How miserable are you that the Tories are in power?

[sundayrose10]

I feel tense and twitchy. I used to enjoy reading the politic section/ other political forums, but I fear if I keep on going there and reading more and more about Tory plans, I will give myself a heart attack.

I loath them but worst I fear them. I am anxious for this country and the ordinary man and woman.

Dave makes me feel insane with hatred.

I have a colleague who is in love with the Tories. I don't share biscuits with him any more.

Dave makes me itch. All over.

[madamimadam]

latitude, the previous govt (who I was no fan of) followed the spending plans outlined by the last Tory govt. We'd still be in the same situation.

Exceept I honestly don't think Labour would have cut as hard as fast. That's my beef with the Bullingdon Club.

[Welshexpat]

No pregnantpause you can't assume the nonsense about disadvantage. We all had the same chance. Some of my friends took their chances, others didn't.
Get away from this stupid British liberal way of looking at social problems. The truth is that hard work solves most of them.

However, many people need to be made to put in the effort and if you provide them with a satisfactory standard of living, when they can't be bothered to get off their backsides, then they won't.

Too many liberals come from comfortable middle class backgrounds and have never had any real contact with members of the underclass. They develop patronising attitudes and elaborate social theories to explain poverty. If they got out more and understood the poor then they might change their opinions.

I repeat my views about East European (and Indian amongst others)) immigrants. The majority start with nothing and succeed in a relatively short time.

[oohjarWhatsit]

However, many people need to be made to put in the effort and if you provide them with a satisfactory standard of living, when they can't be bothered to get off their backsides, then they won't.

that is so true

[latitude]

madamimadam- They did until about 2003, when they just seemed to mad as Brown believed that he'd abolished the economic cycle and so borrowed money even when growth was strong. If the Government announced that deficit reduction was being slowed then our bond yields would spike as markets would lose confidence in the Governments willingness to deal with the budget deficit. This would cause a major problem for the economy.

[Merlotmonster]

I feel relief - voted labour all my life, but not last time... this country needed a good kick up the ass in many ways... also, can you imagine that wierdo Milli -peed- Band in power

[pregnantpause]

if someone is determined and works their bollocks off- and they have a natural capability. Some people are just not intelligent enough to achieve in that way. whether that is because of social disadvantage or gententics is another matter, but not everyone can become a lawyer.
My father has worked hard all of his life he has tried to get out of his poor background tried to run his own business tried to get an education. but he failed the college course because he couldnt cope with the demands. his business had cracks where his knowledge of the busines world was not complete.
He ended up in a menial job, managing to support his family. He always tried to find a way to be 'more successful', and did raise through the ranks of his job, into management, only for the mine to be closed and leave him redundant. by this point he wa too old anyway, it wa too late for him to do well for himself.
as others have said low earners work hard, they jusst dont get paid much for it.

[GeneralissimoVonBobbington]

I am not miserable in the slightest, at least no more than I was under Labour. And I have the added benefit of not wanting to bang my head against the nearest wall when someone from the government comes on the Today programme.

What I can't understand is why the left can't remember the thirteen years of labour idiocy that got us on this mess and the fact that Tony Blair is equally posh as DC having gone to the top public school in Scotland. I realise that the cuts are horrible, but given that no-one seems to want to cut anything at all, where exactly is the money going to come from to pay for it?

And what annoys me most of all is the mindless Tory bashing just because.

[pregnantpause]

welsh expat- i didnt realise that you were under the impression that i was a liberal from a middle class background. As my previous post reveals my dad was a miner- i grew up in a very deprived village in the valleys. I was poor. I lived like you in a two up two down. with an outdoor toilet. My views of the poor are from first hand experience. i suceeded- a lot of hard work and luck. Almost all of my school mates didnt. they remain in the cycle. i dont think that they were lazy. Just unfortunate.

[claig]

OP, I don't feel miserable. But I can understand that you feel that way. I would suggest just reminding yourself of the alternative by looking at a pictures of Gordon Brown, Hazel Blears and Tony Blair. If that doesn't change your mind, nothing will.

[LDNmummy]

As someone said earlier, I am very stressed but worry more so for my childs future. Goodness knows the mess they are going to leave this country in.

Labour may have made its mistakes, but surely every flick of the newspaper pages shows us something more sinister than the last about this current government and its inability to understand or empathise with this countrys population beyond a small elite.

[porpoisefull]

I don't read newspapers so much now because the news is always grim - you name something important it's being cut - social care, legal aid, disability benefits, bus services... I'm scared about the effect it will have on the poorest in society who will be massively affected and about the knock-on effect on the economy of so many people losing their jobs at once.

