Forums Forums Wirral Information Wirral Council Your Suggestion For More Cuts

Are you saying that the 'working class' are unable to make their own minds ? How very disrespectful to your equals.

I'm with Cools on this. Maybe we look at how the country can benefit rather than how much we can get out of it. Not saying that benefit cheats are paramount (apart from those who come from foreign places) Three jobs to keep the wolves from the door, done that too Cools.

I would like to ask anyone what the New Labour's legacy was. Make a list and we can all share in it , because so far I cannot think of one inspiring thing.

That's probably why there were rather more than expected ,working class , who voted Tory in 2010. [/qu

Good morning granny, what would be more interesting is what the Tories have done(or not done) for us, er let me think I know foxhunting is on their agenda, sorry about the sarcasm, but we can pick and choose between the popular or unpopular of all governments,Barrack Obama made a speech basically saying they have just passed through a difficult time with he world in recession note the word world, not a recession allegedly caused by the Labour party, Dave spoke last night as the saviour of the British people, he had as per usual his best car salesmans face on, his speech carefully prepared by Tom Pepper, I am sorry but all I see is conmen of the highest order, I have never seen a more odious sneering bunch as sit on the Tory benches, and that alone should make us all wary.

Casper, you have not given one answer to the question just turned the question around. , but I forgive you, as the line up on the bench is more important for you, than the content. If one Tory picks his nose and another Labourite spits, it matters not, because just in case you don't know they all go for a drink together at 'Annabelles' later in the day, where they compare notes ! Didn't anyone tell you that before ? That's why they all throw insults at each other.. because they are all buddies at the end of the day.

Labour being in the hot seat for 13 years, and Tories only 8 months, I think most of us gave Labour a chance in 1997, but needless to say that doesn't swing both ways with staunch Labour and Trade Union supporters.

Now be a good chap Casper, and give me an answer to the question I asked. ....... love you !

Labour achievements 1997-2010

Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.
National minimum wage.
36,000 more teachers.
123,000 more teaching assistants.
85,000 more nurses.
32,000 more doctors.
Paternity leave.
Extended maternity leave.
1,000,000 pensioners brought out of poverty.
600,000 children lifted out of poverty.
£20,000,000,000 invested in social housing.
Points system to limit economic migrants.
Neighbourhood policing.
Biggest nation for windpower.
Access to coastlines.
Protection for part-time workers.
Right to flexible working hours.
Banned fox hunting.
Free breast cancer screening for ages 50-70.
Free nursery places for 3 & 4 year olds.
Heart disease deaths reduced by 150,000.
Cancer deaths reduced by 50,000.
Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals
Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
Full time workers given right to 24 days paid holiday.
Increased higher education numbers.
Employment brought to highest level ever.
Shortest waiting times since NHS records began.
Majority of GPs have extended opening hours.
Cervical cancer vaccination.
22,000,000 people had reduced tax.


And numerous other things.

What have the Tories achieved in 5 years?

Didn't ask you DD. But since you mentioned it.....as of 2013

1. 2,543 schools are now academies. In May 2010, there were just 203 academies, all of them failing schools required to become "sponsored" academies, and all of them secondary schools.

2. 200 of the country's worst primary schools had been turned into sponsored academies by the end of 2012. By the end of this year 400 of them will have been. In 2011, sponsored academy results improved by 27.7% – compared with 14.2% for state schools in general.

3. 79 free schools are open and a further 102 have been approved to open – mostly in September 2013.

4. There are 220 fewer Quangos than there were in May 2010. Quango spending has been cut by £17 billion. The savings on Quangos abolished altogether is £2.6 billion.
•Within the Department of Communities and Local Government, the Tenants Service Authority, Standards Board, Infrastructure Planning Commission, Regional Assemblies have been scrapped, while the abolition of the Audit Commission is saving £650 million of taxpayers’ money over five years.
•The abolition of Government Offices for the Regions is saving £420 million of taxpayers' money (from 2011 to 2015).
•Other Quangos have had their budgets cut. Under Labour Quango's cost £46 billion annually – the comparable figure (excluding the £2 billion for the Legal Aid Fund in both cases) is now £29.2 billion.

5. The "right to buy" your council flat has been reinvigorated. The discount for council tenants has been boosted to as much as £75,000.

