The Budget can someone explain

[Gelsons Dad]

A useful link for UK debt: http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_debt

The current plan is to reduce the deficit to zero by 2018/19 after which the debt can be drawn down as required.
It's important to remember that although the £ numbers are eye wateringly high, as a % of GDP the UK debt is not bad compared to where it's been in the past. So long as those evil bankers keep the economy growing the debt is manageable.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

What if i'm welsh? haha

you just carry on mounting your sheep




8-)

 

[SWP's back]

Ed Miliband was impressive yesterday, Cameron knoiws just how good he is, that's why they'll be no head to head. I've not clicked your link to the Daily Mail, but if you look to the Mail to back up your argument, then you've already lost.

If you're so myopic as to not read analysis you may not agree with them you're a thick c**t.

I read the Gurdian and New Statesman to read a different opinion. I guess you just like reading things you agree with. Bless.

And Ed was useless for all the reasons listed in the article.

Now run along, other grown ups may need to talk.

Like shooting fish in a barrel, you make it so easy.

You prove my point, yet again.

The irony. You proved my point.

 

[Ancient Citizen]

I disagree about the Tories and an outright majority. I believe they are the only party capable of such a feat, and moreover, it's looking increasingly likely, lamentably.

Really, the opinion polls tell a very different story?

There are two reasons I believe this. Firstly the anti-Labour vote in Scotland among left wingers is much harder than the anti-Tory vote in England among right-wingers. Quite simply, I believe in marginal constituencies you'll see a galvanisation of the Tory vote to keep the number of UKIP seats to a minimum. There will be exceptions, of course in such places as Kent, but self-interest among the middle-classes will prevail.

Secondly, and it's connected to the latter part of my first point, is the economy. Whether it's down to some sleight of hand or not, there is no doubt that the economic news is looking increasingly positive. What people say to a pollster and what they do in the privacy of the ballot box are often at odds with each other when an 'unpopular' government go to the polls as the economy is starting to go through the gears. People, in general terms, especially among the professional classes (who will have a significant say in the outcome of the election), are starting to feel better about their future financial prospects for the first time in nearly a decade. That will seriously concentrate minds when push comes to shove imo.

People are selfish and the British electorate are, to a very significant extent, conservative with a small 'c'. Many will fear a reverse from the current feel good aura, especially as they haven't felt it for so long, and will vote accordingly, possibly in sufficient numbers to give the Tories a very slim majority.

We'll see. There's much better qualified people than me who'll completely disagree with what I've said, I'm sure. I don't claim to be an expert, by any stretch. It's just a hunch that I have that the Tories will pull away from the pack a little in the fortnight before the election, unless something unforeseeable and significant occurs, of course. There are always 'ghosts in the machine' which can change the dynamic if they come to the surface.*


* covered my arse with the last bit ;-)

Very well put Gord, I agree with all of that. The British public are indeed generally slightly right of centre in general, hence why Blair got in with a diluted, sanitised, and more economically adept version of the Labour party, than did the likes of Foot and Kinnock.
If Ed veers more leftwards in the current situation, it will cost him.

 

[The perfect fumble]

Really, the opinion polls tell a very different story?

There are two reasons I believe this. Firstly the anti-Labour vote in Scotland among left wingers is much harder than the anti-Tory vote in England among right-wingers. Quite simply, I believe in marginal constituencies you'll see a galvanisation of the Tory vote to keep the number of UKIP seats to a minimum. There will be exceptions, of course in such places as Kent, but self-interest among the middle-classes will prevail.

Secondly, and it's connected to the latter part of my first point, is the economy. Whether it's down to some sleight of hand or not, there is no doubt that the economic news is looking increasingly positive. What people say to a pollster and what they do in the privacy of the ballot box are often at odds with each other when an 'unpopular' government go to the polls as the economy is starting to go through the gears. People, in general terms, especially among the professional classes (who will have a significant say in the outcome of the election), are starting to feel better about their future financial prospects for the first time in nearly a decade. That will seriously concentrate minds when push comes to shove imo.

People are selfish and the British electorate are, to a very significant extent, conservative with a small 'c'. Many will fear a reverse from the current feel good aura, especially as they haven't felt it for so long, and will vote accordingly, possibly in sufficient numbers to give the Tories a very slim majority.

We'll see. There's much better qualified people than me who'll completely disagree with what I've said, I'm sure. I don't claim to be an expert, by any stretch. It's just a hunch that I have that the Tories will pull away from the pack a little in the fortnight before the election, unless something unforeseeable and significant occurs, of course. There are always 'ghosts in the machine' which can change the dynamic if they come to the surface.*


* covered my arse with the last bit ;-)

Very well put Gord, I agree with all of that. The British public are indeed generally slightly right of centre in general, hence why Blair got in with a diluted, sanitised, and more economically adept version of the Labour party, than did the likes of Foot and Kinnock.
If Ed veers more leftwards in the current situation, it will cost him.

