Conservative Conference

Sorry MaizeD, to bring it back to the topic,
Boris will IMO do anything to become leader of Conservative party, I beleive he is sadly deluded, so yes why not ask for Donald Trumps advice , we can all do with a little light entertainment.

Gosh, you're widening the scope of the subject a lot, aren't you Bridgeit? I though we were just talking about our own situation, not global problems...

Yes more or less Grannygravy13 that’s about it, as I have said on another thread, we still see the appalling poverty in the same countries as I saw as a child when the then appeals were for the children of Biafra
And it is the same with Governments, all presumably believing they have the solutions, but they so often do not transpire even where the intention is a genuine belief that they will

'So really all back to the same problem with the same differences in solutions, real life snakes & ladders, with no real solutions.'

Well, the financial crisis which is forecast has nothing to do with Corbyn for sure. But the fact the banks and their shareholders are still based on greed and have not heeded the advice given to stop endebtment.

No Maizie... you really shouldn’t.

GrannyG I would certainly hope that would be the case should Corbyn ever saunter in to Number 10.

Bridgeit, are you saying, what I am thinking? In as much as whoever is in opposition suggest "solutions" in their manifestos and speeches, but if /when they are elected find themselves in the same position as the outgoing government, their hands being tied by legislation/civil servants, and not being in a position to change things as much as they thought or would have been able to in the past (40 years ago or so)?

So really all back to the same problem with the same differences in solutions, real life snakes & ladders, with no real solutions.

Sorry, I don't quite understand what you are saying here, Bridgeit

What problems are we back to?

Perhaps I should, lemon.

I don’t see anyone on here disagreeing that the State should care for it’s citizens or saying the NHS should not exist.

Perhaps you should have been advising the government since the financial crash Maizie I wonder how they managed with only their own economic advisors.

So really all back to the same problem with the same differences in solutions, real life snakes & ladders, with no real solutions.

I would say that I believe that the 'mixed economy' of public and private enterprise is good. I think the role of the caring state is to provide for its citizens by providing services like the NHS which are available to all. Every man for himself isn't a particularly civilised way of proceeding.

But others might disagree that the state should care for all its citizens.

It has already been done, Bridgeit with QE.

It's 'sensible' so long as the government can get it back via taxation to avoid inflation. And, some economists would say, by manipulating interest rates; raising them to encourage saving if there's too much money circulating or lowering them if there's not enough money circulating. Though I'm not altogether sure about the logic of that.

Of course it's not really quite a simple as that but that really is the principle on which 'money' works.

But cutting the money in the real economy makes no sense. It puts people out of work and adversely affects the businesses that they would have spent their wages with. and the businesses that the 'public enterprises' would have used to supply them with goods and services. And it has to be spent on benefits for people out of work. Admittedly benefits use less money than spending it on, say, the NHS but cutting benefits has no point either because it just cuts back the money people would have spent into the economy and which would have grown the economy. Keynes was saying this in the 1930s.

So MaizeD, are you saying it would now be possible & sensible to do ?

In which case, Bridgeit it only applies to the times when 'money' was linked to gold reserves which had a finite value. Issuing 'money' (cash?) in excess of the value of the gold reserves did indeed 'devalue' it, but we came off the gold standard in the early 1970s. It isn't linked to anything now.

Maize , my comment was referring to making money as in printing it, not referring to borrowing , quantative easing etc

Thanks Grannygravy, yes you are correct, printing more money causes devaluation, a bit like playing Monopoly

So the £450 billion the government pumped into the economy as 'Quantitative Easing' in 2007/8 (and the £60 billion after the Brexit vote) caused 'devaluation?

A great deal of the QE money wasn't 'borrowed' from anyone. It was just created by the Bank of England.

The pound was certainly 'devalued' after the Brexit vote, but that was in the financial markets (and Farage and his friends made a killing on that 'devaluation') and the financial markets don't have a great deal of bearing on the real, everyday, economy. The financial markets are mainly a gambler's paradise.

"Many Local councils did not plough the monies raised through the right to buy scheme back into building more social housing as they were supposed to do."

As someone else has already said, councils were forbidden from using the money raised from Right to Buy to build more houses. So where does a belief like the above come from?

Was someone giving deliberate misinformation or were they just mistaken themselves?

It's too easy to wind up the SNP Grans. They have their own facts and aren't interested in others. Sad really.

Just like the SNP!

You are right of course BUT they wont deliver on any of their promises.my list above is the promises already kept .

Thanks Grannygravy, yes you are correct, printing more money causes devaluation, a bit like playing Monopoly ?it’s not real money , I think it works if a minute amount is produced ,but that isnt worth doing .

The SNP conference isn't until Sunday
The Tory conference is the one being discussed just now

Just saying …..

Jane 10 so you disagree with Nurses getting 9% rise,Police getting 6% ,carers getting 13% more than the DWP pay them,the bedroom tax being mitigated ,more childcare provision .The FACT is the Joseph Rowntree foundation is very complimentary about the SNP government and thats before we even mention many of their acheivments including the biggest council house programme in over 25 years ..remember Labour built just SIX council houses when they were in power.
I do understand as an Edinburgh inhabitant you have to support the unionist council there ..oh thats the one who made a mess of the Trams too wasn't it? And it was Labour who pushed for the new building at Holyrood that went HOW many times over budget .
At least we can say the SNP have put PEOPLE at the heart of their policies ,Not in any SNP bubble ,just have eyes opened to what has been going onfor many decades here and its not good.
There will always be I'm all right Jacks ..like you .People though aren't ALL alright they need an SNP government to back them up after years of British parties I wont say Scottish because they aren't they are scottish BRANCH only.
The "SCOTSMAN " is nothing to do with Scotland its a tory paper in a tartan jacket ,it supports the union even though the union is destroying us .Of course I'm a socialist and the SNP is the most left leaning party in the UK so we will never agree .

The government has not got its own money, surely it is the countries money raised from our taxes.

No, it isn't. The government issues the money and gets it back via taxation. Government spending stimulates the economy and taxation stops it overheating. It can't tax until it has spent.

Many Local councils did not plough the monies raised through the right to buy scheme back into building more social housing as they were supposed to do.

As I recall, Bridgeit they weren't actually allowed to do that under the tory government which initiated the 'right to buy'.