6. The Territorial Army is doubling in size from 15,000 to 30,000.

7. From April, people can earn £9,440 (now increased to £10,600) before paying income tax. Under Labour, this personal tax allowance stood at just £6,475. As a result, 24 million taxpayers have seen their income tax cut. Two million of the lowest paid have been taken out of paying tax altogether. Those earning the minimum wage have seen their income tax halved.

8. From April 2013, the 50% top rate of tax will be cut to 45%. HMRC data reveals that in the first year of the 50% tax rate, tax revenues from the rich fell by £7 billion and the number of people declaring incomes over one million pounds fell by a half.

9. Corporation tax has been cut from 28% to 24% and is falling to 21% next year. This is the lowest rate of any major western economy.

10. Those who can work, but refuse to, are ceasing to receive welfare benefits. When invited to take part in a Work Programme there were 150,000 who stopped claiming benefits rather than participate. Of those who have taken part, 200,000 have been placed in jobs. Those who don’t find jobs via the Work Programme will go through a Community Work Programme where they work 30 hours a week for 26 weeks to contribute to their community. For claimants refusing to participate, benefits will be withdrawn for three months for the first offence, six months for the second, and three years for the third.

11. Over 400,000 more people are in work than in 2010. Over one million net new private sector jobs have been created. The unemployment rate is 7.8% down 0.5% on a year ago. This is during a time of rising unemployment in the Eurozone.

12. More children in care are being given the chance of adoption. The number of children in care rose under Labour from 51,490 in 1997 to 64,410 in 2010. The government are reversing the trend by allowing more children to come out of the care system and be adopted, having the opportunity of permanent loving homes. 3,450 children were adopted in 2011-12, an increase of 12% on the previous year. The scandal of children being kept in care in preference to transracial adoption is being outlawed.

13. Elected police and crime commissioners have brought in a new era of accountable policing.

14. Legal aid has been restricted. This is saving the taxpayer £350 million but also reducing unjustified, time wasting litigation, in matters such as health and safety, and welfare and immigration cases.

15. Home Information Packs, a bureaucratic impediment on the housing market, have been dropped.

16. Labour's £4.5 billion ID Cards has been abandoned. This is a clear message that the state should be the servant, not the master of the people.

17. An EU referendum lock gives some protection against further loss of sovereignty.

18. The earnings link has been restored for pensioners.

19. The operational allowance for the armed forces has doubled.

20. A New Enterprise Allowance scheme has helped 8,000 unemployed people set up their own businesses. Those with a viable business plan are helped with loans and mentors. It is being extended further to allow 70,000 dole claimants the chance to become entrepreneurs.

21. The National Citizen Service has been set up in partnership with groups like the Prince's Trust. Teenagers go on outward bound courses, talk to mentors about 'social action projects' in their communities, and then are helped to get on and accomplish those projects. Those taking part have the satisfaction of doing something enjoyable and positive – while participation will be an encouraging line for prospective employers to see on a CV. By next year 100,000 places will be available. The International Citizen Service, which is funded by the Department for International Development, is another new global volunteer programme for young people.

22. The armed forces are being treated decently. The Service Pupil Premium has increased from £250 to £300 per pupil and will be extended to include all pupils whose parents have died in service since 2005. The principles of the Armed Forces Covenant have become law. The Government has quadrupled the council tax discount for forces on operations. The forces are getting the equipment they need for the job: the helicopters, protective kit, and armoured vehicles they have lacked in the past.


23. Immigration has been capped. The Government is making progress in cutting net immigration from the hundreds to the tens of thousands. (changed)

24. Freeing Libya. The UK played a key role in the overthrow of the Gaddafi dictatorship. Our military intervention averted a massacre in Benghazi and toppled an international criminal who gave Semtex to the IRA and was responsible for the shooting of a police officer in a London and the bombing of a plane over Lockerbie.

25.The Troubled Families Initiative. Work has started for 120,000 troubled families in England to turn their lives around by 2015. It involves dealing with each family’s problems as a whole and appointing a single key worker to help. Previously, endless over- and underlapping agencies have been involved ineffectively. Councils will be paid by results, as measured by getting children back into school, reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour, putting adults on a path back to work, and reducing the high costs these families place on the public sector each year.

26. More Big Society volunteering. The number of volunteers helping in their local libraries is up from 17,550 in 2009/10 to 23,397 in 2011/12. In 2010 there were 15,505 Special Constables. In 2011 there were 18,421. As of March 31st 2012 there were 20,343.

