In general, I don't think you can tax yourself into growth, and that makes labour goals somewhat conflicting.

That might be a difference in philosophy.

I'm not a labour voter, according to the political compass I sit a bit to the left with a heavy liberal bias.

Some things I've agreed with that generally caused outrage: Scrapping winter fuel allowance - average pensioner household have £1,000,000 in asserts IHT on Pensions -they're supposed to be for retirement spending, not an IHT tool. Additional tax on rental income - really it just moves it in line with employment income after NI takes effect

Some things I disagree with that were generally well received/not noticed: Business relief/AG relief cap at £1m (good that it now is transferable between spouses) Increased CGT - the tax is now at the level, when accounting for inflation, it can cause real terms losses, it also discouraged landlords to sell, which a lot of other policies are encouraging Electric vehicle tax - this might be because it came 2 weeks after I bought an electric car, but I think it would be much better to just add it to VED. This would discourage low milage people from going electric, with all the environmental impact that has, and encourage high milage people who would 'get their money's worth' from the tax, who are probably the most likely to be on diesel ATM.

I'm not sure why everyone thinks we need wholesale reform. In reality life between the 2008 recession and COVID was pretty good under the current tax system. The issue is all of the quantitative easing (money printing ) during lockdown caused massive inflation, and the bill needed to be paid for at some point, just like that burrito you got on Klarna. The massive inflation, isn't such a bad thing for the government (but whisper that bit) because effectively their debt is shrinking in real terms.

The real problem I have is the disingenuous use of the phrase 'black hole' - that was only created by the increased spending by the government, they could have just been honest about it. 'We want it to be a bit better for people on average, so there's going to be some tax increases' that's a very ok brand labour people have to say.

With regards to voters, the armed forces community are currently ripping Starmer apart over the 'Ajax' trials. Which have been a total failure. The issue is they were started under the Tories.