It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
stumason
reply to post by doobydoll
People love to moan how the "poor" have been hit with the benefit changes, which actually amount to very small change, but the rest of us in the middle felt the squeeze right from the get go in 2010 and we're the one's who voted the Tories in. Straight away after the tax credits were reformed, I was out of pocket to the tune of £1560 a year.
The old "bedroom tax" was actually brought in for Private tenants in 2007 by Labour themselves, for crying out loud, but when the changes where brought in by the Coalition to make it apply to all tenants in receipt of housing benefit, that is somehow "demonising the poor" and used for cheap political point scoring by the party that not only created the financial mess but first created the so called "bedroom tax".
Then when other changes came in, more money was taken off me but we sucked it up as it was needed for the country.
It sums it up pretty well when you consider what Labour was warning would happen from 2010 to last year and now all they can say to any story is "cost of living crisis" - it's like a stuck record.
Yes, there was a squeeze as pay in real terms didn't rise for a few years on the back of a financial collapse that Labour oversaw, but I can guarantee from this year people will start to see pay rises (some even from last year - I saw an 8% pay increase myself) as companies start to see the recovery take hold.
Come 2015, Labour aren't going to have anything left to moan about while the Tories can at least point to the last 5 years and say we have reduced the deficit, rebalanced the economy, got people back into work and reduced the Welfare state - all things they were voted in to do.
Yes, there are things they could have done better or not at all, but could you imagine what sorry state we would be in had Brown been in charge from 2010? He had no plan other than to continue course and hope for the best - it is painfully obvious that Ed Balls and Milliband have no clue whatsoever either.edit on 13/4/14 by stumason because: (no reason given)
stumason
reply to post by ObservingYou
Yes, he does state he is an "independent blogger", but that article he has written is full of bias towards the Greens and against UKIP, it isn't an "independent" article in the slightest.. He has not taken an independent stance on the issue, instead he has clearly sided with the Greens and compared them to UKIP in an effort to say "vote Green, not UKIP"
Also, I never uttered the words "Green propaganda". Nice try, but no cigar.
I wasn't having a pop at you either, just picking apart the source. I notice you don't have anything to say on what actually wrote, just what you are implying I wrote.
ObservingYou
The key here is the fact that you are actively engaged in the above role playing fairy tale.
ObservingYou
Regardless of all your points here,the coalition is set to double our national debt in the time span of five years, that which has already took 150 years to accumulate.
stumason
reply to post by larapa
Immigration is a problem - many people in the UK are quite frankly sick of being told it isn't by the powers that be, which is precisely why UKIP has gained in popularity.
There is only a finite amount of land, finite jobs and finite resources to go around. It isn't racism, it is simple pragmatism. We cannot afford to accommodate multiple languages in schools, have all the low paid entry-level jobs being filled so the kids can't get work, whole towns are having their character changed by unfettered migration. Only the extreme left doesn't see it as an issue, even Labour now acknowledges it as a major issue.
stumason
reply to post by ObservingYou
Calling them names like that is simply dishonest and calls into question credibility.
ObservingYou
Note herein I said 'set to' .. You will have to allow me to locate the forecast, and provide you with the context.
ObservingYou
How can I stand here and debate main party politics, when I inherently disbelieve in them?
I'm not a fan of attempting to fix symptoms whilst the disease still rages.
We need to focus beyond our parties, and change the real power houses, which are the IMF, the United Nations and giant corporations.
And yes, I'm worried that UKIP has/will be controlled opposition. In order to win in this games of chess, we require to be one step ahead.
stumason
reply to post by ObservingYou
And likewise, I am calling him out as a "citizen" to question his credibility in writing that article. Do I not have that right? He is clearly not as "independent" as he likes people to believe.
I could say I am "independent", but then write an article on how much the Tories are like Labour, who are "irrefutably a extreme-left party", so why not vote Tory instead of Labour? That wouldn't be very "independent" of me, now, would it?
29 million Romanians and Bulgarians will flood into the UK on January 1st.
He doesn't need credibility, he's a citizen with an opinion
Freeborn
reply to post by larapa
Your casual dismissal of these peoples views and stereotypical labelling of immigration concerns as 'racist' is proof positive that the demonization process has been successful with certain sections of society.