comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore"
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bonkers.
All you have to do is compare the policies of the major centre right parties across Europe with the Tories and centre left parties with Labour to see how far off the mark you are.
comment by Critical Supe Theory (U1282)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
comment by FieldsofAnfieldRd (U18971)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Critical Supe Theory (U1282)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Terrifying
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 5 hours, 40 minutes ago
I’d love to know what the Reform voters on here think about:
1. Austerity (given that rather than invest more in public services, Reform want to further shrink the size of the state)
2. Brexit (given that Farage’s vision was, and is, of a harder exit, which economists near universally agree would have had an even more severe immediate economic impact)
3. The potential economic impacts of simultaneously introducing a Zero Net Immigration policy and actioning larger tax cuts than those pledged by the Kwarteng budget which crashed the economy
Please don’t be shy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m no reform voter but re #1 why would that be any issue? We’ve had virtually full employment through the last 4 crisis. We need to up productivity to match or beat similar nations and I see nobody with policies to do that.
I once read there were 30,000 people administering national insurance in the country! We all know it is just a tax. Its relevance has fallen away. Average wage say £30k and there’s £900m a year saving.
TV license, abolish it. 5% of it goes on administration. Evasion is rampant and rising inexorably. Thanks another £200m a year.
Politicos are obsessed with the message of cutting headline taxes whilst raising indirect taxes which due to their size are inefficient to administer. Even the OBR recognises overall taxes have gone up. Clapham man only sees the headlines. Yes there will be bleating from some weirdos why they should pay when they’ve never had a tv yeah right but fck it no different to local taxes when you don’t have kids or use the library, tough sh.t.
Shortage of trades. offer free, centralised training and support and assistance after training to buy the van, tools, phone centre & accounting support. Will payback like student loans and you’ll earn a damn sight more than average plus inflation will drop as trades demand is met. Franchises can do it for £30-40k why not government?
Nobody offering real, practical solutions like this. Frustrating.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Because 100 years of empirical data has shown us, categorically, that you can’t cut your way out of an economic slump, and the harder you cut, the worse the mire you end up in.
See Britain and Germany in the 1920s (which ultimately delivered us the Naazis), Japan in the 1920s, Hoover in the 1930s (the worst depression in US history), Denmark, Australia and Ireland in the 1980s, half of Europe through the 2000s, and the Tories’ Austerity 1.0 and Austerity 2.0.
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 29 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously you're incapable of substantiating that statement with reality based examples
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 32 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And the worst thing about all this is how it’s dragged Labour to the right on economics.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'd say the jury is out on that. We'll see what they actually do in power, but based on pre-election platform, Starmer's Labour is much less inclined to see opening up markets and privatisation as a solution than Blair's, and much more open to muscular state involvement in the economy. The investment pledges are of course less ambitious than Blair-Brown, but I interpret that in the context of inheriting a very weak economy where both the tax burden and interest rates are high, as opposed to an economy set for healthy growth in 1997.
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 42 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 32 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And the worst thing about all this is how it’s dragged Labour to the right on economics.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'd say the jury is out on that. We'll see what they actually do in power, but based on pre-election platform, Starmer's Labour is much less inclined to see opening up markets and privatisation as a solution than Blair's, and much more open to muscular state involvement in the economy. The investment pledges are of course less ambitious than Blair-Brown, but I interpret that in the context of inheriting a very weak economy where both the tax burden and interest rates are high, as opposed to an economy set for healthy growth in 1997.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jury may be out, but surely the comparison should be to Labour under Corbyn rather than Labour under Blair?
I’m not seeing enough from Labour to address the chronic underfunding in public services, skill and labour shortages, the disgraceful profiteering of our essential services such as water, energy and travel. Nor anything to suggest they’ll introduce a tax policy that benefits all rather than the thieving cuuuuunts that have robbed this country blind.
I get they’ve had to pivot away from Corbyn’s economic policies because this country is full of facking zombies, and I hope they’ll look to pivot back towards it once in power. But that’s essentially my point, the Tories have reduced them to this so that the party can get into office. And that’s not a good thing, in my opinion.
