Two words: fiscal stimulus. Gordon Brown deliberately overspent to try and keep the economy out of recession. This government are trying the opposite. According to the principles of Keynesian economics, they'll probably fail.
And in any case, the over-spending problem has been ignored (and added to) by every single government since the second world war. The Tories have done quite a good job of blaming Labour but they're just as guilty in reality.
Agreed, but then Labour spent 15 years blaming the previous Tory government for everything that went wrong when they were in power too.
Seems to be par for the course, blame the previous government for everything
What was the alternative? Keep borrowing money to pay for non-positions in the public sector?
Or keep borrowing money so that the likes of HSBC and Vodaphone can avoid billions of pounds in taxes, while the rest of us scrimp and save and thousands of people lose jobs which barely keep their heads over water anyway?
Agreed, but then Labour spent 15 years blaming the previous Tory government for everything that went wrong when they were in power too.
Seems to be par for the course, blame the previous government for everything
Yup, depressing isn't it? Career politicians get on my nerves. I wish they'd shut up and get on with it and stop acting like silly bickering kids - that goes for the whole lot of them.
Anyone notice that during school holidays it does not stop children running all over the city streets, riding bikes everywhere and crossing hundreds of roads every day without a lollipop person in sight;)
Actually, no. I don't notice that.
That's cos, during the school holidays, you don't have 1,000-odd kids all trying to cross the same roads all within a half-hour period of time.
They don't just put lollipop ladies on roads at random to annoy you.
They look at where all the kids homes are, look at the routes they take to school and then look at which roads are busy enough to make it a hazard for a bunch of kids to cross unaided and then put a lollipop lady there.
During the holidays all those kids are roaming around the streets at random rather than converging on a single point so the same hazards aren't present.
What are the stats for kids getting run over in pre-lolly lady days? They were presumably introduced on the basis of something.
Lollipop ladies were around when I was a primary school back in the 70s, when there was a lot less traffic on the roads.
I can't really see why get rid of them, it will probably just result in more parents having to take their kids to school, often by car, and more added to Job Seekers Allowance.
It's ok saying teach your kids the green cross code, but often hard enough for adults to cross and they can be seen easier by drivers than small children. Plus the fact little ones would find it harder to judge.
I wonder what will happen if some kids get killed after one is removed.
Given that our local lollipop lady seems to delight in holding up queues of traffic every two minutes to let individual kids cross, rather than exercising even the minimal amount of common sense it would take to wait until she has a queue herself, I welcome her removal. The kids don't need to cross there anyway, usually they're just crossing to reach the cars of parents who are already blocking a narrow road because they're too damn lazy to stop in a free public car park about 200 yards away.
Labour racked up so much debt that our children's children will be paying it back.
The coalition have austerity plans which will merely scratch the surface - they're going to upset an awful lot of people without achieving very much.
Sacking lollipop men/ladies is ridiculous. Get rid of the non jobbers - they're easily identified.
They have fancy job titles
They can't easily explain their job
They earn significantly more than the average salary
If you remove them, nobody notices the difference - sometimes things improve.
Labour racked up so much debt that our children's children will be paying it back.
The coalition have austerity plans which will merely scratch the surface - they're going to upset an awful lot of people without achieving very much.
Sacking lollipop men/ladies is ridiculous. Get rid of the non jobbers - they're easily identified.
They have fancy job titles
They can't easily explain their job
They earn significantly more than the average salary
If you remove them, nobody notices the difference - sometimes things improve.
Those people also cost a lot when they are made redundant and there aren't quite as many of them as some people seem to think.
It's all about numbers. It's far easier for a government to get rid of lots of cheap people who have little power (because they have mostly been conned into seeing unions and mass action as old fashioned and evil) and won't make much fuss, than get rid of highly paid people who will complain and make a general fuss and get a big pay off. The savings in many cases don't justify the costs.
This is also why we are getting the brunt of the tax increases. Rich people hold onto their money as if each million was their last penny. The system makes it far easier to get money out of us than out of them.