27. The Government is encouraging investment in shale gas – which offers tremendous opportunity for a reduction in energy prices.

28. For three years there have been incentives for local authorities to freeze (or cut) Council Tax. This has overwhelmingly been adopted. Where there have been increases these have been modest as no council has wanted to set them above a threshold that would trigger a referendum. (For 2013/14 the threshold will be any increase above 2%.)

29.The power of the state to inspect your dustbin has been abolished.

30. The Royal Mail is being privatised in a way that will increase employee share ownership.

31. The civil service is smaller than at any time since the Second World War. For example, there are plans for the Ministry of Defence to shrink by more than a third – losing 30,000 civil servants.

32. Councils that fail to provide weekly bin collections will face financial penalties. Already the decline in weekly bin collections has been halted. There is now the prospect of it being reversed.

33. In May 2010, over 18,000 people had waited over a year for NHS treatment. Now it is 4,317 people. The number waiting six months is down from 100,979 to 55,335.

34. MRSA infections are down 24.7% in NHS hospitals compared to the level under Labour.

35. Independent economic forecasting has been provided by the Office of Budgetary Responsibility.

36. The Drug and Alcohol Recovery "payment by results" pilot ceases rewarding providers for "inputs" (the numbers entering drug treatment, regardless of what then happens to them). Instead the payment is for outcomes achieved – full recovery, including completing treatment and not returning; reductions in re-offending and improved housing, health and wellbeing.

37.Police pay is rewarding performance. Constables will be able to move to the top of their pay scale quickly, sergeants will get a greater reward for stepping up from constable, and inspectors will be able to reach their rank more quickly.

38. The teaching of history in schools is being revived.

39. Council housing allocations can reward merit – those who work, serve in the armed forces, or make a community contribution can be prioritised.

40. Employee share ownership is being promoted with a voluntary scheme allowing new recruits to wave entitlements such as unfair dismissal / redundancy rights in return for shares.

41. The share of our money taken from us and spent by the state is falling. In the last year of the Labour Government, 2009-10, public expenditure as a percent of GDP was 47.8%. In 2011/12 it was 45.2%. The Office of Budgetary Responsibility projects that it will fall to 39.5% by 2017-18.

42. The New Homes Bonus has provided a local incentive for building property. It has also meant a reduction in the number of empty homes with 38,000 long-term empty properties brought back into use over the past two years.

43. The deficit has fallen by a quarter. The last year of Labour Government, 2009/10, showed borrowing at £159 billion. In 2011/12 £122 billion was borrowed.

44. Trade union membership in 2011 is down 143,000 on the previous year. From 26.6% of employees to 26%.

45. The UK has gone from 89th to 72nd in competitiveness for "burden of government regulation". Under Labour, the UK fell from 4th to 89th in terms of competitiveness for "burden of government regulation." (World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness.)

46. Emigration from the UK is down.

47. The income of charities rose from £54 billion in 2010 to £56 billion in 2011. The tax burden for charities is being cut. The Small Donations Bill provides a new system of top-up payments similar to Gift Aid for small cash donations to charities. For donations of less than £20, charities will be able to claim back 25p for every £1 collected in the UK, up to a limit of £5,000.

48. There is less red tape for police officers. The time saved on form filling amounts to 4.5 million police hours a year, the equivalent of 2,100 police officers on the streets. An array of box ticking police targets have been scrapped. Police led prosecutions have been extended to cover over half of all cases heard in a magistrate's court – this means less bureaucracy and delay than using the Crown Prosecution Service for straightforward cases.

49. Less red tape for teachers and headteachers.
•The School Admissions Code has been cut from 138 pages to 61.
•Health and Safety guidance to schools has been cut from 150 pages to eight, making school trips easier.
•In total 5,000 pages of guidance to schools have been removed.
•Teachers have more power to exclude disruptive pupils.
•Heads have more power to remove incompetent teachers.

50. Less red tape for farmers. For example, the Agricultural Wages Board which duplicated minimum wage rules has been scrapped.

51. Less red tape for business. For example, increasing the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims from one year to two years from next April means anyone taking on a new employee can now be confident that they have two years to get the relationship right, rather than just one, before they face being sued for unfair dismissal. For businesses with fewer than ten employees, a moratorium on new domestic regulation for three years has been introduced.