Yeah, obviously compared to Corbyn, Labour is much further to the right. I was looking relative to a longer timescale - perhaps because it seems to me that Corbynism was a bit of an aberration within our political culture. I'd also say being dragged from there to the right is not just about the Tories. Obviously, it's got a lot to do with the prevailing political media culture framing the agenda on right-wing terms. But it's also a function of political failures of Corbyn and his team. He had an opportunity to mainstream a genuinely popular economic agenda but was unwilling to pragmatically pick his battles, alienated people with things like his reaction to Salisbury, etc.
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
socially that's true, they're almost as progressively liberal as Blairites
economically they are neo-liberal capitalists of the worst sort
economically & socially they are the polar opposite from my beliefs
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 2 minutes ago
Yeah, obviously compared to Corbyn, Labour is much further to the right. I was looking relative to a longer timescale - perhaps because it seems to me that Corbynism was a bit of an aberration within our political culture. I'd also say being dragged from there to the right is not just about the Tories. Obviously, it's got a lot to do with the prevailing political media culture framing the agenda on right-wing terms. But it's also a function of political failures of Corbyn and his team. He had an opportunity to mainstream a genuinely popular economic agenda but was unwilling to pragmatically pick his battles, alienated people with things like his reaction to Salisbury, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Whilst true, the political landscape has been dragged that way by the increasing powers of certain political elites and media establishment.
Corbyn obviously had many of his own failures, but there’s also the relentless bullshiiiit media smears against him that made him unelectable as well. And this media establishment has managed to tarnish his name in such a way that Labour are no long willing to associate with him and his policies.
This is what’s so concerning about the political landscape in Britain now, and as someone that won’t be voting Labour as they don’t represent your views, I’m sure you understand my issue?
comment by Peks - Comanche Moon (U6618)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
socially that's true, they're almost as progressively liberal as Blairites
economically they are neo-liberal capitalists of the worst sort
economically & socially they are the polar opposite from my beliefs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How do you figure that? They share most of your bigoted social views.
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 12 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 2 minutes ago
Yeah, obviously compared to Corbyn, Labour is much further to the right. I was looking relative to a longer timescale - perhaps because it seems to me that Corbynism was a bit of an aberration within our political culture. I'd also say being dragged from there to the right is not just about the Tories. Obviously, it's got a lot to do with the prevailing political media culture framing the agenda on right-wing terms. But it's also a function of political failures of Corbyn and his team. He had an opportunity to mainstream a genuinely popular economic agenda but was unwilling to pragmatically pick his battles, alienated people with things like his reaction to Salisbury, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Whilst true, the political landscape has been dragged that way by the increasing powers of certain political elites and media establishment.
Corbyn obviously had many of his own failures, but there’s also the relentless bullshiiiit media smears against him that made him unelectable as well. And this media establishment has managed to tarnish his name in such a way that Labour are no long willing to associate with him and his policies.
This is what’s so concerning about the political landscape in Britain now, and as someone that won’t be voting Labour as they don’t represent your views, I’m sure you understand my issue?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Labour are so far ahead in the polls because the Tories are eternally hated and this was the opportunity for them to present some policies that Corbyn pushed but instead they’re spooked into promoting the same bullshiiit we’ve seen from the Tories. Our country is just one big pool of bin juice.
Starmer has just come out tonight and eternally ruled out the country ever joining the single market and he seems to think that’s gonna get him to 2.5% GDP growth by the end of his first term.
Brexit has been an absolute flop and the public want to rejoin the EU yet this idiot is scared to facking confront the idea of getting closer to our largest trading partner.
You guys should be far more scared of Donald J Trump winning in the USA.
.............
comment by JustCallMeTed (U21528)
posted 22 minutes ago
You guys should be far more scared of Donald J Trump winning in the USA.
.............
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He's a huge favourite now.
Biden is 8/1 with Ladbrokes tonight
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 2 hours, 7 minutes ago
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 5 hours, 40 minutes ago
I’d love to know what the Reform voters on here think about:
1. Austerity (given that rather than invest more in public services, Reform want to further shrink the size of the state)
2. Brexit (given that Farage’s vision was, and is, of a harder exit, which economists near universally agree would have had an even more severe immediate economic impact)
3. The potential economic impacts of simultaneously introducing a Zero Net Immigration policy and actioning larger tax cuts than those pledged by the Kwarteng budget which crashed the economy
Please don’t be shy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m no reform voter but re #1 why would that be any issue? We’ve had virtually full employment through the last 4 crisis. We need to up productivity to match or beat similar nations and I see nobody with policies to do that.
