ARmy Rumour SErvice

Originally Posted by PBUH

We had the strongest economy of my lifetime under Blair. There was no excuse.

No we didn't, it was a miasma, a fake. Gordon Brown encouraged a recklessness in the markets, house prices rose artificially, people borrowed more and more, moved more and more and spent more and more. As Chancellor he borrowed and borrowed so much that our grandchildren will still be paying it back. Our economy wasn't strong, it was teetering on the edge of unsustainability. In 2008 it fell in.

Read any of his Mansion House speeches, he actively encouraged the markets to behave the way they did, he needed them to buy his debt.

Originally Posted by PBUH

And every Govt was lefty was it? Labour certainly wasn't. Labour were absolutely right to invest in health, schools and other infrastructure. Tories certainly won't.

Where they failed was exactly the same place that that darling of the Right, Thatcher, failed. They did nothing to keep a cap on what they paid out to those that were not contributing. No issue with looking after those that can't work but they did nothing to address those that simply won't. Her attitude when she destroyed the mining industry was to put people on benefits, she did nothing to encourage new industry

We had the strongest economy of my lifetime under Blair. There was no excuse.

Hollande is bob on - cuts but no investment will do nothing to promote growth

You make some good points.
I don't know about Thatcher not encoraging new industry as Nissan,Toyota and others set up here.
I used to work in the mining industry very sad what happened to it.

Originally Posted by labrat

Interesting example from the states:

Rural Tennessee fire sparks conservative ideological debate | The Upshot - Yahoo! News

Don't pay your $75 per year fire insurance, then we'll save your life, but we won't intervene to save property

Seems reasonable to me!

That's great until you meet a fireman walking round looking up at your building and saying "Flamable looking building you have there".

Originally Posted by PBUH

And every Govt was lefty was it? Labour certainly wasn't. Labour were absolutely right to invest in health, schools and other infrastructure............................

It's one thing to invest (throw money at) in health, education etc. It's a completely different kettle of fish to ensure that the money is spent correctly.
Our once good health service leaves a lot to be desired and education is hardly world class(?)
From the money invested we should be world leaders.

Originally Posted by CQMS

No we didn't, it was a miasma, a fake. Gordon Brown encouraged a recklessness in the markets, house prices rose artificially, people borrowed more and more, moved more and more and spent more and more. As Chancellor he borrowed and borrowed so much that our grandchildren will still be paying it back. Our economy wasn't strong, it was teetering on the edge of unsustainability. In 2008 it fell in.

Read any of his Mansion House speeches, he actively encouraged the markets to behave the way they did, he needed them to buy his debt.

As I remember it (she can't) it was the Thatcher administration that set the emphasis upon home ownership,house value and borrowing. Strange that the right wing saw her as a visionary and improving our aspirations when she did it but when Labour do it it was always going to go wrong. Unlike her they did not have the luxury of flogging everything off to fund things.

Consumerist capitalist society depends upon a certain amount of debt and borrowing in order to drive growth. If you cut that out completely as this Govt advocates economies stagnate.

My in laws have a 46 year old fridge, lovely for them (even though its noisy and probably burns power) but no bloody use at all to the economy if they only buy a fridge every 50 years.

As for the frogs protecting their way of life, ffs they own most of our privatised utilities, railway companies, water companies leccy, need to know where thhe money has gone? Its gone to the french tax payer to prop up their sponging rotten workshy bastards, jealous am I damned right!

Originally Posted by CQMS

So, nothing to do with the reckless spending spree that all European governments have been on for the last forty years then. Issuing bonds that now turn out to be worthless, building up vast inefficient public sectors, giving each other insanely high salaries for little work and vast unaffordable social welfare policies. All of these and more are nothing to do with this crisis?

Capitalism rooted in personal accountability. Adam Smith never conceived of corporates and institutions blocking free market performance and awarding their technocrats 'get rich quick' vouchers.

Originally Posted by ugly

As for the frogs protecting their way of life, ffs they own most of our privatised utilities, railway companies, water companies leccy, need to know where thhe money has gone? Its gone to the french tax payer to prop up their sponging rotten workshy bastards, jealous am I damned right!

Workshy and 12% more productive per capita.

Yours,

Carla 'I'm off' Bruni