New Labour's final act of RECKLESS STUPIDITY?

[David Johnson]

"they bloat the public sector by 2million on the back of the financial upturn in the last 15 years promise everyone a job (full employment)"

Can't remember Labour promising everyone a job.

"say they have put an end to boom and bust"

Agreed. Gordon Brown was talking bollocks.

"spend and borrow and promise increased spending on everything,and when it goes tits up blame everyone else"

Prior to the global recession, debt as a percentage of GDP was no higher than in Thatcher's time and it was amongst the lowest in the G20. As I recall Thatcher wasn't remembered as a spendthrift.

"blame the bankers solely not joe public with his 5 credit cards maxed out, new car,second investment property and oh sorry their vote."

Well it was Mervyn King who said that the cause of the cuts we are now experiencing was the banking sector. Re Joe Public, I agree. Like in all bubbles, they were persuaded to borrow, partly by irrersponsible lenders and partly by all the general hype around house buying, for example.

However to do exactly the opposite i.e. terrorise the population into not spending because of fears of unemployment, interest rate rises, pension cuts etc etc which is what this government is doing is equally irresponsible because the service sector, fuelled by consumer spending is by far the key factor in GDP in this country. I fail to see how the coalition is going to deal with the deficit in the current scenario where we have unemployment rising, inflation rising, consumer confidence collapsed and growth being downgraded.

Cheers
D

[tommy dickfingers]

Cheers mate!

[tommy dickfingers]

Gordon brown mentioned full employment,who exactly persuaded people to lend lots of money surely its a personal decision to borrow,yes banks and building societys shouldn't have advertised 100% mortgages and let people borrow that amount of money,but it was the banks who were lending to let people live the kind of life their wages wouldn't have normally let them afford.at the end of the day YOU are the best person to decide weather you can afford that new car,or house,sofa,laptop,holiday,i phone,another holiday,i pad,another holiday,concert tickets,clothes,meals out.

[David Johnson]

Well it is the nature of bubbles that people get carried away. Some banks like Northern Rock were offering 115% mortgages. TV was full of programs about people making money buying a house, doing it up and selling it etc etc.

So it is not surprising that a lot of people believed in the hype and got carried away. I agree that people need to take responsibility for their own spending. No-one forced them to take onboard, in some cases, unacceptable levels of debt.

Cheers
D

[tommy dickfingers]

Yes unfortunatly everybody forgot that house prices may go down as well as up, i work in the building industry and have seen a queue of amateur investors outside a sales office on the opening day snapping up multiple properties.i suppose it was a bit like all of those numpties who queue overnight outside for a new i gadget,there now probably the same people who are at this moment smashing up the centre of london bet you wont see them trashing the apple shop!