I once read there were 30,000 people administering national insurance in the country! We all know it is just a tax. Its relevance has fallen away. Average wage say £30k and there’s £900m a year saving.
TV license, abolish it. 5% of it goes on administration. Evasion is rampant and rising inexorably. Thanks another £200m a year.
Politicos are obsessed with the message of cutting headline taxes whilst raising indirect taxes which due to their size are inefficient to administer. Even the OBR recognises overall taxes have gone up. Clapham man only sees the headlines. Yes there will be bleating from some weirdos why they should pay when they’ve never had a tv yeah right but fck it no different to local taxes when you don’t have kids or use the library, tough sh.t.
Shortage of trades. offer free, centralised training and support and assistance after training to buy the van, tools, phone centre & accounting support. Will payback like student loans and you’ll earn a damn sight more than average plus inflation will drop as trades demand is met. Franchises can do it for £30-40k why not government?
Nobody offering real, practical solutions like this. Frustrating.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Because 100 years of empirical data has shown us, categorically, that you can’t cut your way out of an economic slump, and the harder you cut, the worse the mire you end up in.
See Britain and Germany in the 1920s (which ultimately delivered us the Naazis), Japan in the 1920s, Hoover in the 1930s (the worst depression in US history), Denmark, Australia and Ireland in the 1980s, half of Europe through the 2000s, and the Tories’ Austerity 1.0 and Austerity 2.0.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not cuts for cuts sake. It is improving productivity. You missed the point completely. My bad no doubt.
Either they drop Biden now or stick with him
Someone needs to sit down with him and say he needs to step down and let the next generation of political leaders take over.
comment by JustCallMeTed (U21528)
posted 34 minutes ago
You guys should be far more scared of Donald J Trump winning in the USA.
.............
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Why? Trump doesn’t set British policy.
comment by Things Can Only Get Better (U11781)
posted 39 minutes ago
Starmer has just come out tonight and eternally ruled out the country ever joining the single market and he seems to think that’s gonna get him to 2.5% GDP growth by the end of his first term.
Brexit has been an absolute flop and the public want to rejoin the EU yet this idiot is scared to facking confront the idea of getting closer to our largest trading partner.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It is a ridiculous move a day before voting to come out and state his intention is to go back! A disastrous move. He can win the election and then have this discussion
comment by Things Can Only Get Better (U11781)
posted 38 minutes ago
Labour are so far ahead in the polls because the Tories are eternally hated...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Something here is not stacking up
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 2 hours, 7 minutes ago
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 5 hours, 40 minutes ago
I’d love to know what the Reform voters on here think about:
1. Austerity (given that rather than invest more in public services, Reform want to further shrink the size of the state)
2. Brexit (given that Farage’s vision was, and is, of a harder exit, which economists near universally agree would have had an even more severe immediate economic impact)
3. The potential economic impacts of simultaneously introducing a Zero Net Immigration policy and actioning larger tax cuts than those pledged by the Kwarteng budget which crashed the economy
Please don’t be shy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m no reform voter but re #1 why would that be any issue? We’ve had virtually full employment through the last 4 crisis. We need to up productivity to match or beat similar nations and I see nobody with policies to do that.
I once read there were 30,000 people administering national insurance in the country! We all know it is just a tax. Its relevance has fallen away. Average wage say £30k and there’s £900m a year saving.
TV license, abolish it. 5% of it goes on administration. Evasion is rampant and rising inexorably. Thanks another £200m a year.
Politicos are obsessed with the message of cutting headline taxes whilst raising indirect taxes which due to their size are inefficient to administer. Even the OBR recognises overall taxes have gone up. Clapham man only sees the headlines. Yes there will be bleating from some weirdos why they should pay when they’ve never had a tv yeah right but fck it no different to local taxes when you don’t have kids or use the library, tough sh.t.
Shortage of trades. offer free, centralised training and support and assistance after training to buy the van, tools, phone centre & accounting support. Will payback like student loans and you’ll earn a damn sight more than average plus inflation will drop as trades demand is met. Franchises can do it for £30-40k why not government?
Nobody offering real, practical solutions like this. Frustrating.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Because 100 years of empirical data has shown us, categorically, that you can’t cut your way out of an economic slump, and the harder you cut, the worse the mire you end up in.
