Not in the Norman Lamont – “as a means to kick the spirit and fight out of a generation for political means”

No, as a way to make the public realise that they made a serious error in May 2010 and not to do the same again in 2015?

Just a thought, their tool for keeping people down and grateful may just backfire this time

Posted 10 years ago

No price is worth paying for a Labour government – there hasn’t been a single one that hasn’t screwed the country up before being kicked out of office.

Posted 10 years ago

Ditto tories.

Posted 10 years ago

It’s the inevitable consequence of having a growing population in an economy/society that has exceed it’s need and capacity to support people.

Posted 10 years ago

Is Unemployment a “Price Worth Paying”?

I think your perspective changes depending on if you have a job or not…. 😕

Posted 10 years ago

Unless the Tories are now running the economies of every European country and the USA, I don’t think that this is entirely their fault. Somehow I suspect we’d be in a much bigger mess if Labour had stayed in.

Posted 10 years ago

No price is worth paying for a Labour government – there hasn’t been a single one that hasn’t screwed the country up before being kicked out of office.

EAT THE RICH

Posted 10 years ago

Supporters of each party inevitably blame the other.

IMO, neither party really has the expertise, vision or sense of responsibility to protect or enhance the UK economy.

Party politics, IMO, is short-sighted, self-willed and led by the inappropriately educated and over privileged. That’s why I just can’t buy into the red-blue debate with sufficient gusto.

Posted 10 years ago

Unless the Tories are now running the economies of every European country and the USA, I don’t think that this is entirely their fault. Somehow I suspect we’d be in a much bigger mess if Labour had stayed in.

Didn’t they dismiss the whole idea that it was a global issue and was instead all Brown’s doing during the election? 🙂

Posted 10 years ago

Unless the Tories are now running the economies of every European country and the USA, I don’t think that this is entirely their fault.

No, but not every country is using economic problems as an excuse to launch drastic cuts to public services for largely ideological reasons.

I’ve lost my job a couple of times and I’d never wish it on anybody – but I do hope a lot of people come to regret the way they voted.

Posted 10 years ago

Whats more worrying is the nature of the jobs that are being created. Earlier this year George Osborne was singing the praises of the companies that were ‘investing in Britain’ and creating jobs. Tesco, Asda, Macdonalds. Do you think these are high skilled jobs? Nope the majority will be minimum wage. And part time.

The jobs being lost are high skilled jobs ie: Bombadier in Derby

Will Hutton described what would happen if the City continues its self-obsessed ways, to the inevitable detriment of the rest of the country, and the present employment prospects for the majority continue as they are.

“The city will squat like a bloated toad in the middle of a low skill, low pay economy”

Posted 10 years ago

dont worry george and dave are going to reign in their chums in the city….. they are just gonna wait until 2018 to do it 🙄

im not even sure being unemployed will be enough to make people realise that voting tory was a mistake, certainly the boundry changes will make it even easier for them next time

its almost as scary as the uninsured in america being convinced by fox news they dont need obamas health care reforms because its some kind of socialism

Posted 10 years ago

Spot on binners, looking increasing like me tat there really is no way out of this and its just the start of the UK slowly getting poorer and as such all our standards of living getting worse.

Its going to take a party with serious vision to get the UK on track.

Unfortunatly no one is stepping up to the plate, they all have their fingers in the big fat pie and thats all that seems to matter.

At least for most people i talk to up here in Scotland quality of life is more important that money.

Posted 10 years ago

I hate to say this, because TJ will gloat horribly, but Alex Salmond appears to be the only politician in the UK who seems to have the slightest grasp on what’s really going on out there

Posted 10 years ago

Should the UK have propped up the uncompetitive bombadier?

Posted 10 years ago

Should the UK have propped up the uncompetitive bombadier?

won’t we be doing that anyway if we have to pay the employees benefits and UK PLC losing their spending power and tax paid?