52. Less red tape for everyone. From this month the "one in, one out" rule is changed to "one in, two out." This excludes regulation imposed by the EU. So far 3,000 of the regulations examined will be scrapped or reduced after nominations from the Red Tape Challenge.
•Lots of regulations are individually trivial, but cumulatively burdensome. People wanting to get married or register a civil partnership will be able to do so at any time of the day or night under the Protection of Freedoms Act. Couples were previously restricted to between 8am and 6pm.
•Gambling rules had meant, for example, that it was against the law to employ anyone under 18 in any capacity or in any job on racecourse where betting takes place. Also you couldn't locate a fruit machine in an ‘airside bar’ at a British airport.

53. Reducing rent subsidies for the rich. There are 34,000 households with incomes of over £60,000 living in council houses.

54. In 2010, 312,911 individuals in need of social care chose to have personal budgets. In 2011 it had increased 53% to 429,349. A legal right to a personal budget is being introduced.

55. Tax Transparency. From next year each tax return will show each taxpayer what their money is spent on. For example someone earning £25,000 spends the equivalent of £1,900 of their tax bill on welfare payments.

56. There are 10% fewer crimes each year than under Labour.


57. In December 2011 David Cameron vetoed an EU Treaty which would have meant a further loss of sovereignty.

58. Northern Rock has been privatised. The bank was sold to Virgin Money for £747 million. Under its new branding, new branches are opening, providing more choice. This is a first step to getting the state out of the banking business.

59. 24 Enterprise Zones have been created. These areas offer new businesses lower tax – with no business rates for five years and higher capital allowances as well as less planning bureaucracy.

60. The number of divorces in England and Wales in 2011 was 117,558, a decrease of 1.7% since 2010, when there were 119,589 divorces.

61. Funding for new fixed speed cameras has ceased.

62. The £4 million Big Tree Plant has seen over 239,000 trees planted across the country with £3.4 million of the funding already allocated to 128 groups, who will ultimately be planting more than 813,000 trees.


63. Forcing someone to marry will become a criminal offence in England and Wales.

64. The law of self defence against burglars is being strengthened.

65. The Life in the United Kingdom citizenship test is being revised with sections dealing with claiming benefits and the Human Rights Act being scrapped. Instead there will be questions on Byron, the Duke of Wellington and Shakespeare.

66. 7,000 acres of surplus state-owned land is being sold to provide a 100,000 new homes. It is estimated the sale will raise £10 billion for taxpayers.

67. A greener Government.
•Leading by example, the Government has reduced the carbon footprint from its own buildings by 14% on the level under Labour.
•Compared to 2009/10 figures, in 2011/12 the Government has delivered a 12% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, estimated to save the taxpayer £40 million
•A 36% reduction in domestic flights, already exceeding the Government’s target of 20% by 2015
•A 5% reduction in waste, delivering £4.7million savings
•A 24% cut in paper consumption, far exceeding the Government’s target of 10% with all departments reporting a reduction in paper use
•A 3% fall in water consumption, saving the taxpayer £4.2 million
•For example, HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) encourages customers to complete tax returns online.
•Using text messages for alerts has contributed to a fall in paper use by 30 million sheets in 2011/12, saving £297,000 as well as cutting carbon associated with printing and distribution by 760 tons.
•The Department for Energy and Climate Change has installed a dedicated 16kW chiller for its server room which had previously been cooled by two 60kW chillers, this is on track to save 80 to 90 tons of carbon per year compared to when Ed Miliband was running the Department.

68. Crime mapping has been introduced.

69. Fewer spin doctors. In the Department for Work and Pensions the press office has fallen from 301 staff in 2009-10 to 215 now. When Ed Miliband was Energy and Climate Change Secretary there were 43 DECC spin doctors – now it's 25.

70. Boosting the number of staff-led mutuals running public services to increase innovation, productivity, and customer satisfaction. The number of mutuals is six times higher than under Labour.

71. Social Impact Bonds allow private investment for a beneficial social outcome on a payments by results basis. A scheme in Peterborough Prison to reduce the reoffending rate shows very encouraging initial results. The Coalition is committed to expand these Bonds.

72. Open Government. The data.gov.uk website provides key information on transport, health, education, transport, crime and justice as well as Government spending.

73. Efficiency savings through renegotiating contracts, cutting back on spend on consultants and advertising is saving £8 billion.

