OMG!

ves, nice try at changing the subject.

was talking about the recession.

OP, you shouldn't complain about your 12 yo sleeping in a small bedroom. That is the reality for many, many children. I remember my brother sleeping in a box room his entire childhood. My parents no doubt would've loved him to have had more space but their mortgage didn't stretch to it.

Hmm ST.

See, I remember you telling me that the Tories would nbot be making life ahrder for disabled people.

They have. not just the presumed slashes to teh number of DLA cases paid 9there's be no pint in it otherwise) but the very real fear people are now experiencing.

Again and again people said 'The tories understand; they have no wish to make life harder for those who are genuinely vulnerable'.

Well guess what? they did. Read the htreads on SN. people are scared.

Whichever way you looked at it there was going to be payback time for the enlargement of both the public sector and the Welfare state. The reckoning has come sooner than many thought (and thank goodness), so at the end of it, we may be able to increase welfare spending again.

There is no money to carry on as we were doing, and if we had had to go to the IMF, then the results would have been far worse than this budget; you only have to look at Greece to see that. If an individual had spent beyond their means as the last Government did, then they would have been made bankrupt.

We all have to stop doing ostrich impressions with heads in the sand and arses in the air and get real. Yes, it hurts everyone, but spending, both at a personal and governmental level was out of control and needs to be reined in.

ExP in the UK (I know different USA- well I do now after googling ) Whigs are in fact the antedcedants of the LibDems, the main copposers of Tory policy LOL.

Confusing, no?

TOmbli tehre's a difference between tightening your belt and what would happen to us if teh DLA assessor fails to spot invisible disability: bye bye home, community (no HA housing to move into), school, and if we were in a hostel (inevitably) small business as well.

As for Labour got us into- well labour may well ahve amde mistakes amidst a global financial crisis but that doesn't make the way the budget ahs been done OK IMO. I still do not understand why absentr paernts are nto ebing targetted, alcohol and fags put aside, all sorts of things.

What i really really would love to know is how much they expect to save by teh DLA assessment changes becuase that will tell us how many famillies will be hit. Assuming a 50% 'fakery' rate (you'd have to fill in the forms to understand how difficult that fakery really would be) we could get a number. that is what I want to see right now, actual repdiction as to how many people dealing with disability will be stuffed.

'SMA, I can see that with the DLA change. Very weird. The fact that it's not happening until 2013 = time to campaign against it IMO, though.

Let's just say that my twitter page (I keep FB mainly family / friends and twitter my political angle LOL) has acquired a few major charities following me int he last few days PMSL- I don't keep quiet.

Am unsure about the 2013 change though; I already know of people whose children are beinga ssessed in the coming weeks by home visits they did not request. My guess is it will be staggered.

The Tories are clearing up Labour's mess.

expatinscotland - how did the structural deficit get to the size it is, then?

They didn't put us into recession. Global economics and capitalism put the Western world into recession.

Tories don't help any poor, working or not, because to them, always, people are poor due to personal failing, and should be punished, not assisted, for this.

So 'give' them £170/annum 'extra' by raising the personal threshold, then take away even more with VAT hikes and Child Benefit freezes and pay freezes.

Then act shocked when they don't doff their caps and lick your boots.

That is the way of the Tory. That has always been the way of the Tory.

A Google search on their history can show this.

That's why I said, 'Duh!'

I knew this would happen ok so the labour party had its faults but they had done so much good work in bringing people out of poverty and investing in health and education. Unfortunately a lot of people who it has helped did not appreciate it and voted tory. Its only now they are feeling the pain they will understand.

I don't remember Thatcher, either, because, well, I was not here.

I never lived in the UK till 2001.

But, well, it really wasn't that hard, online, to discover the history of Tory party policies and see that their current policy hadn't changed.

The minimum wage was brought in by Labour.

Tory wanted to keep the working poor even poorer.

I mean, duh!

Both governments keep the housing bubble going because inflated properties keep people rich.

But as for the rest, well, c'mon. Tory = Whig = capitalism = very few rich, many poor.

I'm astonished about the harsh tone some of you are taking with the OP. Come on...

God I hate the tories, I really really do.

The housing entitlement thing worries me far more then anything else actually. I have families in very substandard housing with damp and mold growing up the walls. It's next to impossible to get the council to deal with it. Bearing in mind I am a HV and that many children I see are still under one with developing immune systems I dread to think what it will mean for their respiratory health as they get older. Am so fed up with it and the lack of council action I have started photographing it and placing copies of photos in babies medical records for future reference when those babies become children with chronic asthma/respiratory problems. Which by the way will cost society far more than providing decent housing in the first place. Most people/families need a 3 bedroom house at most, there's not as many needing 4 bedrooms and many three bedroom places are large enough to cope with extra people. Leave people in anything smaller though and their health suffers - proven again and again.

What I read between the lines of the budget today was "if you have more than one child you have no entitlement to anything bigger than the place you are in which might be a one bed flat". Well I have seen the results of that under the Labour Govt - families of 4 in one bedroom flats (use the living room as a sleeping area according to the council). What they don't take into account is that people = condensation = mold and damp on walls no matter how many windows you open. Frankly the state of some housing is a disgrace.

Here's to the nation's health!

she voted tory, nough said.

FFS! Give the OP a break you lot!

And Stuck, I'm 32 and can barely remember the ins and outs of what was happening in politics when I was a teenager. Just because you remember doesn't mean everyone did, so I don't think you should be calling Loudlass a liar!!

I remeber the pickets, the shouting, the banners. I remember painting them - paid in Cherry B's!

I remember when no money came home and we had "mum know's best" colesaw on toast. I remember the wierd situation of the USSR giving out stuff..

I remember the mess that was the compensation for pneumoconiouisis.

Age is no excuse for ignorence.

"YES I voted Tory...I am too young to remember a Tory government,"

Loudlass lies. Sorry.

I am one year older, just one year. Yet I remember. She is trying to dodge ideological responsibility and it does not wash.

and in my next breath I'm going to judge anyone who ever voted Labour, including myself in 2001, the shame.

oh FFS get a larger pair of judgypants as well, Stuck.

loudlass

I have defeneded you quite strongly. However I am only one year older than you yet somehow remember both the miners strike and the thatcher regime.

You voted Tory.

You are a fool and I withdraw my support for you.

I suggest you make some effort to educate yourself.