Posted 10 years ago

Exactly

In Germany, France and elsewhere in Europe, when reviewing commercial tenders, they factor in the ‘social cost’ in lost employment, benefits payments etc of external/foreign suppliers winning the contract

For some utterly inexplicable reason the Government here doesn’t. The Tories keep saying they have to obey European Competition law, yet there is nothing in European Competition law which states they can’t do, so to say that it is is completely disingenuous

They base it purely on the bottom line, without even looking at the bigger picture. This is due to either

a) Extreme stupidity
b) Vested interests – keeping their mates in the city happy
c) Both of the above

Posted 10 years ago

This makes me very angry…

Ch 4 news last night gave a break down of the employment figures (and I’m not quoting exactly etc…)

40,000 jobs created within the private sector

BUT, 111,000 jobs lost in the public sector, so unemployment massively UP

Therefore UK Economy is in a dire state.

FFS – That is entirely within the Government’s gift. Unemployment up directly because of UK Govt policy to reduce public specding.

The knock on effect on benefit payouts, decreased consumer spending, decreased public secotor procurement of private sector services etc will hugely hurt the economy

Posted 10 years ago

The tories favour policies that mean money does not loose it s value [ low inflation ] as many of its core supporters/donors/MPs are very rich.
I think they do think it is a price worth paying tbh

Labour used to be different but they are not any more.

It is hard to think that the current policies are working as the growth is reducing and they are now capital spending

Tbh we will never eally know if altenative approaches would have been better

Binners for PM

Posted 10 years ago

The Bombardier deal (or lack off) was based on a tendering process that was put in by the Labour government. Once the process is running you have to award the contract based on the rules put in place.

You can blame plenty of things on the Tories but this is not one of them.

Posted 10 years ago

the red-blue debate

It’s only a red-blue debate in England…in the past. You’ve heard of the Lib Dems, right?

Posted 10 years ago

but if we take it as a given that the deficit has to be cut (the greek\irish model of not doing so doesn’t appear to be working to well) – how would you have done it? increase taxes? if so, where? Surely taxing the rich more has the same net benefit on the country (in reducing the amount of money kicking around) as reducing payments to the poor?

Posted 10 years ago

It’s only a red-blue debate in England…in the past. You’ve heard of the Lib Dems, right?

Yes.

On the political divide, though, isn’t it still essentially a two-way debate? Including the Lib Dems as peers of Labour and Conservative because they have facilitated a route out of a hung parliament surely overstates their importance.

Yeah, I know it’s different in Scotland, NI and Wales.

Posted 10 years ago

They don’t Have too do anything of the sort. They can revue this. They just don’t want too. Call-me-Dave dismissed it out-of-hand. Then bleated a load of lies about Euro Competition Law

For a party that puts itself across as anti-European, they don’t half like to hide behind (real, imagined or just plain made-up) Euro legislation.

I wouldn’t defend the labour party, they’re just as bad. The self interest, and limitless greed of the ‘Elite’ at the top of our wonderful society is now so all-encompassing that they’re prepared to sink the whole country so they are their friends can carry on accumulating obscene levels of wealth

They’re selling the lot of us down the ****ing river!

Posted 10 years ago

Once the process is running you have to award the contract based on the rules put in place

total bollox

The last lot screwed up the process, this lot had/have the right and ability to scrap it and start again

Posted 10 years ago

lunge – Member

The Bombardier deal (or lack off) was based on a tendering process that was put in by the Labour government. Once the process is running you have to award the contract based on the rules put in place.

You can blame plenty of things on the Tories but this is not one of them.

im not sure thats entirely the case…
http://www.togetherfortransport.org/node/211

Posted 10 years ago

but if we take it as a given that the deficit has to be cut (the greek\irish model of not doing so doesn’t appear to be working to well) – how would you have done it?

so they’ve managed to reduce it since coming in then?

