Average Family £891 Worse Off

[steveL]

Well we can start by getting the nobs up the Park to elect some proper Tories thereby reducing the labour majority by 3 then add on two up-and-coming Independents and that's 5  - which means 7 in practice and the loss of Labour's 2/3 majority needed to get a budget through

[DRiddle]

Shane's probably best placed to do that though out of all of us, in the sense that he's connected on some levels within the party itself. Surely their core support must be annoyed at Mr Wells seemingly selling out the party name for a committee chair or whatever though Shane?

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

@SRMoore - you obviously consider yourself to be a most fortunate chap. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that sense of well-being could be echoed by the majority of people; I'm sure that those who are scrabbling around to find a job (never mind one that pays ever escalating fuel bills and the cost of feeding their family in the face of soaring supermarket prices) would love to feel as you do. The unemployed/low waged family who are suddenly having to stump up towards housing costs and council tax or those affected by the ill conceived decisions of Atos/league tables for benefit sanctions would be envious indeed.

I'm not naive enough to believe the Blair and Brown period to be one of halcyon days - they too were in bed with organisations such as Atos.
Nor am I playing the 'nasty party' vs. the downtrodden workers card; yes, the current lot inherited one hell of a mess - whoever won in 2010 would have inherited a poisoned chalice - and yes, the years of crazy overspending had to stop, but surely not at the cost of a cohesive society.

Neither the Conservatives nor Labour seem to have a clue about the man in the street's real challenges and frustrations.  To my mind, what really stinks is that the pretence of a civilised, caring society seems to be shrinking in favour of an 'I'm  alright Jack' mentality, where the weakest go to the wall ... sad days indeed.

The shenanigans within HBC reflect this national disease - as long as certain factors are OK then to hell with the rest of the town. Time to remove the gloves for the fight of a lifetime - after all, the establishment is looking distinctly moribund even at this stage in the battle.

[SRMoore]

You really don't like being proven wrong do you Steve.

[The Great Dictator]

If the poor are so hard up then why did they spend millions on internet gambling last year, i think not....

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

If the poor are so hard up then why did they spend millions on internet gambling last year, i think not....

Did you get that one from Archetypes R Us? 

[fred c]

If the poor are so hard up then why did they spend millions on internet gambling last year, i think not....

We can all chuck generalisations about..... here`s 1 for you.

If the Rich are so well off........... How come they want even more & do anything to get it........

Don`t believe everything you read in The Daily Mail

[mk1]

If the poor are so hard up then why did they spend millions on internet gambling last year, i think not....

As opposed to the rich who gambled billions (of our money) and lost it.
Then got their mates in Parliament to give them more  billions to play with......
and got Osbourne to rush around Europe begging the other leaders not to tax them any more...........


The poor get penalties and the rich get incentives..........

[SRMoore]

Sorry Lucy, I didn't see your post before my last.

Yes, I do consider myself to be in a more fortune position than some. More fortune than I myself was a few years back too.

[The Great Dictator]

The rich did not gamble our millions, bankers did.

[mk1]

The rich did not gamble our millions, bankers did.

Can you point me out a Banker who is not rich?

I was just following the Osbourne line of reasoning. Man who kills his kids is on welfare-everyone on welfare is  a killer!

[Stevef]

If the poor are so hard up then why did they spend millions on internet gambling last year, i think not....

How would you or anyone else know who has been gambling on the internet, let alone how rich or poor they were?
What a really silly statement.

[whatabouthisthen]

Stevef     The National Lottery for one knows exactly how much is spent and where if not the individual. It is used to pinpoint their ad campaigns and, I understand, is sold to other lotteries and gambling organisation just as the charities do. Many organisations do similar research. Every log on to a site is recorded which is another reason why you should decline cookies and delete them when exiting a browser. Google and others make their money from such activities all in the guise of making things easier for the user. Another example of big brother....

I haven't read anything about it in this recession but in the last one it was reported that the NE had the largest increase in spending on the lottery. Other more affluent areas showed a decrease. Make what you will of that.

[rabbit]

"Don`t believe everything you read in The Daily Mail"

Or anywhere else for that matter including here!

I am directing this comment to some researcher in a future time who is reading this (probably in error) by courtesy of the British Library who from tomorrow is storing any UK website page, blog, you name it, for posterity.

Whether the readers of 3013 will understand any of it better than we can is debatable.

They may also wonder why we do it instead of getting out in the sun................... 

[The Great Dictator]

Stand outside Tesco or Gillans and you will see which numpties do the gambling, the bloody council house riff-raff, use your head.
The bankers i know are on £6.19 an hour, unemployed chavs spend all day in Ladbrokes you divvy.