Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

Just a few points for you to ponder on-

The two faces of the Tory party
- The face David Cameron would like you to see and the ugly reality:

• Cameron makes one of his ‘cast iron guarantees’ that the Tories don’t like the National Insurance increase in 2011.
• So what will his party do? He’s instructed his chum, Tatton MP George Osborne, to ‘look at’ NI very carefully. No commitment, just shallow promises.
• In the meantime the Tories say they would go further than the Chancellor’s PBR deficit reducing measures.
• They would cut the deficit ‘faster’ by immediately scrapping the Child Trust Fund, freezing pay and raising the retirement age.
• At the same time Boris Johnson is standing up for the bankers and complaining that a one off tax on bonuses means his city chums are being 'super penalised’.
• Labour has set clear choices for the future that protect North West schools, the NHS and the Police.
• Drastic cuts are not the way out of the downturn - the North West's front line services must be protected.

Challenge Osborne
• At Tory Conference this year George Osborne announced his plans to get rid of the Child Tax Credit for households on more than £50,000 per year.
• He said it would raise them £400 million. However, it has now emerged that this would actually raise them only £45 million.
• To raise £400 million they would need to cut Child Tax Credit from a couple earning as little as £16,000 each - less than average earnings.
• Click on this link to write to your local newspaper and challenge the Tories for an answer


And here are some Labour acheivements -
Ten Labour achievements to be proud of:
1. 900,000 pensioners lifted out of poverty
2. 500,000 children lifted out of relative poverty and measures already in train will lift around a further 500,000 children out of poverty.
3. Free TV licences for over-75s
4. The New Deal has helped over 2 million people into work
5. Over 3 million Child Trust Funds have been started
6. Nearly 3,000 Sure Start Children’s Centres opened, reaching 2 million children and their families
7. Over 42,400 more teachers and 123,000 more teaching assistants than in 1997
8. There have been approximately 3,700 rebuilt and significantly refurbished schools; including new and improved classrooms, laboratories and kitchens.
9. A free nursery place for every 3 and 4 year old.
10. Doubled the number of registered childcare places to more than 1.5 million, one for every four children under eight years old.

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

Youv'e been doing a lot of pondering it would seem!

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

Bernard you should know I do ponder a lot:):):)

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

Thats what Labour do ponder instead of think:rolleyes:

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

I'm not sure if copy and pasting from the Labour website is pondering or not. Anyway let me spread a little light onto this post.

"The two faces of the Tory party"

1. This tax on jobs hits 10 million people. I wouldn't think it sensible to tax jobs in a recession when we're heading for 3 million people unemployed under the official figures alone. Contrary to what you write, the Conservative Party will reverse these tax increases and abolish it for startups to help employment rise. Not "shallow promises", instead commitment. Strong leadership. Unlike Gordon Brown who declares rises in pensions only to hide cuts if they win the election.

2. Yes, they would freeze pay. Much of the private sector are struggling with layoffs and pay cuts. The public sector isn't immune to this, a one year pay freeze will help pay off the massive debt that the current government have burdened the country with. Same with child trust funds, the poorest families will still be entitled to them, but why should the very rich? Labour have created a 13% deficit that has to be dealt with in some way.

3. The tax on bankers was backed by the Conservative Party.

4. Labour haven't even committed to ring fencing NHS spending yet. The Conservatives have and will protect the frontline in other areas. Labour don't have mass reform plans, they have had 12 years to do that, cuts without reform from Labour will affect frontline services.

5. Large scale cuts are the way out of the downturn. Both parties realise this. You can't combat a 13% deficit, that is £180billion deficit, by tinkering at the edges.

"Ten Labour achievements to be proud of"

Quite easy to list some things Labour have done over the last 12 years. Quite easy for Labour to borrow, borrow, borrow, spend, spend, spend. Not so easy when you have to deal with the reality of a 13% deficit, hundreds of billions of pounds of borrowing.

You talk of sure start. £23,000 of debt for every child born in Britain today. What sort of start is that?

