this government

I am very concerned about the direction the coalition is taking on this, and astonished at the tone of VC's latest threats. He seems determined to out-Thatcher Thatcher.

Pre coalition, I really liked and admired Vince Cable, what a difference a period in 'power' makes. He used to be a regular on the Sunday morning Andrew marr programme, no longer. The Libs are all turncoats. I am a Guardian reader and they tried to persuade their readers to vote Libdem last year, now they have egg on their face.
Concerned about the coalition? I am terrified with the whole bunch of them, I have little faith, and as for the economy, God help us all.

Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely....two legs good, four legs bad...I could go on.

After many years coping with pre-school committees, PTA committees and school governors.....I realized that many of the sort of people who put themselves forward for any position of power are often the least suitable. Its the ones who have to be begged and cajoled into doing the job that are actually any good!

I don't usually comment about politics.......but here goes
There's been a lot of media coverage about disappointment with the Lib Dems for being 'turncoats'. I agree with the points raised about the currupting effects of power but feel the main issue may be more fundemental.
For many, many years, the Lib Dems have been able to confidently promise the earth. Confidently, because they were never within a million miles of being in power and having to make good on those promises.
Having unexpectedly found themselves in a coaltion and 'in power' they have had to face a huge reality check. The same would have applied if they'd been in coalition with Labour.
It's not about party politics, it's about having your finger on the button (literally) and having responsibility for the purse strings. Bit of a wake-up call probably.

Well said NOTSOGRAND - I thoroughly agree with you.

HildaW: I completely agree with you about the wrong people wanting power and the right ones hating the idea.

I watch UK politics from the other side of the world, and feel terrible about the current government there. A long time Labour voter, I might well have voted LibDem last time, had I been there, never believing for a second I would be helping put the Tories in power. I believe the GFC has given fat Cameron carte blanche to implement pet policies based more on idealism than necessity. So the rich will get richer and the poor will get angrier, and - well, who knows where it will all lead.

Here in Australia I wish we could have Bob Hawke back, and as for the UK - any chance of cloning Harold Wilson??

I'm glad I'm retired - the pressures on young ones are awful today.

No matter what state the country is in there will be people making money. In this case, probably buying up property whilst the market is dead and selling it in a few years time when it picks up [when the rest of us can't buy or sell and, if we do we make a huge loss on our houses]. Have to say, though, as a lifetime Labour voter, that I don't dislike Cameron; think his hearts in the right place and he's a decent person [unlike a certain Mrs T who I loathe to this day], but I don't think he lives in the 'real world' where people aren't married to millionaires' daughters.

Thirty years ago, in a spirit of hope and expectation - and admiration of Shirley Williams and Roy Jenkins - I joined the SDP which was doing very well until Mrs T took the country to war in the Falklands. I stuck with the party, taking quite a prominent role, through the merger with the Libs and through thick and thin since then. But I am now getting to the end of my tether while our leadership (so-called) just seems to blow with the wind to the right. I still consider myself a Social Democrat, but the Party really isn't.

The aspect which makes me really angry about the current government is their divisive, rather "base" rhetoric. All the ministers are doing it. They continually set one section of society against another rather than being inclusive. When there are so many people who are, for all sorts of reasons, socially excluded (or who may in fact exclude themselves because they don't have the necessary of anything to be able to interact with others), this divisive behaviour is just cruel. I do think DC is a charismatic and pleasant man and would probably be fine as a neighbour, a CEO or even an actor - but he is obviously willing to sacrifice his ministers in the public's opinion by over-ruling their projects saying they are only at the consultation stage. It just seems as if they are lurching from one badly-planned project to another then back-tracking so how can they be trusted by the population. Trust, loyalty, compassion, humanity, common sense - if the government showed these qualities, a lot more of the population would be on their side. I think it's all going to end in tears...

Like Hattie64 I had respect for Vince Cable as a politician although I am not a Lib-dem supporter. But I think he has really lost it. Watching him on Questiontime the other week he looked most uncomfortable. This threat to the Trades Unions is absolutely outrageous. They are using the recession as an excuse to bash the Unions. I understand that the Oxford dons have voted no-confidence in David Willetts over university "reforms" & I believe Cambridge are going to do the same. The Royal College of Nursing have voted no- confidence in Andrew Lansley who is handling the NHS "reforms". The legal profession are really worried about the demise of legal aid. This coalition is trying to dismantle the fabric of Britain. But I think come the next election there will be a vote of no-confidence in the lot of them.

