f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

... to stand in front of and tell us all that despite the bad news everything's working out just fine with hsi 'plan'

Early figures indicate the economy sharnk again in 2012 Q4.

UK economy 'contracted in fourth quarter'

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

What price another manufactured tanker strike and petrol shortage?

Leslie

Time his party got the skids out under his leader if they want any kind of a chance at the next election I reckon!

Les

mrmadcap

The most frightening scenario is Labour getting back in fronted by Milliband and *****

Scooby Soon!

yep reading that makes me grateful, just imagine if labour had got back in again!

phew!

pslewis

SHOCK .... SHOCK .... SHOCK ... The Tories destroy the Economy .... just as it always has been, get Labour back in to fight the working mans corner!!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

I rarely agree with you, but that is spot on and is what will happen unless the current lot change tactics.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

This. I'm terrified at that prospect, more so as places like Scunthorpe (where I reside) are Labour hotspots - i.e. full of long term scroungers who Labour fed for 13 bloody years.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

The trouble is Andy they are still being fed today, nothing has changed despite all the talk to the contrary.

pslewis

The Tories have continued the same ...... we all know that it's either that or riots on the streets - they will simply take what they want from whoever has it!!

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

I agree, not a great deal has been altered (human rights doesn't help but why aren't the coalition sticking two fingers up at Brussels?) but it was still Labour who used this demograt as a huge vote winner. "Hey, here's 'x' amount of benefits, remember now, vote for us".

Again, I mean the long term workshy, the feckless, the 'circumstantially correct'.

mrmadcap

I don't thing you do F1 because there is still the massive 'elephant in the room' that all politicians choose to ignore that was introduced by Labour and will probably help them win the next election together with the people that are locked in the benefit system.

Leslie

Come on then Pete.

Please tell us how Labour managed to fight the working man's corner while they were in power and how they left the economy in such a buoyant state after they lost power.

If you are going to accuse the Conservatives then you must also be able to quote Labour's brilliant record on the financial side!

Les

PaulC72

Labour have never been good with finances it goes way back you only have to look hard enough.

I think I upset my local Conservative cllr as he asked me what I thought about politicians, when I told him they were all crooks he took moral ground. I told him maybe it wasn't the best question to ask me ;-)

pslewis

Les

I could choose so many things, let me point you to just a few.

1. National Minimum Wage - ends Slave Labour - the Tories LOVE Slave Labour.

2. Raised Educational Standards for all - now, most children can get to University - the Tories are now putting such a high price on that that it is becoming only for the rich again.

3. Sure Start

4. Tax Credits

5. N.I. Peace

I could go on ....... please note, if you will, how many of those things above are under threat by the Tories!

Remember that the Tories voted AGAINST a fair wage for all ....... that, alone, should make the Tories un-electable.

LeeMac

iTrader: (1)

Don t know why people go on about benefits all the time

has anyone tried living off benefits? (those complaining that is)
probably not and if you had you would know its difficult to live off it

If they have a kids and wages are low they could get benefits to top it up, are you saying this is bad as well

whatever percentage of those on benefits is, it is probably the norm year on year
its just mentioned over and over in the media, give them a break

If you want to have a go at the greedy, look at 80s privatisation
its why people are so greedy nowadays

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

This ^^^^

pslewis

Agree 100% that greed was invented by the Tories of the 80's - it was.

jonc

The decline in industry always begins with a Labour government. According to the ONS there was a sharper decline in manufacturing under labour than anytime during the 80's under Thatcher. In fact ONS shows that the decline was three times faster under Blair/Brown than under Thatcher. The rot set in for the motor, steel and coal industry in the 70's when Labour were in power for example and now we find the decline in the financial sector also began under a Labour government.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Aren't statistics wonderful things?

The reason manufacturing declined so much during Labour's term was due to the emergence of China as a manufacturing nation where products could be made for considerably less and the fact that technology advanced so much in the last 15 years that prices have been driven down across the board, but moreso in manufacturing than services!

GlesgaKiss

Do you think no one was greedy in the '70s?

jonc

Also most as wonderful as hearsay.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Hearsay???? FFS!

Report into manufacturing in the UK published by the current government December 2010:

Read the top of page 3 assuming you can manage the big words

Manufacturing in the UK - Supplementary Analisys

I know it's trendy to blame Labour for everything on BNP/Tory SN, but Blair's governemtn were not much diffeent to Thatcher's or the current one. Useless, the lot of them!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

No of course not, but Thatcher made greed an aspiration!

jonc

No, hearsay as in people's greed due to Tories, Thatcher and 80's privatisation!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Apologies due there, I misunderstood what you meant. Although you can see why

jonc

Really, what of the greed of the unions that destroyed the nations manufacturing industry through strikes and unrealistic demands for more money during the 70's and 80's? What were union members aspiring to then?

GlesgaKiss

What does that even mean? It's nothing more than a piece of rhetoric. Are you saying Margaret Thatcher actually altered the intrinsic mentality of the British public, or that she simply gave the same thing a different outlet, the result of which you seem to despise.

You have a rose-tinted view of the Britain before Thatcher. The fact is that greed was on display to an almost repellent degree in the union-plagued British industry of the '70s. Something had to change. She meant well. And if there are any long-term consequences suffered now as a result of her policies, you cannot expect her government to have been able to anticipate them.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

And some of them are still at it http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...tle-union-flat

Just shows, Thatcher's "enemy" was just as crooked and greedy...and still is.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

I expect the union members just wanted a job, but the union leaders were the problem.... none of them seemed to end up anything other than well off and of course with the closed shop system what could the average worker on the shop floor do?

Not saying greed and stupidity in abundance didn't exist in the 70s, but it changed in the 80s with the arrival of the 'greed is good' mentality