£260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans
 

In this Governments mad frenzy to make what they call "savings" they have spent more money in the last 3 months than any other incoming Government in UK history...but ontop of the 55 billion in education cuts they have axed a building and repairs plan for schools in England, and in the proccess wasted millions..seems like educating our young ones is now classed as a "benefit" this country cannot afford!
BBC News - £260m 'wasted' in axing school building plans

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

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "The fact that 67 councils have spent more than £160m simply preparing for entry into Building Schools for the Future, without a single brick being laid in any of these authorities, shows exactly why we had to bring an end to this scandalous waste of public money."

Whilst i am against these cuts, no-one wi any sense can say the above is justified! it just gives em ammunition.;)

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

The councils may well have overspent on the preparing for the building plan but then again nothing is free.. by axing a building plan that is badly needeed we have wasted tens of millions that was already spent... money we are told daily that we don't have.. to me that is bad business.
This mob are spending more money on finding ways to make cuts but doing nothing for the future .. nothing!

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

Th last Government were very good a preparing schemes without the faintest idea how they were going to pay for it, signing a piece of paper is the easy part, finding the money is just a tad harder, but hey when the country is £1 trillion in debt what difference does a few more billion make

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

And where exactly has anyone given any exact figures as to what the debt is ? The numbers change daily depending on which plan is to be axed. I must admit, I wonder if this ConDem coalition are actually going to spend anything, or are they hoping the private sector do it, as per their ideology.

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

Their ideology and what about Labours private finance initiative in the health service, which is at the moment overspent by £65 billion and still rising. As for firm figures on the debt, nobody really knows yet, because every time another file is opened another couple of unaccounted for debts fall into the pot.

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

so 100 days in power n still opening files? good job they aint on piece work.:D

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

Ho Hum, yet again your blinkered view is full of bullock missing bits, this Government is doing NOTHING, they are hoping it will all just go away, why else are they flattering us with such thoughts as:-

'Any law you think silly tell us about it',

if they had firm plans they would tell us and DEMAND we adhere to them.

Coalition means Mincing around, be honest, a Government needs to GOVERN, this set of tarts are leading us nowhere!
:(

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

At least were not still hurtling to hell on a hand cart, like we have been for the last 13 years;)

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

thats the first true thing ya said, cos now we got there.:D

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

Have you not noticed?

The only positive(ish) move made so far is to attack benifit scroungers? Lets get tough, OR is it lets have someone to blame?

Yes, there are scroungers, yes, they need to be stamped on, but not at the expense of the innocent needy, they are being tarred with the same brush because everyone is lumped together.

Hey let's pick on Jaysay he can't even carry his own Oxygen bottle, AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM THERE?

Belsen?

:hidewall:

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

The debt is whatever this government think up from week to week..but you can bet your life the national debt will be manipulated for when it suits this mob come October.

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

Any government that can announce vast swathes of job cuts at the same time as saying the unemployment figures are falling faster than at any time over the past 13 years smells distinctly fishy to me.

When the price of a pint has rocketed past £3, the shopping bill has gone up £20 a week and driving to work costs us more than a quarter of our wage each month, let's see how rose-tinted the glasses are for the working classes of Great Britain this Christmas.

Fiddling the figures and punishing the lower classes to the point where anything enjoyable has been priced out of their market is no way to repair the damage done by the banks.

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

Mancie the socialist Ostrich always has his head in the sand. There's no need to manipulate anything the facts are out there or those who want to see just what shambles this country's finances have become over the last 13 years, and as usual Labour leave their mess for other to clean up, get real and smell the coffee clown

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

Coffee?

You Tories can afford Coffee?

I've forgotten what it smells like, do tell me.

:)

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

its not a dear as ale Less:rolleyes:

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

Perhaps not, but in this world we have to make sacrifices to maintain the living standards that we want in my case it's coffee.:D

It always strikes me as strange though that the Tories always expect the poorer members of society to make the biggest sacrifices?
:confused:

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

Maybe if the Tories didn't have to continually send years cleaning up after Labour, then sacrifices would be necessary at all, but that's to much to ask when the first item on recipe of the Labour cake is first borrow two eggs:(

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

If, (as you believe), the Tories where so good, Labour would never get in, unlike you I am prepared to call all of them, because lets face it, none of them are of much use, if I was to put myself up, with all the best intentions, I would soon fall into line and be as guilty for adding to the bleeding of the system, but, unlike you, I see each one as a money raking pocket lining, Oh, so superior waste of truth.

They get away with it because we all wear blinkers, just different coloured blinkers, Oh, for a politician that actually wants to work for the people, (the closest I've seen ain't from your lot).
:cool:

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

You didn't have the good fortune to meet Ken Hargreaves then, the best MP Hyndburn has ever had bar none

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

Actually I sat next to him at an Ossy Cloggers annual Presentation Night, a pleasant enough guy, has the looks of a man going somewhere, but...

