Thread: Tory Conference OR "We are so going to screw you next year!"

So the battle lines have been drawn. The Conservatives have put their cards on the table and are fully intent on screwing the public sector.....yet again. Whilst leaving the "fat cats" to purr, smile and generally sh*t in everyones garden. Anyone in the top bracket salary.....well the party starts now. They seem to be pretty confident they're going to get elected next year, but stranger things have happened.....

Young people are apathetic when it comes to voting, everyone else seems to have the opinion that "we've had enough of this party, lets have the other one, see if they can get us out of this mess".

Why do we have to continue with see-saw politics. Is the inevitable going to happen or could we see the people voting "NO we want a new chapter in British politics. Lets try the Liberal Democrats for a change."

Would they do any worse?

Originally Posted by RearWords

So the battle lines have been drawn. The Conservatives have put their cards on the table and are fully intent on screwing the public sector.....yet again. Whilst leaving the "fat cats" to purr, smile and generally sh*t in everyones garden. Anyone in the top bracket salary.....well the party starts now. They seem to be pretty confident they're going to get elected next year, but stranger things have happened.....

Young people are apathetic when it comes to voting, everyone else seems to have the opinion that "we've had enough of this party, lets have the other one, see if they can get us out of this mess".

Why do we have to continue with see-saw politics. Is the inevitable going to happen or could we see the people voting "NO we want a new chapter in British politics. Lets try the Liberal Democrats for a change."

Would they do any worse?

Well look on the bright side - at least you'll actually get screwed.. :D

hmm... screwed by the tories, who at least *admit* they'll have to screw you to try and undo the damage Liarbour and the monocular incontinent pill freak have done, or leave them in place to continue fcuking us over royally while all the while lying through their back teeth about what they're doing?

whats that saying? 'I've got more respect for someone who tells me where they stand, than someone who pretends to be an angel... when really they're nothing more than a devil.'

I personally find the Conservative's economic policy - or at least what one is able to ascertain from their rather enigmatic allusions thus far - extremely disconcerting for the long-term macroeconomic stability of the United Kingdom. The Tories seem intent on taking us to Hell in a handcart in the name of an extreme, dogmatic form of Monetarism that has been largely discredited (pardon the pun) as an economic model by the current crisis.

http://jonathanmelleonpolitics.blogs...errors-in.html

Fundamentally the issue we have faced is one of a paralysis of the credit that flows from our commercial banks to households and firms, so that they can respectively Consume and Invest, two of the pillars of GDP, along with Government Spending and Net Exports. This "credit crunch" was caused by the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis that originated in the American Housing market, a bubble that had been facilitated by a number of factors, including the passing of the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and had been alarmingly growing since the low interest rates that Greenspan introduced to ameliorate the 2001 recession in the United States.

On the Fiscal side, the British Government has responded to the international credit crisis in the short-term by raising public expenditure via deficit spending in order to take up the slack in Aggregate Demand, thus ameliorating the impact that the “credit crunch� would have otherwise had on the severity of the current recession in the wider British economy. Another reason for the increase in the budget deficit has been the £37 Billion that the Government had to spend in order to keep our banking system solvent, by taking equity stakes in HBOS (now part of Lloyds TSB) and RBS. These investments for example will eventually be recovered by the taxpayer and are thus part of an inherently cyclical deficit, rather than a structural one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/op...13krugman.html

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE58L1HD20090922

On the Monetary side, The Bank of England has attempted to inject capital into the commercial banks by buying up their assets in the form of bonds, thus releasing money into the commercial banks in the hope that they would pass this on to the wider economy.

Increasing the supply of money in this way effectively reduces interest rates, thus reducing the cost of borrowing and the incentive to save, thus increasing consumption and staving off the risk of deflation. It has also had the impact of reducing the exchange rate of Sterling, thus making our Exports more competitive, which aids our Manufacturing industry, which despite the propaganda of deindustrialisation, is still is the sixth largest manufacturer in the world by output.

