March in London on the 26th?

I just cant understand how we allow the average person to vote on the running of the country when they have so little understanding of the situation. We wouldn't let random people off the street have a go at being a doctor or deciding what prescriptions a patient needs so why do we allow every tom dick and harry to vote without at least establishing their competence?
 
I mean those inside F&M, they should be arrested for breaking and entering plus criminal damage (CCTV) at minimum. That's minimum, that's not protesting, they are protesting what? Nice food?
 
dirtydog said:
They aren't deep. It is just that spending was so MASSIVELY out of control under Labour that any reduction seems harsh. It is easy to spend money on your (the country's) credit card and win popularity, and then bleat when the next government tries to rein in this madness. I totally understand why many people are opposed to the cuts and think they are deep, harsh and politically driven. But the truth is, the cuts are very modest, they probably aren't nearly enough, and we are in a hole like you wouldn't believe. You think things are bad now? Wait until your sterling paper money isn't worth the paper it's printed on. That is the path we are on, unless we get a bloody grip of our borrowing and spending.
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Very true.

People need to understand that the cuts will only reduce the amount by which the national debt is rising. It will still continue to rise in the coming years. There are no plans for repayment of the national debt. Natioanl debt is currently rising around £150 billion per annum

Also there was a budget surplus when John Major left office. What did the Labour government do? Spend, Spend, Spend, money they didn't have and now the country is in a mess. At least the coalition government is tackling the problem before its to late and we have to go cap in hand to the IMF.
 
On the BBC right now were two people, one advocating faster cuts. The other believing that people working on shop floors are the public sector....
 
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dirtydog said:
You agree then that the public sector is out of control and needs serious reform. This is not withstanding that there are many bloody good workers in the public sector who we need and value.
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Without a shadow of a doubt, and I'd state that 75% of the people who I know who have marched today would also agree with the above.

You will always have an element of road staff/nurses etc vs management, but having worked in management before a career change to become a Paramedic I would like to think I have a slightly better view of things.

We have such a massive amount of non front line staff in the service, it really is obscene. A lot are obviously required and have important roles in running the service, but the amount of people who are on £50k+ and then £70k+ is jaw dropping. All the while new front line Paramedic are on £22k. Yes some will more than justify their large wages, but I could hazard a ratio of 5:1 aren't.

The labour government also handed a blank cheque for the whole of the UK's ambulance services to set up HART teams( Hazard's Area Response Team ). The funding is from the government, and they have all the latest kits, some 30-40 of them trained in the US of A, brand new kitted Nissans and Defenders. Of course all the staff that got the jobs where the fittest and best the service had to offer.

So in a act of pure brilliance, due to the fact they are more or less ready for a terrorist act, they don't do very much. Initially ours sat on a brand new HART only station, doing nothing much. Kept vehicles clean and trained on equipment, all the while the rest of the service is on near breaking point.

After a couple of months of unrest, they now have to do a couple on the road shifts in their fancy new 4x4 Volvos every three rota weeks. But that still leaves a team of six staff ready to go just in case of a specialist emergency 24/7 on station. That means around £210k a year of wages paid for by the government for not doing much ( that without taking into account the team leaders and the management in the HART structure ). The concept is brilliant, but can we justify the cost? These staff could be out on the road and could be recalled if anything was to happen, maybe with say a 30min extra delay.

Multiply those costs for one area by all the ambulance services in the UK and it must be a LOT of money. See they've just put up for a HART team in Wales, and now require a Team Trainer : http://www.jobs.nhs.uk/cgi-bin/vacdetails.cgi?selection=912639081



Once they sort out the top heavy structure and the inefficiency of those in managerial posts, they can come back and look at making cuts to our benefits, our wages and our budgets. But until then, the ones out on the road 12hrs a day, getting abused, dealing with sights people never wish to see, dealing with people in their darkest hour, driving 12 year old Ambulances and having to be apologetic for the time it took to get to them, messing up our bodyclocks week in week out.

Then come back and tell us our pension is going to be cut, even though our bodies can't take another 37 years of the job as it is. Then take £3k a year off us and tell us there's no cost of living for the next three years.

The Mrs works in the council, and they come across even worse!
 
dirtydog said:
They aren't deep. It is just that spending was so MASSIVELY out of control under Labour that any reduction seems harsh. It is easy to spend money on your (the country's) credit card and win popularity, and then bleat when the next government tries to rein in this madness. I totally understand why many people are opposed to the cuts and think they are deep, harsh and politically driven. But the truth is, the cuts are very modest, they probably aren't nearly enough, and we are in a hole like you wouldn't believe. You think things are bad now? Wait until your sterling paper money isn't worth the paper it's printed on. That is the path we are on, unless we get a bloody grip of our borrowing and spending.
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DD posts something I agree with? Well **** me, wouldn't have expected that in a month of sundays!
 
What this country needs is a new approach, im thinking i'd make a good PM!

Anyway iv had a few now and my wife says i have to go for an Indian, good night all :)
 
dirtydog said:
The disadvantages today are that we are spending circa £100 million PER DAY on interest payments on our debt. That is a bloody hell of a lot of money which could otherwise be spent on productive things such as schools, hospitals, roads, cutting taxes, what have you.

Longer term, if we stay on this path? The pound sterling will collapse, our money will be worthless, people's pensions will be destroyed, millions of ordinary people will suffer extraordinary hardships. The elite won't. Ordinary people will.
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yes, yes, yes but, the rub is this.

yes we have to have cuts, but we also need to face up to facts as a nation.

if we end up with a large number of unemployed and not much economic growth, plus a shed load of inflation, our debt is going to spiral out of control anyway, the only solution is to significantly reduce our cost of living.

Now how do you do that?

Well food.. no going up
energy.. no going up
taxes... no, they have to go up.

ok wise guy what do we do

George Osbourne knows exactly what we have to do, invent stuff, make stuff and sell it abroad, he said as much in his budget speech.
The only way we can do this is to reduce wages and stop spending money on houses and other useless assets. Oh we also need to import a lot fewer German cars.

But the coalition are desperately propping up the housing market and the banks that ride the merry go round.

The collapse is inevitable it's just a case of when.

Labour might at least get us to the bail out and hence real recovery more quickly. Not by intention though.
 
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