I'm I hearing things.

Mr Blair said: "The Conservative tax and spending proposals would put at risk, both Britain's hard-won economic stability - the lowest mortgages, inflation, unemployment, for decades - and the key investment in public services.


Can I say this is clearly crap Mr Blair:

the lowest mortgages


Fact :


1997 Average salary £20K Average house £55K SVR IR 8%.

Ratio Mortgage/Income roughly = 33%.


2005 Average salary £25K Average house £162K SVR IR 6.75%

Ratio Mortgage/Income roughly = 74%.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4197241.stm

Isn't it shameful that a Labour government feels that rising house prices are acceptable, and that is looking for ways to subsidise landlords through tax breaks on SIIPs (even though yesterday's excellent posts have convinced me that the proposals will be ineffective)

I don't call racking up £500Bn extra in personal debt since 1997 and a governement deficit that now stands at £417Bn economic stability or indeed hard won. They have taken the easy option and left current and future generations to pay for their rolling re-election campaign. In the process they have squandered 100's billions without materially improving services, made the country less economically competitive and aided the destruction of personal pensions through retrospective taxation.

spot on only!!

productivity here has slumped since labour were elected.I only hope the populus have more sense this time!!

some people are so thick!!!!!!!!

I wish I had the money to launch a poster campaign of my own. Ones that tell the truth alongside the Labour campaign posters. The above facts would be very good non publicity for the government.
How much does it cost to do a poster campaign such as the governments latest?

It's worse than you think!

UK National Debt at the end of 2003 was apparently £437.4 billion. Add on £35 billion, the deficit for 2004 and it is now somewhere around £472 Billion. The fiscal deficit for 2005 is estimated to be about £35 Billion so National Debt is increasing at about 7.3% p.a.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=277

Add on the multitude of PFI and PPP initiatives equivalent to something in excess of £100 billion of off balance sheet debt, committed for 25 to 30 years into the future.

Household debt at the end of November 2004 was £1,053 billion, and increasing at a rate of some 14% p.a. though now slowing slightly.

So government and household debt is increasing by some £175Billion per annum or 17% of GDP. Whereas UK GDP growth for 2005 is forecast to increase at about 2.5%.

I cannot reconcile the last paragraph, with the UK being a prosperous and successful economy. Can anyone help?

Yes you can Dicky

In my case
Ratio Mortgage/Income roughly = 200% when the missus`s wages are put into the pot. At least you was not silly enough to buy a house for £3.6 million, and see it drop by 600k since purchased. Unable to let it out even at a reduction of 1k per week in the asking rent, have the media taking the p**s out of me.
Watching that Celtic twit next door running the economy causing interest rates to rise.
While you sit in your value for money rented accommodation waiting to pick the flesh off us poor souls.
Have you no compassion?

Ton

Dear Tony,

I sympathise with your predicament.However I feel it prudent to point out that had you taken my advice 5 years ago and invested in dotcom shares you would not be in the perilous situation you find yourself in today.

I hope you find the book deal successful.I have taken the liberty of contacting VIZ on your behalf.

(UP)yours sincerely,
Gordon.

WISH MY AVERAGE SALARY WAS 25K!!! AND I WISH THE AVERAGE HOUSE NEAR ME WAS 162K FOR THAT UP HERE YOU ARE TALKING A 2 BED TERRACE IN NEED OF SEVERE! MODERNISATION. BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER ABOUT THE SHITE HOUSE YOU GET FOR YOUR 25 YEARS OF SERFDOM TO THE BANK IT'S ALL ABOUT THE LOCATION, SO THEY TELL ME.

CRAP.

Just think, if you sent that to the Tory party campaign headquarters - do you think they would have the guts to run it?

Not likely, they are the party of the property owning democracy and the idea that high property prices are anything other than absolutely bloody fantastically good news for everybody is not the right message.

Yet. One day, as this society disintegrates, they will understand.

W@nkers.

I very much like the idea. But would not want the campaign to focus on vandalism even if the message was accurate.

Simple way of letting people have access to the message is to have a small poster in/ on your car advertising this website - I have. It says "Housing market truth at housepricecrash.co.uk" It's that simple.

