘…Party for the shirking man…’

Our resident Tory party member, Mr I, openly criticised Sunak, so Implying that Tories only criticise labour is a bit weak. Tory members, in their droves either abstained or voted elsewhere at the GE.They deserted the Tory party.
On the other hand what you're accusing Tories of, equally applies to Labour or any other party.
It's politics.
As for the working man voting Tory, it depends what you class as the working man. Surely anybody who works for a living ia a working man, or woman for that matter.
Tory supporters will attack other parties including Labour and Labour will attack other parties including Tories.
Nothing new about that.
There's a lot of people who voted Labour at the GE, now regretting it but the diehards will defend them to the death. I used to be one of those diehards but not any more.

A lot wouldn’t have voted Labour, who would they have voted for ? A failed Tory Party who if they had got into power again, they would have had to take some thought decisions to balance the books.

Why on earth a working man would vote Conservative is beyond me also.
Mind you i would not vote for a pretend Labour party either.

Like I said they would have abstained or voted for another party. Which Party???? Who knows. I know personally some who said they voted Labour and who now say they must have been mad. I know others who voted Reform or so they said. I know one who abstained.
The fact of the matter is Labour won so they are the ones in the firing line and the Tories are history.

It's a long time since Labour was interested in the working classes, Tony Blair put the final nail on that coffin.
It's a case of the least of 2 evils, or more likely the least of 2 incompetent and corrupt group of arseholes.

Bet Lynch never looked back.

blair was the last labour leader i ever voted for. be a long time before i,ll vote for them again with the present lot being the same for me. once you knew what the tories themselves were all about but the last 5 years showed us they have also changed. really there is sod all between em apart from which one you feel more comfortable in your own mind.

Bloody hell Derwent...the reason he criticised him was because of his colour. He more or less admitted that in some of his posts.

The impression I got was he classed Sunak as a backstabber but as you consider every attack on a black man to be racially motivated I can see where you are coming from.
Nothing to do with your Dyke House upbringing I hope. Was racism rife at Dyke House????
God Bless Mr Lammy.
Have you got any specific target in mind on how many more illegal invaders we should allow in. Do any of them qualify for the winter fuel allowance because they will obviously feel the cold don't you think. Over thirteen thousand since two tier Kier promised to sort the job out and rising. What is your judgement so far??? Should we demand a GE before they destroy the Country altogether. We need answers.
Do you agree that convicted rapists should be set free in favour of incarcerating people who have an opinion, or do you think free speech and opinion should be chucked into the long grass.
Did the kids at Dyke House ever sing "Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never harm me"
Got to leave it there, me tea is ready.
Good old fashioned beef stew in a giant yorkshire pudding. Fancy some of that old chum. Mind you I very much doubt there'll be much left.