[Omah]

CHANCELLOR GEORGE OSBORNE

People know that promises of quick fixes and more spending this country can't afford, at times like this, are like the promises of a quack doctor selling a miracle cure.

GOVERNMENT BORROWING
Extra £111bn in borrowing over five years

PUBLIC SECTOR PAY AND PENSIONS
1% cap on public sector pay rises for two years after the end of current freeze next year

What we offer is a government that has a plan to deal with our nation's debts to keep rates low; a government determined to support businesses and support jobs.

BUSINESS AND JOBS
OBR forecast of total public sector job losses up from 400,000 to 710,000

Credit easing programme to underwrite up to £40bn in low-interest loans to small and medium-sized firms

£1bn business finance partnership to raise money for medium-sized firms

Regional Growth regeneration fund to get £1bn in extra funding

£250m support package for energy-intensive firms, £500m for science

OBR forecast of total public sector job losses up from 400,000 to 710,000

£1bn "youth contract" to subsidise six-month work placements for 410,000 young people

HOUSING

£400m scheme to kick-start stalled construction projects in England

INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING
£5bn new spending over three years, including £1bn for the rail network

Go-ahead for 35 road and rail projects across England

Aim to unlock a further £20bn in investment from pension funds.


It seems to me that the Government is on a spending spree, giving billions to the bosses of business and industry while putting a million workers an the dole and replacing them with slave labour, funding the whole lot by printing more money and plundering pension funds .....

[Omah]

First Minister Carwyn Jones says the Welsh government expects to receive about £300m extra by 2015 as a result of Westminster spending decisions.

Its capital budget for building work will get an additional £216m as a result of Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement.

Mr Osborne pledged to work with the Welsh government on improving the M4.

But Mr Jones described an aspiration to introduce regional public sector wages as "code for cutting pay in Wales".

The despicable Tory government taking from the poor to give to the rich ..... again .....

[Pyramid*]

I actually think they have not a bloody clue what they are doing.

I don't deny that it appears they took the reins from the prev Labour G'ment to find what a bliddy mess it all was and had a hell of a hard job on their hands, but I cannot help feel that this is not the right way to go.

Start messing with people's long, weary years of adding to pension funds - with no stability in which to guarantee protection of pension funds - it's the road to ruin.

Of course: given their own status on the social ladder, they are completely and utterly out of touch as to the sheer meaning of gambling with Joe Public's forthcoming pension mean - as in the effect on an individual Joe Public having to live on one.

They are all so well cushioned financially, that they literally have no concept at all -utterly out of touch with with working class and how heavily reliant they are on the G'Ment not screwing up their retiremnent pensions.

[MTVN]

The growth figures are very worrying, not only is this years forecast down from 1.7% to 0.9% but they're now actually predicting growth to be even less than that next year, it's only meant to be 0.7% when a year ago we were being told it'd be 2.5%. Maybe to a certain extent you can put the blame on the Eurozone crisis but it shouldn't make that big a difference

[Pyramid*]

Originally Posted by MTVN

The growth figures are very worrying, not only is this years forecast down from 1.7% to 0.9% but they're now actually predicting growth to be even less than that next year, it's only meant to be 0.7% when a year ago we were being told it'd be 2.5%. Maybe to a certain extent you can put the blame on the Eurozone crisis but it shouldn't make that big a difference

It does have a big impact. It is monies that we are having to put out, that would still remain in our own purse......... going into the Eurozone was deemed by many to be an incredibly bad move years ago when it was being contemplated: now it's proving exactly why.

[Kazanne]

Labour got us in a terrible mess,i feel sorry for the ones having to sort it out,worse still,the government now will be getting it sorted by being strict and people will go and vote labour back in as they dont like having to 'tough' it while the mess is sorted and all the work that is being done now will all be undone again!! so we'll be back to square one.

[arista]

Yes and Labour now claim
they can fix it but on polls the 2 Eds are not trusted.

This is the best way to go now sticking with the Conservative-LibDem Plan
sure it is slower.

But then look around the whole World
its slower everyplace.

Even in China
which was on Ch4News last week
a Whole New City is empty
as they have a Property Bubble gone down.

[Omah]

Originally Posted by Pyramid*

I actually think they have not a bloody clue what they are doing.

