post election blues

[lostcat]

Just wondered if anyone else is struggling with the outcome of the election and the prospect of another 5 years of this regime? I had such hope for change and now I fear that if change ever does come it will be too late. The welfare state and public services will have been well and truly dismantled in 5 years time and we will need a truly radical opposition to rebuild them. Anyone else feeling similarly downhearted?

[Loz]

Nope. All the scare-story hoo-har over Tories "dismantling" the welfare state, public services, NHS, etc, etc, won't come to pass. Yes, they'll be cut back, but Labour would have done that too. And I guarantee you that in five years time there will still be an NHS and a welfare state.

A much, much worse situation would have been had we been saddled with an unstable minority government and back at the polls before the year was out.

I'd be more worried if I were you to make sure that the upcoming referendum keeps us in the EU. Pulling out of the EU would be an absolutely economic disaster that will have a massive knock-on effect on the services you mention.

[Penguin68]

I'm rather in favour of the referendum, with luck (and unlike the Scottish one) it will put the issue on the back-burner for a generation - shooting UKIP's fox and leaving them just banging on about immigration.

There are problems with the 'ever closer political union' strand (Delors et al), but that is losing support across the EU, in particular in both France and Germany. And I'm afraid some closer union for those in the Euro (luckily not us) does make sense in terms of economic governance.

But I suspect that enough will be gained for the major part of the Tories to recommend a NO vote (i.e. to stay in the EU)

[Nigello]

Please explain the reasons why we ought to stay in the EU and why getting out would be bad, Loz.

[Loz]

Easy. Apart from lots of other benefits, the primary reasons is that multinationals make their European base here because it gives them an entry point in Europe in an English language environment. That gives the City the huge clout on the world stage - generally London fights it out with New York as the premier world centre for business.

If we leave the EU, those companies would almost certainly have to move camp to somewhere back in the EU. The knock on effect of that would be massive hit on our GDP and our jobs market. In other words, a massive lowering of standard of living in this country and the knock on effect on tax revenues, which would lead to the aforementioned hit on public services.

[Dulwichdarling]

Personally I am gutted. So glad I live on a red island in the sea of blue Tory voters of the rest of the UK.

We should protect and be proud of our NHS, our welfare system and the people that make this country.

I don't trust Cameron at all

[Otta]

I cam confirm that post election we all have the blues, and we may as well get used to them.

[grabot]

"Easy. Apart from lots of other benefits, the primary reasons is that multinationals make their European base here because it gives them an entry point in Europe in an English language environment. That gives the City the huge clout on the world stage - generally London fights it out with New York as the premier world centre for business."

Interesting. That contradicts my experience in multi-nationals in the UK for whom the European market is moribund, the focus is US and APAC. I thought the quality of UK workers, the UK legal system and GMT 0 were the big draws...

[uncleglen]

Some people have been well and truly brainwashed by the Loony Left and the saturation of anti-Tory hits on social media.

[Loz]

grabot Wrote:

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> Interesting. That contradicts my experience in multi-nationals in the UK for whom the European

> market is moribund, the focus is US and APAC. I thought the quality of UK workers, the UK legal

> system and GMT 0 were the big draws...

But they will still want an EU/EMEA presence - it is still one of the biggest and most important markets. And German workers, the German legal system and GMT+1 would be a more than acceptable alternative.

[derwentgrove]

I agree. I was absolutely delighted by the result. Louisa: not all blow-ins are lefties these days. :)

[Earl Aelfheah]

I am pretty saddened by the election result outside of London. That said, Loz's analysis is not far off. Labour would also have made fairly radical cuts to Social Security. Withdrawal from Europe and the possible break up of the UK are two significant dangers to the UK economy now...Both BTW were made more likely by the Tory win IMO (another reason to rue the outcome).

@derwentgrove - I think most of the more monied recent arrivals to ED are probably Tories.

