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.

The unions were pretty dismissive of Miliband. The interviews with the union leaders said that Miliband may say that the system of automatic affiliation of members to Labour will stop, but it is not his business. They said that it was an internal union matter and they would do what they wanted.

neither side would want to risk a public showdown or even any serious handbag swinging ...... the "tough stuff" will happen behind closed doors

Mansion tax again....how much could they raise, and at what level does a house become a mansion?

gf
No one cares what Vince Cable has to say.

As we are climbing out of a major recession I would expect high unemployment, falling incomes etc. I would be more worried if that wasn't happening.

We have the biggest debt of all the countries in recession. Our's is the biggest because of Brown's spending spree. The one thing that you can guarantee is that a Labour government will spend, spend, spend whether they have the money or not.

Before the usual crowing starts
:
Do the new released unemployment figures indicate those who are not registering as they fall into the group who are now staying in education or training in England until you’re 17 or 18?

Also, wondering how much those figures are massaged by said “apprenticeships”. (Not against apprenticeships in principle.)?

Also, think it would be interesting to see so called “part timers” and “self employed” figures.

GF,

Post 29179

I agree!

===============

Hays,

Labour spending spree.

NEW SCHOOLs..

NEW HOSPITALS.

NHS REFORMS and improved Public Health.

New Universities.

ETC.

All allowed to decay under Thatcher and cronies who lined their pockets with revenue from North Sea and sell off of the "country's silver" and "social housing".

Grasping short term ideology.

And now we have Spending spree and HS2.

---------

Also, how safe are you in A&E under this government.

After reading some of the "Con" supporters posts above it's easy to see why one of their own referred to the "Con" Party as being seen as the Nasty Party.

Hays.

What is the current national debt compared now under the tory led coalition?

What has the increase in debt been used for?

If Cameron spent a little more time at home, thinking rather than wandering off to tell other countries how to solve their problems, he would be a little wiser and the UK a little better off.

fred -as i wrote earlier, though findus unsurprisingly chose to ignore ......

though the numbers may indeed be skewed by the method used, so long as the same system has been used for say the last 12 months, then the trend if arguably not the number is valid

Fred
Yes hospitals, schools etc. What Labour have never understood, is that it doesn't matter how worthy the purpose of the spending, you can't have thing that you cannot afford.

I recall the baulk of the NHS money was swallowed up in salaries for the hierachy.
2517

fred - would you vote for raising taxes, probably significantly? ..... or would still choose to sit on the sidelines and pontificate as usual? :-)

He would vote for not voting.

Cynic.

It depends on how the data is specified and then correlated.

Then it depends on the periods which one is considering.

If redefinition of entities takes place then it depends of the regrouping of the entities.

One of my daughter is an "analyst" in government department and another one in University research dept.

Both are fed up with the slovenly collection of data, and uncorrelated "deductions" being made from that data.

Falsification.

-----

Honest Meta Analysis is a different thing.

=====

The government doesn't collect or publish the figures. They are all handled by the ONS, which is an independent body. The ONS is not subject to any interference by the government. If the ONS says that unemployment is falling then it is.

Who defines "employment"?

Cynic, Hays,

If the labour government had not wasted money on the Iraq War, (which we are now seeing the inherited cost of, in financial and ability to influence) we would have been better off.

If we hadn't been involved in a futile war in Afghanistan and dumped earlier the Subs and Aircraft carriers etc..

If instead of flogging off of major "state own" industries they had had their management improved and unions had been sensible then efficiency, costs and income would have been improved.

Yes I would be in favour of rise in taxation if it improves "social standards" and "well-being" and "quality of life" for society as a whole.

Also, if money hadn't been paid to the banks or they the bankers hadn't been bailed out at extortionate levels, there might have been more money in the kitty.
(A failure of uncontrolled or under regulated capitalism.)

Cameron doing a great job at PMQs today. Miliband was limp as usual.

if, if, if and if your aunt had balls she'ld be your uncle

meanwhile
would you vote for raising taxes, probably significantly? ..... or would still choose to sit on the sidelines and pontificate as usual?

saying "i would be in favour" is a typical fred fudge

Maybe somebody who isn't sat on the squelchy step should point out to Fishfinger and Old Bollock Chops that denial isn't a river in Egypt.