Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

Neil, I think that when this figure was quoted, it not only looked at the cost of petrol but also the cost of parking, insuring and maintaining a vehicle....and for some, in London I guess you have to factor in the congestion charges....and while it may not be a quarter of your salary there must be people for whom this is, if not a quarter, a large proportion.
We all know that the media likes to sensationalise, and I would reckon there might be a bit of this going on too.....but the bottom line is that it costs folk to go to work.

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

Depends where you work.

I travel all over the county with my work is and, even though the past 12 months have seen me take three months off due to a couple of operations, I have still racked up a fuel bill of nearly £5,000.

The tax hikes we're about to get will push that up by an uncomfortable margin.

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

Which would have had to have happened irrespective of whom won the GE, or are your mob still in denial, that everything in the gardens was lovely back in May

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

Not actually referring to any previous administration John, I'm on about the looming hike in VAT.

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

Well Less, I have a completely different name for these people which is spelt very similar, but it was the last government who took bank regulations away from the BOE, if thy had left well alone maybe, just maybe this catastrophe would not have been as bad and consequently left us deep in the proverbial dodo

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

VAT, income tax and other measures would have had to come in to pull this country out of the mire and we are in the mire, if you hadn't noticed;)

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

John you didn't mention the poiticians and their different set of rules for living. :)

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

Trimming the fat was inevitable and in some ways a change of government is probably for the best, if only to remind us why the working man shouldn't ever vote Conservative.

The cost of living is about to soar astronomically with the poorest being hit hardest. This could have been largely avoided by punishing the banks, something the Tories said they would do and yet, strangely, haven't....

I've said before that Labour made a mistake in taking power away from the Bank of England. Will you say the same about your lot for letting the banks off so lightly?

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

They've been in for 3 months Ken. Labour had 13 years to deal with the banks. The Government are planning a banking levy and reforms of the banking system. Give them some time.

Suggesting that the 'working man shouldn't ever vote Conservative' is such an insult to so many people. Every Labour government has left office with unemployment higher than when it entered. They created a massive deficit that leaves cuts unavoidable, cuts that Labour would have had to make too.

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

Your lot, our lot, their lot !! What the hell does it matter, the Country was in a right old state, Brussels/EU constantly leaning on the member states(non member states) that every one should do more to follow their directives & or hand over more responsibility to them.

The Country is skint, massive debts & huge outgoings which can't be justified considering the Country's situation. Irrespective of who's done what (now or in the past or foreseeable future) the prices hikes & cuts would've had to come regardless. We need a government that will protect its people & see that we are looked after first.

Also a lot of people seem to have forgotten this is not a Conservative Government, it is a coalition & as such should be seen & judged as one because both sides want bites of the cherry & as such will prostitute their ideals to get what they want, lets not forget that !

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

This Working man crap is a load of tosh, I've said many times before its not the rich and famous who elect Tory Governments, if that was the case there would never be a Tory Government, at 1992 even after the poll tax fiasco the Tories polled more votes than any government in history. Its the ordinary man in the street who can see past this, all for one and one for all claptrap, the only places that works is in countries enforcing it with the rule of the gun not the ballot box, as George Orwell said all animals are equal but some animals are more equal that others, even in the totalitarian state that is so craved by many of your ilk, there is always somebody vying to be numero uno, I don't mind people being in the driving seat so long as I am given the chance to change it at the ballot box, that's democracy and the peoples right to make that choice

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

Why is the planned banking levy such a small one and why is it taking longer to get around to than the one for the rest of us? They were screaming for it in opposition and yet now seem reluctant.

I've said it before but millions of people looked after their money for years and are now being punished for something they haven't done. The banks are responsible for losing our money and we're being penalised to bail them out - AGAIN.

Don't start on unemployment figures either. There's some creative accounting going on in Westminster when the figure is dropping but more people are being laid off than before the elections.

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

I used to have a car like that.:)

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

That's something nobody will ever change, the last government being the prime example what was Tony Blair's promise on the 1st May 1997 Whiter than White Government, but having said that I take no pleasure from the antics of some members of the Party which I was once a member, in fact I actually think a play on the old say "the road to parliament is paved with good intentions" he only person I Know who came out of his time in the Big House with reputation in tact was JKH. Incidentally it was always said in Private Eye that Ken Hargreaves was the only MP they could get nothing on, hence the nick name they gave him "the oldest altar boy in town" :rolleyes:

Re: £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

You're quite right on all fronts, Dave.

The problem is that we never really seem to hear from the Liberal Democrat side of things and when we do it's glossed over immediately afterwards by a Tory.