IMF chief Christine Lagarde praises UK economy - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32346214
The UK economy has done a wonderful job over the last couple of years, Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/84767bbe-e4cd-11e4-bb4b-00144feab7de.html
Let's not go backwards with Labour.
The problem is Paul you have a coward of a leader who refuses to debate others he's not a man but a mouse and a coward.
@leatash did you just watch the party broadcast for tusc, and what did you think of it ?
Sooo, no problems with the policies then? Purely that he and Clegg won't submit to an agenda set by TV companies? Interesting...hmmmm!
I run a business, I employ staff (some of whom recieve tax credits and disabillity benefits), I have a family, I pay tax, use the NHS, the economy growing has had no impact on me, my staff and my family. The services I use are stretched to breaking point and regardless of the Bull**** politicians from all parties spout it isnt going to get any better for the average man for a long time. The partisan posts on here just alarm me, try to look outside the box, outside of your own situation and ask yourself is this really a Briton to be proud of? Poverty disguised by manipulating figures, those who really need help not getting it, our elderly dying in hospital corridors - the list goes on. We need leadership that has a real moral focus so that all of us, rich or poor, fit or sick, can prosper. I for one am tired of career politicians who foolishly believe they are in touch with the people, making decisions that impact so negatively on the lives of the average man. I am one of those so called 'hard working people' but I am only going to have to work harder to keep my business, keep my staff and keep my home.
I agree 100% with 'verbatim'. It's all about the 'P's.
Vote based on Policies.
Don't vote for the Party.
Don't vote for the Personality.
Don't vote for the Propaganda.
Vote for Published Policies - and Pray they keep their Promises!
If they don't they can expect some Payback next time around.
My problem is that politicians in general have no fire in there bellies they just drone on with the same old glurb why can't they be like NICOLA STURGEON now she has fire in her belly. Politics have become boring and a lot of folk i talk to have no idea who to vote for myself included, for the first time in my life and i am nearly 70 and have never missed a chance to vote but i honestly don't know if i can be bothered. All i hear and i watch every political debate and every political program is the same from everyone apart from the SNP so who gets my vote at the moment NOBODY.
For me it is easy deciding who to vote for.
I'm going to vote Tory as they are fixing the economy. I dread the prospect of Labour getting in, causing me to lose my job and ending up being homeless.
More jobs - http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/17/uk-britain-jobs-idUKKBN0N80NV20150417
As they say, it doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in. I've distilled it down to one issue. Politically and economically I don't believe that slashing public spending is the answer. Reducing yes but not to the level of seizing up the economy (and I've shifted from right to left on that). And if the Tories get re-elected there will be bigger cuts to come. However I do see why people are afraid to get behind Labour, but for me Ed Balls is the red flag, not Ed Miliband. His fingerprints are all over the mistakes of the past but I'll take the risk on that rather than the certainty of what you'll get with the Tories.
Thought you might enjoy this too Paul .....
Ha, very funny. 
What a politician he is and Tony Benn was 
Ahem! Present tense to be used in the case of Dennis Skinner as not only is he still alive (and kicking!) but I'm pretty certain he's standing for re-election to Westminster on May 7th.
Just finished watching Andre Marr - am I the only person completely bemused by the popularity of Boris Johnson?
Sorry Lynne typed too quick lol
@flo just watched it and totally agree with you
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05t3j3f/the-andrew-marr-show-26042015
Must be something about the name Boris.....
The biggest problem this country is facing is over-population and until one of the political parties tackle the uncontrolled immirgration issues head on we will become more and more like the so called third world countries of the past. I would impose a three year total ban on all new applications whillst setting up new border controls and a Australian points system, We also need to exclude the illegal entrants from the protection of the EU based human rights act and introduce immediate deportation from point of entry.
Quie right Fred, time to pull up the drawbridge.
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3084-ids-flees-from-sister-of-dead-claimant This is the poor guy who Cameron showed no compassion for on the Andrew Marr Show 19.4.15.
Of course, the economic data demonstrates that the above anti-foreigner rhetoric isn't matched by the reality of the degree of negative impact that a block on legal immigration into the UK would have.
We don't need to get too het up about it though, as it's never going to happen in our lifetimes. Thankfully.
What a typically Lib Dem (and Labour) attitude - welcome the world to our shores and be damned with the consequences.
Oh to be sure, the consequences of banning legal immigration are frightening. The economic data is there for you to see. For example the negative impact on NHS services. The negative impact on food prices. The negative impact on GDP. The negative impact on the 200,000 Britons who wish to emigrate every year. The list goes on.
However. How many of the Bankers that caused the recession were foreigners? And how many of those Bankers are still getting paid ridiculous sums of money every year, and yet dodging taxes with the help of their Conservative Party friends?
Nope, not buying the excuse that immigration is our problem. As for saying it's a typical LibDem/Labour attitude, that's nonsense, the Conservatives only started chirping about it since they saw UKIP steal their ground.
The eradication of social values initiated by the Conservatives and compounded by financial mismanagement by New Labour was a generational game changer in this country. Farage though is a wolf in sheep's clothing, more fool anyone for thinking he's their saviour.
