Trump v Biden pt 2

[Derek Hardballs]

I see we are still selectively choosing when the Tories were least worst when in reality they’ve been terrible for the country for 14yrs.

[Protheroe]

I see we are still selectively choosing when the Tories were least worst when in reality they’ve been terrible for the country for 14yrs.

And you're very selective in your memory too.

I really suggest you read the Labour manifesto of 2010 where it pretty much aped the Tories on the need to put a brake on the growth of deficit financing.

I posted on whatever version of this we were on at the time that "we will all have to get used to being a little bit poorer, paying more taxes and getting reduced services" whoever was in charge post 2010.

Britain has not been alone in that. All of the developed world has had to deal with it. Watch the Big Short again - this is the price you pay for bailing out the banks essentially rewarding them for profligacy, corruption and downright criminality. 

I know none of you want to agree with me about that, ever. But that's the choice a Labour Chancellor made. I doubt a Tory Chancellor would have made a different decision - but as if Covid / Ukraine years weren't enough there was a reckoning due from 2008 because of choices you and most other people on here supported.

Hell - you've got Rachel Reeves criticising the govt yesterday for engineering a recession when it's the only way to defeat inflation. If that's the level of debate we're at then both parties are truly lost. She should be thanking her lucky stars that we might get two or three quarters of negative growth before an election, it'll put Labour in a much better position than they'd have been in otherwise - provided we do actually get inflation under control which is certainly not a given.

So let me make another prediction. Because circumstance and policy have conspired to make today's situation far worse than the one we faced in 2008 - the next 5 years will be pretty shit too - whoever is in charge. 

We will all have to get used to being a little bit poorer, paying more taxes and getting reduced services.

[Baggybenny]

Who oversaw the inflation rise in the first place. Why did they let it happen under their watch. and now they claim the achievement of halving inflation is all down to their management of the situation.

It is exactly the same position with police numbers. Their numbers reduced by about 20,000 because of cutbacks over 10 to 14 years. we then had pledges to increase police numbers by 20,000 and now they are now boasting about it.

Hospital waiting numbers have increased tenfold under their watch but if they manage to reduce that number by a tiny fraction we will never hear the end of it.

[Protheroe]

Inflation is a global phenomenon. You can blame a) the BoE for being asleep at the wheel as usual and b) the government for not waking them up and c) Covid & Ukraine. Nor can they take any credit for the rate of inflation coming down, as that's purely the effect of interest rates dampening down demand as they're intended to do (again, globally).

Hospital waiting times have increased hugely. Largely due to the hospitals being largely closed for elective surgery during Covid, a bloody useless NHS bureaucracy, striking medics, aerated concrete, too many fat people, too many old people and too many people not prepared to take responsibility for their own health. Get ready to open your wallet one way or the other if you want better healthcare outcomes.

I take your point on policing, however.