To not understand why people are blaming the coalition for the cuts

[tetrea]

The Labour Party were in power for the last 13 years and it was the Labour Party that racked up a structural deficit of £160 billion and an annual debt interest payment and there is a broad consensus that this needs to be eradicated. Why are some people having a go at Cameron/Clegg/Osbourne/Cable etc for doing what the majority of experts say is needed.

Really AlpinePony if you don't have your hand out it can't be taken from you

So disabled people, families with disabled children, vunerable women running from DV. In your eyes are fair game because they have had to put their hands out for help...people like you disgust me!

Oh and North Korea yes that is where we all want to live...moron!

BS - he ran a deficit between 2002 and 2006 (?) quite extraordinary given the extend of the "boom". He thought, somewhat arrogantly, that he'd conquered boom & bust, that he'd discovered a new economic model which would never fail. I fail to see how sub-prime mortgages in the US explain how Mr Brown ran an economy so poorly in the years before the "banking crisis" blew up in our international faces.

Perhaps rather than getting excited about the man who claimed to have "saved the world" - the disciples could look East towards Germany. Softly, softly catchee monkey. A country whose economy was strong enough to absorb East Germany and is currently carrying several of its european members, yet still is not going to hell in a handcart... The Germans are what we like to call "prudent".

VAT affects everyone. Income tax on the other hand, can be tweaked to affect the higher earners.

Addendum: We were running a deficit for YEARS before bailing out the banks...

well my dd needs her "hand out" not her bloody fault.
I don't give a monkeys who is too blame for the deficit, but I do think it is wrong to target the disabled like this government are.
but as it will only affect the vunerable and people with out a voice, it will just go on.

I don't quite know where I read it, (sorry!) but our debt is equivalent to 77% of our GDP.

There are going to be losers, but at the same time I agree with Matthew Parris (in Saturday Times column) which said that the problem is that these cuts have been couched in terms of 'fairness' which is not morally neutral but depends on our idea of deserving.

I don't quite know what can be done about the situation we are in - I suppose it is better that something has been done rather than continuing to hide and mitigate the dire situation we find ourselves in.

Op - the coalition are making the cuts and where they are making them and indeed how far they are necessary is very much up for debate. I supect they are actually going to screw things up even more. A large part of the deficit arose from the banking crisis. Do we really think it's a fair and reasonable use of government power to ensure that the poor, the disabled, women in general - are paying for that?

Jacqueline - you're being somewhat aggressive, extremely rude, extremely judgemental and quite frankly rather nasty. I have been a victim of DV - at 21 years old I was living in a Women's Aid safehouse. I vowed never to be at the mercy of anyone ever again and took control of my life. I'm sorry that you are unable to see the logic in my statement.

AlpinePony why bring rivens personal stuff into It?
how is her dd, or mine supposed to save to pay for thier care.

Yes Riven why don't you just uproot your family and 'scoot' back to the US.

How dare you voice a different view to others and care about the vunerable in society.

Go on get out, leave you caring, responsible person!

i am getting a bit pissed of with people having pops at riven and bringing up what she has said on other threads.

Good lord, AlpinePony, don't you know the US doesn't allow people with disabilities to emigrate there? And LOL at the idea of you swanning back to work despite paraplegia...

2shoot - I didn't mean it to sound mean. I just think that as a family they have an incredible opportunity to make their lives better.

Her life is all over these boards or is it now classified?

mathanxiety - well I work with a paraplegic man.

are you stalking her?
it is nasty to bring it up on this thread. if you can't get your point across without resorting to that, you should leave it.

Anyway - I'm leaving this thread now as the issue has been lost in those being deliberately obtuse and twisting words to fit their attack. I made a perfectly logical statement and it's not been understood.

Don't let the door hitcha...

The bankers were not the sole reason why we are in the situation we find ourselves in now...

The banking bailout did not contribute to the structural deficit although the credit crunch was a large contributory factor to the recession.

Personally I'd introduce the robin hood tax straight away.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8506718.stm
Cuts do need to be made but they should be targeting the highest earners, not the lowest. It is the most vulnerable that are losing the most here.

has anyone considered that a lot of the deficit was caused by the government bailing out the banks - which I believe the conservatives supported at the time (if I'm wrong on the tory support I apologise). Would any tories here please explain what they would have done differently? If the banks had gone under it would of been chaos, no debit cards, no money in the cash machines. People literally unable to access any of their money at all. The entire economy would have completely collapsed.

Is it not inevitable that the cuts will hurt the poorest most as they rely more on the state.