Results? The History books and even Google say very little for or against.
:)

Please don't assume that I have been ignorant and uncaring all my life, this is an attitude I have developed especially for folk like you!
:D

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

Well that's nice to know Less, :D as for Ken he was never interested about going anywhere, he was quite happy doing what he does best an is still doing at the age of 70, caring for others, he is probably the most selfless person I have ever met in my life, and I'm proud to call him a friend

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

That is fine, I wouldn't call the guy, only his politics, is this yet another Tory, 'I can't win an argument so lets change the tack', type post after all I'm probably one of the poor class that will be expected by the Tory greedy to make the sacrifice, I had to under Maggie, (no work and get on yer bike 'cos we don't give a shining example attitude for young parents), please, please, prove me wrong under this bunch.
:)

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

This bunch as you call um are a different animal, because of the mess this country is in everybody will be affected in some way, even us Tories Less:p

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

EVEN us Tories Less:p

Damn those labourites, they must have done it on purpose just to bring you into the real world of suffering the rest of us live in!
:D

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

I Know I know Less it flaming awful, they've no consideration for the blue half (or should I say blue and yellow:D) of society:rolleyes:

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

Couldn't we just blame it on the bankers? After all they seem to have a completely different set of rules to anybody else?
:confused:

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

This has been my mantra for a long time. And Oh for a politician that can tell us the truth.......and I don't mean their version of the truth....do they believe that by telling us what they think we want to know, we can be hoodwinked?
Do they think that we can't take the truth...that it would be far to scary for us?
I really don't know...but what I do know is that we are saddled with this mish mash of a government because great swathes of the population feel disenchanted, yes and disenfranchised by politics as it stands today...and it is the money grabbing, pocket lining, greedy politicians who are themselves, responsible for this sorry state of affairs.
I am sick and tired of each party slinging mud at the other party...because they can't see that they are all as bad as one another.

Recently even Graham Jones resorted to the playground tactics of 'they started it Miss'.

Although I did not vote in this election....I did haul myself to a polling station....I spoiled my vote because none of the candidates did anything at all to prove they were worthy of my trust in them......and I feel that there are many more folk out there who feel just the same as I do.

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

You could blame it on the Bankers...many folk have tried....but the last government cannot absolve themselves of some of the blame for what happened with the Banking crisis....it was they who took the regulatory aspect away from the Bank of England and placed it with the totally useless FSA.......They knew well before the brown stuff hit the fan what was going on(according to some sources 7 months before) and did nothing about it....They could have put measures in place to make sure that bankers did not get such obscene bonuses on the back of failures, but they did nothing, fearing that the Square Mile would up sticks and take the business elewhere.

The last government spent money it did not have.......projects were signed up to that they had no idea how to fund......they left us in a real mess.
So much for Prudence Brown and his 'No more boom and bust politics'.

I don't care what colour the party is that is in power...after all there is no Labout party anymore....socialist values went out of the window when New Labour came in the door....all I want is someone who will have the guts to do what is right by the people of this country.

And while we are talking about rules.......didn't the expenses scandal teach you that the vast majority of politicians felt that they could live by a totally different set of rules too?

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

That one sounds a bit out, I do about £3000 a year in diesel which I am sure is more than most and that is not 1/4 of my salary

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.

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

Beni your bloody priceless:D:D:D:D:D only you can (and your buddy Less) can make me fall off my chair with laughter, in the middle of a serous thread, long may you reign:dancedog:

Have some green

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

Excuse me please?

Where does it say that this is a serious thread?

Do you not read the posts? and if you do how can you take them seriously?

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

Where is your evidence that it'll be a small one? There isn't even legislation on the table yet, so how do you know it'll be small? The said they would press ahead with one with or without international agreement - Labour would only do it with international agreement and set no timetable. It seems that you're just criticising them for not solving the mess they've been left within 3 months of office. It's going to take a great deal longer I'm afraid.

Ken, we all know there are huge problems with the financial sector. Our huge deficit and borrowing is not just from bailing out the banks however. Government has a role to play in setting out a framework within which the banks can operate. It's not quite as simple as fixing the country by slapping a 99% tax on the banks as some people would have us believe. That's just not how the economy works.

What is the creative accounting in unemployment? You do seem to be coming out with a few unsubstantiated claims. They're using the same methods to work out unemployment as the previous government.

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

Democracy is an illusion.
It provides you with a choice between 'the devil and the deep blue sea'.
So why waste energy arguing about which you prefer?

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

[quote=jaysay;839035]That's something nobody will ever change,


Well John that is not acceptable.....and it won't ever change while we accept it.

This, I believe, is where the electorate become disillusioned.
They vote in a politician who does nothing that was promised....tells the electorate that they have to tighten their belts, but then we can see them living the life of Riley at our expense. One rule for them and another for us.
It just makes us realise that these people do not respect, or care about the electorate who voted them into office.....they are supposed to be working for us....yet none of them emerge from political life with anything other than a hefty bank balance....and the promise of some consultancy in some business or other.

As soon as you utter the words 'It will never change' or it is impossible to change things' then by your acceptance you close your mind to any opportunity to seek and find a solution.

