No more Labour borrowing

[Arginald Valleywater]

Best joke in decades. Ed Balls at No 11 and Jimmy Savile as Minister for Children. Millibland is thicker than I ever imagined.

[number 6]

is that the sound of a tory realising the election is lost?

[David Johnson]

I doubt that you have understood what is going on here.

1. The Labour manifesto states "The party says every policy pledge in the document is funded and will be paid for without any additional borrowing. " So if it appears in the manifesto it is funded, rightly or wrongly that is what Labour are saying.

But to imagine that there are no circumstances in which there may be additional borrowing to fund capital expenditure, for example, would be very na?ve. The Labour Party has not ruled out borrowing for capital expenditure. That is what you have not grasped. What they are saying, rightly or wrongly is that in THIS MANIFESTO the pledges are costed. If for example, Euroland collapsed, then any government in power in the UK would be forced to spend in trying to keep the UK being dragged down with it.

2. If you want a good laugh at a politician refusing to explain where the money for a manifesto pledge is going to come from to fund an ?8 billion additional spend on the NHS, then have a look at Boy George avoiding explaining where his secret money bearing tree which miraculously bore fruit last Thursday is



3. Your beloved Tories, forgotten whether Farage or Cameron is your fave, are even worse. For example, Osborne said he was going to wipe out the deficit by the end of the parliament. He failed. He promised that keeping our Triple A rating was absolutely critical. He failed. He ended up getting rid of no more of the deficit than Alistair Darling had stated Labour would do in the run up to the 2010 election. Darling's plan was rubbished by Osborne at the time as leading the country to collapse. Osborne did no better than what Darling was proposing.

4. The Tories are very, very keen on borrowing for capital expenditure. When they came to power there was growth in the economy. Osborne crashed the economy by having too much austerity. After about 2 or 3 years he realised his mistake and starting splashing around the money like a Lottery winner to try and stimulate growth via capital expenditure on huge infrastructure projects and trying to stimulate the building industry by throwing money at potential house buyers.

I suspect all of this is a tad more complex than what you appear to grasp.

[David Johnson]

No mention of City's spanking at the hands of Man Utd?

[David Johnson]

Yep, it is difficult to see how the Tories are going to form a government in May.

Last time in 2010 as I recall the Tories got 36% and Labour 29% and Cameron still did not get an overall majority. Now it seems to be neck and neck. Even if Cameron wins the largest number of votes, I cannot see him getting an overall majority. So who would Cameron form a coalition with? SNP, Greens, UKIP? I can't see that happening.

Even if the Lib Dems hang on to a reasonable number of their seats, I find it difficult to believe that they will ally with the Tories again. Even if they did, it would probably not be enough to get a majority.

[Porn Baron]

The latest Guardian/ICM poll gives Conservatives a lead of six points. 39% with Labour on 33%. I think UKIP support is returning to the tories as Labour Scots drift to SNP. Scots are helping the Tories back in.

[David Johnson]

Yeah, I saw that ICM poll. However there were other YouGov polls taken at the same time that produced completely different results.

Taking in the ICM result, the Guardian?s updated average of recent polls puts the Tories on 33.7% and Labour on 33.6%. In other words, it is still neck and neck which is what it has been for weeks and weeks now and there is only 3 weeks or so to the poll.

Being a bit of a political nerd as I am, I came across this link



This might be slightly more reliable because it includes not only the various polls which predict Tories get x%, Labour y% etc. but also includes the Lord Ashcroft polling which uses a look at the marginal, closely fought seats which will decide the overall result.

[max_tranmere]

Labour keep being reminded of the "there's no money left" note that one of their Treasury ministers left in the office on the day they were voted out and the Tories/Lib Dems came in. My view is that it wasn't their fault, it was the banking crisis and the unavoidable bailouts which followed, that caused it. I would like to know how the Tories would have dealt with that in the same situation. Can we trust Labour with the economy? Who knows. Can we trust any of them with the economy? One thing I'd say in favour of Labour is they didn't cut essential services like the Tories/Lib Dems have done, someone I know is involved in mental health services and he said the cuts have been savage. An election on the horizon is always a time of slight optimism, but also of slight nerves too as no one knows what the new lot, if the government does change, will do.

[Arginald Valleywater]

AP McCoy was a massive fave to win at Aintree. He finished 5th. And Bookies employ some of the best mathematicians in the country. I will not call it yet.

[Porn Baron]

Interesting.
But my own poll of people I meet says many are still undecided. People around here tend to vote for the candidate rather than the party.