Cuts to benefits, public services, pension issues. The public service cuts have been ongoing through 3 governments at least, but gently and now they are swathing cuts. Pensions, governments have told us and other countries for years we can't support the growing number of people living past retirement, but they did not have the political freedom to deal with that. Care also, they are starting to dig into that old chestnut about old people who require carers or to live in care homes being required to pay for their own care until their life savings are gone. Many others I'm sure.
By what criteria has public spending gone down under three governments? Every chart I've seen shows a inexorable rise. There have been cuts to public services, but public spending is still rising and it's predicted to continue rising. Something has to give. Personally, I'd much rather our taxes were spent sensibly here, not abroad. Apparently, we should be proud that we now spend more as a % of our GDP on overseas aid than any other country, then there's the utter madness of the Climate Change Act and its costs and of course the costs of EU membership. I'd stop all that and spend it on public services and start paying off the national debt. With the debt being so huge and rising ever upwards, we simply cannot carry on spending money that we do not have. The interest alone adds more than £40 billion a year to that debt.
I didn't say they had. I said cuts are costing the public more. Gordon Brown (shut up Austrian) was good at paying off debt, but then had to take money in to support other requirements. He is what is missing. He was a horrible PM and appears quite unstable in a "creative" kind of way, but with the right PM and with him focused on purely on economics, you might stand some chance. I don't just mean his ability in economics, but his ability to round up the other countries and get them working together and moving in one direction so they are doing something. At the moment, they are floundering about everywhere. There is no leadership.
Remember, the more "culturally diverse" britain becomes, the harder it will become to even discuss the problems. This phenomena is already very apparent in the state of California (in the USA). In California, anyone who raises the issue of illegal immigrants having many children (they typically have 5-6 children) is immediately labled a "racist". It would not be safe for anyone to stand out in public handing out pamphlets against immigration! The more immigrants you allow into your country, the more difficult it will become to stop it. The British media is effectively censoring any meaningful debate about immigration. Political opponents of immigration get branded as "nazis" and are demonized and misrepresented to no end. The presence of more muslims is just going to give the media and multiculturalist politicians even more power. Some people, including teachers, have lost their jobs after being labled a "racist", or from having associations with the BNP. If you look at the media coverage of the london riots, you may likely notice that the media has gone to great lengths to try to downplay the fact that the rioters were muslim. Film coverage only shows brief glimpses of the rioters faces, and most of the coverage does not show close ups of the people doing the rioting. The cold plain truth is that these were MUSLIM riots, just like the ones that have plaqued other european countries. The USA had similar problems with its blacks in the 1970's. Probably the only reason they are not rioting today is because they have a black president in office for the first time. Yet economic conditions for the blacks in the USA are even worse than they were in the 1970's and 1980's. The "Obama effect", as it is being called, is likely to soon wear off. Expect to see many black and hispanic riots in america in the next decade.
Indeed. And many of the shop-keepers whose businesses were ransacked are Muslims, hard working members of their communities who've contributed a lot to the UK.
The political system has now allowed the private sector to take over the spending of the public purse. In the Highlanders the IT services used to cost the council £2.5 million. On this figure 1.5 million was mainframe costs. Now its costing the council 10 million for computers to be changed out every 12 years! And no mainframe! A laptop is costing the council 1500.00 every year! AND THIS IS IN EVERY COUNCIL! Would you call that good practice? These are previous government driven practices. PPI PPF etc! And all the quangos that have risen up again under the tory parasites. Sorry ...am I bad mouthing your financial thugs and thieves? Regards Highlander
Oh Anders. The rioters were multicultural, that is why the Media reflects that. Nobody here is going to buy into racism just because of a few riots which ...involved loads of white folks (or did you miss that?), loads of black folks, loads of Asian folks, loads of employed folks, even old folks (yes, there was a 64 yr old man )... US is a completely different culture. Skimming quickly over it as it is not really relevant to UK situation IMHO, US have, for example, enormous immigration from the South which seems to be an issue they take seriously and which some of them feel impacts on their society heavily, causing "particular issues" and paranoia. Prior to that, they seemed to have "particular issues" with African Americans and it took some time for official equality to be established there. The bottom line with US is, if you bring money you're all right with them. Money is their God. Forget all that bring me your poor nonsense they like to romance about, all they want is for you to bring them your riches. UK has a totally different approach, we are used to diversity and used to negotiating and working with all types, that is what we're good at benefiting from. The one thing I have seen coming through from the comments made about the riots is summed up by the Asian man who spoke on tv this morning. It just shows that we are not as different as we thought, we are really all the same. Please note, that the rioting crowds are multicultural. Whatever the Conservative line is on immigration and whatever they say about multiculturalism not working, it has worked despite them and the people here are a community, be it in peace or in protest. ...and not necessarily unemployed, male, uneducated...
