Milliband is hilarious. Even his supporters arent that effusive, except for the hand picked behind

[devongunner]

This whole minimum wage thing really irritates me. Yes we want to see pay rise. But the public sector either directly or indirectly through contractors employs most on the minimum wage. How do we pay for it except by higher taxes or by cutting elsewhere. its called balancing a budget Ed, the thing Ed Balls up professes to be the master of.

Fcuk it I am emigrating to Andorra

[Brentwood]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

embarrassment. I almost feel sorry for the poor schmo.

[Classic Jorge]

Rise up, unite! You have nothing to lose but a 25p a year pay rise (which on current trends would happen anyway)!

Sterling stuff from the Hampstead Firebrand there, his dad would be proud.

[devongunner]

[Berni]

[Classic Jorge]

How bad would Dave have to be for that to happen?

[devongunner]

and many see Cameron as a privileged toff. Cutting tax to 45% was a mistake. BUT facts are that average tax rates for those earning a million plus have been higher since 2010 than during the 11 years before.

Conservatives just have a credibility issue

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[Berni]

People quite like their tory leaders to be posh. People who care that he's posh were never going to vote Tory anyway.

[Brentwood]

[Classic Jorge]

[Brentwood]

[Classic Jorge]

Crosby said the same recently.

That said, Milibot ranks almost as highly on those fronts. He also ranks up there with Farage on the 'weird' section.

Cameron could tear a puppy to pieces with his teeth on live TV and he'd still beat these lot at the next election.

[devongunner]

mistake whatever the reasoning behind it.

My point is merely that all these things are great but they have to be paid for. If we are just going to let the better off pay then eventually the wealth creators will go off and stack shelves as well. What's the point of the stress and hassle for the same money unless you are a total philanthropist in which case I admire you greatly.

Balance the budget? labour? never

[Berni]

Also, let's be honest: a Jewish PM was always going to be a difficult sell for either party (Michael Howard, anyone?). A Jewish PM who looks Jewish is even more of a problem. Add to that the funny voice, the almost incredible lack of charisma and the lack of a coherent message and he's utterly f**ked.

[devongunner]

[Classic Jorge]

Borrowing is rising and rising, GDP isn't keeping pace and we're getting deeper into the mire there.

There's only so much blaming Labour they can do four years into a parliament and lets not forget that, in the city, everything the criticised Labour for before the crash they fully supported.

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[devongunner]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

They want someone else's hard-earned and they'll vote for the f**ker who promises them it.

[Berni]

basically has to go around saying they'll maintain benefit freezes, etc in order to sound even vaguely credible.

[devongunner]

13 Years later it was 175 billion in deficit. Now I believe it is down to 75 Billion?

[Ashberto]

Formerly of Primrose Hill.

[Classic Jorge]

Look, I'm saying they're all useless c**ts here.

[Classic Jorge]

Wasn't he brought up in Savernake Road, which runs between there and Gospel Oak?

[Berni]

Did they spunk all 175 billion in the last two years of power, then? Impressive work if so.

[Classic Jorge]

I'd say at least 100bn of that would have to have been real, actual money.

Of course, the irony of bailing out an industry built on madey up money with real money mustve surely tickled someone.

[Ashberto]

Later Ralph had a house in Primrose Hill, I'm sure. Ed went to PH Primary and then Haverstock comp.

[pjlincs]

[devongunner]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

So it must still be on the books as an asset. The money went on paying hundreds of thousands of public sector 'workers' to do f**k all in return for votes.

[Classic Jorge]

We must please the gods! More wheelbarrows!

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Of all your questionable views, this must rank as the most bothersome.

[Ashberto]

opposition that there was anything seriously wrong with the level of spending at the time.

It's not even as if the Tories have a great record of reduced spending. Even under Dear Old Margaret spending ballooned.

Thing is, that for a secretary of state the size of their budget represents the size of their *****, so they all want to spend f**king loads of money.

[Classic Jorge]

Now that, my friends, is love

[Ashberto]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

But buying shares in a business, which may increase or decrease in value, is simply not the same as burning your money. One day you can sell those shares and get some or all or even an excess of the money back. D'you see?

[Classic Jorge]

...in the Cayman Islands, they were pouring that money straight back into the economy.

[devongunner]

actually fell slightly just in 2008 before steep climb at end of that year so that's probably when bank stuff kicked in. I suppose we will in theory get all of that back

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Berni]

position any Government had inherited since the war. There's no two ways about it: Labour spent money like a drunken sailor for years, so that when the **** hit the fan there was f**k all in the kitty.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

We were clearly employing far more public sector workers than we could afford.

[Berni]

[Classic Jorge]

And it's widely thought they'll cash out the shares as soon as they get a decent offer now anyway.

I'd say that volcano metaphor (for indeed I want being entirely literal) is looking fairly accurate. Maybe we should retained some control alongside our controlling interest stake and lent to businesses in the meantime rather than letting them strangle the credit market.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Wasting our money, brainwashing our children, destroying our futures. And getting paid for it. With our money.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[devongunner]

Wrong because by 1997 , the conservative years most of which were under Maggie, the budget was balanced and indeed partly in surplus so the national debt did not increase.

After a balanced start in 2001 the budget deficit increased massively as Gordon Brown opened the coffers thus the national debt increased. Now the budget deficit is less that in the latter labour years but its still a deficit so the national debt is increasing. To get National debt down the budget needs to be in surplus so a decreasing deficit is good but still bad............I think

[Ashberto]

on the basis that they seemed not to mind what Labour were doing at the time.

If a government policy is blatantly and terrifyingly wrong, it is the job of the opposition to let everyone be absolutely clear that they resolutely oppose it and would be doing something very different. Now, I admit to not having followed political events as closely in the last decade as I used to, but I don't recall that happening. If they were, then fair dinkum.

[Ashberto]

or chimneys to send them up. We have to send them to school.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

It gives people ideas. And that always leads to trouble.

[Berni]

had to unwrap it, blame and all.

[Ashberto]

For you, as a loyal Smith Square apparatchik, you have to ignore it and carry on blaming the other lot for everything.

[Berni]

Labour did spend all that money and the tories didn't and probably wouldn't have done (and certainly not on the same things), so you have to come down against Labour on that one.

[Ashberto]

Are you sure you've thought this through?

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

I'm quite discombobulated now.

[redgunamo]

equally blatantly and terrifyingly wrong. Often even moreso. That's why ultimately elected politicians, both in and out of actual government, quickly see sense and leave these weighty matters of state to the experts in whatever field and then do and say precisely what they are told to if they know what's good for them.

[Ashberto]

Otherwise one is just being wise after the fact.

[Ashberto]

So, probably, did all the Tory MPs who got paid extra to sit on all the quangos and select committees dreamed up by NuLab to sit around thinking of new ways to spend all the money.

[redgunamo]

people trying to earn a living and a' that.

[Berni]

William Hague looks in a baseball cap or talking about Cool Britannia to care about what the opposition are actually saying. That's the problem with politics: it's got f**k all to do with facts.