Given that our local lollipop lady seems to delight in holding up queues of traffic every two minutes to let individual kids cross, rather than exercising even the minimal amount of common sense it would take to wait until she has a queue herself, I welcome her removal. The kids don't need to cross there anyway, usually they're just crossing to reach the cars of parents who are already blocking a narrow road because they're too damn lazy to stop in a free public car park about 200 yards away.
Isn't that more of an issue with that particular lollipop lady rather than the concept in general?
My missus stands in for local lollipop ladies who're off sick and she gets the kids talking about what they were doing the night before etc and then, every ten minutes or so, herds a big bunch of them across the main road.
It works so well that she sometimes has to tell the kids to get off to school cos they prefer to stick around and chat.
Wonder how that explains footballers getting paid millions by the week for kicking a ball around. While NHS Nurses who save lives and provide something to the healthcare of thousands get next to nothing year-round.
Because football teams are private companies, who rely on supporters to, voluntarily, pay to watch the football matches, whereas NHS nurses are paid from taxes, which are compulsory.
Comments
Agreed, but then Labour spent 15 years blaming the previous Tory government for everything that went wrong when they were in power too.
Seems to be par for the course, blame the previous government for everything
Or keep borrowing money so that the likes of HSBC and Vodaphone can avoid billions of pounds in taxes, while the rest of us scrimp and save and thousands of people lose jobs which barely keep their heads over water anyway?
Yup, depressing isn't it? Career politicians get on my nerves. I wish they'd shut up and get on with it and stop acting like silly bickering kids - that goes for the whole lot of them.
Actually, no. I don't notice that.
That's cos, during the school holidays, you don't have 1,000-odd kids all trying to cross the same roads all within a half-hour period of time.
They don't just put lollipop ladies on roads at random to annoy you.
They look at where all the kids homes are, look at the routes they take to school and then look at which roads are busy enough to make it a hazard for a bunch of kids to cross unaided and then put a lollipop lady there.
During the holidays all those kids are roaming around the streets at random rather than converging on a single point so the same hazards aren't present.
Lollipop ladies were around when I was a primary school back in the 70s, when there was a lot less traffic on the roads.
I can't really see why get rid of them, it will probably just result in more parents having to take their kids to school, often by car, and more added to Job Seekers Allowance.
It's ok saying teach your kids the green cross code, but often hard enough for adults to cross and they can be seen easier by drivers than small children. Plus the fact little ones would find it harder to judge.
I wonder what will happen if some kids get killed after one is removed.
The coalition have austerity plans which will merely scratch the surface - they're going to upset an awful lot of people without achieving very much.
Sacking lollipop men/ladies is ridiculous. Get rid of the non jobbers - they're easily identified.
They have fancy job titles
They can't easily explain their job
They earn significantly more than the average salary
If you remove them, nobody notices the difference - sometimes things improve.
Those people also cost a lot when they are made redundant and there aren't quite as many of them as some people seem to think.
It's all about numbers. It's far easier for a government to get rid of lots of cheap people who have little power (because they have mostly been conned into seeing unions and mass action as old fashioned and evil) and won't make much fuss, than get rid of highly paid people who will complain and make a general fuss and get a big pay off. The savings in many cases don't justify the costs.
This is also why we are getting the brunt of the tax increases. Rich people hold onto their money as if each million was their last penny. The system makes it far easier to get money out of us than out of them.
If children are "dashing" across roads, they aren't following the Green Cross Code.
Isn't that more of an issue with that particular lollipop lady rather than the concept in general?
My missus stands in for local lollipop ladies who're off sick and she gets the kids talking about what they were doing the night before etc and then, every ten minutes or so, herds a big bunch of them across the main road.
It works so well that she sometimes has to tell the kids to get off to school cos they prefer to stick around and chat.
Because football teams are private companies, who rely on supporters to, voluntarily, pay to watch the football matches, whereas NHS nurses are paid from taxes, which are compulsory.