The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Bruce Wayne]

...which places people on shorter time/makes them unemployed...and exacerbates the overall situation.

I wouldn't say so. We've had technology doing that for centuries and people have consistently found alternative uses for their energies. Ned Ludd hasn't exactly been proved right by time has he?

 

[davek]

I wouldn't say so. We've had technology doing that for centuries and people have consistently found alternative uses for their energies. Ned Ludd hasn't exactly been proved right by time has he?

They have, but only when capital invests in new stuff...which we know isn't happening. Money is there but being sat on. That's a structural fault that needs sorting out asap or this country like the rest of Europe are heading toward deflation, never mind stagnation.

I see today's news is that the economy has slowed. Not a good sign with the likes of Germany heading into recession too.

There needs to be a stimulus and peoples wages given a major boost.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

They have, but only when capital invests in new stuff...which we know isn't happening. Money is there but being sat on. That's a structural fault that needs sorting out asap or this country like the rest of Europe are heading toward deflation, never mind stagnation.

I see today's news is that the economy has slowed. Not a good sign with the likes of Germany heading into recession too.

There needs to be a stimulus and peoples wages given a major boost.

That's the reality though isn't it? Much of the previous growth was only achieved due to a gush of cheap credit that encouraged people to borrow too much and tip things over the edge. Now the same is happening. I mean it's easy to grow an economy when you're adding a few hundred billion of printed money to it isn't it? Throw in the lowest interest rates for centuries, and it's still barely growing.

The best thing to look at it is productivity figures, and they're stagnating, as they have been for quite a while. That's the only place true growth comes from really. Everything else is smoke and mirrors.

 

[peteblue]

This might be a big hit to the Tories if they can't get out of paying it

It needs to be taken alongside the yearly contributions made by each country to give a real picture. This is just a financial adjustment whose main problem is one of timing rather than the headline figure...........either that or we should tell them to sod off..........

 

[L4Everton]

Wait wait wait, the UK economy grew (somehow) so the Eurozone has a right to a percentage windfall of said growth to the tune of £1.7billion (thats pounds sterling people!), so is there a mechanism for when a country goes into recession the rest whip the hat round and prop it up without payback being a possibility?

Could this system be corrupted so that economic institutions could downplay/manipulate their own statistics to maintain a 0.01% growth figure and so rinse economic powerhouse neighbours like Germany or the UK?

When did the UK last get a chunk of change via Eurozone means when the neighbours were doing well by comparrison?

Keeping up with the Jones' indeed.

 

[davek]

That's the reality though isn't it? Much of the previous growth was only achieved due to a gush of cheap credit that encouraged people to borrow too much and tip things over the edge. Now the same is happening. I mean it's easy to grow an economy when you're adding a few hundred billion of printed money to it isn't it? Throw in the lowest interest rates for centuries, and it's still barely growing.

The best thing to look at it is productivity figures, and they're stagnating, as they have been for quite a while. That's the only place true growth comes from really. Everything else is smoke and mirrors.

There's a lot of private wealth out there also. You know the figures better than me no doubt about the amount of trillions in wealth being sat on as opposed to the spare capacity in economies that could be taken up. Those people have come off the last recession and have, apparently, no intention of investing in the real economy. Because they wont invest - and governments have made an orthodoxy out of 'tackling the deficit' - there's nowhere to go other than attacking services and/or wages/living standards.

It's an absolute shambles. But that's the system for you...

 

[EFCNIK]

Gotta get out of Europe really haven't we?

 

[Huyton Layne]

It needs to be taken alongside the yearly contributions made by each country to give a real picture. This is just a financial adjustment whose main problem is one of timing rather than the headline figure...........either that or we should tell them to sod off..........

Thing is it's adding about 1/5th of what the UK already pays. Seems like a major hike rather than an adjustment. Poland gets a reduction even though they pay substantially less than the UK already. They have more than a 50% population size of the UK but pay about 1/3 to 1/4 of what the UK does.

 

[Eggs]

..politics is probably more about perception than fact. Electors will simply see the UK getting stung for a significant amount of monies by EU and the only ones smiling will be UKIP.

 

[EFCNIK]

You really are something else. Did it never occur to you that "free healthcare for all" and "free education for all" are somewhat undermined by the concurrent availability of private education and private healthcare?

Here's one for you: My ex-father-in-law was a neuro-surgeon at Hope Hospital in Manchester. He told me he could earn 95% of his NHS wage whilst only working 60% of the time doing NHS work, the rest of it the lucrative private stuff. Worse than that, he was contractually obliged - even though he absolutely detested the notion - to work 10% of his time in private consultancy work. He did the minumum private work; his colleagues did the maximum.

If that isn't private enterprise undermining equality by selling "queue jumping" to the better off, I don't know what is.

Ooohh you are summin else.



Pipe down. People are allowed differences of opinion without the need to put up with that. The sooner you leftist fascists understand that the better.

 

[peteblue]

Thing is it's adding about 1/5th of what the UK already pays. Seems like a major hike rather than an adjustment. Poland gets a reduction even though they pay substantially less than the UK already. They have more than a 50% population size of the UK but pay about 1/3 to 1/4 of what the UK does.

Depends on what rules and agreements we have signed up to. If it's right, we must pay or get out. If it's wrong then we should not pay it.........it'll all come out in the wash.......

 

[L4Everton]

1.7 billion equates to 4.775 million a day, so the £55million daily fee to be part of Europe is being topped up to very nearly the £60million a day mark.
Who signed the UK up for this sham?

 

[EFCNIK]

1.7 billion equates to 4.775 million a day, so the £55million daily fee to be part of Europe is being topped up to very nearly the £60million a day mark.
Who signed the UK up for this sham?

Labour LOL

 

[Clint Planet]

Labour LOL

"In the name of Allah, somebody tell him."

 

[Billy Dean]

Ooohh you are summin else.



Pipe down. People are allowed differences of opinion without the need to put up with that. The sooner you leftist fascists understand that the better.

I see you subscribe to the view of the Italian national syndicalists of the 1920s who saw Fascism as a movement of the left as opposed to the right. Interesting. Tell me more.