Election Discussion

[charmed60]

How else do we pull the country out of the recession, realistically? We can't go on spending like we did under Labour - before they came into power, we actually had a budget surplus! It's hard to believe that Gordon Brown was the longest serving Chancellor of the Exchequer...

I'm no fan of Brown believe me but in his defense the economy was much stronger back before he came into power and we weren't going through a recession - something which Brown really can't be blamed for. In my opinion, Brown has made a lot of mistakes but I don't think he's actually as bad a Prime Minister as people make him out to be; a lot of people will see a problem in the country and automatically blame him when the majority of the time it's something either completely out of his control or something that would have happened whether he was in power or not. And were actually doing pretty well as a country to come out of the recession, something which is of credit to him.

It just worries me about having a merge of government, I think we'd be better have one stable party leading us (or as stable as we can get.) Having multiple parties all with different ideas and policies is never going to work, they'll never agree and it will end up falling apart.

I agree about Clegg holding all the power. He must be loving it at the moment having them all suck up to him

[Kelly969]

for some of us the thatcher years were a good time-that is why she won 3 elections. My parents both were brought up in innercity london, left school at 16 with no qualifications,didnt go to university-but did they sit around expecting the state to provide them with a job or to be handed out all sorts of benefits? no they didnt,they worked very hard to better themselves and started a business from scratch which became very successful. For people like my parents the tax system,the rules and regulations for business were hugely beneficial during the 1980s. The thatcher years were very good for business and enterprise. I know some people loathed thatcher and have their own personal reasons for doing so but for some people thatcher was a very good prime minister who got britain out of the terrible state it was in during the 1970s and brought economic prosperity to many.

[Zetti]

^ Cutting everything isnt going to get us out of the recession, its just going to cause more problems. We need to fix the issues before we deal with the deficit. Conservatives are trying to make our lives harder and for what? This debt is going to take ages to pay back.. whats a few year in it?

[Kelly969]

zetti- i appreciate no one wants to see things cut but when we all know it has to happen surely we may as well get on with it? I know some of us want to pretend the deficit doesnt exist and put off repaying it some time into the future but we only need to look around europe at greece,spain,portugal and italy to see what could happen if we dont start to get our finances together soon. The situation in europe is serious economically. If we dont make it look like this country is determined to get to grips with its deficit foreign investors will not look at the uk, interest rates could rise,government bonds selling will be a problem etc etc.Things could actually get worse then they are now. With serious actions being taken in the eurozone like with greece we cant risk being labelled with such countries and possibly losing our AAA rating-we do need to act now or at least make it look like we are serious about geting our problems under control. Is it a risk that growth could stagnate? unlikely as in the scheme of things the 6 billion cut proposed by the conservatives is a tiny proportion of the overall sum. The whole uk economy needs restructuring to set us up for the long term,too many people work for the state,toomuch is spent on welfare,etc jobs and business in the private sector needs to be created.

[Jess]

^ Cutting everything isnt going to get us out of the recession, its just going to cause more problems. We need to fix the issues before we deal with the deficit. Conservatives are trying to make our lives harder and for what? This debt is going to take ages to pay back.. whats a few year in it?

Like Kelly said below me, though, we can't deal with the issues until we deal with the deficit because the two are so closely linked. A few years of letting ourselves get into bigger financial trouble could mean us beginning to look like Greece. While I agree that cutting spending isn't going to make the recession go away, it is going to lessen the impact that it has on us right now. And then, as has already been mentioned, foreign investors might start coming near us again, thus helping us make a bit of a dent in the mess!

I don't think it's fair to say that the Conversatives 'are trying to make our lives harder'. They've actually proposed some difficult things - things that could make them unpopular and therefore less likely to be re-elected - which I don't think they'd do if there was another viable option.

[halcyon06]

So Gordons gone then yeah!?

[KirstyEkua]

The problem with Cameron is that he is all talk. He knows how to court the media and how to get people to vote for him but i have real doubts about his ability to govern a counrty. The Tories policies have been vague to say the least and idealistic. Going by what both he and Brown have said (both in person and written interview) it's clear (to me anyways) that Labour has the best plan to pull us out of the recession.

I think people are being too harsh on Brown and seem to forget he stepped in when the country was in a real mess and people were disenhearted with the idea of New Labour. He's done a lot of good things during his time in power.

The Conservatives have always been a party that have catered for themselves (i.e. those with money who have not been affected by the recession) and with Cameron in charge that's not going to change.

[devon]

So Gordons gone then yeah!?

Not til September. The country might be bankrupt by then though - if it causes months of paralysis.

[claire_louise]

The problem with Cameron is that he is all talk. He knows how to court the media and how to get people to vote for him but i have real doubts about his ability to govern a counrty.

I feel a bit like that too, but I'm actually quite happy with the coalition. I think with Nick Clegg as his right hand man he should have all the support he needs if he begins to falter. If they can only learn to compromise (and it's a big 'if') they could be a great team.

I think people are being too harsh on Brown and seem to forget he stepped in when the country was in a real mess and people were disenhearted with the idea of New Labour. He's done a lot of good things during his time in power.

Well, no, he didn't 'step in' because he was always there. He was actually in charge of finance as Chancellor when everything went wrong. He got us out of it, yes, but we really shouldn't have been in it in the first place...

I do feel a bit sorry for him though - talk about fighting an uphill battle.

[KirstyEkua]

I think people are being too harsh on Brown and seem to forget he stepped in when the country was in a real mess and people were disenhearted with the idea of New Labour. He's done a lot of good things during his time in power.

Well, no, he didn't 'step in' because he was always there. He was actually in charge of finance as Chancellor when everything went wrong. He got us out of it, yes, but we really shouldn't have been in it in the first place...

I do feel a bit sorry for him though - talk about fighting an uphill battle.

I am aware he was chancellor of the excheqour for 10 years or so before he became PM. But he did just 'step in' as Prime Minister when Tony Blair stepped down. And i don't think we can blame Gordon Brown completely. If anyone is to blame it's the banks, for continuing to loan money to people who they knew would never be able to pay it back. That's why this whole recession started - people trying to live outwith their means - and the banks letting them.