Is Ed Miliband living on borrowed time?

by blueturando Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:09 am

First topic message reminder :

Tonight’s YouGov poll for the Sun has topline figures of CON 41%, LAB 39%, LDEM 10%, Others 10%. This is the first time that YouGov have shown a Conservative lead since December 2010. It certainly looks as though the Conservatives have recieved a boost from David Cameron’s veto at the European summit. There is also a new ComRes poll out tonight for the Independent which has topline figures of CON 38%(+1), LAB 38%(-1), LDEM 12%(+2) – also showing the two main parties effectively neck-and-neck. How is it that the tories can be level or ahead in the polls when they are having to make some very difficult and painfull decisions to try and bring down the deficit, the umemployment figures are the worst for 17 years. We have had strikes, pension reforms, VAT rises and the veto in Europe etc.......

It looks like Ed Millaband is not liked or trusted by many of the elecorate. In my opinion he looks weak, sounds weak and has no policies to speak of....Everytime he tries to get the better of Cameron in PMQ'S he ends looking like a fool with Cameron destroying him. Ed Balls is no better...he comes across as an odious man with no substance, who would probably stab his own wife in the back if it meant he gained more power.

Labour missed a trick in not voting in Eds brother David into the leadership role. David would have given Cameron a better run for his money and I believe he is a better politician than Ed too. With the two Eds at the helm I believe Labour are not a viable opposition right now and one or both could be dispatched by the party sooner rather than later

by AwfulTruth Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:58 am

Hi

Hey, did you know that research shows that the person who cleans the loo in a household is usually the person earning the lowest wage?

This may have something to do with gender and wage equality and all that.

by bobby Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:25 am

AW, yes you are of course correct, my cleaning lady earnes far less than me,

by Redflag Mon Apr 16, 2012 3:01 pm

bobby wrote:AW, yes you are of course correct, my cleaning lady earnes far less than me,

Hi bobby very funny, I suggest you up your cleaners wages pronto.

by AwfulTruth Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:39 pm

I sometimes have my head down the bog, but that's McDonald's for you! pig

by Scarecrow Mon Apr 16, 2012 5:29 pm

AwfulTruth , your avatar was used on Tackheads 1988 album Friendly As A Hand Grenade , good album, you may not be aware of the fact ha ha .

Is Ed Miliband living on borrowed time? - Page 11 51G60W2SQ2L._SL500_AA300_

Is Ed Miliband living on borrowed time? - Page 11 51G60W2SQ2L._SL500_AA300_

by oftenwrong Mon Apr 16, 2012 5:33 pm

Five male students sharing a flat agreed to share the chores. Unsurprisingly, nobody wanted to take responsibility for the bog, but reluctantly one lad said he would take on that job on the strict understanding that the first person to complain about the cleanliness of the toilet would immediately take over the job.

Life went on normally in the flat apart from the unmistakeable fact that not all was well within the ablution facilities.

On one particularly malodorous occasion, a flat-sharer was heard by everyone to exclaim, "Holy Shit! " though quickly adding, "But perfectly clean!"

Asked to comment, Mr. Miliband said that this was clearly a domestic matter.

by AwfulTruth Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:04 pm

Scarecrow your avatar is going to give me a nightmare! AAAGH!!! :affraid:

Thanks for that revelation - I will check them out you salty fact finder! Very Happy

by **Ivan** Wed Apr 18, 2012 3:56 pm

Blamhappy wrote:-
Problem is, most people don't want the same government forever (me included), so even if people are more decisive in their vote next time, and the time after, they will end up in the same quandry again eventually.

50-60 years ago, in the days when class distinctions and party lines were clearer, few people ever changed their votes, and governments came and went on very small swings between the parties. Even today, about 60% of voters don’t change their allegiance, and the most they might consider doing is to stay at home on polling day or vote tactically for the Lib Dems, though I doubt if anyone will be doing the latter again in a hurry!

