Before You Put Your Cross Next To Labour Ask Yourself, Why Should We Expect Labour To Behave Any Differently Than They Have Done In The Past?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3010326/We-didn-t-expect-Polish-plumbers-admits-Blair-aide-Senior-adviser-reveals-Labour-chronically-mishandled-Eastern-European-immigration.html

/// In comments which will pose a huge headache for Ed Miliband, Sir Stephen also admitted the decision to throw open Britain’s borders at a time when other countries were imposing transitional controls was ‘political’. ///

/// The remarks risk re-igniting the debate about Labour’s record – for which the Labour leader recently apologised. ///

/// Yesterday, it also emerged that ex-Labour Cabinet minister John Denham had written to Chancellor Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Charles Clarke to warn the new arrivals were having a huge impact. ///

/// He said the Government failed to recognise what was happening in constituencies like his own in Southampton, where wages were driven down by as much as 50 per cent, A&E departments came under strain and 1,000 migrants attempted to sign up for an English-as-a-second language course in a single day. ///

[New Judge]

I don't know which fifteen years these are because the longest continuous period of Labour government since WW2 was the Blair/Brown adminsitrations of thirteen years from 1997 to 2010. Next best to that was the term of 6 years and 3 months under Clement Atlee. Perhaps the (thirteen) years The Chair is referring to are those under the Blair/Brown administrations when the "prosperity" mentioned was built on a mountain of personal and government debt, much of which still exists today.

[Old_Geezer]

It is precisely the thought that leopards do not change their spots that cause many to believe they do not have an acceptable option to vote for. Of course parties do drift (towards each other seems to be the usual flow).

Before You Put Your Cross Next To Labour Ask Yourself, Why Should We Expect Labour To Behave Any Differently Than They Have Done In The Past? Before You Put Your Cross Next To Conservative Ask Yourself, Why Should We Expect Conservative To Behave Any Differently Than They Have Done In The Past? Before You Put Your Cross Next To Liberal Ask Yourself, Why Should We Expect Liberal To Behave Any Differently Than They Have Done In The Past?

[anotheoldgit]

In Five years of a Tory Government we have seen inflation brought down to an all time low of 0%

Yet in 13 disastrous years of a Labour Government?

*** Labour’s record in government was marred by sky-high borrowing and a taxation policy that treated enterprise with contempt. ***

*** Global investors believed — rightly — that “old” Labour was incapable of managing the UK’s public finances. A succession of post-war Labour administrations, after all, had steered Britain on to the economic rocks, presiding over sterling crises, soaring inflation and industrial unrest. Labour’s lowest point in government, perhaps, was when chancellor Denis Healey went “cap in hand” to the IMF in 1976, after his party’s fiscal incontinence has caused a run on the pound. This was Britain’s “economic Suez”, the moment the UK lost its status as a world-class economy. ***

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10992792/How-did-Tony-Blair-leave-the-British-economy.html

[dunnitall]

Totally agree with new judge, he certainly has the low down on what's going on and gone on.....voice of reason there and always is!

[berniecuddles]

at 56 never voted not starting now don't care who gets elected whoever gets in wont do me any favours never do!

[andy-hughes]

AOG - //...why did the Labour government at that time throw open Britain’s borders at a time when other countries were imposing transitional controls? //

Simple - a grateful immigrant is a Labour-voting immigrant.

[dunnitall]

I think you are right AH.

[Old_Geezer]

The government hardly controls the price of energy. Progress out of recession has not been rapid. Any gains will have been paid for by effectively robbing savers of interest they should be receiving as fair return for hiring out their money for lenders to use; and enduring the money printing exercise called quantitative easing which devalues any money already saved; of which we still await the promised reversal as the extra money is removed from the system.

For sure, as a general rule the right prioritises wealth creation over caring for the citizens, and the left the reverse. Which might be acceptable if wealth really did get distributed fairly to all, but we all know the poor get crumbs whilst the wealthy get the bonanza. (And the wealthy can be foreign owners anyway, so that's wealth leaving.) It's a case of how one balances things. Maximising overall wealth at the cost of all else, is not the best balance IMO.

Ultimately they are all awful. Roll on the day when what they do is simply the day to day housekeeping, & issue presentation, whilst the citizens vote on the issues. Even if it takes a while for the majority to work out that they do need to vote for things that ideally they'd not wish at times, it will still be a fairer system and I'm convinced will eventually prove a good one.