Austerity

I think it was Alexei Sayle who said the Conservatives believe that the reason for the banking crisis was that there were too many public libraries.

I suppose it would have been more palatable if the austerity, the temporary belt tightening, had been endured by all.

Let's just assume ( for the sake of it) that the country was in debt and needed to claw back something....why was the clawing from people already at the bottom of the pile. Chances, opportunities, small local schemes which did so much ,all shut down. The youth service is non existent where I live for example.

See my comment on the other thread

growstuff

During the referendum and election last time we had a lot of strange posters pop up.

It will be interesting to track them again this time.

They disappear as soon as the election is done.

In economic terms, austerity is supposed to be a method of cooling down an over-heating economy. It should affect all people equally by, effectively, taking money out of the system.

What was introduced in 2010 wasn't true economic austerity. It was an excuse to cut public services and benefits, so that taxes for some could be cut. (In fact, hidden taxes, including National Insurance, increased.) In order to justify that on the eyes of the public, various scapegoats were found and the media jumped on the bandwagon.

The latest Conservative budget (the one which has just been abandoned) would have cost £16 billion. So much for all the "sweeties" promised to schools, the NHS, police, etc etc. Maybe they could be paid in melted down 50ps!

I hope people do a little bit of thinking and research before they cast their vote on 12 December.

ladymuck

You have been reading the tabloids haven’t you?

During their term labour increased public spending in the NHS and education, by a relatively modest amount. As a % of GDP it was no more than previous governments.

Did Labour cause the entire banking world to collapse?

Of course not.

Was it a crises of globalisation, and largely caused by the sud-prime market, where bankers acted entirely illegally in the mortgage market.

Yes.

Did Labour pour money into propping up the banks after the collapse? In effect Recapitalising them.

Yes

Did the Brown government begin the fight back to economic health with an expansionary policy.

Yes. The UKs economic health was in fact good. Our borrowing levels compared to the previous 100 years was at a record low. So Brown had a lot of room for manoeuvre.

Was it working. Yes There was no fiscal crises in the U.K.

Was austerity a choice that need never have happened.

Absolutely.

I suppose we're going to have a few weeks of trolling now on every social media platform

That's not true! The country had a huge debt in 2010 as a result of the global financial crash, caused by the collapse of sub-prime mortgages in the US. The economy was already beginning to show signs of recovery by the 2010 election.

I hope people remember the truth rather than these lies.

BTW I'm not a Labour supporter/voter and wasn't a huge fan of the last Labour government, but I do object to lies. Some people are daft enough to believe them.

The last Labour government were irresponsible and extravagant, getting the country deeper and deeper into debt. Austerity was necessary to bring us back from the brink of bankruptcy. I hope voters remember that when they vote in the up-coming election.

Austerity is a ploy, a cunning plan that only works to the advantage of the already wealthy-

No, quite. Particularly if you are one of the poor individuals who has been 'transitioned' over onto Universal Credit and are now even poorer than before.
Absolutely.

And whatever the dictionary definition of 'austerity' might be, the word was used to appeal to people who define it as in the OP - one lump of sugar instead of two, making a winter coat last two or three years, that sort of thing.

Then they could tell themselves that 'the poor' could manage with a bit less, and ignore the food banks and breakfast clubs and all the other indignities heaped upon those who work on minimum wage, or zero-hours contracts.

It is cruel and unnecessary in the 6th richest country in the world.

Public services will never recover, they are a thing of the past.

You are right, there is no normal any more. We didn't need the austerity agenda imposed by recent Conservative governments. It's destroying our public services and causing increasing hardship for those who have less of everything.

I feel despair that a Johnson government will do anything to improve the lot of the have nots. Or to rebuild our devastated public services. The 20,000 police officers promised are a rain drop in an ocean in beginning to replace the experienced officers cast on the rubbish heap.

That is an appalling state of affairs.

No, quite. Particularly if you are one of the poor individuals who has been 'transitioned' over onto Universal Credit and are now even poorer than before.