Do you regret not voting Labour?

[Wildcat]

Couldn't have said it better myself. In fact, Labour got in at exactly the wrong time, because it denied the Conservatives any chance of showing what they could do with a healthy economy - they'd only just finished repairing the previous Labour Government's damage when they were kicked out.

 

The evidence doesn't back that up. Thatcher reduced the public debt but in so doing caused huge problems in society, poverty and crime out of control etc. John Major repaired the damage she caused and left the economy and public debt a bit better than it was when Labour left power before, but with huge social problems to deal with (Crime peaked in 1997 for example). Labour's period in office was prudent, apart from not regulating the banks... something they are indeed responsible for, but something the Tories shouldn't be smug about since Thatcher deregulated the banks in the first place and something the Tories wanted deregulate further before the crisis.

[wednesday1]

Couldn't have said it better myself. In fact, Labour got in at exactly the wrong time, because it denied the Conservatives any chance of showing what they could do with a healthy economy - they'd only just finished repairing the previous Labour Government's damage when they were kicked out.

 

 

What rot! The 5 years (1992 to 1997) under Major were as if the country was being lead by a zombie. Plus do you remember the role of the party of 'financial proberty' in the Black Wednesday shennanigans?

Let's jog a few memories:

 

[RichD]

The evidence doesn't back that up. Thatcher reduced the public debt but in so doing caused huge problems in society, poverty and crime out of control etc. John Major repaired the damage she caused and left the economy and public debt a bit better than it was when Labour left power before, but with huge social problems to deal with (Crime peaked in 1997 for example). Labour's period in office was prudent, apart from not regulating the banks... something they are indeed responsible for, but something the Tories shouldn't be smug about since Thatcher deregulated the banks in the first place and something the Tories wanted deregulate further before the crisis.

 

Much of what you say is indeed true, but the part I have quoted in bold I must strongly disagree with. Labour were anything but prudent imho; they encouraged people to get into as much debt as possible in order to make the economy seem healthier than it was, all the while borrowing more and more themselves.

 

I think it goes to show that you simply can't have it both ways. Labour spend and borrow beyond their means to provide the services people want but get the economy into a mess, while the Tories sort the economy out by cutting back - they can't provide the same level of service that Labour have got people used to and still make ends meet.

[Joe-b-1]

sorry but you failed to answer the question. who do you think is to blame for the uk recession?

 

The initial recession which Labour got us out of is a European/worldwide recession so not Labour a I believe it was beyond the control of a small nation such as ours ; the one that we might well be falling into now would be caused by over zealous tory cuts so the reason that we are still not recession free and hence the current responsibility for it lies with the tories.

[CNCskilled]

We owe £37,201 for every man, woman and child

 

That's more than £80,778 for every person in employment

 

Every household will pay £1,880 this year, just to cover the interest

 

Even if Labour had won the last election they knew severe cuts would be needed to tackle the nations debt mountain. In my opinion Gordon Broon couldn't wait to get out of the No 10 door along with his sidekick Alistair Eyebrows Darling.

[RichD]

The initial recession which Labour got us out of is a European/worldwide recession so not Labour a I believe it was beyond the control of a small nation such as ours ; the one that we might well be falling into now would be caused by over zealous tory cuts so the reason that we are still not recession free and hence the current responsibility for it lies with the tories.

 

My view is that Labour didn't cause it, but they did have a part to play in how badly it hit us. If they were 100% blame-free, how would one explain countries that escaped recession?

 

I also don't think a couple of quarters of growth means we were out of the woods. Again, I hold Labour responsible to some extent and the Tories have brought it to a head rather than sitting back and allowing it to roll over us for potentially years. It's like removing a plaster - you can slowly ease away at it resulting in small bursts of pain for 5 minutes, or rip it off in one and suffer worse pain for 10 seconds.

 

Am I a Conservative? No. I think all politicians are equally unworthy to lead our country. Do I think we would have avoided the recession if the Tories had been in power for the last 5 years? I doubt it, but then for me it's not a matter of which party would have done a better job; it's about the fact that none of them can do a decent job at all.

[RichD]

We owe £37,201 for every man, woman and child

 

That's more than £80,778 for every person in employment

 

Every household will pay £1,880 this year, just to cover the interest

 

Even if Labour had won the last election they knew severe cuts would be needed to tackle the nations debt mountain. In my opinion Gordon Broon couldn't wait to get out of the No 10 door along with his sidekick Alistair Eyebrows Darling.

 

If I was a multi billionaire I could consider leaving my estate to help pay off the national debt. But I wouldn't, because it would be a waste - it would only be a matter of a few years before greedy governments had built the debt right up again.

[Tony]

The recession was brought about by dodgey practices within the banking industry that stem back to the deregulation of the banks in 1980. Guess who was trying to run the country then?

 

Go the whole hog, blame Hitler or maybe Disraeili. The Roman's have a lot to answer for too.

 

13 years in charge is plenty of time to do precisely what you want. They failed.

[Tony]

My view is that Labour didn't cause it, but they did have a part to play in how badly it hit us. If they were 100% blame-free, how would one explain countries that escaped recession?

 

You'd be interested in Canada, how they fared in the last few years and the "bloodbath budget" policies of the 90's.

 

An intro to get you going http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=505871&in_page_id=2

[steiner]

The crisis was a combination of lack of banking regulation the banks taking far too many risks and the lie bour goverment borrowing record amounts to finance the boom yrs.

It was all a big con,and the people bought into it by borrowing more and more and not thinking of the consequences.The thing that gets me though is people like me who are debt free and have never lived beyond their means have been punished with the saving returns I get thanks to the above and their greed.