As much as I agree to showing the benefit bods the real world, what the hell happened to all the money that was in the pot when they came into power and were has all the borrowed money gone to?

Originally Posted by mucus2

As much as I agree to showing the benefit bods the real world, what the hell happened to all the money that was in the pot when they came into power and were has all the borrowed money gone to?

A million plus extra public sector emloyees
A vastly over inflated welfare state
Uncontrolled spending
China, India, Half of Africa and a score of other recipients of foreign aid.
The Union Modernisation program (look it up, you'll like that one)
Regional Development Agencies that never actually develope anything
The back pocket of about 95% of our MP's
The worlds third largest employer, the NHS (may have been bumped into 4th place now)
Regional Assemblies
Local Government
Payments to the EU


Need I go on? If you really want to bubble into your cornflakes take a look at how much interest the treasury is paying everyday on the debt Brown has run up

Originally Posted by Ancient_Mariner

My predictions:-

NAVY
Carriers delayed indefinitely
Trident patched up & sent to sea until it sinks
No more new ships for the foreseeable future
Fleet Air Arm incorporated into RAF

ARMY
Withdraw from everywhere except Afghanistan - sell off vacated bases
TA will become a small reserve of civvy specialists like medics and engineers

AIR FORCE
No more Typhoons
A400 cancelled and C17/C130 bought instead
JSF cancelled

WELFARE
Across the board cuts in welfare payments
Statutory limits on housing benefit
Interview without KY for everybody on incapacity benefit
Workfare introduced

OTHER
Bonfire of the Qangos
Drastic cuts in political charity funding
Cull of around 1 million civil servants
Pay freeze for MPs
Legal aid phased out for everything except criminal defence.

AM, thanks for that, I've developed your idea and passed it on to George Osborne. The new plan is to build the carriers quicker then park them alongside Pierhead, where they become HMS/RAF Liverpool ( stops the scousers whining when the dole is cut to £0.00); we can then close all other airbases and sell the land profitably. In addition MOD will be downrated to a Corps HQ and put onto a permanent tactical footing, as parking a few wagons is cheaper than all those buildings and civil servants.
The army will relocate in its entirety to Sangin, to create some Lebensraum for those citizens wishing to emigrate. Feel free to add any further suggestions...

Originally Posted by Ancient_Mariner

The key phrase in the whole article is 'if Labour is re-elected'. They won't be so they won't need to worry about what to cut.

I reckon they'll keep printing money until the election in order to maintain the 'Things Can Only Get Better' lifestyle. Senior ministers will then join Tony on the lecture circuit on £1m+ per annum. Junior ministers will join Gorbals Mick asleep in the Lords at £75k per annum.

Many back benchers will struggle to find employment due to the number of ex-MPs coming on to the market and their association with expenses fraud. I look forward to the Daily Heil locating the first Labour ex-MP to sign on the dole. Should be almost as much fun as seeing the mortgage fraudsters being sent to prison.

The Tories will have to stop printing money as soon as they get in to power if we're to avoid Zimbabwe style hyper-inflation. That'll represent an overnight drop of 30% in government income. Some of that could be made up by the government selling bonds to real investors rather than to itself. They'll not be keen though if Blighty's still riding the economic rapids.

The Tories are preparing an emergency budget now. They'll tweak it after they get into power and get access to the unspun version of the national accounts. The aim is to present the budget six weeks after the election.

My predictions:-

NAVY
Carriers delayed indefinitely
Trident patched up & sent to sea until it sinks
No more new ships for the foreseeable future
Fleet Air Arm incorporated into RAF

ARMY
Withdraw from everywhere except Afghanistan - sell off vacated bases
TA will become a small reserve of civvy specialists like medics and engineers

AIR FORCE
No more Typhoons
A400 cancelled and C17/C130 bought instead
JSF cancelled

WELFARE
Across the board cuts in welfare payments
Statutory limits on housing benefit
Interview without KY for everybody on incapacity benefit
Workfare introduced

OTHER
Bonfire of the Qangos
Drastic cuts in political charity funding
Cull of around 1 million civil servants
Pay freeze for MPs
Legal aid phased out for everything except criminal defence.

Personally, I don't think you are far off with a lot of this list.

Going to be painful.

Yes A M,
If Labour is reelected, they won't be.

