It’s Not Dead Yet

Interesting!
Incidentally there is an interesting website that is specifically dedicated to recession victims.It offers help and discusses all issues related to recession-www.angstcorner.com. It???s worth a visit!

New Labour is dead. Long live Red Toryism!

That is the new cry in British politics. A move away from New Labour inefficiency, blue sky thinking, and the idea that the term "tax and invest" actually means just blindly throwing public money around. New Labour's tax and invest policies are a myth, and they always have been. Along with the absurd amount of stealth taxation, and the inability of labour to maintain efficient public financing, without massive budget deficit's and huge debt, we have a government that is incapable of admitting it has been wrecklessly asleep at the wheel. Light touch regulation, part-privitisation without accountability, and the cultivation of a one-dimensional economy based around financial services has put the UK in just about the worst position possible. All thanks to the baffoon that was the drunk captain asleep at the healm, Comrade Gordon.

And what's very worrying is that the Tories are not going to be much better. The major issue amongst tax-payers in the UK is that we never feel like we're getting value for our tax money. If the Tories can produce a road-map that leads to value for money, then hopefully we have the foundations of a successful economy over the next cycle. But I just don't see any substance. Everyone in mainstream British politics is a style-over-substance-Blairite.

My personal trust in politicians are not weakened by this expenses row that is ongoing, but merely that there is no-one who can offer us leadership. We are stuck in a generation of adequate-but-unremarkable political leaders, and no election is going to overcome this hurdle. The reform needed in education, health care, taxation, value for money, transport is simply never going to come because the Westminster-clique are not just homogenous, but continue to show the same mind-boggling lack of humility, honesty, and transparency. We don't need more futile, dogmatic, spin-doctor politics. We need pragmatic leaders willing to speak frankly, and brutally drag this degrading society out of the fecal-pit it's dug itself into.

Voters who tend to look to parties aligned to business in the hope of practical solutions
are naive. They are geared to hire slow & fire rapidly. We???d be lucky if business comes out with profitable solutions while containing risk. An incentive to employ people would help, rather than tax cuts. We in India have the worst of both as our left subscribes to state capitalism.
Sharadchandra D Jog, Mumbai

When government spends funds on the welfare state, then the funds must be targeted so that the spending of the funds, is appreciated by the citizens of the state. In India, Mr Rahul Gandhi, has a similar view on how the economy must be run as New Labor. However, the efficient implementation of the programs has been the bone of contention. As an example, the Congress party has earnest, well meaning leaders, but the bureaucrats are not effectively implementing the programs of the leaders, or there are general problems in their implementation.
In England, I would tackle the issue of education thus: I would first bring the primary education up to mark, then after the issue has been rectified, I would move to the secondary education, and so on, and so forth. This is the best method, but one could also try to make improvements simultaneously, to all the branches of education. The main problems that all governments are facing, is that their spending does not seem to be making any difference, to the citizen. This means that there are serious issues to the implementation of the usage of funds, and ultimately the leader is responsible. The leader may be different, according to different levels, for example, there are politicians, and bureaucrats, and so on. But, when governments change, the politicians change, who in turn, change the bureaucrats, but the ground reality, of ineffective implementation, remains the same. Perhaps, the leaders make many plans, and do not take pains towards the implementation of the plans. I refer to all the leaders, from top to bottom.

Gordon Brown seems to be adopting every successful Obama policy including the us versus them working class/rich approach that worked so well for the Democrats in the 2008 election. Along with this is resistance to David Cameron who many view as a Tony Blair 'clone' chosen by the opposition because of his similarity in appearance to the former Labour leader (similar to the GOP's choice of Michael Steele). In another years time with the economy likely to be in revival I would expect to see a much closer contest in the UK's election than current polls suggest. Don't be surprised to see Labour win again.

Hey I control the interest rate. I did put the oil to $147, then $40,
not $200 -it was a choice I made.

Kristina Brooker (126 395 086)

FRANKLY it makes no difference to anyone making over 150000 quids whether they pay 40 pence or 50 pence -it is chicken feed -
the question is can it rescue the economy -
if that is feasible at all then hike the taxes by all means