Politics

[Alex 30376]

http://benjaminstudebaker.com/2015/05/02/britain-for-the-love-of-god-please-stop-david-cameron/

Good read that.

[Dr Gloom 19814]

an excellent read, perhaps if we'd stuck to the path gordon brown started us on we'd have a sustainable recovery, like the one they're seeing in the US, where blanket austerity wasn't implemented, instead of the situation here in where poverty is at a 30 year high and 900,000 people used food banks last year.

 

you have to question why this isn't being debated properly in public. i blame labour for trying to appear tough on the economy too to win over some of the nervous floating voters. but the deficit will never go away until tax receipts grow. and employment growth based on part time and zero hour contract jobs is not going to do much to address this country's stubbornly low productivity.

[TheDimpleboy 0]

Maybe he gets a buzz out of creating 2 million extra jobs, cutting income tax for 27 million people, taking a million out of paying tax all together, freezing council tax, biggest increase in the state pension since 1948, cutting fuel duty, putting a permanent levy on the banks, more doctors, more nurses, building more council houses in 5 years than labour did in 13 years......

 

I keep seeing this idea that the Conservative Party we currently have are one of absolute economic prudence, and how they have ‘fixed’ the ‘last lots mess’. Which is interesting, because as we know the last ‘mess’ was a result of a GLOBAL financial crisis, beyond the control of the Labour party – and the few countries which did escape from most of it (e.g. Australia), were ones with relatively small amount of exposure to financial services in comparison to ourselves. Now from a neutral perspective (UKIP, Lib Dem etc.), it would be absolutely fair to call out Labour on some economic mistakes they did make. For example during the periods they were running budget surpluses it would have made a lot more sense to pay back some of their existing debts, instead of maintaining increasing expenditure. Labour also failed to correctly regulate the banking sector, which internationally, along with the Sub-Prime mortgage crisis over in the U S OF A, was one of the key reasons the crash occurred. But the thing is mate, throughout this period leading up the Crash, your ‘guys’ of economic wisdom, the Tories were not only pledging to MATCH Labour’s spending each year – they crucially wanted FURTHER banking deregulation – claiming Labour had not gone far enough. If this had gone ahead, we would have been in an even worse place to deal with the crisis than under Labour. It’s also worth pointing out that Labour were required to spend massively following the election thanks to the state of public services left by the Major government – Oxclose school next to me was literally crumbling in 1997. Although this in NO WAY justifies PFI contracts, which are a waste, and could have been used as a stick to beat Labour with, if it wasn’t for the fact the Tories have signed the biggest one to date in the current parliament.

 

And now coming onto the ‘recovery’. The fact that the economy has recovered from a recession seems to result in some Tories genuinely thinking this therefore means their plan is ‘working’, despite the fact there was ALWAYS going to be a recovery. Think about it, if you’re rock bottom, then things can only get better, so a recovery should always be expected, but this is where it gets interesting.

The Tory 2010 plan had 3 components: Eliminate the deficit over 1 parliament (failed), have total debt falling by 2015 (failed), retain financial confidence and retain the AAA status (failed). These three things, if successful, would have been potential justification for their austerity program.

Until 2013 there was no economic growth at all, as up until this point there had been heavy cuts to social services. In 2013, recognising that government cuts were resulting in a knock on stagnation effect in the overall economy, the Tories decided to postpone their remaining heavy cuts plan till after this election. And low and behold, less cuts + attempted keynsian stimulus through HS2 (I oppose HS2) has seen promising GDP growth since then. This current plan is closer to Labour’s 2010 plan than their own, and is working better. And instead of sticking to it. These stupid cunts want deeper austerity again and will oversee the same amount of cuts from 2015-2017, as we saw in the last 5 years. That’s going to be a hell of a lot of vulnerable people shit on for ideological reasons.