74. Squatting has been criminalised.

75. Exports are up dramatically…
•We’re selling tea to China, vodka to Poland and cheese to France.
•There’s a baker in Dunstable selling naan bread to India, and we are selling coffee-makers to Italy.
•A firm in Anglesey is selling canoes to the eskimos.
•The UK now exports more cars than we import for the first time since 1976.
•We have increased our exports to Brazil by 18%, to China by 21%, and to India by 34%.
•We now export more to outside the EU than inside the EU.
•Free trade with developing countries is being promoted which helps make poverty history as well as boosting exports.
•The UK Government has backed free trade via the EU and the WTO and started the African Free Trade initiative.

76. Public sector sickness absence was an average of 9.1 days per employee in 2011, a decrease of 0.5 day from 2010.

77. Greater rigour in school exams. Primary school pupils are no longer able to go into their maths exam with a calculator. GCSEs are ceasing to be based largely on course-work and modules – instead there is a shift to final exams.

78. The Troops to Teachers programme, which aims to increase the number of service leavers making the transition to teaching.

79. The planning system has been simplified. Planning rules have been reduced from over 1,000 pages of often impenetrable jargon into around 50 pages of clearly written guidance.

80. 100 new cadet units are being created based in English state funded schools by 2015 to help teach teamwork, discipline and essential life skills. Currently there are 324 cadet units in state schools across England.

81. The introduction of the Universal Credit will make sure that work really pays, replacing many out-of-work payments with a single, simple payment. It will be withdrawn at a constant rate, so that people know exactly how much better off they will be for every extra hour they work, to ensure that work always pays more than benefits. The poorest will be the biggest gainers.

82. Fairer disability benefits. Under Labour those claiming Disability Living Allowance increased from 2.5 million to 3.2 million. It was possible to get £130-a-week DLA simply by filling out a bit of paper while those with serious disabilities had to cope with complicated 38-page forms to fill in.

83. A £26,000 benefit cap is introduced. They’ll still, however, have more money than many of their neighbours who go out to work every day.

84. A right to bid has been created, giving community organisations a fairer chance to save assets of importance to them, such as their village shop or the last remaining pub in the village, their community centre, children’s centre, or community green spaces.


85. “One-click registration.” From April if you want to start a business there’ll be no more filling in endless forms, giving out the same information over and over again. You’ll be able to get online, set up your business and register for taxes – and see the taxes that you’ve paid and that you owe – all in one place.

86. A requirement for dole claimants to learn English. New rules means Jobcentre Plus advisers can mandate people with poor English skills, which are preventing them from getting into employment, to go on to free specialist English language training courses. If claimants refuse to attend any of the classes recommended to them, they could have their benefits stopped.

87. Expansion of the Teach First programme which takes top graduates and puts them straight in the classroom.

88. Superfast broadband availability increased faster than previously scheduled by easing bureaucratic delay in planning and traffic management.

89. The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were delivered under the budget projected in 2010. The funding was £476 million below the £9.298 billion budget. Under Labour costs grew out of control from the original £3 billion budget.

(It's worth saying that the Games also went pretty well!!!).

90. A growth in credit unions. The Government are allowing credit unions to expand so that they can help one million more people. Credit unions are social enterprises that offer an alternative to loan sharks. The viability of credit unions is being assisted by an increase in the 2% monthly cap on interest rates.

91. Everyone leaving prison and claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance benefits will be immediately referred on Day One to the Government’s Work Programme, where they will receive specialist support to get them into employment as quickly as possible.

92. The Fuel Duty rise, scheduled by the Labour Government, of 3.02 pence per litre on 1 August 2012, was scrapped.

93. The M4 bus lane has been scrapped and the lane returned to all motorists after analysis showed that journey times at peak periods would be reduced for car drivers and hauliers without significantly affecting vehicles currently allowed to use the lane.

94. Spending transparency. For Government departments all payments over £25,000 are published. For local councils all payments over £500. Increasingly lower thresholds are being applied and spending transparency is being extended across the public sector.

95. More electrification of the railways. In 13 years the Labour Government electrified just 10 miles of railway, the new Government is doing so for 850 miles. This will deliver new fleets of cleaner and more environmentally friendly trains and reduce the long-term costs of running the railways.

96. The Youth Contract has boosted apprenticeships to half a million a year, double the number under Labour. There were 279,700 apprenticeship starts in the 2009/10 academic year. In the 2011/12 academic year there were 502,540 apprenticeship starts.

97. Taxpayer funded trade union facility time will be restricted. Full time trade union officials will need special Ministerial approval.