How can 300,000 extra people not have some effect on services NHS, Schools,Housing,etc,etc, i don't know the answer but we need controls of some sort to limit immigration.
Increased population = increased demand = growing economy. GDP is increasing and immigration has contributed to higher tax receipts, it's just not being spent where you want it. By not investing in schools, housing, health service etc the oxygen supply is cut off and everyone chokes, not just the 300,000. No one can agree on an optimal population because no-one knows.
On paper the economy might be showing some slight signs of recovery nationally, but this obsession with GDP doesn't tell the whole story. Corporations, bankers and large scale construction firms might be doing better but that's at the expense of huge sections of civil society having to tighten their belts to the max. Yet Osbourne claimed 'we're all in it together'!
The average person is hardly seeing the benefits. It's laughable that the Tory/Liberal cotalition are convinced that things are getting better, they don't have to get by on food banks, casual/zero contract hour contracts, etc.
And the tit-for-tat between the 3 main parties is a joke, there is nothing between them, they're all neoliberal parties who are governed by global banks and corporations.
And so what if the economy recovers, increased consumption of global resources is not sustainable in the long-term and the ecosystems that underpin life will just be destroyed at a greater rate. So future generations of Dawlish residents will have to manage because most people vote based on providing for themselves in the present. But then our society is all about the individual, liberal democracy is founded upon the rights of the individual and property rights, it's nothing to do with the common good or a collective identity.
The main parties aren't mentioning the real problems facing us, including Dawlish. The storms that caused the destruction of the train line are part of an increase in extreme weather events caused by climate change, the science is clear that humans have detrimentally altered the global climate. So building a reef might protect the line for a while, but living by a dynamic and everchanging environment on the coast means towns like Dawlish will bear the brunt of 150 years of industrial pollution.
On the east coast of Yorkshire where coastal erosion is rapid, homeowners are not compensated for their loss of property. Another flooding of the Somerset levels or breaching of the wall at Riviera Terrace could make house insurance in high risk areas a thing of the past.
But developers continue to gain permission to build on flood plains.
The cracks of a system based on private land ownership and unregulated growth are beginning to show.
But economic growth is the mantra of the Tories, Lib Dems, Labour and UKIP, so we should just get used to being without a rail link from time to time and then wasting taxpayers money on repairing it.
Just as economic bust is part of the cycle neoliberal economics, perhaps we should just get accustomed to bailing out the banks and their greedy shareholders once every decade or so as we need them to drive our economy and bring 'prosperity' to our great nation. God bless the Queen.. blah, blah..
And on immigration - the economic argument is flawed as immigrants contribute more in taxes than they claim in benefits. And it's hypocritical to stop people coming here when 2+ million British citizens reside abroad. This one rule for us and another for them just stinks. Immigration is a consequence of a hangover from Empire, when Great Britain reaped the benefits of countless other nations and now part of being a member of the EU also benefits the UK immensly.
Farage could not deny the economis facts, but he stated that UKIP's stance was based on principle, which is another way of saying the party's principles are fundamentally racist and as that party is in essence made up of the right of the Tory party, cameron's tougher stance is either to appease Tory MPs who might defect to UKIP and voters swayed by xenophobic nonsense.
Where Farage does stand out from his opponenets is in his recognition that many English people feel that their cultural identity is somewhat lacking. The white van man and the news reporter comes to mind. But will this be solved by blocking immigration, fuelling anti-Scottish feeling after the Scottish referendum, the lack of an English parliament and blaming the EU for everything?
If England were an independent nation or the UK broke away from Europe under the Tories or UKIP, or even Labour or the LIb Dems it would still be part of a global trading network where multinational corporations dictate policy, provide jobs, influence our media and therefore homogenize cultural norms so they look the same no matter what nation you're in. Immigrants from Poland or former colonies aren't to blame for eroding 'English identity', it's more likely that the English and their insatiable appetite for copying the American dream is to blame. In other words materialism and the superficiality of fashion and Hollywood films, trashy TV like the X factor and mass produced pop music from thousands of miles away. It's all fleeting and doesn't reflect anyone in particular. But apparntly progress is having a massive plasma screen, the new I-phone, a flash car, a Grand Designs style luxury home, a huge salary, money for a wine collection or getting wrecked down the pub on a Friday.
It doesn't matter that manufacturing the associated products uses shed loads of energy, and resurces and are made in third world or developing countries by people who live in povertyand are exploited by unethical companies who most politicians want to attract here to kick-start our economy.
And those people in those countries want to escape poverty and aspire to own things like plasma screens and I phones, so some emigrate and come to Britain, because the Western model is the 'best' and most advanced! what a joke.
And for what? Britain is stressed out, depressed, over worked, out of work, over weight, in debt... it's a land of young vs old, a rich clique lording it over the rest and a facade of democracy.
The Tory plan is working all right, they want to take us back to feudalism.
The alternative party in the Newton Abbot constituency, the Lib Dems put them there, they're part of the problem and not the solution, no matter what bandwagons they jump on.
What is the point in opposing the Tories locally when in Westminster they are effectively just a yellow version of the Tories.
