Current Affairs 2023

[Mervyn and Trish]

This current lot spent the first 10 years sorting out the mess Labour left, then Covid hit.

[towny44]

You all fail to understand that it takes money to provide all the nice to have things like quality healthcare, top class education, well mannered efficient policing, pot hole free well maintained roads, an abundance of affordable housing etc etc etc, all provided by well paid employees.
Unfortunately none of the UK work force seem keen on paying the higher taxes that would be necessary to furnish us with lifes little luxuries, so any govt is on a hiding to nothing.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Dead right. When the idle spongers say "the government should spend more on....." they mean "anyone but me should pay for....."

[david63]

Dead right. When the idle spongers say "the government should spend more on....." they mean "anyone but me should pay for....."

Are you trying to say that the Government doesn't have a magic money tree any more?

[towny44]

Only when labour are in power, and they operate their Ponzi scheme.

[Manoverboard]

If Labour voters had had any principles in the 80s then they wouldn't have bought their Council Houses in the first place. Pure greed of course and sod everybody else. Then they generally sold them for a huge profit and moved somewhere much nicer.

Any profits should have been liable to Capital Gains Taxation to discourage selling them on.

[paultheagle]

So only Labour voters took advantage of the governments right to buy scheme. Yeah right. It was a good very generous scheme, the only mistake was not replacing the homes with more social housing. Anyone can see that the reason house prices are so high is because there isn't enough if them. People are being forced to rent and parents can't get rid of their adult children.

The solution is to build more social housing but for some reason councils don't. Government should legislate to make it easier to build new homes and property developers should be made to include social housing in their new builds.

Government after government have failed in this and the situation is getting worse.

[paultheagle]

As for paying more tax, bring it on . Most people would be happy to pay a bit more but they don't trust politicians to spend their money on the things that they say they will.

Instead government makes very rich people pay less tax.

[paultheagle]

Only when labour are in power, and they operate their Ponzi scheme.

Ponzi schemes are illegal si no government will operate them.

[towny44]

As for paying more tax, bring it on . Most people would be happy to pay a bit more but they don't trust politicians to spend their money on the things that they say they will.

Instead government makes very rich people pay less tax.

Rather bitter and totally wrong. The wealthiest always have paid the majority of the tax and if, like Labour, you increase that too much, then they will find ways to avoid paying it, sometimes moving abroad to avoid paying any tax at all.
As for everyone paying a BIT more that would not be enough to put right all the problems that we have, and since we are already paying a higher percentage than most of the top economies, it again could prove counter productive, with more of the best qualified deciding to emigrate.
It's difficult to see a way forward, and I am rather glad that I won't be around to see the inevitable gradual decline of the UK standard of living.

[towny44]

Only when labour are in power, and they operate their Ponzi scheme.

Ponzi schemes are illegal so no government will operate them.

So what do you call it when, as in 2010 the Labour govt borrowed more money than we could afford to pay back?

[david63]

property developers should be made to include social housing in their new builds.

That has been a requirement for the last 20 years or so - although I would accept that what is considered "social housing" in many developments is somewhat tenuous

[Manoverboard]

property developers should be made to include social housing in their new builds.

That has been a requirement for the last 20 years or so - although I would accept that what is considered "social housing" in many developments is somewhat tenuous

It has been the case in our part of Dorset , Tory run, for all of that period. The scheme seems to be part ownership plus rent. The gardens in these types of properties are not full of rubber tyres and rusty prams like wot they were on the old council estates.

[paultheagle]

Only when labour are in power, and they operate their Ponzi scheme.

Ponzi schemes are illegal so no government will operate them.

So what do you call it when, as in 2010 the Labour govt borrowed more money than we could afford to pay back?

I don't know. Bad management maybe, The Tories nearly trashed the economy less than 12 months ago, so like I say none of them can be trusted.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Ponzi schemes are illegal so no government will operate them.

So what do you call it when, as in 2010 the Labour govt borrowed more money than we could afford to pay back?

I don't know. Bad management maybe, The Tories nearly trashed the economy less than 12 months ago, so like I say none of them can be trusted.

You're right. the Tories NEARLY trashed it.

Labour, however, ACTUALLY trashed it.

[david63]

Labour, however, ACTUALLY trashed it.

Without having a pandemic as a reason.

[paultheagle]

That was more than a decade ago and a global recession didn't help. The Tories have had 13 years to sort it out. You Tories really must stop blaming Labour for your own failings.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The Tories had sorted it out by 2020. Though of course Labour didn't like it, bleating about austerity without recognising their incompetence had made that necessary.

The biggest jokes were Gordon Brown's two catchphrases. Prudence, which apparently meant spend spend spend. And no more boom and bust, and then delivered the biggest bust for decades.

[david63]

You Tories really must stop blaming Labour for your own failings.

For the record I did not vote Tory at the last General Election.

[Mervyn and Trish]

You Tories really must stop blaming Labour for your own failings.

For the record I did not vote Tory at the last General Election.

And I'm a floating voter. If Sir Hindsight wants my vote next time he needs to come up with some actual coherent policies (at a faster rate than he is currently dropping them) rather than just keep attacking the Tories.

[paultheagle]

The Tories had sorted it out by 2020. Though of course Labour didn't like it, bleating about austerity without recognising their incompetence had made that necessary.

The biggest jokes were Gordon Brown's two catchphrases. Prudence, which apparently meant spend spend spend. And no more boom and bust, and then delivered the biggest bust for decades.

If you want to know what Labour's policies are look no further than at the Tories because they keep taking Labours ideas and rebranding them as their own.

By the way, at the last GE I voted Conservative, and at the one before that and the one before that.

[Ray B]

I think a lot of Labour voters voted Tory for one reason, Jeremy Corbyn.

[david63]

At the end of the day there is not a lot to choose between any political party when in Government over the way they handle the economy. One party will do one thing their way and create a problem somewhere else whilst the other party will do something else their way creating a different problem - swings and roundabouts.

The bigger problem is that anybody can become an MP without any previous experience, or training. What other job can you start on day one knowing nothing about the job and be paid £86k? What then makes matters worse is that an MP with no experience of a particular subject is made a minister responsible for running a department.

[towny44]

I wonder if the archaic system of candidates being chosen by the local party committee could be to blame, although the big parties do have lists, and I would hope their suitability for being an MP is thoroughly checked before they get on the list. Maybe some sort of exam system should be employed to ensure they have the right characteristics, although would Boris or Corbyn have passed that test.

[Stephen]

I think it's more a case of 'money talks'.