Labour Hid ‘Scorched Earth’ Debts

['Bart']

Could it be propaganda in order to ensure that no blame is laid at the feet of the current encumbents..?

Could be, but wouldn't Private Eye need to be in on it as well?

When I commented it seems the Party comes first, her immediate and forceful reply was, 'First the Party, then the country and last the people'.

MPs have the following priorities.

First me, then the Party, then the country and sod the people (unless there's an election in the offering).

[porca misèria]

Foreigners see them as an evil cabal :-

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/05/16/how-peter-mandelson-gave-birth-to-the-con-lib-coalition-in-britain/

Huh?

Bear in mind, ordinary Sri Lankans are very, very upset about British support for terrorists in their country. That might easily colour these particular foreigners' views on our lords and masters!

[Menie]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7127819.ece

No surprises here then, this is pretty much what everyone was predicting would happen. There's serious cuts coming real soon now, how long before the riots start?

shame is Labour created this mess, people take again the easy way by trying to bring down the Lib-cons party.. All this debt has been encouraged by people who permitted Brown to spend for the past 13 years... and still think Brown got the solution.. We just pay, and have to see cuts everywhere to clean the mess.. Again it's not rocket science.. People should start to think, realise how this country is ***ked thanks to their choice!

Living on credit cards is only ok if u can refund each month..

[robo1968]

I know. It is mind boggling.

And the amount of public expenses (even before the crash of 2007) and amount of deficit and debt were/are numerical facts, and not a debatable theoretical abstract concept where opinions could understandably vary. Really mind boggling.

I don't know how any leftie can justify this, if I were one I would have to talk to the cameras with my fingers crossed behind my back.

thank god they're gone, atleast for a while,

I have a funny feeling that the U.K population will blame all of the cuts and taxes on the Con@Lib coalition and we could be looking at David Miliband making his acceptance speech in four and a bit years

[osbaldwick]

I don't know how any leftie can justify this, if I were one I would have to talk to the cameras with my fingers crossed behind my back.

thank god they're gone, atleast for a while,

I have a funny feeling that the U.K population will blame all of the cuts and taxes on the Con@Lib coalition and we could be looking at David Miliband making his acceptance speech in four and a bit years

Labour Hid Scorched Earth debts.

Should we be surprised? They knew the game was up and it was a desparate attempt to salvage something. I wonder why Labour didn't want to make a go of it with the Lib-Dems? Better to have 4 years in opposition and let others sort the worst of it out and then have another go under a new regime.

[robo1968]

Labour Hid Scorched Earth debts.

Should we be surprised? They knew the game was up and it was a desparate attempt to salvage something. I wonder why Labour didn't want to make a go of it with the Lib-Dems? Better to have 4 years in opposition and let others sort the worst of it out and then have another go under a new regime.

Yep, I actually think Labour will emerge best out of this GE and better still they have got rid of Brown.

They turned down the Libs and didn't look like outright losers and have left the Coalition to sort out 13 years of mismanagment, debt and mess for which they will get no thanks by the electorate

[1929crash]

A nice bit of spin, to soften us up, for the train crash approaching.

Absolutely, spin.I'm surprised so many fall for it.

It's as if posters believe the only politicians who ever lie are Labour ones!

[1929crash]

I don't know how any leftie can justify this, if I were one I would have to talk to the cameras with my fingers crossed behind my back.

thank god they're gone, atleast for a while,

I have a funny feeling that the U.K population will blame all of the cuts and taxes on the Con@Lib coalition and we could be looking at David Miliband making his acceptance speech in four and a bit years

But there are lefties in the government. they are called Lib Dems.

[Tired of Waiting]

Absolutely, spin.I'm surprised so many fall for it.

It's as if posters believe the only politicians who ever lie are Labour ones!

Lets see if, when the numbers are out, if you will still think it is just spin. ( )

[robo1968]

But there are lefties in the government. they are called Lib Dems.

I think having a few centre-lefts in the government is a good thing, they don't have their hands on the till keys which is the main thing after the last shambles

[robo1968]

Lets see if, when the numbers are out, if you will still think it is just spin. ( )

Oh no doubt he will have his own biased contorted view on a graph or figures.... even it was explained to him really slowly

[Tired of Waiting]

Oh no doubt he will have his own biased contorted view on a graph or figures.... even it was explained to him really slowly

Yes, I considered the "disbelief" possibility as well. But I think the numbers will be so clear, and so based in hard facts, that even the left-wing media will have to accept it, like the Guardian and the Independent. Then, you will see these supporters becoming gradually quieter. Of course they won't come out and admit they were wrong, obviously. But they will "fade away discretely". I think.

.

Edited May 17, 2010 by Tired of Waiting

[SHERWICK]

This might not help the leadership campaigns of either of the Milliband brothers.

Awww diddums.

[Guest DestroyBrown]

Absolutely, spin.I'm surprised so many fall for it.

It's as if posters believe the only politicians who ever lie are Labour ones!

Oh of course...there is no deficit really is there? It's just horrible little story cooked up by the Tories

THINK for a minute - Why on earth would the Tories want to cut, cut, cut, if they didn't have to?

They KNOW it's going to be unpopular and they KNOW it's going to be politically damaging.

Are you saying they are masochists or something?

[Guest DestroyBrown]

Lets see if, when the numbers are out, if you will still think it is just spin. ( )

Yes.

Labourites will NEVER face reality. It's always a Tory conspiracy.

Just waiting for interest rates to go upto 15% now.

