i've just realised, we are having our trousers pulled down!

[cm1179]

It was the complete opposite. Baroness Thatcher is vilified by society these days... but nobody can dispute (unless they're just ignoring the truth) that...

She was not a class warrior. She opposed the class warriors.
She was against the political class.
She was for upwardly mobile - remember yuppies? That was the derogatory term for people who were ascending the social strata, for people who suddenly had near unlimited prospects.

In the 60s and 70s if you were born in the wrong place you could look forwards to a poorly paid manual labouring job and an early grave.

Thanks to Thatcher people could aspire and achieve anything.

Labour claim to be the party that's against the class system, but it's not really true. Certainly some of them are, but the John Prescott class warriors are the ones who will keep the class system running.

i understand it was the complete opposite, i was being a bit sarcastic and i shouldn't have.

i have spoken to many people in their 40's-60's and the majority of them say things were great under thatcher.

 

[Ahleckz]

i haven't been living massively on credit for years. what do you mean, what is my background, what the heck is it to you?

Just wondering what you do/trained in. You haven't a clue about economics (like many), and you aren't able to formulate any sort of point so I was just wondering what you did. I don't want to make assumptions, it wouldn't be fair.
So that's question number one.
Question number two, what do you think caused the deficit and what would be best to fill it? And, how are we going to stop businesses from fleeing when we tax them heavily.

 

[The Halk]

i haven't been living massively on credit for years. what do you mean, what is my background, what the heck is it to you?

What we have in our own pockets to spend is just the tip of our consumption. We spend money on education, on health on roads, on police, on defence. It's all spend on behalf of us, and we've been spending more than we had available. Everybody in the UK has enjoyed the benefits (and by enjoyed please don't mistake that for me saying you took pleasure from) so we have to pay the costs.

 

[DAIR]

I'm not super rich, and I had Japanese for dinner tonight. Stop your bleeding moaning and get a grip. Things are becoming more expensive, you are obviously to lazy to go and protest and instead just want to whinge. People have been living massively on credit for years, it was eventually going to run out. With hindsight, the regulatory bodies got it wrong. The government overspent massively.
Why don't people take responsibility for their actions? Once again, you're spouting absolute tosh without making a single point. What is your background?

Margaret Thatcher, the last of the great Premiers.

Because the truth hurts...... And can sometimes offend people.

 

[cm1179]

9. No more wars, time to admit the British Empire is long gone and look after ourselves for a while.

i believe this would make for such a better country

 

[Hatter The Mad]

Although it's not really fair to call NI a tax as it supposedly pays for your pension and healthcare.

This hasn't been the case for decades

 

[steve-h]

stop buying crap then.

Live in the woods and hunt for your food like a real man.

 

[cm1179]

Question number two, what do you think caused the deficit and what would be best to fill it? And, how are we going to stop businesses from fleeing when we tax them heavily.

the deficit was caused by poor management and recession. i may not have a degree in economics but my personal view on what caused the recession is the fact the public will hold out because they think they can get something cheaper tomorrow. why do i think this? because i'm a member of the public, living in a country where i spent most of last year not wanting to put my hand in my pocket and thinking what a mess our economy is in. i brought my first house in july 2009, when VAT was at 15% , now january 2011 , it's 5% more. it's hardly a good model, is it? i can understand why businesses leave this country but i believe the government should make it harder for them to do so.

 

[The Halk]

The government should make it harder for businesses to leave? Do you mean encouraging them to stay, or do you mean some ludicrious way to actually prevent them leaving (which isn't possible).

The recession was not caused by the public holding out. It was caused by a cascade failure across the economy when the housing bubble finally burst.

 

[DJMK4]

One garage was selling diesel at 1.39 earlier

 

[cm1179]

The recession was not caused by the public holding out.

it's what stopped us getting out of it

 

[Ahleckz]

the deficit was caused by poor management and recession. i may not have a degree in economics but my personal view on what caused the recession is the fact the public will hold out because they think they can get something cheaper tomorrow. why do i think this? because i'm a member of the public, living in a country where i spent most of last year not wanting to put my hand in my pocket and thinking what a mess our economy is in. i brought my first house in july 2009, when VAT was at 15% , now january 2011 , it's 5% more. it's hardly a good model, is it? i can understand why businesses leave this country but i believe the government should make it harder for them to do so.

The recession was caused because people WEREN'T spending?! Good grief.
How are we to make it harder for them to leave?

 

[MikeHunt79]

well, by 'we', i mean 'us' as a country and it's a lie that i say i have just realised, it's more a case of now i feel like doing something about it. what am i talking about? the cost of living in this country of course! i just filled my motor up and paid 1.29 per litre for the privelage, i then paid and even though i'm off the smokes for the month noticed that 20 marlboro was nearly £7! i understand that VAT has now gone up to a quite ridiculous 20% and it is now apparent that retailers are using this as an excuse to add a but more of a hike in price but other than have a good old moan about it, is there actually anything people can do or are we just expected to have it harder again this year than last year and repeat?

Increasing Fuel duty and vat does seem like like a bad thing to do right now... The alternative would be to raise income tax, which is highly unlikely considering who we have running the country

 

[Tummy]

How come we are having to budget?

 

[cm1179]

How are we to make it harder for them to leave?

i don't know. do you?

 

[The Halk]

Increasing Fuel duty and vat do seem like like a bad thing to do... The alternative would be to raise income tax, which is highly unlikely considering who we have running the country

It's not really the politicians fault. The public hate income tax rises. The media are able to whip us into a frenzy.

With a month of being Grand Emperor I'd scrap VAT, tax credits, most of national insurance, and a great number of other taxes, and whack income tax up a pile. I'd be able to get away with it because I'm Grand Emperor and it wouldn't be a democracy.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

the deficit was caused by poor management and recession

The cyclical part of the deficit was caused by the economic recession and will correct when the economy improves. The structural part of the deficit was sheer over-spending and won't correct itself when the economy improves - the only way to get rid of a structural deficit of £X is to cut £X.

 

[Ahleckz]

i don't know. do you?

I'm not advocating retarded measures which will make them want to leave, so I haven't thought of ways to stop this apart from not implementing said stupid measures.

 

[cm1179]

I'm not advocating retarded measures which will make them want to leave, so I haven't thought of ways to stop this apart from not implementing said stupid measures.

maybe you should?

 

[Ahleckz]

maybe you should?

Advocate stupid measures? Why would I do such a stupid thing like that? You make no sense.