Well obviously it comes to no surprise to me at all when we got the government borrowing more than we are receiving, has no logics on growth and not cutting enough. Well maybe a Labour government will solve everything? Well, judging by their economic polices and getting us into this debt in the first place I have no confidence whatsoever. I was watching Prime Ministers Questions sometime ago and when the debate was in discussion about the economy, David Cameron and Ed Milliband were actually both right because they were criticising each other, so they are bad as each other.
I am dreading the next few years unless we take some drastic messures that helps improve our economy. I personally think Growth starts by putting more money in people's pockets. That is best done by reducing the tax burden on businesses and lowering personal taxes. By failing to get a real grip on government spending, the chancellor has been unable to make people better off and the chickens have come home to roost.
Another big drain on our economy is the ongoing war in Afghanistan. God knows how much it is costing, but we know from past experience of war that it can bankrupt countries quicker than than any other disaster which befalls it. We have sent troops to be slaughtered, Costly equipment, aid in large amounts and yet more of the same for 12, or 13 years with no results whatsoever. Afghanistan can not be beaten! We tried many years ago and failed. The Ruskies tried several times and failed. Get out now and leave them to it and watch our credit rating rise again. Meanwhile, let's get out of the EU ASAP and the HR Act so we can export another drain on our finances.
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I wouldn't trust George Osborne or Ed Balls to make a decent job of organising my sock draw. My advice to anyone under age 30 is to get the hell out.
Watched a film called 'the Day' yesterday about survivors of some unspecified societal breakdown and I said to my missus that that will probably be our society in our lifetime. I was only half joking.
Never had a pot to piss in during the so called boom years but have now got sky tv, a season ticket at charlton, roof over my head, know where my next meal is coming from and may even be able to have a holiday this year.....that is what i consider a life of luxury. But is probably what society deems the norm now.
I think most people i know probably have the same and are better off than their grandparents, great grandparents etc.
I dont mean to be insensitive as if i lost my job tomorrow and couldnt get another one as many on here have it would all change but Ive been in that position before and would go back to labouring etc to pay the rent and get what i needed to survive.
Maybe our perspective has changed and we have starting deeming luxuries like cars, owned homes, sky tv, i phones, laptops, xboxes and holidays etc as expected rights rather than luxuries that we are lucky to have.
Not matter how bad things get under this and future govs in next decade i imagine we will all still have a better standard of living than 99.9 % of the world.
There aren't bread queues forming and people aren't dying in the street.....they are still queing in new motors to get into Bluewater car park to buy more luxuries, drinking in pubs, eating Sunday carverys in packed pubs and booking holidays to the carribean and australia.
Yes most people cant get what we want when we want maybe as easily as five or ten years ago but was it really any different? There was a period when the working and lower middle classes went through a boom of previouslyu unseen home ownership but that was an anomoly that has skewed the market and make most places unaffordable for the rest in areas like London. Havent got a mortgage yet and may never be able to get one but it's not the end of the world and im not gonna moan how unfair it is that previous generations found it easier to get one or that i have to move from greater london to get on the ladder.
Times are hard (relative to when they were better/ less hard in previous years) for many but overall they are probably better for most than ever surely?
We are a complete mess right now, what little money we have is being mis-spent, the economy cannot recover sufficiently to stop the recession and all the while jobs are becoming harder to obtain as some of the nations biggest companies are struggling to stay alive.
As soon as my partner has finished all her studies we will be looking to get out of this poxy country
As for the country, surprised the AAA wasn't lost sooner. This government shot themselves in the foot by steadfastly stating that there was only one way. Plan A. They gave themselves no room to manoeuvre when the economy failed to improve and they are borrowing more and certainly not reducing the deficit...whatever they try to spout every opportunity they get.
The damage this does to the strength of the pound will be seen in coming months as petrol, energy & food prices all rise further. It will only be tougher for another few years to come.
Need my lottery numbers to come up because I really don't see a positive upturn in my circumstances.
I was labouring 6 days a week and scrubbing toilets on building sites/worked minimum wage (and below) and lived in bedsits barely affording the rent whilst the media told me it was boom time and New Labour had saved the world and the future was bright for everyone. Didnt seem much of a gravy train to me back then but ten years later under the worst economic climate for generations ive never had it so good.
Its the luck of the draw really. Doing ok now ie can afford luxuries like sky and the odd holiday but never gonna be able to afford to snort coke off a supermodel's navel as she lies on the bonnet of my new ferrari. Still i realise that now and even years back then when i didnt have a pot to piss in that i was living a much better standard of life that the vast majority of people in the world.
I think we are spoilt in the UK and expect to much. I dont expect anything to be given to me as a right but we get free education, health care, housing, family allowance, state pension, benefits etc and its up to you to make the best of what you have. No goverment is ever going to give everyone a footballers lifestyle and no one owes anyone a living.
Life isnt fair but the majority of people in this country have been dealt a pretty good hand just being born here.
This made me laugh and sums up the "expect something for nothing" that too many people have in this country nowdays.... http://www.lbc.co.uk/listen-sacked-for-being-30-mins-late-for-work-67885
For that I count my blessings.
It's also interesting that Austria, Germany, Netherlands and USA are on negative watch and could well lose their AAA rating.
BTW, S&P's list is different: Austria is already downgraded, HK and Lichenstein are AAA but Isle of Man isn't, while we are still AAA rated but the USA isn't.
I said on another thread that the sooner that we stop getting hung up on growth - politicians of all colours can take the blame for this - the better. It is perfectly obvious that continous never-ending growth is utterly unattainable. Growth is only important to politicians because it allows them to carry on spending (flushing down the toilet) ever increasing amounts of money on stupid concepts like child benefit.
It is not a country to retire to unless you had silly money.
If People really think they'd be better off elsewhere then they are more than welcome to fuck off as far as I'm concerned. Better that than them constantly whining and moaning about it and doing their best to make the rest of us miserable. You don't like your lot - then change it.
The UK has many faults, but there's nowhere else I'd currently rather live.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/liamhalligan/9889901/Britains-credit-downgrade-is-a-call-to-live-within-our-means.html
The bankers are wankers but same time people need to take responsibility and have a different mindest eg buy what they can afford and live within their means like previous generations used to. Cannot believe how many people still use credit cards, loans etc for things they dont need but want and go to any shopping centre and people are still getting debted up to the hilt buying crap on credit every day to make themselves feel better. Madness.
Easy to blame it all on the bankers and politicians but almost everyone enjoyed the credit they offered and now have the hump they have to pay it back.
Have mates who piss and moan about being skint and not being able to afford a deposit on a mortgage but wont think twice of pissing away £10k on a credit card to pay for must have foreign holidays and cars.
Of course it's probably not that easy for some - but largely that is again through personal choice. If things were really that bad here for you then you could have always jacked in your job and move somewhere else to try and start again, but you have chosen not to. Be that because of family or whatever, but you've obviously deciuded that - for all it's ills - this country is the place you wanted to be. Presumably because the alternatives did not stack up.
I'm not saying you're right or wrong to have made the choices you've made - I would have no idea so wouldn't dream of passing judgement - but you must have had choices, even if they weren't the most attractive.
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