Seb

The main reason our children go to hospital shouldn’t be rotting teeth. I promised that my government would fix this. Today we are launching a supervised toothbrushing scheme, so children across the country have a lifetime of good dental health.

For 14 years of Conservative government, we accepted low expectations and accepted decline. We no longer have to do that.  This Labour government will drive growth in all corners of our country.

"Those with the broadest shoulders should bare the heaviest burden." Starmer announces he will make "big asks" of the country with planned tax rises and cuts. 🎧: shorturl.at/7PSCe

Green Party MP Carla Denyer says it is in her party's "DNA" to push for "more rapid rollout" of renewable energy, while at the same time trying to explain why her co-leader is actively campaigning to slow down the rapid rollout of just such a project in his own constituency.

2. Together is better. The fastest build-outs of clean electricity in recent years have included a mix of electricity sources.

🚨 NEW: The 2024 Labour manifesto in full Main pledges: - All adults to receive a "genuine" minimum wage no matter your age - Increase NHS appointments by 40,000 per week, funded by cracking down on tax avoidance - Create a new Border Security Command to tackle criminal boat gangs using counter-terror powers - No increases in National Insurance, Income Tax rates, or VAT - Cap corporation tax at 25% throughout the Parliament - Launch Great British Energy with a windfall tax on oil and gas giants - Crack down on antisocial behaviour with more police and youth hubs - Hire 6,500 new teachers by ending tax breaks for private schools - Voting age to 16 for all elections - Introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary school - Remove hereditary peers' voting rights and set a mandatory retirement age of 80 in the House of Lords Security and Defence: - Absolute commitment to the UK's nuclear deterrent - Apply a NATO test to major defence programmes - Condcut a strategic defence review in the first year - Create a new Border Security Command, funded with the Rwanda funding - Seek a new security agreement with the EU for real-time intelligence access - Establish a new returns and enforcement unit, with 1000 additional staff Economic Policy: - Move the current budget into balance - Ensure debt is falling - Keep mortgages rates low - Retain the 2% inflation target - No increase to National Insurance, income tax rates, or VAT - Abolish non-dom status and ending the use of offshore trusts for inheritance tax avoidance - Close the loophole on private equity capital gains tax - Modernise HMRC and tackling tax avoidance - Embrace securonomics and resilient foundations - Support businesses through a stable policy environment - Establish an Industrial Strategy Council and increase investment in the UK - Establish a National Wealth Fund and promote a pro-business regulatory framework - Investing in tech, ports, gigafactories, steel industry, carbon capture, and green hydrogen manufacturing - Undertake a review of the pension landscape - Cap corporation tax at 25% - Update national planning policy and achieve national 5G coverage by 2030 Infrastructure and Services: - Create a National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority - Improve Royal Mail's governance - Maintain and renew the road network, fixing 1 million potholes annually - Restore the 2030 phase-out date for new cars with combustion engines - Introduce Great British Railways and secure the aviation industry's future - Support AI development and introduce the Regulatory Innovation Office Labour Market & Welfare: - Reform the points-based immigration system - Introduce a plan to upskill workers and bolstering Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service - Overhaul Work Capability Assessments - Establish a youth guarantee and introducing a 'new deal for working people' - Ensure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage without age bands Crime: - Crack down on antisocial behaviour with more neighbourhood police and residents will have a named officer to turn to when things go wrong - Introduce Respect Orders to ban persistent adult offenders from town centres, targeting public drinking and drug use. Fly-tippers and vandals will clean up their mess - New specific offence for assaults on shopworkers that will protect them from threats and violence - Every young person caught with a knife will be referred to a Youth Offending Team and receive a mandatory reoffending prevention plan - Ban ninja swords, lethal zombie-style blades and machetes, and strengthen rules to prevent online sales with sanctions for executives who flout -Local partnerships will identify at-risk youth and intervene - Youth workers and mentors will be placed in A&E and Pupil Referral Units, funded by firearm licensing fees - Create a new offence targeting gangs exploiting children for violence and crime - Specialist rape and sexual offences teams in every police force - Fast-track rape cases, with specialist courts at every Crown Court location in England and Wales - Introduce domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms for victims to speak directly with specialists - Ensure a legal advocate is available in every police force area to support victims from report to trial - Introduce a new criminal offence for spiking - New legal safeguards around strip-searching children and young people - Roll out a direct entry scheme for detectives to boost investigation skills - Allow Associate Prosecutors to work on appropriate cases - Review of sentencing to ensure it is brought up to date Health: - Cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments every week - Double the number of cancer scanners - A new Dentistry Rescue Plan - 8,500 additional mental health staff - Return of the family doctor - Ensure patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral for consultant-led treatment of non-urgent health conditions - Deliver an extra two million NHS operations, scans, and appointments every year - Introduce shared waiting lists to allow patients to be treated quicker - Use spare capacity in the independent sector to ensure patients are treated more quickly - Deliver the NHS long-term workforce plan to train more staff - Introduce a new ‘Fit For the Future’ fund to double the number of CT and MRI scanners - Commitment to delivering the New Hospitals Programme - Develop an NHS innovation and adoption strategy in England - Ensure Britain is at the forefront of transforming treatment for dementia - Train thousands more midwives as part of the NHS Workforce Plan - Set an explicit target to