Do you think Labour DESERVES to get a majority in 2015?

In 1997 Labour inherited few problems, and got the UK dancing to “Things Can Only Get Better” and pre serious immigration in 2004, in a backdrop of low GLOBAL inflation and falling interest rates, with an economy fuelled by Government and Consumer spending/debt – for most voters things did get better, as few realised the economic and social structural problems that were building up, to come apart at the first recession.

Any fool of a political party can spend money we have not got and forget to make serious social policies, as spending their time making new laws, what was it over 13- years, just under 4,300 - said to be more than all the previous administrations combined over a century.

But here we are, Labour had what ex BoE Governor Merv ‘The Swerve’ King called “the nice decade’ to make bold decisions on unemployment, housing and other social issues to make a real difference to everyone’s lives BUT THEY NOT ONLY BLEW IT, their policies/debts made it harder for the Coalition to not only reverse the decline, but put us back on course to where we should be going.

Most people do not realise how long it takes to turn an economy around e.g. any fall or rise in our Base Rate can take over 18-months to fully work through the economy, so IMO having done all the damage, Labour does not deserve to get back in, especially touting promises they can’t keep, or seriously affect areas we need to attract private sector investment into i.e. jobs, energy, new homes and more to rent – not scare it off.

H.M. ….. well you’d be guessing wrong, as if I was, I would have been tempted to include the Coalitions attempts to redress Labour’s neglect of pensions/pensioners in pursuit of a fat, inefficient and expensive State.

After experiencing 1970’s Labour, I followed New Labour very closely and I was tearing my hair out for 13-years at their total incompetence in ruining what they inherited in 1997.

Now you and others can vote for who you want, but at the end of the day either Labour or the Conservatives will run the country and they will have the choice of records while in power.

Teaandhorazine …. While I’m not sure why if you understood what they inherited why you “loathe” the Tories so much, but I do know that if I had been a Labour Party supporter, it would not come down to Labour Party personalities, as my conscience would never allow me to vote for them again – whether we were in a two main party parliament, where either the Conservatives or Labour Party will always form a new administration, or not.

Looking at Labour’s last 13-year record (in my opening post), for a political party who says that they are so ‘in touch’ with the masses – I shudder to think what more economic and social damage their policies BY DESIGN, could have done – so where is the attraction to them and hatred for those trying to come up with solutions, Labour was too cowardly to try in 2010, thinking of their 2015 vote..

Just 'taking' pensions, that few people think about when they are young, never mind the often derisory annual increases Brown gave State Pensioners, his policies have produced a massive pension inequality between the Public and Private Sector workers, starting back in 1997, that 17-years later, would have severely impacted their ‘cost of living’ whatever pension provisions the Private Sector had – and no doubt PUT UP the cost to the taxpayer of funding Public Sector pensions, Final Salary in particular..

When Labour came to power in 1997, they made three ‘raids’ not in their manifesto; they sold nearly half our gold at a 20-year low price, hiked up Housing Stamp Duty from a flat 1% rate, and took away pensions dividend tax relief, Brown was warned not to do as it might kill Private Sector Company pensions, especially Final Salary..

“The man who stole your old age: How Gordon Brown secretly imposed a ruinous tax that has wrecked the retirements of millions”

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266662/The-man-stole-old-age-How-Gordon-Brown-secretly-imposed-ruinous-tax-wrecked-retirements-millions.html

To-date, according to the OBR that ‘raid’ has saved the UK Exchequer around £118 billion, but the cost to Private Pensions (that back in 1997 were the best funded in Europe), that both lost that tax relief AND accrued performance from the investments, at a modest rate, is over £250 billion. Private Pensions were not just for wealthy people, they were for everyone, especially those working for companies that looked to give THEIR workers a similar pension to most State workers.

• But since 1997, the number of Private Sector workers with a defined benefit pension has collapsed from 5million to 1.7million.

• And in 1997, 34 per cent of staff at Private Sector firms were in a final salary – or defined benefit – scheme. By 2012, this had slumped to just 8 per cent – just one in 12.