See Britain and Germany in the 1920s (which ultimately delivered us the Naazis), Japan in the 1920s, Hoover in the 1930s (the worst depression in US history), Denmark, Australia and Ireland in the 1980s, half of Europe through the 2000s, and the Tories’ Austerity 1.0 and Austerity 2.0.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not cuts for cuts sake. It is improving productivity. You missed the point completely. My bad no doubt.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Austerity was cuts for cuts sake, though. As is Reform’s agenda.
I don’t disagree with you about efficiency and productivity, in principle. The UK could take lessons from various other states about how public sector reform and private sector investment could help deliver both of those things, certainly
But the overarching point is that to escape economic stagnation, the UK needed stimulus, not cuts; it needed to maintain public spending (and yes, it could have been redirected between various areas - civil service efficiencies could certainly have helped fund infrastructure renewal, for example), maintain the employment rate, and get money circulating around the economy.
Taxing an axe to spending did more than destroy public services, leave infrastructure to rot, widen the wealth divide, and leave record numbers of people on waiting lists and using food banks. It also turned the UK economy into one of the least attractive long-term investment options in the G20 and left an already struggling manufacturing sector, one the country desperately needed firing - and will continue to need - floundering and now without any base to build from.
Reform are too left wing. Didn't they cancel some of their candidates for saying it like it is. What happened to free speech. We need a proper right wing party.
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 13 minutes ago
Either they drop Biden now or stick with him
Someone needs to sit down with him and say he needs to step down and let the next generation of political leaders take over.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He'd probably fall asleep before anyone could explain.
Sign in if you want to comment
JA606 Opinion Poll - RESULTS OUT
Page 4 of 9
6 | 7 | 8 | 9
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore"
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bonkers.
All you have to do is compare the policies of the major centre right parties across Europe with the Tories and centre left parties with Labour to see how far off the mark you are.
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Critical Supe Theory (U1282)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
posted on 3/7/24
comment by FieldsofAnfieldRd (U18971)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Critical Supe Theory (U1282)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Terrifying
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 5 hours, 40 minutes ago
I’d love to know what the Reform voters on here think about:
1. Austerity (given that rather than invest more in public services, Reform want to further shrink the size of the state)
2. Brexit (given that Farage’s vision was, and is, of a harder exit, which economists near universally agree would have had an even more severe immediate economic impact)
3. The potential economic impacts of simultaneously introducing a Zero Net Immigration policy and actioning larger tax cuts than those pledged by the Kwarteng budget which crashed the economy
Please don’t be shy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m no reform voter but re #1 why would that be any issue? We’ve had virtually full employment through the last 4 crisis. We need to up productivity to match or beat similar nations and I see nobody with policies to do that.
I once read there were 30,000 people administering national insurance in the country! We all know it is just a tax. Its relevance has fallen away. Average wage say £30k and there’s £900m a year saving.
TV license, abolish it. 5% of it goes on administration. Evasion is rampant and rising inexorably. Thanks another £200m a year.
Politicos are obsessed with the message of cutting headline taxes whilst raising indirect taxes which due to their size are inefficient to administer. Even the OBR recognises overall taxes have gone up. Clapham man only sees the headlines. Yes there will be bleating from some weirdos why they should pay when they’ve never had a tv yeah right but fck it no different to local taxes when you don’t have kids or use the library, tough sh.t.
Shortage of trades. offer free, centralised training and support and assistance after training to buy the van, tools, phone centre & accounting support. Will payback like student loans and you’ll earn a damn sight more than average plus inflation will drop as trades demand is met. Franchises can do it for £30-40k why not government?
Nobody offering real, practical solutions like this. Frustrating.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Because 100 years of empirical data has shown us, categorically, that you can’t cut your way out of an economic slump, and the harder you cut, the worse the mire you end up in.
See Britain and Germany in the 1920s (which ultimately delivered us the Naazis), Japan in the 1920s, Hoover in the 1930s (the worst depression in US history), Denmark, Australia and Ireland in the 1980s, half of Europe through the 2000s, and the Tories’ Austerity 1.0 and Austerity 2.0.
