Originally Posted by Mancie (Post 821053)

Oh .. I'm the blind one?.. can you really say that the finances of the majority of the population have been worse over the last 13 yrs than under the Tories?.. do you think the minimum wage was a bad thing?.have you forgot the hospital patients lying on trolly's because of cuts on nurses? the last 2 years have been a world wide economic crisis but did you suffer so much that you could not feed yourself?..everything was not all paradise but people forget what we had under the last Tory Government..Thatcher and her mob blamed Labour for 18yrs and I say this lot will drive us into a get what you can while you can society.. if there is any such thing as "society" under any Tory Government.

Originally Posted by garinda (Post 821128)

Pre-election, Labour also faced up to the fact they too would have to impose severe cuts, in an attempt to sort out the current financial mess we're in, but they said they'd hold back doing it immediately, so as not to 'damage the economic recovery', but which we all know was really a way of trying to woo the electorate, by not having to think about cuts in the here and now.

Socially, and morally, the successive Labour governments made some historic inroads.

However, when it came to economics, they were hopeless.

They also courted the city financiers just as much as any previous Tory governments, and succeeded in making London the destination of choice for every dodgy oligarch, and dubious billionaire...hardly the actions of a party connected in anyway to socialism.

Under new Labour champagne flowed in trendy Islington, and a boom was enjoyed, with no thought of tomorrow.

We've had the boom, now it's cuts, or bust.

As others have pointed out, if you ran a household like the country has been managed, we'd now be pushing our worldly goods down the street in an old pram.

The political blindness exhibited by Mancie, Jaysay & co. can be quite amusing, if it wasn't also a little sad.

Like a red and blue Chuckle Bothers.

To me (it's Thatcher's fault), to you (no it isn't, it was all down to Callaghan).

:rolleyes:

Originally Posted by Stumped (Post 821219)

Could not what is happening in Greece and the imminent downfall of the euro with all it's implications for the European Union lead to another major conflagration?

Originally Posted by steeljack (Post 821233)

Highly unlikely , who's going to fight it , the birthrates of the "native" northern Europeans are too low to sustain natural replacement as it is, let alone provide enough canon fodder to fight a full scale war.

Originally Posted by Mancie (Post 821073)

How can it be the past Labour Government be blamed for cuts this Government will employ?.. in this country the Government are all powerful.. with an overall majority they do what they wish... Gordon Brown nor Labour have a say in it and that's the way it should be.
In the past Margaret you have in your posts pointed out to people that it's no use blaming Thatcher or the last Tory Government.. yet you are quick to blame Labour and Brown.

Originally Posted by Stumped (Post 821216)

I'm certainly far worse off now than I ever was under previous conservative administrations. My servings are worth practically nothing

Originally Posted by entwisi (Post 821266)

it was 15% for about 2 hours IIRC on the day of the crash. I was working at The Brit that day and when I told some business men they actually got up straight away and left mid meal.

The reality is teh man on teh street has 'felt' wealthy and had money and goods to show for it, problem is its all actually just held in debts and never never.


(Their bold)

so you haven't really had all this money Mancie its just waiting to come and bite you on teh arse. The reality is that the old goverment encouraged you to spend spend spend....

Originally Posted by garinda (Post 821270)

From July 1988 to May 1992 we had interest rates in double figures, and in 1989 and 1990 it was a constant 14%, except when it peaked, which is what I previously posted, at 15%.

The Thatcherist governments, which includes Major, would have wet themselves at the interest and inflation rates we have today, as that was one of their main economic policies.

Originally Posted by Stumped (Post 821402)

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see where the inevitable cuts will come. We can all probably second guess where the brunt of them will be applied, but until we see it set down in black and white, I guess we'll just have to sit back and hold our breath.

Originally Posted by Ken Moss (Post 821491)

Personally, I'm far happier in my mid-terrace than a Barratts shoebox.

Originally Posted by garinda (Post 821492)

I remember much of the stone built terraced housing in Church was demolished in the seventies, and new, 'better' housing replaced it.

Thirty years on, the replacement, 'better' housing has had to be demolished.

My house was built in 1870, and will still be here in sixty years time, when it reaches it's bicentennial.

I rather doubt if many modern built houses will still be standing in two hundred years.