Just had 2 days of talks about the up and coming budget cuts and believe me its grim.
All the fiscal studies shows there is no end in sight to ease the hardship people are having. it was mentioned that there could be a big increase in taxes in the near future to keep the country afloat.
scary times ahead me thinks.

Do you mean council tax rises or income tax rises?

Both.

Income tax is set by central Government though & I dont recall any announcement that it was due to be increased. Council tax though is a different matter where we are at the mercy of the councillors making the decisions. I thought council tax was going to be the same as this year as that means the council will get more money from the Government if they dont raise the amount we have to pay.

We're all in this together

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Its all in the pipe line 66.

more tax or more cuts? As the economy flatlines and experts talk of a triple dip recession, what do you think of the right wing think tank that says that if we don’t pay more tax - three pence more on the basic rate of income tax - the next round of cuts will be three times worse than what we’ve experienced to date: more public sector job losses, no bin collections, no road repairs. So who’s up for giving the government another £500 a year each to keep us going?

You will know more than me if you have been in meetings, but I will be very surprised if a Conservative Government raises income tax. They might raise other taxes & cap benefits etc, but I cant recall a Tory Government ever raising income tax, although I do stand corrected if I am incorrect. Mr I might be the person to ask about this?

Viva the dodgy offshore economy...

It's not all gloom and doom.We're opening the doors to everybody in Romania and Bulgaria next year ..

Don't i know it no 'Great' in Great Britain anymore lads...

Labour set the ball rolling and the con/libs have kicked the ball out of the ground.

Obviously the enormous debt is costing us trillions in interest so that has to be tackled but for me I don't believe that you can fix this overnight. I have little, if any faith in Osborne's policy of getting it all paid off in double quick time. I just don't see the logic of scathing cuts everywhere because ultimately it lengthens the dole queue. People on the dole in the main and the ones who will buy stuff and get the economy moving.

In principle the Tories are by nature a tax cutting party but if the policy continues they won't have any choice. Labour left a huge legacy of debt after years of living on credit cards and smoke and mirrors growth. This government hasn't helped by cutting everything that moves which is the major factors in the lack of current growth.

For those not economically minded;

If you're getting paid £1500 a month and your bills are a grand then you can afford a new TV/Settee/Fitted kitchen.
Those things have to be manufactured by blokes with tools.
They have to be transported by blokes driving lorries.
Blokes turn up to deliver or fit them.

All these things are what keep the economy moving. These 'blokes' in turn buy stuff with the money they earn and the roundabout keeps turning. Now if you're on the dole with £70/£80/£100 a week coming in then you aren't going to buy stuff and blokes don't have to make it, transport it or fit it. Instead they sign on and don't but stuff either. This is why shops keep closing creating more blokes who don't buy stuff.

Now cutting x billions from the public sector may look good in principal but the overiding majority of public spending goes on wages. Guess what happens when you make cuts? blokes lose their jobs and go on the dole. They don't buy stuff and the economy worsens.

I say blokes by the way but mostly the people losing jobs are women and as for kids..... well it was bad in the early 80's when I was a kid but its much worse now.

The other downside of cuts is tax income. All these people not working aren't paying tax, instead they are drawing dole money and housing benefit and anything else they can get so its a double hit for the government. Those who are working are seeing ever rising energy bills and increasing taxes coming. Guess what happens then in both cases? they reign in their spending and buy less stuff. "And the needle returns to the start of the song and we all sing along like before............."

Simple answer; cancel Trident, a hugely expensive £100bn+ weapons system that we will never use. Get the fuck out of Afghanistan which has cost an enormous amount of money and invest the money in the economy and create jobs. Millions of jobs. Those people with jobs will earn money and buy stuff.

The main people screwing the town (some of them at least) are the ones blindly voted for BY most of this town.

http://www.hartlepoolpost.co.uk/index.p ... joe-hudson (Short version: Labour Councillor Angie Wilcox is claiming a bigger stationary and postage bill than Nick Clegg, George Osbourne, Alex Salmond and Michael Gove put together).

http://www.hartlepoolpost.co.uk/index.p ... at-s-handy (Short version: Labour Councillor Angie Wilcox runs a business, funded by the council which appears to pay 3 handymen nearly £5k a week).

Yet people wonder why the towns a mess...

Thatchers beloved 'Boston boys' economics.

Us plebs will be screwed into the ground.

Do you mean Chicago Boys?

You have a point although your target is misplaced, Maggie didn't believe in completely uncontrolled capitalism. but any political system given free unfettered reign has dire consequences.

It looks like some very hard times ahead. If they increased taxes at national and local level no doubt the money would be wasted.
We get what we vote for some would say and Labour would do no better.

Yes I did mean Chicago Boys, wrong city, soz.

Yes but she does believe in having a large pool of unemployed to keep everyone subservient and provide cheap labour and to allow capitalists to control.
Nothing like a good recesion or perhaps a great disaster for her type.

Or massive public sector recruitment and wasteful spending on huge failed IT systems and ridiculous PFI projects by Blair and Brown, not to mention huge expenditure on wars that were sweet fuck all to do with the British. Or all those huge contractual commitments they made, knowing they were going to get voted out.

To be honest, the country hasn't been well governed for ages, but I'd suggest that the anti-hero Maggie was the last that even approached competence if not popularity.

Maggie competent.

She was a site better than the alternatives then (Callaghan, Foot, Kinnock! do me a favour) and is a site better than the alternatives now.

Read it again.

This is exactly why the media is so censored, "treat them like mushrooms and feed them on shit"

David Icke was portrayed as a religious nutter by the media and was then judged by people based on the media perception if you watch some of his stuff on youtube he has been telling everyone this for years but of course he's a mad religous nut job ??

Try looking at zeitgeist if this stuff floats you boat.

To those who still have to catch up, one day you'll be able to say, like me, that people have been saying exactly the same doomsday stuff for the last 50 years.

For my entire long and tedious working life, I've been told the same old crap by employers that times are hard and things are going to have to change. The money's out there, it's just that the ones who hold it are hanging onto it ...... from bankers to savers.
Not forgetting of course that wages and expectations can be kept screwed down by the simple expedient of bringing in a totally new work force from wherever they like... it's all about maximising profits.