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

All of that is true Margaret..they all lie.. but there is a still a big margin in the idealology of the Tories and Labour.. not sure about the Lib's these days..seems to me the Lib-Dems have had radical left-wing manifestos for at least the last 30yrs, but now they have some power it's all disappeared...but with Labour and Tory there has always been a stark difference.. if there was no difference we would not have the arguements on here.. and no need for elections.

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

I don't think that it is entirely true....about the ideaology anyway. Since the advent of New Labour, the Labour party lost its Socialist roots and became more like the tory party.......there is no true Socialist party anymore...well, not in the terms that could win an election anyway.
You only have to look at the privileged backgrounds of the Labour MP's to check this out....how many of them have true 'working class' backgrounds? Not very many, and those who can be considered to have a bit of a working class background have all attended university. MP's are all wannabe toffs....that is why they can get away with telling us to pull in our belts, while they treat the taxpayer(you and me) as a bottomless pocket....and then look us in the face and lie about doing it.
Up the Revolution!

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

The reason why you cannot see the closing of the gap in the ideologies Mancie, is that you haven't lived long enough.

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

But the overall policies on the economy are certainly far apart.. the Tories always believe in the tight squeeze, they rely on the private sector to move into public sector services in the hope they provide a better more cost saving service.. they always do that and it does not work.

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

Maybe if they had not inherited such a financial mess it would not have been necessary.
We will never know what Labour would have done if they had managed to get back for another term of office so it is really all academic.

And yes, I do know that governments always blame the last incumbent for their woes....but I would hazard a guess that this government have got the worst deal in living memory....while in my living memory anyway.
Mancie we cannot get away from the facts that something has to be done to right the situation.......to cut the deficit.....and we know that there are people on benefits who could work, but won't get out of bed for anything less than they can get for doing nothing....and I resent them living on my earnings.....I do not resent those who have a justifiable reason for claiming benefits.......I resent money going out of this country to support polish children who do not even reside here.
You cannot have it all ways when there is nothing to pay for it.

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

We are told what that Labour created the worse economic mess ever.. I was not even alive in the early years after WW2 but the then Government took over a waste land.. no blame to the Tories because all political parties fought that war and we where left totally skint.. Labour won the following election on the agenda of building schools.. the NHS.. pensions.. building houses...all opposed by the Tories.. it all cost money this country did not have.. but it was an investment in the future.
Margaret I don't know your age but surely you have seen Governments come and go.. they all blame the "last lot" .. but the Tories make a habit of punishing those less well off for any economic downfall.

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

Aye no argument there Mancie, but it is money they didn't have in the first place, that is the main problem ! Then of course the "Big bad Tories" or whoever where to follow the previous Labour Government (In this case the Coalition) has to try to recoup that debt & that means cuts.

It isn't supporting one side over the other, it is about basic economics... If you don't have it you can't spend it !! Unfortunately the Labour Government was doing exactly what many private households were doing, getting things on the never never, only problem with that though is that private households have to sort out their own financial problems themselves when the man comes calling, but when the Government do it ........ We know well & good who has to foot the bill then !! You, Me, Everybody has to dig deep, as Newton's third Law pointed out "For every action, there is an equal & opposite reaction"

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

Well yes Dave.. it looks like the general feeling is that the last Labour Government overspent on public services.. and that is an obvious difference between them and the Tories... most voters at the last election thought the Tories had the better a policy..there is a massive difference between Labour and Tory .

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

George Osborne's proposed levy on the banks of 8bn over four years. Ouch.

It's not a question of solving anything in three months, it's the proposed intentions. A very swift schedule of taxation was slapped on the table regarding us, the poor minions who live in this country, while the proposal for the banks needs time in order to consider the implications, does it?

You're still dodging the issue of why the 'coalition' aren't doing what they said they would do when they were in opposition. What has changed?

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

Mancie I am 63 and retired...so yes I have seen governments come and go.
In my opinion Tony Blair did more to bring this country to its knees than the Germans. Ok he did it in a different way, but nevertheless he did it.
Prudence Brown promised no more boom and bust but sold off the gold reserves when we didn't actually need the money and that meant that when we did need the money there was nothing in the pot. So when the doo-doo hit the fan he went into borrowing mode.

I have said it before and will say it as many times as is necessary.....we cannot have what can't be paid for.

I have worked all of my life. Paid into the system all of my life, am still paying taxes on my pension(and it isn't a big pension)......if the bus passes are to go, if the heating allowance is to go, then I will(like others) have to live with it. I won't like it, but I will know it is necessary. As long as the lard lumps who can't raise themselves out of their pits are going to feel it too, as long as the people who have paid absolutely nothing into the system are going to be targetted then I will manage.

I have been poor.....I know how to make do and mend.

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

No doubt when you were coming to the end of your nursing career, you will have seen a big change in the nursing profession, I have been a regular attender of hospitals over the last 30 years, and I've always found the older staff are absolutely first rate, don't get me wrong to me everybody working at the sharp end of the NHS do a fine job, but I get the impression from the new regime of nursing its more of a job than a vocation like it was when you first started out, that's just my opinion, talking from what I have witnessed first hand

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

John, I retired in 2002, at the age of 55.....I could have worked on until i was 60, but to be honest I was thoroughly fed up of government meddling, target chasing and the like.
I loved my job and felt privileged to be doing it. I worked hard because that is the only way I know.
I taught student nurses and tried to pass on my enthusiasm for caring for patients, but increasingly it seemed that the young women and men coming into the profession had a different focus......and it wasn't on care giving, it was about forging a career.
There is nothing wrong with forging a career per se it just has to be balanced with care giving. It seemed to me(MHO) that many of the new University educated intakes felt that taking patients to the toilet, or feeding patients, or dealing with personal hygiene needs were below them. Patients reveal their fears and their worries to the people who give such intimate care.

Now I am glad to be out of it....though I am always happy when past patients recognise me and remember me...which frequently happens.

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

I think your spot on Margaret, 2 years ago when I was in dock, there was an old chap in the next bed, I heard him ask a nurse for a commode on about 4 occasions and was told she would see to him in a minute, that minute never came, in fact the nurse concerned actually went off duty without even telling other staff of this gentleman's needs, needless to say when somebody came to is aid it was just a little late. I was unable to help I was hooked up to oxygen and infused antibiotics and was unable to reach by buzzer. what made it worse was the morning after this same nurse had the cheek to say the old chap had got her into trouble:eek:

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

The last Tory government left power with unemployment higher than they inherited, and it was under that lot that unemployment reached record heights: at the time I worked in a Jobcentre and it was painfully obvious to all of us that the figures were a huge underestimate. Every time they changed the way we counted unemployment (more than 20 times in 5 years) the figure went down for a month before creeping back up.

It could be argued that the parties set each other up to fail: you'll notice that when parties know they will win an election they go to the country within 4 years, when they know they'll lose they go the full 5. And of course every party makes decisions with an eye to the vote and staying in power, rather than what is right.

So go for the "benefit scroungers" worth maybe £5bn according to the latest (probably inflated) estimates, not for the tax dodgers worth far more - government estimate, £40bn, pundit estimate, over £70bn.

Ideologically all of the parties have lurched to the right. Since Cleggie became the leader of the LibDems the party has lurched so far to the right it's almost as Tory as the Tories.