Just read in another window that a cap on rail prices could be lifted to tackle the budget deficit. These politicians are full of shit when they talk about the environment and banning cars, they just want money from car taxes because public transport is dire, for many people even the 1st bus of the day won't get you to work. The Tories have decimated our manufacturing industry, they've left us relying on the banks and now look what's happened, the banks have screwed us over. The Tories are letting them off the hook and punishing everyone else for what the banks have done. VAT to go up but how much does Lord fucking Ashcroft pay in tax? NONE. We're all in this together? Bollocks. These cuts have nothing to do with the deficit. They are ideological and are only there to help the rich rob the poor. The Tories are a minority party propped up by a party which is going back on its manifesto left, right and centre.

We didn't elect them, we didn't vote for them, we don't want them, we don't need them, and the sooner they are gone the better.

This is what they do every single time they are in control. Which is why I couldn't believe you lot voted them in. I've come to the conclusion that the majority of people who voted in England were either not born, or too young to remember, the last time the tories were in power. Or just dumb fucks.

It probably wont go far to making you feel better but you should try living here in Ireland. Banks fucked around in the most impossible ways imaginable. One bank president loaned himself somethin like 90 million from his own bank and was covering up the debts. Hes now 'bankrupt' and Now we're having to bail all these banks out. Two have been nationalised and we're up to somethin like 90 billion in total pouring money into a black hole of bad debts left by a property bubble...money that we arent ever gonna get back. This is all tax payers money. Our goverment need to be brought out, lined up and shot each and every one of them.

But I do agree Britain voting the conservatives back in is bat shit crazy. They only ever were for big business with the british public having to foot the bill. We're at the bottom of our pile of shit here, I think Britain is just about to enter its pile of shit in this regard.

I like Daniel Hannan.

Shouldnt Spaggy Boy have posted how we are all bigots or asshole americans for not responding in greater numbers to this thread?

also,

Liked this guy better when he was banned. The idea of him is always sadly preferably to the reality of him.

What was with Thatcher and the coal industry? Did she withdraw subsidies or some such?

Thatcher did a lot of damage to our coal industry amongst others. I won't deny it, Skargill was a bit dumb as he went on strike in the summer and not in the winter. Some say her decisions were not economic decisions, but were made out of spite for the working class. What I do know, is that people in work pay tax, don't go on the dole, and contribute to the economy they live in. Not quite sure who was banned and then unbanned?

Look, I'm not going to start a row by posting what I actually think about you & your comment. But I will just say this:

Grow up.

Anyway...

I'm a bit of a lefty at heart but you are all forgetting the sheer scale of the debt that Labour left us with. To my mind it makes sense that you try and pay off you debts before you borrow more. To turn around and say, "The economy's in trouble because we owe over £900billion, but my fantastic solution would be to borrow more!!", is utter stupidity.

What choice did Labour have after the banking crisis? Let the country collapse? Let people lose their savings? All 3 parties were committed to tackling the deficit. Another question is fairness. Clearly the Tory scum are not cutting fairly: targeting disabled people, shutting down refuges for women suffering domestic violence, less police on the street (broken Britain anyone?) Most of these cuts are ideological and the deficit is just a smoke screen. Tax evasion costs more than benefit fraud but is being targeted less. The banks caused this mess and are getting away scot free.

Where's the deficit when Lord Ashcroft pays nothing in tax? Where's the deficit when the Tories wanted to give a tax break for the richest estates in Britain? And from efficiency savings they called pure fiction!

Yes Labour borrowed and spent before the banking crisis. I'm not going to start a clearing-up-mess-from-previous-government argument as they just round in circles, plus I don't know enough detail to use that to justify it. I've read somewhere that borrowing and spending before the banking crisis has been pretty much the same since just after the second world war, no matter which party has been in power. I can't confirm that it's true, if anyone has any data to prove it either has or hasn't they're welcome to post.

Maybe its an ill informed stereotype but the view from here was that the torys operate on the old boys network. They look after their own, which is why big business and the upper classes never ever get hit with the cutbacks. Again, that could just be a stereotype but it definitely seems to apply when they are in power.

Its fuckin bizarre that the banks arent held to account for their actions. Both here and im Britain. Its insane what Theyve done and gotten away with.

