Chancellor's autumn statement 2015

That's exactly what his "sound-bite speech" is for - so we don't look too closely, ask questions....till it's too late.

We are about to see what it's like to live in a One Party State, I fear. No brakes on the madness & hubris takes over. I weep for my
country.

I think that Anya has made her case, on reading your post ab.

I give credit to Osbourne, for having the brass nerve to lie through his teeth without flinching and explain he had suddenly found this money and the fact the lords threw out his tax credit cuts brutality , despite Cameron had put an extra 40 Tory members in there this year, not forgetting the Tory Sun has been running a strong campaign against the brutality too.

And the fact that chief constable after chef constable has spoken publicly of the fact they would not be able to protect the public with the cuts Osbourne had promised plus the country is in fear after the Paris attack .

Give him credit? He had no choice, he wants to be PM

There are big demographic differences between councils in terms of how many older people, needing care, they need to support. Milton Keynes will be happy enough and probably won't have to raise their council tax (youngest city in UK).
London (most able to pay) will be OK as it keeps on sucking in young working people. Places popular with people who move to the coast on retirement will be hammered. As will cities with a larger proportion of older, poorer people as this group suffer more chronic illnesses and less money to pay for their own care. So taxing care via council tax benefits richer, younger areas and penalises others.
The whole budget was about Osborne's political reputation because he wants to be our next PM.
We will doubtless hear more details today.

How to put your arguement forward with humour

Too many Plenty of new housing being build round here. Whole new estates to the east and west of this town springing up. So it's absolute rubbish to say there's no successful rebuilding programme. And they're all snapped up PDQ so either they're 'affordable' or people have the money to buy.

What worries me about threads like this is how, even when policies are reversed and cuts deferred or abandoned, no credit whatsoever is given to the Chancellor for listening. Very one-sided.

Re Mao's red book, being a joke, I did laughed was when Osbourne looked inside and quipped that It was a signed copy!!

We have had a council tax freeze for years so I expected to go back to the usual state of play and find council tax would be raised again.

3 things strike me .

a) I think it is a good thing the increase of 2% is defined as raising finances for provision of care, not giving themselves more in their wage packet, more b----y cycle white lines on the pavement, road humps and pure waste whilst sitting on funds.

b). Those on disability , pension credit, housing allowance etc. probably have no council tax levied on them if they have little in savings or income. For example my father was on pension credit and paid no council tax anyway.

c). After having a council tax freeze for so long I am happy to pay more to fund for extra care in our community to be honest but that is obviously a personal view.

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/25/local-government-councils-funding-gap-critical-budget-cuts-social-care-spending-review

He gives with one hand and takes with another.

www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/nov/25/views-from-local-government-on-george-osbornes-spending-review

However, there is a permanent pothole fund.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/11/25/spending-review-losers_n_8648964.html

Shouldn't student nurses be treated differently? They are working as well as learning.

A raise in council tax will fund council adult care in everyones area.student nurses will have to pay back their loan when they are eventually working as nurses, so will fund it just as other students do for their chosen careers.Poorer students will get the loan just as others do.

Labour did alter the right to buy, by reducing the amount of discount, and saying that those who bought could not sell on for five years.
In fact when they came into power, most house building was done by housing associations, not councils.
Thatcher had sold off 1.7 million council houses, and reduced the councils spending power. They had no money to build more.
New Labour got into power. Blair was not a socialist, so why should he build more council houses.
Did anyone else see an article last week in the i about the number of properties owned by Tony Blair?

Why are we praising George Osborne for not making the sort of cuts to the police force that the police said would mean they would only be able to deal with serious emergencies? There have already been cuts in police numbers. More and more people living in wealthy areas are paying for private security firms to police their streets.

Councils have will have to cut even further or raise council tax. That won't be a problem for more affluent areas but for poorer ones it will mean a loss of vital services to the elderly, the mentally ill or learning disabled and young people.

Student nurses will now have to take a loan out for their training and poorer students won't get maintenance grants.

POGS you can't repeat it too often for me!

I seem to remember we have all had this conversation before, last year, about housing, so we are going over old ground really.

Answer came there none....

Well whatever you want to call the living wage it cannot be forgotten that the Labour Party said they would raise the minimum wage to £8an hour and the SNP wanted £8.50 an hour The Conservatives have now set in place £9 an hour. Or am I wrong?

I am repeating what I posted on the other thread

Good statement from Osborne, very poor response by McDonnell.

I was fascinated watching the Labour benches, at least they didn't all skidaddle and leave him sitting on his own like they did Corbyn the other day.

When McDonnell pulled out 'The Red Book' and quoted chairman Mao I thought some of them looked on in utter despair. It was another classic.

McDonnell tried to pass it off as a joke, not, if it was then his face would not have been so fixed and he most certainly would not have literally thrown his copy of The Red Book across the table at Osborne. What was he thinking, he gave Osborne the opportunity to make him look infantile and remind everybody about his 'political persuasion' that so many on his side and those who think he is a genius try and refute, indeed put down anybody who dares to mention the big 'C' word.

800 houses being built, half already built in my village alone.Other houses of course, also for sale.I expect they will all be snapped up, some expensive some very expensive, and some ( for here) low cost.Yes, very high employment here, but salaries/ wages, depends on the job and your qualifications, like anywhere else.

As I asked previously roses. Ignored, as usual because there is no logical answer!

I agree with you, but continue to wonder, after Blair got in, why they did not reverse that policy, and why they did not embark on a council house building spree. it would have been the logical thing to do.

800 hundred houses for sale in your area rosesarered ? Must be high employment and above average wages

Always was a housing boom in the south east. Never been a problem there, apart from people being able to afford them.

I noticed he mentioned employment going up everywhere, including the northern powerhouse. In fact, the north east was the only area where unemployment rose. Obviously it's not included in the northern powerhouse.

Thank you rosesarered. If we choose to lay blame on previous governments then we have to say the Thatcher government, selling social housing has caused a housing nightmare .

History goes back before Blair, in fact right back to Thatcher selling off council houses and not letting the councils build new ones.
Remind me, she wasn't Labour, was she?

There will be a housing boom, it is already under way here in the south east, as everyone on Gransnet who lives in the region will know.The most houses will be built here because that's where the jobs are.