UK Politics
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!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(
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That's it, their main problem is their messaging and the story they are trying to tell is dreadful.
It should have been about spreading the load, everyone doing their bit according to their means - so tax winter fuel payments so you get most of it back from wealthy pensioners but also take a big chunk off millionaires and companies not laying their bit. Then invest that in growth, a Green New Deal helping insulated poorer housing stock which would help boost the green energy industry bringing prices down for everyone while generating more skilled jobs.
At the moment they seem to think that, if they cause the pain now, people will forget about by the time of the election if we are out of the current economic dire straits. Which is foolish as the Tory press will just store this kind of thing up to use as sticks to beat them with later and people just don't forgive or forget easily (especially if there is a cold snap and the papers fill with stories of pensioners dying because they can't afford to turn the heating on).
Problem is that means testing often actually hinders many people who actually need help. Not every one is good with filling out forms and doing these applications. Not everyone knows how to apply and how to get assistance. And sometimes applications fail for strange reasons. Plus the cut off may screw people who were reliant on it but just don't meet the right threshold.
This is a really sketchy phrasing of "if Labour cuts kill pensioners". People remember when government policies kill their family members, it's not just a matter of optics.
It doesn't even have to be due to it. If a pensioner doesn't turn on their heating then its Labours fault even if the pensioner could have afforded it.
Or if the pensioner did have the heating on but it hadn't been serviced and they still died from the cold, you know the rags will spin it. Labour cuts fuel allowance and old dears die. Its not sketchy phrasing, its predictable Tory spin.
Are you honestly proposing that an increase in cold related deaths beyond expected levels during a cold snap is more likely to be explained by thousands of OAP's just happening to forget to turn the heating on, rather than them not being able to afford it?
No, I'm suggesting that any death will be announced as an attempt of the government to murder the elderly.
As it always has, and always will be.
Ok, why aren't the papers already full of those stories then? Old people die all the time. If the stories are guaranteed regardless of the governments actions, why are you bothered about the optics at all? They're going to be the same no matter what.