Pre-election budget

[plugsandsparks]

we had it from 1979-1997, and 2007- to date, I am well aware what it is you barriban buffoon :biggrin:

Ha, anyway for the avoidance of doubt - Austerity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - oh and whats LD and Labour answer, "austerity lite" - lol

 

[Guest77]

Ha, anyway for the avoidance of doubt - Austerity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - oh and whats LD and Labour answer, "austerity lite" - lol

They will end it and we will go around the circle again lol, nothing changes in this country except it is growing so much we may sink soon.

 

[Des 56]

I am not going to get myself embroiled in any political argument because the thread has very staunch conservative diehards, they have fed well on the propaganda that causes these workers to bestow such gratitude on the powerful and the wealthy who feed them well

There has been and still is much harping on about the deficit,whether labour or the Tories caused it or who is the better in order to reduce that deficit

I am no economist by a very long stretch of the imagination,however,one thing I am aware of is that a national deficit is a natural and healthy means of running any government,be they Tory or Labour,its in order to plan for future infrastructure and overall other spending plans

All western capitalist economies have and absolutely must have borrowing ,that is the natural product of a capitalist system
Borrowing and the national debt is mostly a calculation of future investment plans in whatever the existing government intend for future years

It can be reduced like these last few years or increased if they so wish,any borrowing is not a problem,it is the balance between projected spending and actual spending that has to be balanced and that is long term whoever takes the reigns

 

[plugsandsparks]

I am not going to get myself embroiled in any political argument because the thread has very staunch conservative diehards, they have fed well on the propaganda that causes these workers to bestow such gratitude on the powerful and the wealthy who feed them well

There has been and still is much harping on about the deficit,whether labour or the Tories caused it or who is the better in order to reduce that deficit

I am no economist by a very long stretch of the imagination,however,one thing I am aware of is that a national deficit is a natural and healthy means of running any government,be they Tory or Labour,its in order to plan for future infrastructure and overall other spending plans

All western capitalist economies have and absolutely must have borrowing ,that is the natural product of a capitalist system
Borrowing and the national debt is mostly a calculation of future investment plans in whatever the existing government intend for future years

It can be reduced like these last few years or increased if they so wish,any borrowing is not a problem,it is the balance between projected spending and actual spending that has to be balanced and that is long term whoever takes the reigns

Fair enough but as always there is a limit to how much borrowing is good and what is bad. The UK appears to react only when banks and the like don't want to lend to us unless the interest rate is punitive, I am quite staggered at the size of our interest payments which is still rising. Annual cost is around 8% of government income. TBH the larger it gets the less politics really means anything because there is less and less options for each government to decide on our behalf what to spend the remaining 92% on as so much is locked in stone.

 

[Diddy]

exhibit 3 - I am better off and so are my customers, so easy for me to decide what to do in May.

Can we have evidence of that please or is it true because the government tell you it is ? Ask yourself a simple straight forward question. What percentage of your wages go on basics ? Basics being food, heat, shelter. Now compare that percentage to what it was in 2010.....I am hoping we are comparing like for like by the way - IE an electrician in 2010 to an electrician in 2015 - If you find the percentage lower today then you sir are one of the few. If your customers can do the same equation and come up with the same answer that they are now paying less as a percentage of their wages for the basics then you sir have stumbled across the perfect customer base as the average person has seen his/her living standards fall since 2010.

 

[Octopus]

Can we have evidence of that please or is it true because the Political Parties tell you it is ? Ask yourself a simple straight forward question. What percentage of your wages go on basics ? Basics being food, heat, shelter. Now compare that percentage to what it was in 2010.....I am hoping we are comparing like for like by the way - IE an electrician in 2010 to an electrician in 2015 - If you find the percentage lower today then you sir are one of the few. If your customers can do the same equation and come up with the same answer that they are now paying less as a percentage of their wages for the basics then you sir have stumbled across the perfect customer base as the average person has seen his/her living standards fall since 2010.

I've edited that for you. They are all the same..... except you have the Loch Ness Monster in charge!

 

[Diddy]

I've edited that for you. They are all the same..... except you have the Loch Ness Monster in charge!

Fair enough I can live with that. The second part is unfair though as she was on the news just the other evening saying how some of the comments from opponents and media are quite hurtful and upsetting for her personally.....poor wee sole - BTW I support SNP and Nicola but even I had to laugh at that. You don't get to the top of the tree by being a shrinking violet lol.

 

[Octopus]

Fair enough I can live with that. The second part is unfair though as she was on the news just the other evening saying how some of the comments from opponents and media are quite hurtful and upsetting for her personally.....poor wee sole - BTW I support SNP and Nicola but even I had to laugh at that. You don't get to the top of the tree by being a shrinking violet lol.

I've heard her being interviewed by the Guardian recently.

The SNP election manifesto is vote SNP, to keep the Tories out - shouldn't she be saying vote Labour to keep the Tories out?

What it actually means is vote SNP and then we can hold Labour to ransome to get another Independence poll!

 

[Diddy]

I've heard her being interviewed by the Guardian recently.

The SNP election manifesto is vote SNP, to keep the Tories out - shouldn't she be saying vote Labour to keep the Tories out?

What it actually means is vote SNP and then we can hold Labour to ransom to get another Independence poll!