[grabot]

"But they will still want an EU/EMEA presence - it is still one of the biggest and most important markets. And German workers, the German legal system and GMT+1 would be a more than acceptable alternative."

Agreed. But, equally it would offer an oppotunity for the UK to open up trade globally, liberalise the labour market and generally reduce the burden of regulation and as such make it a more attractive prospect. A relatively small proportion of our GDP is gained from Europe and we run a massive trade deficit with the rest of Europe. This http://www.europarl.org.uk/resource/static/files/global-vision-paper-lr.pdf rather long and complex analysis demonstrates that as far as business is concerned it would probably be a relatively neutral thing. The head of Deutsche bank may say otherwise, but the heads of banks have got a lot of things wrong in recent years. However, for Brexit to succeed a certain amount of preparation would be needed, trade deals etc.

[????]

Grabot I agree with the trade thing generally - it's a red herring, the French and Germans will trade with us whatever we do as we are a massive market to them. The argument about trade is from the economic illiterate. But, where I agree with Loz is on the inward investment thing. This is a significant contributor of high end employment to London especially but not just in banking etc but also in high end manufacturing think Airbus, Honda, Nissan, etc.

For the OP try not to live your life believing the propaganda on social media. The state will still be massive by the next GE, the NHS will still exist and my suspicion is that we'll still have a budget defeceit. Wouldn't have been much different under Labour but they'd have stalled investment with their populist anti-business nonsense and done very little to balance our books. They would have also restricted our choice as parents on education because, you know, they know best what,s good for my kids. Personally I wish the coalition had carried on but I,m glad useless Labour aren't in.

[????]

The bashing the 'rich, thing was tedious and dangerous too - when I can be arsed I'll go and check but the top 30,000 earners in the UK contribute a staggering % of our overall income tax ( something like 10%) so the fallacy that they aren't somehow pulling their weight that Red Ed was bandying around is just that. Populist nonsense.

[Otta]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> They would have also restricted our choice as parents on

> education because, you know, they know best what,s

> good for my kids.

Serious question... What do you mean by this?

[keekybreeks]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The bashing the 'rich, thing was tedious and

> dangerous too - when I can be arsed I'll go and

> check but the top 30,000 earners in the UK

> contribute a staggering % of our overall income

> tax ( something like 10%) so the fallacy that they

> aren't somehow pulling their weight that Red Ed

> was bandying around is just that. Populist

> nonsense.

You shouldnt worry too much about 30,00.Yes, its a big number on the face of it, but for safety sake, I have doubled it to include the tiggy legg bourkes and minor aristos and stuck in another 20 K for military officers to make the number a cool 100,000. Thats a big number, but when you consider that the average body is just under 0.5 of a cubic metre, the hole needed to accomodate this many expired parasites is remarkably small. Think of it in terms of a handful of doulble decked buses or a football field- its easily doable in a few days if we all pull together. Im sure Mao has an oft used quote on this that we could gerrymander to make it easier to swallow.

[????]

Don't worry snorks you can soon fook off back to the Stalinist paradise your chippy comrades from SNP will no doubt build, we'll miss you

[keekybreeks]

theres 0.5 m3 of SE15 randist paradise allocated to you so you can spend quality time with your fellow travellers

[????]

Alcohol and bitterness will do for you before the revolution takes me snorks

[keekybreeks]

"free land* for eternity - apply here!"

*Subject to pre-qualification

[keekybreeks]

as long as the scotch can angineer an SNP driven stalinist oblast in the area surrounding the Buckafast plant, the inmates of Greater Scotia will be happy

[????]

Yup, succoured and midi lodged by the state too long, all spirit gone just feed them with cheap booze, crap food and drugs

[keekybreeks]

to make it more attracitve, I am offering you a delux plot of 0.75 m3 if you sign up for the early bird special. It will mean katie Hopkins getting her allowance cut, but thats capitalism

[????]

Better than plot 4447256adc23 chosen for me by some soulless Marxist bureaucrat in a sea of cheap, grey municipal granite