Labour Pledges

[SueEllen]

"Raise family living standards"

e.g. by freezing personal allowances so that lower paid people pay even more in tax as a proportion of their income than they did before the budget.

Great!

It's OK if you have children they will give you even more tax credits.


You are a bit f**k though when they become 18 as you will be paying for them and you aren't entitled to any help.

[norrahe]

Empty promises only to be fulfilled by a continuation of the degredation of the economy and living standards that we have become accustomed to under a labour government.

Deep joy!

[HairyArsedBloke]

"Raise family living standards"

e.g. by freezing personal allowances so that lower paid people pay even more in tax as a proportion of their income than they did before the budget.

Great!

A rising standard of living will be the stuff of legend for the majority of those in the UK. All the main parties know this, but remain silent on the issue.

Today in the Telegraph they have a story of secret plans to cut NHS services.

What nobody is talking about is where the cuts are going be on the biggest component of public spending: social security and pensions. Shrill cries of 'take away their benefit and they will soon find work' isn't going to solve the problem. If it did, it would have eliminated the problem long ago. In any case there is something like 20 times the number of notified vacancies looking for work. It is inevitable that the level of benefits will be cut across the board. Not only in real terms by not upgrading them in line with inflation, but actual cuts. I wonder if any party would be willing to admit before an election that their is going to be benefit cuts.

And then there is the inevitable case of cuts in pensions ......

[Green Mango]

A rising standard of living will be the stuff of legend for the majority of those in the UK. All the main parties know this, but remain silent on the issue.

Today in the Telegraph they have a story of secret plans to cut NHS services.

What nobody is talking about is where the cuts are going be on the biggest component of public spending: social security and pensions. Shrill cries of 'take away their benefit and they will soon find work' isn't going to solve the problem. If it did, it would have eliminated the problem long ago. In any case there is something like 20 times the number of notified vacancies looking for work. It is inevitable that the level of benefits will be cut across the board. Not only in real terms by not upgrading them in line with inflation, but actual cuts. I wonder if any party would be willing to admit before an election that their is going to be benefit cuts.

And then there is the inevitable case of cuts in pensions ......

Actually saw Gord on BBC new where he was saying that he was going to restore the link between pensions and earnings. I was thinking really, where will he find all the money from.

Then I remembered like many, my pay rate is likely to go DOWN in the short term at least.

[ChimpMaster]

I do wonder what they've done with their previous 3 terms in power, if they're only starting to realise these 'pledges' now.

[OwlHoot]

.. What nobody is talking about is where the cuts are going be on the biggest component of public spending: social security and pensions. Shrill cries of 'take away their benefit and they will soon find work' isn't going to solve the problem. If it did, it would have eliminated the problem long ago. In any case there is something like 20 times the number of notified vacancies looking for work. It is inevitable that the level of benefits will be cut across the board. Not only in real terms by not upgrading them in line with inflation, but actual cuts. I wonder if any party would be willing to admit before an election that their is going to be benefit cuts.

And then there is the inevitable case of cuts in pensions ......

Much as I hate Labour, I sometimes wonder if this wouldn't be prety much inevitable whoever had been in power.

Perhaps even the great Billy Pitt Jr with a cabinet of fellow geniuses wouldn't have made much difference in holding back the tide of relative decline, and in a perverse way maybe Labour's profligacy has actually postponed the day of reckoning (even if they have probably also made it worse).

As I've often droned on about here, the "big picture" by and large seems to be about westerners and those in "rich" countries getting much worse off, and Thirld World people becoming infinitesimally better off (but, due to their vast and increasing numbers, not so they'd notice much if at all).

[HairyArsedBloke]

Yes, all the main parties are avoiding the issue. It’s going to have to happen anyway.

The issue of ‘relative’ decline is something else. As things are at the moment, the UK and other western countries are not facing a relative decline but an absolute one. It won’t be that the third world living standards will grow faster that those here, but living standards will fall substantially here.

It doesn’t have to be like this, but the current political class lacks the wit to comprehend the nature of the problem or to conceptualise any possible response.

[norrahe]

Yes, all the main parties are avoiding the issue. It’s going to have to happen anyway.

The issue of ‘relative’ decline is something else. As things are at the moment, the UK and other western countries are not facing a relative decline but an absolute one. It won’t be that the third world living standards will grow faster that those here, but living standards will fall substantially here.

It doesn’t have to be like this, but the current political class lacks the wit to comprehend the nature of the problem or to conceptualise any possible response.

Labour have been blindly implementing policies for years without looking at the cause and effect of doing so.

Their ignorance of the fiscal decline and their refusal to face up to the detrimental effects of economic policies is what has led us to where we are now.

[ratewhore]

I do wonder what they've done with their previous 3 terms in power, if they're only starting to realise these 'pledges' now.

Isn't that the main issue? Why should I believe a word they say when they have farked this country royally over the last 13 years?

[Doggy Styles]

Labour have been blindly implementing policies for years without looking at the cause and effect of doing so.

Their ignorance of the fiscal decline and their refusal to face up to the detrimental effects of economic policies is what has led us to where we are now.

This is true.

For nearly ten years we, and the government, have been borrowing to live. We called it the good times, the government called it prudence. How f***ing daft is that, eh?

Of all people, George bleeding Osborne* was the first senior person in either major party to stand up, own up, and say we are in the sh*t and we'll have to take tough measures to get out of it (autumn 2009 party conference).

*I know Vince Cable has been saying it for years, but he's a Lib Dem and they can say what they like because they know they'll never get voted into government anyway.