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 29 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously you're incapable of substantiating that statement with reality based examples
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 32 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And the worst thing about all this is how it’s dragged Labour to the right on economics.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'd say the jury is out on that. We'll see what they actually do in power, but based on pre-election platform, Starmer's Labour is much less inclined to see opening up markets and privatisation as a solution than Blair's, and much more open to muscular state involvement in the economy. The investment pledges are of course less ambitious than Blair-Brown, but I interpret that in the context of inheriting a very weak economy where both the tax burden and interest rates are high, as opposed to an economy set for healthy growth in 1997.
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 42 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 32 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And the worst thing about all this is how it’s dragged Labour to the right on economics.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'd say the jury is out on that. We'll see what they actually do in power, but based on pre-election platform, Starmer's Labour is much less inclined to see opening up markets and privatisation as a solution than Blair's, and much more open to muscular state involvement in the economy. The investment pledges are of course less ambitious than Blair-Brown, but I interpret that in the context of inheriting a very weak economy where both the tax burden and interest rates are high, as opposed to an economy set for healthy growth in 1997.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jury may be out, but surely the comparison should be to Labour under Corbyn rather than Labour under Blair?
I’m not seeing enough from Labour to address the chronic underfunding in public services, skill and labour shortages, the disgraceful profiteering of our essential services such as water, energy and travel. Nor anything to suggest they’ll introduce a tax policy that benefits all rather than the thieving cuuuuunts that have robbed this country blind.
I get they’ve had to pivot away from Corbyn’s economic policies because this country is full of facking zombies, and I hope they’ll look to pivot back towards it once in power. But that’s essentially my point, the Tories have reduced them to this so that the party can get into office. And that’s not a good thing, in my opinion.
posted on 3/7/24
Yeah, obviously compared to Corbyn, Labour is much further to the right. I was looking relative to a longer timescale - perhaps because it seems to me that Corbynism was a bit of an aberration within our political culture. I'd also say being dragged from there to the right is not just about the Tories. Obviously, it's got a lot to do with the prevailing political media culture framing the agenda on right-wing terms. But it's also a function of political failures of Corbyn and his team. He had an opportunity to mainstream a genuinely popular economic agenda but was unwilling to pragmatically pick his battles, alienated people with things like his reaction to Salisbury, etc.
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
socially that's true, they're almost as progressively liberal as Blairites
economically they are neo-liberal capitalists of the worst sort
economically & socially they are the polar opposite from my beliefs
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 2 minutes ago
Yeah, obviously compared to Corbyn, Labour is much further to the right. I was looking relative to a longer timescale - perhaps because it seems to me that Corbynism was a bit of an aberration within our political culture. I'd also say being dragged from there to the right is not just about the Tories. Obviously, it's got a lot to do with the prevailing political media culture framing the agenda on right-wing terms. But it's also a function of political failures of Corbyn and his team. He had an opportunity to mainstream a genuinely popular economic agenda but was unwilling to pragmatically pick his battles, alienated people with things like his reaction to Salisbury, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Whilst true, the political landscape has been dragged that way by the increasing powers of certain political elites and media establishment.
Corbyn obviously had many of his own failures, but there’s also the relentless bullshiiiit media smears against him that made him unelectable as well. And this media establishment has managed to tarnish his name in such a way that Labour are no long willing to associate with him and his policies.
This is what’s so concerning about the political landscape in Britain now, and as someone that won’t be voting Labour as they don’t represent your views, I’m sure you understand my issue?
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Peks - Comanche Moon (U6618)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 17 minutes ago
The government of the last 14 years was not centrist in any meaningful way. It pushed on us ideologically driven austerity and the Truss budget - both radical supply side economic policy. It pursued an antagonistic relationship with our closest allies and most important trading partners in the course of leveraging nativist sentiment. It tried to harness deeply socially conservative ideas as wedge issues. And eroded the rule of law and checks and balances with attacks on the judiciary, independence of media, misleading parliament, illegal prorogation of parliament, etc.
The Tory government has been a very right-wing government, in many ways unconservative in the traditional sense of the word (in fact much closer to the politics of Farage than e.g. John Major), and certainly not centrist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current conservative government is so far to the left that you can't tell the difference with labour anymore
Unfortunately people like you have changed the political scale. Something that was considered centrist 20 years ago is considered far extreme right these days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
socially that's true, they're almost as progressively liberal as Blairites
economically they are neo-liberal capitalists of the worst sort
economically & socially they are the polar opposite from my beliefs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How do you figure that? They share most of your bigoted social views.
