Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Politics
Original poster

Voted Tory or Libdem? Dont moan about the cuts...

93 replies

amanda277 · 14/04/2011 14:50

It makes me laugh when people seem shocked at the Condems and their cuts. What did people expect when they voted Tory? The mega rich don?t care about the working class and I can only see it getting worse. My Local Sure Start Centre has just shut and there rest are sure to follow, I think it will soon be similar to the ?Thatcher? years again and im sure David Cameron and his cronies dont give a damn about the NHS....

OP posts:
midnightexpress · 14/04/2011 14:52

I don't think I've heard any tories moaning about them - they all seem to be busy telling us how great it is that DC is taking us in hand. Hmm

If you voted LibDem I think you're entitled to moan though, since they are breaking election pledges all over the shop in their desperation to be in power.

Original poster
amanda277 · 14/04/2011 14:58

true, and i do feel sorry for the students that voted Nick Clegg i couldnt trust him, hes on a massive power trip now! I just worry where its going to end with cuts with my SureStart closing its really grim :(

OP posts:
dionysia · 14/04/2011 15:00

as the labour party also promised cuts, surely then almost no-one that voted is entitled to complain?

although anyone can still complain about the nitty-gritty.

Niceguy2 · 14/04/2011 15:04

Because of course....Labour didn't promise any cuts at all? Oh wait.....they did! In fact they promised virtually the same amount of cuts just over a slightly longer period. So in effect they'd be just prolonging the pain.

I guess then Labour also don't care about the working class and only the mega rich eh?

earthworm · 14/04/2011 15:42

Welcome to MN, Amanda277.

I'm glad you came along because we have been short on 'bastard Tory cuts' threads lately.

To be fair, you are original in that you haven't worried too much about the nitty gritty, just a general grumble about everything and nothing left out - bastard mega rich, check - won't somebody think of the children, check - raise spectre of Thatcher, check - end of the NHS, check.

I was initially worried that you hadn't mentioned tuition fees, but you addressed that right enough. Libraries?

jackstarb · 14/04/2011 16:17

Earthworm Smile. To be fair the OP was not (quite) her first post. We'll have to wait and see - but I suspect newwave can rest easy.

coccyx · 14/04/2011 16:20

they are making cuts to dig us out of the very large hole the Labour party created

ExitPursuedByALamb · 14/04/2011 16:23

That would be the Labour party who left a note saying "Sorry, there is no money left". So had they stayed in power how would they have got along without making any cuts?

Itsjustafleshwound · 14/04/2011 16:25

I think the ones who really shouldn't be moaning are those who chose not to vote or instead voted on the strength of 3 television debates ....

usualsuspect · 14/04/2011 16:27

Why is anyone surprised at what the Tories are doing ?

Its what the Tories do

earthworm · 14/04/2011 16:43

I agree, William Pitt The Younger was a right bastard.

earthworm · 14/04/2011 16:53

Or didn't you mean to make such a ludicrously sweeping generalisation, in the manner of an ill informed adolescent?

jackstarb · 14/04/2011 17:06

Pitt the Younger seemed a real sweetie.

"no man ... ever induldged more freely or happilly in that playful facetiousness which gratifies all without wounding any" William Wilberforce.

He started out as a Liberal (Whig) and got his seat in parliament through Patronage? Only to turn Tory (he called himself 'New Tory') and then get rid of the 'patronage' route to power.

So many parallels with today's politics. We should start a political history thread - I think.

usualsuspect · 14/04/2011 19:55

'in the manner of an ill informed adolescent'

longfingernails · 14/04/2011 22:41

I voted Tory, and I am entitled to moan about the cuts.

They are not nearly deep enough. We may be cutting enough to balance the books, but by cutting more (especially in benefits), we could have had cuts in income tax! Just think of all the waste that is still there!

Scroungers can still get £400 a week on housing benefit. We still give billions to the EU. We dole out money out like water to failed states like Pakistan. Public sector workers will still get gold-plated pensions, even after the changes suggested to the coalition by Labour's John Hutton are implemented. There are still people paid by the taxpayer working full-time for unions. There is so much more that should be cut!

chopchopbusybusy · 14/04/2011 22:51

LFN, so what is the answer regarding housing benefit. Are all claimants of housing benefit scroungers?

jackstarb · 14/04/2011 22:52

LFN Smile. Not that any you've listed would do much damage to the deficit.

