Pretty good summary really. We've been living with the conservatives, it's not been easy on the NHS and welfare like allah says, but otherwise they've done a pretty good job in terms of cutting the deficit and supporting business.
Sorry my head just exploded, what fucking country have you been living in for the last 5 years?
They aimed to ELIMINATE the deficit by making massive swinging cuts. We got the cuts but we still have the deficit. The economy flatlined for the first 3 years of the coalition and they then thought ooops, and started spending some money to try to improve things by this election. The economy THEN started to recover a little (whilst the USA who had avoided the whole "austerity" bullshit were romping ahead economically (by comparison))... So the plan for their next term (if they get in) is to cut even harder and deeper... It didn't work last time and it wont EVER work.
The only economic lift we have now is based on property values and building work being rushed through while the relaxation of planning laws still holds (due to end soon).
How have they supported business? By putting VAT up to 20%? By offering a referendum on Europe that will make any company very nervous about investment until it is settled, and then what the fuck happens if the Faragists play up the immigration paranoia enough to actually make it happen?
As someone who lived through multiple Thatcher governments and multiple Blair governments I know which I would rather have more of. Sure they both got into stupid wars, but at least we had (some) genuine growth under Blair. Yet somehow the fucking tories always seem to be able to perpetuate this image of being "better" on the economy, and Labour just leave them to it?!?!?! It boggles my fucking mind.
Scrap a replacement for Trident, scrap HS2, and go for something really ambitious like high speed tube pod travel things and massive hydrogen airships. We sold the world railways, surely we are better off jumping ahead than just buying the last iteration of something we invented 200 years ago (off someone else) and instead selling the new thing to the world. We desperately need investment in innovations (like Graphene) rather than austerity and stagnation.. Not that any of the parties are offering this of course..
G.
Thank fuck for G. What happened to the rest of you? Thought BG was full of cynical old gits.
Anyway, I agree with pretty much everything G stated, they (current government) haven't scratched the surface of the deficit, and if they were honest, they would say that there is no realistic chance of clearing the UK debt. My friend was injured and bed ridden a few years back, during this time he got so bored that he email the gov website regarding the deficit and how this is affected by the government cuts. What he got sent back was along the lines of 'it is impossible to clear debt, the austerity measures make no fucking difference'. He has scanned the letter, I'll post it some time, it makes for depressing reading.
The conservatives meanwhile are going around taking all sorts of credit for the UK growth, where in actual fact, this can be credited to a number of outside factors. I was listening to a conservative loving Times Uk podcast, even those guys admitted that the growths is more likely due to cheaper fuel prices (thanks to the Arabs), and growth that would naturally happen - there were other factors too, but I forget.
It's scary that idiotic people are listening the the parties and actually thinking that they will make any wholesale positive changes, they are all part of the same establishment, the changes are minuscule. After living through Labour, Conservative and Coalition governments my life has scarcely been affected by any, just stays the same, the only exception is the massive student loans of 9,000 a year.
If people want change, don't vote, if enough people do not vote the government would be forced to change their tact. I realise this will probably never happen, but what do people expect. You don't take down the premier league by switch clubs from Man City to Chelsea. If you still pay the tickets, you're contributing to the problem.
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