The rioters were not protesters, just thugs who took advantage of a terrible tragedy. They are all being wheeled in and out of court just now, one aged only 11 years. They'll likely get ASBO's which they will wear like medals. The police should have been much heavier handed. The Softly softly approach is useless.It does not work. I am fed up with this country accepting moronic behaviour and making excuses for it. There is NO excuse for burning people out of their homes and businesses.There is NO excuse for setting fire to other people's cars and property. There is NO excuse for attacking innocent folk and robbing them. These people are mindless thugs. I wonder how many of them were communicating with each other on the latest Blackberry phones. Notice they weren't robbing food but huge TV's, jewellery etc. How many were bare foot and starved looking, and how many were wearing highly priced trainers. Poor and deprived? not on your Nelly. Just rotten criminals and morons. I wonder how many parents would even ask their teenagers where they acquired the bright new TV's and other stolen items. Until the punishment fits the crime in this country, we can only expect more of this atrocious behaviour.
You didn't say the cuts are costing the public more, but never mind. In which way do you see the cuts to services costing the public more? What is costing is the other things I mentioned in my last post, as well as the police overtime bill and the clean up costs for the riots. And we are missing Gordon Brown? You have to be joking! I was glad to see the back of him and his cronies and you will meet few people in England who will admit to thinking he did well. I'm not much happier with the Coalition either. The only good thing is that, despite public spending rising by giddy amounts, it is still rising more slowly than it would have done under Labour. The Govt e-petition website has the following petition: Any persons convicted of criminal acts during the current London riots should have all financial benefits removed. No tax payer should have to contribute to those who have destroyed property, stolen from their community and shown a disregard for the country that provides for them. It has 97,189 signatures to date. I think it must be the most popular petitition ever and I've even considered signing it myself. The site's now crashed, possibly under the weight of the visitors as it was reported on national radio this morning. I bet the govt regrets ever setting the gimmicky site up as it has said parliament will debate anything that gets more than 100,000 signatures. Some of the police action does bother me. On the news last night I saw three figures (I don't whether they were adults or kids) riding on push bikes, not appearing to have done anything wrong, one of whom was pulled to the ground by the police and beaten. It could be that the police knew something about them that was not shown on the film, but the police response did not look proportionate to the action taken by the bike riders. I just don't know, but as I said earlier I don't trust the police without question anymore.
Certainly not. It's a criminal waste of public money, and there's no need to shout; I'm quite well aware of the waste in public expenditure. The Highland Council doesn't have a single Tory on it. They are not subject to Tory rule, but of course they cannot change their bad practices because the rules are not set in Scotland or in Westminster. The EU took up Thatcherism with a vengeance, and individuals and corporate interests get what they can under the rules it sets. Mainstream parties are not angry enough about any of it to withdraw from the EU and the SNP seems quite eager to wield its puny influence, so it shows no sign of wanting to withdraw. These practices were developed to stay within the EU's Maastricht Criteria. And wise up, they're only bad practises if you're on the side that pays for them, ie the taxpayer. Taxpayers, and politicians and corporations, have different interests. The quangos never went away, and all both parties have been guilty of setting them up. All mainstream political parties are beneath contempt as far as I am concerned. Not at all. No apologies are necessary, but I'll tell you if I disagree with you, so bad mouth to your heart's content. They're not my financial thugs or thieves, but the guilty stretch further than you think.
You mean the Gordon Brown who sold 60%of the UK's gold reserves at it's lowest value? Selling it at $275 per once for a total of $3.5 billion.. Yeah.. I am sure the UK is really missing him. Let's not forget his tax failure when he actually raised taxes on the poor in the UK. Yep, he hates the poor. You are gonna lose this fight any time you defend that idiot.