Did you see that Fraser Nelson of The Spectator described the cuts as "embarrassingly small"? Radio 4's More or Less looked into his claims and broadly agreed with him. Makes you wonder what's going on.

nepkoztarsasag · 15/04/2011 00:04

Three Tory views of the cuts (or "cuts").

  1. The cuts haven't gone far enough. And they won't have done until real suffering is experienced by the various hate-figures I have invented in my head (public sector workers, the poor in general (or "scroungers"), immigrants). PS - Daddy didn't love me.
  1. The cuts aren't really cuts at all but an illusion and therefore "cuts". I believe this because nominal public spending will be higher at the end of the Parliament than at the beginning. PS - I do not understand inflation and am basically innumerate.
  1. The cuts need cause no real pain at all. They are only doing so because evil left-wing councils are deliberately cutting real services people need (schools, hospitals, police, Sure Start, care for the elderly) instead of all the non-jobs that most people in the public sector actually do (five-a-day co-ordinators, community cycling convenors, etc.). PS - I am quite thick.
earthworm · 15/04/2011 15:44

I liked this piece in The Economist, which discusses Ed's recent trip to Nottingham to tell everyone that he would make cuts - but not ones that would hurt anyone in any way whatsoever.

earthworm · 15/04/2011 15:53

"Yet the activists in Nottingham sound convinced that austerity is merely the choice of a Tory-led government too wicked to tax the banks properly. That makes them sound like economic flat-earthers. And Mr Miliband needs to avoid spending too much time in the company of people like that".

Were you there nepkoztarsasag?

jackstarb · 15/04/2011 18:23

Great article earthworm.

My top activist quote:

"All these stories in the press about people wanking it off on benefits, sorry for my language, but we are entitled. We are all entitled, we live in a modern country."

The problem for Miliband is his activists have lurched to the left - but he needs to stay centre left to be electable.

"For hour after hour, in policy session after policy session, Mr Miliband and his shadow ministerial team were bombarded with angry, self-righteous demands for Labour to wave a magic wand and make the cuts go away."

Economic Flat Earthers doesn't start to cover it. Distance is indeed his best hopeWink.

aliceliddell · 15/04/2011 18:55

I suppose it's out of the question to compare proportion of debt across Western nations? UK debt across C20? Current deficit with same under J Major? Debt/deficit postwar while founding NHS, building council houses? Thought so. Anyway, you're right, Labour would cut. But also invest for growth. If you don't want cuts, vote TUSC, Scottish Socialist or Green. If you think bankers bonusses are more important than teaching assistants, vote LibDem or Tory. As someone said "They're Tories, that's what they do".

ItsGrimUpNorth · 15/04/2011 19:00

"they are making cuts to dig us out of the very large hole the Labour party created"

By bailing out the banks for a start. And then lacking the balls to make sure the bankers' mess never ever happens again.

Why are most of the governments in the west having to make cuts then?

Niceguy2 · 15/04/2011 19:03

Ah yes, the old "Compared with our mates we don't owe all that much so lets keep borrowing" argument.

I've never ever understood that logic. But then I'm perhaps one of those rare types who understands that when you borrow money (for whatever reason), you must pay it back and that you must reduce your outgoings to be able to afford it.

But thats just me. Seemingly there are a lot of people who think money grows on trees.

earthworm · 15/04/2011 21:05

Alice, UK debt as a % of GDP was falling to reach 29% in 2002; by 2007 it stood at 37% and rising, despite this being a long period of economic expansion.

Saying that it was worse in the past, or worse in other countries, does not detract from the fact that the last government handled the economy very poorly.

I note your confident assertion that 'Labour would cut but invest for growth', yet I would be interested in some specifics - how would they do that exactly? They don't seem terribly clear on the detail themselves.

There are several political parties who are saying that they wouldn't make cuts - well they would wouldn't they, they are not likely to be faced with those decisions.

But I agree that the last government didn't do enough to curtail the bankers when they were negotiating the bailout.