I don't deny that it appears they took the reins from the prev Labour G'ment to find what a bliddy mess it all was and had a hell of a hard job on their hands, but I cannot help feel that this is not the right way to go.

Start messing with people's long, weary years of adding to pension funds - with no stability in which to guarantee protection of pension funds - it's the road to ruin.

Of course: given their own status on the social ladder, they are completely and utterly out of touch as to the sheer meaning of gambling with Joe Public's forthcoming pension mean - as in the effect on an individual Joe Public having to live on one.

They are all so well cushioned financially, that they literally have no concept at all -utterly out of touch with with working class and how heavily reliant they are on the G'Ment not screwing up their retiremnent pensions.

Exactly .....

The Tories are printing and borrowing billions in order to line the pockets of the bankers and businessmen - when one of that lot retires, they have millions salted away, they get a massive golden handshake, an enormous pension, a huge share option and highly-lucrative but non-executive seats on various boards of directors .....

[arista]

"I actually think they have not a bloody clue what they are doing."


No Vince Cable is doing well getting Exports going
and its a Slow Down but it can get better.
It will take longer.


And at this time if New Labour still had power
then it would be worse.


Conservative - LibDem is better

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Omah

Exactly .....

The Tories are printing and borrowing billions in order to line the pockets of the bankers and businessmen - when one of that lot retires, they have millions salted away, they get a massive golden handshake, an enormous pension, a huge share option and highly-lucrative but non-executive seats on various boards of directors .....

What exactly IS the pay and pension of a constituency MP? I don't mean the PM or the Chancellor, I mean an ordinary, hard-working MP of any party. You don't know, do you. It's much less than middle-management would get in the private sector. For instance. my MP local earns less than one third of what the leader of the local council gets, and less than half the pension pot. Yes they get expenses but only a handful of them exploited it and most didn't claim one penny that they weren't, not just legally, but morally entitled to. Ordinary constituency MPs have regular surgeries with their constituents, helping them sort out a range of problems - benefits, housing, social problems, immigration, custody and maintenance... all sorts of stuff. Most MPs are totally in touch with what's happening in the real world. But people don't really want to hear about them. They want to concentrate on the myth that they're all living high on the hog and they lump them all in together.

All anyone ever sees is the handful of MPs who make the news, usually for something negative. No one hears about the good stuff that the ordinary back-benchers do... because if they are bad at their job they are likely to lose it at the next election. If you ever need the help of your MP you'll see what I mean.

[Omah]

Originally Posted by Livia

What exactly IS the pay and pension of a constituency MP? I don't mean the PM or the Chancellor, I mean an ordinary, hard-working MP of any party. You don't know, do you.

Yes, I do .....

The current annual salary for an MP is £65,738. In addition, MPs receive allowances to cover the costs of running an office and employing staff, having somewhere to live in London and in their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency.

Originally Posted by Livia

It's much less than middle-management would get in the private sector. For instance. my MP local earns less than one third of what the leader of the local council gets, and less than half the pension pot. Yes they get expenses but only a handful of them exploited it and most didn't claim one penny that they weren't, not just legally, but morally entitled to. Ordinary constituency MPs have regular surgeries with their constituents, helping them sort out a range of problems - benefits, housing, social problems, immigration, custody and maintenance... all sorts of stuff. Most MPs are totally in touch with what's happening in the real world. But people don't really want to hear about them. They want to concentrate on the myth that they're all living high on the hog and they lump them all in together.

All anyone ever sees is the handful of MPs who make the news, usually for something negative. No one hears about the good stuff that the ordinary back-benchers do... because if they are bad at their job they are likely to lose it at the next election. If you ever need the help of your MP you'll see what I mean.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8072031.stm

Do MPs think they are poor?

What's a typical person's weekly income in the UK? About £390 after tax and benefits, adjusted for household income*. That's for a two-adult household without children. How did I get the figure - it's the median average, which is a technical way of saying it's roughly the figure in the middle of all incomes.

Now, where do MPs fit in to this picture? Let's take an MP living with a non-working partner, the kids grown up and gone, and no other income.

If we treat MPs' expenses as income then the average expenses alone would place the MP household above about 30% of the population or 17 million individuals.