98. 2.5 million people once on sickness benefit are being re-assessed and two thirds preparing or looking for work.

99. There are 124,000 fewer lone parents on inactive benefits than there were in 2010.

100. Traveller sites. Stop Notices will allow councils to issue unlimited fines for those who ignore planning rules and defy the law.

Of course I know they consort with each other, my comments were about individuals in the Tory party and their mindset, disclosures about how the electorate are viewed nay sorry the lower classes, as pointed out by Letwin, or Dave pontificating about menial jobs, I have done menial jobs in my time as I am sure you have, saying that they have been worthwhile and provided a service, by the way granny I wouldnt put too much emphasis on your list a good 50% of your list are wet farts, that caused more problems than they solved or were a poor subtitute for something they had taken away, a prime example being TA recruitment, they have reduced the regular army numbers and now find they cant recruit their quota of TA recruits, hope we wont have to face any serious threats in the near future ( like the Russians rolling into Europe)

Turning the question around or failing to give a satisfactory answer is standard practice by our politicians but some of us believe them!!!

Love you too granny

Casper....With regard to the reduction in Army numbers, do you know the reasons why ? Go back to 2003 and see if you can find the reason, because it is there in black and white if you wish to understand.

Playschool all over again, Casper. 'which window today, children' ? For those who wish to stay in Europe, then you will need a bigger house with many more windows and backdoors, to peer into.

This, should be on the EU Referendum topic.

@granny, I combined three lists and sanitised them.

Most of the list you have replicated is a list of home goals and misleading achievements by the tories. I doubt if you read some of the list.

eg

Academies aren't an achievement - they are a way of transferring public money to private organisations. They are also a way of destabilising teachers (as you are probably well aware). Being an academy has very little to do with educational achievement.

Labour's 2012 planned fuel duty rise was scrapped - but did you notice what it was replaced with?

Independent economic forecasting has been provided by the Office of Budgetary Responsibility - how is this an achievement?

Home information packs - weren't dropped, some useful parts were removed, the totally useless energy performance certificate was retained.

Labour immigration 3,000,000 plus. under the points system.

Sold gold reserves off when at it's lowest price.

They banned fox hunting with horses, not fox hunting.

Government cannot take credit for the reduced number of heart disease deaths and cancer deaths. They may have pumped more money into it, but that cannot be proven to be the only relevant factor.

If I remember correctly, not so long ago you were praising the Academies., for giving all children an equal chance. Labour Government launched the Academies in the year 2000. Brainchild of Andrew Adonis. Does it matter if it transfer public money into private organisations and why do they destabalise teachers ? If so many schools were under achieving in 2010, then that is of great concern after 13 yrs and masses amount of money, so many more teachers and so on. So why would that be and what would be the answer to correcting a bad legacy ?
.
HIPS were scrapped saving people hundreds of £'s up front. Committed to greener housing, the cost is £60 for a certificate for energy performance. That seems fair !

And last but not least 3.2 million migrants during the Labour years needed , housing, education and health care. Hence, house prices and rents increased due to increase in demand. Obvioulsy they had to pump more money into the education system for more teachers, as there were over 300 different languages being spoken in the schools of this country !!

Full time jobs were re advertised and re-invented as part time jobs, to accomodate the influx of migrants , so we all got the minimum wage.

Exams were dumbed down so more children got to University. Labour introduced tuition fees firstly £1000 rising to £3000 thus by 2006 the SLC was loaning £2.7 Billion to students. Meaning that wages had to rise substantially to make sure the graduates could repay their loans, otherwise the SLC would have gone bust. That in turn caused the cost of everything to increase ,creating a wider gap between rich and poor, as wages rose for the qualified and became static (with benefits of course)for the unqualified. Taking away human dignity for many.
So the money the SLC raised ( a non profit- making Government body ) was put back into education to teach the migrants at the expense of Joe Blogs who had lost his full time job, and had to take a part time job .(plenty of those to keep the unemployment figures down by artificially creating employment figures ,supposedly being the highest ever and providing a gap in the market for migrants to fill ) Joe Blogs could live on the minimum wage and become reliant upon benefits. Sadly, there were lots of people by the name of Joe Blogs. Oh, and flexible working hours did not benefit the employee, only the employer. The unemployment figures started to rise again in 2006.

