So in summary, the credit crunch and ensuing recession would have happened regardless of who was in charge. Whoever took the reins after the global recession was going to enjoy a surge in popularity.
I don't see any of the current leadership candidates ultimately being PM. I think Labour will be out in the cold for a few election cycles.
Thats missed out the bit where Gordon Brown greatly increased borrowing and went on a public spending frenzy in his final death knoll.
... and what was the increased borrowing for?
Living beyond our means.
I did pick up the Guardian by mistake the other day![]()
You are welcome to an opinion.A small fraction of welfare aside, all things that would have happened under a Cameron/Osborne administration - no?
That was fact, not opinion![]()
I trust you spent 5 mins scrubbing up afterwards!
Actually, if you want facts, The Grauniad is better than the Torygraph imo! But Torygraph Sport is better and Matt and Alex are unbeatable! :thup:
@JP5 How can you tout that as fact when it didn't happen? It can only be opinion!
I truly think it does not matter who is voted in any more or with what majority. Since the era of Thatcher, it seems as if the business of running the country has become of one taking sweeping generalizations, applying them without having to fully explain or account for them and just continuing along that route knowing you will have the back up of spin doctors and pr individuals to fend off the tough questions and a media that has lost its political teeth.
In my opinion, the three greatest parliamentary orators of the last forty years of the twentieth century were Enoch Powell, Michael Foot and Tony Benn. Whatever you thought of their political views they were undoubtedly intellectual men, capable of defending their positions in intellectual and rational terms.
Interestingly, it was those qualities (as well as some of their more radical views, an extension of logic that sometimes put them in political corners from which they could not escape) that kept them from holding high office.
However, for the current situation to change, someone with those intellectual qualities needs to be the backbone to a Prime Minister and a cabinet capable of applying those qualities to party policy and they need to be able to explain them in rational and intellectual terms and then try to carry them out. The Spin Doctors need to head to the dole queue...
But who has the political nerve to publicly say this and then act on it....ifyou asked all the members of parliament, I think the chamber would be resounding...in its silence as they contemplate lunch or their shoe polish.
Fact that it would have happened as I have shown in my sources![]()
It was interesting to hear Mhairi Black quote Tony Benn in her quite brilliant maiden speech.
Surely this is the sort of attack that, what is left of the Labour party, should follow.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/14/mhairi-black-first-commons-speech-snp
The only fact was that he said he'd match/use Labour's budgeted expenditure! Classic pre-election statement!
Did Labour actually stick to what they'd predicted? Of course they didn't! By an enormous amount (though much of the latter part was down to the 2008 Banking Crisis!)!
I very much doubt that any Chancellor has actually had results match budget in the last 50 years at least!
Oh I know that promises bear very little integrity in politics.
But I was referring to Osborne declaring that he would match Labour's spending. That intent was a fact. And it is that spending which many of the Tory persuasion now seek to renounce as excessive. Easy to be wise after the event.
Hard to tell if you're playing silly or genuinely don't know.
Not playing and not silly! This may explain a little of how he and his party managed the Countries finances in fairly good times:
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1635/cheering_for_gordon_brown
Not easy to find an impartial view, but as that article is written by a Conservative party member I'll give it a swerve!
I'm no Labour supporter wouldn't be surprised if Labour did overspend on their budget - quite frankly I don't have the inclination or motivation to trawl through the numbers.
What grates with me is the pinning of the global crisis and the massive inherited deficit on Labour's overspending.
People are susceptible to being fed porkies and taking them at face value, and in my books it's irresponsible of highly educated people to be tricking the electorate into believing their narrative.
It does go both ways - the notion that the Tories have failed as the debt has doubled during their time in Government (as one previous poster in this thread had been taken in by) is equally deceptive.
But in my experience it seems to be the Tories that are more conniving, not least highlighted by the Telegraph's campaign to encourage Tories to vote for Corbyn in the Labour leadership election!
For what it's worth I think Corbyn would at least bring clear aims and a principled opposition, though he'd be the least electable. The other three I can't really tell what separates them, or why they'd be any better than Ed.
still waiting for an answer rocket
how did you confuse a newspaper like the guardian with a rag like the mail
so when the tories promised to cut the deficit by the 2015 election, which bit have i missed, because this seems like complete failure
also, how much surplus are they actually going to need just to break even?
defecit, surplus are just terms used to hide the fact that our debt is increasing year on year.
you are quick to blame the labour party for the results of one if not the biggest recession we have had, yet the tories were a fiasco with black monday etc
shagster