Boat Drinks Virtual Election

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Matblack

I have to say I agree with this, I think Labour handled the recent crisis as well as anyone could given the circumstances and Brown is getting a rough deal.

I agree with this to a limited extent. I do think Gordon Brown (as Chancellor) did a lot to get us into this - both in setting up the (lack of) supervision for the banks, and raiding the coffers and selling off a load of our gold (at a knock-down price) when times were good.

Credit where its due on him taking the lead with the banks (and it's looking more likely UK will make a profit on that deal). As for the Government's coffers, well the jury is still out on that one - we may never know.

[Glaucus]

Originally Posted by Matblack

I have to say I agree with this, I think Labour handled the recent crisis as well as anyone could given the circumstances and Brown is getting a rough deal.

They caused a lot of the problem and they didn't handle it well. Most of Europe was out of recession a full 6months+ before us.
How is any of that well handled.

[Matblack]

Originally Posted by Mark

Trident

So we keep a sledgehammer nuclear solution which is only good for MAD over a solution which can be tactically delivered to destroy a target without causing the mass destruction of Trident.

As for Patriot, which of the following countries do we pervive as a threat; Taiwan, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Spain. They are the ones with Patriot systems.

You might as well bring all the Trident warheads back to the UK and store them under the Houses of Parliament and threaten to blow ourselves up if anyone attacks us, the effect would be exactly the same as using the multi billion pound delivery system and would save us a bob or too. Trident is white elephant of massive proportions in my book.

MB

[jmc41]

Labour is more of a bad thing, Tories are likely to screw everything up again, Clegg would probably have a heart attack if he got in.

That said, I've normally voted Lib Dem in the past and figure as someone else said a Cons/Lib coalition of some sort might be a good thing. I imagine many people would disagree but I'm not an expert on politics so feel free

Also I don't believe all this stuff about parties saying they won't make deals. About as likely as Camerons promises to increase public spending while lowering the national debt.

I do love how Brown is suffering after enjoying the years on plenty while chancellor.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by AcidHell2

They caused a lot of the problem and they didn't handle it well. Most of Europe was out of recession a full 6months+ before us. How is any of that well handled.

That has a lot more to do with our Economy than it does anything the Government has done. We're a largely service economy these days (and like it or not, a lot of that is banking), whereas Germany, for example, has a lot larger manufacturing base (and thus wasn't so prone to the impacts of bank woes).

[Matblack]

Originally Posted by AcidHell2

They caused a lot of the problem and they didn't handle it well. Most of Europe was out of recession a full 6months+ before us.
How is any of that well handled.

6 months is nothing in the grand scheme of things, if the Tories had been in over the last two years we might as well be in Greece right now, at least it would be warmer.

MB

[Glaucus]

Originally Posted by Mark

That has a lot more to do with our Economy than it does anything the Government has done. We're a largely service economy these days (and like it or not, a lot of that is banking), whereas Germany, for example, has a lot larger manufacturing base (and thus wasn't so prone to the impacts of bank woes).

Which is down to the government. Also spending record amounts at a time of boom, is ridiculous and set us up for the fall.

[Haly]

Originally Posted by Mark

Best not vote Lib Dem then. They shout from the rooftops about their £10k tax allowance (which, by the way, pensioners already get and those in most need won't benefit from).

Why do you think they wouldn't benefit?

The 10k tax allowance would help a lot of people I suspect. Considering a minimum wage full time worker would roughly earn 12k a year before tax, only being taxed on 2k of that income would make a considerable difference to people already on low incomes.

I know most of the people I work with and various other acquaintances would be helped immensely by the extra they'd have if they weren't taxed for the first 10k.

Personally I'd be happy to just have the 10% tax bracket back as in my household it'd help us quite a bit. Then again I see no reason why people on such low incomes should be taxed as much as someone on a much higher income.
There need to be more divisions of tax brackets imo assuming people want a fairer society. The 10k tax allowance or return of the 10% tax bracket would help that.

[Matblack]

Originally Posted by Haly

assuming people want a fairer society.

Why on earth would the majority want that? The majority would rather drive through the wreckage of society if they can do it in a nice car with an expensive CD player.

MB

[Garp]

Originally Posted by AcidHell2

Which is down to the government. Also spending record amounts at a time of boom, is ridiculous and set us up for the fall.

The very best thing to do during a recession is invest in infrastructure:
1) It's cheaper during recession than at other times
2) It creates a lot of jobs which in turn bolsters the economy
3) When the recession is finally over you've got new infrastructure in place that can be taken advantage of.