I'm not rising to your petty patter, so know if you start with the insults you're on your own. I'm not defending him. He has made mistakes and learned on the job as he went along. The naivete of the gold incident was unprofessional, they were like innocents abroad, but it was done to pull the UK out of a different fire as a matter of urgency and they had very little choice in how to act. Easy to criticise in hindsight, but some of us were there and remember the motivation for the act. You continually insist on ignoring that, but accuse others of lack of contextual insight... He is human and not infallible, but a compulsive worker and vastly experienced in that field. They need someone to give them direction and pull them together. He has ability, knows many people in that field and networks very well. His reintroduction of Peter Mandelson shows how completely pragmatic he can be when required to build a functional team. What do you suggest should be happening?
A British PM acted like "an innocent abroad"? I disagree, and he acted in conjuction with advisors anyway. I think he knew exactly what he was doing. I'd like to know if this article, from the Maastrict Treaty (1992) protocols, played a part in his decision: We were and are committed to stages I and II of monetary union as a result of the Conservatives signing on the Maastricht Treaty dotted line. So he had vast experience, yet you still think he was an innocent abroad? You can't have it both ways!
It's much worse than that. Before he jumps all over you, it's an Irishman, with US (or is it dual) citizenship, who lives in Germany. Anyone confused... Now I am going to jump all over you, if you just referred to me as English.
And an Australian lecturing the english is different because? Or are you British despite the flags you fly?
Sigh... No one but Tories would be in power if it were left to the English. They are in probably in power now purely because Scotland did not vote for them this time. So it's no surprise you lack appreciation of the work that man did while in power. I do not believe he should have been PM, he is not suited to that job but still worked very hard in office and is very experienced of the economy. I don't agree with many actions he took, but regarding the economy who do we have? A crowd of buffoons who got in by default and are starting to play pushme pullme. Brown was at least serious when it came to the economy. I appreciate the sentiments expressed in the petition and the frustration and anger of the people, but don't agree with that on a few fronts. Criminals apart, people are entitled to protest at what is going on in the UK and in the world and sometimes that gets out of hand. There could be repercussions from a petition like that, regarding restricting freedoms. The criminal activities were out of line, but there is already an existing judicial system purpose built to deal with it. Plus...the details released show plenty of people involved are fully employed. Curtailing benefits is not going to punish them. Are we introducing inequality now, in how people are punished? Nobody does, but the rioters were moving quickly from place to place and one reporter said the leaders were actually timing how long they spent in a location and shouting "10 minutes is up, the Police will be moving in, time to move on". So as you suggest, they Police were chasing them and probably caught up with those people.
Okay, I thought you meant in a reply to me. What you have said is par for the course with mainstream politicians. I'm not interested in restructuring cuts. I want actual cuts to reduce taxes and the national debt, and I want the cuts to start with an end to the Climate Change Act, EU membership and government waste and fat cat council chief salaries, not the police, because they way we're going, we're incurring debts that our children and grandchildren will have to pay off and that's absolutely appalling! Sigh ... you don't have to put up with the Tories at all. Have your bloody referendum! Brown's experience of the economy left us with massive debts, so you keep him, and have the so called benefit of his experience, with English good wishes. No one is talking about taking away anything from protestors. I would absolutely, completely and utterly support anyone's right to peacefully protest. The Labour Party (or the Tories) can't make the same claim. The criminal activities were not just out of line. They were criminal, even murderous in some cases, and the judicial system is not dealing with them very well at all which is why the petition now stands at 169,000 signatures, well above the threshold needed for the debate to take place in parliament. It will be interesting to see how the coalition gets out of this one. Not at all. If rioters aren't receiving benefits there are none to take away. Benefits claiming rioters have shown a lack of respect to those who contribute part of their wages towards those benefits in destroying their own environment. I know the tactics the rioters used. "Probably" isn't really good enough for me. You seem to trust the police much more than I do.
As posted earlier: I'd like to know if this article, from the Maastrict Treaty (1992) protocols, played a part in [Brown's mistimed decision to sell off our gold]: We were and are committed to stages I and II of monetary union as a result of the Conservatives signing on the Maastricht Treaty dotted line. Any thoughts?
