Interesting that despite ‘smiley’ Dave Cameron having a more acceptable public face, at the heart of the party’s policies are the same old ‘starve the poor, feed the rich’ policies of the 1980s.

Let’s not forget that the current recession was caused by the greed of the rich, and irresponsible bankers, yet here we have Bullingham club George Osborne having the gall to tell us ‘We’re all in this together chaps!’

Really George? Were we all in it together when the big bonuses were being paid out? Are the Senior execs of big companies going to be subject to the same pay freeze that many low-paid public sector workers, and policemen, firemen, and NHS staff will be subject to?

We have a token statement that the Tories ‘might’ tax large bonuses, but absolutely no indication that they will swell the Exchequer’s coffers by closing the sort of tax loopholes that allow hedge fund managers to pay less tax than their cleaners.

Instead their only commitments are to reduce inheritance tax (in effect a tax rebate for dead millionaires), to reduce corporation tax (more bonus for the boys!), and now to reduce NI contributions for new employers (doubtless encouraging those who wish to make a fast buck out of providing a few minimum wage jobs).

It’s quite clear who they represent – nothing has changed since the days of their huge tax cuts for the rich.

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Once again the Tories have pinpointed society’s problem; sick people and overpaid nurses. Not bankers and stock exchange profiteers (who fund them, of course). Oh no.

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What about boy George’s pay being frozen? What about his expensive expenses being frozen?

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Did i hear it on news at 10 last night when ozi said he would stop tax credits to people on 50k a year????. Well if under labour people on over 50k have been given tax credits then labour deserve to lose. Saying all that i know selfemployed people such as farmers etc who play the system very well and get more tax credits than the so called low paid and they own the farms and rent out property. They just have good accountants.

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Stuart,

Firstly, the second comment from ‘Peter’ was not from me, so I can’t be held responsible for it.

Secondly, I think most of the readers will be baffled by your ridiculous description of me as a ‘Marxist’ – your knowledge of political philosophy must be lacking, or your political compass somewhat off-beam.

If it is ‘Marxist’ to identify the people responsible for our current plight, and to wish for them to be penalised for their greed, if it is ‘Marxist’ to not want to see the low-paid hit with lower pay, whilst the rich have their taxes cut, as proposed by Osborne, then sign me up!

Thirdly, your attempt to feel reassured by the presence of 3-year agreements for some public servants is probably not safe. Osborne indicated that he may not honour these, and the public sector unions are already preparing to have to fight to keep them in place. I wish your daughter all the luck in the world in getting her pay increases maintained, but they are certainly at risk from Osborne.
It actually won’t help the economy to freeze public sector pay – after all public servants spend money and pay taxes too.

As you well know, i used to be a public servant – just as you did, but I haven’t worked in the public sector for well over a decade. In the end the pay in the private sector has ended up better, despite what you might read in the Daily Mail…

As for the idea that ‘we are all in this together’ – certainly we all have to deal with the consequences, but we are categorically not all responsible. We have taken ownership, out of necessity, of several banks into public hands. These banks will continue to make healthy profits whilst in public ownership, and that is where we should look to take payment from to service the Nation’s debt.

Osborne will want to return the banks to his friends in the private sector as soon as he can, leaving the rest of us to pick up the tab for their irresponsibility. We must ensure that they are kept in public ownership until all these debts are paid back.

Andrew, I believe the ceiling for Children’s Tax Credit is around about £58k combined financial income for a family. In order to get any money, (effectively relief on tax paid on some of that income) they would have to have significant childcare expenses too, so you needn’t worry, little money is being spent on the reasonably well-off. Most tax credit money goes on keeping the low-paid in work – far better than having them on the dole.

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same old tories, they dont have a clue, the public sector is what is supporting the economy keeping people in jobs, why should hard working civil servants who serve the people suffer for the “socially useless” bankers who crashed our economy, the simple answer to the defecit is too slowly over time pay it back through economic growth, alot of that will depend on public sector steering investment, offering grants to businesses, offering services to the community, repairing the roads, maintaining peoples health, keeping them in work, yet Osbourne seeks to abolish Regional Economic Growth Agencies – he hasnt a clue and he is harsh enough to not care about important British services like the post office, the NHS and local councils street sweepers etc

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Stuart,

I wish the trade unions shared your optimism that Osborne will preserve the current 3 year pay deals.