So great some statistics show that a bunch of traders sold some gold bullion and a billionaire's football club had a record turnover which meant that the UK economy went up by 0.01 percent!
Does it really filter down?
Did it enable someone to accept on average a quarter of a tin of beans less per week at their local food bank?
Or did it mean that 0.25 less pensioners die of the cold in January as they can increase the ambient room temperature by 0.01 degress celsius?
Which party should I vote for? Oh hang on - They''re all neoliberal - rich Oxbridge money fascists.
That's the best post I've ever read on here.
What an absolute load of bollocks!
The railway line/seawall was being washed away as soon as Brunel built it!
And to say the 'science' is there to prove Global Warming is caused by humans is a travesty.... albeit a money spinning one!
I really can't be arsed to answer the rest of your rant...other to say that 300,000 people NET immigrate to the UK each year; we may have 2 million living abroad but how many have replaced them? 7, 8, 9 million?
You're right about the line being washed away from as soon as it was built.
Climate change occurs naturally largely based on the earths eliptical path arounfd the sun, however we should be going through a stage of cooling as that distance is increasing.
The frequency of extreme weather events, net global temperature rises and the rate of melting of polar ice sheets, permafrosts and glaciars is attributed to human activity.
Good science doesn't have an agenda to prove, the evidence exists, Climate change deniers are the only one's who specialize in bollocks.
Scientists say that we 'are still in the 'Second Ice Age' as there is still ice at the poles.
I don't deny climate change, I just haven't been conviced it's down to humans.
There's a bloody great big volcano going off in South America at present which, apparently, is putting up more CO into the air each day than humans do in 10 years!
You'll probably know if that's right or not but these things are happening naturally all over the world.
It is hard to determine whether a climatic event is caused by something like a volcanic eruption or by the accumulative effects of green house gases warming the planet. A consensus has been reached in scientific circles that the high frequency of extreme weather events is caused by humans, that is why this period has been labelled the anthropene age, as it marks a shift to human activity determing the equilibrium of the global ecosystem.
It refers to more than climate change, that's just one aspect. The destruction of biodiversity, extinction of key stones species, the mismanagement of finite resources which economists and politicians fail to recognize have limits.
There is oil out there but it is harder to extract, and therefore poses more risks to the natural environment, the spill in the gulf of mexico was pushing the limits of the technolgy by going deeper and it had detrimental effects on wildlife and industries on the coast from fishing to tourism.
Even if all global warming was natural, then removing large tracts of rainforest which captures carbon isn't exactly a wise move. They also mitigate flooding by retaining water which can be used by agriculture. Without them nutrients would just be flushed into teh sea.
Many so called scientists are funded by industry, and their views still find their way into the media, it depenmds what media you access. I haven't found any credible scientists offering a second ice age view in my research.
Nobody will listen to Green Party politics untill a major global disaster effects the western civilised sector. Even their own leader travels by first class transport as reported this week, now thats setting a real example. Perhaps the party should buy her a bike, then she can get to meetings via the new cycle paths which "arent suitable for road bikes" but cost tens of thousands to construct. Global warming is nothing but the use of scare tactics in order to raise money
I agree with you about it needing a global disaster that effects western civilization to make people listen. But it's more than Green politics it's about how we interact with our planet, which is much bigger, philosophy. I agree that leaders should set an example but in general green politicians cycle locally and use public transport.
I didn't hear about Natalie Bennett travelling by 1st class, but at least that is still public transport, how does Cameron get about by private jet? in a jag?
It's not surprising the press picked out that story, they sort of have it in for her, Alex Salmond, Miliband, etc.
I don't agree with a 'class' categorization on transport, schooling, etc. And just because I share some Green views I haven't claimed at any point that the Green Party are the grand solution.
I'm also a cyclist and what do you expect regarding cycle paths? We have crap homes, crap roads, poor rail infraestructure, the Haldon MTB trails might have got more people cycling, but the amount of cars up there suggests few people ditch the car that often, they' probably avoid the uphills altogether.
And yes the emphasis is on raising money which riles me as it hasn't achieved anything at all and fits in with armchair activism and internet petitions that are largely ineffective.
But is raising awareness about global warming solely to scare people and to raise money? It has been poorly communicated and consequently it does scare people, but are you saying it's just a big fat hoax? Or are you talking about specific taxation or party donations?
I finding unchecked economic growth a scary prospect, but plenty of people think it's the answer to all our prayers and donate to the mainstream parties, usually the minority who are doing okay out of the staus quo.
I don't really understand the whole global warming is a hoax thing, and what about resource depletion, biodiversity destruction and climate change? Is there a global conspiracy that only a select few people in Dawlish have the inside info on?
Well, when we read stuff like this:
Who are we supposed to believe?
That's the Telegraph, it's a right wing rag. i wouldn't believe a word of it, climate change deniers and biased.
Such irony, and you have the nerve to call other people "deniers".
Good advice from Doc. I will in future restrict my reading to left wing rags.
You might like to check the Telegraph's Christopher Booker's dubious record of inaccurate reprting on a number of subjects: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/oct/13/christopher-booker
Please 