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David Cameron - New Year Message
David Cameron has said that 2011 will be a tough year. More doom and gloom to come.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12097226
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12097226
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I guess that we all knew that - the government has told us clearly over several months what the problems are and how they intend to solve them.
Another slant is given in today's Daily Telegraph -
"In one respect, Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, had it about right in his new year message; for many people, 2011 is going to feel "horrible". Around 60,000 public sector workers will lose their jobs, and across the economy as a whole, living standards are likely to fall. Growth will be sluggish, if not negative in some areas. Inflation will remain high, so real wages will fall. Meanwhile, the Government will struggle to get on top of the deficit."
But that's where Mr Barber's grasp on reality ends. Both he and the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, seem to believe that with different policies, the coming adjustment can somehow be avoided. In so arguing, the Left has descended into fantasy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/8232354/For-many-itll-be-a-very-unhappy-financial-new-year.html
We can cut, copy and paste his message for the next 5 years or so.
We can't afford compassion and the longer we take to clear up Labours mess the more it will cost, leaving even less for services. Those on the left need to wake up and at least try to understand the unholy mess the country is in.
I assume you mean the mess left by the banks that was mainly cleared up by Labour during the recession?
If you can't afford compassion, then I am truely sorry for you.
Hope you have a good new year
This stuff about Labour's mess is just alot of old tosh. Most Western countries are experiencing an economic nightmare at the moment. To suggest that those on the left do not understand that the country has problems is simply disingenious. To constantly trot out the same old mantra that this is all Labour's fault as the right does simply does not wash. I even heard Clegg come out with this stuff the other day - I wonder what he would have said had there been a realistic chance of a coalition with Labour? - which his party would have jumped at.
When the recession hit the Tories were running about like headless chickens - they had no solutions so it begs a certain question - what state would we be in if the Tories had been in power?
The Tories are cutting with relish yet they find money to support Ireland - they find money for a new experimental education system in England and Wales without any evidence that there will be an improvement in standards.
It is easy to say we cannot afford compassion when you are not the one about to become redundant or even continue to work in a department where the cuts are going to make any meaningful service a joke.
I find people like Osborne lack compassion - he himself has never had to and will never have to struggle for anything. The cuts will have no effect on him whatsoever. We are all in this together - I don't think so.
The structural deficit was not created by the banks. We are paying the price for living beyond our means.
Indeed, as a nation we are. All the people who mortgaged and remortgaged to fund a designer lifestyle and those who spent recklessly on credit cards or who invested in "buy to let" or who arranged "self-certificate" mortgages for themselves must really be feeling the consequences right now. They chose to do this, no one dragged them into the banks to borrow foolishly.
Good post
Anyway, I don't think the question is whether the cuts should be made or not, which this message seems to focus on. It's how/when/where the cuts made, which has caused the controversy and I think we're all waiting to see if Cameron has got it right and if his optimism will bear fruit or not.
I'm not quite sure that I believe that the UK economy is out of the danger zone either - growth is still too sluggish, certain sections are still on their knees, unemployment is set to soar, and I doubt anyone can claim that the extremely fragile economies in Europe won't have an impact on our economy if/when they go tits up. Optimism, fine. However, the overly positive language isn't sitting too right with me. I'm not seeing or feeling the back-clapping success right now.
I'm pleased to see that job creation and support for small businesses will be Cameron's focus in the New Year (about time!) but when are we going to hear the details of this 'credible plan'? rather than 'the private sector will be ok if we leave them to it, and will save us all!' especially since that rhetoric is clearly not the case.
I suppose the New Year message is all about PR, but given the state we're in, I could do with less of that. My reaction is MEH.
Hear hear!:)
The sooner we get rid of our deficit the better in my books. Then of course we have the problem of our debt, that is like a leech draining us of money.
The question is, how do we rid ourselves of the debt next. Are we going to inflate our way out of it, over the next ten years. I certainly can see a 4% inflation rate as the norm, while interest rates are kept low.
Sorry, I may be reading your post wrong, but all people who arranged 'self-certificate' mortgages?!
I, along with many other self-employed folk, had a self-certificate mortgages because of a variable/irregular income and not a nice, neat fixed figure every month. However, that does not mean we borrowed out of our means nor that the bank lent foolishly. Of course there are irresponsible cases, but don't tar everyone with the same brush.
In any case, you can also flip that argument around. The 'irresponsible' could have applied all they wanted but could have been turned down by the banks. I think it's more of a case that banks were lending foolishy.
The banks did not cause the deficit, however, they played their part in causing the credit crunch, which is making businesses suffer now with the lack of small business loans, which in turn weakens economy and employment ,growth which in turn impacts on incoming taxes etc etc. You cannot seperate it all.
I take your point as until the deficit is removed tackling the debt is impossible to even make a start on. The government plan to eradicate the defict by the end of this parliament which means the interest on debt payments will continue to increase until then. Assuming the deficit is removed by 2015 then only budget surpluses will reduce the debt and the interest payments which are currently the 4th biggest single item of government expenditure.
It is quite mindboggling why some are so ambivalent or unconcerned about the state of the public finances and seem to think continuing with large deficits and ever increasing debt and interest payment costs are the way to go.
People seem to have ignored it. (Uh oh)
It was full of negatives anyhow so wasn't worth much
He should have been riding huskies or something while he was doing the speech.
Happy Birthday Ed!
Now now - that is not fair. It has been widely reported but he is after all the Leader of the opposition and it will not get the same coverage as the PM's speech.
As far as negative is concerned - well I'm afraid there is a lot to be negative about.
OK - I give you your first point (just because it is New Year's Eve
(I'll stop there though otherwise I'll take the thread off-topic)
I think it was Christmas Eve, not New Year's Eve. Rank time of year for a birthday, all the kids at school used to get 'joint' presents for birthday and Christmas!
Well given that every suggested reduction in Public Spending has been attacked by certain posters on this forum (one even complained when publicly funded pop concerts were being stopped), I'm not sure that everyone shares your view that cuts should be made at all.
You're right - belated greetings then
Thanks
Of course there will have to be cuts. Chancellor Darling was quite clear about that before the election - the argument is where, when, how and who.
I hate to say this but cuts are not a monopoly of the right. What I feel however is that the recession has given the Tories the opportunity to do what they wanted to do anyway - cut back the state and the public sector.