There will be unrest as there is only so much people can suffer from cruel policies.

The next election is 3 years away, which is a long enough time to cause unbelievable damage to the fabric of our country.

Now the Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken out against the coalition. I don't think even Mrs T managed that so early in her rule.

I agree Supernan it seems that we have been here before. I think a lot of people really do forget what it was like under Mrs T.

I'm a bit surprised at Hattie64 talking about the coalition causing "unbelievable damage to the fabric of the country" when the coalition is trying to patch up the damage done to the country by Gordon Brown's massive mismanagement of the economy! All the unpleasant and difficult financial economies being implemented are down to that. We were heading for the same problems as Greece, Ireland and Portugal until Brown was kicked out. Give them a chance - they can't put right 13 years of damage over night. I would like to see more pulling together for the good of whole country but the unions are set to think only of themselves as usual. They do not govern us and need to remember that lesson from the miners.

I somehow think the Banking fraternity had a big hand in this

I agree with you Hattie64 which is why the Government is failing to get to grips with a fair management of rebalancing the economy.

I agree Hattie, although Brown did nothing to hamper their greedy progress did he...
On the other hand he did take decisive action when the banks were going to go belly up and, possibly, saved capitalism to fight another day. History will judge.
I have just read A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks . Apart from being a gripping and entertaining read, it is a window into the world of the hedge fund managers in the year before it all went so wrong.

Greece was massively corrupt with huge tax evasion (or is it avoidance - anyway they didn't pay much) and never should have been let into the euro in the first place. Wool pulled over willing eyes.
Ireland was having a crazy property boom caused by the banks lending money for any and every property project. Just pay us back when you sell , cant go wrong, it'll be fine. They now have 100s of thousands of empty new homes that cannot be sold, all standing empty for the last 2 years. It is the equivalent of 8 million unsold homes if we had that problem in the UK. That is before you start on all the commercial property disasters.
We did not have a property boom like that. House building controlled here by cautious large developers who sell houses "off plan" rather than building an estate and waiting for the buyers to roll in. Our debts are a tiny drop in the ocean compared to these two. We are relatively lucky in that respect.

Gagagran, I am no supporter of Labour, but there's a lack of logic in your attack on GB. You mention the problems of Greece, Ireland and Portugal (not to mention Iceland, the USA and probably most of the world), which is the point, isn't it? It has been a global issue, sparked by such things as sub-prime lending in the USA and other suspect banking practices. You cannot blame GB for the problems of the global community of which we happen to be a member.

David Cameron & co will never take on the banks and the international financial community who are the real culprits in all this and why would they when they have such a vested interest in the maintenance of their own wealth based positions. Before Mrs Thatcher destroyed the social fabric of Britain there was the opportunity for people to better themselves and for people to earn a decent living- that's what our generation of "baby boomers" was able to do. Now we have generations of people locked in poverty and deprivation and a more divided society than pre-1945. Vince Cable and the Lib Dems should hang their heads in shame for collaborating with a government that is continuing Thatcher's disatrous policies.

When will the people of this country take notice to what the MP's say ?
Basically they all say something different but mean exactly the same thing.
TAX TAX TAX.

The average weekly wage is Taxed multiple times per week/month not once.
EG: Wages => Taxed
Council => Tax
Fuel => Taxed
Cars => Taxed
Cigarettes => Taxed
Alcohol => Taxed
And lets not forget the N.I contributions.
WOW what a Poor Britain we live in not Great.

Daddydaycare51, I would love to know what you think we would do without tax revenues. Answer on the back of a stamp, please.
Poor Britain? Oh spare me! Just go to a really poor country and then come back and tell us what poverty is. As for Great Britain: why do successive governments persist in the myth that we are still a great power, while all the time hanging on the coat-tails of Uncle Sam? Blair crawling up the of Bush was a constant source of nausea.

Hear, hear, Annobel. Never fails to amaze me how people never put taxes and the money that pays for schools, hospitals, health centres, roads, and a good deal more together! One problem is that people call taxes 'government money'. There is no such thing! It is our money given to the government to pay for the things we want. As you also say, anyone who thinks Britain is 'poor' in general terms has not seen what conditions are like in really poor countries.