In 2003 Blair was accused by Europe on deceiveing the British public , claiming there were no plans to create a unified EU- army.. He being the one who launched the plans for more co-operation on European defence in 1998. That doesn't surprise me, he's continued to deceive in his rise and fall all over the world.
So much of what the last Labour Government seem to consider as a legacy, (or what you see as their legacy, DD) when taken on a grander scale of repercussions , ended in disaster for many .

After all that, no suggestion for cuts.

Now I'm not saying anymore because that is how I see it, and you and Casper won't . I could go on all night but it gets boring and takes a long time.

I'm happy to approve that two of the three points you made give an overall of 98% ok. for my list of acheivments . ....and I did read them all.

At the end of the day, they are all arses of the biggest degree and I couldn't give a hoot about any of them . We have no choice, we follow blindly into an abyss and proudly poor scorn on those who fell into a differnt one. That's all we do , find fault and in our own ignorant, miserable lives , think we have the answers to all things, can only think of oursleves and wonder why nobody listens to us.

Last night I lay in my warm bed, and thought about that small moment in time , and who or what at the same time was being abused, slaughtered, sacrificed, starved, and subject to any amount of suffering , somewhere in this world. Humans and animals the same . We cannot even imagine .
Try it tonight, just as you go to sleep , think about a man , a woman or a child that might be suffering somewhere, and what their fate might be. Think about the slaughtering of animals and imagine the slaughter houses with the horses and cattle being slung up and electrocuted , prior to their death. Try to imagine what fear a drowning 3yr old off the coast of Turkey might be suffering. Can't see their mummy or daddy as he is filled with a fear we can't feel. As you go to sleep, realise that all of that is going on, somewhere, whilst you lie in safety and comfort.

Why do we complain so much ?

Anyway, you are all snoring by now, so that was wasted too.

Morning granny, thats a good exercise in humanity, however whilst we are laying there thinking about these awful events we should also give a thought to how governments deal with these events, a government that wishes to impose fracking in parts of this green and pleasant land, that refers to people as plebs or menials a government that puts profits before people, a government that wants to hunt down animals with a pack of dogs, how can we trust a government that thinks so little of its own people to show kind regard and empathy to others?

One thing that I do agree with you on though granny, the majority of them of all parties are a bunch of shitbags it just picking the lesser shitbags.

"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason." Mark Twain

I often think about the poor refugees who have gone out the media to some extent. Living in tents in muddy fields cold and wet whilst I am tucked up in my warm bed with just enough money to pay for the house food heating etc. I don't feel guilty just so thankful.

As regards animals getting slaughtered I sleep easy ----maybe that's why they are here to provide food just like plants.

You don't remember correctly. I criticised the grammar school system and praised the comprehensive system. I have done nothing but criticise the academy system since before it was brought in.

The enormous amount of money spent on knocking down old schools and building new ones would have been much better spent on education instead of that huge amounts of profit ending up in developers pockets.

Teachers have been destabilised because they have lost a lot of fixed terms and conditions, some are on zero hour contracts. Headmasters particularly have been shown to be destabilised, many academies had two or three changes in headmaster in two years.

All sorts of things were made easier for academies compared to local authority schools to make the academies appear to perform better, despite this fiddle the academies did not perform well for the at least the first 5 years (governments own report) but they still pressed ahead with the academies program.

Now there are very few comprehensive schools left to enable a comparison as to how well the academies are really performing, more fiddle factors have been put in place.

Wasn't the labour ban on fox hunting a major step forward, not forget that this tory government are trying to rescind it.

I totally agree that the labour (and tory governments) have sold the British public down the swanee many many times, however the labour government had far more positive achievements than this tory government. Brown's period as PM was particularly poor, Cameron's is worse as I fail to find anything new that he has introduced which is clearly positive.

Do you mind animals being slaughtered for nothing, or sport as some call it? there have been instance's when packs of hounds have attacked and killed domestic animals cats and dogs some on their owners property, not for food or for any other need, just for fun or sport as they like to call it, or shoot afew elephants for ivory or a tiger for its skin, these people do it because they are bored, they have everything and yet they have nothing.

I was referring to the slaughter of animals in Grannies post carried out in slaughter houses---i.e. for food. However I do occasionally derive satisfaction from catching a fish ,killing and eating it. I think its only when we give them names like Bambi it becomes a little sentimental. Whilst I am also partial to a road kill pheasant I would not like to shoot such a beautiful looking bird.