General Election 2015

[ROSM]

the energy companies barely mention it. and while they've risen prices and made increasing profits in the past few years, the previous 4 where largly reporting losses (hence daft out of context headlines on hundreds % rises). that fact is even to today, the green levies contribute more to average bills than energy company profits, and a price freeze wouldnt reduce bills when suspension or removal of a levy would.

Having seen at first hand the briefings provided by energy companies to MPs and ministers up to and including 2013 I can tell you it is a complete fallacy to say the energy companies rarely mention it

 

[supaseagull]

Mr Schaeuble the GERMAN finance minister said"he was full of respect for what the Chancellor has achieved, the UK and the UK economy has done a wonderful job the last couple of years" he added"The UK and George Osborne has a very good plan for the future I am very much in favour of what has been achieved and what has been forecast".A good start to the week from someone whos opinion like Christine Lagarde counts.

Quite ironic you quote pro-Euro individuals considering 2/3 of Tories want out of Europe and also considering that the IMF help the mega rich western governments hold poorer countries to ransom.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Quite ironic you quote pro-Euro individuals considering 2/3 of Tories want out of Europe and also considering that the IMF help the mega rich western governments hold poorer countries to ransom.

Quite. Given this, and pasta's posts this morning, I sense some desperation from our Tory chums.

 

[Silk]

really? ....you are rejoicing that your party has a 1% lead in one pole.....surely you should be asking why the labour party policy has failed across the nation to persuade people to vote for them in massive numbers

What a stupid comment. Surely we could also ask why the Conservatives policies have failed across the nation to persuade people to vote for them in massive numbers?

 

[supaseagull]

Not long to go now people - Conservatives and Labour Tied [Election 2015]

really? ....you are rejoicing that your party has a 1% lead in one pole.....surely you should be asking why the labour party policy has failed across the nation to persuade people to vote for them in massive numbers

I would further add two more snippets of information that Tories want you to forget.

Mervyn King, former BofE governer, and in my view someone better qualified to discuss UK finances than the above stated that the previous Government was not to blame for the downturn.

Add that to the point that when the current government first was elected, the country was out of recession and was beginning to improve, until the ridiculous and completely unnecessary austerity measures were implemented by George Osborne on normal working people.

Finally please remember that the Conservatives FULLY supported the budgets from the previous Labour administration and every step that Gordon Brown took as Chancellor and then PM.

You should perhaps be asking your local Conservative candidate why they did and then why they continue to hide behind the negative electioneering of blaming someone else when they were just as culpable as anyone.

 

[BLOCK F]

Careful what you wish for,you Milliband supporters; don't forget wee Nicola will be in there wishing to tax and spend even more than your Ed.
If it happens,it will end in tears.

 

[BLOCK F]

I would further add two more snippets of information that Tories want you to forget.

Mervyn King, former BofE governer, and in my view someone better qualified to discuss UK finances than the above stated that the previous Government was not to blame for the downturn.

Add that to the point that when the current government first was elected, the country was out of recession and was beginning to improve, until the ridiculous and completely unnecessary austerity measures were implemented by George Osborne on normal working people.

Finally please remember that the Conservatives FULLY supported the budgets from the previous Labour administration and every step that Gordon Brown took as Chancellor and then PM.

You should perhaps be asking your local Conservative candidate why they did and then why they continue to hide behind the negative electioneering of blaming someone else when they were just as culpable as anyone.

'Ridiculous and completely unnecessary austerity measures'.
Haven't a clue what age you are, Supaseagull, but were you around in the 1950's ?
Thankfully,life is a lot less harsh and austere for the less well off today,than it was then.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

What a stupid comment. Surely we could also ask why the Conservatives policies have failed across the nation to persuade people to vote for them in massive numbers?

I think you'll find it's more a reference to the OP harking on about a 7% lead to Labour when he started this thread which has now been whittled down to 1%. What are Labour doing that means they have lost 6% of their lead ?

 

[Seagull on the wing]

I would further add two more snippets of information that Tories want you to forget.