If the banking crisis has left us in financial trouble, make some cuts, fine, but raise taxes on the well-off too. The decisions of what to cut and where are completely ideological - why the hell haven't we scrapped Trident?

[Helenagrace]

I'm certainly not miserable.

Brown and Blair went mad with the country's credit card. Now we have to pay it back. It's called economics.

The cuts are being badly handled by councils. They could cut the non-jobs but they prefer to cut front line services to make a point in the hope that they will get the gravy train back. No one will go on the streets to protest that some Director of Diversity has been sacked but they will if meals on wheels gets cut.

Cameron isn't perfect but the alternative is far worse.

[porpoisefull]

Oh, and pushing through massively expensive and disruptive changes to the NHS that no one wants is idiocy anyway but particularly while alongside funding cuts ("efficiency savings").

[mumblechum1]

And how much are we wasting on bombing Libya?

[niceguy2]

And the rest of you: don't even start on the "Labour spent all the money" crap! Before the financial crash, the UK had the 2nd lowest debt of any G20 country. Their spending plans were matched by Cameron and Osborne (or so they said).

Labours failure was not to regulate the banks. Were the Tories crying out for more regulation at the time. No, they were arguing for LESS.

1. The problem was we were spending a lot of money during the good times, more than we earned and the shortfall was simply borrowed. Conventional economic wisdom was that you save during the good to tide you over during the bad. This is what Keynes advocates and what my economics teacher said the govt should do about 20 years ago. Brown of course thought he was smart and abolished boom & bust so never bothered.
   
   So when the crash came, we were caught with our pants around our ankles as tax revenues fell, benefits got pushed up and to cap the perfect storm, credit markets dried up.
   
   So Labour IS responsible because it was they who were in control. Do I think the Tories would have done much differently? Probably not. But luckily for them, they were not in charge at the time so cannot be held responsible.
   
   
2. With or without the banking crisis, our structural deficit is eye watering. So cuts are needed. We can blame the banks for causing the crisis but a crisis would have occurred at some point anyway. Boom & bust is a natural feature of a free market economy. But the bottom line is, don't get into debt and things are much easier when the shit hits the fan.

[Helenagrace]

Oh and there seems to be national selective dementia going on with regard to the banking crisis.

Labout had 13 years to sort out banking regulation. It didn't because they were too busy spending the revenue that came in.

[Welshexpat]

Pregnantpause.

I couldn't disagree more. You saw as I did the choices made by your friends. They spent, as my school friends did, their time listening and chatting about the latest records and who would be number one next week, whilst I was doing my homework. That's not their misfortune, that's choice. How many became teenage mothers, that's also choice.

Please don't expect me and other taxpayers to pay for their poor choices now that the consequences of their lack of foresight are becoming apparent.

[smokeandglitter]

SundayRose, I completely agree. I hate them. I hate their plans. I hate that they're screwing up everyone's future.

Grrrrrrr.

At least they're making most people so angry that they won't be voted in again in the near future.

[Ishani]

It always makes me laugh when ordinary people vote for the tories or think they are the party for them, if you earn less than £150k a year they are not your friend.

[IamtheSnorkMaiden]

I wept and apologised to my unborn babies on the day of the election.

This Tory (led) government makes me feel physically sick.

I also hate myself for voting Lib Dem (I usually vote Labour). What a stupid twunt.

[Carminagetsprimal]

lots of ordinary people vote Tory - most of the Tory voters I know are self employed on around 50k. Hardly millionaires.

[MrsBuntyisRatherGrumpy]

One the most offensive concepts of the tory government is the highly patronising 'Big Society'. Firstly, many people already work tirelessly on a voluntary basis at improving and helping their communities. it is a transparent and pathetic guise to make further cuts to things that matter, more public sector redundancies then expecting a further influx of people to come forward in a voluntary capacity to run the diminished services. Cameron's love for words and phrases like 'big', 'robust', and his premise to reward good behaviour/ good citizenship hits totally the wrong note and is way off mark. He is running a country, not a classroom.

[MrsJohnDeere]

Not miserable

[Ishani]

Carminagetsprimal - i know i bet DC pisses himself laughing

[LDNmummy]

Agree Ishani. I knew a few people (very few thankfully as not all my friends and aquaintances are that dim) who had this dillusional idea before the elections. I seem to remember one in particular I had a long conversation with about it and her harping on about Labour letting the immigrants get all the good jobs.

Well I often think now that it can't have done her or her family any good that they voted tory.

We don't chat often anymore but I would love to know what she thinks of it all now.