Student Riots

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Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight

Prior to the scrappage scheme the car firms were offering bigger discounts than 2k on a lot of the models that were popular under the scheme so it ended up being no better for the buyer.

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Car firms were also offering discounts alongside the scrappage scheme which was merely an extra inducement to buy. Discounts were not banned during this period.

Car sales rose during the scrappage scheme though not to pre-crunch levels, but enough to tide the car industry by. Therefore it was not a failure.

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Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight

keeping VAT at 15% for two years would have worked better.

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Dropping VAT by a mere 2.5% did little to boost sales but meant that tax income dropped substantially and retailers had to spend a lot of money doing the number crunching and repricing that came with it. Smaller businesses were hit harder with those costs. The VAT cut was worthless. You really do choose the oddest things to criticise the labour government on.

I fail to see how anyone can class the Scrappage scheme as a success?

By the time administration etc is taken off, the scheme would at best not have cost anything to the Government some people claim.

Whoopee do?????? A scheme by Labour that hasn't lost money.

So, what benefit did the country gain out of all these sales or is VAT just a bit of a laugh now. What services were provided for the British people?

None? Nothing at all? Why? Because as Bolton has demonstrated, about 90% of the revenue raised, including all the revenue that were being raised before this disaster was dreamt up, went to foreign companies.

Daniel might be fully behind it because it helped him buy a tarts handbag and well done to him but lets not delude ourselves into saying this was a brilliant economic success.

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Originally Posted by henners88

Labour were cock up after cock up, but the Conservatives and the puppet party have done little in the form of something positive as yet. All as bad as each other if you ask me.

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Indeed. The Tories have so far failed to provide a safe pair of hands where the economy and NHS are concerned, nor have they been capable of keeping their promises but we'll see how things develop in the coming months and years.

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Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1

Indeed. The Tories have so far failed to provide a safe pair of hands where the economy and NHS are concerned,

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On the NHS I disagree. The Tories have shifted priorities from increasing the volume of work to improving the quality, making it more consistent across the UK. I think the forthcoming reforms will, whilst not saving as much money as promised, build on the reforms the Labour party instituted whilst correcting their most obvious failures.

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Originally Posted by Dylan H

On the NHS I disagree. The Tories have shifted priorities from increasing the volume of work to improving the quality, making it more consistent across the UK. I think the forthcoming reforms will, whilst not saving as much money as promised, build on the reforms the Labour party instituted whilst correcting their most obvious failures.

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Again, time will tell. I'm yet to be convinced that Tory NHS reforms are anything more than privatisation by the back door.

Pause for thought - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...blow-nhs-apart

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Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1

Again, time will tell. I'm yet to be convinced that Tory NHS reforms are anything more than privatisation by the back door.

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Having worked in the NHS and watched Labour give private companies priority over the NHS when bidding for contracts I find accusations that the Tories are going to privatise the NHS rather rich I'm afraid. The Tories are going to alter the way private companies bid for contracts but the fact is that private companies have bidding for NHS contracts for the better part of a decade, and large chunks of the NHS was already privatised under Labour such as the cleaning and logistic section. Where were the complaints about privatisation then?

Google ISTCs, PFI hospitals and Connecting for Health for starters.

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Originally Posted by Dylan H

The Tories are going to alter the way private companies bid for contracts but the fact is that private companies have bidding for NHS contracts for the better part of a decade, and large chunks of the NHS was already privatised under Labour such as the cleaning and logistic section. Where were the complaints about privatisation then?

Google ISTCs, PFI hospitals and Connecting for Health for starters.

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The area of the NHS that my mum works in was privatised some years ago after prolonged strike action. If it wasn't the longest strike in NHS history it was one of the longest. I can more than talk about privatisation, striking and ballots. Maybe people are more interested when it concerns them. Proposed NHS changes do affect alot more people hense more people now seeming to take issue with the part privatisation of the NHS.

The deals reduced or went away altogether once scrappage came along, even Labour acknowledge it wasn't such a great idea.

Car sales were still dire, being a bit less crap doesn't count as a success you know? How are new car sales like now, post scrappage? Not to mention the number of folk who bought new cars who can't afford new cars, then there's the environmental impact of scrapping perfectly good motor cars just so a bloke called Keith can buy some Aramis and some cuff links.

Think most small business left prices as they were so received a small boost to profits.

Fuel in places like Mull is far more than it is in Wales. But I agree the VAT increase and rising fuel prices will do nothing to help the economy. Huge cuts to the non profitable public sector are needed to do that followed by tax cuts, so that folk start spending, but of course the Unions are resisting that as they think it is only right that a bin man or tube driver earns more than a teacher.

NHS was costing more and more yet service was getting worse and worse, billions of pounds are being wasted and if the Coalition can reduce that then that is a good thing.

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Originally Posted by GridGirl

The area of the NHS that my mum works in was privatised some years ago after prolonged strike action. If it wasn't the longest strike in NHS history it was one of the longest.

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Strikers should be sacked immediately; scum of the earth to blackmail the nation into giving them more money, greedy *******s. Like these BA lot, utter scum hope they lose their jobs in the long run, that'll learn em

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Originally Posted by Dylan H

Having worked in the NHS and watched Labour give private companies priority over the NHS when bidding for contracts I find accusations that the Tories are going to privatise the NHS rather rich I'm afraid.

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Fair enough, you have direct experience of working in the NHS which I do not. I also think privatisation of the NHS has been creeping in over a long period of time and is not just a product of the current government.

That said, in May the Tories said they would put an end to "top-down reorganisations of the NHS" and yet we're now seeing what will be a massive and fundamental reorganisation of the service.