Conservative government

grizzly1911

chewmylegoff wrote: »

my strategy would be to hammer long-term benefits claimants (who will never vote tory) and pass the savings on to working people earning up to about £50/60k (who sometimes vote tory).

.

This argument would hold more water if there was a near balance between jobs and unemployed but they are miles apart.

There simply aren't enough jobs, which is exasperated by that dreaded "I" word.

Of course if jobs were n plentiful supply then it might work.

ash28

It's taken the new gov't 2 years to look as shambolic, dishonest and sleazy as labour did in it's death throws.

The cabinet (of any persuasion) should all be on performance related pay.

IronWolf

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Borrow from where?

There's a question that hasn't been answered.

As was said earlier. There's a real world out there that isn't interested in lending money.

Easy, you legislate that banks and insurance companies need to increase their reserves of capital, and most are then forced to buy more AAA bonds.

Then get the bank of England to buy bonds too to decrease interest rates.

Of course, that's what we're doing

chewmylegoff

grizzly1911 wrote: »

This argument would hold more water if there was a near balance between jobs and unemployed but they are miles apart.

There simply aren't enough jobs, which is exasperated by that dreaded "I" word.

Of course if jobs were n plentiful supply then it might work.

It wasn't intended to be a "fair" policy - it's just what I was do if I was running Tory policy and wanted to get elected. Lots of people would be upset and many would get shafted, but none of them would have ever voted Tory anyway.

RJP33

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Borrow from where?

There's a question that hasn't been answered.

As was said earlier. There's a real world out there that isn't interested in lending money.

Or if they do it'll be at a much higher interest rate than now, our AAA rating will go and everyone's mortgage goes up.

Only an utterly crazy person won't conclude that at least some cuts are necessary, spending for example on benefits is running way out of control.

StevieJ

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Borrow from where?

There's a question that hasn't been answered.

As was said earlier. There's a real world out there that isn't interested in lending money.

Let us hope you are wrong with that as Ossie has still got a lot of borrowing to do over the next few years, austerity or no austerity :eek:

StevieJ

chewmylegoff wrote: »

It wasn't intended to be a "fair" policy - it's just what I was do if I was running Tory policy and wanted to get elected. Lots of people would be upset and many would get shafted, but none of them would have ever voted Tory anyway.

The chances are they wouldn't have voted at all, but they would be forced to if you were in charge of the purse strings

grizzly1911

chewmylegoff wrote: »

It wasn't intended to be a "fair" policy - it's just what I was do if I was running Tory policy and wanted to get elected. Lots of people would be upset and many would get shafted, but none of them would have ever voted Tory anyway.

Me thinks the Tory party would never get elected again. The have nots far outweigh the haves and would soon rise to the rallying call.

The meek shall inherit and all that.

Of course you could possibly invoke a weighted vote based on wealth that might swing things;-)

lemonjelly

chucky wrote: »

How dare you criticise the Tories you dirty little labour championship supporter.

Missed you duchess.

How ya doin big fella!:T

lemonjelly

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Labour's alternative of borrow and spend then cut deeper later is no less an ideological position, and I'm sure you could find quite a few GCSE student who would tell you that wouldn't work either, and a number of ratings agencies who might well agree with them.

It's a fairly simple situation. The government came into power and were throwing around terms like the country on the brink of bankruptcy and our credit rating was at risk. Labour argued more or less the same but their mantra was the government's plans were too much and too fast. It was all a very simplistic assessment played out for the benefit of media headlines. In reality the country was not on the brink of bankruptcy and our credit rating wasn't in any significant risk and, as we have seen, recovery has been slow and difficult with the country bouncing along with minimal growth or small contractions.

For the past 2 years the government has pointed to the 'fact' that their measures were necessary to prevent the country going bankrupt or losing the AAA rating - the opposition have argued for the last two years that the plans risk causing a double dip recession. Both sides have had the upper hand in the debate at various times - Osbourne has been keen to point out that we have kept our AAA rating and now it's Labour's turn for some "told you so" headlines.