The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Joey66]

Definitely more. Fair play to Gideon as he does have a History degree. Oh, and an O Level in maths.

The track record so far reads like........... (lifted obviously)

In 2010 George Osborne made a number of bold predictions about how his ideological austerity experiment would benefit the UK economy. The mainstream press has long-since forgotten about these fabulously over-optimistic predictions, but they are still available from the Office for Budget Responsibility (here) should anyone want to look at them and compare them with what has actually happened (here).

Eliminating the deficit: In 2010 Osborne promised that his austerity experiment would completely eliminate the budget deficit by 2015. In reality the UK is still borrowing £100 billion per year, meaning that he's failed to even halve the deficit.

Government debt: In 2010 Osborne predicted that the UK national debt would have reached £1.232 trillion by 2015. In reality it has risen to £1.489 trillion, which means he has borrowed £257 billion more than he said he would.

The size of the economy: In 2010 Osborne predicted that the UK economy would grow to £1.916 trillion by 2015, but in reality it is only £1.822 trillion, meaning that he's borrowed more than a quarter of a trillion more than he said he was going to, in order to make the UK economy almost £100 billion smaller than he said it was going to be.

Debt/GDP: In 2010 Osborne predicted that debt would peak at 67.2% of GDP in 2015 and then start falling. In reality the debt has reached 80.4% of GDP and it's still growing dramatically. This means that he's now overseen the longest sustained increase in the national debt since the Second World War!

The UK Credit Rating: Before he became Chancellor George Osborne staked his reputation on maintaining the UK's AAA Credit Ratings, but in 2013 the UK economy was downgraded for the first time since the 1970s.

Worse than Labour: George Osborne continually harps on about how Labour would threaten his "economic recovery" but what he doesn't tell you is that in just four years he's created more new debt than every single Labour government in history combined!

Earnings: One of the strongest indicators that Osborne's ideological austerity experiment is really bad for Britain is the fact that he has overseen the longest sustained decline in wages since records began.The fact that millions of workers are significantly worse off than they were in 2008 thanks to George Osborne's deliberate campaign of wage repressionexplains why economic demand is still so weak and the "recovery" so slow. As a result of Osborne's policies, ordinary workers have suffered the worst declines in income since records began.

The most important thing that only Ed milliband has mentioned in all this time of the Tory thriving employment - PRODUCTIVITY DOWN!

 

[Blue 1]

You've got to admire the Tories' sheer bloody brass neck, haven't you? Faced with a housing crisis, their solution is something that most experts say helped start it.

 

[Joey66]

Well that's all well and good, but I doubt that an interactive game on a tablet designed at monitoring your energy usage is going to turn around the appalling rates of deaths for pensioners who can't afford heating every winter, whilst the profits of energy companies soar.

Labour are not just pledging a energy price free they are planning to get them lower - remember the Tories saying they could not be Frozen, and the oil price has dropped by 1/2 yet fuel came down the it is now rising that's the Tories for you!
Scotland with independence would be stuffed now , but the Westminster crowd from all parties panicked!

 

[Joey66]

Not sure we'll get a 2nd election, unless of course there is a successful vote of no confidence.

I think I'm right in thinking that this last government fixed it so that parliament is a fixed term of 5 years.

It has to be a two thirds majority of no confidence to get another election!

 

[peteblue]

I think DC has nailed it and shot all of the labour foxes. Expect twittersphere and other social media to go into meltdown.....

 

[peteblue]

You've got to admire the Tories' sheer bloody brass neck, haven't you? Faced with a housing crisis, their solution is something that most experts say helped start it.

Right to buy happened 33 years ago. How long were Labour in power to build additional homes ? We have a housing crisis because the population has grown and been imported..........It is reported that there are currently 10 empty homes for every homeless family............if anyone was really serious about this it could be sorted.........

 

[The Esk]

I think DC has nailed it

The only thing he has nailed is the lid to his own political coffin - totally devoid of new ideas, totally unfunded commitments and a lacklustre campaign all round.

Do you think he will survive when the Conservatives fail to form a Government? lol

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Right to buy happened 33 years ago. How long were Labour in power to build additional homes ? We have a housing crisis because the population has grown and been imported..........It is reported that there are currently 10 empty homes for every homeless family............if anyone was really serious about this it could be sorted.........

Indeed, 635,000 empty homes in the UK at the moment.

https://www.gov.uk/government/polic...-available-homes/supporting-pages/empty-homes

 

[The Esk]

Indeed, 635,000 empty homes in the UK at the moment.

https://www.gov.uk/government/polic...-available-homes/supporting-pages/empty-homes

Yet the number of houses with multiple occupancy of 6 or more has grown by 25% to 543,000 ......

 

[roydo]

I think it is pretty difficult to nail any party for the current housing crisis/situation/bubble.

The policies in the UK have been a shambles for decades.

 

[The Mighty Quint]

I have a friend with a PhD, he has no common sense. I have no doubt that Balls is clever, he managed to keep claiming expenses for his second home, however I would not trust him with a £20 note to buy a couple of drinks.......

And what exactly has Osborne done in the last 5 years that makes you trust him?, the fact he's hit the poor and disabled with savage cuts and still not cleared the deficit as he said he would, infact he's hardly touched it in 5 years, and doubled the national debt to nearly 1.4 trillion, the Tory's have increased the national debt more in 5 years than Labour did in 13.

Great job them Tory's are doing with the economy, Osborne's a genius.

It's an absolute myth the Tory's are good for the economy and I'm sick of hearing it from them, billy bullshitters the lot of them.

 

[Jib in lad]

I think it is pretty difficult to nail any party for the current housing crisis/situation/bubble.

The policies in the UK have been a shambles for decades.

http://www.bristol247.com/channel/n...nvestigations/in-the-grip-of-a-housing-crisis

 

[rascal]

To lessen the housing crisis we've just got to stop LFC from buying all the homes in Anfield.

 

[Brennan]

I don't really understand why people in social housing would get a 70 percent discount on their house to allow them to buy it, while people like me who happen to earn enough money to pay private rent but nowhere near enough to buy a house are stuck with substantially worse schemes.

I'd arguably be better off getting an easier, lower paying job and moving into a council house it seems.

 

[roydo]

http://www.bristol247.com/channel/n...nvestigations/in-the-grip-of-a-housing-crisis

Quite. Decades of folk being quite happy to the expedential rise in house prices, so the only ones being built, mainly, are like these.



Or this.



Both brown field developments by the way. Built on land that had sat idle for decades. Probably a handful of "affordable" homes somewhere.