Edited May 17, 2010 by DestroyBrown

[abharrisson]

One former Labour minister told The Sunday Times: “There was collusion between ministers and civil servants to get as many contracts signed off as possible before the election was called.”

One former adviser to the schools department said there was a deliberate policy of “scorched earth”. “The atmosphere was ‘pull up all the railways, burn the grain stores, leave nothing for the Tories’,” he added.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, said: “...The skeletons are starting to fall out of the cupboard.”

The new cabinet has been discovering previously unknown contracts and uncosted spending commitments left by their spendthrift predecessors.

David Willetts, the universities minister, claimed that Labour had left behind “not so much an in-tray as a minefield”.

I hope this info if right comes out in detail so the country never ever again thinks of voting labour... whatever form they come into powere with.. new labour or old labour they always reach for the excessive spending without control button as quickly as possible and wreck the country... we may yet have to call in the IMF ahain which would be the second time in a row under labour..... cross your fingers that they never ever get in again.

[Tired of Waiting]

Yes.

Labourites will NEVER face reality. It's always a Tory conspiracy.

(...)

I know, they will try to, but as I wrote above:

(...) I considered the "disbelief" possibility as well. But I think the numbers will be so clear, and so based in hard facts, that even the left-wing media will have to accept it, like the Guardian and the Independent. Then, you will see these supporters becoming gradually quieter. Of course they won't come out and admit they were wrong, obviously. But they will "fade away discretely". I think.

[Blod]

People voting for them in the general election didn’t think lets have some cuts and pain for the next five years for a change. Neither did the Tories think that it’d be a real deal clincher to promise cuts and tax increases.

NuLabour used what an account friend describes as “spreadsheet management”. Not knowing how to run the country they piled all the figures on to a huge spreadsheet and then push the numbers around till they get the answers needed. At no point did they bothered or caring enough to find out how the ministries actually function. Any figures that didn’t fit were conveniently excluded from the sheet and discredited. He warned how this was working as we saw Ministers flitting from one department to the next. This style of management is rampant in industry and now that credit is no longer easy or cheap to find will claim many private companies. They’ve dissolved away the real skills that were the bedrock of their industry and will pay the price.

The banking sector is a perfect example; there never was a real way to securitize risk, just a way to hide it on a spreadsheet. A real “expert” can explain any area of their expertise in a simple manner that any lay person can understand. I’ve never met any banker that could do that with securitization. They actually created the housing bubble. As has been pointed out on here they too should be prosecuted. :angry:

[dissident junk]

The banking sector is a perfect example; there never was a real way to securitize risk, just a way to hide it on a spreadsheet. A real “expert” can explain any area of their expertise in a simple manner that any lay person can understand. I’ve never met any banker that could do that with securitization. They actually created the housing bubble. As has been pointed out on here they too should be prosecuted. :angry:

I think that could be intentional though, because as soon as securitisation is explained simply, the very real downsides present themselves.

I had a financial journalist explain it to me once back in 2003. He said that it meant Mr Bank lent £40 to Bod in return for a total of £70 down the line, and then Mr Banker sold the rights to this loan to Pootle for £50, thus making a nifty £10 for hardly any work and no risk on his own books -- only Bod was anyone who had an income stream of some sort and wanted a loan, and Pootle was anyone who bought investments.

My first thought was "errrr ... but what happens if the initial borrower defaults and the rights to the payments have spread half way across the globe?" I had these images of Arkansas OAPs having their pensions wiped out by a someone in Bolton defaulting on their mortgage. It seemed like bankers were creating a financial version of the Butterfly Effect.

And lo! It happened! I never really knew that the real killer would be that the crap debt would be packaged up with good debt, although the journalist did tell me that such things were going on. At the time I was more interested in the notion that certain entities had sold future revenue streams upfront for massive sums of cash -- I was slightly concerned about what would happen when the cash was gone but revenue streams were still under the terms of the original securitised agreement, particularly when football clubs and governments had done such deals.

[Guest sillybear2]

Huh?

Bear in mind, ordinary Sri Lankans are very, very upset about British support for terrorists in their country. That might easily colour these particular foreigners' views on our lords and masters!

I know, but it's hard to disagree with that article, they're not exactly wrong, and you're not going to find an objective analysis of the influence of people like Mandelson in the Guardian or on the BBC.

Edited May 17, 2010 by sillybear2

[Tired of Waiting]

I know, but it's hard to disagree with that article, they're not exactly wrong, and you're not going to find an objective analysis of the influence of people like Mandelson in the Guardian or on the BBC.

Now that you mentioned him, it's been quite a while since I saw Mandelson on the news.

[lets get it right]

The very large deficit was caused by the bail out of the financial system and the Tories would have done exactly the same.

Having presided over a property boom and bust in the late 80s/early 90s which caused a recession which cost them power, I'm not so sure the Tories would have allowed another property boom and bust. Brown allowed it because, despite slagging the Tories off over their boom/bust, he thought he could walk on water.

And, the Tories would not have employed a million extra people in the public sector. Those people are probably costing us 40 billion a year to employ.

And, you never know, they may not have put in place a defective system of bank regulation so maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't have had money supply growth of 14% which never seemed to cause any inflation (apart from property, of course ) and banks finding ever more ingenious ways of lending the same money over and over again.

So, no - I don't think you can get away with a blanket assertion the Tories would have been as bad as Labour. A child of 5 learning to count on his fingers couldn't have been as daft as Gordon.

[lets get it right]

Now that you mentioned him, it's been quite a while since I saw Mandelson on the news.

He's in his lair counting the days until a TORY government introduces an elected House of Lords and he is forced to become Mr. Mandelson again.

Sweet irony.