The reason that most people don’t change their vote is because they’re either instinctively inclined to the left or the right. However, we also have tendencies towards libertarianism or authoritarianism, and there is an excellent test (one of our ‘links’) which people can take to see where they fit on the grid:-
http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

by Adele Carlyon Wed Apr 18, 2012 4:13 pm

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -8.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.18

I'm well on the left and very libertarian!

by **Ivan** Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:46 pm

Blamhappy:-
The Conservatives mess up the economy for a while. Labour then comes in and tries to clean it up but never has long enough.

At last! Someone telling it as it is, and not falling for the myth that the Tories are good at running the economy.

A few days ago, Michael Howard was on Radio 4 peddling the usual Tory lie: “Conservative governments aren’t usually loved but they’re respected, because when they come to power they have to clean up Labour’s mess.” What utter tripe!

The Tories inflicted pointless misery on the UK in the 1930s, with the same rubbish policies as today, and caused a depression which only ended when we had to spend money we didn’t have to re-arm the country in the face of Nazi aggression.

In 1956, after five years of the Tories, the UK was the closest it’s ever been to bankrupt and the government needed an IMF loan. President Eisenhower told the Tories that they wouldn’t get a penny until they “got the hell out of Suez”, which they dutifully did. When the Tories were voted out in 1964, there wasn’t a global credit crunch but they still managed to leave a balance of payments deficit equivalent to £11 billion today. Outgoing Chancellor Maudling said to incoming Chancellor Callaghan: “Sorry about the books, old chap.”

The Tories lied their way back into power in 1970 with meaningless reassurances about the EEC and a promise “to cut price increases at a stroke”, only to appoint an idiot called Barber as Chancellor (their first choice died just days into the job) who created a false boom that led to unsustainable growth. Not helped by a drastic rise in the world price of oil, the Tories left office in 1974 with inflation at 13.4%.

The ‘bust’ was left for Callaghan and Healey to deal with, and inflation continued to rise before it fell back to 10% by 1979. (An IMF loan was sought in 1976, but some experts have argued that it wasn’t actually needed.) Thatcher bribed her way into power by offering people their council houses at a discount, and lying about her plans to all but double VAT. Within a year, she had forced up the price of many items – from school meals to prescriptions – and inflation peaked at 21.8%.

Two self-inflicted recessions in those eighteen years of Tory rule, creating booms to get re-elected, weren’t good for anyone in the long term. In one twelve-month period in the late 1980s, interest rates doubled and many of those who had bought their council houses saw them repossessed. Rich people – typical Tory supporters – love recessions, because they’ve still got enough money to buy whatever they want (including reposssessed houses) and prices tend to be lower. Andrew Lansley even went as far in 2008 as suggesting that “recessions can be good for us”.

One of the last things that Thatcher did before being booted out by her colleagues in 1990 (with inflation fractionally higher, and unemployment much higher, than when she came to power) was to sign the pound into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism at an unsustainably high rate. That led to ‘Black Wednesday’ in 1992, when interest rates rose 5% in one day and we had to leave the ERM, after Lamont had squandered billions by buying up pounds abroad before devaluing them! It was evidence that the Tories, who had presided over a prolonged recession caused by double-digit interest rates, had lost control of the economy, and they were duly punished by the voters in 1997.

Yet gradually the Tory myths resurface. Somehow ‘Black Wednesday’ and leaving the ERM (against the wishes of the Tory government) was a good thing, because it allowed the economy to grow once interest rates fell and massive extensions of VAT were applied to make up for the squandered cash. And we’re supposed to be impressed with the state that the economy was in when the Tories suffered their worst defeat in a hundred years in 1997, yet our debt was equivalent to 43.76% of our GDP.

In 1998, the Tories predicted that the introduction of the minimum wage would create a recession. It didn’t, and the economy continued to grow for another ten years, completing the longest period of sustained economic growth in our history – under Labour. So impressed were Cameron and his crew of lightweights that in 2008 they promised to match Labour’s spending plans if they came to power, a promise they quickly tried to forget once the global credit crunch occurred.