Posted 10 years ago

The whole deficit reduction thing is a smoke-screen. The conservatives neo-liberal agenda is driven purely by ideological zeal. And the pace of change is to make sure what they do is irreversible, for when they get booted out. Which they know they will

Here’s the whole thing laid out in black and white

Be afraid. Be very afraid

Posted 10 years ago

Including the Lib Dems as peers of Labour and Conservative because they have facilitated a route out of a hung parliament surely overstates their importance

No. They hold the balance of power. What Labour thinks about Tory policy is practically irrelevant – whatever it is, they think the opposite. What the Lib Dems think about Tory policy (and vice versa) is more important because that’s the fault line that will split the coalition and lead to the next general election.

Posted 10 years ago

What the Lib Dems think about Tory policy (and vice versa)

Nearly
What the libdems and some of the Tories think about Euro policies will destroy the coalition IMO

Posted 10 years ago

The Tory right is behaving as if it won a stonking great majority at the election.

I’d like to hope that at some point someone in the Lib Dems is going to grow a pair and remind them that they didn’t. I’m not holding my breath though. I think they’ll do the full 5 year term.

And Christ only knows how much damage they’ll have done by that point!

Posted 10 years ago

even if the coalition were to collapse (i dont think it will as the limp dems know its the only taste of power they’ll have for some time)

i doubt labour have the initiative or even the inclination to reverse the damage

Posted 10 years ago

Bring in the BNP, they will quite happily reduce the amount of people on this overcrowded little island.

When they’ve accomplished that, put them all on a boat, and send them out to sea.

Then bring Labour back in…

Posted 10 years ago

Labour is having its Ian Duncan Smith moment. In fact Ed Milliband makes IDS look like a towering political colossus in charge of a devastatingly effective opposition. Worse than useless. He looks like the kid that everyone used to bully at school. He has all the presence and authority of a sponge cake

Is it any wonder the tories are getting away with murder

Posted 10 years ago

Binners, that is a very fair point. It is a great time to be in opposition at the moment yet Milliband seems to be making a right royal hash of it. With a good leader I think there could already be calls for a general election, as it is there is just lots of chat about how equally bad both parties are.

Posted 10 years ago

FFS – That is entirely within the Government’s gift. Unemployment up directly because of UK Govt policy to reduce public specding.

And reducing public spending is necessary why? In order to make the public finances sustainable. Yes, it’d be great to be able to maintain or increase state spending now in order to boost the economy, but in order for that to be possible money would have had to have been put aside during the boom years. And that’s not how it happened.

Posted 10 years ago

ah but as the economy grows so does it s income from taxes and its outgoings reduce such as benefit payments and therefore the deficit reduces
The TINA [ no alternative ]line is BS for politically motivated cuts. It is quite possible to both slash public spending and grow the deficit. It is certainly true that has no chance of hitting either his growth or employment targets this year…but dont worry the colossus has no plan b- even though plan a has not ahcieved what he hoped or said it would

Posted 10 years ago

the money wasnt squandered during the boom years it was invested in things like the nhs, university education etc which ultimately benefit the country

the debt matters now because the banking system is fuct

nulabs failure was its rightwing finance agenda not its leftwing social enterprises

(imho)

Posted 10 years ago

ah but as the economy grows so does it s income from taxes and its outgoings reduce such as benefit payments.

Absolutely. But the structural deficit remains.

The TINA [ no alternative ]line is BS for politically motivated actions. It is quite possible to both slash public spending and grow the deficit.
[/quote in the short and medium term, for sure, but over the longer term the only way to get the deficit down will be to reduce spending.

As an aside, what’s wrong with politically motivated actions? The Conservatives and Lib Dems believe in a smaller role for the state, why shouldn’t they work towards that end while in power?

Edited to add that I’m not arguing that money was necessarily squandered during the boom years, but whatever it was spent on then, it’s not available now.

Posted 10 years ago

whatever it was spent on then, it’s not available now

I think it is, in skills and experience and education

What part of their plan does adding 70,000 more people to the ranks of the unemployed aid?

Posted 10 years ago