the Elephant in the room

[Titanic]

Maybe, maybe not. Now if it was a baby Bornean Pygmy Elephant the smallest elephant in the world. The males rarely exceed 2.5m in height while a large female measures around 2m.......... then you might not notice.

That's a bit worrying. These little blighters could be LURKING anywhere.

 

[Giraffe]

All down to labour and the spend, spend, spend Bliar legacy

Totally this, ridiculous over spending and under selling of the gold reserves by labour.
You woul. Have highly we would have learned from the 70's but no. They are f***ed it up again and the Conservatives are now trying to sort out their mess.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

the Conservatives are now trying to sort out their mess.

How does losing the AAA help with this though? As Osborne himself said in 2010 that the AAA needs to be maintained as investors will not want to put their money here otherwise. He may have inherited a mess but he is clearly not the person to sort it out; the markets and the credit raters are now shouting this loudly. I sincerely hope you can see this because if you wait for further evidence there will not be an economy left. It's only time before the unprecedented triple-dip and further stripping of ratings. Osborne claimed he was the man but he has failed with all of his own measures.

Besides, it's only two more years and they will be history.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Yeah at least they didn't put it up for auction and get £1billion less than they should have eh? That would just be stupid to do that wouldn't it?

Ludicrous idea the auction. The country is on it's knees so it's pretty obvious Osborne is not in a position to make demands. The mobile companies are not charities so they will smell an opportunity to get what they want on the cheap. I bet they're pissing themselves with laughter over this.

 

[CaptainDaveUK]

Losing AAA is down to Labour they spent all the money, maxed out our credit and flogged our gold reserves for a pittance. Trouble with all political parties they don't think long term, like many football clubs. Tony Bloom for president?

 

[drew]

I think it means we get less favourable deals when securing loans. Higher premiums etc....

Wrong. It means we may get less favourable terms. The fact that even when they were downgraded the US didn't get worse terms and the fact that the UK has never defaulted on a loan suggests that the downgrading will have no affect.

Losing AAA is down to Labour they spent all the money, maxed out our credit and flogged our gold reserves for a pittance. Trouble with all political parties they don't think long term, like many football clubs. Tony Bloom for president?

Sorry but can you explain what difference the gold reserves would make. Sold at market rates then and if held could be sold at market rates today but probably todays rates will be considerably less than what they will probably be in 10 years time. Also, we sold £2b of gold. A drop in the ocean in terms of the economy. You also forget that the tories inherited a growing economy following the depression but very quickly eroded any small confidence there was. Labour were undone by the global recession and weren't help by having Brown at the helm. Had the Tories been in charge they would have suffered the same fate. And before you bang on about bank deregulation, that was started by the Tories who were never for stricter regulation when they were in opposition.

 

[Ernest]

Losing AAA is down to Labour they spent all the money, maxed out our credit and flogged our gold reserves for a pittance. Trouble with all political parties they don't think long term, like many football clubs. Tony Bloom for president?

So why have things got considerably worse in the 3 years the Condems have been in power ?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Losing AAA is down to Labour they spent all the money, maxed out our credit and flogged our gold reserves for a pittance. Trouble with all political parties they don't think long term, like many football clubs. Tony Bloom for president?

This is the same as a bad workman blaming his tools.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Wrong. It means we may get less favourable terms. The fact that even when they were downgraded the US didn't get worse terms and the fact that the UK has never defaulted on a loan suggests that the downgrading will have no affect.



Sorry but can you explain what difference the gold reserves would make. Sold at market rates then and if held could be sold at market rates today but probably todays rates will be considerably less than what they will probably be in 10 years time. Also, we sold £2b of gold. A drop in the ocean in terms of the economy. You also forget that the tories inherited a growing economy following the depression but very quickly eroded any small confidence there was. Labour were undone by the global recession and weren't help by having Brown at the helm. Had the Tories been in charge they would have suffered the same fate. And before you bang on about bank deregulation, that was started by the Tories who were never for stricter regulation when they were in opposition.