Hypothetical maybe, but how would Cameron and Osborne have reacted had they been in power for the credit crunch? We can get some idea from their utterances at the time:-

“We will rein in government borrowing.”
David Cameron, speech to Conservative Party Conference, 1 October 2008

“Borrowing goes up. That is inevitable and you have to allow that to happen. Those automatic stabilisers as Keynes called them, those have to operate.”
David Cameron, Today Programme, 20 October 2008

“No sensible set of fiscal rules would suggest reducing borrowing at this point of the cycle.”
Philip Hammond, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Hansard, 7 October 2008

“Increasing borrowing is not a strategy for dealing with the recession.”
Philip Hammond, BBC News, 27 October 2008
Then in the same interview, he said: “To increase borrowing to deal with an economic downturn - that’s a perfectly sensible thing to do.”
Philip Hammond, BBC News, 27 October 2008

"I take the view, as someone who hopes to be the next Chancellor, that you shouldn’t speculate on interest rate decisions… and leave that to an independent central bank.”
George Osborne, Today, Radio 4, 8 October 2008

“…with interest rates still at 4.5%, there is plenty of scope to stimulate demand with lower rates.”
George Osborne, Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2008

The Tories have proved time and again that they are not good at running the economy, and the towel-folder Osborne is proving so now. He’s talked down the economy and snuffed out the growth that had appeared in May 2010, he's increased unemployment and he's increased borrowing. Estimates for future growth get reduced on a regular basis and the credit rating agency Moody’s has put Britain on negative watch.

Please don’t let the Tories get away with peddling their myths!

by Adele Carlyon Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:03 pm

Hear Hear! Or is it Here Here? Anyway, I totally agree. It makes me sick when they start waffling on about how good they are at running the country. Sorry, they're crap, and always have been. Challenging these myths is vital! And if I hear that it was all labours fault one more time I swear i'm off to downing street to tip a bucket of pig crap over the lot of um!!!!

by astra Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:47 pm

And if I hear that it was all labours fault one more time I swear i'm off to downing street to tip a bucket of pig crap over the lot of um!!!!

Can I be your chauffeur??

NOT that I am promoting dissent in the ranks Evil or Very Mad

Heaven forfend Embarassed

by Adele Carlyon Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:04 pm

Course you can! I'll need help...it's a very big bucket!! lol!

by trevorw2539 Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:47 pm

Adele Carlyon wrote:Course you can! I'll need help...it's a very big bucket!!

I'm available, though my tactics would spread it a little farther. Signed Guy Fawkes the 6th. Smile

by oftenwrong Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:56 pm

The tragedy is that although most people recognise the Tory polcies as divisive, there are still aspirational voters who imagine that wealth will "trickle down" if they tug the forelock to the toffs.

There's only one thing that trickles down from a Tory government, and I prefer to stand well clear.

by astra Wed Apr 18, 2012 11:05 pm

Yes OW I have found to my the cost of my laundry bill that sh1t only follows gravity! Some Railway Managers must have been Tory Party officials in training!

Of Course, all their washing in snake oil helps

by AwfulTruth Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:12 am

Ivan wrote:
Blamhappy wrote:-
Problem is, most people don't want the same government forever (me included), so even if people are more decisive in their vote next time, and the time after, they will end up in the same quandry again eventually.
50-60 years ago, in the days when class distinctions and party lines were clearer, few people ever changed their votes, and governments came and went on very small swings between the parties. Even today, about 60% of voters don’t change their allegiance, and the most they might consider doing is to stay at home on polling day or vote tactically for the Lib Dems, though I doubt if anyone will be doing the latter again in a hurry!

