What is causing that 180 billion deficit?

[minestrone]

amazing thing is when they came to power they had all that cash from the sale of the 3g licenses

How much was that again? I was talking about this to a few people a few weeks ago and nobody could remember the amount, I'm sure it was almost 100 billion but I could be very wrong.

Add to that the 100 billion they have taken from pension divs and they got one hell of a sum to throw away.

[RichardCranium]

Yeah, pay the f**kers 64 quid a week!

£70.89

[xoggoth]

The free market works far better when the right conditions exist, most importantly, when there is true competition and profits depend on providing a standard of service or good that the customers will keep coming back for.

In some areas, caring for the elderly is the most obvious example, firms are largely free to ignore their customers without impacting their business and such things are far better in the public sector. State regulation of the private sector and proper constraints on its activities, like planning laws, is essential too in my opinion a market free for all is as bad as a Stalinist state, it's about human nature.

Mostly though, the public sector sucks because there is no good link between the existence of the job and the usefullness of the work done or between the security of an employee's job and his performance. A good third of the white collar staff could be axed and in time we would all be far better off.

Beats me how anyone sane can believe in state socialism. The decline of Tanzania under Nyrere even relative to other African states, the relative performance of the USSR vs the West, East vs West Germany back then, North Korea vs South Korea, China a few decades back vs China since they started adopting free market principles. All coincidence?

[Churchill]

£70.89

What?

JSA is £128 a fortnight, ain't it?

[RichardCranium]

What? JSA is £128 a fortnight, ain't it?

They are paying me £141.78 JSA every time two weeks when I sign on.

But please do not ask me to explain why it is the amount it is because the whole "income based v contributions based" thing confused the hell out of me. And them.

But I don't think that my £358.28 a year extra is going to make the £180,000,000,000 deficit too much worse.

[Churchill]

They are paying me £141.78 JSA every time two weeks when I sign on.

But please do not ask me to explain why it is the amount it is because the whole "income based v contributions based" thing confused the hell out of me. And them.

Don't spend it all at once mate!

Anyway, chin up sunshine, something will come along soon!

[Clippy]

Nothing to worry about, apparently.

[RichardCranium]

Yeah, pay the f**kers 64 quid a week!

They are paying me £141.78 JSA every time two weeks when I sign on. But please do not ask me to explain why it is the amount it is because the whole "income based v contributions based" thing confused the hell out of me. And them.

Don't spend it all at once mate!

Apparently, because my wife is in full-time education I should have been getting the joint payment JSA of more like £100 per week but someone cocked up at their end and the DWP have been deducting about £30 per week because of a cock-up.

[DodgyAgent]

All you economically illiterate dim-wits who slag off public sector jobs - have you stopped to consider the following:

1) There are not enough private sector jobs to go round in the UK since we destroyed our economic base in the 80s
2) The public sector use private sector goods and services, including IT contractors
3) A drastic cut in public sector jobs will destroy the consumption-led UK economy.

At least the public sector non-jobs force people to come into an office every day where they might be useful rather than paying them to sit at home which would otherwise be the case.

HTH

And just like all the scared stupid little liberals of the pre (and post) Thatcher years you have fallen for the oldest trick in the socialist book, which is to trap a country into a spiral of state dependence from which it cannot get out.

Braver people than you in eastern europe (and Thatcher) have taken on the socialist bullies who have thrived on cowards like you, and emerged albeit with lots of pain with stronger and freer economies.

You may think that we cannot afford to break away from this state controlled system, but like anything else it will perpetuate and accelerate into a downward spiral that will eventually kill off all wealth creation. We have no choice the spiral has to stop now- Unfortunately there is no one to stop it.

[Doggy Styles]

And just like all the scared stupid little liberals of the pre (and post) Thatcher years you have fallen for the oldest trick in the socialist book, which is to trap a country into a spiral of state dependence from which it cannot get out.

Braver people than you in eastern europe (and Thatcher) have taken on the socialist bullies who have thrived on cowards like you, and emerged albeit with lots of pain with stronger and freer economies.

You may think that we cannot afford to break away from this state controlled system, but like anything else it will perpetuate and accelerate into a downward spiral that will eventually kill off all wealth creation. We have no choice the spiral has to stop now- Unfortunately there is no one to stop it.

Is state dependence a bit like being a drug addict?

Or Victory Gin?