As for taxes, the Tories have already stated their intention to cut Corporation Tax, to reduce employer’s NI contributions, and to raise the threshold for inheritance tax.

Do you really believe that they will allow the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation?

Do you believe that they will retain Labour’s increase in the top tax rate for long? (Surely anything that prompts that talentless Tracey Emin to say she’ll leave the country if worth voting Labour for on its own! Perhaps Phil Collins will keep his earlier promise and go too!)

You’re clearly content to vote to allow the rich to get off scot-free – let’s not forget that there’s no pay freeze promised for the senior executives of large companies – they’ll carry on awarding themselves double-digit pay increases while cutting jobs. I doubt if many others will be so easily persuaded to show such philanthropy towards the wealthy.

It also seems that your understanding of the political spectrum is so limited that you dismiss anyone who is not a dyed-in-the-wool fully signed-up Mail-reading Tory as a Marxist! I would seriously suggest that you read up on the history of 20th-Century politics, to understand what you are really saying.

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The public sector deserves a hammering. Exorbitant salary rises over the last 12 years see nurses earning £35k plus! How absurd! A nurse should be paid no more than £20k for a 37.5 hour week. As for these “essential services” that Labour loves – compare them to the private sector and what’s really happening in the economy. Good on you, George Osbourne.

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You know ..

Really – isn’t it about time we broke free from this ridiculous see-sawing between Labour and Conservative governments that’s been going on for the last 50 odd years to my living knowledge (and much longer of course).

I’m tired of hearing the “same old” arguments going on between them “again” – and – it seems to me they’ve more or less morphed into the same “colour” anyhow.

It seems obvious to me that whoever gets into power next year (if we follow the same see-saw action)- only the usual sector of society will suffer.

It really is a disgraceful mess we seem to have got into – and I really don’t see how it will get any better unless there is a drastic change in the way government works.

As I’ve said before – if I were young again – I’d be off – as far away as possible!

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Peasbody,
My mother is a nurse, she works with the mentally ill. She earns far less than than 35k and works far more than a 37.5 hour week. Yet she will be hit hard by pay freezes. If you ask me its a deeply unpleasant job, I wouldn’t do it for twice her salary but she shows extreme dedication. Unless you know the intimate details of what her job requires I’d suggest you keep your opinions of what nurses should earn to yourself.

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i cant wait, god save the queen, bye bye brown, hello lower taxes and a better britain with less benefits scroungers, illegal immigrants and eu rules, god bless the uk, god save the queen

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You need to get “with it” Capt Chaos. Brown and his lot first started the increasing the pension age issue. So don’t let’s have any silly comments about silver spoons and greedy bankers. You will be helping to pay the almost £180 Billion that Brown has printed this year alone and all the other astronomic “borrowings” that he has made (and bankrupted our country into the bargain) over the past twelve years. You will also no doubt be first in the line to pick up your increased old age pension which the Tories intend to bring in.
The rise based on average earning for the old age pension will eventually more than make up for the increase in the pension age.
Thank your lucky stars that there is an alternative to Brown and his gang albeit from the sound of things, it is Labour irrespective of how they ruin the country.

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Stuart,

Since you and the Tories seem to have found the relationship between the bankers’ actions and their responsibilities hard to grasp, please allow me to help with a small analogy.

If you or I were to go to a bank, and to borrow money, we would be expected to repay, with interest, all of that money. I have no problem with that – it’s not a Marxist thing, it’s a Capitalist thing, as I think you’ll agree. Now, I don’t think that the banks would say to us part way through our repayment schedule; ‘Tell you what, you’ve paid off enough – we’ll let you off the rest and get tha money back from all of our other customers who didn’t borrow anything’ – do you?

We now have an enormous debt, caused by us having to lend the banks money to stay in business. Following exactly the principle above, we should expect the banks we bailed out to remain in public ownership until all of their debt is paid, with interest. That sounds like a Capitalist principle to adopt to me.