The reason that most people don’t change their vote is because they’re either instinctively inclined to the left or the right. However, we also have tendencies towards libertarianism or authoritarianism, and there is an excellent test (one of our ‘links’) which people can take to see where they fit on the grid:-
http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

I came out thus: afro

[img]

Is Ed Miliband living on borrowed time? - Page 11 Pcgrap10

[/img]

by AwfulTruth Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:22 am

Excellent article Ivan - incisive, objective and informative. sunny

Thatcher went mad, remember, and Cameron, after Prime Minister's Questions, has most definitely got a screw or two lose; what a theatre of the absurd that was! The man was rabid with ludicrous indignation and full of limp, flaccid invective and as per usual - could not answer one single question. Ed Miliband made mincemeat of the poor beggar! Well done Ed - you are looking more and more like PM material.

Cameron needs a dose of political Viagra, the poor, idiotic moron! Basketball

Truth is, George Osborne MUST be the most incompetent chancellor ever - a veritable paean to inept buffoonery and crass bungling tomfoolery.

The whole bizarre and grotesque shower of this present government beggars belief.

May it end soon! bounce

by Adele Carlyon Thu Apr 19, 2012 8:34 am

AwfulTruth wrote:
Ivan wrote:
Blamhappy wrote:-
Problem is, most people don't want the same government forever (me included), so even if people are more decisive in their vote next time, and the time after, they will end up in the same quandry again eventually.
50-60 years ago, in the days when class distinctions and party lines were clearer, few people ever changed their votes, and governments came and went on very small swings between the parties. Even today, about 60% of voters don’t change their allegiance, and the most they might consider doing is to stay at home on polling day or vote tactically for the Lib Dems, though I doubt if anyone will be doing the latter again in a hurry!

The reason that most people don’t change their vote is because they’re either instinctively inclined to the left or the right. However, we also have tendencies towards libertarianism or authoritarianism, and there is an excellent test (one of our ‘links’) which people can take to see where they fit on the grid:-
http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

I came out thus:

[img][/img]

Me too!

by bobby Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:17 am

wot yuv bof got affro's

by Adele Carlyon Thu Apr 19, 2012 6:33 pm

bobby wrote:wot yuv bof got affro's

that didn't half make me laugh! Razz

by bobby Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:34 pm

Bloody hell, Avatar's are changing quicker than Tory Policies.

by astra Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:56 pm

Allo Bobby, just springcleaning! I even vacuumed the keyboard - works better now! Razz

by bobby Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:00 pm

Watcha V. Hows tricks. When I thought my keyboard was sticking I got a new one from the stores cupboard, then found it was the programme I was using. Never mind though mate I'll be OK when I pass my test.

by oftenwrong Thu Apr 19, 2012 11:19 pm

May be something to do with those bunga-bunga parties every night.

by Blamhappy Fri Apr 20, 2012 7:05 pm

I can't post my chart Sad

I was in the bottom left corner, but more towards the centre than the others on here.

by oftenwrong Fri Apr 20, 2012 10:43 pm

Then this may be the moment to use your "Get out of Jail Free" card.

Ed Miliband is old enough to look after himself!

by sickchip Sat Apr 21, 2012 12:31 am

oftenwrong wrote:

Ed Miliband is old enough to look after himself!

...but, I fear, not the UK.

by AwfulTruth Sat Apr 21, 2012 5:29 am

oftenwrong wrote:
astradt1 wrote:I wonder how many more reports, like todays on the care of Dementia patients, the government has in it's cupboard ready for release to deflect attention on bad news days for the government?

My observation is that Tory propaganda against the NHS continues apace. This week's target happens to be Dementia. The headline story is that only one-third of nursing staff are trained to deal with it. The sub-text is that relatives should get into the habit of turning up at mealtimes so as to release hospital staff for medical tasks.

It's all part of the Tory plan to steadily demolish the way the NHS works, so that the Public will grow to think it's not worth trying to save. It's not a new idea, they've been floating it since the 1980s.

Good post Often; because it is the truth.

Yesterday my partner's 86 year old mother was transferred from hospital to a nursing home (at £950 per week it had better be good), while her care home room elsewhere (at £700 per week) is being readied and redecorated.

