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Will labour get away with it?
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This Gov has been given a very poor set of cards and will have to be tough.
I get the feeling no matter what they do, labour will come out of it rosey because I'm sorry to say it your average voter isn't that switched on.
They don't understand the fundamentals in relation to economics and just see it through the prism of 'spend... spend' 'cut.....cut'
I was sick of saying 'it would be the same under labour' to socialist friends who just cannot understand that you need to pay down the deficit.
I have an awful feeling that no matter what the coalition do the Stalinists of Zanu Labour will get back in and spoil it again. Please, don't let it happen.
I get the feeling no matter what they do, labour will come out of it rosey because I'm sorry to say it your average voter isn't that switched on.
They don't understand the fundamentals in relation to economics and just see it through the prism of 'spend... spend' 'cut.....cut'
I was sick of saying 'it would be the same under labour' to socialist friends who just cannot understand that you need to pay down the deficit.
I have an awful feeling that no matter what the coalition do the Stalinists of Zanu Labour will get back in and spoil it again. Please, don't let it happen.
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That will always mean no matter what they do, Labour will be more forgiveable.
Exactly, my point.
Yes, those not interested in politics who only consume soundbites & the Labour supporters will believe the Tories are to blame for cuts.
Sadly, i suspect Labour will win next time & un-do any good work the Tories/Lib Dems do
It's amazing what people choose to believe just to suit their own agendas.
What about UK Govt borrowing and the subsequent spending commitments that entails? Figures of £50bn a year in interest repayments alone sound pretty staggering to me.
In 2001 it wasn't even a deficit - more impressive than the Tories ever managed the whole time in office.
Of course this will happen.
It was blatantly obvious that this parliamentary term was/is going to be a poisoned chalice.
While Mandelson and Adonis and all that lot were trying to get a rainbow fudge together, rank-and-file Labour MPs were advising against a deal and saying 'Let the Tories get in'. Why? Because they knew that cleaning up after the recession would have huge negative impacts on their constituents.
The pragmatic thing to do is to sit back and wait for the Tories to drive themselves into a mire of unpopularity, then pounce and beat the 'nasty party' at the next general election.
Of course that's right, but it's thoroughly depressing and so party centric.
Will you labourites never understand, in the 2001 the new labour party followed tory spending plans and payed down the deficit. That's why the public finances were good back then.
Even better than the Tories managed when they were actually in power?
Until 2006/07 the deficit was still less than 1995, so forgive me for not following your logic.
think there are people who are switched on, it just happens they do not agree with you, that is the bit you struggle with.
Please explain to me how we are supposed to deal with the deficit then, I'm interested
But they don't help themselves by professing to slash spending everywhere, whilst perusing an reduction in Inheritance tax.
It makes people think that they are only seeking to serve the rich. And this isn't just some cooked up imagination in the heads of the electorate, it's in their f**king manifesto!
I suppose it depends which way you look at it, a lot of Labour supporters are frustrated that other people don't see it the way they do, that the country is on the edge and Labour policy had already proved it could stave off a recession, but in order to do that we needed to spent money we didn't have, so we borrowed more than we had planned for. The money wasn't wasted we've all benefitted from it and to withdraw that support and make drastic cuts right now will send us crashing down into a second far, far worse recession. We are supposed to have a deficit, all a deficit means is that we have to borrow money - but that was the plan, it was only ever intended to be a short term policy to get us through the worst of the recession, but now the Tories are trying to make out like it's mismanagement, it's not, it's actually a very clever and progressive plan for reducing the affect of the recession on the population.
It's people that create a recession, if people have no money or no confidence in the economy the economy fails, if you keep money in peoples pocket (primarily by making sure they have a job) then the recession shouldn't hurt too much.
Ask yourself, why only 6bn in cuts when the deficit is 167bn? Because even the Tories and Libs know that to cut it back drastically would kill any growth Labour had achieved. If they were THAT wrong with their policy over the recession and the spending the new government could have cut spending a lot more than they have.
When you only look at one side, and forget that they are all spinning to make themselves look better than they really are and their opposition look bad then you only see part of the picture.
Yeah and Labour haven't helped themselves with some of the policies they've introduced. The point is neither one is wholly good or bad, but while some people percieve things in such a black and white way, Labour will always be given benefit of the doubt over the Conservatives. Whether rightly or wrongly depends on your opinion, and in fact, remains to be seen in the near future. I'm certainly no huge supporter of the Conservatives, but I feel even less able to support Labour at the moment.
