So, would I be better off under the Tories?

[Martin Keene]

I appreciate this is a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but bear with me.

I have never really known anything other than a Labour Government. I was 22 when Labour came to power, and rightly or wrongly, before that time, I didn't give a toss about it.

During this term of Labour power I have heard lots of people say that during a Tory government they tend to look after the people that are better off to start with, and the poorer ones tend to suffer.

Now whether this is right or wrong, like I say I have no experience to go on, it is something that has got me wondering recently, because I believe that if Labour come to power again, we are all screwed. But, I wasn't sure if the Tories would be any better because of the fixed opinion, be it correct or not, of them I have.

Then, the other day it suddenly struck me, maybe I might be in the part of the population that would stand to benefit not suffer. My wife and I both have professional jobs, she's a buyer and i'm a cost engineer, and between us bring in ~£50k.

I only mention the annual earnings as it gives an indication of where we are the overall standing of things.

Anybody care to correct my potentially ill informed opinion of a a Tory government?

Yours confused about all this politics lark...

[Iain328]

Martin Keene said:

I appreciate this is a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but bear with me.

I have never really known anything other than a Labour Government. I was 22 when Labour came to power, and rightly or wrongly, before that time, I didn't give a toss about it.

During this term of Labour power I have heard lots of people say that during a Tory government they tend to look after the people that are better off to start with, and the poorer ones tend to suffer.

Now whether this is right or wrong, like I say I have no experience to go on, it is something that has got me wondering recently, because I believe that if Labour come to power again, we are all screwed. But, I wasn't sure if the Tories would be any better because of the fixed opinion, be it correct or not, of them I have.

Then, the other day it suddenly struck me, maybe I might be in the part of the population that would stand to benefit not suffer. My wife and I both have professional jobs, she's a buyer and i'm a cost engineer, and between us bring in ~£50k.

I only mention the annual earnings as it gives an indication of where we are the overall standing of things.

Anybody care to correct my potentially ill informed opinion of a a Tory government?

Yours confused about all this politics lark...

With either you will be worse off in the short to medium term. Both will have to hike the tax take & cut spending.

In the long term if you are prepared to get out of bed in the morning then you are likely to be better off under the Tories. Your blood pressure also may stay lower on account of not seeing quite so much of your hard earned spunked away by another labour Gov't.

The end can't come soon enough.

(and and to the idiots that voted the Labour government in not once, not twice, but three times - to the lot of you and DON'T DO IT AGAIN!! )

Edited by Iain328 on Wednesday 27th January 23:30

[Allanv]

Iain328 said:

Martin Keene said:

I appreciate this is a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but bear with me.

I have never really known anything other than a Labour Government. I was 22 when Labour came to power, and rightly or wrongly, before that time, I didn't give a toss about it.

During this term of Labour power I have heard lots of people say that during a Tory government they tend to look after the people that are better off to start with, and the poorer ones tend to suffer.

Now whether this is right or wrong, like I say I have no experience to go on, it is something that has got me wondering recently, because I believe that if Labour come to power again, we are all screwed. But, I wasn't sure if the Tories would be any better because of the fixed opinion, be it correct or not, of them I have.

Then, the other day it suddenly struck me, maybe I might be in the part of the population that would stand to benefit not suffer. My wife and I both have professional jobs, she's a buyer and i'm a cost engineer, and between us bring in ~£50k.

I only mention the annual earnings as it gives an indication of where we are the overall standing of things.

Anybody care to correct my potentially ill informed opinion of a a Tory government?

Yours confused about all this politics lark...

With either you will be worse off in the short to medium term. Both will have to hike the tax take & cut spending.

In the long term if you are prepared to get out of bed in the morning then you are likely to be better off under the Tories. Your blood pressure also may stay lower on account of not seeing quite so much of your hard earned spunked away by another labour Gov't.

The end can't come soon enough.

(and and to the idiots that voted the Labour government in not once, not twice, but three times - to the lot of you and DON'T DO IT AGAIN!! )

Edited by Iain328 on Wednesday 27th January 23:30

Cant argue with that.

[grumbledoak]

Can you not just forget your own personal circumstances and look at us all as a whole?

You, your wife, and any/all of your children of working age now owe £20,000 -> £50,000 (calculations vary) and you will all have to pay this.

You didn't, fifteen years ago.

Edited by grumbledoak on Wednesday 27th January 23:49

[groak]

I don't think the party in power impacts on your personal prosperity to any great extent compared to the general trend of economic circumstances. And there is no way that the party in power can influence that general trend to any great extent either. Best idea is to not bother voting. More and more people are taking that option.

[ctallchris]

If you are worried about personal wealth then ignore the recession.



I would have said this is a fairly telling diagram.

having stated that there is no reason that a future under a new conservative govenrment would not be vastly different.

I do however wonder when Mr Cameron refers to the "poorest families" if he is thinking of the poor people he grew up with ie the poor at Eton "Brasewaithes father bought him something called a 'Phaeton' how disgustingly poor must his family be")

[s2art]

ctallchris said:

If you are worried about personal wealth then ignore the recession.



I would have said this is a fairly telling diagram.

having stated that there is no reason that a future under a new conservative govenrment would not be vastly different.

I do however wonder when Mr Cameron refers to the "poorest families" if he is thinking of the poor people he grew up with ie the poor at Eton "Brasewaithes father bought him something called a 'Phaeton' how disgustingly poor must his family be")

LOL. Of course the fact that the Tories reduced the punitive tax rates that prevailed under the previous Labour government doesnt affect that graph at all.......