Mervyn King, former BofE governer, and in my view someone better qualified to discuss UK finances than the above stated that the previous Government was not to blame for the downturn.

Add that to the point that when the current government first was elected, the country was out of recession and was beginning to improve, until the ridiculous and completely unnecessary austerity measures were implemented by George Osborne on normal working people.

Finally please remember that the Conservatives FULLY supported the budgets from the previous Labour administration and every step that Gordon Brown took as Chancellor and then PM.

You should perhaps be asking your local Conservative candidate why they did and then why they continue to hide behind the negative electioneering of blaming someone else when they were just as culpable as anyone.

If Labour win the election and they do a prop up deal with SNP, I know of FOUR people who will be absolutely delighted.
Kim Jong-un.
Sayyed Ali Khameneni.
Cristina Fernandez de Kircher.
Vladimir Putin.
Stand by for land grabs and being bullied. Sturgeon doesn't want nuclear defence and Milliband wants to keep trident but not use it.

 

[Kevlar]

I have never talked about paying off the debt as clearly economies grow which enables financing of debt. Debt is fine if managed sensibly. Again, i have never said money will run out as we canprint, as we are now. That doesnt mean there are no consequences to this aporoach,thre are many examples, you have named jsut a couple. By the way our deficits and debt was one of the main contributing facotrs to losing the empire and a slow and painful devaluation of our currency and therefore our wealth. I believe, as do many other economists, that part of that is running surpluses as well as deficits. I think you are completely deluded in how to manage an economy but thankfully your not in power. I see even Labour now seeking to address the imbalance, although i dont believe them in practice.

Again though, what is your source for the statement that 9 out of 10 years we have run annual deficits for 400 years. I never got a response on that before.

there are sites that graph uk debt to GDP ratio
I can't remember where I read on average we have run debts 9 out of every 10 years
for recent historical perspective new labour ran 2 years of surplus
the same as under the three previous Tory governments
The historical high point of debt to GDP ratio was after the napoleonic wars
preceding the economic success of the uk in the rest of the 19 th century
to be expected as the private sector is on the other side of the balance sheet to the govts
I am glad you realise that our government cannot run out of money because
I despair of an election campaign dominated by the notion the government
must balance the books or else it will not be able to pay its bills.
To sensibly debate what would be the optimum level of government sector deficits
in the next parliament for the prosperity of uk citizens we first have to reject
this nonsense that governments can run out of their own money
that the Bank of England can run out of £'s

 

[Silk]

If Labour win the election and they do a prop up deal with SNP, I know of FOUR people who will be absolutely delighted.
Kim Jong-un.
Sayyed Ali Khameneni.
Cristina Fernandez de Kircher.
Vladimir Putin.
Stand by for land grabs and being bullied. Sturgeon doesn't want nuclear defence and Milliband wants to keep trident but not use it.

Are you saying Putin ISN'T currently grabbing land, or that David Cameron IS about to launch a nuclear strike against Russia?

I've seen some pretty desperate arguments for voting Tory lately, but this one takes the biscuit.

 

[Kevlar]

in a different economic climate
full employment
double digit economic growth
double digit productivity growth
double digit inflation
double digit interest rates
the uk private sector running surpluses with the rest of the world
I would advocate the next government should cut government sector deficits
The weimar's hyperinflation was a disaster
it was not preceded by its government running large fiscal stimulus
it was proceeded by the treaty of Versailles
the French occupation of the industrial Rhur
and subsequent lack of stuff for Germans to buy
The premier league is a good example of inflation of fees and wages
tv sponsorship adds more spending money but no more quality footballers
or spaces in the team as a result you can expect inflation.
If aggregate demand in the economy was already very high and governments added to it
and firms could not expand their production inflation would likely result
In current times we have the slowest economic recovery since the global financial crisis
since the south sea bubble of the early 19 th century unemployment is high
and underemployment high .weak aggregate demand combined with historically
low levels of inflation and interest rates and yet the election campaign is framed
by the we must balance the books narrative although of course the only
possible way any future government will achieve this is by strong growth which
cutting deficits can only weaken

 

[Kevlar]

typo the south sea bubble was in the early 18th century

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Careful what you wish for,you Milliband supporters; don't forget wee Nicola will be in there wishing to tax and spend even more than your Ed.
If it happens,it will end in tears.