In a double-whammy to those that have lost their Final Salary pensions, for those companies managing the liabilities that provide the Public Sector Final Salary schemes (and remembering that Labour hired around 1 million new Public Sector workers in 13-years to around 6.1 million), that same dividend relief raid means it now takes MORE taxpayer funds to GUARANTEE those schemes payouts.

And as the majority of the £1.2 trillion liability (that comes out of annual government budgets when fall due) is unfunded, it is another big ‘Prudence’ Brown expenditure time bomb he left, along with Private Finance Initiative Schemes, annually out of NHS and our Education budgets for decades to come.
www.if.org.uk/archives/2031/ons-reveals-full-uk-pension-liabilities

If I understand correctly, the Local Authority pension fund is separate and that is where just over 22% of your Council Tax goes to fund – and this will give you some idea why Council Tax under Labour went up over 110% in 13-years – arguably so much fairer than the Poll Tax, Labour politicians used to march against.lol
“Revealed: Labour's crazy town hall 'non-jobs', including the walking co-ordinator on £32,000-a-year and the roller disco coach.”

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358144/Labours-3m-town-hall-jobs-bonanza-employed-deliver-frontline-services.html

Regarding the title of this thread, as far as I can make out on the responses so far, NO ONE can look at Labour’s list of policies on the opening post and say Labour DESERVES to be in government (Westminster or Local) but due to the Coalitions efforts once INHERITING the fallout from those policies on a ‘cause and effect’ basis, most would vote Labour back in anyway.

Isitmebut but how ideologically ‘tribal’ can you get, as if any party I voted for screwed the indigenous multi-ethnic electorate so much, especially the aspirations of the poor/homeless/unemployed - by senselessly INCREASING NON EU immigration to double that of EU citizens, just when opening the door to POTENTIALLY 475 million EU citizens (and not know how many were coming) – I’d never vote for them again.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/6418456/Labour-wanted-mass-immigration-to-make-UK-more-multicultural-says-former-adviser.html

Do you really not see the non racist but economic and social correlation BETWEEN Labour’s policies during their administration, and any hardship on the masses now, having had 2.5 million new joint non and EU citizens arrive, who both found work and somewhere to live?

Blaming the Conservative led coalition for trying to get the UK’s finances under control is understandable to a point, as Brown’s Labour administration REFUSED to detail their ‘cut less, spend and tax more’ policies. But that administration had a few honest, competent Ministers within back then, who were prepared to come clean on the extent of the problem – rather than adopt the Mr Micawber wish and a prayer of ‘something will turn up’ so keep spending money on an inefficient, fat, State.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/mar/25/alistair-darling-cut-deeper-margaret-thatcher

But once Labour were shown to be spectacularly wrong and no imminent General Election, they came clean on both the extent of the financial problem and what EVENTUALLY they would have to have done about it, probably not before the UK needed an IMF bail-out as in 1976.

“Labour to substantially cut benefits bill if it wins power in 2015”
www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/aug/21/labour-to-cut-benefits-bill-2015

"Labour will cut the benefits bill "quite substantially" and more effectively than the Tories if it wins power in 2015, the shadow work and pensions secretary said on Tuesday."

Unfortunately the truth is that never mind if they DESERVE it, Labour WILL get back in due to the dodgy boundaries; as in 2005 a 35% share of the votes gave Labour a 64-seat majority. In 2010 the Tories won 36% of votes but were 20 seats short of a majority.

And we’ll never know how there annual raising of Council Taxes (to beyond 110% since 1997), raising of National Insurance and Fuel Duty post 2010 (from a budget prior to 2010) and many other taxes to the populous they kept to themselves - would have SOLVED the ‘cost of living’ crisis you get after any recession, never mind the deepest and longest in over 80-years - made worse by the unbalanced UK economy prior to the crash in 2007/8.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/2044969--Cost-of-Living-a-cunning-plan