 

Now moving away from the economy:

 

They cannot be trusted on healthcare - despite pledges to ringfence the NHS, the Office of National Statistics wrote to Downing Street pointing out that the NHS has in fact received real term cuts. The overriding opinion of every single individual who works in the NHS that I've spoken to is that it is at breaking point, and has deteriorated considerably since 2010 (and boy did Labour make some mistakes, *cough* PFI *cough*). Mental health in particular has been royally f****d over, demand has risen by 30% while there have been cuts to both MH nurses and MH beds (circa 1200 drop in each IIRC) - that doesn't sound like a 'big society' to me.

 

It's absolutely clear that the Conservative party cannot be trusted on Education. Despite being an absolute **** I actually agreed with some of Mr Gove's educational reforms, particularly on the maths curriculum, as grade inflation was definitely a problem, although I think the A level changes were a bad move (so do Oxbridge). But the problem is we had an education secretary who was more concerned in engaging in an ideological battle with teachers than actually improving standards - because let's have this right, it's generally a sign you're making a bit of a mess of things if you're entire workforce despise you. Teacher's jobs aren't anywhere near as hard as some make out - but they also aren't anywhere as easy as others make out. You cannot continue to increase the workload and paperwork of teachers every year, while freezing pay and pensions. There's a reason why 50% of newly qualified teachers leave the profession within 5 years - and no Mr. Dacre - it's not because they've left to establish a Politburo among the NUT.

 

Healthcare and education are two massive issues, which are big enough to make voting Tory a no no for me, but it's not just that. We've got:

-Bedroom Tax (spare room subsidy)

-Legal Aid

-Chris Grayling's mess of the prison system

-The fact immigration has managed to rise even higher than under Labour (and that takes some doing)

-Surestart closures

-Disgraceful sanctions, which have literally killed people. Now don't get me wrong, under no circumstances should benefits ever pay more than employment (the disabled excluded), however these reforms have devastated some of the most vulnerable people in society - why are they being punished because of Jeremy Kyle scrotes? By all means chase the scroungers - but make sure the genuinely needy aren't hit - and this government has failed to do so.

-Firefighter pensions and cuts

- FREE SCHOOLS LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

 

How anyone from the North East can put a cross next to the Conservative Party box on Thursday is beyond me.

Edited May 5, 2015 by TheDimpleboy

[Gemmill 34422]

Leaked DWP papers reveal the "extremely controversial" coalition plans to achieve those £12bn in welfare savings. No wonder they don't want to get into specifics (Ian Duncan Smith claimed today that they "hadn't done the work" yet on establishing exactly what the plans to achieve those savings are), cos they include:

 

• Getting employers to contribute more to the cost of statutory maternity pay – or as an alternative abolishing it entirely.

• Freezing benefit payments at current levels across the board.

• Limiting welfare payments by family size.

• Forcing single parents on income support to seek work when their youngest child reaches the age of three (currently five).

• Making it harder for sick people to claim state aid when they are out of work by introducing “stricter” fit-for-work tests and/or tighter limits on eligibility.

• Increasing the bedroom tax on certain categories of renters.

• Barring under-25s from claiming incapacity benefit or housing benefit.

 

All the while cutting taxes for the wealthy.

 

More details here:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/05/revealed-coalition-plans-to-slash-welfare-for-sick-poor-young-and-disabled

[Dr Gloom 19814]

 

I keep seeing this idea that the Conservative Party we currently have are one of absolute economic prudence, and how they have fixed the last lots mess. Which is interesting, because as we know the last mess was a result of a GLOBAL financial crisis, beyond the control of the Labour party and the few countries which did escape from most of it (e.g. Australia), were ones with relatively small amount of exposure to financial services in comparison to ourselves. Now from a neutral perspective (UKIP, Lib Dem etc.), it would be absolutely fair to call out Labour on some economic mistakes they did make. For example during the periods they were running budget surpluses it would have made a lot more sense to pay back some of their existing debts, instead of maintaining increasing expenditure. Labour also failed to correctly regulate the banking sector, which internationally, along with the Sub-Prime mortgage crisis over in the U S OF A, was one of the key reasons the crash occurred. But the thing is mate, throughout this period leading up the Crash, your guys of economic wisdom, the Tories were not only pledging to MATCH Labours spending each year they crucially wanted FURTHER banking deregulation claiming Labour had not gone far enough. If this had gone ahead, we would have been in an even worse place to deal with the crisis than under Labour. Its also worth pointing out that Labour were required to spend massively following the election thanks to the state of public services left by the Major government Oxclose school next to me was literally crumbling in 1997. Although this in NO WAY justifies PFI contracts, which are a waste, and could have been used as a stick to beat Labour with, if it wasnt for the fact the Tories have signed the biggest one to date in the current parliament.

