[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by slowcoach

The thing is, the fact that there is money in the system which can be earned by these companies to produce increased profits during a World recession is due entirely to money being pumped into the system by the Government and the BOE. The media slammed GB for borrowing but you only have to look to America to see what happened in areas where the local steel works closed down or in parts of Detroit as the motor industry went into recession, whole areas are now completely empty of people with property falling down, we haven't suffered anything like that.

Their revenue dropped. Profit increase was due to cost savings and efficiency, absolutely nothing to do with government investment.

Bad example regarding Detroit, etc, the US have had a big stimulus package, far more complete than ours.

Brown's policies largely consisted of increasing spending in the public sector, the main stimulus to the private sector being a 2.5% VAT cut and the scrappage scheme, both of which were a good thing I might add.

Originally Posted by slowcoach

As far as Royal Mail goes, time was when each day I used to go to the post box with a carrier bag full of floppy disks containing applications for customers, many a time I had to wait for the postman emptying the box as it was already overflowing with mail when I got there, now on the rare occasion that I post a letter I hear it drop to the bottom of the box, obviously RM had to make changes, times change for all of us and we all have to expect that things cannot carry on as before, but hey, I find change exciting although it appears most people are afraid of change which I feel is quite sad.

I remember before privatisation of the utility companies when utility bills were very modest, I think privatisation was just a rip-off.

So what are you trying to say? You're making absolutely no sense giving the previous government all the credit for the Royal Mail's increased profits and ignoring their plans to part-privatise the Royal Mail.

I'm completely lost, you seem to be picking on random things and claiming they are the result of government policy which they very simply aren't, government policy doesn't make companies more efficient it tends to make them less efficient if anything and as mentioned demand for Royal Mail services continues to go down.

Originally Posted by slowcoach

I can only speak for myself and the area I live in, under Thatcher we got bugger all in the way of government money as the Tory's flooded London and the South East with the stuff, under Labour you can see the difference as money from the Government and Europe has been spent here to help a deprived area become less deprived, all we want is our fair share after all we pay tax the same as everyone else and although a house may cost more in London and the South East a loaf of bread costs us just the same.

London and the South East more than pay for themselves actually. They subsidise various other parts of the rest of the country according to the gross value add statistics. The North East especially is horrifically reliant on funding from London and the South East. This isn't actually a good thing!

You really don't get it. While Labour were happily employing people in the public sector in various parts of the country and making them more dependent on the state they should have been stimulating the private sector there so that the economies became self-sufficient and didn't need subsidy from London and the South East. As it is when the cuts to the public sector start to bite they'll hurt areas like yours the most because instead of trying to get the areas to stand on their own and stimulate the economies they were being fed and became reliant on the public purse. You'll happily blame the current government for this no doubt but very simply the plans of the previous one weren't sustainable and a lot of that case would have had to be withdrawn either way.

Originally Posted by slowcoach

It's simple really, people swallow everything the media throws at them and the media wanted a change, for some reason best known to themselves they wanted the Tory's in power which is why they promoted the Lib-Dem's hoping that floating Labour voters would be more likely to vote for them than to vote Tory, now we see them sniping the Lib-Dem's at every opportunity presumably hoping to derail the coalition and give the Tory's another chance to get an overall majority sooner rather than later.

That entire paragraph reeks of anti-Tory and pro-Labour, I just can't say I've noticed what you describe and it strikes me as far more of an attempt to undermine the current coalition than anything I've heard from Tories trying to undermine the Lib Dems. Most sensible and moderate people I know are quite enthusiastic about the coalition for the precise reason the Lib Dems moderate some of the less palatable policies the far-right of the Tory party would want to push through and are much less authoritarian. I've no doubt those on the far-right would feel like that but for myself it's not really crossed my mind. I can't say I'm overjoyed at the prospect of paying more taxes but if it improves people's lot in life and is good for the economy I'm fine with it - healthier economy equals more wealth for all of us. I probably pay less than my fair share compared with some anyway.