Topic: Not looking good for labour...

[sheddie]

Gazfoz,

I for one completley agree. I always thought that Labour were traditionally for the average working man. In reality, its just tax, tax, tax and them some more tax. In Italy or USA, the people probably wouldn't stand for it.

I realise there are bigger issues, but just to give an example of bad management - Labour have raised billions from petrol tax, road tax, speed cameras etc - but where has it gone. The infrastructure of roads in this country is quite simply an embarrasment. Even just the general condition of our roads is appalling - I've recently come back from honeymoon in Spain and their roads are leagues above the UK (and petrol half the price).

I voted Labour myself at the last General election - I won't be doing it again, but then I'm not sure the alternatives are any better!

[silly billy]

Under Thatcher
Vat up from 8% to 17.5%
VAT on utility bills for the 1st time
3 million unemployed
15% interest rates
Double figure inflation

[Gazfoz]

Under Thatcher
Vat up from 8% to 17.5%
VAT on utility bills for the 1st time
3 million unemployed
15% interest rates
Double figure inflation

And your point is?

[betula]

There has to be a balance.The Labour party is in my blood but that does not blind me to the mistakes this government have made.

There has to be tax otherwise our Society would not function ,but yes I agree things are getting out of hand.You can punish a speeding motorist without costing him money.I always thought road tax money was actually spent on the roads.Silly me.The cost of Petrol is a disgrace.

However,would you be able to walk in off the street into a hospital in the USA.Yes you would .Provided you had a big fat health insurance policy that would cost you a small fortune.With all it's faults we have a wonderful health service that is the envy of the world.

The Labour party I believed in is letting us down but Cameron as an alternative?Have you looked into his background?Nothing there that will give him any empathy with ordinary working people.Don't let the pushbike fool you.

The Labour party I grew up with,so passionate and full of wonderful personalities has gone,it has been replaced by these bland people who I feel are trading under a false name.

[Gazfoz]

In my opinion our health service now is just an excuse for people to gain a wage.
Most people who can afford to have private health insurance these days have private health insurance these days and guess what  the people who have private insurance are the least likely to need it.

The rich get richer, the poor get children.

[Paulines7]

.........Most people who can afford to have private health insurance these days have private health insurance these days and guess what  the people who have private insurance are the least likely to need it.

If anything goes seriously wrong though, people with private health insurance still end up in a NHS hospital because that is where the expertise is.   

I don't think that the Government is at all to blame for rises in food and fuel as this has to do with the world economy. 

However, the Government did make a boob with getting rid of the 10p lower band of income tax and reducing the 22% band to 20%.  This has resulted in our monthly tax bill falling by £35 but those on very low incomes having to pay more.  How this error escaped notice when it was first talked about, is beyond belief.  Surely someone should have seen that the lowest paid workers would be hit the most!! 

I agree with Silly Billy's remarks about Mrs Thatcher (and the Conservative Government when they were in power.)
Under Thatcher
Vat up from 8% to 17.5%
VAT on utility bills for the 1st time
3 million unemployed
15% interest rates
Double figure inflation

I would also add to that the way that the NHS and schools were run down.  I had to wait years for my first knee replacement operation whereas last year, my other knee took 5 months from seeing my GP to going under the knife.   Mrs T also sold off all our assets and introduced Agency Staff in hospitals.  Enough said.

[silly billy]

My point is under Thatcher it wasn't all that good even if as Mick said she was "honest". I am not saying all is good under Labour far from it but it was also just as bad if not worse under the Tories.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

at least Gordon Brown can stop smiling now. It scares the willies out of me when he does that. Haven't seen a rictus like it since the glory days of Edward Teeth

[Gazfoz]

Dennis Thatcher was the prime minister that is why Margaret got away with saying and doing as she pleased for a while. Like most of our wives I suggest.

