Sith

IMF

Cheers Gordon, to$$er.

pslewis

A few FACTS that will not go amiss!!:-

1. The country has now enjoyed the longest period of continuous growth on record -- 50 successive quarters.

2. He also froze fuel tax and reallocated 1 billion pounds to reduce pressure to increase unpopular local council taxes

3. Brown predicted the economy would grow between 3.0 and 3.5 percent next year while public borrowing would total 34 billion pounds this financial year, only a billion more than he had predicted in March ...... hardly BIG trouble!! (Remember too that his predictions have been right EVERYTIME!)

4. Record wealth

5. Lowest Interest Rates

6. Lowest unemployment

All in all, a pretty good state of affairs I would say?!

And I will defend Labour for as long as others bleet on and on about the government getting it wrong! Boring or not!

Pete

dnb

Could you persuade them to use some of this wealth to buy some more defence hardware? We're a bit short of orders this year...

pugoetru

He is to scared to put fuel tax up

Wealth ?? wheres mine

low intrest rates creeping up

low unemployment we all know thats bull

Abdabz

Unless your Conner Mcleod of the clan Mcleoad neither were you, as it hasnt happened in any of our lifetimes...

Now the winter of discontent - hmm many of us will remember that... I was 4 and my mummy's bin smelt funny

Michael Howard - there can be only one

pslewis

Is that the Michael Howard who introduced the POLL TAX!!??

When we had anarchy on the streets and running riots???

Hmmmmmm, yes, lets get him back in!!

Luckily there are more intelligent people than thick people so the Tories will NEVER get in!

Pete

pugoetru

unfortunately none of them work for labour

pslewis

You are quite right, all the thicko's work for the Tories!! Very well spotted!

Pete

ajm

Still voting Conservative... along with the majority of Scoobynet if your poll is anything to go by!

pslewis

Not my poll and as SN is full of tory supporters its hardly surprising!

Its the country as a whole that will give Blair a HUGE landslide!

I think you lot are out of touch!

Pete

anc-sti

This is true and I am not a Tory, G Brown inherited quite a good economy due to cut backs made in the Tory years.
I think old Maggie is on record as saying something along the line of the greatest legacy of her time in power is New Labour, she's bloody right!!

pslewis

If NL is actually the Tories then I presume all on here will be getting behind Mr Blair then?

Howard is a damp squid, a slimy article that we have seen in power - and were NOT impressed!!

Pete

Buckrogers

How can you say Howard is slimy, people in glass houses and all that!
Tony = Liar, spin, lapdog (USA), bumbling fool...

Sprint Chief

Question for ya Pete - how many quarters have new labour been in power for?

pslewis

32?

Thats more than half!!

Pete

Sprint Chief

The last 31 reports were in the new labour administration, but then the first year would have had nothing to do with new labour policies - especially since for the first year they simply adopted the existing tory policies! So in fact the longest continuous period of growth was started, and 50% due to, the tories...

Way to sell new labour Pete!

pslewis

The Tories would have *****'d it all up, as well we all know!!

Good job the custonians were Labour!

Pete

Adam Davis

From an economic point of view one of the wisest things Gordon Brown has done was giving the Bank of England independence and an inflation target.

This has helped the UK economy massively in terms of economic stability.

The Tories would have kept monetary policy under their control and put the UK economy into a boom in the lead up to the 2001 election and we would probably just about be recovering from the 2002-2003 recession about now if the blues had remained in power.

Sprint Chief

So, where were we?

Record wealth - can you show me a government that has not set a new record for wealth (excluding the world wars)?

Lowest interest rates - not always a good thing, Japan had its lowest rates ever and the country was in a complete economic mess - but it is true to say that new labours decision to give monetary policy decisions to the Bank of England was a very good one

We don't have the lowest unemployment, and unemployment fell faster during the 92-97 tory administration than it ever has under the new labour administration

So, 1 meaningless, 1 true, 1 half truth - so about 50% right again... not bad for an old-timer!

Sprint Chief

Speculation and probably not true IMHO

anc-sti

All this is fairly meaningless in terms of the next election at the moment as Labours greatest strength is the oppositions current state of unelectabiliy.

I mean come on Michael Howard yeh right!!! And the lib dem's have got to realise that we ain't going to have a Ginger Prime minister

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

to reduce pressure, not to stop council tax increases.
Oh and what's the betting fuel tax will go up the very next time he can increase it after the election (yes Labour will get back in..sadly this country is full of people who believe the spin & forget all the promises made by labour last time that they haven't delivered on)
It's a shame the tories can't get a leader with the same smarmyness of Blair, then maybe we'd stand a chance of not losing the pound and handing over control of the country to the non elected free loading MPs in Europe.