[RobDickinson]

That graph is so much bullst its untrue.

[jaybkay]

You can't make the poor rich by making the rich poor.

Labour always tries to divide the cake up ever more fairly (!), the Tories aim for a bigger cake.

[turbobloke]

RobDickinson said:

That graph is so much bullst its untrue.

Yes - it is indeed so much manure.

It doesn't look at the increasing tax-take from each of its quintiles and the hit they've taken through cost of living increases compared to income, the only group to benefit meaningfully from the disaster decade of nulab is the top 1% of earners, and frankly good luck to anybody benefiting from these nulab muppets. Middle income earners have been hit hard by Gordon Clown, and poverty has not improved in spite of spin claiming it has. More of the same ahead, thanks to the same incompetent leftists and regardless of their imminent departure.

http://www.innopress.co.uk/2009/12/09/pre-budget-r...

"Middle Britain Pays for Labour Recklessness"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jun/11/soci...

"Up Up Up - Child Poverty, Pensioner Poverty, Inequality"

And that's from the Grauniad.

[turbobloke]

Not forgetting that Gordon's 'UK first in last out' recession has widened the gap.

Mind the gap Gordon.

[JMGS4]

EVERYBODY (apart from chavs and doleites) will be worse of under ANY new government. There MUST be swingeing cuts in public services all over and tax increases to pay for Labours squandering of our country and its assets.
ANYONE who believes anything else is living in cloud cuckoo land.

There will have to be about 10 years of severe austerity to pull this country out of the sh i t but I believe that the Tories are the only ones who might be able to do it.
Labour is proven to be criminally insane with anything financial
LibDems will not be able to balance the books as they want to punish anyone for being white middle class tax-paying and Christian (liberals guilt complex)
UKIP are too small (pity) and the rest are just loonies...

So OP, to answer your question you'll be better off, sooner, under the Tories.

Edited by JMGS4 on Thursday 28th January 07:27

[Kermit power]

groak said:

I don't think the party in power impacts on your personal prosperity to any great extent compared to the general trend of economic circumstances. And there is no way that the party in power can influence that general trend to any great extent either. Best idea is to not bother voting. More and more people are taking that option.

The party in power just removed another £1,200 or so per year from my pocket starting in April, just through one single change to the tax regime.

How on earth can you think they don't impact on your personal prosperity???

Certainly external economic factors will have an impact. Both left and right wing governments have seen their economies go through recession recently, and it would've been pretty impossible for any country with a significant level of cross-border trade not to have been affected by it, regardless of the colour of its politics.

However, the damage has been done. The party in power will now decide exactly whom they rape in an attempt to look like they're trying to fix the fallout.

[Eric Mc]

Maybe it's time people stopped asking that question i.e "Will I be better off?"

Perhaps it's time people started asking "Will the COUNTRY be better off?

[andy400]

Iain328 said:

The end can't come soon enough.

(and and to the idiots that voted the Labour government in not once, not twice, but three times - to the lot of you and DON'T DO IT AGAIN!! )

Splendid use of smileys, that man!

[Martin Keene]

Hmm, I deliberatly stayed away from saying weathier, as that was not the only point of the question.

I appreciate that whoever the next government are, there are going to be big changes in tax and spending. I went with the phrase 'better off' because for some people, it seems to me, to be mainly the *very* rich or the jam role dossers, appear to have done very nicely under Labour, where as I seem to have been continuely screwed...

During Labour's boom years I was made redundant 4 times for example. So when I say better off, it is a question of wealth, but also whether I'm going to feel the goverment are figthing with me, rather than against me, and also whether they are going to make my urine boil quite so often.

[andy400]

Iain328 said:

Your blood pressure also may stay lower on account of not seeing quite so much of your hard earned spunked away by another labour Gov't.

This is one way that I expect to be better off under a Tory government. There is more to life than personal wealth; a bit of peace of mind is valuable also....

[maix27]

Martin Keene said:

I went with the phrase 'better off' because for some people, it seems to me, to be mainly the *very* rich or the jam role dossers, appear to have done very nicely under Labour, where as I seem to have been continuely screwed...

If you're in a situation where Labour are screwing you, just wait until the tories take power (which I’m sure they will).

We need to make drastic cuts and sacrifices as a nation and under the tories this will all happen in one fell swoop. It will not be pretty.

However, Labour haven't got a god dam clue what's going on so I do want them out. I just wish there was an alternative to these two.

[M3333]

grumbledoak said:

Can you not just forget your own personal circumstances and look at us all as a whole?

You, your wife, and any/all of your children of working age now owe £20,000 -> £50,000 (calculations vary) and you will all have to pay this.

You didn't, fifteen years ago.

Edited by grumbledoak on Wednesday 27th January 23:49

Well said. I would not actually mind owing that amount of money to the state if we lived in a superb and much improved country with excellent efficient public services and lowering taxes.

But we do not. It is a constant black hole with money being thrown in it left right and centre and nobody admitting the truth.

So we are all in it upto the proverbial, with sod all to show for it.

Watching this Afghan conference on TV right now. It is sickening to see all these politicians rolling up looking completley arrogant (take my picture take my picture look at me nah nah nah) and believing they can solve so many problems. Bob Ainsworth has stated they are going to GIVE the Taliban £500M to stop them fighting.

FFS my day has already been ruined.

[Fittster]

Eric Mc said:

Maybe it's time people stopped asking that question i.e "Will I be better off?"

Perhaps it's time people started asking "Will the COUNTRY be better off?

Surely if enough people will be better off then the country will also be better off?