Depressing, old-fashioned Tory view of what ordinary people want

I don't even support the Conservatives so your wrong there, I just won't be partisan like you when its quite clear the budget went well, and it was almost painful to watch Red Ed squirm when he had to come up with some awkward comebacks in the segment after the budget. The picture itself is of absolutely no significance in reality to anybody and will be forgotten in seconds.

And please enlighten me about what went badly about the budget (no that does not mean you disagree with it), it means the effect it will have on the Tories poll ratings which I imagine will be positive and all the TV political pundits agree who know a bit more than you.


You got any evidence to back up your claim that all the jobs being taken are rubbish? If so why didn't Miliband or any labour politician at PMQ's yesterday even raise the issue of employment, obviously the figures don't match your partisan claims.

Cost of living is getting better slowly and is far better than when we had true socialist policies in the 70's where nflation was 12-25% on average, now its around 2% which is very very low.


Yes beer is drunk by ordinary people like me and other people who live in the real world, obviously not the OP however. Tories aren't all aristocrats and bankers, there are a lot in the aspirational tory group who want to make something of themselves.

And I'd love a significant piece of economic data which entirely refutes that the economy is doing well, and when you can provide that, I'd love to see it.

I just hate how they're marketing 1p off a pint as being even remotely relevant.

It'll just be absorbed mostly by the brewers/pubs anyway. Most the pints around me are about 3 quid, they aren't going to bother doing them for 2.99 now are they. And even if it was passed on, that works out as a free pint from every 300 bought. Plus most people just hoy their copper change in charity boxes on bars anyway.

Was a nonsence they got a higher personal allowance to start with.

Christ, this is laughable, I am not partisan, I have no intention of voting in the 2015 election and I don't believe that you should label yourself as an ideology as part of your identity. If you're not a Conservative why are you over optimistic about this? You must share some beliefs with them otherwise you'd be critical.

So their "higher" - now on par with general population - allowance has been abolished. But they can invest in bonds at 4% if they are rich ? And in the meantime the grey vote is patronised with ads about beer and bingo ? And if they are really wealthy they can unlock their pension pot accumulated out of untaxed income and pay off huge mortgages and go to Barbados. In the meantime your granny is shivering and reusing her teabags.

We'll have to see the details, but I doubt the minimum investment in those bonds would be over £100 and I suspect would be £1.

How are the old patronised by beer and bingo ads (tbh I haven't seen it so for all I know it could have an old woman in a bingo hall necking a pint).

Pensions and benefits for the elderly have been very well protected by this Government, dispite being a massive drain on the public purse.

I don't have much sympathy with granny who retired on a state pension at 60 in 2010 while incentivising politicians to give me a nominal retirement age of 68. Women currently start claiming their pension at 62 ffs!

I so agree. Women live much longer and retire much earlier despite maternity breaks. But the feminist agenda means this is how women are treated.

Economy booming LOL. Highest growth FORECAST - forecast being the key word. Things are not looking good i am sorry to say. All of these statistics published by ONS and the government are all lil white lies. Inflation is at 9-10%, the bloody inflation stats do not even include energy housing or food costs

Unemployment may be down but that could just be loads of people having part time jobs. A good signal of the economy's health is not just whether unemployment is going down its deeper than that. Like i said you gotta look at what jobs are being created, isit full time/part time, what industries are these jobs being created in ? poundlands and betting shops or high tech companies (most likely the former).

Exports have remained stagnant for the past 5-6 years and this is not likely to change any time soon. The reality is that we are a long way from entering a boom we are still in a depression, we got years to go yet. Sorry to rain on your parade but being an economist I just couldn't resist setting things straight. The government have become very good at propaganda especially economic propaganda...even most economists are clueless about economics....

I am a Conservative, it's the Conservative party which is not Conservative anymore.

I don't support them because I think much more needs to be done to reduce the deficit, we should have been at surplus by 2015 but now its been pushed back to 2018/19 and that's not good enough.

How pathetic. The chairman of the Tory Party, the ludicrous Grant Shapps (previous achievements include claiming that his own children sharing a bedroom was similar to the bedroom tax), is portraying working people as needing 'bingo and beer'. He encouraged this poster to be retweeted.



