Sir Phillip Green

[DJ Leon]

Peston really isn't a man you should read the opinions of IMHO.

I have to ask....why?

 

[Albion Dan]

not by a long way, your graph shows the debt interest as a percentage, and doesnt show the interest rate or total debt for comparison. debt in cash or real terms, or as proportion of GDP are way higher than 1997. Brown did get debt down low in the early 00's, but then decided to go spending on everything. ended boom and bust he thought...

Its really not that much higher as a proportion of GDP, in fact prior to the GLOBAL crisis it was LESS than in 97. It has obviously gone higher to keep the economy from freefall, the same as required in the ENTIRE WESTERN WORLD. But lets not let the facts get in the way.

 

[Weststander]

Its really not that much higher as a proportion of GDP, in fact prior to the GLOBAL crisis it was LESS than in 97. It has obviously gone higher to keep the economy from freefall, the same as required in the ENTIRE WESTERN WORLD. But lets not let the facts get in the way.

But the global markets wanted action to reduce the vast Labour debts, otherwise the UK's credit rating would be downgraded (look at the real World and Italy and Greece, if nothing's done).
To ignore the markets, would cause far higher interest rates filtering down to UK mortgage payers, and increase the amount of interest payable by the UK Government too.
Real effects. Not cherry-picking various stat's, on an erroneous argument.

As Ed Milliband and Ed Balls have admitted ... their Government ran out of money for new spending.

 

[Albion Dan]

But the global markets wanted action to reduce the vast Labour debts, otherwise the UK's credit rating would be downgraded (look at the real World and Italy and Greece, if nothing's done).
To ignore the markets, would cause far higher interest rates filtering down to UK mortgage payers, and increase the amount of interest payable by the UK Government too.
Real effects. Not cherry-picking various stat's, on an erroneous argument.

As Ed Milliband and Ed Balls have admitted ... their Government ran out of money for new spending.

Yes, but the final Labour debt was run up as a result of the Global crisis and the actual position prior to that situation was healthier than the Conservatives handed over in 97. You cannot escape that FACT. If the global crisis had hit john Majors government we would have been in an even worse position. It is UNDENIABLE.

 

[Simster]

Peston really isn't a man you should read the opinions of IMHO.

I have to ask....why?

So do I. Without giving some sort of reason, it comes across as "I know best" to me. So what is wrong with Peston?

 

[Simster]

I don't think Green has anything to apologise for, when it comes to doing what it takes to ensure his business runs as he would like it to. However, I simply can't stand tax exiles, full stop, so he's the one affected person I won't be feeling sorry for if his business falls apart.

 

[paddy]

Yes, but the final Labour debt was run up as a result of the Global crisis and the actual position prior to that situation was healthier than the Conservatives handed over in 97. You cannot escape that FACT. If the global crisis had hit john Majors government we would have been in an even worse position. It is UNDENIABLE.

The crisis is not 'global' - China is still growing in double digits (indeed, they are struggling to keep growth down), India is still growing, Singapore is still growing, Russia is still growing, Brazil is still growing....the list goes on and on. The key point is this: it was an Anglo-American crisis stemming from the fact that governments in both America and the UK allowed their financial sectors become too big to fail. Labour was quite happy to accept plaudits for pouring the tax revenues from a rapidly overheating financial sector into their industrial heartlands, but when those ill-regulated financial institutions were found to be selling worthless products and taking ridiculous gambles, everything collapsed and the myth about this being a global crisis emerged from their spin doctors.

 

[paddy]

The crisis is not 'global' - China is still growing in double digits (indeed, they are struggling to keep growth down), India is still growing, Singapore is still growing, Russia is still growing, Brazil is still growing....the list goes on and on. The key point is this: it was an Anglo-American crisis stemming from the fact that governments in both America and the UK allowed their financial sectors become too big to fail. Labour was quite happy to accept plaudits for pouring the tax revenues from a rapidly overheating financial sector into their industrial heartlands, but when those ill-regulated financial institutions were found to be selling worthless products and taking ridiculous gambles, everything collapsed and the myth about this being a global crisis emerged from their spin doctors.

Sorry - China's growth rate is not quite double digits - just a mere 9.5% (they are really feeling this global crisis!)

 

[Tubby Mondays]

Yes. It's all his fault.

I havent blamed him for anything.

All I have said is, he backed spending cuts and is now discovering that those spending cuts have meant that people havent got any money to spend in his shops.

 

[Tubby Mondays]

Hello.
Financial geniuses Blair & Brown bankrupted our country, with mega debt (which had amassed long before Northern Rock & Lehman Bros), as well as off balance sheet public debt from PFI's.
In essense 1997 to 2010 was a big overspend, with our and the next generation burdened with government debt and interest to service.

Blair & Brown cozied up to the mega rich, and allowed the rich-poor gap to widen.

