The Great Depression ... Of 2010

[threegee]

...If there was such a thing as GB LTD and this was its accounts would you buy into the company?...

There wouldn't be a company. It would long since have been in receivership, and the directors would be charged with fraudulent trading.

...Interesting to hear Darling say basic rates of income tax will not go up for the next year or two but afterwards "we will all have to make a contribution!" The headline grabbing rise to 50% for anyone earning over 150K might produce about 10 billion over the next few years, as long as those people don't pay tax avoidance lawyers, while the gov increases PSD by 750 billion. Anyone want to guess who will have to pick up the shortfall of 740 billion and that doesn't include what has been thrown at the problem already.

Its not about politics anymore its about survival!

If only it wasn't about politics! But the necessary swingeing tax rises AND huge cuts in public spending are hostage to the next general election. The fact that Goro's total incompetence has been exposed doesn't seem to matter to Nu Labour. They didn't ditch him when they needed to and now their seats are at risk. Let's just cling on in the hope that something will turn up and sod the country!

The tax increases are a political move too. Common sense says that the receipts will be nothing like the "official figure". Why should any high earners stay in the country when you can telecommute these days? What's there to stay for anyway? And those who do elect to stay will - as you say - find avoidance schemes quicker than any civil service can close them. Yes, the burden of Gordo's profligacy will fall on the people who don't have the resources or inclination to take countermeasures.

What annoys me more than anything is bloody

- a mouth totally disconnected from a brain if ever there was one! I really hope she doesn't manage to cling on to her seat and has to get out and get a real job. But no firm in their right minds is going to employ her.

As for our own Dennis Murphy - tireless worker for the local area that he is - I'd like him to come on here and answer the simple question: Do you ever wake up at night and imagine that you are in the wrong political party?

[Malcolm Robinson]

They didn't ditch him when they needed to and now their seats are at risk. Let's just cling on in the hope that something will turn up and sod the country!

I think half the front bench could easily loose their seats at the next election. The problem is that we could replace ‘Oc and Ik’ with “Bootsie and Smudge’ another less than desirable double act! If the general population have to get their sleeves rolled up and dig their way out of this mess it would be nice to see that reflected in our political leadership.

This budget seems to be unravelling almost hour by hour. The figures are terrible but the cure looks even worse. 20-30 years of debt repayments just to get back to a PSD requirement we had a few years ago and which itself was pretty bad, especially at a time of record tax receipts. Its unbelievable and sheer mismanagement on a grand scale.

To paraphrase, they are morally bankrupt, financially bankrupt and intellectually bankrupt with no real ideas of how to get out of the mess of their own making.