Has the Government done anything so far which we can say is of benefit to society?

[Waltraut]

I don't really want to talk economics, mainly because there are opposing views of how the Coalition's approach is going to pan out [understatement]. I'm quite interested in the "small" things that governments do to make life fairer, safer, easier, more productive, or simply more pleasant for the citizens of a country.
I honestly cannot think of a single thing.

No,Alice,no dogs,but a fair old turn out from the Old Bill
We had the local press there,so they had to behave...and so did we!

Points for that, crazy And what do points make? Nothing, they're pointless

Thank you I'll look on facebook

To be fair, I agree with nicebuy that getting rid of ID cards was a good decision. I think lots of left wing votrs like myself actually wanted Labour temporarily out as it had got to the stage where Labour had made various stupid policy decisions and had now committed so far they couldn't withdraw without looking like arses. So they felt they had to go ahead with ID cards, PFI, etc etc.

So just by being there, it's given Labour the opportunity to apologise for and discreetly bin some of their shitter policy decisions (still giant apology on fixing housing market, and not building more council housing still well overdue, though ).

YY bread

Poverty-stricken families join a lengthening queue for food handouts

Charities and voluntary groups are sounding alarm bells at the number of people going hungry as benefits fall and prices rise

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/01/families-queue-for-food-handouts

Seeing how the daft ID card scheme was scrapped, I'm still hoping that Trident will be scrapped in the long run.

Yes, I appreciate that it may have a detrimental effect on some jobs, but Trident, HS2, and even CrossRail seem to me to be massive expenses we could do without. Sadly I suspect it isn't possible to scrap CrossRail and if I lived in the London area, may consider it useful.

I know the Olympics could not be cancelled and to be frank I don't know the sources of all the funding, but if the event goes well, it may gain some work for British construction / architects and get them further work here (investment from abroad) or abroad (some jobs would be Brits working there even if subcontractors are local).

Yes there are a few small things, but they were all Libdem plans, and are small beans.
Anything that would make a positive difference has been swamped out by a bigger tory negative.

Eg, raising the level at which people start getting taxed out of their income, (meaning people take home a bit more) but then the tories raise VAT which makes the poorest twice as worse off.
And its also children, the elderly, the sick, and hard working people who lost their jobs in the bankers recession who all have to pay VAT!

So in a nutshell, NO. This government has made everything worse.

I like the idea of free schools. I hope they are genuinely available to all people to set up, not just the cunts Toby Young's of this world. There are groups of students who are not served well by state provision for example LGBT students.

And yy to ID cards. Also, the coalition has, by default, got rid of a lot of war criminals out of the Labour shadow cabinet.

So far IMO they have done nothing to help any one oh apart from save up enough money for a weekly bin emptying of course.

they're cutting:- dla and tax credits
police force
electricity at night time
food prices have gone up
pensions have gone down (according to my nan)
rich pay half there wage in tax (wtf)
fuel and energy prices have gone up

Yep, apart from the bin round, they've done naff all that's constructive, I think Eddie just has to sit pretty and wait for Dave and Nick to fuck this country up a bit more!.

Tories are idiots who are wrecking the country.

Freezing council tax... good move.

There's new info about how bad this will be for kids of disabled parents and [malingering cripples] disabled people generally. Hardest Hit again. Cheers, Dave. Of course, you understand because you had a million quid aristocrat wife disabled child. (Tragic for anyone to have a child die, obviously)

They scrapped the fuel duty escalator, and actually cut fuel duty (taxing the oil companies instead).

It's made a huge difference to us - it would have become so difficukpt fir us had petrol prices continued to go up by the escalator (nit to mention what it would have done to inflation).

What will be bad for kids of disabled parents aliceliddell?

Page 6 Guardian 4 Oct
'Minister warns of cuts' impact on child carers'
Disabled lone parents to lose £3,500
42,000 children affected
Cutting 'severe' and 'enhanced' premiums for disability benefits.
Oddly enough, also cutting corporation tax. Because it worked so well in Ireland.

Sorry, couldn't get a link for that

They've banned cigarette vending machines.
That's not a bad thing, but eg cutting benefits for those who truly need them is a bad thing, so it's not exactly something which is going to make me think "hmm, fair play, they can't be all bad."

Do disabled lone parents currently receive more than able-bodied ones? More than, say, the CTC and CB available to people on lower incomes?

Yes, because it is more expensive for the whole household if one member is disabled. I don't know the exact figures.

'Has the Government done anything so far which we can say is of benefit to society?'

Sorry, haven't read the thread. Has anyone already mentioned defeating New Labour at the general election?

It was the 'lone parent' part that I don't understand. Disabled people get additional help but I didn't realise they qualified for more money if they were also lone parents.

actually i think they are working to restore some of the civil liberties that labour took away.