Triple Dip

[DodgyAgent]

Well, one of the quarters of growth was the one when ALL the ticket sales for the Olympics got counted, which raised a few billion. And we only just scraped through that one.



I doubt she would have done, to be honest. The cuts from this government are deeper than anything Thatcher considered. The biggest target to reduce the deficit are pensioners - state pensions, free bus passes, free TV licences, winter fuel allowance etc. But old people have a higher propensity to vote (and to vote Conservative), so the chances of any of these being touched is non-existent.

Alternatively, the simple way to erode the debt is to devalue the pound, but that isn't being mentioned.

Does that mean we should kill off EO?

[MyUserName]

Does that mean we should kill off EO?

It is definitely worth a try ... erm ... what were we trying to do?

[vetran]

actually they might wear it. Most well off pensioners are embarrassed by the extra payments.

but the reason they are universal is that means testing is too expensive.

winter fuel etc could be taxed anyone on higher rate loses the value.

free bus passes could be discounted so they need to pay something that covered administration.

all of these should have been means tested.

[OwlHoot]

WHS. It's easy to look at the tuliped economy and say the policy isn't working, but doing that is ignoring all the factors that caused the tulip in the first place. How do you know it isn't exactly this policy that's responsible for the quarters of growth?

Though seeing as the Conservatives are taking the political kicking anyway, I wonder if they'd be better of just doing austerity properly. Just cut the deficit to zero starting tomorrow, and say "tough" to all the moaners. It's what Thatcher would have done.

They're obviously pinning their hopes on a resurgence of the US economy, hoping the UK will be swept along in its wake.

[TheFaQQer]

winter fuel etc could be taxed anyone on higher rate loses the value.

A simple geographic test would be a starter - if you live abroad, you don't get it. If you live in a nursing home, you don't get it.

But Cameron promised that he wouldn't do anything to pensioners, so they won't.

[NickFitz]

What else is he meant to do?

You're the agent, you find him a job

[stek]

Triple Dip

You're the agent, you find him a job

Plenty of Excel roles about. Oh, wait....

[SandyD]

Anyone remembers when labor/Tony Blair first came to power, suddnely we had a boom of government projects and government contracts.
Anyone remembers the NHS 10 years project with various consultancies? What about the DWP, Defra etc?

First thing when conservatives were back was to cut all government projects lol, I had a friend who left private sector to go to govenment projects she swore by it and told me she'd never go back to private..heh, her project was the firs tto be cut.
No she is back in banking

[The Spartan]

It's been shown through various Government projects that they're always overambitious, over budget and never delivered on time. Is it any wonder they got cut, still like everyone else says it'll be years before things are near how they used to be unfortunately it's not a problem that can be fixed overnight

[Troll]

Government still advertising for non jobs