General comments and thoughts here. It’s PMQ at time of posting, so not long to go now.

Well that looks like a stupid mistake. I am off to put a bet on that they fail this by a wide margin. Ireland's deficit is actually higher now than before the crisis even after their cuts that have devastated the economy. I think I would make some money on this.


With rising unemployment that is unlikely.


Not so good if you are a commuter.

Maybe David Cameron should too. About a billion pounds or so?

I like that idea. Debt interest is a major major problem, and it's only going to get worse if we don't stop borrowing.

Pause for a moment and consider whether each of those cuts could've been paid for by a tax on the banks.
Jus' saying.

From a moral point of view, I'd say tax the banks/bankers to death. However finance is major part of our economy and tax revenue. If we put too many taxes etc on them that they don't pay in other countries, they'll simply move their operations (and jobs) there. That way we'd get even less tax and jobs.
What we need to do is slash red tape. Red tape for business and for public bodies that waste money on admin.

Yes it is a problem. But look at Ireland who have done the austerity thing without fail and yet their deficit is still around 32% of GDP. Which is worse than they started. Okay they have got rid of all the Poles and youngsters who are emigrating as fast as during the famine. Though longer term it leaves the country in a far worse position. The demographics of Ireland are now of a far older country with the young qualified graduates moving away. These are the people who are the core of industry. Who will want to locate a business in a country where their own population do not have faith in the place? In five years time I seriously doubt that the deficit will be eradicated. It may be as bad as now, yet with 4 million plus unemployed. Debt is not a problem if you have a growing economy. It becomes a serious problem when you have a shrinking economy.

A simple Tobin tax on all financial transaction could be simple to implement and would eliminate a large chunk of the bonus earnings over night. It would make many types of speculation unviable. It would end high frequency trading which is basically the bans way of skimming every transaction. So you pay more to buy a share and get less to sell a share because they have got in first.

Also a ban on bonuses and dividends that exceed the corporation tax paid. If they fiddle the accounts so there are no taxes to pay then there can be no bonuses or dividends to pay either. Before the crisis the banks were paying tens of billions in tax every year, so the £2 billion levy is nothing.

If they want to up the bank to a less onerous area, then we should treat the company and all its staff who move as tax exiles who will never be allowed back to UK soil. The US have such a law, why cant we? Tell a banker his kids will never be allowed back to the Uk because of his tax avoidance and see how many will decide to stay. Wives missing out on the opera, not being able to go to the shows or even family events like weddings or funerals will be very harsh.


Problem is that some of that red tape is there for a very good reason. Like not employing children in coal mines. It does need to be looked at but not by a government who have a screw the little man mentality.

As one of the Union leaders said, it's a bit rich, a bench with 28 millionaires on it, announcing half a million job losses with cuts left right and centre that "we're in this together".

Claim back the frackin tax that is owed first!

Sort out the banks rather than whinge about the situation the entire world finds it in.

Oh, and get rid of the Barnett forumla as many, including Professor Barnett, have been advocating for years.

Seeing Clegg sit there nodding like the Churchill dog just winds me up as well.

it is a bit rich that every single time they repeat the mantra that it was the mess that Labour left them. I get annoyed that the interviewers do not comment about every other country that has the same problems. None of which are anything to do with Labour. Though what about the US they are following Conservative policy and they are in a worse mess. Our mess has been exacerbated by the fact that the banks were such a large proportion of the economy. Look what it has done to Ireland and Iceland.

As for chasing tax debts that is easier said than done, even allowing for political will to actually do it. Making cuts is easier and does not really impact on the rich, as they do not need many government services like Schools or Hospitals, they can go private.

I know but it would actually mean employing more people in order to get it done and those doing the job already collect much more tax than they cost the State.

Anyway, just because something's tricky doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

I totally agree. If I were chancellor it would be the first thing I would have done on getting the job. It gets more income so can limit the spending cuts. These cuts though have little to do with fairness and more to do with destroying the state.

It's seems the gravy train is carrying on for some....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -year.html

And another thing...

Cameron kept going on about the biggest budget deficit out of wartime. Hang on, we are at war, we've been at war in 2 countries. I don't think it's any coincidence that we go into recession during times of conflict when we spend absolute billions on munitions and forces.

And as for WWII how did we go about getting out of that recession? Oh, didn't we actually invest and create the NHS?

It's sh!te thinking and to see the LidDems nodding like drugged up interrogees makes me sick.

I hardly think you can compare the period after WW2 to now. Back then, people weren't as selfish as they are now, and we didn't have a public sector full of useless monkeys who's only contribution is to hoover up or taxes.

Take, for example, the power station where my father used to work. When it was state-owned, there were twice as many people working there as there are now, yet it still works just fine. The problem we have now is that thousands of people in jobs that were created solely to prop up the last Labour government. We should employ the right number of the right people and no more.