I must admit you and most of Fleet St have a higher opinion of the Tory Part Leadership then me.
Labour has left the UK economy in a worst state then when ever they have ever taken over, post WW II being the possible exception.
I do have trouble with seeing how Labour is still so close to the Tory lead, 30 % to 40 % as of the latest figures a Tory lead of 16 seats being projected but sure to drop when Mengler & Campbell start knifing.
That Brown is universally detested I do not doubt, my best mate a jock hates him, with a vengeance normally reserved for the English.
But Cammeroon, my left testicle has more personality and that's hanging on a redundant member.
He is not a Know Man, he came from nowhere and I do believe he will keep his party in opposition.
Brown is a proven waster, Cammeroon does not even figure with most of the UK electorate.
Keep Brown as head of Labour and have a quick Night of Long Claymores and get rid the Tory Party's Electoral Liability.
john

Originally Posted by jonwilly

Yes A M,
That Brown is universally detested I do not doubt, my best mate a jock hates him, with a vengeance normally reserved for the English.
john

I suspect it might be down to other parties not being included in the polling figure.

A person I work with, has been a life long labour voter (Because they're "the only party that looks after the working class man" Etc etc), even working for the unions when younger. He told me the other day he's going to vote BNP because he's so pissed off with Labour.

Originally Posted by jonwilly

Labour has left the UK economy in a worst state then when ever they have ever taken over, post WW II being the possible exception.

Yes, but we had a world to save then, and we actually had new shiney things to run around in killing the baddies in, rather than whistfully looking through the catalogue.

It's going to be a hard budget after the election.

Originally Posted by Ancient_Mariner

My predictions:-

NAVY
Carriers delayed indefinitely
Trident patched up & sent to sea until it sinks
No more new ships for the foreseeable future
Fleet Air Arm incorporated into RAF

ARMY
Withdraw from everywhere except Afghanistan - sell off vacated bases
TA will become a small reserve of civvy specialists like medics and engineers

AIR FORCE
No more Typhoons
A400 cancelled and C17/C130 bought instead
JSF cancelled

WELFARE
Across the board cuts in welfare payments
Statutory limits on housing benefit
Interview without KY for everybody on incapacity benefit
Workfare introduced

OTHER
Bonfire of the Qangos
Drastic cuts in political charity funding
Cull of around 1 million civil servants
Pay freeze for MPs
Legal aid phased out for everything except criminal defence.

Your predictions are the voice of fiscal sanity…

Originally Posted by bluntslane

At certain times throughout our 20 years of marriage, me and the Mrs have needed to outlay a largish sum on a, say, luxury or necessity. At these points in time we've switched to a lifestyle that we call "Hard Routine".

For the serving and ex, clearly, no explanation is needed, but for the uninitiated, it basically means that we voluntarily went without luxuries and were able to SAVE to purchase the items we wanted. Yes, we had to wait and we had to do without, but, it always worked, we've always managed to avoid unnecessary debts and in the end, we always got what we wanted.

I think this is a smaller scale version of what Cameron is going to have to do if he wins the next General Election. His "Period of Austerity", whilst sounding unpleasant, is probably one of the things to help sort out the British economy.



Message to Dave C, "Get elected, get us on hard routine and get the country sorted".

In my view Bluntslane, an excellent personal philosophy. It was drummed into me as a kid and though I've been off the rails a few times, this always gets me back on track. Hard Routine, a great motivator. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Listy

Originally Posted by jonwilly

Yes A M,
That Brown is universally detested I do not doubt, my best mate a jock hates him, with a vengeance normally reserved for the English.
john

I suspect it might be down to other parties not being included in the polling figure.

A person I work with, has been a life long labour voter (Because they're "the only party that looks after the working class man" Etc etc), even working for the unions when younger. He told me the other day he's going to vote BNP because he's so pissed off with Labour.

I think you're exactly right. These polls are conducted by phoning up around 1000 people and asking for their voting intentions. I bet not one of them admitted favouring the BNP. Or the SNP. Did they even bother phoning anybody in Scotland or Wales?

What about people who work and weren't in to answer the phone. What about those with ex-directory numbers? Polling numbers have to be taken with a large pinch of salt (if you can find any that Gordon hasn't requisitioned).

Very interesting data in Ian Dale's blog this morning. A 10% Tory lead will give Dave a 16 seat majority. A 10% Labour lead would give Gordon a 130 seat majority!

Overall, Labour got 3% more votes than the Tories last time and they ended up with 80% more seats. Under UK law, Labour can have up to a 20% advantage due to variations in constituency sizes. In the USA, the law requires no more than a 1% variation.

If the Tories make all constituencies the same size, Labour will never be in power again.