close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap - Digitise the Red Book record of children’s health - Enable vaccinations for babies and children as part of health visits - Implement professional standards and regulate NHS managers - Establish a Royal College of Clinical Leadership to champion the voice of clinicians - Implement the recommendations of the Cass Review - Create a Community Pharmacist Prescribing Service, granting more pharmacists independent prescribing rights - Trial Neighbourhood Health Centres - Provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments - Create a National Care Service - Develop local partnership working between the NHS and social care on hospital discharge - Establish a Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care - Guarantee the rights of those in residential care to be able to see their families - Creation of Young Futures hubs to provide open access mental health services for children and young people - Ensure the next generation can never legally buy cigarettes - Ban vapes from being branded and advertised to appeal to children - Commitment to banning advertising junk food to children - Ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s - Give coroners more powers to access information held by technology companies after a child’s death - Reform gambling regulation and strengthening protections - Halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions in England - Commission a new HIV action plan in England, in pursuit of ending HIV cases by 2030 International: - 'Unshakeable' commitment to NATO - Deepen ties with the EU to 'make Brexit work' - No return to the single market, customs union, or freedom of movement - Negotiate a veterinary agreement with EU to prevent unnecessary border checks and tackle the cost of food - Secure a mutual recognition agreement for professional qualifications to help open up markets for UK service exporters - New UK-EU security pact and other bilateral agreements with France and Germany - Remain part of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) - Launch Strategic Defence Review to assess threats - Put the Armed Forces Covenant into law and establish an independent Armed forces commissioner to improve service life - Give Veterans better access to mental health, employment and housing support - Scrap visa fees for non-UK veterans and their dependents who have served for 4 or more years prioritise UK businesses for defence investment and reduce waste - Establish a military strategic headquarters and a national armaments director - Support Ukraine in its war against Russia and with NATO membership - Create a new Clean Power Alliance to accelerate green energy transition - Push for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict and recognition of Palestine - Restore development spending to 0.7% of gross national income when fiscal circumstances allow Fiscal plan: - Get debt falling by 5th year of parliament - Tax rises: closing further non-dom and tax avoidance loopholes, VAT on private schools, closing carried interest tax loophole, increasing stamp duty for non-UKmis residents by 1%, windfall tax on oil and gas giants Serving the country - A new Ethics and Integrity Commission - Establish a new Modernisation Committee tasked with reforming House of Commons procedures - Immediate reform of the House of Lords - A reset between Westminster and Holyrood, Cardiff Bay, and Stormont - Votes at 16 - Review and update post-government employment rules - Enforce restrictions on ministers lobbying for the companies they used to regulate - Ban MPs from taking up paid advisory or consultancy roles - Remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords - Introduce a mandatory retirement age of 80 years old in the House of Lords - Commitment to replacing the House of Lords with an alternative second chamber - Address the inconsistencies in voter ID rules - Renew opportunities for the Prime Minister and Heads of Devolved Government to collaborate - Establish a new Council of the Nations and Regions - Oppose a 2nd Scottish Independence Referendum - Maintain the arrangements in the new Scottish fiscal framework - Support the Scottish Government to partner with international bodies - Explore the devolution of services to Wales to enable them to be more locally responsive - Work with the Welsh Labour Government to consider devolution of youth justice - Devolve employment support funding to the Welsh Government - Commitment to implementing the Windsor Framework - Commitment to taking forward discussions about a fiscal framework for Northern Ireland - Work with the Irish Government to strengthen the relationship between our two countries - Repeal and replace the Legacy Act Historical injustices: - Act on the findings of the Infected Blood Inquiry - Respond to the findings of the Grenfell Inquiry and the Covid-19 Inquiry, to ensure swift resolution - Introduce a 'Hillsborough Law' mandating transparency for public servants and authorities, with legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related deaths - New Windrush Commissioner - Investigation or inquiry about the events at Orgreave Reforming further and higher education - Bring forward a comprehensive strategy for post‐16 education - Guarantee training, an apprenticeship, or help to find work for all 18- to 21-year-olds - Establish Skills England to unite businesses, training providers, unions, and government to ensure a highly trained workforce for Labour’s Industrial Strategy - Transform Further Education colleges into specialist Technical Excellence Colleges - Reform the Tories’ "broken" Apprenticeships Levy to address vital skills and training needs ignored by current rules - a new Growth and Skills Levy to ensure qualifications offer value for money - Act to improve access to universities and raise teaching standards Arts and culture: - Implement creative industries sector plan as part of Industrial Strategy, boosting jobs and growth in film, music, gaming, and creative sectors - Collaborate with BBC and public broadcasters to support British content and creative economy - Support children studying creative or vocational subjects until age 16, with accountability reflecting this - Protect time for physical education and support grassroots clubs for wider sports access - Increase access to cultural assets through national museums' increased community loans - Launch National Music Education Network for easier access to music and drama classes - Introduce consumer protections against ticket touting to put fans first at events - Host international events like UEFA Euro and ICC Women’s T20 to inspire talent and promote healthy living - Reform