Apart from not having noticed that beer is increasingly old fashioned and that bingo is largely the preserve of pensioners, is it really the kind of economic growth the Chancellor claims to be after, eg, a manufacturing-led economy? Or is this in fact showing the real Tory view - that the important thing is to boost gambling and boozing?

It's always been the case that the biggest profits to be made from the working class are in alcohol sales and gambling. What a bunch of cynics. Shapps probably cruised back to his multi-million pound mansion to his posh family right after composing this ****.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/19/grant-shapps-bingo-and-beer-joke-causes-twitter-storm

I just hate how they're marketing 1p off a pint as being even remotely relevant.

It'll just be absorbed mostly by the brewers/pubs anyway. Most the pints around me are about 3 quid, they aren't going to bother doing them for 2.99 now are they. And even if it was passed on, that works out as a free pint from every 300 bought. Plus most people just hoy their copper change in charity boxes on bars anyway.

Not for the over 65s. Sorry I meant to add that qualification. For 3 years it is fixed.

How pathetic. The chairman of the Tory Party, the ludicrous Grant Shapps (previous achievements include claiming that his own children sharing a bedroom was similar to the bedroom tax), is portraying working people as needing 'bingo and beer'. He encouraged this poster to be retweeted.

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE, I need to calm down,

Bingo and a pint anyone?

tbh if booze gets cheaper im all for that, I bought a pint not long ago and it was like 4 quid though too be fair that was in a poncey bar

Christ, this is laughable, I am not partisan, I have no intention of voting in the 2015 election and I don't believe that you should label yourself as an ideology as part of your identity. If you're not a Conservative why are you over optimistic about this? You must share some beliefs with them otherwise you'd be critical.

So their "higher" - now on par with general population - allowance has been abolished. But they can invest in bonds at 4% if they are rich ? And in the meantime the grey vote is patronised with ads about beer and bingo ? And if they are really wealthy they can unlock their pension pot accumulated out of untaxed income and pay off huge mortgages and go to Barbados. In the meantime your granny is shivering and reusing her teabags.

I am a Conservative, it's the Conservative party which is not Conservative anymore.

I don't support them because I think much more needs to be done to reduce the deficit, we should have been at surplus by 2015 but now its been pushed back to 2018/19 and that's not good enough.

Can you demonstrate any lobbying proclaimed feminists made to Major/Clarke/Tory Govt of the time, to influence the Pensions Act 1995?

I'm guessing the answer is no.

Like everything, it was done to lose as few votes as possible.

(a Conservative Govt wasn't elected)

The budget speech from 2010 said 'In 2015-16, borrowing falls further to £20 billion.' - to have reached a surplus. That budget was pretty much in line with the numbers from the Tory manifesto.

So are you saying the 2010 budget was wrong? If so, do you think the Tory 2010 manifesto should have been 'more conservative', and if so, do you think they would have won as many seats in the election of that year?

Got any sources for this? Considering even the RPI is typically less than 3%, your claim sounds dubious.



Could be...but it's not. Full-time employment is way up, and the number of people forced into p/t work because they could not find f/t work has actually fallen by 32,000 in the last quarter. Contrary to the image the left would like to paint that everyone in the country is on part-time, zero-hour or jobcentre work programmes, 73% of the workforce are in full-time employment, and only 3% are on zero-hour contracts.



Exports have most certainly not been stagnant. In 2007 exports were in the range of £30bn-£33bn a month, now it's in the range of £40bn-£44bn a month.
You also might want to check up the definition of what an economic depression is, because it is no where near applicable to the current situation.
Your claims of being an economist would be more plausible if everything you said wasn't complete garbage an easily refutable.

This thread is an excellent example of people being overly critical. Despite the fact that the tax threshold is increasing again and that savers (75% of ISA holders are basic rate tax payers) were given much larger tax free allowances (upto £5k on high interest accounts now) OP has chosen to focus on a 10% reduction in Bingo Duty and 1p reduction in Beer Duty despite the fact that overall alcohol and gambling taxes actually increased.

Didn't you go to private school?

Your not one of these who thinks a Tory party has to be anti-EU and immigration are you? Not many people leave because they think we need to go further.



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