She was in hospital for three weeks and was actually placed in FOUR different wards. After being quickly shunted to a second ward she fell out of bed during the night, onto her head (no wiser how it happened!), causing a seriously nasty contusion, resulting in horrendous bruising and swelling down the right side of her head. She looked really awful! Shocked

Suffice to say she recovered, even after being quickly shunted, on the morning after the fall, to a third ward. Then she was shunted to a forth ward, and thus to a her present private place.

This has been a few weeks of hell, to be honest, where we suspected mum had been left without the bed guardrail being up; thus she fell out of bed!

Now her son has to sell her house to pay for private care-home provision. This is after, as an ex-shop owner, she had spent her life working hard; employing people and paying all her taxes. Now, when she wants to leave her son an inheritance, she cannot do so because our government wants to grab every penny it can AND reduce old people to the realms of miserable penury.

We are not happy. Basketball

by AwfulTruth Sat Apr 21, 2012 7:20 am

Yes, Often, very, very spot-on! Basketball

by sickchip Sat Apr 21, 2012 9:22 am

AwfulTruth wrote:

Now her son has to sell her house to pay for private care-home provision. This is after, as an ex-shop owner, she had spent her life working hard; employing people and paying all her taxes. Now, when she wants to leave her son an inheritance, she cannot do so because our government wants to grab every penny it can AND reduce old people to the realms of miserable penury.

We are not happy. [/color]

This is simply a surreptitious means of tax - they do like to get every last penny out of people.

The bank of mum and dad is another example of surreptitious tax.

by AwfulTruth Sat Apr 21, 2012 9:33 am

sickchip

Indeed - incisive observation. Idea

Tax and death are the two certainties - to paraphrase someone else's missive.

by Red Cat Woman Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:20 pm

Adele Carlyon wrote:Hear Hear! Or is it Here Here? Anyway, I totally agree. It makes me sick when they start waffling on about how good they are at running the country. Sorry, they're crap, and always have been. Challenging these myths is vital! And if I hear that it was all labours fault one more time I swear i'm off to downing street to tip a bucket of pig crap over the lot of um!!!!

AV i 100% with you on this they are crap from top too toe. the fact is they even got in on the back of a fat lie and for a whole year repeated the lie. a nasty odious party full of loathsome vile men mostly too. I am up for a pig pooing of them, if you are. ha ha

by Adele Carlyon Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:38 pm

I think we should all chip a few quid in and hire the biggest muck spreader we can find and then give the pigs in troughs a bloody good splattering! Twisted Evil

by Adele Carlyon Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:38 pm

That way they'll be coated from head to toe with the same shite that comes out of their gobs!!! Yay!!!! lol

by Redflag Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:40 pm

Red Cat Woman wrote:
Adele Carlyon wrote:Hear Hear! Or is it Here Here? Anyway, I totally agree. It makes me sick when they start waffling on about how good they are at running the country. Sorry, they're crap, and always have been. Challenging these myths is vital! And if I hear that it was all labours fault one more time I swear i'm off to downing street to tip a bucket of pig crap over the lot of um!!!!

AV i 100% with you on this they are crap from top too toe. the fact is they even got in on the back of a fat lie and for a whole year repeated the lie. a nasty odious party full of loathsome vile men mostly too. I am up for a pig pooing of them, if you are. ha ha

May join in the tipping of POO, but I think pig crap is not nasty enough for the nasty party may I suggest peoples DIARRHEA more fitting the occasion?

by **Phil Hornby** Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:51 pm

Clearly, supper has concluded for some of our chums on the board..... Shocked

by oftenwrong Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:31 pm

Say what you see

Roy Walker "Catchphrase"

by Adele Carlyon Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:41 pm

I see a darkness

Will Oldham.

by sickchip Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:53 am

Adele Carlyon wrote:I see a darkness

Will Oldham.

Ah! Someone with good taste.

by AwfulTruth Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:06 am

Adele Carlyon wrote:That way they'll be coated from head to toe with the same shite that comes out of their gobs!!! Yay!!!! lol

This is such pleasing imagery, darling! geek

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