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 12 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 2 minutes ago
Yeah, obviously compared to Corbyn, Labour is much further to the right. I was looking relative to a longer timescale - perhaps because it seems to me that Corbynism was a bit of an aberration within our political culture. I'd also say being dragged from there to the right is not just about the Tories. Obviously, it's got a lot to do with the prevailing political media culture framing the agenda on right-wing terms. But it's also a function of political failures of Corbyn and his team. He had an opportunity to mainstream a genuinely popular economic agenda but was unwilling to pragmatically pick his battles, alienated people with things like his reaction to Salisbury, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Whilst true, the political landscape has been dragged that way by the increasing powers of certain political elites and media establishment.
Corbyn obviously had many of his own failures, but there’s also the relentless bullshiiiit media smears against him that made him unelectable as well. And this media establishment has managed to tarnish his name in such a way that Labour are no long willing to associate with him and his policies.
This is what’s so concerning about the political landscape in Britain now, and as someone that won’t be voting Labour as they don’t represent your views, I’m sure you understand my issue?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Labour are so far ahead in the polls because the Tories are eternally hated and this was the opportunity for them to present some policies that Corbyn pushed but instead they’re spooked into promoting the same bullshiiit we’ve seen from the Tories. Our country is just one big pool of bin juice.
posted on 3/7/24
Starmer has just come out tonight and eternally ruled out the country ever joining the single market and he seems to think that’s gonna get him to 2.5% GDP growth by the end of his first term.
Brexit has been an absolute flop and the public want to rejoin the EU yet this idiot is scared to facking confront the idea of getting closer to our largest trading partner.
posted on 3/7/24
You guys should be far more scared of Donald J Trump winning in the USA.
.............
posted on 3/7/24
comment by JustCallMeTed (U21528)
posted 22 minutes ago
You guys should be far more scared of Donald J Trump winning in the USA.
.............
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He's a huge favourite now.
Biden is 8/1 with Ladbrokes tonight
posted on 3/7/24
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 2 hours, 7 minutes ago
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 5 hours, 40 minutes ago
I’d love to know what the Reform voters on here think about:
1. Austerity (given that rather than invest more in public services, Reform want to further shrink the size of the state)
2. Brexit (given that Farage’s vision was, and is, of a harder exit, which economists near universally agree would have had an even more severe immediate economic impact)
3. The potential economic impacts of simultaneously introducing a Zero Net Immigration policy and actioning larger tax cuts than those pledged by the Kwarteng budget which crashed the economy
Please don’t be shy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m no reform voter but re #1 why would that be any issue? We’ve had virtually full employment through the last 4 crisis. We need to up productivity to match or beat similar nations and I see nobody with policies to do that.
I once read there were 30,000 people administering national insurance in the country! We all know it is just a tax. Its relevance has fallen away. Average wage say £30k and there’s £900m a year saving.
TV license, abolish it. 5% of it goes on administration. Evasion is rampant and rising inexorably. Thanks another £200m a year.
Politicos are obsessed with the message of cutting headline taxes whilst raising indirect taxes which due to their size are inefficient to administer. Even the OBR recognises overall taxes have gone up. Clapham man only sees the headlines. Yes there will be bleating from some weirdos why they should pay when they’ve never had a tv yeah right but fck it no different to local taxes when you don’t have kids or use the library, tough sh.t.
Shortage of trades. offer free, centralised training and support and assistance after training to buy the van, tools, phone centre & accounting support. Will payback like student loans and you’ll earn a damn sight more than average plus inflation will drop as trades demand is met. Franchises can do it for £30-40k why not government?
Nobody offering real, practical solutions like this. Frustrating.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Because 100 years of empirical data has shown us, categorically, that you can’t cut your way out of an economic slump, and the harder you cut, the worse the mire you end up in.
See Britain and Germany in the 1920s (which ultimately delivered us the Naazis), Japan in the 1920s, Hoover in the 1930s (the worst depression in US history), Denmark, Australia and Ireland in the 1980s, half of Europe through the 2000s, and the Tories’ Austerity 1.0 and Austerity 2.0.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not cuts for cuts sake. It is improving productivity. You missed the point completely. My bad no doubt.
posted on 3/7/24
Either they drop Biden now or stick with him
Someone needs to sit down with him and say he needs to step down and let the next generation of political leaders take over.
posted on 3/7/24
comment by JustCallMeTed (U21528)
posted 34 minutes ago
You guys should be far more scared of Donald J Trump winning in the USA.
