Unemployment has dropped in the SE the rest of the country has seen a rise.



For who exactly?



Yeah because that's been successful.



Crime has been falling for years, well before the Tories took power.

you've clearly been asleep for the past 30 years if you think this is a new thing.

oh look, there's that word again. shame it's utter rubbish. still, no one will need benefits soon when they're all fitting loft insulation and coining it in.

how did they make ends meet before tax credits?

Do you remember why tax credits were introduced ?

to buy votes. they're scandalous. if people aren't able to live on their wages, then force companies to increase the minimum wage to where they can.

my sister gets them. she drives a brand spanking new nissan juke (with a private reg). iphones, ipads, etc. good luck to her, meant i got a half decent xmas present.

HOUSE!

ffs. people in 'wanting free stuff shocker'.

Setting aside the political angle because all parties agree that in pricipal they are a good thing, child and working tax credits are the reverse option to raising the minimum wage, but most importantly they eliminate the long-held belief that some people are better off living on benefits - its very difficult to explain to a single parent why they should go back to work when they actually can earn almost as much in benefit payments as they can from working and looking at their resultant nett pay at the end of the week - give them a tax break so that they keep more or even most of their earnings and suddenly its a whole new picture, offer them a subsidy for child care and there is no longer any excuse for not working.

None of the political party's will argue a defence for deliberately keeping people out of work when there are initiatives like tax credits that cost the country less than paying out benefits, and neither should they - the only thing left to argue is where the line in the sand should be drawn, both recent governments have got that wrong in my opinion but it doesn't deflect the fact that tax credits are a good option.

The tories were vehemently opposed to the introduction of the Minimum Wage, stating that companies would be going bust wholesale. What chance do you think this bunch will mandate a Living Wage?

Politicians of all major parties in this country are cynical filith. Look at Labour with it's huge rises in NI. What has that acheived and have the Con-Dems reversed the jobs tax? What it has achieved is t create mass part-time working. Why does no one want to change it - because if they did instead of 2 part timers doing one job the supermarkets etc would employ one full-timer. What would that do to the unemploment figures? It's totally cynical throughout. If anyone thinks the Tories are cynical then look at New Labour - utterly disgusting.