Several things you've missed, the jobs they created in the NHS are being paid for out of tax payers money at a HIGHER wage than they would be giving people on benefits, Ideally we fire those people who are completely unneeded, spend the same amount on doctors, nurses and equipment so theres better treatment as opposed to faster paper being pushed, and those 10k people go and get other jobs in the UK that, pay money NOT out of our taxes. At worst, they all go on the dole and cost less money to pay.
Yes but at a higher wage DOES mean invariably a higher rate of tax, and while i agree that it still takes out of the system, it invariably helps, as with more staff it helps to get more people off waiting lists and out of beds sooner. For example my wife works at the local NHS and says the wards are in many instances bedlam, and on busy days having a lot of staff helps to free up more for people arriving. But the last comment, by that reckoning we would all be better off on the dole if we were in a Public Service job.
As for University, they aren't creating a more academically gifted nation with more people at college and University, to help with the fact that more people want to get into Uni, because more people can afford it, A levels continue to be worth less every year, as do GSCE's and university degree's which are all easier now to cope with the higher demand and less inteligent people getting in. You aren't making more inteligent people, you're simply giving those who deserve to be in uni, worse degree's that mean less and teach them less. Considering you're talking about getting disadvantaged kids into uni, as Labour are trying to move uni fee's up to 5k now further sticking it to the poor I can't see your logic.
But if more people are having qualifications it gives more emphasis to getting people on to better things. Even if they can't get a decent job. For example a mate of mine has a degree in Computing Science and he works behind a bar for 4 nights a week and works part time in the day for his own business. Does about 2 jobs building computers and doing repairs every week. I'll partially agree about grades being worth less, but people are always too quick to put people down. "I got my degree this year"... "Yeah, but its not worth the same as one from the year before"
<-- that persons confidence is hammered after a comment like that and on the news the SU (Student Union) head quite a while ago attacked a minister for making the same comment you have. Right, the logic i am trying to make the point is that: Poor families often could not have their child go to FE, so labour brought in EMA for the millennium, thus poorer families now had an avenue to get their children better. If they wanted to go to University based on the points system it is a possibility. Before it was more about catering for the families that could afford to provide for their children whilst at College as opposed to that childing having to go out to get a job. Financial Incentive. Labour won't be the only driving factor behind the £5k, lecturers will be wanting their piece of the pie to or else they'll strike. Sorry for the WoT
They've gotten too many people into going to uni, and now want to put off the poorer people to help calm the demand, because even then knew they screwed up the system.
AS for the fraudelent claims, for all we know the £252million in expenses is ALL Labour, considering the numbers of Labour and Conservative MP's, its incredibly UNSURPRISING both groups have by far the largest numbers of false claims.
Thus there is a further need and potential to recruit new talent for University, as you say its usually the well off, private educated (Cambridge Educated) individual who gets their University place.
How is it all Labour? Think about it of the Total Claim of £500m the Tories took £248m, the other parties (inc Labour) claimed £252m, its certainly not all Labour as we know Lib Dems, UKIP all have quite a few seats now across Boroughs etc.
There are more people in jail under the Labour party, as frankly if 1% of your population is in jail at any time, as your population increases, so does the amount of those in jail. It doesn't mean the police are doing a better job, nor that those in jail are less likely to reoffend, nor that society is safer because more people are in jail. In 12 years the population has gone up considerably, you'd expect jails to have more people in, however we never heard about as many people getting light sentences, off with warnings or early release of awful violent crimes 15 years ago, which is now largely due to jail overcrowding.
Interestingly i did a session with my kids on violent crime in/as a session the day and the information i had showed clearly from 1995 there were approx 330,000 Violent Crimes, in 1997 (after the massive Police Recruitment drive by none other than Labour) Crime was reduced to 180,000 incidents. I think you should check the stats of light sentences as in the same breath, the average length of stay in prison has increased under Labour and quite a few sentences are now harsher. The jails are vastly overcrowded with some 80,000 people in there i agree.
Labour has needed to build more jails for 10 years, but have flat out refused and the people being released and the sentences being given to the worst offenders reflects the total lack of space. Population increases, the number of criminals increases, the number of people in jail increases, the number of jails required increases over time. But only Labour disagree with this, they've also not done anything to help fund the penal system like multiple other countries with working facilities, even basic, for jails to help pay for themselves. Crime has worsened and Labours answer is to put as many faces out as possible to APPEAR to be fighting crime, but they are all under payed, under trained "fake" cops with no real power. Absolute waste of money, time, effort while real people are suffering as a result to the cut back in real policing being down in the country.
I agree a quick Google tells me they have built around 8 new Prisons and have as a result of the overcrowding started the building process of the newly dubbed "Titan" Prisons to help alleviate pressure. Its the same situation that the Road networks and rail networks were tens of billions of pounds worth of underfunding over 20years from the Conservatives, Labour have just made their mistake on the prisons.
But if you look at the Crime figures, it hasn't worsened under Labour, its dropped. And additionally Police do help reduce crime with a visible presence. I wouldn't say Police are underpaid especially on £20,000+, the unfortunate thing about the comment you made is that "Cops do have power (hence why they can arrest and take people in) its the Judges that have no real power to impose the sentences we'd like to see i.e. a guy i read about today in the local has 31 previous convictions and he's just been given his 2year (min) sentence.
Police imo are a little overworked, but there have been several articles written by groups including one titled. Conservative Party, a Party of Crime or something like that that pokes that under the Conservatives there were an estimated 3m crimes a year:
Chris Huhne said:
- Home Office statistics showing a 81% rise in recorded crime between 1979 and 1997, the last period of Conservative rule
-During that time, violent crime increased by 164%, robbery by 405% and burglary by 86%, he will say. He will also claim similar rates of increase now would mean almost 4m more crimes a year.
^ The above is all facts and figures from a mixture of Private/Independant Survey/Investigatory groups.
In fact if you look on the Tory website it states:
"Labours Top down approach to fighting crime has failed"
It goes on to make the main points of their "Manifesto" (loosely used as some things are very likely to change as and when it suits)
- We will scrap stop and search forms and cut bureaucracy to allow police officers to spend more of their time on the streets fighting crime
That will mean that Dave will need to scrap some elements of the HRA and the EU Regs
-We will reform the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which regulates police surveillance, so that authorisation is not needed in straightforward cases. At the same time, we will take steps to prevent the misuse of surveillance powers by local authorities.
In other words less Camera's on the streets but more lax approach to a situation by increasing Police powers to that of Judge Dredd!
- We will strengthen police powers of stop and search to enable officers to respond decisively to incidents or threats of serious crime
OK but S&S reduces knife/gun crime and takes drugs off the street - you've only got to watch someone getting S&S'd and the Police finding drugs to see this (the chances are you will have seen it followed in my instance by the geezer going ape that they've seized his £60 of weed)
-We will take our reforms further by empowering local people as well as police officers. By introducing directly-elected police commissioners, and by requiring all police forces to publish crime maps and hold quarterly beat meetings, we will enable local communities to hold their police force to account.
But Labour already Publish crime maps... Police meetings with local residents where they can openly question WTF they are doing if things are going bad.
- To ensure that we have adequate space to house offenders, our plans for renewal of the prison estate will increase capacity by 5,000 places above Labour’s plans.
Fantastic, but 3 prisons cost £3.2bn so an additionally 5,000 inmates means if building Titan prisons £1.2/£1.3bn a pop so you're up to £6bn and change
*All points above from Conservative Party Website (Crime and Justice)