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[mickeyl]

 Fighting poverty is at the heart of progressive Conservatism The Tories are no strangers to fighting poverty, says Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister.       By Grant Shapps
Published: 7:00AM GMT 10 Nov 2009  ‘Welcome back’, said Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis, as she introduced David Cameron and me to the assembled gathering at the charity’s London HQ last year.
The event was the launch of the Conservative Homelessness Foundation and the ‘welcome back’ a reference to the forgotten fact that it was a reforming Conservative Shadow Chancellor Ian Macleod who set up Crisis way back in 1967.
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/6533260/Fighting-poverty-is-at-the-heart-of-progressive-Conservatism.html

[Mighty Hatfield]

If the core of Conservative policy is to fight poverty, why on earth are they pledging to give tax breaks to the most wealthy families in Britain whilst cutting public services used by the most poor?

Why no plans to build social housing, why indeed plans to sell off what is left?

Its a good job Cameron and Grant are all for homeless charities, their ideas are going to create a hell of a lot of homeless people.

[eumelus]

Anyone know anything about the conservatives nationwide social home-swap system, is it a worthwhile effort or just another way of splitting communities because councils have no funds for building local housing fro local people.

[sunnyjim]

Its a good job Cameron and Grant are all for homeless charities, their ideas are going to create a hell of a lot of homeless people.

Personally, this feels more like a country in the middle of a financial phoney war (WWII metaphor).  The Government, helped by the bankers, have brought the country to its knees.  This needn’t have happened as, with our wealth as a nation, there should have been more than enough for everyone. 

The theory now is that, having wrecked everything, the Government is pursuing a scorched earth policy in order to make things as bad as possible for whoever wins the next election.  I do find this hard to believe as any political party that did such a thing would clearly be totally evil. 

But, if we are to expect a “Hell of a lot of homeless people”, it would make some sense to apportion some of the blame to the present Government who have got us into this mess.  By all means blame the next Government too, but they aren’t even in power yet.

[Mighty Hatfield]

Im not absolving any current government policy of blame but you have to remember where this global credit crunch started. USA. Sub Prime Mortgage Lending. I.e Banks lending to those who couldnt really afford to buy but DID anyway, because you HAVE to live somewhere.

We did it to ourselves in letting successive governments, including our current one, get away without building TRULY affordable homes. I.e, those that people can afford!

Im dishing it out now, because from what ive read of the proposed tory housing policies, its only going to get worse. Dont worry, ive been dishing it out to the Labour partys for quite some time now

I dont think this country is on its knees. We have to have some sense of perspective while also remembering exactly how all of this started. It might be pleasurable for some, and god knows i like to stick it to whoevers in charge, but if we want things to get better, we need to look at what makes things worse - properly.

The sad reality is that rather than set up time bombs for the tories, the government is only just now (VERY late)  starting on a programme of social house building (where tory councils arent blocking it) - and Camerons response? Get Spellman to write to all local authorities to say "dont do it yet, we've got other plans" 

To fight poverty, you have to do more than simply tell everyone you are fighting it, you have to do it.

[sunnyjim]

I agree with much of what you say.  But I don't accept the Government's protestation that our financial crisis is the fault of the USA.  The crash over here was the Government's fault.  They were meant to be in charge.  What is so annoying is that many people try to live within their particular means (i.e. don't spend what you haven't got, save for a rainy day etc).  Gordon Brown's financial policy was reckless in comparison, and all of us (including those who weren't in debt themselves) are now having to pay for it.  Bitterly frustrating.

[Mighty Hatfield]

I agree with much of what you say.  But I don't accept the Government's protestation that our financial crisis is the fault of the USA.  The crash over here was the Government's fault.  They were meant to be in charge.  What is so annoying is that many people try to live within their particular means (i.e. don't spend what you haven't got, save for a rainy day etc).  Gordon Brown's financial policy was reckless in comparison, and all of us (including those who weren't in debt themselves) are now having to pay for it.  Bitterly frustrating.

I think it would have happened "over here" anyway, but whos to say how it would have played out if things were different - its clearly up for debate.

I agree with you in reckless financial policy, most people i know are in serious debt with credit cards, mortgages, loans etc. We demand the government acts one way when society acts in another.  I certainly share your frustration as someone who personally speaking, does not buy something until he can afford it!

[mickeyl]

Too right it would have happened here anyway. The lending policies of HBOS and RBS were utterly reckless. The FSA which had been set up by the Government to, amongst other things, prevent that sort of thing happening, failed woefully in its task. WE WILL ALL BE PAYING FOR THIS FOR MANY YEARS IN THE SHAPE OF HIGHER TAXES, REDUCED SPENDING ON SERVICES AND REDUCED BENEFITS NO MATTER WHICH PARTY IS IN POWER

[mythoughts]

Too right it would have happened here anyway. The lending policies of HBOS and RBS were utterly reckless. The FSA which had been set up by the Government to, amongst other things, prevent that sort of thing happening, failed woefully in its task. WE WILL ALL BE PAYING FOR THIS FOR MANY YEARS IN THE SHAPE OF HIGHER TAXES, REDUCED SPENDING ON SERVICES AND REDUCED BENEFITS NO MATTER WHICH PARTY IS IN POWER

 
 
I can't be bovved to post my many former relevant links prior to the recession, but personally, and for many years,  I thought both the  Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland, both of whom I indirectly and without choice because of "take-overs" inherited as guardians of my meagre savings or current accounts were flipping useless. Seriously, rubbish. Well bad.
 
Indeed, in my post "We're broke" I particularly pointed out the incompetence of HBOS arguing that the only ecomonic prowess of its former CEO was his ability to econonmise with the truth.
 
Furthermore, we have two completely useless quangos at the moment that pretend to protect our health and wealth with the acronym FSA... Financial Services Authority and the Food Standards Agency. The latter  knocks organic food whilst behind the scenes has a plan to start getting us to rethink GM crops. Sick of it.

[Anne]

But I don't accept the Government's protestation that our financial crisis is the fault of the USA.  The crash over here was the Government's fault.

The crash over here, in the US, and world-wide, is the fault of greed...

Which government would take the (popularity) risk and stop people/banks/whatever making vast sums of money? Which might also benefit themselves, and would definately boost income tax. It seems to me that, in the UK, this goes beyond financial greed, but to a greed for prominence within the political arena, ie. votes!