[Mr Smith]

The only problem I had with  our 'Maggie' was her anti union stance, other than that,  the scum the shite the robbers the piss takers the idle *fatherless children*  would be long gone out of this great country of our's ;)

[Geomet]

I look upon the tory gains on Thursday as a victory for distortion and deceit..............Gordon Brown is a good and highly capable man.He has been a victim of a power crazy propoganda machine which will apparently distort most issues to attain power...............I believe Labour can still win the next General Election

[OllieC]

Nice guy, wrong job. "I'm a private person", you're meant to be running the sodding country mate, this is not a job for a shy person. New Labour is just a bad version of the Tory party, although New Tory is a bad version of New Labour & almost certainly even worse... I hope it's a wake-up call & we get what we were promised all those elections ago.

Also, this is the fist time the public have been able to express any view on Gordon Brown - his party never voted for him & neither has the country!

[valmarg]

Under Thatcher
Vat up from 8% to 17.5%
VAT on utility bills for the 1st time
3 million unemployed
15% interest rates
Double figure inflation

Today is the 29th anniversary of Mrs Thatcher (not Thatcher) being elected Prime Minister.

Some of the things you quote were under the John Major administration, so you would consider them equally iniquitious.

My memory goes back pre Maggie Thatcher to inflation being +/- 25%, Britain being the sick man of Europe.  Strikes being called the British disease, and the UK was crap.  Productivity was next to zero, the unions (not the labour party) ruled the country.  We were in such a bad way that Healey had to go cap in hand to the IMF to bail the country out of the mess that labour had got it into.

Whilst not everything Maggie did was right, she did at least pull us up by the bootstraps, and put us back on the international stage.  Gave us a bit of pride in the country.

However, since Brown became chancellor, he has sold off most of the country's gold reserves at the lowest prices in history.  Robbed the private sector final pension salary schemes of £3 billion a year, thereby destroying the schemes.  He has increased public sector workers by a humungous number, and their pensions will be protected by the private sector workers' taxes.  I do accept that public sector workers pay taxes, but their pension benefits far outweigh the private sector (thanks to Brown).

We all have our political affiliations, but Mr Shakespeare (I think) got it right, when comparing politicians "Small choice in rotten apples".

valmarg

[grawrc]

Dennis Thatcher was a wimp dominated by his wife who was a useless pm because she leached the country's resources for silly things like the falklands' war. Tony Blair was in the same mould and hey hey hey we had Iraq. Gordon Brown imho is actually doing the business but doesn't do the publicity so is reaping the results of his predecessors even though he is not responsible for them. He doesn't have the charisma of thatcher or Blair but that really isn't the pint.

Phew.

None of these people (hey include silly boy cameron and all the rest in this)actually give a nuts about you and me so that is probably what we need to change?

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

yat least you knew where you were with Maggie....in deep s**t, mostly

[ninnyscrops]

....and how many of her policies were reversed? ??? Poll Tax was cheaper under Maggie if you compare with today's Council Tax methinks!

[betula]

Remember Poll tax was per person,Council tax is per household :)

[ninnyscrops]

But my Council Tax has risen way above what Poll Tax inflation may have been - so our household has prob lost out!

[valmarg]

Remember Poll tax was per person,Council tax is per household :)

Which is why it was much fairer.

Mother in law, a pensioner, lived next door to a household where there were four wage earners.  She had to pay the same rates as the people next door.

Personally, I would prefer to see the poll tax reintroduced, as opposed to the iniquitous council tax.

Gordon Brown may like to reflect on his abolition of the 10p tax band.  It has increased OH's income tax bill by 100%.  He is over 65 so will not benefit from the so called 'concessions' that will be 'available'.

The disgusting thing about this government is that all benefits are 'means tested'.

You think you are eligible, and you are sent a 35 page booklet to complete.  It is so complicated, the government wins because you find it too difficult, so don't bother.

The government says that there are millions of pounds out there in benefits that are not being claimed.

WILL THEY JUST MAKE IT EASIER TO CLAIM!!

valmarg

[Suzanne]

Have gone through and read the entire thread now. Looking back it seems to me that we were much worse off then than we are now. How much was influenced by world economy (we did go through a bit of a recession) and how much by the politics of which ever party was in power I don't know - but doesn't it suggest that things aren't too bad at the moment?