Yep, there are massive Labour posters at the moment boasting about low mortgage rates and low inflation. Conveniently they forget to mention the most unaffordable housing ever.

Equally astonishing is how the Tories, Lib Dems or the media don't even bother to offer any counter aguments to this tosh.

Exactly my point, where is the counter argument.
What's up with these politicians.
Surely there are enough would be FTBs and others who realise how out of control this situation is.
I'm sure Tony Blair said today maybe yesterday an end to boom and bust.
Well we have had the boom roll on the bust.
Those labour posters are the biggest distortion on the truth, are they legal?

the answer to your question is simple!!


SEE MY POST ON WHO IN THE HELL WOULD WANT TO WIN THIS ELECTION!!!!!...look through the topics and you will find the truth you seek!

oracle.

Where is the Tory ridicule of our inflation measure, debt levels, house price levels etc. they're just not at the races, what are they playing at?

Winning this election is a poison chalice.

got it in one onlyme!!!

I know labour are stupid but the tories arent THAT stupid...are they????

oh hold on,I forgot..this is about LOSING the election,not winning it!!

I've also said the Cons are letting them win as who wants to be captain off a sinking ship.

Bloody lot should be put it nick

well of course!!

they get paid bloody good salaries+expenses for criticising the government making a total hash of things+taking all the crap from a nosediving domestic economy,and having no real positions of responsibility themselves!..

sounds pretty cushy to me...when things look up again I bet they'll be a lot more interested!!!!

Tony blairs version of this election goes something like this:
CHRIST ALISTAIR!,WHAT ON EARTH IS HAPPENING....I CAN'T MAKE THE PAYMENTS ON CONNAUGHT SQUARE,GORDON WANTS MY JOB AND HE'S MAKING ME LOOK LIKE A TIT,EVEN AFTER ALL THE CRAP IN IRAQ THE POLLS SAY THE PUBLIC LIKE ME!!....WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET THE TORIES IN SO I CAN CASH IN AND HAVE COSY DINNERS WITH BILL+HILARY?,AND WHAT ABOUT THAT PLACE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS?....OH BUGGER I ABOLISHED THEM...BUGGER!!!!

OH WELL,SUPPOSE THE EU WILL STILL HAVE ME.....OH BO11OCKS I PISSED OFF JACQUES AND GERHARD OVER IRAQ TOO!!!...AND I SO WANTED TO BE PRESIDENT!

Now I am confused. I had made my mind up on vote this time.
I don't like talking politics but have felt strongly not to vote Labour this time due to their inaction on HPI.
Now I am inclined to agree this is a case of losng this election.

However, I don't like the idea of them getting away with such a huge distortion of truth the new campaign posters offer.
Shouldcome with a Government Health warnnig, sorry meant to say Wealth Warning 'Most unaffordable housing ever'

Tony says that the Tory's spending plans will mean large cuts in public services.

In case you haven't got your lie detector software activated, i'll translate that last sentence.

"If the Torys get in they might not be as keen to continue our public sector empire building project where people are employed to do pointless jobs (which add more paperwork and confusion to the system) on fat salaries". These people work in public services but do not contribute anything worthwhile to them

Check this out, I stumbled across it on the Best Of section on MF.:
http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=9057652

I THINK SOME ABU GRAIB STYLE INTERROGATION SHOULD BE A PRE-REQUISITE FOR ALL INCUMBENT ELECTION CANDIDATES!!!

at least that way,even if we don't get the truth out of them,they will undergo a bit of humiliation and suffering(and great entertainment for us!) which might put them a bit more in tune with the real world.

hey let's put it on sky PPV,with the proceeds going to the tsunami appeal or something...at least then we'll know we have people that really care in charge...because the proceeds will go to a deserving cause.

Dear Tony
Just thought you would like to know that No 22 Connaught Square was sold for £1,390,000 in May 2003.
Was it £3.6 million you paid for yours in 2004.
If I was you I would sue your financial advisor, it wasn`t Gordon was it?