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

To name some other achievements (in no particular order) -
The National Minimum wage
The right to 28 days holiday pay
The right to request flexible working hours for woman with young children
Winter Fuel payments to everyone over age 60 (£250 per household for the over 60's, which rises to £400 for household's are over 80) - this payment is tax free.
Free off peak local bus travel for over 60's anywhere in England
Paid Paternity leave
The length of paid Maternity pay has increased as has the length of time new mothers can take off work.

There are many more as well

Andrew can you 100% guarantee that none of these are under threat if (god forbid) there is a future Tory government?

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

None of them would be safe under a Labour Government, because of the massive debt we are now in, they'd be better off running chip shops cuz they they've proved without a shadow of a doubt they sure as hell can't run the bloody country

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

Your having a laugh with that one. The amount is so low most people would not manage on it and take paid holidays instead. I know I did.

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

Labour have run up the largest peace-time fiscal deficit in our history. As Jaysay says, they've put at risk good things that Labour have introduced.

You seem oblivious to this.

A lot of your posts (not just in this thread) tend to focus on what Labour have done in the past. You suggest that we should keep Labour in despite wrecking our country and being just as financially incompetent as the last Labour government, because of some things they have already implemented. Additionally you suggest either up front, or tacitly imply, that the Conservative's would abolish all these things. Often it turns out that it's the complete opposite.

Our economy, our country, it needs fixing. Would you trust an arson to put out the fire?

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

Andrew can you please tell us how, in your opinion, (as you are such an expert on everything) the Tories would have handled the world wide banking crisis.
Would they have acted to protect the savings of millions of UK residents or would they have allowed the banks to fail -which would have been even more destructive to everyone in the UK.
It is all very well being wise after the event and saying that your party would have acted differently.

Maybe you could have a word with your fellow party members on Hyndburn council - who seem to want to squeeze as much money out of Hyndburn's council tax payers as they can. Maybe you could do a FOI on the cost of buffets for the Tory members of HBC.

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

I'm by no means an expert claytonender, but thank-you for the complement.

The Conservatives voted against splitting banking regulation into three separate institutions which didn't talk to each other in 1997 long before the collapse of the banking system. They believed at the time and believe now that that power should remain with the Bank of England so that it can monitor banks and not allow them to over borrow, as used to do in the past. They also wouldn't have stored up debt and borrowing in the good times, allowing them to effectively tackle crisis like other nations have. In other words, they'd fix the roof while the sun was shining.

If banks had still failed, they wouldn't have failed so spectacularly under these measures. If they had of failed, of course they'd protected peoples savings. Bit of a silly question - another of your 'Labour did this; therefore the Conservatives wouldn't have' flawed logic.

Council tax has gone up in Hyndburn by half the national average under a Conservative administration. I'll leave you to FOI your colleagues buffets if you're that interested.

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

I was not entering into an argument with you about how much Council Tax has risen in Hyndburn - but pointing out that the Tory administration are feathering their own pockets (and stomachs) at the expense of the Hyndburn Council Tax Payer.

The publication and distribution of the Area Management Calendars 2010 are another example of a waste of Council Tax Payer's money. I know that in the big scheme of things is is not a great deal of money, but it could have been better spent, especially in Rishton, where they are trying to implement Neighbourhood Management without any money being allocated from HBC, the £1977 spent for printing the calendars would have been more usefully spent.

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

So that the ones of us that don't know (like me), please could you explain what these buffets are for and how frequent they appear?

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

I wouldn't go down the feathering their own nest lines if I were you claytonender, you haven't been a councillor long enough, and there are those who DO remember when Labour were in power:rolleyes:

Re: Area Management Calendars 2010
 

There was an article about this in today's Telegraph. Wonder if they read it here first?

Anyway, the more I think about it the more I think that the Labour councillors are making a big deal out of nothing.

It is the duty of the council to make sure that everyone in the borough knows how to get hold of their councillors. The calendars are a relatively inexpensive method of doing this and I think that ALL councillors names and contact details should be on. By making a protest about this you're cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I know you're going to argue that you spent money out of your own pockets to send Christmas cards but that's one of the most pointless exercises - a Christmas card is guaranteed to be put in the recycling bag but at least a calendar might be put in a drawer. Plus, as we've pointed out many times, why should anyone who represents the council be out of pocket for doing work related to the council - why should you spend your pitiful council allowance on buying cards related to your council business?