The alternative is Nigel the puppetmaster pulling Dodgy Dave's strings.

 

[Machiavelli]

I think you'll find it's more a reference to the OP harking on about a 7% lead to Labour when he started this thread which has now been whittled down to 1%. What are Labour doing that means they have lost 6% of their lead ?

The 7% lead the OP started this thread on was an arbitrary point in the polling and electoral cycle which inflated Labour's standing in the polls. From our current vantage point, I suspect the OP might regret highlighting that particular moment. The situation is actually more advantageous to the Tories since then, because the economic news has stopped being so relentlessly bleak as characterised the first three or so years of this government.
What matters is not opinion polls, but what the electorate indicates on 7 May, and how that compares with what they indicated on 7 May 2010. My view is that what transpires on that day isn't going to be a ringing endorsement of either the Tories and, especially, the Lib Dems.
But even that won't be a reflection of the national opinion polls, it will be far more a reflection of 650 constituency polls. And in these constituency polls -- or, more particularly, those c100 that matter -- Labour appear to be doing pretty well. I still think a minority Labour government is the most likely scenario. I seem to remember that you thought this a few months back. Do you still?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The alternative is Nigel the puppetmaster pulling Dodgy Dave's strings.

Do you reckon he'll blame a biased electorate when he doesn't get as many votes as he thinks he will?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

The 7% lead the OP started this thread on was an arbitrary point in the polling and electoral cycle which inflated Labour's standing in the polls. From our current vantage point, I suspect the OP might regret highlighting that particular moment. The situation is actually more advantageous to the Tories since then, because the economic news has stopped being so relentlessly bleak as characterised the first three or so years of this government.
What matters is not opinion polls, but what the electorate indicates on 7 May, and how that compares with what they indicated on 7 May 2010. My view is that what transpires on that day isn't going to be a ringing endorsement of either the Tories and, especially, the Lib Dems.
But even that won't be a reflection of the national opinion polls, it will be far more a reflection of 650 constituency polls. And in these constituency polls -- or, more particularly, those c100 that matter -- Labour appear to be doing pretty well. I still think a minority Labour government is the most likely scenario. I seem to remember that you thought this a few months back. Do you still?

I do indeed think a minority Labour government is the most likely outcome still. My concern is that they will be propped up by the SNP, I'd rather they did a deal with the Lib Dems. That said it's so close to call that it wouldn't surprise me if the Tories and Labour got exactly the same number of seats ... that would make it interesting.

 

[Machiavelli]

I do indeed think a minority Labour government is the most likely outcome still. My concern is that they will be propped up by the SNP, I'd rather they did a deal with the Lib Dems. That said it's so close to call that it wouldn't surprise me if the Tories and Labour got exactly the same number of seats ... that would make it interesting.

Don't think Lab + LDs will have sufficient seats between them, so they'll need to seek support from elsewhere, and the only party with sufficient seats will be the SNP. I can see Lab + LDs forming a minority coalition, drawing on the SNP on a case-by-case basis.
ps I'm less concerned than you (and others) about the SNP's involvement

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Don't think Lab + LDs will have sufficient seats between them, so they'll need to seek support from elsewhere, and the only party with sufficient seats will be the SNP. I can see Lab + LDs forming a minority coalition, drawing on the SNP on a case-by-case basis.
ps I'm less concerned than you (and others) about the SNP's involvement

I don't have any concern about the SNP either. Part of me thinks if we involve them in the governing of the UK they might not want to break away.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I see babe magnet LL Cool Ed got MOBBED by a hen party at the weekend. Ladies lurve cool Ed.