Could be worse. It could be sunny during the day for when the wrinklies come out to vote, and rainy when us normal non-cabbage smelling working people get out of work and have only a couple of hours to go to our polling stations. I apologise for nothing
General Election 2017 | Cabinet reshuffle: Hunt re-appointed Health Secretary for record third time
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I just apparently got distracted before the end of your post...
Yes, i believe there is a rule which allows the spending to be...glossed over. But if the burden upon the taxpayer will be higher by the end of this parliament as a result, then they need to be aware of such. Operating costs, infrastructure, hardware, upgrades, higher staffing levels, pensions, salary increases...the burden will now fall nationwide.
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Seems to be about the average at the moment.
It feels like Opinium have got it about right. There's not much that can go wrong if you're forecasting a difference in line with the current (FT) rolling average.
A reduced majority or better and I'll be happy enough I reckon. I would absolutely love for Labour to pull something out the bag but it just feels like a complete fairy tale. I'll probably lay £50 on May tomorrow just as a backup.
Part-nationalising RBS and Lloyds wasn't a manifesto policy though, it was obviously an emergency response.
I get the argument that the government receives assets in exchange, but it would be a multi-decade process of getting back the cash it would take to buyout shareholders in National Grid, Royal Mail etc...Nick and I are asking why so little attention is being focused on how this massive £100bn+ initial outlay will be paid for.
I think a lot of this is down to the incompetence of the Tory campaign.
You should read the Labour manifesto before election day. The manifesto is fully costed. "Magic money tree" is just a stupid soundbite that May's advisers have told her to use. The Tory manifesto is an insult. They actually thought they could put out that manifesto and they wouldn't get called out on it. Say what you want, May is a weak PM. She cannot even defend Britain's elected leaders like Sadiq Khan on the international stage.
I'm surprised they haven't made more of it, apart from a few taking us back to the 70s' comments, but it actually seems to have a decent level of support- especially among the young who don't remember that British Rail was even shitter and still as expensive as what we have now.
They don't want to get in to manifesto comparison. Or policy in general.
They're really committed to the strategy of hoping to escape without having to resort to debate.
They think 'strong and stable' and 'best possible brexit deal' alongside 'IRA' and 'no first strike' will be sufficient - and they're probably right.
You get it back on the other side of the balance sheet so it doesn't really exist as an outlay of any cash. In the first instance, we print it I suppose (issue some Gov backed bonds or whatever is it?). Do they call it quantitive easing? It would Traveller those targets & be regarded as inflationary possibly? I really don't know this, tbh.
It increases the total of assets & liabilities that exist in Government-World but they contra out for accounting purposes. Clever, innit?
I think nationalisation is one of those things that people say "yeah why not" to, hence its strong support in polls, but it's not driving voter intention. Think there was a poll recently that had it in the top 3 issues of the campaign for about 6% of people, and I'd be surprised if they were voting anything but Labour anyway. The Tories have strayed from their pre-May message of economic discipline though, and have made it all about Brexit. That said, the Tories strategy here is to make big gains in the midlands and north and hold ground everywhere else, and it's probably the right call to focus on Brexit for that.
Magic Money Tree is a phrase used by people who do not understand even the basics of how the fiat monetary system works, or who do and are simply lying to people.
For the tories of course, that includes may, hammond, johnson, rudd and davies. Take your pick which answer applies to each of them.
A big part of me will be amazed if she is still in Number 10 at the weekend. Even if she scrapes through the election, she must be mortally wounded politically from this campaign and ripe for a leadership challenge.
Didn't the IFS say that neither Labour's or The Tories manifestos add up? IIRC they said even with most optimistic estimate for tax receipts Labour's still had a multi billion pound black hole in it.
Boris's speech today was his pitch for the leadership.
The spat between him and rudd about terrorism is the early signs of a leadership campaign I think.
Yeah, they slated both for dishonesty.
Printing money is inflationary, so a bad idea at a time of already weak sterling and rising cost of living.
I assume they would issue a tonne of bonds and pray the market doesn't take fright, pushing up gilt yields.
That makes sense tbf. Tory manifesto even more damaging than May's ineptitude is somewhat derailing that though.
Not seen/heard it as I've been out. Surely anyone battling Boris copies that National Lottery 'anyone but them' advertising campaign, building a reel of shame of his gaffes.
This is the dream. A Tory minority government led by Boris and another election in Autumn.
Perhaps he's seen that Trump gets away with any amount of faux pas, so Boris believes he can take power despite his flaws.
"For the Tories, Surrey seems to be the hardest word" - Jeremy Corbyn
He went big on corbyn being the enemy of the country, threw in a reference to zaphod beeblebrox and told some lies. Normal stuff, but it was all theatrical, very much a 'look at me I'm a leader' style.
I don't know - she got the job by default and is clearly unsuited to the leading role but you could say the same of John Major and he survived 7 years as PM. As @montpelier suggests, the alternatives are not exactly first rate material either and have made a lot of enemies.
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Those feel right to me. Prove me wrong, youthfolk!
Indeed. Many of these businesses are not making money, and the idea presumably is to reduce costs or profits further. Privatisation isn't always a bad thing.
Well, the rail franchises are going to expire and then not be leased again. Much of the rest, I don't think is every going to happen entirely. It's a 20 year project to nationalise the energy market, probably more.
But you know, the UK does have a lot of assets we don't talk about when discussing the budget and the debt. We could sell off Gibraltar to America, I'm sure they would quite like to put a Military base there. We could raid the Bank of England vault for their gold. Or use our own. Or maybe we could sell off the Queen...
I joke, but the UK Government does have around £1.3 trillion in assets according to this economist article.
Or maybe Corbyn is planning on saving the £2 billion a year it cost to run trident, and slowly buy our National Assets back over 50 years.
What Labour are actually thinking, who knows.
Maybe, they are thinking they will be the first government since 2001 to actually balance the budget, and they will reinvest the profits? (The Conservatives haven't had a balanced budget since 1990, despite being in power 17/27 years)
Seriously though, it will be a slow asset swap.
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Boo to reality.
It's the kind of thing political heads like to discuss, but forcibly replacing a leader immediately after an election win would be incredibly difficult and politically dangerous.
Dr May: I am prescribing you some medicine, don't be put off by the smell. No, you can't have a lollipop.
Dr Corbyn: Nah, you'll be fine, no need for any treatment. Please, take a Werther's Original with my compliments.
Usual shite then- actually not seen much of him during the election campaign.
Provided that she isn't seen to be wilting in Brexit negotiations, the opposition within the party would bide its time until that is over i think. Revolts on specific motions are likely to be worse however.
It's got a lot of assets, but a truckload of debt too. In one sense I admire Corbyn for making ambitious very long-term plans, it's just that even if gets a five year term, the next PM can obviously scrub them.
Feck it. Will sort this tomorrow am off for a pint. Thanks for pointing that out.Le Problem
Hah fair enough. Ignore my previous ^^
It wouldn't look great, no, and I guess with 11 days til the negotiations start, any leadership would need to be quick.