Well done.

Hello.
Angela Merkel, cold weather, Ed Balls, Silvio Berlusconi, the wedding of William Windsor and Kate Middleton, British civil servants, Brussels Bureaucrats, people concerned about global warming, employment tribunals, trade unions, banks, bank holidays, Liberal Democrats, energy prices, Gordon Brown, the world and some chap I met in the mess the other day called Bernard have all been deployed as excuses by members of the government for why the economy is so dire. The proliferation of alibis offered by the government and their inability to stick to the same one, is a symptom of increasing desperation about the unravelling of their economic ‘strategy’.

Labour did leave Britain with unsustainably high levels of public and private indebtedness and acknowledged that by committing itself to a deficit-reduction plan which would have been draconian, albeit not quite as severe as that implemented by tweedle dum and tweedle dee.

How long before people start to look at the current lots mistakes? Osbornes got a deficit strategy but not a growth strategy and the absence of the latter is the undoing of the former. Obviously he never got up to that page in his ladybird book of economics before lights out in the dorm.

 

[Albion Dan]

The key point is this: it was an Anglo-American crisis stemming from the fact that governments in both America and the UK allowed their financial sectors become too big to fail. Labour was quite happy to accept plaudits for pouring the tax revenues from a rapidly overheating financial sector into their industrial heartlands, but when those ill-regulated financial institutions were found to be selling worthless products and taking ridiculous gambles, .

And things would have been different under the Tories? New Labour were effectively Conservative light.

 

[paddy]

And things would have been different under the Tories? New Labour were effectively Conservative light.

We will never know. Just like we will never know what would have happened had Labour won the 2010 election. That said, it's worth remembering that the reason Labour refused to tackle the City was because they didn't want to be labelled a bunch of socialists and they were hoping they could attract more party donations from big business (I think in every election in the last 70yrs the Tories have spent considerably more than Labour). Those reasons would not have applied to a Tory government.

 

[Biscuit]

Gordon Brown is probably the smartest prime minister we've ever had (bar Macmillan?), and he was leading Europe out of Economic free-fall. However, he couldn't smile properly and unfortunately this coincided with a ridiculous Americanised Television debate. A debate that allowed three horses into what has been a traditional two horse race. In turn losing us one of the few men in the world that understands economics and politics well enough to get us out of this, and giving us a coalition Government of Media Trained idiots with no substance.

Gideon f***ing Osborne is a WANKER.

 

[Common as Mook]

Gordon Brown is probably the smartest prime minister we've ever had (bar Macmillan?), and he was leading Europe out of Economic free-fall. However, he couldn't smile properly and unfortunately this coincided with a ridiculous Americanised Television debate. A debate that allowed three horses into what has been a traditional two horse race. In turn losing us one of the few men in the world that understands economics and politics well enough to get us out of this, and giving us a coalition Government of Media Trained idiots with no substance.

Gideon f***ing Osborne is a WANKER.

 

[Tubby Mondays]

Gordon Brown is probably the smartest prime minister we've ever had (bar Macmillan?), and he was leading Europe out of Economic free-fall. However, he couldn't smile properly and unfortunately this coincided with a ridiculous Americanised Television debate. A debate that allowed three horses into what has been a traditional two horse race. In turn losing us one of the few men in the world that understands economics and politics well enough to get us out of this, and giving us a coalition Government of Media Trained idiots with no substance.

Gideon f***ing Osborne is a WANKER.

Correct.

 

[clapham_gull]

So do I. Without giving some sort of reason, it comes across as "I know best" to me. So what is wrong with Peston?

Maybe their own book coming out

 

[Hercules Rockerfeller]

I don't think Green has anything to apologise for, when it comes to doing what it takes to ensure his business runs as he would like it to. However, I simply can't stand tax exiles, full stop, so he's the one affected person I won't be feeling sorry for if his business falls apart.

I'm actually seeing a young lady who works for Top Shop (not just a branch, at their head office!) and she says he is everything you expect him to be. Slimy, rude, boorish, but also very, very rich. The bar-steward!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Anybody know if the slimeball ever actually got to shag Kate Moss? He's been sniffing around her for YEARS!

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Gutted that the multi-billionaire, Monaco based tax exile, supporter of the Governments mass program of creating unemployment is having to shut down some of his shops because no ones got any money to buy the tat that he flogs.

Retail genius Sir Phil - didnt occur to you that the policy of putting everyone on the dole to save taxpayers money by paying them unemployment benefit and not getting their income tax (?) would mean that they had less money to spend in you shops did it?!

He HAS paid billions more tax than you ever will
Btw it's government small g

 

[readingstockport]

No he hasn't. His employees have, that is not the same thing at all. That is like saying all the taxes of all the companies I have ever worked for, including all the taxes paid by the employees, can be counted as what I have paid.

Total bollocks.