Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

sticky - a phoney what?

The Conservatives (/Libs) seem to be doing all the right things. Labour have admitted that their cuts would be similar and pretty much as deep. The difference is that Labour would borrow more to spend on projects. They might generate a consumer led mini boom. The trouble is that there would be nothing underpinning a real recovery. Business needs to expand for real growth and success. I have lived through several recessions as a businesses person. I remember the secondary banking crisis in 1973 when under capitalised smaller banks were on the point of collapse when the property bubble burst. The current government is using supply side policies to encourage business. Like it or not, they are the same policies that have got us out of recession several times before. The policies are beginning to work now, but their success is being slowed by the lack of liquidity in the business world caused by the instability of the banks. The last thing we need is Labour to just borrow more money.

As an aside, you may have noticed a couple of days ago S&P confirmed the UK's AAA rating!

What we need is someone like Barrack Obalmy to be Prime Minister, to give home loans to those who can,t afford to pay them back, and to set up CoreOblimy health care to replace the NHS. and all illegal immigrants to be issued with British passports, and to cut border controls to help to reduce the deficit.

What!!

UK wealth hits a record high

by Ben Southwood
April 8, 2013, 5:18am

BRITAIN’S households became richer than ever last year thanks to a recovery in financial assets, sending net household wealth across the country past the £7 trillion barrier for the first time, a study out today reveals.

The surprise findings, which suggest that the UK is gradually emerging from the downturn, show household wealth has surged 62 per cent over the last decade thanks to the ballooning value of deposits and pensions, sending the estimated value of UK household net wealth to £7.05 trillion for the end of 2012.

The rate of increase over the decade has outpaced both the rate of household’s gross disposable income (44 per cent) and the price of consumer goods (29 per cent).

UK households are now worth £255,502 on average each, with households £86,000 wealthier than they were a decade ago, the survey from Lloyds TSB Private Banking reveals.

With house prices contributing less to the figures since the market downturn in 2007, financial assets have helped cushion the fall by contributing 63 per cent to the overall increase in total household wealth over the past ten years.

Nitesh Patel, Lloyds TSB Private Banking economist, said despite household wealth growing by an estimated £2.7 trillion over the period, a gap had been created between the wealthiest household and the rest.

“The wealthiest 10 per cent of households hold 22 times more wealth, on average, than those in the bottom half,” he said, “…although many of the wealthiest are older individuals who have had a much longer time to accumulate their wealth holdings, as well as to reduce their debts.”

UK pension values have grown an estimated £1 trillion since 2002 and deposits have grown £476bn.

Despite a rebound since the crisis – wealth grew £479bn between 2007 and 2012 – this was a sharp slowdown compared to the growth between 2002 and 2007, when wealth grew £2.23 trillion in just five years, with slower increases in the value of financial assets and almost no expansion in housing wealth.

Net housing equity – the value of UK houses minus the mortgages owed on them – grew from £1.89 trillion to £2.89 trillion between 2002 and 2007, but only edged up to £2.91 trillion by 2012.

Net financial wealth, like pensions and savings, soared from £2.45 trillion to £3.68 trillion between 2002 and 2007, but only grew to £4.14 trillion by 2012. The figures also come before adding in the effects of inflation – prices rose 17.5 per cent between 2007 and 2012, dwarfing the 7.3 per cent wealth gain.

Forget the Cons, Labs and Liberals, think UKIP.

Most people think they are a one horse party, IE immigration, but have a look at their manifesto, you may be pleasantly suprised.

I accept of course that any party is only as good as their actions, not words, but though I don't agree with every aspect, I have never read a party manifesto that makes more sense and is in touch with most people.

Their figures on the net cost to the EU are truly frightening!

Once you have read it, then compare with the other parties manifesto's (if you can find Labours, let me know)!

3 m.

Unless I misconstrued the post the information is containded in

hilary - 03 Apr 2013 21:03 - 22744 of 22923

morning greekman I too read the ukip manifesto, and I too was pleasantly surprised.
I am not aligned to any party and vote for the party which will do the best for the country. I will be voting for ukip

Greek.

I hope the UK horse ends up in the knacker's yard after the next election.

Fred,

It is a the disproportionate treatment of one part of society at the expense of others that it important.

3m is quite correct - I rarely comment on comments. However, in this instance, I believe that your statement is quite correct and it is not fair to excessively penalise one section of society at the expense of others.

The rich have been paying too much tax for far too long and it's not right to penalise one section of society in that way. The amount of tax they pay is disproportionately high and it's only fair that the uppermost rate is lowered asap! I'm glad we agree on something.

I agree Greek, only problem is Farage has stated that as far as a coalition is concerned, Conservatves would be a no no if Cameron was leader. That could change of course but not looking likely at the mo.

hard to call that one 2+ years ahead ..... fwiw, ukip currently has the public's attention with its populist spoutings, but of course talk and walk are several 000 miles apart

i would suspect that ukip's so-called policies will be blown apart nearer the time as they are put under far closer scrutiny ..... however, if you don't vote, don't complain about the end result

ukip are the only party to vote for
the con party is just that a CON party
of liars .
labour fcuked up the country with low life immigrants
coming for the free hand outs load of lazy scum
they wash cars , AND PAY NO TAXES use the NHS for free
go out stealing daily .
and they very rarely wash .

Hiliary,

Who produced the wealth for the rich?

Who serviced the rich?

