Ed Miliband slams cuts to services

“Have to agree Ted: spend what you don't have and the economy collapses; slash and burn and the economy collapses. At the end of the day, politicians have very little leeway to change things dramatically for the better, and are large;y along for the ride.”

“Rambuile,

I think your comment was aimed at me rather than Roland. What your 'Simply….' answer does not address is where the money for maintaining the status quo would come from? Would it be printed (inflation) or would it be borrowed (even greater debt) or higher taxation (reducing incomes). The simplistic lefty solution would be to 'tax the rich until the pips squeak' which, past experience has shown, actually reduces government revenue.

Balls' equally simplistic mantra has been 'invest more and the economy will grow' (Keynesianism) but that really only works in very large and protected economies like the USA or China. In the case of Britain, the wages generated by government-funded projects would be largely spent on imported goods. Even within the EU, which is a very large protected economic block, Britain's position is one of a net importer. So we might create more jobs in, say, Germany through demand for more Beemers but not so many here.”

“Simply, Labour would not cut front-line services, would not hit the most vulnerable and then duck behind local councils and let them take the hit for such draconian measures, would not have pulled the plug on capital projects which would have lessened the impact of Osborne's cuts on the shrinking economy. Does that answer your question, roland, or would rather be extolling the virtues of ignorance (yours), and firing blanks at everyone who puts any light between what should be happening and the sunshine emanating from behind George Osborne?”

“Roland,
It seems to me that you like to pick up on the grammar, punctuation, spelling and the general education of a poster when you have little to say regarding the actual content of the article. As an avid supporter of the Labour Party perhaps you could tell the rest of us what Miliband would do that is so different from the Coalition's policies?

Slickspoons,
Eddy might not have been the leader of the Labour Party pre-2010 but he was an influential adviser in the Brown camp and held a cabinet post. That's why the unions put their weight behind him during the leadership election to stop his Blairite brother from winning, despite the fact that David Miliband had far more chance of leading the party to victory. I think they are already regretting their king-making role as I strongly suspect Eddy will become more and more Blairite as 2015 approaches. But, then again, who knows?”

“Can anyone really imagine this man representing Great Britain as Prime Minister?......I mean, c'mon...really?!!”

“Good grief Autumn

If that is what a "good university" education gets you then we're all in big, big trouble.”

“"The Audit Commission has always rated as two star & in the bottom 20% of councils nationally" --- harrystotle

As you know perfectly well, Nottingham is not currently "two star rated", because that particular classification scheme from the Comprehensive Performance Assessment disappeared in 2008. It was subsequently replaced by the Comprehensive Area Assessment, which replaced star rating with a system of green (exceptional performance) and red (significant concern) flags and an over-all score. In this latest assessment, no red flag areas were identified, and they were awarded one green flag for their use of public transport. The score given was 3 out of 4, described textually as "performs well." And, unlike harrystotle, I won't just assert this: here's the score awarded by the Audit Commission: http://tinyurl.com/d3688sk

Comparing this score and the distribution of red and green flags to the marks given to other local authorities places Nottingham somewhere well in the top half of all authorities for performance, not "in the bottom 20%."

Are you really so dim that you don't understand that by continually repeating something that is so easily demonstrably a lie that is born out of your irrational hatred than out of any reasoned argument, you immediately bring into question everything else that you say? More importantly, though, you undermine any more rational criticisms of the council by allowing them all to be heaped together with nonsense liek yours.”

“Does anyone know what Milliband's "One Nation" brand is about ? Are there any firm policies, facts and figures within it or is it just the usual visioneering and cloud talk ?”

“["I want people in Nottingham to take a new look at the Labour party, because we have learnt from our mistakes in the past and we are showing people that there is a different position for this country going forward."]

What a lot of people would like to know is what lessons have been learnt from past mistakes? What does new, New Labour actually stand for other than simply knee-jerk opposition to anything the Government does?”

“Yet again, Roland is spot on. Autumn is talking absolute hogwash. FYI Ed Millipede wasn't even Labour's leader back then so it's hardly his fault is it?!

Just out interest, have you ever heard of Jordon Brown? No, thought not! Go back to school and educate yourself!”