The problem with all this however is that the commercial banks still do not want to pass on this liquidity to the wider economy. A sort of monetary Atherosclerosis if you like. What has to be done now is for the Bank of England to address this decisively by actually pushing interest rates into negative territory. This will mean that it will cost the banks to hold money in reserve with the Bank of England, and will thus give them a monetary incentive to release it into the wider economy, to household and firms. Sweden actually made economic history recently by being the first to adopt this policy.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5d3f0692-9...nclick_check=1

What is really worrying is the Conservative Party’s efforts to set the agenda by promoting swingeing cuts to fiscal spending in the teeth of recession. Whilst there is certainly scope for reforming public-sector pay, pensions and comprehensive Welfare Reform - I for example personally favour an even more ambitious policy of replacing the Minimum Wage, Working Tax Credits et al with a Negative Income Tax - we still need to continue the Keynesian deficit spending in areas that have a multiplier effect on demand, like Defence and Infrastructure for example, until we are securely out of recession and liquidity is fully flowing again, or we will be doomed to a nasty "double-dip" recession once the Tories impose punitive premature cuts to public spending for no really justifiable reason, within the current economic climate.

The budget deficit of £175bn, though less than optimal, is not without precedent historically. Osborne seems to have unilaterally decided that the national debt peaking at some 80% of GDP somehow constitutes a national emergency. Never mind that since 1750 the national debt has always been proportionally higher than this, except for two 40-year periods – one at the end of the 19th century, at the height of the British Empire, and the other from the 1970s until now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...bt-will-hutton

The Tories are ultimately peddling the same crass deflationary Monetarist dogma that made the 1980-82 recession so severe. Wolves in sheep’s clothing indeed. They are also spinning the current - cyclical - budget deficit as some sort of pseudo-national emergency, based largely on dubious speculation about the future of the UK’s AAA credit rating, rather than any actual risk of the UK being unable to service it‘s current budget deficit when we head back up the business cycle. Labour is now proposing tightening of public spending as a result of Tory propaganda, but still not anywhere near as severe as the Tories will pursue if and when they get in. That will be the fundamental economic choice at the next General Election. Big fiscal cuts or bigger fiscal cuts, with the resulting proportionate negative impact on macroeconomic recovery. Better the devil you know I say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/op...08krugman.html

The Tories have to undo the the damage that the Bliar/Brown comedy act has thrust upon us, Maggie had to do the same when she took over, historically Lierbur has always got the UK in the shite and the Torys have to sort it out. The public sector will be hit hard and good to civil serpents are many but do little apart from push paper around and wait on decisions that their bosses are frightend to make.

So lets get them in can't be any worse hopefully it will get better.....but FFS don't vote Lib Dems as they are softies and will be pushed over by Europe

As sebcope says, the tories will have to fix the chaos that Labour have wrought and that in itself will take about 10 to 20 years. To do this there has to be cuts somewhere. Labours current way to fix problems is to borrow 100s of millions a month (from where I don't know) so that they can line their pockets, pay corrupt officials, pay immigrants, pay India 800 million for its poor despite the fact that India is a booming economy and even runs its own space exploration project rather then help it's poor. Labour sold off our gold reserves to try to avoid cuts and god knows what eles and has put a tax on just about everything when its initial promise way back in the election it came into power was that it would not put taxes up.
I would put the tories in over Labour any day, and the day when Labour are classed as another raving looney party cannot come soon enough. Personally, I think kermit the frog could have done a better job then Labour.

"Lets try the Liberal Democrats for a change."

Ah you werry funny man.
john

Originally Posted by RearWords

So the battle lines have been drawn. The Conservatives have put their cards on the table and are fully intent on screwing the public sector.....yet again. Whilst leaving the "fat cats" to purr, smile and generally sh*t in everyones garden. Anyone in the top bracket salary.....well the party starts now. They seem to be pretty confident they're going to get elected next year, but stranger things have happened.....

Young people are apathetic when it comes to voting, everyone else seems to have the opinion that "we've had enough of this party, lets have the other one, see if they can get us out of this mess".

Why do we have to continue with see-saw politics. Is the inevitable going to happen or could we see the people voting "NO we want a new chapter in British politics. Lets try the Liberal Democrats for a change."

Would they do any worse?

I read last week that the IMF was telling you folks to drastically cut government expenditures or face catastrophe. Maybe it's high time the public sector got a good screwing, wot?

