Local elections

[wheels]

I'm no LD hater but yes there is. the professional politician is why they are so bad. From Lucy Powell, to Ed balls to David Cameron, they are part of a machine that has not touched real life. Ed Balls hat a year at the FT when it was suggested that he maybe look at another career and hey ho, he's an advisor to the Scottish PM , general hatchet man leaking stories and turns up at my old stomping ground nr Leeds where he wins a dirty tricks campaign and is shoehorned into a safer than safe red seat pretending to be ever so local.

Give me a well meaning chap with a few genuine thoughts than these wannbes.

Ok Duke I will remember to get a none professional doctor when next I need one. Why do you regard professionalism as perfectly ok is many occupations but not among our politicans? And don't tell me to declare and interest Dave!

[Bowden Guy]

Well, Dave, everything will be hunky dory when Ed takes the keys to No 10 next year, elected by the 35-40% of the electorate who contribute almost nothing to the national exchequer, purely because their votes are concentrated in 'safe' Labour constituencies, often with only 75% of the average constituency.

[Dave]

More excuses!  Duke really is remarkably tolerant of his hero's incompetence     Let me spell it out: at the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, there are two ways of reducing the ratio of debt to GDP.  You can reduce the debt.  Or you can increase the GDP.  In his first three years in office, Osborne did neither! 

[Duke Fame]

Excuses excuses!     A recession is defined as two or more successive quarters of negative growth.  There were five consecutive quarters of negative growth in 2008 - 09.  That's a recession in anyone's book, even Duke's!

Yes, by it's definition but the lag of the recession did not even start to kick in until well into the recession. (the reverse is also true - which is why Ed the stupid and Ed the evil are harping on about inequality of earnings and 'real' people (as if they've spoken to any) are note feeling the benefit.)

All Osborne did in 2010 was grab the steering wheel and throw the gearbox into reverse.  When he became chancellor the national debt was about 60% of GDP.  Now it's around 75% - well done Gideon! 

Seriously, did yo really post that. When the country is leaking money like a sieve, you simply can't just stop the debt. This was made even worse as so many people were in the public sector and were very difficult to sack.

As for this: 
...indeed.  Trouble is, he waited until the 2012 Autumn Statement before he saw the error of his ways and increased capital spending.   Hence the recovery which is now under way, after three wasted years. 

So how come the A1(m), M1, ECML, trans pennine, metrolink etc were all being built from 2010-2012?

[Dave]

Germany & US were not hit in the same way as us as neither were reliant on banking and had a bigger manufacturing base. The recession had not really started to bite until 2010

Excuses excuses!     A recession is defined as two or more successive quarters of negative growth.  There were five consecutive quarters of negative growth in 2008 - 09.  That's a recession in anyone's book, even Duke's!

All Osborne did in 2010 was grab the steering wheel and throw the gearbox into reverse.  When he became chancellor the national debt was about 60% of GDP.  Now it's around 75% - well done Gideon! 

As for this: 

transferring that spending to infrastructure was the right thing and we're reaping the rewards now

...indeed.  Trouble is, he waited until the 2012 Autumn Statement before he saw the error of his ways and increased capital spending.   Hence the recovery which is now under way, after three wasted years. 

[Belly]

Surely the US growth was based on hideous levels of national debt?

I don't think that I would want to hold the US govt as the bastion of sound financial planning.

[Duke Fame]

The facts are indisputable, I'm afraid, and Duke can't bluster his way out of them.  After the world economic crash in 2007/08, UK GDP fell by 5.2% in 2009.  Alastair Darling started a very effective recovery and we were quickly back to a growth rate of 1.7% in 2010.  Osborne wrecked that, causing the growth rate to fall back to 1.3% in 2011 and a miserable 0.3% in 2012.  Only three years after he came to office, in 2013, did Osborne manage to get back to the level of growth he had inherited in 2010.  And all of this while other world economies such as Germany and the US were surging ahead.  A truly dismal performance.   

Germany & US were not hit in the same way as us as neither were reliant on banking and had a bigger manufacturing base. The recession had not really started to bite until 2010, nevermind recovery. Darling didn't have a plan, everything he wanted to do was being trumped by the interfering TSpm and his rabid fibbing sidekick.

