which party protected our homes more in recession?

Kohoutek

ninky wrote: »

yeah well maybe we'll have to learn to live without so much cheap tat from china. not a bad thing.

I think you're understating the problem. We import more than just 'cheap tat from China'.

Clothes, consumer electronics, a very significant proportion of food sold in supermarkets, oil and gas (since the UK is now a net importer), raw materials for our manufacturers. People will notice their standard of living dropping if the government allows the pound to continue to slide. Hopefully it will make us more self-sufficient eventually, but the transition would be a shock to many people.

ninky_2

i think our lack of natural resources (oil and gas) is a problem. also why i'd like to be part of a federal europe. bigger territory = access to more resources.

people worry about joining europe because they think we'll be flooded with immigrants without enough resources to go around. truth is we've been living on plundered resources from when britain was head of an empire.

doesn't look like the US is going to support us over the falklands oil either as the spanish are busy trying to get their straw in the black gold milkshake from the argentine side and suck harder and faster.....

kabayiri

Kohoutek wrote: »

Clothes, consumer electronics, a very significant proportion of food sold in supermarkets, oil and gas (since the UK is now a net importer), raw materials for our manufacturers. People will notice their standard of living dropping if the government allows the pound to continue to slide. Hopefully it will make us more self-sufficient eventually, but the transition would be a shock to many people.

There isn't much doubt that many of us will feel poorer in the coming years, for all the reason oft discussed here...the weak pound being one.

I won't like it, but I can cope with it.

But...I want something in return. I want a small inkling of respect and appreciation from the ruling government of all those who work hard and pay substantial taxes.

It isn't too much to ask.

Kohoutek

kabayiri wrote: »

I want a small inkling of respect and appreciation from the ruling government of all those who work hard and pay substantial taxes.

I think it's definitely what this country needs, but it would require very radical change which I don't think any of the three main parties would deliver. When you have a welfare budget that swallows up more money than all the money raised from income tax revenue, I don't have much hope.

lostinrates

ninky wrote: »

...

people worry about joining europe because they think we'll be flooded with immigrants without enough resources to go around. truth is we've been living on plundered resources from when britain was head of an empire.
....

I have both likes and concerns about being joined with Europe....the above is neither for me.

Kohoutek

ninky wrote: »

people worry about joining europe because they think we'll be flooded with immigrants without enough resources to go around. truth is we've been living on plundered resources from when britain was head of an empire.

Joining the euro wouldn't make any difference in terms of immigration from EU member states than the situation today.

EU law, which has to be followed by the UK, says that any citizen of an EU state has the right to reside and work in the UK. It is also not possible to exclude EU citizens from claiming money from the benefits system or using the resources of other public services like education and the NHS.

When the Eastern European states joined the EU, virtually all countries took advantage of a clause that allowed them to delay allowing free movement of people from those states for several years. We didn't, which is why there has been such a massive influx of Eastern Europeans into the UK in the last few years. We've also got extremely lax/non-existent enforcement of student visas, which allows people from non-EU states to live illegally in the UK after their visa expires.

Pobby

Isn`t it nice though to have a prime minister who to;d us he wouldn`t let the housing market get out of control again.

http://www.power-to-the-people.co.uk/2008/09/gordon-brown-house-price-inflation/

treliac

Pobby wrote: »

Isn`t it nice though to have a prime minister who to;d us he wouldn`t let the housing market get out of control again.

http://www.power-to-the-people.co.uk/2008/09/gordon-brown-house-price-inflation/

And he wants to come back and do it all again.

Pobby

Yes, also we might have part 2 of " We have brought an end to boom and bust ".