Only because of the gymnastics Brown played with the figures. Only when his scandalous PFI obligations and public sector pension obligations are put onto the balance sheet will the true horror of his profligacy be apparent.
Labourites are in complete and total denial.
The coalition wil have to do it's best to explain that the cuts are LABOUR cuts, but they will have their work cut out. As was mentioned, a large proportion of the electorate are gulible/naive or just plain dim.
That's exactly the point, I view it election by election and usually vote for different people. I'm fiscally conservative though and that's why I favoured the tories this time and supported labour in the early days.
I'm almost dumbfounded at times at how tribal some people are. If Gordon said we need to cut spending by 12bn this year to reduce the deficit the labour supporters would have said 'he's making the tough decisions to take us through....'
I just can't stop shaking my head at times, it's like we haven't moved on from the turn of the 19th Century. The tories are a different animal to the 80's, as they were a different animal to the 60's as labour were to the 70's etc. Yet, we still live in the black and white nonsense.
Another example Anthony Blair went to Fetts, not that I care. But the point is no one did care! The tories have had a load of leaders from grammar's etc but when they have a moderate toff... it's a tory toff!!!!!!
Drives me mad, I live in hope one day it will change.
Just as there are those who will vote Tory because their parents and their parent's parents did too.
A lot of people don't remember the mess the last Tory government left us with, it's amazing what 13 years of good living will do for you.
As for the Tories they are spinning this deficit/debt thing all they can to make the Labour government look bad, because it's in their best interests to. What everyone needs to realise is that without that debt and without that deficit there would have been massive unemployment, reposessions, bankrupties and economic disaster for a good few years. Personally I think it was worth it.
Explain
So the Tories know best and everyone else is either gullible/naive or just plain dim?
Rather a naive view in itself if you don't mind me saying.
You can bet that the same people who like to equate the modern Conservative party with that of Thatcher (who did such scandalous things as take the milk away and stop the state propping up failing businesses - didn't she have to inherit a failed economy from Labour too?) will completely forget what Blair and Brown did by the next election. Seems to be happening already based on some of what I have seen written by the Labourites.
13 years of good living - all on the UK's credit card.
You think it is worth it that the country is in the brown stuff, because a few people aren't unemployed? Of course, if Brown hadn't broken our regulatory system and actually saved money during the boom (I thought he promised an end to boom and bust?) we may not have been in the situation we are in.
Do you think it is worth it that we kept German and other foreign workers in work? (scrappage scheme - why were we paying, with money we don't have, to keep foreign car workers in work? Their own governments are already doing it)
Do you think it is worth it that the government has been massaging unemployment figures by creating lots of public sector non-jobs? (admittedly the Conservatives are not innocent of massaging the stats, but I don't think they did it at great detriment to the public purse)
What complete and utter nonsense. You cannot make crass statements like "I think it was worth it" - we haven't even started paying for it yet. Come back in 5 years time when the country willl look very different (decrepit).
As for "the mess the Tories left" - you don't know what you're talking about. Clark made a very good job of repairing the mess left by the ERM debacle - Labour inherited economic growth, low and falling inflation, unemployment and interest rates.
They "created" 1.5 million public sector jobs - all with pension obligations on the State, yet no extra private sector jobs were created at all. Productivity remained stagnant, and declined in the public sector.
History will consider the New Labour project to have been a total faliure.
This is such a disappointing post, the poster seems to have fallen under the spell of the rather simplistic sabre rattling of the right wing press.
Its pretty simple really, compare the living standards of the population as a whole over the last 5 years to the standards of 20 years ago...... you will see an improvement.
Yes, the poor have got less poor (though there are sill a lot of people who need help) the rich have got....... richer actually (Nu-Labour did not "punish" the rich as some suggest).
Its getting boring to keep repeating........... "GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS", means jsut that, its global.... it wasnt the fault of the UK govt.
Possibly Labour could have reacted faster, or better, but still they did react and managed to get it under control in this country. Why do people not see this? Again, its the same old prejudices and small minded hatred.
Now, the tories have a chance to prove themselves, lets see if they do.... obviously i hope that they succeed as i dont want the country to fall into a shambling mess. However, i still want Labour back in power....... i do still trust them.
And come on, Hague, IDS, Osbourne..... not exactly progressive, "big society, fairness for all" thinkers are they?