 

And now coming onto the recovery. The fact that the economy has recovered from a recession seems to result in some Tories genuinely thinking this therefore means their plan is working, despite the fact there was ALWAYS going to be a recovery. Think about it, if youre rock bottom, then things can only get better, so a recovery should always be expected, but this is where it gets interesting.

The Tory 2010 plan had 3 components: Eliminate the deficit over 1 parliament (failed), have total debt falling by 2015 (failed), retain financial confidence and retain the AAA status (failed). These three things, if successful, would have been potential justification for their austerity program.

Until 2013 there was no economic growth at all, as up until this point there had been heavy cuts to social services. In 2013, recognising that government cuts were resulting in a knock on stagnation effect in the overall economy, the Tories decided to postpone their remaining heavy cuts plan till after this election. And low and behold, less cuts + attempted keynsian stimulus through HS2 (I oppose HS2) has seen promising GDP growth since then. This current plan is closer to Labours 2010 plan than their own, and is working better. And instead of sticking to it. These stupid cunts want deeper austerity again and will oversee the same amount of cuts from 2015-2017, as we saw in the last 5 years. Thats going to be a hell of a lot of vulnerable people shit on for ideological reasons.

 

Now moving away from the economy:

 

They cannot be trusted on healthcare - despite pledges to ringfence the NHS, the Office of National Statistics wrote to Downing Street pointing out that the NHS has in fact received real term cuts. The overriding opinion of every single individual who works in the NHS that I've spoken to is that it is at breaking point, and has deteriorated considerably since 2010 (and boy did Labour make some mistakes, *cough* PFI *cough*). Mental health in particular has been royally f****d over, demand has risen by 30% while there have been cuts to both MH nurses and MH beds (circa 1200 drop in each IIRC) - that doesn't sound like a 'big society' to me.

 

It's absolutely clear that the Conservative party cannot be trusted on Education. Despite being an absolute **** I actually agreed with some of Mr Gove's educational reforms, particularly on the maths curriculum, as grade inflation was definitely a problem, although I think the A level changes were a bad move (so do Oxbridge). But the problem is we had an education secretary who was more concerned in engaging in an ideological battle with teachers than actually improving standards - because let's have this right, it's generally a sign you're making a bit of a mess of things if you're entire workforce despise you. Teacher's jobs aren't anywhere near as hard as some make out - but they also aren't anywhere as easy as others make out. You cannot continue to increase the workload and paperwork of teachers every year, while freezing pay and pensions. There's a reason why 50% of newly qualified teachers leave the profession within 5 years - and no Mr. Dacre - it's not because they've left to establish a Politburo among the NUT.

 

Healthcare and education are two massive issues, which are big enough to make voting Tory a no no for me, but it's not just that. We've got:

-Bedroom Tax (spare room subsidy)

-Legal Aid

-Chris Grayling's mess of the prison system

-The fact immigration has managed to rise even higher than under Labour (and that takes some doing)

-Surestart closures

-Disgraceful sanctions, which have literally killed people. Now don't get me wrong, under no circumstances should benefits ever pay more than employment (the disabled excluded), however these reforms have devastated some of the most vulnerable people in society - why are they being punished because of Jeremy Kyle scrotes? By all means chase the scroungers - but make sure the genuinely needy aren't hit - and this government has failed to do so.

-Firefighter pensions and cuts

- FREE SCHOOLS LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

 

How anyone from the North East can put a cross next to the Conservative Party box on Thursday is beyond me.

Bravo :clap:

[Gemmill 34422]

 

Guests arriving for the annual Conservative fundraising event. Where have we seen that hat before?!

