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Politics

Is it game over?

82 replies

Shouldof · 05/05/2015 17:33

I've been full of optimism for most of the campaign but today i feel deflated and feel that the die is cast for another 5 years of con/lib coalition.

Anyone care to reassure me there's hope for labour?

OP posts:
StaceyAndTracey · 05/05/2015 21:35

Should of - no, it was a general comment

I appreciate the frustrations of those who support a party or candidate who has little prospect of being elected. And I acknowledge there are many problems with the current electoral systems. But despite that I think we should all vote, as the alternative is being ignored

And we have been ignored for too long

AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons · 06/05/2015 09:42

YokoUhOh
"I'll put it another way: who's seeing the benefit of this economic policy? The hundreds of thousands of people using food banks? The families with disabled children who have been devastated by the bedroom tax? The schools which are about to get a 10% cut in funding?"

The Tory-led coalition's record on reducing unemployment is nothing short of remarkable, the vast vast majority of those jobs are full-time and not zero hours contracts. Maybe the now employed people are seeing the benefit? For every public sector job lost via necessary public spending cuts, four private sector jobs have been created.

Families with disabled children are mostly not subjected to the same bedroom tax rules in any case. You are just scare-mongering. www.disabilityrightsuk.org/bedroom-tax

And as for schools who are about to get a 10% cut in funding. I suggest you get your facts and figures from a more reliable source than the front page of the Guardian. Over the course of the last parliament, the coalition government spent very much more on deprived children than their Labour forebears.

From the IFS report (linked to below)

"Even before the pupil premium, there was already a substantial level of funding targeted at deprivation. In 2010–11, funding per pupil was 35% higher amongst the most deprived set of primary schools than amongst the least deprived ones, and it was 41% higher amongst the most deprived secondary schools than amongst the least deprived. By 2014–15, these figures had increased to about 42% and 49%, respectively, as funding per pupil rose more strongly amongst more deprived schools as a result of the pupil premium."

The constraints with school spending over the forthcoming parliament are to do with the increasing numbers in the pupil population. I suggest you read the IFS report below to understand the issues.

election2015.ifs.org.uk/schools

OnlyLovers · 06/05/2015 10:27

More people are using food banks because there are more food banks.

Fuck me, this again?

AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons · 06/05/2015 11:27

blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/04/the-trussell-trusts-misleading-figures-on-food-bank-usage-help-no-one/

Worth reading re food bank usage.

OnlyLovers · 06/05/2015 12:08

the actual number of people using food banks is likely to be around half the headline one million figure.

Oh, only HALF a million people using food banks in one of the richest countries in the world? Well, that's OK then.

AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons · 07/05/2015 10:25

OnlyLovers I'm not saying it's OK that anyone has to use food banks. I'm just linking to some research which suggests food bank usage in the UK has been overstated.

.

OnlyLovers · 07/05/2015 14:34

Thank you, yes, I did understand what you linked to and I take on board the point that their usage may have been overestimated. I was just adding that, whether it's a million or half a million, that's too many in my view.

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