Coalition vs New Labour

Did the Tories propose lower spending?

That's right: no, they didn't.

They also reduced the deficit left behind by the Tories too - everything was going very well.

Do as little as possible = interfere with the economy sparingly.

Deregulation and getting rid of red tape = working towards the goal above. Definitely a lot more can be done but it will take time especially with so many fire-fighting that goes on within the Coalition and also within the Conservative Party. I guess you could say that I'm willing to give the government time as such redtape are an amalgamation of 13 years of Liebour and EU work, it will take time to formulate new and far more efficient as well as effective policies and then dismantle the old junk and crappy ones.

Taxation, there is a lot more to do but it will also take time and I can understand it that it is an extremely delicate political balance. I will give it to them, they can't expect to cut taxes for the wealthier and still win and election.

Labour has no need to increase public spending to the levels that they did, but they chose to.

Red tape has gone down a lot under this government. This government is far more interested in SMEs within UK far more than under Labour who would support anyone but UK SMEs, selling our products and services to the government has improved a lot as it's no longer a case of needing to wait up to 8 months to get payment though you're promised 60 days, these days if they say 60 days by day 48 to 50 you will be told on what date you could expect payment. It's a lot easier to bid for government contracts as well these days so to me this is good.

granted I'm not unhappy about WTCs, allows me to give 12-16 and in some cases 0 hour contracts to quite a lot of my employees and they are more than happy, I'd have a rebellion at my businesses if I did the same in Norway or Iceland where I also have business interests.

Ministers I'm extremely disappointed and unhappy with :- That idiot Nick Clegg and that bastard Vince Cable, these are the stumbling blocks of the government from implementing proper policies.

I doubt they'll be cutting taxes to the wealthier. If you actually look at what this government has done whilst in power, they've actually done what labour claims they will do. Under labour, top end tax rate was 40%, and its now 45%. So labour supporters keep banging on that the Tories give the rich tax cuts. They've actually increased taxation for the rich.

The present government has increased tax breaks for the poor. So in the tipsy turvey world the coalition have made the poorer in society better off and made up the shortfall by taxing the rich. We also have a conservative PM who is leading the charge with G8 to try and close tax avoidance loopholes down.

I doubt they'll be cutting taxes to the wealthier. If you actually look at what this government has done whilst in power, they've actually done what labour claims they will do. Under labour, top end tax rate was 40%, and its now 45%. So labour supporters keep banging on that the Tories give the rich tax cuts. They've actually increased taxation for the rich.

The present government has increased tax breaks for the poor. So in the tipsy turvey world the coalition have made the poorer in society better off and made up the shortfall by taxing the rich. We also have a conservative PM who is leading the charge with G8 to try and close tax avoidance loopholes down.

Nah, 96/97 deficit was lower than the 06/07 or projected 07/08 one.

Where are you getting your numbers?

HM Treasury.

HM Treasury.

You can keep scapegoating the rich but in the end they will just leave and take their wealth elsewhere and where will that leave us?

Your technically correct

Are they? What were the numbers, Browns March '07 budget speech predicted '-4' as the budget deficit and the figure I have from 96/97 was a 3% deficit from a Deloitte report.

Has the coalition done a better job of running our country than new labour (Blair and Brown) and why/ why not?

Would love to hear what people have to say on this subject.

Thanks to all replies.

I think that the coalition overstated the case for their economic polices. They made it sound like that when they took control in 2010, the sky was about to fall down. They made it appear that we were in the position purely because of Labour's policies. They said that their ideas were the only way to get us out of the mess they said we were in.

None of these things were true, however the hysteria that the coalition managed to whip up allowed them to push through some incredibly unfair and ill thought out policies.

Additionally, for those still fooled by the coalition's confidence trick, it will be hard to evaluate the present government's time in office compared to Labour's time.

I won't be sad to see the Tories gone in 2015.

Are they? What were the numbers, Browns March '07 budget speech predicted '-4' as the budget deficit and the figure I have from 96/97 was a 3% deficit from a Deloitte report.

A lot worse from a human perspective. Austerity measures are crushing the poor, sick and disabled whilst they go all out to protect corporate interests and banker's bonuses. People are worse off, living standards are dropping. ATOS is an absolute disgrace. Education is now the most expensive in Europe and post-grad courses are now exclusively for the rich. Iain Duncan Smith is a disgusting human being.

What I'm unhappy over? I'm unhappy that benefits are still so generous that so many people are willing to say it isn't worthwhile to work a NMW or AMW job. I suppose capping it to a 1% annual rise is something but I'd been happier if it had been 0.1%

It's been better for me, to my existence in UK is mostly an economic one, the day there is no money to be had from here I'm outta here pronto.

...prefer they concentrate on far more pressing issues especially those that I could make money off

Maybe if people were paid enough to afford a basic standard of living (a situation massively exacerbated by property bubbles supported by policies that encourage endless property 'investing' that you are also profiting from) then they would find it worthwhile to work. Even Henry Ford understood that you have to ensure your workers can afford your product, otherwise the whole thing falls apart. To think otherwise is very short-termist and demonstrates a complete lack of empathy for your fellow human.




Sums things up really. I actually thought your callous, self-serving, shallow viewpoint was a tongue in cheek satirical post, designed to subtly illustrate the foolish and cruel nature of policies that favour those who wish to 'farm' people like cattle, but then I read your follow up post and realised you are completely serious.

I am sad to think about what might have happened to you to make you so lacking in empathy and unable to differentiate between what serves your personally and what is good for a country, the world or people in general.