What Osbourne did, after reading the note that said 'hard luck, we've spent all the money' was to review all the spending. It was the right thing to do because much of it was just a case of burying pound notes. cutting the wasteful budgets of local authorities and meaningless services was right, transferring that spending to infrastructure was the right thing and we're reaping the rewards now.

To quote a snapshot of a pre-election economy is naive at best.

[Dave]

Dave, this is why Labour must not be let near the economy. If you think things were fixed in 2010..... you are very very very wrong.

The facts are indisputable, I'm afraid, and Duke can't bluster his way out of them.  After the world economic crash in 2007/08, UK GDP fell by 5.2% in 2009.  Alastair Darling started a very effective recovery and we were quickly back to a growth rate of 1.7% in 2010.  Osborne wrecked that, causing the growth rate to fall back to 1.3% in 2011 and a miserable 0.3% in 2012.  Only three years after he came to office, in 2013, did Osborne manage to get back to the level of growth he had inherited in 2010.  And all of this while other world economies such as Germany and the US were surging ahead.  A truly dismal performance.   

[Duke Fame]

...having at last recovered from the completely unnecessary three-year slump caused by Osborne's disastrous 'emergency budget' in June 2010.

Dave, this is why Labour must not be let near the economy. If you think things were fixed in 2010 and all that was needed was a plethora of non-jobs and billions of pounds wasted, you are very very very wrong (although I suspect there is a job at Labour head office for you)

Well in that case I think Duke may be pleased with the outcome next May.  My prediction nationally would be that Labour would win the most seats, but fall short of an absolute majority.  So after a flurry of late-night negotiations, just like last time, we will end up with a Labour/LibDem coalition.  Prime Minister: Miliband, Deputy Prime Minister: Cable. 

Cable is a loon, I thinks the likes of Laws and Alexander are very good - the Orange Book types are really spot on.

I agree, there will be a coalition, it will be tight but surely we can remember what the Scottish PM did to this country and his two sidekicks will do the same again.

[Bowden Guy]

I do hope Vince doesn't make any "pledges" just before the Election......

[Dave]

The economy is now back on track 

...having at last recovered from the completely unnecessary three-year slump caused by Osborne's disastrous 'emergency budget' in June 2010.

I think the coalition have been excellent, if that means we have a coalition again, that's fine by me.

Well in that case I think Duke may be pleased with the outcome next May.  My prediction nationally would be that Labour would win the most seats, but fall short of an absolute majority.  So after a flurry of late-night negotiations, just like last time, we will end up with a Labour/LibDem coalition.  Prime Minister: Miliband, Deputy Prime Minister: Cable. 

[Duke Fame]

Is there something wrong with that??

I'm no LD hater but yes there is. the professional politician is why they are so bad. From Lucy Powell, to Ed balls to David Cameron, they are part of a machine that has not touched real life. Ed Balls hat a year at the FT when it was suggested that he maybe look at another career and hey ho, he's an advisor to the Scottish PM , general hatchet man leaking stories and turns up at my old stomping ground nr Leeds where he wins a dirty tricks campaign and is shoehorned into a safer than safe red seat pretending to be ever so local.

Give me a well meaning chap with a few genuine thoughts than these wannbes.

[Duke Fame]

Yes well as you would expect Duke I don't find any of that attractive at all so no you don't get my vote.

But the real point is you would have to find 31 others with similar strange views to be able to form a majority. And so it would be for any policy any independent wanted to introduce. You have to be able to work with others to enact your views policies and that means working through one of the parties. The only reason the Heald Green Independents achieves all they do on Stockport Council is that they work as a group and are in essence a political party serving Heald Green.

They also have by far the best machine.

Ahh, that's because you are happy with a bland bunch of coucil staff whom are considered the willing unemployable. I say sack them and get a smaller team of achievers.

[Bowden Guy]

Only when the rest of the entry on the LD website implies that she is a "local" person who volunteers for "local" causes. The entry is written so that the the vast majority of readers would infer that she is a governor at a local school. And, as for her 12 years working in "international finance"......well, we really need some international financiers in Hazel Grove, do we not?

Can you imagine what the Lib Dems, and Labour, would be saying if the Conservative or UKIP candidate had been working in 'international finance" for 12 years.

(BTW, I have no affiliation with any political party)

[wheels]

 She is also a professional politician, as the LDs admit on their website.

Is there something wrong with that??