How much did the rich charge?

It reminds me of:

O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,

Dunno. Was it the Kumars at No 42?

:-)

cynic i pay over 38k in tax and it is wasted on immigrants
and has a right wing tory are far from happy with cameron he will not
get our votes again , when right wing torys like myself family and loads of tory friends say they have had enough it speaks volumes .
we want out of europe and rid the country of all the immigrants
UKIP will make history .

immigrants are not wanted .

Cynic,

Is your form of democracy taking my right of complaining or to criticise away.

I will take your vote away from you, unless you vote for the right tribal leaders.

8-)

Labour split puts Ed Miliband on back foot over benefits
Senior MPs admit their party has shortcomings on welfare policy and call for Ed Miliband to do more to prove Labour is "not the Benefits Party".

Senior MPs admit their party has shortcomings on welfare policy and call for Ed Miliband to do more to prove Labour is "not the Benefits Party".
By Rowena Mason, and Christopher Hope
10:00PM BST 07 Apr 2013

A number of Labour MPs admitted that the party had been “behind the curve” on tackling the spiralling benefits problem and its leadership had “ducked” the issue too many times.

They urged party members to back plans to reform the welfare state, with one urging people to remember that Labour had been set up for working people, “not as a charity or a social work organisation”.

Labour is facing deep and growing divisions, as the Coalition’s controversial welfare reforms come into force this month.

Mr Miliband has opposed many spending cuts, including the £26,000 a year cap on welfare per family, cuts to housing benefit for families with a spare bedroom and a below-inflation increase in most hand-outs.

Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, also attacked George Osborne for linking Britain’s benefit problems to the case of the child-killer Mick Philpott, who was dependent on welfare.

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However, the Labour leadership is coming under increasing pressure as polls suggest two thirds of voters support the need for reform.

This weekend, the party attempted to address the issue when Liam Byrne, the shadow work and pensions secretary, set out its vision of a more “contributory” welfare system, where there is more of a balance between how much money people pay in taxes and how much they get out in benefits.

One suggestion was that people could go to the top of the waiting list for council housing if they were working or helped in the community.

But Grant Shapps, the Tory chairman, said Mr Byrne had simply “reannounced” a “half-baked idea which would push the welfare and borrowing bill even higher”.

On Sunday the divisions within Labour were laid bare by a series of senior MPs.

Harriet Harman, the party’s deputy leader, admitted that working people felt “resentful” because some benefits claimants were “not pulling their weight” and were being “let off the hook”.

But a number of Labour MPs went even further by acknowledging the party’s past failings on the issue and backing sweeping reforms.

Tom Harris, a shadow environment minister who represents a Glasgow constituency, said welfare dependency was “killing the city”.

He told The Telegraph: “We sometimes allow ourselves to be seen as the party of welfare when clearly we should be trying to be seen as the party of work. We are the Labour Party and not the Benefits Party.”

Mr Harris said there a lot of people in his constituency who were “loath to work” because they were better off on benefits, adding that it was not possible to repair communities where large numbers of people were economically inactive.

Mr Harris said he backs Mr Byrne’s calls for a system that links benefits to how much people have contributed through work.

“We [the Labour Party] were not set up as a charity, or a social work organisation. We will always look after the most vulnerable in society, the homeless, the destitute, no other political party will do that,” he said. “But that is not why we are here. That is not our priority. Our priority is working people.”

In an online comment piece for The Telegraph, Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, wrote that the Left should not be “proud” of letting people “languish for years on benefits”.

He called for the party to “accept there are some people on the dole that don’t want to work, and we need to have a plan to get them into work”.

Frank Field, the MP for Birkenhead and a former minister, also backed calls for Labour to tackle the growing welfare bill after “ducking” reforms when it was in power.

He said Labour should link benefits to how much people have contributed to the tax system, telling Sky News: “It is certainly [a policy] which is in tune with the public.”

The Coalition is trying to bring down the benefits bill by limiting the amount each household can claim to up to £500 per family per week.

Mr Field said that was still a “mega sum” for people in his constituency, many of whom had wondered how the situation had been allowed to go on for so long.

“I mean ... £13,000 a year is their cap which they actually get from working,” he said.

He said he hoped the party would be “really tough” on that cap and on “making sure you have got to actually do certain things to get welfare and above all you’ve actually had to pay in to get it”.

Labour sources said Mr Miliband, will address the issue of benefit cuts today, when he launches his local election manifesto in Ipswich. An aide said that the party leader was clear that Labour’s policy was to make work pay and to restore a contributory element to the benefits system.

However, he is only expected to call for the Coalition to “protect the tax credits that make work pay for working people.”

If asked, Mr Miliband is expected to say that he fully supports Mr Balls over his attack on the Chancellor for linking the benefits system with Philpott’s case.

Mr Miliband also opposes what he sees as an attempt by the Coalition to “scapegoat” people on the lowest incomes, when the benefits bill is rising because of an increase in the numbers out of work.

This weekend David Cameron said the welfare system had “lost its way”. In an article for The Sun, he wrote that benefits had become a “lifestyle choice for some”.

He added that the Coalition’s new Universal Credit system would be a simple, single benefit to ensure people were better off working.

Mr Osborne also argued on Sunday that the Coalition was “in tune” with public opinion on the need to make people better off in work than on benefits, following a number of polls suggesting the reforms were popular.

fred - not exactly, but my comment remains very valid :-)