Congratulations, Gordon

[vinteuil]

As a former Fleet Street friend used to say: " When the facts and the legend differ, print the legend!"

.... and I sincerely hope he credited his source!



"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Shot_Liberty_Valance

[johnb]

I did say 2000

2000 34.5
2001 37.7
2002 38.5
2003 39.3

No, you actually said "From 2000 onwards there was a steady rise ...."

It is also worth pointing out that during the Thatcher/Major administrations there were only four years where the percentages fell below 41%.

[teamsaint]

The table showing public spending as % of GDP quite clearly shows the labour governments spending less (as a percentage) than the Conservatives fro 1979 to 1997.
There was a rise from around 2004 under labour, but well within normal levels, until the bank problems kicked in.
i

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

If it's reckless spending that bothers people, look at the way Cameron and Govey are wasting countless pounds on their pet free school project, building school that no-one needs in order to divide and rule.

[amateur51]

I haven't laughed so much in ages ! Many thanks for that, ams !

Twenty:twenty hindsight is a great aid to mirth even amongst the generally mirthless, RM

[amateur51]

.... and I sincerely hope he credited his source!



"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man...iberty_Valance

Oh cheeers, vints - I'm seeing him tomorrow, as it goes

[Lateralthinking1]

Less spending by New Labour proves that Blair/Brown were to the right of Margaret Thatcher. I've been saying as much for years. Tone owns eight houses. How many houses does Margaret own? International conservatives led to the economic crash. But I'm coming to the conclusion that Blair might just have been the worst PM since WW2. Well, until Dave. He is the worst of the lot.

[teamsaint]

Less spending by New Labour proves that Blair/Brown were to the right of Margaret Thatcher. I've been saying as much for years. Tone owns eight houses. How many houses does Margaret own?

well absolutely.
my point was just to get the "truth " and facts straight.

[Lateralthinking1]

well absolutely.
my point was just to get the "truth " and facts straight.

Yes, sure. Brown gets the terrible press because he is hardly endearing. Like many, I have no time for him. Still, whatever the disagreements between him and Blair, Blair agreed with him mostly when he was PM. Brown's policy was Blair's policy in my view.

[amateur51]

Less spending by New Labour proves that Blair/Brown were to the right of Margaret Thatcher. I've been saying as much for years. Tone owns eight houses. How many houses does Margaret own? International conservatives led to the economic crash. But I'm coming to the conclusion that Blair might just have been the worst PM since WW2. Well, until Dave. He is the worst of the lot.

Ah well you weren't to know Lats, but Thatcher turns out not to be a good comparator in making your point ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/shortcuts/2013/jan/07/thatcher-opts-for-hotel-living

[Lateralthinking1]

Ah well you weren't to know Lats, but Thatcher turns out not to be a good comparator in making your point ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/s...r-hotel-living

True, I didn't know that she was in the Ritz but one website puts Blair's wealth "conservatively" at £20 million. MT was the worst PM after the war apart from all the ones that have followed her. One says he came to socialism via Marxism and is a devout Christian but has always had the persona, at best, of being a failed rock star in the vein of Spinal Tap. If teamsaint has the figures, I'd be interested to see the spending under Major. Was it higher or lower than under Thatcher? I blame him for a lot too.

[MrGongGong]

True, I didn't know that she was in the Ritz but one website puts Blair's wealth "conservatively" at £20 million. MT was the worst PM after the war apart from all the ones that have followed her. One says he came to socialism via Marxism and is a devout Christian but has always had the persona, at best, of being a failed rock star in the vein of Spinal Tap.

I'm sure Lord Tufnel will have something to say about that

So that's the "devout Christian" who believes in killing people then ???
Vegan butchery ?

[Lateralthinking1]

Extracts from a public duped:

Blair was born in Edinburgh on 6 May 1953, the second son of Leo and Hazel Blair (née Corscadden). Leo Blair was the son of two English actors. Blair junior reportedly modelled himself on Mick Jagger. His teachers were unimpressed with him. His biographer John Rentoul, reported that "All the teachers I spoke to when researching the book said he was a complete pain in the backside and they were very glad to see the back of him." As a student, he played guitar and sang in a rock band called Ugly Rumours. During this time, he dated "American Psycho" director Mary Harron whose other work includes "I Shot Andy Warhol" and "Please Kill Me".

After graduating from Oxford in 1975 with a Second Class Honours BA in Jurisprudence, Blair became a member of Lincoln's Inn. He appears in a number of reported cases, for example as in Nethermere (St Neots) Ltd v Gardiner where he represented employers unsuccessfully in an attempt to deny female factory workers holiday pay. In contrast to his later centrism, Blair made it clear in a letter he wrote to Labour leader Michael Foot in July 1982, that he had "come to Socialism through Marxism" and considered himself on the left. Shortly earlier, he had married Cherie Booth, the daughter of.....an actor. The Blairs own at least eight residences.

Blair was influenced by fellow student and Anglican priest Peter Thomson, who awakened within him a deep concern for religious faith and left-wing politics. Cherie Blair's friend and "spiritual guru" Carole Caplin is credited with introducing her and her husband to various New Age symbols and beliefs, including "magic pendants" known as "BioElectric Shields". On 14 January 2009, in an entry made in the guest book during a visit to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., Blair described his home as being 'Jerusalem'. In 2011 Blair became Godfather to one of Rupert Murdoch's children. According to reports, Blair was 'robed in white for the ceremony'.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

I am not in the business of supporting the labour party, but another lie put about is that labour was reckless with public spending.
The truth is that until the banks crashed, they broadly kept public spending at the long term average for governments of both parties.In fact for most of their tenure, it was well below the important 40% of GDP level.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datab...-spending-1963

Looking at the Guardian data
Labour 1997-98 38.2
Labour 1998-99 37.2
Labour 1999-00 36.3
Labour 2000-01 34.5
Labour 2001-02 37.7
Labour 2002-03 38.5
Labour 2003-04 39.3
Labour 2004-05 40.5
Labour 2005-06 41.2
Labour 2006-07 40.9
Labour 2007-08 41.0
Labour 2008-09 44.5
Labour 2009-10 47.7
As I recall, the first two thrifty years were when they claimed they were sticking with the locked-in plans of the previous administration. It seems the rot set in around 2001 when they started those additional spends in the public sector. Nothing to do with the crash.

[Lateralthinking1]

Looking at the Guardian data
Labour 1997-98 38.2
Labour 1998-99 37.2
Labour 1999-00 36.3
Labour 2000-01 34.5
Labour 2001-02 37.7
Labour 2002-03 38.5
Labour 2003-04 39.3
Labour 2004-05 40.5
Labour 2005-06 41.2
Labour 2006-07 40.9
Labour 2007-08 41.0
Labour 2008-09 44.5
Labour 2009-10 47.7
As I recall, the first two thrifty years were when they claimed they were sticking with the locked-in plans of the previous administration. It seems the rot set in around 2001 when they started those additional spends in the public sector. Nothing to do with the crash.

Interesting. During the high spending Brown years, my annual public sector pay increase was never higher than 1%. He and Blair had already introduced a system in which pensionable pay was deducted from the overall pay and not subject to any increase.

OTBE, my pay slips show that my total annual salary increased under the Tories by more than 300% between 1985 and 1997. Under New Labour, it increased by less than 50% between 1997 and 2010. Sadly, these kinds of figures are never published.