But do you really believe that Osborne will wait until that point before he gives the banks back to his City banker friends? He’s already indicated in his speech that he regards the rest of us, and especially public sector workers, as responsible for clearing that debt.

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What you can’t grasp Peter is the fact that by taking regulation from the B of E and giving it to the emasculated FSA, Blair and Brown allowed the banks to run riot. They and their “soft” approach to banking principles caused this crisis, this, taken with the fact that two years after Labour gained power, Blair and Brown themselves ran riot throwing “borrowed” money at everything, they again more than anyone or anything caused this crisis. Then again taken with the fact that instead of borrowed money, they sold off our gold reserves whilst prices were at rock bottom and used the income for throwing at the public services without any improvement, we have the total culpability and responsibility for the fact that we are almost one step from bankruptcy.
Nothing was saved for the proverbial “rainy day”, we had nothing to fall back on, our gold stocks had been given away and the B of E was bare.
I am not an idiot Peter, please, don’t be like this lot in Westminster, take me and millions of other people with an ounce of commonsense as one.
No, public sector workers are not responsible for clearing the debt – albeit three quarters of the “borrowed” money was thrown at them, they, like the private sector has had to tighten their belts, will also have to tighten theirs. The difference between Labour and Tory is the lies, deceit, spin, deviousness and profligacy of Labour and the honesty, openess, inclusiveness and “we are all in this together approach” of the Tories. What a difference 12 years of Labour and apart from borrowing more money or printing it by the day, they have put no solutions forward except a pay freeze for the highest paid Civil Servants, the rest is to come AFTER the election. Compare that with the Tories who are not even in power and could well lose it by being honest with the people.
If the Tories lose because of it, they can hold their heads high with self respect and principles intact. If Labour wins, they win because they are liars and take us for fools and those who voted for them fell for it. Well, I won’t but you will.

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A list of Labour’s achievements:

- £22,500 of debt for every child born in Britain
- 111 tax rises from a government that promised no tax rises at all
- The longest national tax code in the world
- 100,000 million pounds drained from British pension funds
- Gun crime up by 57%
- Violent crime up 70%
- The highest proportion of children living in workless households anywhere in Europe
- The number of pensioners living in poverty up by 100,000
- The lowest level of social mobility in the developed world
- The only G7 country with no growth this year
- One in six young people neither earning nor learning
- 5 million people on out-of –work benefits
- Missing the target of halving child poverty
- Ending up with child poverty rising in each of the last three years instead
- Cancer survival rates among the worst in Europe
- Hospital-acquired infections killing nearly three times as many people as are killed on the roads
- Falling from 4th to 13th in the world competitiveness league
- Falling from 8th to 24th in the world education rankings in maths
- Falling from 7th to 17th in the rankings in literacy
- The police spending more time on paperwork than on the beat
- Fatal stabbings at an all-time high
- Prisoners released without serving their sentences
- Foreign prisoners released and never deported
- 7 million people without an NHS dentist
- Small business taxes going up
- Business taxes raised from among the lowest to among the highest in Europe
- Tax rises for working people set for after the election
- The 10p tax rate abolished
- And the ludicrous promise to have ended boom and bust
- Our gold reserves sold for a quarter of their worth
- Our armed forces overstretched and under-supplied
- Profitable post offices closed against their will
- The relentless march of the nanny-state and big-brother surveillance
- One of the highest rates of family breakdown in Europe
- The ‘Golden Rule’ on borrowing abandoned when it didn’t fit
- Police inspectors in 10,Downing Street
- Dossiers that were dodgy
- Mandelson resigning the first time
- Mandelson resigning the second time
- Mandelson coming back for a third time
- Bad news buried
- Personal details lost
- An election bottled
- A referendum denied

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evaland, the sort of comment, typical of Labour “sheep” who are now trying to hide the fact and use smoke and mirrors to camouflage their adherence to a discredited, worn out and deceitful party. You convince nobody least of all me. So, bully for you, you dislike me, I am sorry but that is an understatement as to what I feel for Labourites. They have brought this country to it’s knees. The last thing that I have for them is respect.
The last I heard was that the Labourites take the Sun because they buy it to look at the pictures, the words are a bit beyond them.

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