It's been rather quiet on here lately regarding the economy, can't think why.



Where have all the Osborne bashers gone?



[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23807182[/url

How's the deficit?



Oh..... Still growing.

Falling.



Great news about the growth hey?

And national debt is shrinking too, no doubt?

You seem a bit grumpy about the good news.

Why is Osborne [istill[/i increasing government spending?



Is this his plan for growth, borrow and spend to make the figures look better then let future generations pay it back?

Yup, he's doing really well ain't he?

Politicians can put any spin they like on any set of figures that they carefully choose to "prove" their propaganda, but there is one awful statistic which still refuses to go away these past five years of recession and that is of the unemployment level of young people and for that you simply have to point at the current political culture of the relaxation of employment laws to make a mythical "flexible workforce".



We were talking about this in the pub last night and as I started to explain how young kids like my brother were employed in the 1970s even I started to doubt what I was saying as some sort of dream-like sequence of unreal events, but with him serving a carpenters apprenticeship and me being employed in the electrical industry I have lots of experience of how "proper" apprenticeships worked, and had worked for at least a hundred years before that.



Being indentured to a tradesman at 16 years of age you had a cast iron guarantee of five years of employment, your employer could not sack you or decide that he was bored with having an apprentice, if he did then he would never be able to employ one again, if your employer went into liquidation then a combination of the trade union and the training board would place you with another employer. You received four days a week training "on the job" with tradesmen and one day a week at college and at the end of five years you had your qualification that was recognised anywhere in the country (and often abroad too, my brother had no problems finding employment as a time served joiner on travels in Australia and NZ)



Compare to now - there are college-run "modern apprenticeships" that offer no guarantee of work placement and the biggest crime against tradesmen is the type of course that an ex-employee of the company I work for is currently doing - he left last November in his late thirties "to become an electrician", when I laughed and told him he was a bit old to start a five year apprenticeship he told me that all you needed was some money and some time to set aside to enrol in a home study course for nine months, then you became an electrician, I now know what the word gobsmacked means as the thought that someone could turn up on a building site with a certificate stating that they are an electrician having never set foot on a building site before is just laughable.



But that is "flexible employment" in practice, no commitment from employers, income for a private college, and a useless certificate at the end of it.

The thing is lefties are so unhappy about this news. They would actually rather the economy flat line than have a recovery where the Tories are in any way involved. All quite ironic considering they claim the Tories are the ones driven by ideology and that they are the ones 'looking out for the poor' - the same poor along with normal decent hard working people who lose out with a stalling economy.



"Football Supporter Politics"

Who are these people, these "lefties" that you speak of ?



And why do you keep categorizing opinions into "left" and "right" - could this be your football supporter politics coming to the fore again - why can you not discuss anything to do with politics, or the economy, or just the PM's holiday snaps, without categorising opinion and dismissing anything that does not follow your dogma ?

If left wing, social, "liberal" means caring about people and humanity then I plead guilty.

If however you are greedy, racist, bigoted, selfish, narrow minded, xenophobic, economically clueless, tell outright untruths, and try and make disaster into victory then you are are a right wing nutter at best.!



There are so many who fulfil the latter who post on these forums.

Why did you say a few weeks ago that you do not engage in football supporter politics and that "all parties are open to praise and criticism" and then steadfastly refuse to give any credit to the Government for anything?



I've seen you start thread after thread bashing the government on various issues but not once seen you give them some credit despite you saying "all parties are open to praise and criticism"



You start a thread on cycling - obviously an issue that is important to you. The Government announce infrastructure spending on cycling - =#FF0000not a peep. =#0000FFSave as to the minor, "good start"



Growth figures, 'a balanced recovery' - not a peep.



Your post was rubbish wasn't it Jerrychicken? You have no intention of ever giving the Conservative party praise for any measure ever. Are you afraid it will dent your 'reputation' amongst your on-line peers? Do you hide your true opinions?



=#0000FF Edited to take account of the one time when JerryChicken praised the Government - the red wording is incorrect