I doubt it, it's a myth that the British people are right of centre, a myth that not only screws up our society and our economy but will lead to the break up of the UK.

 

[Ronnie the Rep]

There are two reasons I believe this. Firstly the anti-Labour vote in Scotland among left wingers is much harder than the anti-Tory vote in England among right-wingers. Quite simply, I believe in marginal constituencies you'll see a galvanisation of the Tory vote to keep the number of UKIP seats to a minimum. There will be exceptions, of course in such places as Kent, but self-interest among the middle-classes will prevail.

Secondly, and it's connected to the latter part of my first point, is the economy. Whether it's down to some sleight of hand or not, there is no doubt that the economic news is looking increasingly positive. What people say to a pollster and what they do in the privacy of the ballot box are often at odds with each other when an 'unpopular' government go to the polls as the economy is starting to go through the gears. People, in general terms, especially among the professional classes (who will have a significant say in the outcome of the election), are starting to feel better about their future financial prospects for the first time in nearly a decade. That will seriously concentrate minds when push comes to shove imo.

People are selfish and the British electorate are, to a very significant extent, conservative with a small 'c'. Many will fear a reverse from the current feel good aura, especially as they haven't felt it for so long, and will vote accordingly, possibly in sufficient numbers to give the Tories a very slim majority.

We'll see. There's much better qualified people than me who'll completely disagree with what I've said, I'm sure. I don't claim to be an expert, by any stretch. It's just a hunch that I have that the Tories will pull away from the pack a little in the fortnight before the election, unless something unforeseeable and significant occurs, of course. There are always 'ghosts in the machine' which can change the dynamic if they come to the surface.*


* covered my arse with the last bit ;-)

Very well put Gord, I agree with all of that. The British public are indeed generally slightly right of centre in general, hence why Blair got in with a diluted, sanitised, and more economically adept version of the Labour party, than did the likes of Foot and Kinnock.
If Ed veers more leftwards in the current situation, it will cost him.

I doubt it, it's a myth that the British people are right of centre, a myth that not only screws up our society and our economy but will lead to the break up of the UK.

I assume you mean Scotland leaving. That would make GDM's post even more accurate

 

[The perfect fumble]

Very well put Gord, I agree with all of that. The British public are indeed generally slightly right of centre in general, hence why Blair got in with a diluted, sanitised, and more economically adept version of the Labour party, than did the likes of Foot and Kinnock.
If Ed veers more leftwards in the current situation, it will cost him.

I doubt it, it's a myth that the British people are right of centre, a myth that not only screws up our society and our economy but will lead to the break up of the UK.

I assume you mean Scotland leaving. That would make GDM's post even more accurate

With the SNP, the other nationalist parties, the Liberal Democrat supporters (who are to the left of their leadership) Labour and the Greens, you've a solid majority on the left.

The Tories and UKIP don't make a majority, and even within UKIP, if you strip out the issue of Immigration, there are UKIP supporters who are disafected left leaning, though the bulk are not.

Even without the SNP, Labour, the Greens the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and various other splinter leftish grouping are the biggest electoral group.

Then, of course, there are the disenfranchised, we won't go in to that, but let's say you don't find many of them in Kensington and Chelsea.

 

[The perfect fumble]

If you're so myopic as to not read analysis you may not agree with them you're a thick c**t.

I read the Gurdian and New Statesman to read a different opinion. I guess you just like reading things you agree with. Bless.

And Ed was useless for all the reasons listed in the article.

Now run along, other grown ups may need to talk.

Like shooting fish in a barrel, you make it so easy.

You prove my point, yet again.

The irony. You proved my point.

Well, at least this time you refrained from calling me a thick c**t.

A definite improvement, well done.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

I often find in major cities that the general population are actually very right leaning, (not so much Manchester or Liverpool) but most vote Labour or Lib Dem because there parents did because of Thatcher. Worked with a Welsh guy who said he hadn't voted all his life because where he grew up in a mining town, Labour could put a carrot up for election and it would win, nobody knew policies or wanted to, you just voted Labour because you did but other than wanting Union power they had no left leaning ways what so ever

 

[The perfect fumble]

I often find in major cities that the general population are actually very right leaning, (not so much Manchester or Liverpool) but most vote Labour or Lib Dem because there parents did because of Thatcher. Worked with a Welsh guy who said he hadn't voted all his life because where he grew up in a mining town, Labour could put a carrot up for election and it would win, nobody knew policies or wanted to, you just voted Labour because you did but other than wanting Union power they had no left leaning ways what so ever

On the right however they pore over every inch of the Tory manifesto and can recite Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations by heart! I don't think so.

There's tribal/class loyalty and indifference and a fair smack of stupidity in all wings.