Poll: Which party will get your vote in the General Election?

[Dolph]

Ah yes, if the co-founder of a California based fund management company says so it must be true /facepalm.

When said individual is one of the worlds biggest buyers of bonds, then it surely holds more weight than the government saying everything is ok while painting targets on their shoes and polishing their rifles?

 

[scorza]

When said individual is one of the worlds biggest buyers of bonds, then it surely holds more weight than the government saying everything is ok while painting targets on their shoes and polishing their rifles?

It gives it less weight because he has a clear reason for trying to alter the price of bonds. It's like a few months back when the pound was at record lows, only worth EUR1.10, a few US based currency speculators made loud noises in the press saying the pound was about to tank and people should get out of Britain etc. Today a pound is almost worth EUR1.16 I believe it's called doing a Soros.

 

[Dolph]

It gives it less weight because he has a clear reason for trying to alter the price of bonds. It's like a few months back when the pound was at record lows, only worth EUR1.10, a few US based currency speculators made loud noises in the press saying the pound was about to tank and people should get out of Britain etc. Today a pound is almost worth EUR1.16 I believe it's called doing a Soros.

Is that as opposed to doing a Brown?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Bottom

I know who I will take as understanding economics and the market...

 

[Dolph]

More criticism of the quality of Labour legislation from inside the state machine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8481943.stm

The way Britain is governed has gone wrong and is in urgent need of reform, a group of former Whitehall chiefs has warned in a highly critical report.

The former civil servants paint a picture of badly trained ministers rushing through "ill thought-out" legislation to satisfy media demands.

And they say "political point scoring" has become more important to ministers than solving actual problems.

...

"Obviously there were some policy successes under this system (for example, independence of the Bank of England); but the track record on economic management, public expenditure planning and control, and financial regulation as well as on public sector change (for example, the introduction of tax credits) has increasingly come to be questioned."...

...

The ex-Whitehall chiefs cite examples of bad laws that have resulted from the way government now operates, including the poll tax of 1990, the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991, the failure of the Child Support Agency, the Hunting Act 2004 and the story of the Millennium Dome.

The group's report says: "Policy failures have often been cumulative as one new initiative and one act of Parliament has followed another on the same subject."

It says governments have created "perverse incentives" and "unintended consequences of targets and performance indicators".

There is "confusion and loss of expertise resulting from frequent changes of policy or organisation and movement of staff to meet new demands", it adds.

The report also argues that there has been "loss of direction as one initiative is laid on top of another, or 'trialled' and 'rolled out', distracting attention from ordinary business".

It criticises "excessive bureaucracy in prescribing new systems or procedures" and "a 'tick-box' culture in which complying with the rules replaces responsible judgment and individual discretion".

It is time for a change, do we really think Labour, the party most guilty of this, can really provide it?

 

[Daegan]

It is time for a change, do we really think Labour, the party most guilty of this, can really provide it?

Not at all, but then neither can the Tories. It's 1997 all over again, just substitute Cameron for Blair and Hilton for Campbell.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

STATISTICAL PRESS NOTICE - NHS INPATIENT AND OUTPATIENT WAITING TIMES FIGURES - 31st December 2009


I nearly didn't bother to look, but suspicion got the better of me. It turns out that patient waiting times have increased dramatically in 2009.

* The number of inpatients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 13 weeks at the end of December 2009 was 57,600, an increase of 12,300 (27.3%) from November 2009, and a rise of 18,000 (45.3%) from December 2008.
* The number of outpatients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 8 weeks at the end of December 2009 was 74,100, an increase of 11,700 (18.8%) from November 2009, but a rise of 26,900 (57.0%) from December 2008.

 

[scorza]

STATISTICAL PRESS NOTICE - NHS INPATIENT AND OUTPATIENT WAITING TIMES FIGURES - 31st December 2009


I nearly didn't bother to look, but suspicion got the better of me. It turns out that patient waiting times have increased dramatically in 2009.

* The number of inpatients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 13 weeks at the end of December 2009 was 57,600, an increase of 12,300 (27.3%) from November 2009, and a rise of 18,000 (45.3%) from December 2008.
* The number of outpatients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 8 weeks at the end of December 2009 was 74,100, an increase of 11,700 (18.8%) from November 2009, but a rise of 26,900 (57.0%) from December 2008.

Be interesting to compare those numbers with 1997.

 

[Dolph]

Be interesting to compare those numbers with 1997.

I've already quoted figures showing the average waiting time for an operation has risen since 1997.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=15826647&postcount=1184

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...t-waiting-times-rise-under-labour-791334.html

The thing is Labour have tried to break the targets down into condition targets, which means some have risen and some have dropped. The ones that have risen are often still in target but not as quick as they used to be, and the ones that were over target have dropped closer, but previously had longer lead times due to less clinical need.

This is with the massive increase in funding that is being spent poorly (and worse every year) according to the ONS.

 

[Dolph]

Is the Tories' softening of their debt management promise a mistake?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/

Robert Peston seems to think so.

Just how badly have Labour screwed our economy when we are being compared with places like Greece on the international markets? And is our population so stupid they will demand this cycle is perpetuated by using popular pressure to try and reduce the action being taken to fix the mess?

 

[Hatter The Mad]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2010/02/camerons_nixon_moment.html

This may be read as a "softening" of the Tory rhetoric around cuts. In some ways it is. But I don't think the substance of the Conservatives' post-election Budget plans has changed much in the last six months. What has changed is that they have finally decided to confront the "risking the recovery" argument head-on.