The Poster to run alongside:

Never has so much been owed by so many for so little.

Top class.
Any more offers?
Could we make a competition of this?

Perhaps pass it on to the loyal opposition to use? The Tories would love it with shades of Winston hanging in the background.

Yes it would be good to pass on, anyone know contact?

Michael.Howard@Conservatives.com

How about..er.....'Things can only get better'.....that sounds punchy.


K.S.

Surely that should be, "Things can only get debtter"..?

One for the Nanny State government "Warning, contains nuts".

Instead of "You country needs YOU", "Your country needs IOU".

A parody of the Nu Lab drumkit ad - "I'm an FTB, 2 years of saving and all I can afford is this lousy drumkit".

"A debt is for life, not just for Christmas"

How about "BRITAIN IS WORKING....itself into the ground"

"Duff on crime,duff on the causes of crime"

"The NHS....You won't get better"

"More spin than Zanussi"

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/polit...cfm?id=86162005
Blair in U-turn over sick list blitz

BRIAN BRADY WESTMINSTER EDITOR

TONY Blair has been forced to water down his proposals for getting millions of workers off the sick list and back into jobs, after he was warned the hard-hitting proposals would cause a damaging surge in unemployment figures.

The Prime Minister has stepped back from plans to impose a strict limit on the length of time Incapacity Benefit (IB) can be claimed. The spiralling IB bill - up to £7.7bn a year for 2.7 million claimants - has reignited a long-running row within the government over how best to handle people who claim to be unfit for work.

tony's really doing the MP's a favour then.

we all know they have been claiming excessive benefits(from us)and are unfit to work!!!...christ,theyd even be able to screw it up working in mcdonalds!

so he wants to maintain the status quo.

Labours attempts to discredit the Tories are pathetic.

They always go along the same tack - vote Tory and the following will happen


Divide between rich and poor will widen.
Reduced opportunity for those less fortunate
Create a society for the elite etc etc

Now, as far as I'm concerned we are witnessing all this already.

Look how the Russians are regressing back to the Stalinist days--its in their genes and they cannot chnage. Same as the Brits--class never dies--it just pops up in slightly different forms but the same people hold the wealth. The UK has always been between the haves and don't have as much. The UK survives because of a powerful "black economy" Without the Arfur Dailys and cash only merchants the UK would sink. Its a necessary safety valve to have the fiddlers to offset the effects of the ruling wealthy elite. Never been any different. The governments come and go but never really change anything. Proof: HPI uder "Labour".

well considering it's most likely the international banks that decide the outcome of the election(and not the general public as we are led to believe..the sheep are easily swayed by bad news),I would expect some rather pathetic and innefective campaigning from labour...along with a few scandals and a supposedly good chancellor throwing in the towel just to give the aura of disarray.

if we ever had anyone even remotely honest to vote for they would win by a landslide!

saying that,I have my suspiscions that international diplomacy is like getting the worst of the worst into the big brother house and watching them scheme and squabble....honesty wouldn't stand much of a chance would it?

That post hits the nail on the head.

I wouldn't mind teaching but for the bureaucracy. Even in my current job (uni researcher), the paperwork doesn't stop growing. The only helpful bit of paperwork introduced where I work was brought about by a student to help students get proper supervision. Need ethics? Well, you need to fill in the 63 page on-line ethics form (COREC), instituted by a New Labour hit-man with a bee in his bonnet over Alderhey, when perfectly decent research ethics committees were already in place.

This site is such a tonic, sometimes I think it is just me that thinks this country is going mad.

The best outcome for this country would be a hung parliament; Labour would have to share government with their sister party party the Lib-Dems, and the true tax and spend chaos at the heart of each of these parties would be quickly evident...

My dad gave up teaching for this very reason. Loved teaching, hated the paperwork (because it didn't make the kids learn any better) and had some bad run-ins with grade markers and inspectors (who he thought were idiots because they were sent to inspect subjects they had no knowledge of.)

As far as buraucracy goes, the latest trend is to shove it onto individuals (tax return anyone) or business (SMP, SSP, collecting student loans, SPP) etc. It cripples me each month.