Something positive about this government

Oh I think there is jam......just not for us!

How dare you both imply that we don't care. Its people like you who can only view the great British public in extremes who actually miss many key points. Nothing this govt will ever do will ever even be OK with you. Labour had their chance and look what happened. Us people in the middle pay our taxes and in many cases do a great deal more to help those in need.

Much of my career was spent trying to help people with acquired disabilities (strokes, head injuries). The hoops that they had to go through to get the help that they needed were many and complicated.

My experience is of benefits for this group being under applied rather than over. It is already very hard to obtain what is needed for a decent life and many are completely confused by the system and frequently do not apply at all when they are definitely entitled.

I think that our society has a duty to protect the most vulnerable or we cannot call ourselves civilized.

The government insists that it is trying to target those most in need and prevent benefits going to those who do not need it. Fair enough. But how do you do this fairly and in a way that is not so complex that people are too afraid to apply?

The nonsense that we see in ITV documentaries of benefits scroungers makes good TV precisely because it is not the norm. The real norm is people struggling against the odds because they either do not know they qualify for help or because they cannot deal with the complex system.

If our tax system is going to help the rich, it cannot justify not also helping the poor and disabled.

The majority of voters do not like being though of as poor or victims? Fair enough, pity they didn't care about the poor and the victims,

Fortunately there are people on here who think themselves reasonably well off who do care about those poorer than they are and are prepared to try and do something about it.

Nothing like a bit of I'm all right, Jack, to make me feel ill at reading it.

Not that anyone on here will listen.

Jane10 I agree totally with your posts, and it is what went wrong for Ed Miliband at the last GE, they did not lose because they were not left wing enough!The majority of voters are doing alright and do not want to be thought of as victims or 'the poor'.Things are never black and white.

Tory bashing? Condemning the fact that the number of homeless has doubled in five years, that suicide rates are rapidly increasing among the unemployed, that there is an increase in food banks, that the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer, the disabled are losing their mobility benefits, that people who cannot afford to heat their homes go cold but those who can save £77 per week for a year will be given £1,000

Dear god this is not Tory bashing, it is justified anger that the most vulnerable in this country are being bashed by this government

nonnie of course we won't always have sufficient resources to do what we want, but governments do have choices.

This government chooses to give to the wealthy by taking from the poor and disabled.

Someone said last night on television " Even the Sheriff of Nottingham didn't go that far"

I would love to be able to give more to the genuinely in need and I speak as one who over the years has seen the benefits system misused by some I know. I don't know a lot of people in need so don't know anyone who needs help and hasn't had it.

I would love to help the NHS sort itself out and be fair to all but don't believe throwing money at it, or any other system, is always the answer.

I would love to give more money to help the refugees from Syria and other warring countries.

I would love to give more to help care homes look after people better.

I would love to cut obesity and therefore allow the NHS to spend its money elsewhere.

I could go on and on but it won't change anything as no government will ever tax all of us to the extent that all these and many more can be afforded. It is not going to happen.

It is up to us as individuals to make sure we don't use any public resources we don't need and to do our best to educate those we know to do the same.

This Tory bashing is a waste of time, it would be the same (but maybe different issues) whichever government was in charge. We voted for this government and arguing about it won't make any difference at all.

Luckylegs9 why do you believe the debt has been reduced? Even the Telegraph admits it hasn't
"George Osborne, the Chancellor, has made it his mission to reduce the size of this debt. However, his plans have repeatedly come unstuck. Rather than starting to pay the debt down by the end of the last parliament, as he had intended, the debt’s value rose throughout.

The national debt is now expected to keep rising, according to forecasts compiled by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), to over £1.7 trillion by the end of the current parliament."

Thank you Wilma that was the answer I was looking for. I asked a simple question which did not invite abuse and you answered it appropriately.

The positive thing for me is the reduction of the huge debt we inherited. You cannot just keep borrowing your wayout of trouble, all debts have ultimately to be paid. The last people that should suffer are those with genuine disabilities, they have enough to cope with and we have to find the money somehow. Perhaps we will need to have a rise in income tax, I don't know. Glad I don't have to sort it out though.