football governance with a Football - Governance Bill to protect clubs and involve fans in decision-making - Ensure English football remains inclusive and connected within its pyramid structure Equality: - Enact the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010 to ensure equal opportunities for all backgrounds - Make Work Pay plan to enhance rights for working women, including equal pay, maternity protections, and combating discrimination like menopause and sexual harassment - Introduce a Race Equality Act for equal pay rights, dual discrimination protections, and tackling racial inequalities - Strengthen monitoring of antisemitic and Islamophobic hate - Champion rights of disabled people with equal pay rights, disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting, improved employment support, and Access to Work reforms - Make all strands of hate crime aggravated offences to protect LGBT+ and disabled individuals - Ban conversion therapy and reform gender recognition law for trans-inclusive policies while retaining healthcare access requirements - Support implementation of single-sex exceptions under the Equality Act to protect women’s rights Opportunity for schools: - Recruit 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects - End the VAT exemption and business rates relief for private schools to invest in our state schools - Bring down the cost of school by limiting the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require - Mental health professionals in every school - Create Young Futures Hubs, providing open-access hubs in every community for children and young people with drop-in mental health support - Reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body - New Regional Improvement Teams to enhance school-to-school support - Enhance school inspections with a new report card system replacing single grades, providing clear performance information to parents - Include Multi-Academy Trusts in inspections and introduce annual reviews of safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling - Expert-led review of curriculum and assessment, working with school staff, parents and employers to change this - Ensure school admissions decisions consider community needs and mandate schools to cooperate with local authorities on admissions, SEND inclusion, and place planning - 3,000 new primary school-based nurseries - Free breakfast clubs in every primary school - A modern curriculum so young people are ready for work and life - High-quality apprenticeships and specialist technical colleges Pensions: - Retain the triple lock for the state pension - Adopt reforms to workplace pensions to deliver better outcomes for UK savers and pensioners Housing/renting: - Immediately end Section 21 'no fault' evictions, protect private renters from exploitation and discrimination, empower them to contest unfair rent hikes, and improve standards, including extending 'Awaab’s Law' to the private sector - Enact Law Commission proposals on leasehold enfranchisement, right to manage, and commonhold - Ban new leasehold flats and make commonhold the default tenure - Address unregulated and unaffordable ground rent charges - End 'fleecehold' private housing estates and unfair maintenance costs - Develop a new cross-government strategy with Mayors and Councils to end homelessness in Britain - Ensure justice and compensation for victims of the Horizon Scandal - Build 1.5 million new homes and new social renter homes - Build new towns and reviewing Right to Buy discounts - Introduce landmark devolution legislation Clean energy: - Set up Great British Energy to cut bills for good - Energy independence from dictators like Putin - 650,000 new high-quality jobs - Warmer homes to slash fuel poverty - Water companies forced to clean up rivers or be in special measures and fined - Work with private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030 - New Energy Independence Act will establish the framework for Labour’s energy and climate policies - Will not revoke existing oil and gas licences - Will close the loopholes in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies - Keep the Energy Profits Levy until the end of the next parliament and increase the rate of the levy by 3% - Implement a stricter energy regulation system prioritising consumers, attracting investment to reduce bills, holding companies accountable, enforcing higher performance standards, and ensuring automatic customer compensation for failures - Reward clean energy developers with a British Jobs Bonus, allocating up to £500 million per year from 2026, to incentivise firms who offer good jobs - End the injustice of the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme by reviewing surplus arrangements and transferring the Investment Reserve Fund back to members for fairer pensions - Invest an additional £6.6 billion to upgrade five million homes and reduce family bills - Create nine new National River Walks and three new National Forests in England, planting millions of trees and creating new woodlands. - Expand nature-rich habitats like wetlands, peat bogs, and forests for family exploration and wildlife thriving, including on public land - Commit to reducing waste by transitioning to a circular economy Animals: - Ban trail hunting, hunting trophy imports, puppy smuggling, puppy farming, and snare traps - Partner with experts to phase out animal testing

China has been buying Gold and dumping US Treasuries like never before in history

“When there's a forecast that between 40k & 224k private students may have to leave their schools. What will Lab do to accomodate them in the state sector? Lab have campaigned saying schools are overcrowded and oversubscribed.” Yvette Cooper fails FOUR times to explain this.

Is it too early for some charts? If not, here's some 📉 about inflation today 👇

Inflation is back to where it should be.

Tom Bradby, "There's a black hole in the public finances" Joel Hill, "The IMF think the pressure on public services.. Whoever forms the next government is going to face a £30 billion fiscal black hole" "This could be plugged with tax rises.. The government could reverse the National Insurance cut it made.. Or charging for a range of public services" "Whoever wins the next election will end up spending much more than they are telling you they plan to spend" Hi @UKLabour easy solution, tax the rich and super rich

“it makes zero sense to be paying our electricity bills based on gas prices.” As we add 50GW more of highly variable wind, its troughs get even deeper! Increasing the demand for dispatchable gas. Natural gas generation is the cheapest form of *electricity blackout* prevention.