 

"The Tories also received £124,450 from Lycamobile UK, a low-cost telecoms operator which has courted controversy because it has not paid corporation tax in Britain since 2007, despite generating millions in revenue. Since 2011, the firm has given more than £1m to the Tories. At the Tories’ Black and White Fundraiser, the firm’s founder, Subaskaran Allirajah, bought a statue of Margaret Thatcher for £210,000 and his ministerial guest was David Gauke, the minister responsible for closing the tax gap."

 

 

Christ.

Edited May 6, 2015 by Gemmill

[Christmas Tree 3997]

Ballot Monkeys.

 

Absolutely class

[Howmanheyman 26783]

 

Guests arriving for the annual Conservative fundraising event. Where have we seen that hat before?!

 

"The Tories also received £124,450 from Lycamobile UK, a low-cost telecoms operator which has courted controversy because it has not paid corporation tax in Britain since 2007, despite generating millions in revenue. Since 2011, the firm has given more than £1m to the Tories. At the Tories Black and White Fundraiser, the firms founder, Subaskaran Allirajah, bought a statue of Margaret Thatcher for £210,000 and his ministerial guest was David Gauke, the minister responsible for closing the tax gap."

 

 

Christ.

This is the reality of the conservative party and their appeal to 'their people'.

 

Horrible cunts.

[Gemmill 34422]

Sky News covering the big issues this morning. Caption on the screen just there was "was 1990s hip hop more influential than 1960s pop"

 

It's basically Alan Partridge's Mid-Morning Matters on there.

[ewerk 26285]

 

I know it comes as a shock to no one but FFS, come on.

[ewerk 26285]

And for balance:

 

[Gemmill 34422]

The Mail have gone with a comprehensive guide to tactical voting to keep Labour out in every constituency. Rattled.

[Kid Dynamite 5904]

 

I know it comes as a shock to no one but FFS, come on.

'look how he eats a sandwich!'

 

Cameron left his kids in a pub ffs

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3194]

The Mail have gone with a comprehensive guide to tactical voting to keep Labour out in every constituency. Rattled.

 

Some Labour party grandees in Scotland are organising tactical votes to get Labour members to vote Tory to keep the SNP out.

[Meenzer 14031]

https://twitter.com/chris_coltrane/status/595878836505616384/photo/1

[Gemmill 34422]

Miliband and Farage's.

[The Fish 8989]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/miliband-nasty-bad-man-2015050698064#feedly

[Monkeys Fist 38739]

[Gemmill 34422]

CT's first name is Brian?

[ewerk 26285]

It's all getting a bit sweary

 

[Holden McGroin 4849]

Sadly I think the Tories are going to get back in.

[Gemmill 34422]

I don't see how they can form a majority. If you look at the latest polls, even them, the Lib Dems, the DUP and UKIP taken together only gets to 315 seats, 11 short of a majority.

 

Labour and the SNP together is 322 (and despite what Miliband says, he'll have to work with them), with the Greens, Plaid Cymru etc to probably add as they won't support a Tory govt.

[NJS 3977]

Problem is that despite projection models probably getting better, I remember 92 when a very small margin of error into the polls gave the Tories enough - another 10 or 15 seats would probably see them home. One thing that gives me a bit of hope is that London which has quite a few marginals seems a bit out of step with national polling.

[ewerk 26285]

I don't see how they can form a majority. If you look at the latest polls, even them, the Lib Dems, the DUP and UKIP taken together only gets to 315 seats, 11 short of a majority.

 

Labour and the SNP together is 322 (and despite what Miliband says, he'll have to work with them), with the Greens, Plaid Cymru etc to probably add as they won't support a Tory govt.

 

It'll likely be 323 to get a majority to be a little bit more accurate.

[Renton 17746]

I'm hoping the relentless negative campaigning of the Tories will be counterproductive, plus Miliband has performed much better than I feared. I do fear the SNP will really fuck things up though. They may be left wing but a party whose raison d'etre is the break up of the union and who seem economically deceitful (being polite) leaves a horrible taste on the mouth.

 

Fuck football and politics!