Tories

[Taintedice]

You cannot possibly be that stupid. Like rros, lies are easier than truth. Last 10 years of tory govt, national debt has reached £2.5trn? In 2010, about £1trn, due in whole to the bank bailout. When do you get honest?

[Returnofrros]

Which part of the truth do you dispute?

All of it....probably.😁

[BCram]

You cannot possibly be that stupid. Like rros, lies are easier than truth. Last 10 years of tory govt, national debt has reached £2.5trn? In 2010, about £1trn, due in whole to the bank bailout. When do you get honest?

The point I was trying to make was the whole bank bailout happened when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister and followed on from Tony Blair who was Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007. When the Cameron/Clegg government took over the borrowing had been put in place and
it was to 2010 budget by Osborne that brought in austerity as a way of getting the finances back under control.

The previous time was when Denis Healey had to get a loan from the IMF to bail out the Callaghan Government in 1976. They struggled with the restrictions imposed by the IMF and eventually Callaghan lost by 1 vote a vote of no confidence. Interestingly the 11 SNP members voted with the Tories, now there's a surprise, and at the subsequent election in came Margaret Thatcher who changed from Keynesian spending plans to Monetarist spending plans which reduced government spending and tried to repair government finances.

You and I can disagree about whether these policies Monetarism or Austerity were good decisions but I don't think you can deny that on these two occasions the Conservative Governments were following Labour Governments that had got themselves into a mess.

[BCram]

Sorry, missed out final point, surely you accept that Government debt has been essential to battle covid. The money has been borrowed to keep businesses open, and pay for lockdowns/furlough.

[Returnofrros]

Sorry, missed out final point, surely you accept that Government debt has been essential to battle covid. The money has been borrowed to keep businesses open, and pay for lockdowns/furlough.

Essential because of Govt policy and public hysteria....not essential because of covid.

[BCram]

Essential because of Govt policy and public hysteria....not essential because of covid.

Good point!

[Taintedice]

Sorry, missed out final point, surely you accept that Government debt has been essential to battle covid. The money has been borrowed to keep businesses open, and pay for lockdowns/furlough.

Gordon Brown bailed out the banks, that wasn't labour policy, the tories would have done the same thing. Thatcher was delivered Scotland's oil wealth on a silver platter, that's what funded her regime. There is no economic policy now, only political ideology e.g. austerity

[BCram]

Gordon Brown bailed out the banks, that wasn't labour policy, the tories would have done the same thing. Thatcher was delivered Scotland's oil wealth on a silver platter, that's what funded her regime. There is no economic policy now, only political ideology e.g. austerity

Pragmatic economic decisions were made by both Labour and Conservative Governments. Economic policy and political ideology always have to respond to events, IMO.
Will be interesting to see how election results turn out. Maybe Sarwar will manage to recapture the Labour voters in his attempt to win the seat at the expense of Nicola? People who do not want independence have in the past voted SNP. Perhaps the mood of the country has changed and working to repair the damage caused by the way covid has been treated might be more important to Scottish voters than independence.

If my football score predicting form is anything to go by Nicola will be OK, but wouldn't it be a shock if Sarwar came close to winning her seat?