Did I imagine it or didn't DAve and Gideon say that the private sector would snap up all those who lost their jobs in the public sector?

"Unemployment is a price worth paying."

when you pursue a policy of strangling both supply by slashing public spending and demand by increasing taxation (unless your a millionaire) its hardly surprising that the economy enters recession. Has Gideon got a single qualification in economics because he does not appear to be following any recognisable policy from either side of the political divide at present aside from cut slash and burn.

Well yes and it is supposed to be the result of their entire game plan which is simply this: Cut services and public spending, cut taxes for the rich, reduce regulation (health and safety, sack people more easily), and corporation tax and then some miracle happens and millions of jobs get created. This is plan A and there is no plan B

The Queens Speech which has numerous bills in it will surely be seen as a total irrelevance because it lacks anything to deal with the countries economic problems other than stick to plan A.

I think Batman and Robin were bandying about the 500,000 figure in the private sector job creation stakes. Pair of t0ssers couldn't run a bath. As for that fooking slimeball Clegg, he's even guiltier by association. Pr!ck!

The philosophy is simple: destroy the state and any collateral damage is insignificant and unimportant.

They recognise they'll be a one-term government and don't really care as long as they've carried out that plan.

Working on the assumption that things don't improve by a huge margin over the next two/three years and on the assumption that there are more public service cuts to come, AND that the NHS is going to be crippled (hence the burying of the report today), then I'm having a hard time recalling a government who will have left under such shambolic clueless circumstances.

Ted Heath after the miners did for him springs to mind, as does Jim Callaghan, but they at least could point to very aggressive unions in the 1970s, this lot are big pussys compared to them.

Its getting more and more obvious that Cameron is just a puppet, a pretty-poster-boy who could get the evil henchmen who pull the strings into a position of pocket-lining power, I don't think he's got a single policy of his own inside his pretty head.

They ain't even got started yet.

[url=http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2012/03/tories-plan-to-wipe-out-state-services/Francis Maude: "the aim was to end once and for all the idea of any provision of public services by the state"[/url

Full speech [url=http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/events/past-events/item/francis-maude-ten-years-of-modernisation-looking-back-and-the-challenges-ahead?category_id=37HERE[/url

Whoops !
He's admitted what I have been convinced about since the election.
It's not about the deficit at all, it's all about the ideology of rolling-back the state until the last shred of the welfare state is history.
Ted tried and made a pigs ear of it, Maggie took it on and rolled it forward regardless of vast and cruel human cost.
Dave sees it as his destiny to head towards that glorious golden day when there will be the obscenely rich 4% and the biddable and servile other 96% doing as they are told.

And Clegg is letting him do it.

I'm on holiday and said I wouldn't post but I feel I have speak up at this point.
I am staying in a haven site and every single van on this site seems to be made in Hull (ABI, Willerby, Swift and Atlas) all of which last time I checked are private companies and all told that they are going to get 20% tax stuck on their good so much for creating jobs in the private sector.
BTW this isn't a dig at El B.

No prob.
You make a valid point ... increasing VAT is wrong all ways round.
It depresses the economy, it's a regressive tax and (as you point out) it hits the manufacturing sector hard.

Clegg is an odious little sh¡t whose only hope of getting another sniff of power will be to join the unpleasant group of bags whose government his soon to be dead party is propping up.

And I have just seen the news that the twerps at parliament in charge are going to focus on getting the economy going.
They clearly think adding VAT to anything that isn't already nailed down is the way to do this.
Idiots, Mislead, Out of touch or illiterate with regard to how an economy works you decide.

I did try to convince posters well prior to the GE that he was a conservative in all but name. He's certainly reaffirmed that well held belief. What's happened to Doctor Vince? He's disappeared over the politcal horizon. He could do serious damage to this government if he ever grew a backbone. I can't believe he shares the same ideological beliefs as other cabinet members.

Vince has sold out his beliefs for a brief sniff of power, just like the rest of them.

Been making that point for a while. The trappings of power have turned them mad. Limousines, private offices, civil servants at their beck and call, protection officers (for some) are not going to be given up lightly. Standing up for principles goes out the window when you see your future going with them if the coalition breaks down. They'll cling on as long as they can and make out they're a "control" on the Tories, when in reality they'll go with whatever will keep the limo ready for them.

Clegg has basically killed the Lib Dems, and we're watching the death throes.

The main point as far as the caravan industry goes is that its not so much the increase in vat from 17.5 to 20 percent, its the application of a 20% levy on their retail price which wasn't there previously, mobile homes being zero rated until one of the posh boys spotted it and decided that the sort of people who take caravan holidays weren't his type and really ought to start paying VAT from now on, its win/win, the posh boys don't get hit but the plebs do, again.

Indeed and it goes deeper than it pretty much just screwing the caravan industry and therefore the construction industry in Hull(Which makes around 95% of the bloody things) It is the expected downturn in caravan camps(From what I have read a 30-50% hit).
So like I said how can you in the one breath threaten to slaughter a HUGE % of the holiday market and the attractions that go with it and then in the next breath state that getting the economy going is a priority.

And the worst of it is that the figures about how much it will kill the holiday market are from the governments own consultants.

Anyway, back to the risk register.

There really is no need to publish it, all anyone has to do is look to the US and you'll see just what we can all look forward to.

in far higher numbers than usual and the default rate on new vans purchased last autumn has also never been higher, this means a higher than usual flood earlier of 2nd user vans hitting the market and taking sales away from the new ones, coupled with more and more families knowing they can only ever afford this kind of holiday for the next few years, with more and more limited supply means prices rise and less people can afford to take breaks.

HMG is saying that it is untenable that the risk register be made public because they need to ensire that civil servants can speak freely about risks etc.
That is normally the case.

But in this case ...

a) The policy was announced BEFORE the register was drawn up (normally it's the other way round, when ideas are being bounced around) ... in this case the risk register is a Response to a policy rather than a list of risks in the light of which a policy could be framed.

b) The list could easily be anonymised so the public don't see who said what, but we could still see what the highlighted risks were (i.e. what risks HMG has decided were secondary to pursuit of their idealogy).

c) Precedent is not always a great reason.

Went to see Dr Phil Hammond last night – very, very funny. But on the new Act, suffice it to say he ain't impressed.

Iliked tb's twitter comment: "first time I've ever paid up-front to see a doctor - bloody tories"

Indeed.

This Tory led govenment is running rough shod over everything and getting away with it simply because as a nation we let it happen and just take it on the chin. I fear for the medical care in this country, more so for the elderly population with the proposed care at home policy which I believe is a disaster waiting to happen due to insufficient already overtretched nurses, whlist at the same time freeing up much needed private health care beds. Hull has recently had good news regarding the Siemens project (and boy do we need it) estimated to create approx 800 jobs but with the VAT on static caravans increasing to 20% this could be cancelled out by job losses in the industry not to mention the suppliers. Maybe I'm a pessimist but I fear the next 3 years because I believe we will be watching the rich rise further up the ranks while the rest of us sink lower.