Change must come, or a revolution.

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

Margaret, I am coming to the conclusion that you could be right.

If voting changed anything then they would stop us from doing it.
They like to think that they are letting us have a say in what happens, and they like to think we believe we have the power to change things, but in reality the parties are all the same....they just wear different colour coats so that their 'followers' know who they should follow....and they know that by dividing us politically, they make us weaker.

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

this it what i have thought fer a good 10/12 years now, its good to see others getting the picture.:);)

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

So Tony and Gordon didn't fool you either:D

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

Not really, i just hoped, but seems your still being suckered.:D

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

Well, you are suckered because there isn't an alternative.

The Labour government wanted to let us think we could influence things and asked us for opinions on different things....it is just a placatory measure, a distractor.

Then this coalition mob get in and ask us which laws we want to be scrubbed off the books.....again, to try and bamboozle us into thinking we could make a difference.

I'm fed up of gimmicks, sound bites, spin(lies).......what I want is someone to make radical changes in the welfare system......remove it from the list of career options.
I want someone who will make justice something that doesn't make criminals the victims, that will listen to the victims of crime and take into account how crime has radically changed their lives.

I want someone who will recognise that education for our young people is an essential if we are to have a future as a country, but that that education does not always need to be given in a University...we need to value those with practical skills.

Is all this too much to ask of our supposedly democratic system?

No, don't answer that....I think I already know the answer.

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

I agree with a lot of what your saint Margaret, especially education, never have understood this calmer for university places, you were a nurse and from all reports a bloody good one too, pray tell which university you obtained your skills:rolleyes:I chose to follow my father and became a Joiner, I only wish I'd have been half as good as he was, although I wasn't all that bad, until my poor health cut it short, oh and by the way my father didn't go to university either. There will always be a need for people to hang doors, glaze windows, fit baths and sinks plus central heating, put roofs on, build walls, plaster walls, the list is endless, you don't need a university degree to do these jobs.

I agree on the welfare state as well, even though I unfortunately rely on it myself, but I have stated more than once, anybody who takes money from the tax payer should be prepared to prove they are entitled to that money, I will attend any tribunal or medical if required to do so, yet people like Mancie say the most vulnerable in society are being targeted, no they are not, there are none so vulnerable as those who chose to be saw as you say the welfare state should not be a career option, but there for those in genuine need

I am not great fan of the collision, but that is what we have been saddled with, and like you I spoiled my vote because of local issues, but I did cast a vote, however I admire that fact that this government have brought in 3 former Labour ministers in an advisory capacity, which can only be a step in the right direction

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

John, I am not a saint......you have to be dead for a few hundred years to get that kind of recognition.
I came from a poor back ground...lots of children(little contraceptive advice back then...other than 'don't do it') very little money,precious little welfare state despite the fact that my father was blown up on D-Day+6 and spent a lot of his time ill.

Everything I have, I have worked for. And it was tough getting a job when I left school because of the 'baby boomers'.
I have never expected anyone to take responsibility for my life. I figure that what I made of my life was down to me.
I worked in the weaving mill, but felt I could do so much more with my life......that is why I became a nurse. I wanted to make a difference.

What is missing from the lives of young people is esteem....you can have no esteem if you have no purpose in life.....no respect, either for yourself or for others.....because to respect others you first have to respect yourself.

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

Oh, I see it now...you were agreeing with what I said...not calling me a saint(thank goodness for that:)).
And when you say about ill health cutting short your working life......you had a working life...paid your dues into the system. These days there are whole families who have known nothing other than the 'Benefits' way of life.
If parents don't go out to work then there is a solid chance that the children won't work either, because they do not get the work ethic instilled into them.
My mother used to tell us that those who didn't want to work, didn't want to eat and had better not present themselves at the table at mealtimes.

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

I don't go along with this talk of there being no difference between the main parties..I think they are far apart on spending.. just a few examples
Labour:
trebled funding for the NHS - Tories opposed
minimum wage - Tories opposed
heath and saftey laws for invalids at work - Tories opposed
increase in home help - Tories opposed
increase in carer's allowance - Tories opposed

Now we will have massive cuts in all the above and much more.. you could argue that this is what we need because of Labours overspending.. but it's obvious that Labour spend money on public services.. and it's obvious that the Tories always cut those services...the difference is very real ..so depending on your perspective you stick yer cross in whatever box you feel is best for yourself and the country as a whole .. simple.

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

or if you trust none of them, you spoil your paper.
Mancie, my point was that they are all the same in that they bamboozle the electorate, they treat us like we don't have a clue about anything, they think that by letting us have a (supposed) say in some issues that they are 'connecting with the people'.......they like the fact that people argue and fall out about their relative merits because this all means that we are divided......and everyone knows that to rule you have to divide the populace...it makes them easier to handle.
They all call each other names, they say one thing in opposition and do precisely the opposite when in power......but you think they aren't the same.

Their manifesto's tell you one thing, but their actions another.

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.