Arbtalk 2015 General Election Poll

[Two Acres]

Doomed to what exactly?

 

 

 

You guys have short memories, our government went bust 6 years ago because they spent too much. The bank bailout which they blame only accounts for one 20th of our national debt. The rest was spent on public services (if your are being generous, waste if you aren't).

 

Unfortunately since the 1980's no political party has been prepared to be honest with the electorate and tell us the plain truth that unless we put up taxes significantly we can't afford the public services that we want. The old labour party were honest about it, they would openly admit that they were going to put up taxes and people still voted for them.

Now they all pretend that they can spend more while raising less tax. It simply can't be done.

 

You either cut services: (tories)

Borrow more: (Labour)

Tax more: (greens)

 

What you can't do is no change. It just isn't sustainable.

 

I was just turning around a phrase from a previous poster. 'Doomed' is perhaps too emotive a word for me personally and I probably shouldn't have used it. What we will suffer, in my opinion, is an increasingly divisive society with a cynical self-interest at its core. As someone with a stong belief in community I find that disapointing and corrosive.

[skyhuck]

I was just turning around a phrase from a previous poster. 'Doomed' is perhaps too emotive a word for me personally and I probably shouldn't have used it. What we will suffer, in my opinion, is an increasingly divisive society with a cynical self-interest at its core. As someone with a stong belief in community I find that disapointing and corrosive.

 

We are already there and have been for decades.

[the village idiot]

Doomed to what exactly?

 

 

 

You guys have short memories, our government went bust 6 years ago because they spent too much. The bank bailout which they blame only accounts for one 20th of our national debt. The rest was spent on public services (if your are being generous, waste if you aren't).

 

Unfortunately since the 1980's no political party has been prepared to be honest with the electorate and tell us the plain truth that unless we put up taxes significantly we can't afford the public services that we want. The old labour party were honest about it, they would openly admit that they were going to put up taxes and people still voted for them.

Now they all pretend that they can spend more while raising less tax. It simply can't be done.

 

You either cut services: (tories)

Borrow more: (Labour)

Tax more: (greens)

 

What you can't do is no change. It just isn't sustainable.

 

Good point, well made. And to extrapolate that argument, cutting services and borrowing more are both un-sustainable leaving one viable ( all be it unpopular) option.

[Two Acres]

Doomed to what exactly?

 

 

 

You guys have short memories, our government went bust 6 years ago because they spent too much. The bank bailout which they blame only accounts for one 20th of our national debt. The rest was spent on public services (if your are being generous, waste if you aren't).

 

Unfortunately since the 1980's no political party has been prepared to be honest with the electorate and tell us the plain truth that unless we put up taxes significantly we can't afford the public services that we want. The old labour party were honest about it, they would openly admit that they were going to put up taxes and people still voted for them.

Now they all pretend that they can spend more while raising less tax. It simply can't be done.

 

You either cut services: (tories)

Borrow more: (Labour)

Tax more: (greens)

 

What you can't do is no change. It just isn't sustainable.

 

Our government didn't go bust, and hasn't gone bust. That was the banks. Collectively governements in the EU and US had to rescue their financial institutions with taxpayers money. because they deemed te banks to be too big to fail. That transformed what should have been a private sector bankruptcy into a soveriegn debt. The consequence of that was tha financial institutions turned their attention to the level of soverign debt individual nations. Thise with unsustainable debts (Iceland, Greece) did go bust and have had to be rescued. The UK is not in taht kind of trouble. Our debt is sustainable.

 

I agree with everything else that you say Tom

[skyhuck]

Good point, well made. And to extrapolate that argument, cutting services and borrowing more are both un-sustainable leaving one viable ( all be it unpopular) option.

 

There is also improving the efficiency of public services, look at policing, funding is down and so is crime.

 

There is a great deal of scope for cutting public services too IMO. I want a smaller state and the able-bodied off benefits.

[Two Acres]

We are already there and have been for decades.

 

If thats true, which it could be Skyhuck, then its very sad, don't you think?

 

Personally I don't find that to be the case. In my village we have a strong community thats built around our young children and the village school. We all have different political, (and other), opinions however we all pull together. That happens in large part to raise funds for the school and help the teachers (government doesn't fund education properly). It also happens in large part through direct assistance to each other. For example Friiends of mine have beeen to the wood with me to fill up on firewood, my wife regularly takes another friends little girl to school so her Mum and Dad can go to work, the list goes on. Its all good

[peatff]

Tories have given anyone on £1,000,000 plus a £100,000 tax break already using the excuse that they would have lost this through tax avoidance anyway and have cut tax credits to working families on lower income so they are £1000 a year worse off.

[skyhuck]

Our government didn't go bust, and hasn't gone bust. That was the banks. Collectively governements in the EU and US had to rescue their financial institutions with taxpayers money. because they deemed te banks to be too big to fail. That transformed what should have been a private sector bankruptcy into a soveriegn debt. The consequence of that was tha financial institutions turned their attention to the level of soverign debt individual nations. Thise with unsustainable debts (Iceland, Greece) did go bust and have had to be rescued. The UK is not in taht kind of trouble. Our debt is sustainable.

 

I agree with everything else that you say Tom

 

Really????? how??????

 

Over a trillion and growing, what will you consider it too much??????

[the village idiot]

There is also improving the efficiency of public services, look at policing, funding is down and so is crime.

 

There is a great deal of scope for cutting public services too IMO. I want a smaller state and the able-bodied off benefits.

 

Agreed. That would all help a lot. We still need to swallow the bitter pill though that we cannot carry on living the lifestyles we do indefinitely.

[Two Acres]

There is also improving the efficiency of public services, look at policing, funding is down and so is crime.

 

There is a great deal of scope for cutting public services too IMO. I want a smaller state and the able-bodied off benefits.

 

I don't - I would prefer the Norwegian model:

 

''The Norwegian economy is a prosperous mixed economy, with a vibrant private sector, a large state sector, and an extensive social safety net. The government controls key areas, such as the vital petroleum sector, through extensive regulation and large-scale state-majority-owned enterprises.'