Reminds me of Willie Hague when a newspaper disclosed that when he stayed in hotels he shared a bedroom with his male assistant , Willie's response was - my wife has suffered several attempts of IVF

Where is the connection

Whitewave you may say that it doesn't need to be said but on a thread entitled as this one is I and others do think it needs to be said. The plight of some people with disabilities is one which it is quite impossible not to be aware of! If the majority of us tax payers in the middle feel more secure then we are far more likely to be able to consider the needs of others less fortunate than ourselves. I say this as one who has had years of worry about employment and just keeping things together for the family. I know many people with a wide variety of levels of disability and differing needs for support. I can quite see that assessment can be extremely tricky and some outcomes can be a matter of pure luck. Not ideal but we're human and trying to impose blanket levels of benefits can never fit perfectly.

My brother lives on Lanzarote.
When he was in the army my mother had his postal vote, and always voted Tory for him, as requested.
When he retired from the army, he did not like the country he had helped to make and moved to Lanzarote.
He is welcome to Cameron. I hope they meet, although I doubt it.
Somehow I do not think Cameron would get a very good welcome in the Lakes.
Cameron does not realise that most people cannot afford to go on holiday every school holiday.

You couldn't make it up!!

Cameron has said we should visit places like the Lake District during the Easter break, it will help the economy , that's a positive.

He is going to Lanzarote

jane absolutely that goes without needing to be said. But in a civilised society, one in which has progressed to the level of income of this country, we should always look to protecting the vulnerable. Those in the middle who are comfortably toddling along would be without a moral core if they simply ignored those vulnerable people.

That is why some of us are pinpointing those people, it isn't because we are unaware that the vast majority of us are managing OK. But when we know that the government is ideologically bound to reducing the state to a level not seen since before the Second World War, we feel morally bound to argue for protection of the most vulnerable.

I'm pleased your son has got more help Kittylester.
However others should not get too excited - if you set out to cut benefits by £56billion then there are going to be a lot of people losing out. Pensioners are being ring-fenced (core Tory vote) so this is going to fall on younger working people.
I'm afraid one example does not indicate a trend.
Likewise housing - you have to look at the statistics
This is a very revealing graph.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/ampp3d/housing-crisis-10-empty-homes-5008151
Or try this gov.uk
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/428601/House_Building_Release_-_Mar_Qtr_2015.pdf
Clear that housebuilding has been bumping along at a low level since the recession with a slight rise recently due to Osborne's handout to people who can afford a mortgage. It is still, however, way below demand and not meeting the needs of the population due to an idealogical opposition to social housing.

On this thread as on almost all the political threads its as if there are only 2 groups of people in the UK: the super rich and the extremely poor and or disabled. That's not a true picture of the country. We fall on a very broad spectrum of comparative wealth (however that's defined). In this budget we only hear of winners and losers not so much about those who do OK. Sometimes people are likely to do better by indirect means eg the reduction in corporation tax, raising the threshold for small business rate relief (600,000 of them and 250,000 will see rates cut) class2 NI rates will be abolished for 3,000,000 self employed. All these will have an indirect effect on industry and help to secure employment and potentially lead to increased job opportunities. Its not all the simplistic black and white picture its so often represented as being on this thread.

Yes my DIL manages a family centre/ nursery. It was originally under the County Council wing, and was primarily set up as a Sure Start centre - remember those?- these were to provide the children from deprived circumstances a good start pre-school.

What has happened well the dead hand ofTory ideology privatised it. The nursery is no longer funded sufficiently to be able to provide these vulnerable children with all the help they need.

The better off parents have taken the places.

We are indeed not all in this together

I don't know that we will see the rail links in my lifetime Cherrytree59 (and I am not ancient ) and the "free" nursery places have been completely underfunded and are yet another area (schools and hospitals being others) where the government will expect those working in this area to pick up the pieces - but all the slack has been used up during the last spell of this government.

So much could unravel so quickly and sadly it will not be the high government earners who loose out.

Investing + building rail links
Free nursery places

The nasty party never went away - their friends in the media has covered so much up for them.