On salary alone, the MP's household is above about 91% of the population - 55 million individuals. About 9% have household incomes higher than this.

And lump them both together (salary and expenses) - our honourable member sits above about 96% of the population - 58 million individuals. A working partner would push them higher still.

[Kazanne]

IF people want this country on it's feet again,then times will be hard,but it's not REALLY hard is it ?compared to years ago when we didn't have computers TVs Washers and all our luxury gadgets,Of course people will be pissed off that we cant always get what we want,we have been totally spoiled for so long and now cannot live without todays luxuries,how many of these so called 'poor' families have no TV,PC etc,not many and most of them have game consoles,smoke and have the basics.I liken it to small kids who are told NO they cannot have what they want and the kid stamping it's feet,The government HAVE to be tough,our recovery will be slow,but IF this government keep at it,it will come good,IF Labour get back in the alternative doesn't bear thinking about,short term will be great,long term it will be dire!!

[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15914145

Chancellor George Osborne plans to attract billions of pounds from British pension funds to boost £30bn worth of infrastructure schemes.

The government is expected to provide £5bn of the money by 2014-15 while it is "targeting" £20bn to come from big British funds.

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the £5bn figure was "pretty small" compared with cuts to capital spending.

The infrastructure announcement comes ahead of Tuesday's Autumn Statement in which Chancellor George Osborne will outline spending plans.

The Treasury hopes two-thirds of the £30bn earmarked for infrastructure schemes will come from the National Association of Pension Funds and the Pension Protection Fund.

He's got a bliddy cheek - on the one hand, he's going to sack 700,000 workers who have been paying into pension funds and replace them with "yoofs" who won't be keeping the funds topped up - on the other hand, he's wants to use workers pension funds to line the pockets of his Tory business cronies and City bankers .....

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told BBC Radio 4's World at One that £5bn of government investment over three years was a "pretty small number", as capital spending was expected to be cut from £40bn in 2010-11, to £24bn in 2013-14.

The money raised from private investors appeared to be "aspirational" rather than guaranteed - unless the government was planning to offer incentives, which might turn out to be expensive.

Yeah, more in hope than expectation - this government talks the talk - projects costing billions, investing in the future, etc, etc - but is merely stealing, borrowing and printing money to keep the rich in a manner to which they have become accustomed and the poor in their place .....

[joeysteele]

It was expected, I do believe that in part, the cuts made were too severe and too quickly done but I also believe the Conservatives unhampered by the Lb Dems could have had in place safeguards.They haven't though been left much room for manouvre should outside forces affect the UK's chances of success and it does seem after all that they have no plan b.

I feel that the Lib Dems have failed to assist the success of returning to growth,they were only interested in some Ministerial positions and will surely pay a massive price at the next election.
The Conservatives likely had the right idea's, they have though been hampered by the Lib Dems biting at their ankles all the time and I would guess most Conservative MPs are annoyed that David Cameron cannot call a new election,because, despite the poll ratings I think an election now could wrongfoot Labour, they are all over the place with their ideas,it could have been that the voters would now have backed the Conservatives especially with the Lib Dems so weak in the polls, to sort the mess out.

As it is, we are going to trudge on until 2015, things are unlikely to improve and all I can see is one main opposition party gaining only because it is the 'only' UK opposition party now. So, Labour win the next election becasue the Conservatives have been unable to really go for success,hampered by the Lib Dems.

I also fear that todays gloomy news and forecasts are soon to be changed for the worse again,more job losses and less spending by people tightening their belts further.
World events are going to make matters likely worse and there seems to be little prospect of any chance of better news for likely a decade to come.

What can the Conservatives do, they cannot ditch the Lib Dems, they cannot implement their main programme,they cannot afford to follow any line of the Labour party, who seem to be all over the place as to economic policy,seemingly learning little from their past experience.
So on effect the Conservative part of the coalition cannot move very much so is stuck with a programme that will harm more and not succeed.They should have gone for the jugular on economic policy and maybe things could have been stronger, as it is, once you water things down as they've had to for the Lib Dems then it weakens the effects of policy and then other factors erode any success that may come or could have come.

It is sad the weakest and most vulnerable will be hit very hard for many more years to come now and that should also worry the wealth creators as there are many years of doom and gloom coming and business will suffer dramatically.