Results like these at a general election would mean Tory annihilation

[noblegiraffe]

Says a BBC headline this morning.

Anyone else stockpiling popcorn?

I've just taken a look at government taxing and spending. HMRC seems to take in more than enough cash to cover the civil service cash spend. While there are very big non-cash costs (depreciation of public assets) I wonder if any experts here know whether our public debt growth is just down to extraordinarily high debt repayment costs or if money is simply leaking away. Some of the assets that we are slowly writing-off will not need to be replaced in an identical form, so I would hope for a technological dividend.
HMRC take has more than doubled over the past 18 years, increasing at more than 4% per year compound - which should have built a cash pile that I can't see.

Thanks, I didn't know they were acquitted, just the arrest.

Don't see the relevance of that incident to this current situation really, that specific piece of law has now been tested, that's how the system works.

People seem to expect the Police to operate as if they are all the parts of the system.

Brown didn’t have any self proclaimed boom years. His mantra was “No more boom and bust”. Memories are really short round here.

I often think memories are short on here. It's perplexing.

Although to be fair, I do sometimes discover tv programmes or films from years ago that I haven't heard of before so perhaps we all have memory holes.

I'm still waiting to learn when Tony Blair had to deal with a banking crisis as PM, I seemed to have forgotten all about it!

Just where do people get this made up shite from?

No idea but there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of it.

I was going to say that there was no way in hell that Tony Blair's plans for his future include wrestling with the Labour Party, but I guess he could always do a Macron and set up his own party.

Tomorrow's Britain! anyone?

@GunboatDiplomacy Nu Labour should have been called Capital - maybe that?

I am begining to be more and more convinced that Gove had a point when he wanted more facts to be taught and rote learnt at school.

Have you missed the terminal decline in that time? Poland’s economy is forecast to be larger than the UK’s by 2035. If an ex communist country can overtake the UK in less than 50 and you don’t see that as catastrophic, something is wrong.

Brown didn’t have any self proclaimed boom years. His mantra was “No more boom and bust.

That was 97/98/99, when he was Chancellor. By 2007, those words were forgotten. The GFC kicked off in the USA but was a contagion across the world, anywhere bankers wanted to produce investment 'successes'.

In the 2006 budget, he said: "As I have said before Mr deputy Speaker: No return to boom and bust".

These damn facts just keep appearing.

Unfortunately for GB, the US' NINJA policies burst on his head.

Which year did Brown proclaim was a boom year whilst he was Chancellor or PM? Is there a link to the speech where he said as much perhaps?

Come on now, I have warned you about facts before, use them too often and you become communist.

This.

Labour’s PFI and tax credits have caused a massive drain on the economy.

Labour’s PFI and tax credits have caused a massive drain on the economy.

Such a shame that Labour have been in power for the last 13 years so no-one has had a chance to reverse those initiatives.

Oh, wait ...

Tax credits helped the economy, because they got spent.

The Tories have presided over stagnant growth, exacerbated by their cuts.

There's an argument about tax credits as wage subsidy, but they helped drive economic growth.

The trouble is one is not allowed to change anything a previous government has done, so really the Tories hands are tied.

The government (under?)estimate for future PFI costs is £150,000,000,000. The penalties of early exit make going the distance preferable - even if we didn't have a record public debt.
In-work benefits were nothing more than a subsidy to businesses that underpay staff. While cash goes into the hands of workers - who often spend more than their net income - the reduced operating costs benefit shareholders and management who are more likely to squirrel away the extra and not release it into the UK economy.

I keep reading that pensioners are the majority of Tory voters and I have no idea why.

Aren't they keeping up with the covid inquiry?

I think a lot of people think politicians are better than they are by dint of education.

What we all should remember is how someone got to where they are may be important. Johnson was enabled at every stage of his life. Every chance given, mistakes that would have ruined another man forgiven, and he never faced real consequences.

It meant that when something like COVID arrived, where decisions had to be made, with sometimes judgments had to be done on incomplete facts, he couldn't lead. He had never actually been tested as a leader. He had managed to get the top job by being a campaigner and a brilliant one.

He is the man who rushes to the front of a group and claims to lead it. A lot of gullible people thought his erudition and background made a leader. What it makes is a man who is words but little effective action.

@Passepartoute Do you understand what PFI is? By your posts, I don’t think you do. It’s not easy to reverse. It’s hugely expensing to buy out the contracts. Given that the Cons were elected in 2010 after the great wave of spending and economic crash of 2008, they were hardly going to
take on more debt by, in effect, nationalizing school building projects Labour had got rid of to the private sector! PFI is private sector investment. The schools were not government funded. Academies were championed by Lord Adonis. Labour.

In general, we have a problem with MPs. Few are good enough to be leaders. Many simply don’t have the intelligence and are flaws personalities. Few are scientists. Few have work experience that gives them relevant expertise to bring to governance. For all it’s faults, the Lords has this. We don’t pay MPs enough so it’s a very unattractive job for many. We put too much emphasis on sorting out constituency issues and not enough on how we deal with the great national issues we face. Politics, arguing within parties, short term policies and lack of strategic thinking all conspire to let us down. Easy to remember 3 word slogans get voters to the polls but there is no planning, or workable in depth thought out policies, so the resulting legislation is poor and has unintended consequences.

We are easily duped and our leaders are woeful, as the COVID inquiry is exposing. They surround themselves with self serving SPADs because they cannot think for themselves or act upon sound expert advice. It’s truly appalling.

It’s impossible to reverse a contract that has been signed years before to build a new hospital.

The PFI contracts that were signed were so unbelievably financially illiterate there must have been some backhanders going on.