For months, I've been asking Tory strategists why Osborne or Cameron didn't assert more clearly that they wouldn't do anything to put the recovery at risk.

In their response they have often adopted the slightly patronising tone of the professional political operative talking to a naif. That would sound hopelessly defensive, they would explain - and risked giving the opposing argument more weight. Like Nixon saying "I am not a crook".

Yesterday, those concerns went out the window:

"Return to strong, sustainable global growth is still some way off. I can reassure you that we are not about to jeopardise Britain's economic future by suddenly pulling the rug from under the recovery."

 

[scorza]

Is the Tories' softening of their debt management promise a mistake?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/

Robert Peston seems to think so.

Just how badly have Labour screwed our economy when we are being compared with places like Greece on the international markets? And is our population so stupid they will demand this cycle is perpetuated by using popular pressure to try and reduce the action being taken to fix the mess?

The only comparison of the UK economy to Greece's was this:

the UK's finances are in better shape than Greece's, the UK economy is more flexible than Greece's and there isn't international pressure on the UK to improve the accuracy and reliability of government book-keeping.

The conservatives are backing off "swingeing" public spending cuts because they are starting to realise they would have too much of a negative effect on the UK economy, damaging the recovery and essential public services. It's just more evidence that George Osbourne is out of his depth I'm afraid.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

The conservatives are backing off "swingeing" public spending cuts

Where have they backed off? I don't see any backing off.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

The only comparison of the UK economy to Greece's was this:

Luckily for the Greeks, the EU will not let them fail, and is putting together a bail-out. Unluckily for the Greeks, the EU will insist on huge and immediate spending cuts and tax increases. The Greek government has lost control of the situation, and Greece may well be made an example of, specifically to encourage the other PIGS, especially Portugal and Spain.

Jose Luis Zapatero, Spain's premier, assures us there isn't a problem:

"Spanish public debt (52pc of GDP) is 20pc lower than Europe's average; our treasury spends 5pc of revenues on debt costs, less than France and Germany."

Which is very interesting.

Because on that basis, Spain looks like a paragon of fiscal virtue compared to you know who.

We've looked at the following comparison chart before, but this time we've added Spain. It shows the OECD's latest estimate of structural fiscal deficits (ie the bit of the government deficit that will not disappear automatically when the recession ends). And as we can see, when it comes to borrowing, the UK is by far the worst of the bunch, worse even than the PIGS:

And don't forget the mportance of the debt interest burden - how much of the government's revenue has to go on paying interest costs. In Spain's case it's a relatively comfortable 5%, and that was roughly where we were before the bubble burst. Unfortunately, our debt interest burden is now escalating wildly. According to the Pre-Budget Report, it will reach 8.6% in 2010-11, and the IFS estimates it will reach 9.5% the following year.

 

[=VTA=MANFACE]

David Cameron "Criminals lose their human rights when they burgle your property"

4 votes in this house.

The labour government and supporters should lose theirs, for slowly killing this country.

 

[bjorkiii]

I,m waiting for Cameron to come out with "FREE BAG OF GOLD" for every voter its laughable what they are coming out with and if people believe them well you get what you deserve .I,m going to vote for none of them and they will see what i think with what i write on the ballot paper. I know it will mean nothing but once a party gets in i don't think they give a toss about what people want.

 

[Dolph]

The only comparison of the UK economy to Greece's was this:

I never said the comparison came from Peston, but from the international markets. Our debt is starting to be treated like theirs, as are our prospects.

The conservatives are backing off "swingeing" public spending cuts because they are starting to realise they would have too much of a negative effect on the UK economy, damaging the recovery and essential public services. It's just more evidence that George Osbourne is out of his depth I'm afraid.

Or alternatively, they were never actually planning massive cuts and you've bought the Labour rhetoric that their fiscal irresponsibility is somehow more responsible than Tory plans? (See Hatter's link)

Do you really think that Osbourne is more out of depth than Brown and Darling, who got us into this utter disaster in the first place due to a complete inability to actually balance the books.

What would you say about an individual that spent, every year, on day to day expenses, 40% more than they earnt?

 

[robgmun]

I,m waiting for Cameron to come out with "FREE BAG OF GOLD" for every voter its laughable what they are coming out with and if people believe them well you get what you deserve .I,m going to vote for none of them and they will see what i think with what i write on the ballot paper. I know it will mean nothing but once a party gets in i don't think they give a toss about what people want.

You mean at the value that Gordon Brown sold our gold?

 

[Rich_L]

Do you really think that Osbourne is more out of depth than Brown and Darling, who got us into this utter disaster in the first place due to a complete inability to actually balance the books.

Yes, from everything that he has said in the last 18 months anyway.

 

[Dolph]

Yes, from everything that he has said in the last 18 months anyway.

Because our economy has done so well, short and long term predictions, during that time?

I suppose you could go for a douche and a turd argument...

 

[Rich_L]

I don't think it's a coincidence that from something like being 25 points ahead of Labour in most polls before the crisis, the Tories inept and inexperienced responses which from all I could gather was about as useful as 'Mummy, help', to now only being around 9 points ahead now, it's not just me that has little confidence in the Tory dynamic duo's handling of the economy in a crisis.

What does it tell you about the country's faith in the Opposition that when the economy is in recession, people are losing their jobs and generally things are going badly, support actually increases for the incumbent government?