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Originally Posted by Hugh
"The systematic and progressive dismantling of the welfare state" - what are you on?
Some facts for you (I know you don't like these, preferring diatribes and polemic, but some of us base our discussions/propositions on the real world, rather than some Third International/CPGB version of it) -
Government Spending in £billion*
Department_____1990_____2000_____2007_____2010
Pensions/Welfare.....53.............125...........177...... ......222
Health....................29.............48....... ......94............120
Education...............25.............42......... ....75.............86
Obviously a new version of "dismantling" I hadn't come across before - "I am dismantling your house, but I am also, over 20 years, quadrupling the amount of money spent on it".....
btw, don't you think you are being a little dramatic equating a democratically elected Government which is trying to balance a country's budget to provide a stable base for growth in the future (without building up huge debts and deficits which would have to be paid off by our children), with one that banned all other political parties, started a war which killed over 60 million people, committed extensive acts of genocide, and invaded Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Vichy France (and tried with Russia).
You appear to be comparing apples with giraffes, imho....
*source - UK Public Spending
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So in reality and relative to the ever decreasing spending power of the pound at a seemingly ever accelerating rate not a fat increase in public spend then ?
Democratically elected ? If our institutionalised dysfunctional electoral system is your idea of democracy then your welcome to it, to me even the coallition cannot claim to be truly representive of the people and barely scraped enough undemocratic electoral seats together to claim their false majority, and thats before we start looking at such failings like party dogma.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by myself
Nothing melodramatic here, past experience with various government departments tells me I should look to the worst case scenario and judging by the words of the current administration this is perhaps going to be the worst administration since Hitler.
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Whereby you invoked godwins law:
Please enlighten me where I aligned Mr Camerons potential reign of dictatorial tyranny to the one of Hitler when I clearly stated a comparison of all
since his reign, the era which coincidently bears particular importance and relevance to major developments within many aspects of the welfare state of today and certainly not excluding the inception of the NHS which arrived shortly after Mr Hittler left, just as did the wheels of todays comprehensive education also begin to gain momentum during this period. If the policies of the current government do result in any form of social cleansing then I certainly hope they will be just as well remembered for their notoriety.
If such terminology which I had tried to refrain from using is offensive and carries any perceived similarity to that era then perhaps the government should reconsider the methodology behind its current policy proposals in order to ensure such events cannot and will not occur, it is their policies and the threats they carry against the smallest, poorest and most vulnerable minority group in our society most of who'm in reality are barely on a minimum wage equivalent causing the problems of which tycoons like Mr Murdoch are in favour of and no one elses whilst garnering a frenzy of public support from very convenient selective journalism in the various tabloids on a small selection of extreme situations.
Ok so looking beyond this now as it will probably go through like so many poorly thought out government policies do, just where are the 2.5 million or so incapacitated people that can miraculously be deemed fit and available for work going to find employment not forgetting we will be fighting the half a million the government is throwing out for similar positions in the private sector. All this in the name of sticking a minute dent into an ever increasing defecit thanks to an impossible to reverse debt driven economy which will probably cost far more to implement than it will ever save ?