Europe IV: The Final Hour

[Lebowski]

I agree austerity has been terrible for the UK people over the last decade, but the reality is we had no choice. We were in serious debt, our credit rating was through the floor, and we had to prove we were going to get our deficit down to get an interest rate that was not going to get us into more debt. We were in a pretty **** and scary place financially.

Problem is it didn't work and we did have a choice, the government abandoned these tactics as they failed. you cant cut your way to growth, all austerity did was stagnate the country. Dont belive me ive seen to first hand, One of the big things they did was cut council spending, on paper it looks like a good way to save money but your not looking at the wider reaching issues council spending cuts had a massive knock on effect on other business in the uk and loads of company's lost staff or went out of business altogether as they relied on council spends. You start to see this big domino effect happening your not only loosing money from individual employee taxation but your bringing in less via corporation tax while also adding more burden to welfare with unemployment payments.

[MartyG]

Unemployment is at its lowest rate since 1975.

[gunrock]

[MENTION=988]gIzzE[/MENTION], I'm not against re-nationalisation, actually. For two reasons; some infrastructure and utilities don't work in a free market environment. I can't switch from Thames Water to Scottish Water, nor can I catch a 7:34 from Sidcup to Cannon Street on Great Northern. Privatising BT and opening up the comms. market has worked out pretty well, however, the postal service is never going to be a big money spinner because of the people needed to walk your letter or parcel to your door.
The other reason is security and securing resources- there are very few other countries that allow foreign and foreign government ownership of their utilities, yet the UK does, isn't that strange? Perhaps, it's something to do with cash-for-questions, non-executive directorships on the boards of these companies and those who holiday on the yachts of oligarchs?

[gunrock]

This article sums up perfectly how so many people feel at the moment.....

https://unherd.com/2019/12/does-labo...d-why-it-lost/

What a load of old ****e... the blokes a frothing loon. Anyone who goes leafletting for any political party and cries tears for anything that comes out of Michael Gove's cakehole is a frunking basketcase, as far as I'm concerned.

[Lebowski]

Unemployment is at its lowest rate since 1975.

Because we have reclassified what employment is, worked one hour a week on a zero hour contract yes your employed.

[Hirst]

Fully automated cars will never happen, it would require an overhaul of the entire road network that nobody would want to pay for. We can't even get all the potholes filled. I've always found it weird at how much time/money has been invested in something that a lot of people enjoy doing in the first place, yet doing your laundry is still a massive chore.

[gIzzE]

What a load of old ****e... the blokes a frothing loon.

That did genuinely tickle me silly.

He might be a bit am-dram, but it is how many thought.

[gIzzE]

Problem is it didn't work and we did have a choice, the government abandoned these tactics as they failed. you cant cut your way to growth, all austerity did was stagnate the country. Dont belive me ive seen to first hand, One of the big things they did was cut council spending, on paper it looks like a good way to save money but your not looking at the wider reaching issues council spending cuts had a massive knock on effect on other business in the uk and loads of company's lost staff or went out of business altogether as they relied on council spends. You start to see this big domino effect happening your not only loosing money from individual employee taxation but your bringing in less via corporation tax while also adding more burden to welfare with unemployment payments.

I agree with you. 100%

But they had to put forward their cost cutting to get the lending they got. It is how the system works.

Greece were the same, they didn't and they got the lending pulled, they got hit far harder than us.


It is no different to someone going to a debt consolidation company. They agree to lend you the money to get you out of debt over 10 years. but only based on you paying that deficit down.
You can't spend any more money when the cards are racked up, but the debt consolidation company will help you get back to where you need to be and hopefully in 10 years you can start again with the hindsight of what happened.

It is a crap position to be in, but there was no choice.

[MartyG]

Because we have reclassified what employment is, worked one hour a week on a zero hour contract yes your employed.

No, not the reason.

Zero hour contracts account for 780,000 people (2018 figures) and that trend is now in decline. Additionally, 72% of those are happy with those contracts because they want the flexible work: https://fullfact.org/economy/how-man...nt-more-hours/

So, if you take the 28% of 780,000 that's 218,400 who maybe you can discount - that still means we're at the lowest level of unemployment since the 70s.

[vanpeebles]

Fully automated cars will never happen, it would require an overhaul of the entire road network that nobody would want to pay for. We can't even get all the potholes filled. I've always found it weird at how much time/money has been invested in something that a lot of people enjoy doing in the first place, yet doing your laundry is still a massive chore.

That's why I'd do it over the railway tracks. Make a whole new network up specially designed for the purpose.

[vanpeebles]

I see Lady Nugee is first up

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/19/labour-senior-advisers-should-pay-price-for-defeat-says-thornberry

The blame game continues in Labour just a week on from the GE Results as now Thornberry says senior advisors should carry the blame
So far, so...


"So you think Labours anti-semetic?"



"So you didn't like the parties Brexit stance?"




"So we lost by a huge margin?"

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/20/brexit-pm-asks-britons-to-move-on-as-mps-debate-withdrawal-bill

Sixth time lucky

[Cassius_Smoke]

Get brexit done... It'll just take another few years.

[QualityChimp]

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