Basically they are more left than labour currently and that suits me. Maybe her guardian interview was rubbish...never saw it myself. But they do offer an alternative up here and one I am happy to vote for...On policies not on some keep labour/Tories out rubbish. The Scottish labour party up here that really IS their manifesto - Vote SNP get Tories.....that is it no policies to speak of - it is a crying shame to see them reduced to a pathetic rabble up here.
The SNP is what it is. We can vote for them for an eternity and still Salmond and Sturgeon may never get their dream of independence - but the Scottish electorate can tag along for the ride on the back of some decent vote winning policies.
Even living in England you all know what the SNP have done for Scotland - Free prescriptions, Nobody pays bedroom tax/subsidy, They have invested in infrastructure which has created jobs and finally tuition fees.....which is the only freebie I would personally like to see gone...as I think England has actually got that right.

 

[Octopus]

Basically they are more left than labour currently and that suits me. Maybe her guardian interview was rubbish...never saw it myself. But they do offer an alternative up here and one I am happy to vote for...On policies not on some keep labour/Tories out rubbish. The Scottish labour party up here that really IS their manifesto - Vote SNP get Tories.....that is it no policies to speak of - it is a crying shame to see them reduced to a pathetic rabble up here.
The SNP is what it is. We can vote for them for an eternity and still Salmond and Sturgeon may never get their dream of independence - but the Scottish electorate can tag along for the ride on the back of some decent vote winning policies.
Even living in England you all know what the SNP have done for Scotland - Free prescriptions, Nobody pays bedroom tax/subsidy, They have invested in infrastructure which has created jobs and finally tuition fees.....which is the only freebie I would personally like to see gone...as I think England has actually got that right.

If England had the spending power head that Scotland had we would have the same benefits.

 

[Diddy]

If England had the spending power head that Scotland had we would have the same benefits.

The trouble with the old spending per head in England is that London skews the numbers by a lot.
London has £9866 per head as opposed to the south east which has a shameful £7756. But I believe spending as relative to several factors. Depressed areas is one, Vote buying is another. Now I know an area 20 miles from me gets tons more spent on it than my own area.....But the thing is the area I am talking about is/was a ghetto (or it would be in the states). It takes many years of extra public spending to get these areas up to standard.
One of the worst areas for public spending up here is Aberdeen....which is where tons of the cash coming into the economy comes from, Seems a bit perverse.
But again why should the SNP not have policies that take advantage of what cash is there and bribe the voters lol. Why dont Scottish labour or Scottish Tories for that matter find innovative ways to spend the "allowance" ? It's not as if SNP get any more than the other parties have to work with.
By the way everything is not rosey and sunny up here even with the extra £ per head. There is still areas with huge problems and people have been waiting 4+ hours in A+E.....it is not confined to down south.
I still think both the big two parties are missing a trick with HS2....I really think that cash could be much better spent improving normal everyday people lives down there. HS2 with benefit the few in the long run.

 

[Octopus]

The trouble with the old spending per head in England is that London skews the numbers by a lot.
London has £9866 per head as opposed to the south east which has a shameful £7756. But I believe spending as relative to several factors. Depressed areas is one, Vote buying is another. Now I know an area 20 miles from me gets tons more spent on it than my own area.....But the thing is the area I am talking about is/was a ghetto (or it would be in the states). It takes many years of extra public spending to get these areas up to standard.
One of the worst areas for public spending up here is Aberdeen....which is where tons of the cash coming into the economy comes from, Seems a bit perverse.
But again why should the SNP not have policies that take advantage of what cash is there and bribe the voters lol. Why dont Scottish labour or Scottish Tories for that matter find innovative ways to spend the "allowance" ? It's not as if SNP get any more than the other parties have to work with.
By the way everything is not rosey and sunny up here even with the extra £ per head. There is still areas with huge problems and people have been waiting 4+ hours in A+E.....it is not confined to down south.
I still think both the big two parties are missing a trick with HS2....I really think that cash could be much better spent improving normal everyday people lives down there. HS2 with benefit the few in the long run.

So what, if A & E is busy and I've sprained my ankle and theres a serious incident on the M3, I would expect to wait. Triage always means the most serious get seen first.

The 4 hour waiting "gimmic" is a seriously bad measure, because NOBODY who needs urgent attention, and enters A&E will always get priority.

Hospitals get round the 4 hour rule by making ambulances "wait" outside, then the ambulance service get slated for missing their times......

 

[plugsandsparks]

Can we have evidence of that please or is it true because the government tell you it is ? Ask yourself a simple straight forward question. What percentage of your wages go on basics ? Basics being food, heat, shelter. Now compare that percentage to what it was in 2010.....I am hoping we are comparing like for like by the way - IE an electrician in 2010 to an electrician in 2015 - If you find the percentage lower today then you sir are one of the few. If your customers can do the same equation and come up with the same answer that they are now paying less as a percentage of their wages for the basics then you sir have stumbled across the perfect customer base as the average person has seen his/her living standards fall since 2010.

No - sorry - you will just have to take me at my word.

 

[Guest77]

Take a Tory at his word? hmm, let me ponder that for a while :biggrin:

 

[Octopus]

Take a Tory at his word? hmm, let me ponder that for a while :biggrin:

Take ANY politician at their word, I don't need to ponder that!