tories can win it imo

the national debt has more than doubled in the last four years with more to come and people think the economy has turned round

The national debt has not doubled in the last four years.

I believe it to be nearer 4.5 trillion

I am no expert (ex being a has been and spert  a drip under pressure)

but I have been advised when you look deeper into what is involved including the pension mess, you will find a lot more is debt than you or I may have understood previously.

I am told by someone who knows stuff in the city that the pension owed is anything and is unfunded
could be anything from 3  to 5 trillion

the other problem stored up is the potential rise in interest rates - if that happens the cost of debt will go up - etc

The amount of debt all countries are carrying is incredible....the whole lot has to fall in sometime

I hope I am gone when it happens...the Credit Crunch was just a taster...there will be blood, literally

Tories conveniently forget the amount of debt they inherited from Labour, a large part was caused by the Credit Crunch

our debt has gone UP not down since they have been in power

Unless we have a long term sustainable economy we are fecked anyway...which I don't think we have

The worst thing...is our government said today is complete energy independence is unnecessary

it is better we pay for it

we really do have lunatics running the asylum

" lots of floating voters"

Which is more than you can say for the country.
Going down like the Titanic under the Tories.

Does anybody feel better off than 4 years ago?
Apart from the banksters, the energy companies, the multi-nationals, and Garry Barlow.

northernlad5    
14 May 14 01:26 
Of course Farage will be quite happy, he and his wife and cohorts  milking the 'EU gravy train' for another five years.

This is the nutjob who wants us to stay in Europe.

Which means all those British in it will also milk 'EU gravy train'
(How do you get milk from gravy anyway?)

But of course, northenloon only picks on the honest and upstanding Nigel.

NONE of the party he wants in (raving monster loony) will claim one euro in expenses, didn't you know that?

We are a small island with a large population. We can not be self-sufficient for any length of time in raw materials, we have to trade.
Even China, with its huge land mass is not energy independent. It imports vast quantities of coal from Australia.
Foinavon

Why is Norway rich??????????

all their energy is renewable, they sell their oil

Unfortunately as we have a larger population and not so many mountains and fiords , it is harder for us,

but the principle applies

Of course we have to trade, but what benefits us is what we EXPORT that makes us richer, what we IMPORT makes us poorer

we have to pay for this

I doubt we would ever become completely self sustainable but we could do a lot more

don't you see it is what we SELL makes us rich, what we BUY makes us poor

UK population 64 million
Norway population 5.6 million

They generate far more hydroelectricity and have large reserves of oil and gas.

What we buy also makes us richer if we add value to it by converting it to things we can export. Without imports our industry would grind to a halt.

One of the reasons many African countries remain poor is that they sell their raw materials to developed countries without adding value themselves.

True GAZO, the electorate won't vote for the alternative.
Would you want to go back to the austerity of the 1940s and 1950s?

go away in the future

yes, I know why things were so bad in the '40s and 50s, I'm old enough to remember most of it.
It's just that if we wanted to pay off our present massive debt in the next few decades we would need a similar austerity programme.
We just don't have enough economically recoverable energy to meet our present needs although a massive expansion of fracking and nuclear capacity would help. We can't just turn on the tap.

The fact is, the majority of ordinary people are living in poverty. Food banks, energy bills, all the utility companies, whom I despise with a passion because they are basically evil, all get away with murder. It's getting where people have to choose between food or no heating, or water, babies arent being fed properly, and this in a so-called western civilised country.
Yet certain people just totally ignore what is actually happening, the rich banksters fecking the economy over and asking the poor and vulnerable to pay for them, there is an enormous gap - bigger than its ever been - between the elite and the less well off, this same elite, and you can even narrow them down to a very few; own probably over half of the entire world funds.
I cant even understand how and why ordinary people just sit there and put up with the way things are, they should be rising up in revolution again.

I hope the tory swine get smashed and never ever return, not that the labour party will be much better because all politicians are corrupt, and only care about their next bonus or claim for £2000 meal expenses.

You are a fine man Tony, and I respect that..
but, as usual. you are so COMPLETELY and UTTERLY wrong!

*those

I do realise that someone who imports something and sells if for a profit

that is good business for them...does not benefit this country a lot

I don't understand high level economics

but I was brought up to believe our wealth depends on goods and services we export

all I was saying was, why do we want to pay for something(energy) if we can get it for nothing????

Of course there is a cost in building wind farms, but it is an investment for the future, surely

we don't have to build them all at once....

Also we cannot just keep increasing our population if we do not have the wealth to support them????

it is only a suggestion