.............
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Why? Trump doesn’t set British policy.
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Things Can Only Get Better (U11781)
posted 39 minutes ago
Starmer has just come out tonight and eternally ruled out the country ever joining the single market and he seems to think that’s gonna get him to 2.5% GDP growth by the end of his first term.
Brexit has been an absolute flop and the public want to rejoin the EU yet this idiot is scared to facking confront the idea of getting closer to our largest trading partner.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It is a ridiculous move a day before voting to come out and state his intention is to go back! A disastrous move. He can win the election and then have this discussion
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Things Can Only Get Better (U11781)
posted 38 minutes ago
Labour are so far ahead in the polls because the Tories are eternally hated...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Something here is not stacking up
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 2 hours, 7 minutes ago
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 5 hours, 40 minutes ago
I’d love to know what the Reform voters on here think about:
1. Austerity (given that rather than invest more in public services, Reform want to further shrink the size of the state)
2. Brexit (given that Farage’s vision was, and is, of a harder exit, which economists near universally agree would have had an even more severe immediate economic impact)
3. The potential economic impacts of simultaneously introducing a Zero Net Immigration policy and actioning larger tax cuts than those pledged by the Kwarteng budget which crashed the economy
Please don’t be shy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m no reform voter but re #1 why would that be any issue? We’ve had virtually full employment through the last 4 crisis. We need to up productivity to match or beat similar nations and I see nobody with policies to do that.
I once read there were 30,000 people administering national insurance in the country! We all know it is just a tax. Its relevance has fallen away. Average wage say £30k and there’s £900m a year saving.
TV license, abolish it. 5% of it goes on administration. Evasion is rampant and rising inexorably. Thanks another £200m a year.
Politicos are obsessed with the message of cutting headline taxes whilst raising indirect taxes which due to their size are inefficient to administer. Even the OBR recognises overall taxes have gone up. Clapham man only sees the headlines. Yes there will be bleating from some weirdos why they should pay when they’ve never had a tv yeah right but fck it no different to local taxes when you don’t have kids or use the library, tough sh.t.
Shortage of trades. offer free, centralised training and support and assistance after training to buy the van, tools, phone centre & accounting support. Will payback like student loans and you’ll earn a damn sight more than average plus inflation will drop as trades demand is met. Franchises can do it for £30-40k why not government?
Nobody offering real, practical solutions like this. Frustrating.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Because 100 years of empirical data has shown us, categorically, that you can’t cut your way out of an economic slump, and the harder you cut, the worse the mire you end up in.
See Britain and Germany in the 1920s (which ultimately delivered us the Naazis), Japan in the 1920s, Hoover in the 1930s (the worst depression in US history), Denmark, Australia and Ireland in the 1980s, half of Europe through the 2000s, and the Tories’ Austerity 1.0 and Austerity 2.0.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not cuts for cuts sake. It is improving productivity. You missed the point completely. My bad no doubt.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Austerity was cuts for cuts sake, though. As is Reform’s agenda.
I don’t disagree with you about efficiency and productivity, in principle. The UK could take lessons from various other states about how public sector reform and private sector investment could help deliver both of those things, certainly
But the overarching point is that to escape economic stagnation, the UK needed stimulus, not cuts; it needed to maintain public spending (and yes, it could have been redirected between various areas - civil service efficiencies could certainly have helped fund infrastructure renewal, for example), maintain the employment rate, and get money circulating around the economy.
Taxing an axe to spending did more than destroy public services, leave infrastructure to rot, widen the wealth divide, and leave record numbers of people on waiting lists and using food banks. It also turned the UK economy into one of the least attractive long-term investment options in the G20 and left an already struggling manufacturing sector, one the country desperately needed firing - and will continue to need - floundering and now without any base to build from.
posted on 3/7/24
Reform are too left wing. Didn't they cancel some of their candidates for saying it like it is. What happened to free speech. We need a proper right wing party.
posted on 3/7/24
comment by Emperor Kami (U9880)
posted 13 minutes ago
Either they drop Biden now or stick with him
Someone needs to sit down with him and say he needs to step down and let the next generation of political leaders take over.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He'd probably fall asleep before anyone could explain.
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