woody wrote:Mad Dog wrote:ChorltonV wrote:And there was me thinking this whole crisis was a direct result of thirteen years of mismanagement by the Labour party. I'm not sure how the Tories can be responsible for a giant Socialist f*** up.
Yes, Labour was responsible for the collapse of the housing market in the US.
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YES it was! The Scottish bankers (with a W) believed that giving money to a 1st World Country like the USA was kool.
Freddie Mac and Fanny May were accidents ready to happen, because they GAVE car loans as well, and if you have ever driven or seen a YANK car.............well its like having a wank in a snow storm..... you see and get nothing! (BTW never done that, but the thought intrigues me) :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Unfortunately, I think everyone is right. They have all screwed up, Thatcher, then Blair then Brown.
Thatcher :
Disregard for UK manufacturing industry, and believing that the country can survive on service industries.
Dismantling of appreticeships and other industry based vocational training.
Dogmatic belief that privatisation inherently brings value for money, efficiency and effectiveness, and that state run has to be inefficient and poor value for money.
Pushing english culture further in the direction of greed, and diminished social responsibility.
Selling off of the state housing stock.
Pushing people into under regulated, un-protected private pensions.
Total lack of a long term vision for the county's infrastructure, including power generation and transport.
Blair
Many promises and very little action.
Big spending on much needed projects in the health service and education, but with ill thought out plans and inefficient use of resources
A war
Even further relaxation of the regulations needed to keep the financial institutions under control.
Selling off of UK gold reserves at rock bottom price.
Inability to restore confidence in pension provision.
Encouraging personal debt as a way of fueling the economy.
Lack of a plan for the country's infrastructure until far too late in the administration.
Taking up the Tory view that the country can prosper on the back of service industry, and believing manufacturing can be ignored.
Dont get me wrong, they have all done good stuff too ( combating the over powerfull unions, the national minimum wage ) but the Tories and Labour have both screwed up big time too. It's time for a government with genuine concern for all sections of the community who can dispense with dogma and instead take a pragmatic approach to government.