We didn't want to do it. (Ha Ha)

Good to see the government is getting a lot of stick over the abolition of pensioners’ Winter Fuel Payments. But now the BBC have informed us that on Tuesday Keir Starmer is going to tell the country that things are going to ‘get worse before they get better.’ Is this man some kind of S&M adherent? Pensioners and families with three or more children are already feeling Labour’s lashings of bad news. What pain is to be unleashed on Tuesday? I wonder what the party’s manifesto title ‘Change’ was supposed to mean when it seems that the only remedy for 14 years of austerity is yet more austerity. These people are stuck in a totally discredited economic mindset and don’t appear capable of using their wits to get out of it. ‘Wits’ is used advisedly. I may have got this wrong of course and the ‘pain’ Starmer is to speak about is that which will be applied to e.g. the minority of people who are eligible to pay Capital Gains Tax. A Treasury study commissioned four years ago by Rishi Sunak suggested that aligning taxation on capital gains with income tax rates would raise £14 billion. That would go a long way to addressing Reeves’ '£22 billion funding gap.'
 
Still, let’s not be too dismissive of Labour’s jam tomorrow. In response to rising pensioner anger a government spokesperson said that the triple lock will be preserved, meaning a cumulative rise of £1,000 over the next five years. Which is exactly the same amount a single pensioner will lose after the fuel payment cut. You’ve never anticipated it being so good, to coin a phrase.