2015 UK General Election Thread

Originally Posted by Gary L

Labour will abolish the bedroom tax.

they're on to a sure winner with that one already.

Cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 a year.

a sure winner on that one too.

They will ban zero hour contracts.


Remember. it's a vote to Win.
vote Labour!
make the sun shine on Britain again!

Dave made it dull and gloomy.

CityAM

Labour manifesto: Ed Miliband offers no more clarity and electorate won't know what they're voting for, says IFS

Ed Miliband's claim to economic credibility suffered blow this morning after the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said Labour's manifesto launch left the public none the wiser about how they will balance the current budget.

At a speech in Manchester, Miliband set out Labour's offer to the electorate and attempted to regain a reputation for fiscal responsibility with a guarantee that no Labour policies would require additional borrowing.

But Labour's commitment to only eliminating the deficit for current spending and not the overall budget by the end of the Parliament mean there is no specific date for when they'll bring the budget back into balance.

The IFS say the plans would leave Labour between making £18bn worth of cuts or none at all. The electorate may question Labour's Damascene conversion to fiscal prudence if they leave the door open to making no cuts in public spending. Director of the IFS, Paul Johnson, said: "Literally we would not know what we were voting for if we were going to vote for Labour."

Guardian

Conservatives take six-point lead in Guardian/ICM poll
Poll takes Tories to 39% ahead of Labour on 33%, as Lib Dem support stays at 8% and Ukip drops back two points to tie with Greens on 7%

Don't count your chickens yet, Gary......

btw, Labour will not ban zero-hour contracts - they have said they will ban "exploitative" zero-hours contracts.

Labour Party

Labour is committed to ensuring that everyone is properly protected in the workplace.

1) We will abolish exploitative zero-hours contracts, with rules introduced to give new rights to employees on zero-hours contracts. This will include the right for employees who have consistently worked regular hours to receive a fixed-hours contract automatically.

The polls are all over the place!

---------- Post added at 15:05 ---------- Previous post was at 15:03 ----------

Btw look at the ukip numbers. Looking like they're swinging back to the Tories.

[denphone]

Yes that's my thoughts as well Damien on both counts.

[techguyone]

Labour is committed to ensuring that everyone is properly protected in the workplace.

1) We will abolish exploitative zero-hours contracts, with rules introduced to give new rights to employees on zero-hours contracts. This will include the right for employees who have consistently worked regular hours to receive a fixed-hours contract automatically.

I'm not a Labourite but.. I don't actually see anything wrong with that.

Is there a Conservative Party manifesto up yet?

Originally Posted by techguyone

I'm not a Labourite but.. I don't actually see anything wrong with that.

Is there a Conservative Party manifesto up yet?

Tomorrow

Originally Posted by techguyone

I'm not a Labourite but.. I don't actually see anything wrong with that.

Is there a Conservative Party manifesto up yet?

I agree with you - I was just pointing out to Gary that Labour are not abolishing zero-hour contracts, as he stated....

[Osem]

And neither did they do anything meaningful to control all those evil ZH contracts during their 13 years in power. Odd that eh?...

[MalteseFalcon]

But Labour employ staff on zero hour contracts, so scrapping them means they will have to give those staff proper contracts. If they hate the zero hour contract, why use it themselves?

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Guardian Don't count your chickens yet, Gary......

I don't have any chickens

btw, Labour will not ban zero-hour contracts - they have said they will ban "exploitative" zero-hours contracts.

That's what I said.

Originally Posted by Gary L

That's what I said.

no ,this is what you said

They will ban zero hour contracts.

,any government 'banning' zero hour contracts would be out of order because many people's lifestyle is more suited to zero hour contracts as mine is .

[Osem]

Originally Posted by martyh

no ,this is what you said

,any government 'banning' zero hour contracts would be out of order because many people's lifestyle is more suited to zero hour contracts as mine is .

Labour won't ban them now any more than they banned them last time around. They spout guff like this because they know it resonates with people like him...

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Osem

Labour won't ban them now any more than they banned them last time around. They spout guff like this because they know it resonates with people like him...

Cheer Osem up. Vote Labour!

Problem for Labour. They've just admitted (on the radio) they can't match the Tories £8bn increase in spending in the NHS. Only £2.5 billion increase.

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Damien

Problem for Labour. They've just admitted (on the radio) they can't match the Tories £8bn increase in spending in the NHS. Only £2.5 billion increase.

thats not such a bad thing it just means they wont be able to employ so many none English speaking staff this time

Originally Posted by nomadking

Doesn't answer my question as to, if borrowing rose because of the banking crisis in 2008, why did the public debt start rising 8 YEARS BEFORE that? Your reasoning that Gordon Brown was "busy spending all the tax revenues they were generating" doesn't explain increases in borrowing. If there were increased tax revenues then no need for increases in borrowing.

To explain that you have to look at the how the tax revenues were used ,one example I am personally familiar with was the Decent Homes Scheme ,a scheme where the Labour government of 2000 gave away billions to LA's to upgrade council houses ,a worthwhile and much needed scheme that was extremely badly managed and wasted a lot of the funds. It was due for completion in 2010 but a report in 2010 estimated completion in 2018 costing billions more .
I am sure there are other failures from both labour and conservative but this was a main policy for Labour and much lauded by Blair and Brown and accounts for a lot of waste in the public purse


http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2...l-Audit-Office


It's worth mentioning also that the current government is still borrowing money to pay for this scheme because they have an obligation to continue the scheme until completion which also accounts for a lot the extra borrowing in the current government