How long.....

[R1Geezer]

Will it take the UK to recover from the Noo Labour "project"? Assuming of course they are out on their ear on May 7th!

[thetruthhurts]

Probably long enough to see Labour voted in, in two General elections time.

[anotheoldgit]

Wow, how long is a piece of string?

But judging by the utter mess Noo Labour has made of this country, it will take strong measures over a considerably long time.

Knowing the fickle voters, they will get impatient, and will most likely be looking for the other side to have a go again.

Why change the habit of a lifetime?

[jake-the-peg]

More to the point how long will it take Osbourne to return us to recession and Blame Labour for it?

[New Judge]

It is likely that the country will never recover from the results of some of the policies they have enacted over the last thirteen years. I am thinking in particular of the uncontrolled immigration over which they have presided, making some towns and cities now largely unrecognisable as being part of the UK. I am also thinking of the over-intrusive surveillance processes and other laws which restrict previously cherished freedoms which have been introduced mainly under the guise of anti-terrorism legislation. Much of this makes the cure (if it is effective, which in many cases it is not) far less palatable than the disease.

The country may eventually recover from the economic shambles over which the present government has presided, but it will take perhaps a generation and only then will recovery occur if public spending is cut drastically. Of course eventual economic disaster should have come as no surprise to anybody, least of all the Labour Party. Every Labour government I have been unfortunate enough to have to live under has reduced the nation to an economic basket case. I must say this one took surprisingly longer than most, but I imagine they had far more riches to squander than their predecessors when they took office.

Unfortunately some older members of the electorate have a short memory, and some younger ones are not being sufficiently well educated to think for themselves. The talk now of actively wishing for a hung Parliament (or a “balanced” Parliament as some quaintly put it) is a case in point. Anybody who experienced the phenomenon in the 1970s would not wish it on their worst enemy.

But that’s democracy for you. Not everybody always gets what they want. However, we should think ourselves lucky. If we end up with a hung Parliament this may lead to voting reform to appease the LibDems. Then everybody will always get what NOBODY wants.

[R1Geezer]

well put judge, it's a wonder that anyone ever votes Labour really given their track record.

[youngmafbog]

Unless the Tories get a clear mandate we can expect a very lon period perhaps 2 generations before a return.

Jake, you never cease to amaze me. Is thsi an attempt to blame Osbourne for the recesion that Brown was in the most part responsible for. A ddaming report puts much of our deep recession square on Gordons shoulders.

Noo lanour have alot to answer for. Blari though is laughing his cock off at us all.

[Gromit]

Well, it has taken 13 years to rebuild the schools and hospitals from the crumbling wrecks that remained after 18 years of Conservative rule.

A couple of terms of the Tories and our railways will be back to the third world standard they were in after the disastrous privatisation.

[rov1200]

Everything Brown touches turns to disaster.

He sells the gold at the wrong time and loses the country £bns.

He takes away the £5bn rebate to insurance companies and the whole country loses out on their private pensions.

He pumps enormous sums into the NHS but does not keep a track of it so it gets wasted on overinflated salaries with reduced working hours.

He allows the idle to stay at home and still receive benefits.

He commits even more troops to Afghanistan than even Blair was intent on.

He will disappear without trace as other politicians and the general public think hes a disaster.

nb. He saved the banks but forget to worry about how we are all going to pay for it.

[Gromit]

// He pumps enormous sums into the NHS but does not keep a track of it so it gets wasted on ... reduced working hours. //

Not like the good old days when Junior Doctors worked 36hour shifts and an 80 hour week.

[rov1200]

Most GPs are now getting £100,000 or more for less work. The majority of them are now in group practices to share the load. Junior doctors now work less hours than those in industry.

Brown has done a good job. The professionals have excelled but the rest of society are relatively worse off.

[Gromit]

// Junior doctors now work less hours than those in industry. //

Wrong again.

//In the mid-1990s, some junior doctors had working weeks which typically topped 100 hours.
The directive took effect for many other workers in 1998, but the changes to reduce doctors' working hours were incremental and began with consultants.

By 2004, junior doctors were included in a 58-hour working week target and by 2007 this was down to a 56-hour week.
As of 1 August 2009 the target will be 48-hour-weeks for the UK's 60,000 junior doctors.
Contracts asking trainee doctors to work outside the regulations will be illegal and all rotas must be based on the 48-hour model.
But individual doctors can opt out, although this has to be voluntary.
However doctors cannot opt out of taking 11 hours continuous rest out of 24, or out of ensuring they have 24 hours continuous rest out of each seven days. //

[New Judge]

Bear in mind that junior doctors would not have seen a reduction in their hours had it not been for the European Working Time Directive. Brown (nor anybody else in the UK) had no say in the matter.

[New Judge]

Oh, and nor did he have any say in the “courageous” decision he took to provide independence for the Bank of England. He did this four days after the 1997 election (it was part of his “end to boom and bust” speech). It was done because an independent Bank of England was a prerequisite to membership of the euro, and in those heady days that was the Labour government’s firm intention.

[123everton]

With regard to the pensions crisis, which goverment allowed employers to take 12 year payment holidays (like Royal Mail) when the fund was in surplus?

[sherminator]

R1 i really dont get it?

How many times do you have to be told that the conservatives wanted more deregulation of banks that would have meant probably bigger debts than undr labour?

why would you want them in power when things wuld have been worse?
please please answer that really simple question?

[New Judge]

The banking crisis is not the sole cause of the country's debt.

Much of it has been caused by unbridled expansion of so-called public services. The public payroll heaadcount has increased by almost 1 million since 1997, many of these being "non-jobs" which produce or provide little of any substance. In some areas now more than one in four of those working are employed by the State.

It is utterly ludicrous and until this profligacy is reined in the debt will increase.

[R1Geezer]

Sherminator I don't think things would have been worse, that's all supposition. How do you know what would have happenned under the Tories?

[VHG]

>Everything Brown touches turns to disaster.

rov1200, great list, but you left off one of Labours/Browns worst acts.

Rampant, uncontrolled, unmanaged immigration.

Those of us who live in certain cities (I live on the edge of Birmingham) now think we are visting India or Pakistan when we go into central Birmingham (I am sure people who live in Leicester, Bradford etc etc feel the same)

Parts of Birmingham are now Asian ghettos, where the "whites" have moved out and the Asians moved in. Schools are 100% asian kids, colleges are 100% Asian kids.

Immigrants are breeding like rabbits (encouraged by Brown giving them lots of money to have kids).

The UK will never recover from this and is ruined for ever.

Blair/Brown will retire with their huge pensions and directorships, leaving the rest of us to live in cities full of immigrants.

Good old Brown/Blair.

[sherminator]

So you get to blame Gordon For dergulating the banks which led to the big debt.

If tories wanted MORE deregulation then it follows they would have been more in debt!

Thats not exactly a wild leap of the imagination to see thats what would have happened"

[Gromit]

Deregulation of the City started in 1986 under Margaret Thatcher. The so called "Big Bang" did boost the revenue to the country from Financial Services. Margaret Thatcher changed the balance of the UK economy. She decimated our manufacturing base, but offset that with building up the service industries. That is why, when the present crash came, we were hit harder than other countries, who had a more diverse and evenly spread economy. Ours was skewed more in favour of Financial Services, so we were hit harder.

Brown's big mistake was cosying up to the City while he was Chancellor. He had ten years to put back some effective regulation and didn't. Meanwhile, the Tories were wanting even less regulation. They all failed this one.