Quote cod'ead="cod'ead"Well, where to start?
The state grew during 1997-2008 simply because the previous tory administration had decimated the NHS and education to the point of near collapse. Patients on trollies in corridors, children educated in leaking "temporary" classrooms. Labour inherited that and something needed to be done to redress the problems.
Labour is not anti-business, it is however pro-business paying its share and making a fair contribution to the state costs of infrastructure. The US has a rate of corporation tax almost double ours and yet they still seem to allow companies to emerge and thrive.
"Building future slums"?
In 1953 my parents and I moved from a back bedroom in my grandmother's house, into a newly built, 2 bedroomed terrace house on a brand new estate, built on the outskirts of Hull. Built on land that had previoulsy been agricultural, so acquired for a song. The estate was a mix of 2,3 & 4 bedroomed houses, 2 pubs, 2 parades of shops with 1 & 2 bedroomed flats above. A fair amount of "pensioner bungalows", an "old folks home", a coupleof six-bedroomed homes for foster families and two doctors' surgeries (actually two 2 bedroom houses). The original tenants were spread across a wide range of careers: manual workers, office workers, managers, shop-owners - even the doctors originally lived in coucil houses on the estate. There was no shame in renting and nor should there be.
You must be the only person in the country who isn't
Salmond will hold less power than Clegg. The main bitterness following the referendum has ed around Cameron's cynical attempt to make the result work to the Tory party, rather than the UK's benefit.
Cuts in the local authority social funds have directly led to problems in the NHS, hence the bed-blocking we see currently'"
Where to start?
You are very selective about the points you comment on - let's take your points:
The NHS needs to be more efficiently run, just pumping money in as Labour did just increased the waste that already existed. Not enough clinic staff too many managers. Whoever takes on the NHS will have some difficult choices, I can't see how this can be funded and developed without a serious overhaul of how it is run and massive cash injections especially in preventative education.
On education you have to question what we are getting for our money - it needs investment but it needs an overhaul. When you have the likes of Ian Murch calling for a strike on a whim that there might be job losses you have to question if some of the power in the teaching unions are in the correct vocation.
USA is very different economy to here - its internal market is the size of Europe - they put barriers up to stop non American competition. If the CT system is so good how come the likes of Apple, Google etc don't pay their share in the US? Labour is not pro business if it were it have policies to support business I don't see any?
Whilst I take your point about renting, ownership should be seen as aspirational and not elitist as you seem to view it. Renting is barmy in my view - you are just paying out ever increasing amounts to a landlord who will be paying out ever decreasing amounts as the property ages. If there was a massive housing shortage you would not be able to find anywhere to rent - that is simply not the case. There maybe issues in certain areas where renting is expensive but there is accommodation to be had.
We must agree to differ on Salmond - it wasn't just Cameron everyone went in to bat against him over the referendum.
Cuts in local authority funding may have lead to bed blocking but that is more a case of resource and departmental management. Let's face it few could argue that social care in this country has been well managed.
