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iansimcox

Listed below are comments made by iansimcox between Tuesday, 18th November 2008 and Tuesday, 24th March 2009.

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On board the G20 express 4:52pm on 24 Mar 2009 According to the clunking fist, the EU is uniquely placed to combat the downturn. Is this the same 'uniquely placed' that Britain is, or a different 'uniquely placed'? Where does Britain's uniqueness compare to the EUs?

What a prat the PM is.
Rock revival 4:21pm on 23 Feb 2009 So finally the government makes some use of its bank. Instead of leading the way in repossessions, the Rock should have been provided with enough taxpayer money to support new sustainable lending to try to alleviate problems of negative equity (after all, it doesn't matter if you owe more than your house is worth so long as you can afford the repayments).

Rather than attempting so secure every bank, the government should have been lending months ago - allowing businesses to get the money they need while the banks were too busy squabbling to lend. When the recovery then came, the government could have sold this debt on - making a tidy profit for the long suffering taxpayer.

That would be my solution anyway. Who knows whether it would have worked. Can't be any worse than the current solutions anyway.
Unfair? We may have to hope so 11:26am on 10 Feb 2009 Rewarding bad behaviour and punishing those who abstain?

Yep, that seems about par for the course for Labour.
- 18 year old single mother with 2 children and a heroin addiction - have lots of money and a home.
- 20 year old student - we're going to charge you top-up fees after we told you we wouldn't.
- Earn less than £10,000 and don't claim benefits - we're going to hammer you by taking away the 10p tax rate and calling it a 'tax cut'.

Maybe their slogan should be 'Vote Labour - other people will pay for your vices'.
KP makes headlines again 09:27am on 08 Feb 2009 How about we drop Collingwood and bring Shah in to bat 3 and put Bell in at 5, where he made his 199 against South Africa last summer?

Bell is a far more gifted batter than Collingwood and we need to get him back in form. Putting him at 5 seems the way to do that.
The narrative of the new political era 11:51am on 22 Jan 2009 Let's see if Obama can do the hard work required. Anyone can announce tax cuts and increased spending. They are the easy options.

It takes a strong politician to announce higher taxes and spending cuts. These are two things necessary for government to balance the books.

Bush, Blair and Brown have all increased spending and cut taxes. These are weak politicians taking the easy solution. We now need a dose of reality. Higher taxes and cuts in spending are the only way to fix this mess. People will once again blame the Tories, but the reality is that it is Labour who have forced this situation upon us.
Plus c'est la mme chose? 2:33pm on 05 Jan 2009 Derekbarker

So something that Maggie did in 1986 left Labour in such a mess that they couldn't fix it in 11 years?

Perhaps I could blame healey and Callaghan, or is that going too far back in time?

You claim to want facts. These are straight from the PBR. In 1990-91, just before the last recession, net debt was 26.9% GDP, down 20.2% from the 47.1% the Tories inherited. In 07-08, just before the latest recession, net debt was 36.3% GDP down only 6.2% from the 42.5% Labour inherited.

Through a decade of growth, Labour failed to sufficiently lower debt and now that the first challenge has come along, the 40% Golden Rule will be broken.

How can Labour have a leg to stand on talking about the Conservative economic competence?
Plus c'est la mme chose? 12:02pm on 05 Jan 2009 derekbarker
"Promising a saving cuts in tax by reducing public spending will only create mass unemployment, absolute poverty for those on minimum earnings."

He's talking about a £2.4bn scheme in £600bn of public expenditure. It's less than 0.5%.

If you want to look at the record of this government, unemployment is now higher than it was in 1997 (a Labour trademark, unemployment after Labour is always greater than unemployment before Labour) and thanks to the 10p tax debacle, over 1 million of the lowest earners are still out of pocket.

So do tell me, which party really creates mass unemployment and absolute poverty?
Labour to end top rate tax pledge 1:46pm on 24 Nov 2008 Daily Politics today - Vince Cable and John Redwood, two people who know about the financial crisis and understand it, and Ruth Kelly, full to the brim of Gordon Brown's very own soundbites.

She was completely hopeless under some very gentle questioning. When asked explicity for her personal opinion, she offered nothing.

Oddly, they ran out of time for Vince Cable to offer a closing statement even though they spent 5 minutes talking to 'the people' in Leeds. Perhaps he had something to say that Labour didn't want him to.

On the economy, people are talking about the extra interest that will need paying as a result of the VAT cut, but they forget that we haven't been servicing our debt for the last 5 years. Gordon Brown believed his own line that we have low debt. I hate to break it to him, but £600bn+ is not low debt, whatever GDP we have.
Giant borrowing payback looms 10:07pm on 21 Nov 2008 We all know what caused the crunch. Read Danial Hannan in the Telegraph.

Easy credit fuelled by low interest rates. It was a political decision. Now the politicians who broke the world expect us to trust in them to fix it.

Thanks but no thanks. Labour out.
D-Day for economy 09:27am on 18 Nov 2008 The horse has well and truly bolted on the fiscal stimulus plans. It is too late and they will not have the desired effect.

Do the government really think that everyone will go out and spend their £1,000 just to help the economy out, when they know that a tax rise will be right around the corner?

Whatever amount of money I receive, if indeed I do, is going straight in the bank so that I can afford to live when the tax rise comes. No doubt there are many, many others who will think the same.

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