I can't speak for Britain, but this sounds like it might be right to me since that's roughly how it has been in the US (for example, conservative icon Reagan was responsible for massive amounts of debt, as was welfare state champion LBJ).

Pretty much right on the old boys network. It extends beyond the Tories, particularly to the media. The media would have expected Tony Blair to let this country be fucked during and after the banking crisis. He wouldn't, and they would have turned on him.

David Cameron is one of the most right-wing prime ministers we have ever had. If Maggie Thatcher had been leader of the Labour party but not done anything differently, he would have condemned her just as he has Brown. He resents her as being too left wing but he will never, ever admit it.

I dread to see what October 20th will pull up. As a public sector worker in Northern Ireland working on English child support cases... well... *gulp*

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_britain_spending

Britain slashes spending, raises retirement age
By Sumeet Desai Sumeet Desai – 35 mins ago

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will cut half a million jobs, slash the welfare state and raise the retirement age as part of an unprecedented cost-cutting drive that will test the strength of both the economy and the ruling coalition.

Conservative finance minister George Osborne's spending review on Wednesday turned up the heat on the Liberal Democrat coalition partners and kept alive a debate about whether Britain's economic recovery can survive the cuts.

Unions reacted angrily but public protest in Britain in Britain has so far been muted compared with France, where unions are trying to force a retreat on pension reform with protests including blockades of fuel depots.

"Tackling this budget deficit is unavoidable. The decisions about how we do it are not. There are choices. And today we make them," Conservative finance minister George Osborne told parliament.

The fiscal squeeze over the next four years will total more than 100 billion pounds ($157 billion).

Analysts are not convinced, however, that the government will be able to see through the cuts through especially given that it has moved more of the burden on to the welfare budget, lopping off an extra 7 billion pounds on top of the 11 billion of savings previously announced.

As a result of the welfare raid, budgets for government departments outside protected areas like health and overseas aid would shrink by 19 percent, not the quarter announced in the budget.

Capital spending, Osborne said, would be 2 billion pounds higher per year than originally planned because of the difficulty of getting out of contractual obligations.

Osborne said that the state pension age for men and women will rise to 66 by 2020. "Raising the state pension age is what many countries are now doing, and will by the end of the next parliament save over 5 billion pounds in a year."

Around 490,000 public sector jobs are likely to disappear over the next four years.

French protesters are resisting a rise in their retirement age to 62 and British rail union leader Bob Crow urged Britons to look "to the kind of resistance being mobilized by the French trade unions ... as an example of how to repel austerity cuts."

UNION UNREST

There have also been protests against the austerity budget that Spain's parliament is due to approve on Wednesday, while in Portugal unions have called a general strike for November 24 as the minority government bargains for support in parliament for measures needed to shore up investor confidence.

The British government is braced for an uproar but Osborne said he had no choice given the need to cut a record budget deficit of 11 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) -- the highest in the G7 -- to around 2 percent in 5 years, a fiscal tightening of some 113 billion pounds ($178 billion), a quarter of which will come from tax rises.

No previous British government has tried anything as ambitious and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research think tank said on Wednesday it thought the government could only push through half the planned cuts.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos MORI political monitor on Tuesday showed 38 percent of people believe the center-right Conservatives have the best economic policies compared to a quarter who preferred the opposition Labour Party's stance.

The Liberal Democrats have seen their support plummet in most polls as they have become party to policies they did not support before May's election.

Much will depend on how the economy copes with the fiscal tightening. For now, the consensus is that Britain will achieve slow growth for a couple of years as the private sector picks up the baton from a deflated public sector.

The latest Reuters poll of economists' forecasts is for GDP growth of 1.6 percent this year and 1.8 percent next year..

But some economists say growth could stall because of the cuts. Many business and consumer confidence measures are already waning even before the measures begin.

(Editing by Mike Peacock/Ruth Pitchford)

Nice. Now Britain will have 500,000 additional people contributing to the tax base instead of sucking off of it. I hope this is successful, and I hope we learn from it and get rid of baseline budgeting.

For the record, I agree with raising the retirement age but don't know enough about the rest to make a qualified comment.

Meh, it was more tongue and cheek than anything.