Not that we're better off on this side of the pond. Pols (on both sides of the aisle) are blithely borrowing money left over right to throw the money at their favorite layabouts, or corporate sponsors, take your pic. Nobody seems to notice that the Chinese aren't so keen anymore to buy our debt...hello Weimar!

At the Labour Conference, Alistair Darling didn't even mention the 175Bn debt he and his pill swallowing chum have gotten us saddled with.

Who would you rather trust to sort it out? Those in denial, who still talk about spending lavish amounts of printed money, or the Party that always ends up repairing socialist damage in Britain?

I never, EVER thought I would say something like this about a bunch of politricians, but you've got to admire the honesty of the speech. 'None of this 'we'll all be shitting rainbows if you elect us rubbish.....' If I'm going to be fcuked up the arrse, I'd prefer a warning to brace up before entry.......his was it. Good on them.

Originally Posted by nigegilb

At the Labour Conference, Alistair Darling didn't even mention the 175Bn debt he and his pill swallowing chum have gotten us saddled with.

Who would you rather trust to sort it out? Those in denial, who still talk about spending lavish amounts of printed money, or the Party that always ends up repairing socialist damage in Britain?

Have to agree we have a big problem, we either go to hell in a handcart with Cyclops at the helm and become a bust Nation, or the Tories cut back on the crass overspend and get us back on an even keel. As to the rich, I rather thought we needed the Creative, innovative profit making capitalists to fuel Browns Public sector economy, and perhaps they could help us crawl out of the sh*t this bunch of Muppets have got us into. With the Tories "it's got to get better"!!!! :D

The financial mess New Reich have got us into wont be sorted out without massive Public Sector cuts. Broon and Co will continue to live in Never Never land until they get Royally shafted by the people they hold in such utter contempt.

Roll on May.

Originally Posted by pimpernel

Originally Posted by nigegilb

At the Labour Conference, Alistair Darling didn't even mention the 175Bn debt he and his pill swallowing chum have gotten us saddled with.

Who would you rather trust to sort it out? Those in denial, who still talk about spending lavish amounts of printed money, or the Party that always ends up repairing socialist damage in Britain?

Have to agree we have a big problem, we either go to hell in a handcart with Cyclops at the helm and become a bust Nation, or the Tories cut back on the crass overspend and get us back on an even keel. As to the rich, I rather thought we needed the Creative, innovative profit making capitalists to fuel Browns Public sector economy, and perhaps they could help us crawl out of the sh*t this bunch of Muppets have got us into. With the Tories "it's got to get better"!!!! :D

A case of, "things can only get less bad!"

Originally Posted by nigegilb

Originally Posted by pimpernel

Originally Posted by nigegilb

At the Labour Conference, Alistair Darling didn't even mention the 175Bn debt he and his pill swallowing chum have gotten us saddled with.

Who would you rather trust to sort it out? Those in denial, who still talk about spending lavish amounts of printed money, or the Party that always ends up repairing socialist damage in Britain?

Have to agree we have a big problem, we either go to hell in a handcart with Cyclops at the helm and become a bust Nation, or the Tories cut back on the crass overspend and get us back on an even keel. As to the rich, I rather thought we needed the Creative, innovative profit making capitalists to fuel Browns Public sector economy, and perhaps they could help us crawl out of the sh*t this bunch of Muppets have got us into. With the Tories "it's got to get better"!!!! :D

A case of, "things can only get less bad!"

Agreed.

Just watched George Osborne being interviewed on BBC News, well it was more him being patronised by the presenter but the general gist was that he sees no point in sugar coating our situation as it is readily apparent anyone with an ounce of common sense. I have always said that I dont mind the hard truth from Politicians as long as it is the truth.

The fact is we are in the dwang and its going to be a hard road for a few years, I personally dont mind that if it is what it takes to haul us out of the mess that New Labour got us into. Not sure I would vote for the Tories as Europe is also a major issue for me and they are dithering a bit there but its refreshing to hear a politician saying it like it is. Mind you they all do that in the run up to an election dont they. Whats really important is what they do AFTER if and when they get in.