This gold thing is a red herring. What was the alternative? holding out ie our chancellor speculating the UK's future on the precious metals market which is far from ideal.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

So why have things got considerably worse in the 3 years the Condems have been in power ?

Agree. The UK's economy is pretty much dead now. Triple-dip recession is just around the corner.

 

[somerset]

Agree. The UK's economy is pretty much dead now. Triple-dip recession is just around the corner.

You have such a handle on all things economic, you should be the personal advisor the the treasury,...... or more likely you just troll out any labour influenced sound-bite that you have read in the Mirror or the Guardian.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

You have such a handle on all things economic, you should be the personal advisor the the treasury,...... or more likely you just troll out any labour influenced sound-bite that you have read in the Mirror or the Guardian.

I have the same handle as everyone ie the economy is tanking, AAA is gone, borrowing is up, and no growth on the horizon and policy u-turn after u-turn. Are you going to tell me something different?

 

[vegster]

I have the same handle as everyone ie the economy is tanking, AAA is gone, borrowing is up, and no growth on the horizon and policy u-turn after u-turn. Are you going to tell me something different?

Add to this the fact that wages have gone down in real terms over the last 3-4 years so we can't turn the recession around by spending.

 

[CaptainDaveUK]

Don't you sell the family silver when you are hard up? Selling gold reserves during the boom years was ridiculous and indicative of a buy now pay later mindset. It may be a "drop in the ocean" but showed a total lack of forward thinking. It was almost like Labour knew their time was up so pawned / spent everything they could. Political parties generally have short to medium term policies, including the Tories, which is one of the reasons we keep making the same mistakes time and time again. There is no long term plan or strategy because that might help the opposition. They ALL want quick fixes and instant results. AAA rating was lost a long time ago when Labour was spending like there was no tomorrow.

 

[beorhthelm]

the real elephant in the room is the complete failure to plan for energy needs in the next decade, following policies directed by a certain Miliband. if Osborne wants to salvage something from his tenure, he needs to commit to a massive programme of power station construction, coal, nuclear and renewables like wave, solving both energy and growth problems in one stroke. doubt he has the balls or vision for this.

 

[Camicus]

If Osborne Twateron and Cleggie are the answer were asking the wrong question

 

[JBizzle]

If Osborne Twateron and Cleggie are the answer were asking the wrong question

Are any of our politicians "the answer"?! Miliband, Clegg, Cameron? Fools. All of them.

 

[glasfryn]

Are any of our politicians "the answer"?! Miliband, Clegg, Cameron? Fools. All of them.

this and thrice this

Don't you sell the family silver when you are hard up? Selling gold reserves during the boom years was ridiculous and indicative of a buy now pay later mindset. It may be a "drop in the ocean" but showed a total lack of forward thinking. It was almost like Labour knew their time was up so pawned / spent everything they could. Political parties generally have short to medium term policies, including the Tories, which is one of the reasons we keep making the same mistakes time and time again. There is no long term plan or strategy because that might help the opposition. They ALL want quick fixes and instant results. AAA rating was lost a long time ago when Labour was spending like there was no tomorrow.

I was under the impression at the time that the gold was being sold to raise money to pay off the American debt for the last war that we had been paying for over 50 years

 

[elbowpatches]

political parties generally have short to medium term policies, including the Tories, which is one of the reasons we keep making the same mistakes time and time again. There is no long term plan or strategy because that might help the opposition. They ALL want quick fixes and instant results.

This.

The reason we mess up all the time and never learn us due politicians caring about their short term goals.

Look at education. Changes in thinking every time there's a new party in power. At the moment Gove can't make his mind up about the curriculum and has wasted huge amounts of money thinking about it. However Labour had just had their own Rose review and the independent Cambridge review which was agreed by the profession. The new primary curriculum looks abhorrent from first impressions. Also, Gove was allegedly happy to fund £500k for a new bible in every school. (Apparently 'donors' helped sort that mess out).

I've been teaching for 16 years and seen a massive amount of change due to political party agendas. The current one is to treat the profession like crap.

 

[Justice]

Who cares I've been short on the pound for the last 20 days