magwitch Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Personally I think that this all started with Reagon and Thatchers economic policies followed by both recent US and UK leaders following Alan Greenspans plans that lead to economic growth through promoting credit/debt. It doesn't matter who was in charge as with the coffers and growth going up they weren't going to change things. This crash was inevitable unfortunately and now it's time to pay the price for the good times (easy mortgages/credit cards etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FANAdeLdF Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Good riddance. Maybe we can now return to the topic instead of peddling conspiracy theories and calling each other "asshats" (which part of the UK are you based again?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FANAdeLdF Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Very good point, magwitch. Let’s also not forget one of the most obscene examples of the overspending (ie. waste) of public money under the Labour governments of 1997-2010 : the Private Finance Initiative. PFI was launched by the Tories in the 1980s before it was taken to new levels by Blair and Brown. The principle has still not been abandoned by the current government. Cameron and Osborne continue to go out of their way to mould society so that it meets the demands of capitalism. IMHO it should be the other way round. But then again, I'm not a Tory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magwitch Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Good riddance. Maybe we can now return to the topic instead of peddling conspiracy theories and calling each other "asshats" (which part of the UK are you based again?) Is that at me? Why I'm from the lovely seven hills that most folk live, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funky_Gibbon Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 There are more people employed now than before the recession so anyone that lost a job should a found a replacement. Except we're not replacing like with like. We're losing full-time jobs, jobs that pay enough so that people don't need benefits to top up their wage, and replacing them with part-time jobs and "self-employed" (which includes all those ad-hoc "zero hour" jobs where you have to be more or less on permanent standby but not actually working most of the time - great for fiddling the employment figures though). The headline numbers might technically look better but we're replacing secure, well paid jobs with insecure low hour jobs that require people to keep claiming benefits to pay their bills. It's not sustainable. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9265248/Number-of-men-working-part-time-because-they-cannot-find-full-time-work-doubles.html Latest official figures have shown that 1.4 million workers and self-employed people work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, the highest figure since records began in 1992. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I1L2T3 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Party allegiances aside it should be very, very clear that the economy and our economic policy are both a complete mess. I think we can all agree given that the economy has actually shrunk by 0.3% since the coalition took power is that what we need is a plan for growth. Osborne's plan that supply-side reforms would help the private sector grow into the vacuum left after public sector growth has three key problems: 1. The cuts have not really been that significant, nothing on the scale of what was envisaged 2. He hasn't delievered the necessary supply-side reforms 3. Where cuts have taken place they have been badly thought-through. Despite the talk of new jobs being created (they always will be anyway, this is not some magic on the part of the chancellor) we have sectors of unemployment that are getting worse - regions, not enough full-time work, too many out of work youngsters, too many long-term unemployed. Quite simply his plan hasn't worked. It was predicted it wouldn't work. The predictions are correct. Mad and counter-intuitive as it seems we need to invest to grow the economy and that means borrowing from somewhere. We've had incredible capacity to borrow to grow for the last two years. It looks like a golden opportunity lost. An opportunity to: 1. Make meaningful cuts. We all know we need them. We all know the public sector is too big and too inefficient. We just needed a rational joined-up plan to make the reforms happen, not the u-turn littered, ill-targeted hack and slash we've seen. 2. Borrow at record low rates to invest in our infrastructure and our youth. I'd put Ken Clarke back in number 11. He's the best Tory chancellor of the last few decades. I think a lot of people in business right now would agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magwitch Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I don't know if there's going to be an easy way out of this. I do agree that the public sector did grow at an unsustainable rate under new labour due to the extra money in the coffers and that they should have put some aside for times like this plus selling our gold reserve at a market low didn't help but then nobody's perfect. Shame we're not Finland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funky_Gibbon Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Shhhh keep the noise down George is trying to think who to blame now. Well next time it's obviously going to be the Olympics (people taking time off to watch it or stuck in traffic jams because of it...) and the unusual and unexpected event of hot weather in July, August and September... and of course the rain too. I don't know why but Osborne's economic policy reminds me of . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I1L2T3 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Well next time it's obviously going to be the Olympics (people taking time off to watch it or stuck in traffic jams because of it...) and the unusual and unexpected event of hot weather in July, August and September... and of course the rain too. I don't know why but Osborne's economic policy reminds me of . The thing is there is always an excuse lined up. Have we ever had a government blame so much of our economic issues on the weather? It's starting to look stupid. We've had enough excuses - it's time to understand the mistakes made by this government and the previous Labour ones. Once we properly understand why we are in this mess we can make a plan to get out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I1L2T3 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I don't know if there's going to be an easy way out of this. I do agree that the public sector did grow at an unsustainable rate under new labour due to the extra money in the coffers and that they should have put some aside for times like this plus selling our gold reserve at a market low didn't help but then nobody's perfect. Shame we're not Finland. The public sector has to be cut back in terms of spend. There are no two ways about it. Yes we should have saved for the future. But governments never do - it's easier to blow the money on expensive policies that promise another term in power. Each party does it different: Labour will spend any surplus Tories will use the surplus to slash taxes Either way the money is never ever saved. What a shower our politicians are Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.