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"Keir Starmer pledged to "rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment", including housebuilding, construction of data centres, warehouses and electric grid connections, and will "do everything in my power to galvanise growth including getting rid of regulation that needlessly holds back investment"...

Translation... if there is a green field near your house, we're gonna concrete over it with a godawful newbuild or a pylon made in China 👍

So... an industrial factory strategy... headed by someone who's never run an industrial factory... Sounds good 👍

Not sure how much longer Labour can stay in power. It's the worst start to a govt in history. The Tories are already back to neck-and-neck in the polls. The Labour sleaze, gaffes, and misery are nonstop. The last-minute panic budget in 2 weeks has still not been written. The country is in unprecedented chaos.

And worse is yet to come... When winter lands in December, and vulnerable pensioners start passing away, due to Labour’s fuel cuts, the newspaper headlines are going to be horrific and relentless. Labour's own internal estimates suggest a staggering 4,000 grannies and grandads will not make it.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/winter-fuel-payment-cut-labour-deaths-b2609340.html

UK GDP growth has plunged from +0.5% in Mar 2024 (Tories) to +0.2% in Aug 2024 (Labour).

The UK growth trend is (clearly) heading down, not up.

The relentless talking down of the economy by Starmer, the mendacious economic hysteria by Reeves, the never-ending tax raids, it's sending the country into a spiral of depression.

We are headed for recession.

We all know Labour is spreading mendacious economic hysteria. If there really were a £20-25b unaccounted black hole, the UK pound, FTSE and credit rating would have tanked long ago. But they haven't. The markets know Labour is telling fibs.

Sadly, 95% of the UK adult population have no idea what's going on. They just read a headline about "a black hole", and mindlessly buy into the absurd faux narrative. It's depressing stuff.

UK is headed for recession in 2025. It can't keep taking these body blows of tax, red tape, and mendacious economic misery.

Starmer's growing mental confusion is becoming a concern. If he's not tongue-twisting about freeing sausages, he's imagining torpedoed ships. Think he needs to get himself checked out.

Starmer looks unwell to me. He's aging and greying dramatically overnight, he's had a special lectern installed in the HoC for what appears to be his poor eyesight (new glasses), while his verbal slippage is at times quite bizarre (sausages).

We are back to the 1970s. Think Wolfie Smith. Overgrown polytechnic students, way out of their depth for international politics.

It's hard to see how Starmer can hang on for much longer. Every day brings a new wave of resignations, sleaze allegations or shady practice. The govt is being rocked to the core.

The Tories won the ScotRef referendum and strengthened the Union.

Labour has just given away territory bigger than the entire nation of Switzerland.

Labour is quietly breaking up the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.

There's more to come.

Anyone who voted Labour or Reform (proxy-Labour) caused this.

The latest UK election poll this month puts the Tories just 4 points behind Labour! Looks likely the Tories will overtake Labour in the Oct or Nov polls before Xmas. A lot of voter regret out there.

The Labour dream has become a nightmare. Starmer's Trotskyist management style and policies are not going down well with MPs, journalists, voters, or international statesmen. The people are losing confidence. Think it's time for a fresh general election. Let the people decide.

67Sam,

You need to set up a spreadsheet, and quantify precisely the exact sums you're working with. Until you map all the possible 10+ scenarios, by numbers, and compare them side-by-side, it is virtually impossible to say what your best option is.

As a broad rule of thumb, a SIPP is just about the most tax-efficient vehicle in the UK (apart from a work-donated pension), so it should never be touched (IMO) until the absolute last minute necessary.

For me, whether or not to take the 25% taxfree lumpsum right now (in Sep) would depend on the size of my maximum withdrawal. If it's £250k, then yes. If it's £25k, then no. Labour looks rumoured to reduce the taxfree threshold to £100k.

As always, dyor. The above is not financial advice. Just some general thoughts and personal opinion. Predicting at this stage what the current bunch of overexcited Marxist overgrown polytechnic students will do in the next Oct budget is largely guesswork. This is one of the most uncertain financial times (for tax) the country has ever faced, in centuries.

If you'd "invested" £10,000 in CGNR stock at the start of the century in 2000, you'd now be left with around £10 today in 2024...

If you'd invested £10,000 in gold at the start of the century in 2000, you'd now be left with around £100,000 today in 2024...

A CGNR "investor" who instead bought gold would be around +1,000,000% richer 👍

..."Israel leadership looking to massively escalate the conflict... Why? who knows . Make no sense"...

Hezbo has been raining down hundreds of rockets on Northern Israel for weeks. Think they've had enough.

The ISA allowance has remained static at £20k per year for some time, and fiscal drag is reducing its tax benefit by stealth. What's more, Oct 30th budget rumours swirl that the £20k allowance could be cut further, while the maximum ISA pot may be capped at just £100k per lifetime. This is discouraging (not encouraging) savings and investment.

Dorfan,

A leopard never changes its spots... As Jeremy Clarkson recently wrote, the UK under the Labour regime has entered full-on communism. That always means the same thing -- snatch and spend, until other people's money runs out. The oilies are first in line for state re-education. The banks appear to be next...

London has lost its status as the world's no.1 location for millionaires and successful people. The UK is forecast to lose more millionaires in 2024 than all those lost in the previous half-decade combined. They are fleeing overseas. A Tory trickle has become a Labour flood.

To make it worse, the major UK bank bosses are being summoned to No.10 this coming Thursday. Robber Reeves wants a word. Some speculate there will be a crippling 35% windfall tax added to UK banks' profits. The state is looking to punish oil and gas employers, and now they are turning to the banks...

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-13824501/Bank-bosses-brace-Downing-Street-meeting-tax.html