Come Luddite, you really need to get out of the prediction business, are you like Bozo555, and forget what you write.

You explicitly wrote that " Working Folk " would never vote for Miliband.

Miliband is now 5 for 5 in by elections, please remember that.

I am correct Luddite, if the country was behind the Government, they would have voted for Cameron, it is simple as that.

Lets remember Luddite, the Tories last held in the 1992, and actually increased their vote by 5.2% in 2010.

They are the facts Luddite, please remember that too.

Debt reduction, what debt reduction has this government achieved?

@Matt

Foxy, are you a 20th Century Fox? Some of your views are 19th Century.

Did you have a spoilt up bringing - a better than satisfactory school, new clothes, toys at christmas, nice holidays?

Unlike me -- my Labour Party designed and implemented flagship comprehensive got 2 satifactories and 3 unsatisfactories in its Ofstead. Only one kid in its history got to Cambridge. I use to earn money on paper rounds, set up chores for neighbours, saved every penny since I was 8. Bought my first house at 23, rented it out, set up my first business in a bed room in spare time. Tell me foxy, what have you done with your spoilt bringing? Or do you just expect as a birth right kindly municipal milk to feed your every need?

For your information, only 1 in 8 businesses survive to profitability for 10 years. People who make a living with their own business on average do it on their third attempt - its tough and there very few short cuts. The 775 businesses failing is healthy - it frees up resources for more stronger businesses. Those who pick themselves up and keep trying again with their next business will be successful.

"The working class had been attacked with VAT rises". Foxy that is complete tripe. No they didnt. Look across Europe and Denmark in particular and you will find socialist biased states with higher VAT than the UK. Its because VAT is progressive - those who consume most pay most. The state needs to supports lower income people by cutting tax - unlike Labour which got rid of the 10 pence tax and wanted to put up national insurance, the opposite of the Tories. Its shows the Tories have strong British values and Labour is immoral and mutated.

"Labour is Middle Class and Elitist". The fact you dint get it and argue against this says just how little you know about the Labour machinery, its elite, those you see and those behind the scenes who run the party. Take Ed Balls, who will be the leader of Labour at the next election. Do you know which posh school he went to? Do you know the enormous amount of money he is currently raking in from his various consultancies and appointments - he cant do the decent thing like Blair and wait to start exploiting his position for his own greedy gain. Its his greedy selfishness that steers what he does - e.g. he was responsible for fudging the interpretation of the treasury forecasts used by Labour to justify borrowing the £350Bn before 2008.

What you dont get is that Labour is not the party of the working class like it once was - it is a mutuated organisation run with the objective of propelling an small elite into power. The part has no fixed values or strategy - it lurches from one bandwagon to the next trying to win popularity.

@matt

Foxy, are you having an identity crisis talking so many porkies? I mean I thought it was the little pig who built a straw house to live in.

So, you got one of the figures - £400bn in 1997 - now divide it into the debt when Labour left office and tell me the result.

£400Bn was the entire debt accumulated over the coutry's 1,000 year history after 2 recent world wars plus the reconstruction after WWII.

Labour borrowed and pissed away £350 Bn before 2008 and the backing crisis. No our kids have to pay it back. Worse is Labour's Plan B means doing it all again.

Foxy, best call the firebrigade as I think your house is burning.

@matt

Foxy, is chasing your tail your favorite past time? Its just you seem to do it a lot.

VAT is a progressive tax just as VAT on energy is a green tax - those who consume more, pay more. Its balanced by offsets to payroll tax for lower paid and state benefits. Its the approach that socialist Denmark takes. Yet Labour dropped VAT, got rid of the 10p tax and wanted to raise national insurance -- I remember why, do you? It was because the Labour elite considered the lowest income people did not represent a significant voting inflence -- they were a forgotten cast by Labour.

Labour have no strategy, have lost their values and focus on short term tactics to win votes and power.

You have never disagreed with this.

BTW great news that the deficit is falling signficiantly.

Inbrew, Brown slashed VAT on gas and electricity bills from an eye watering 17.5% to 5%.

You will find the ONS revised upwards by £1.7 billion borrowing from previous months.

Are you getting desperate, due to the bleak economic news, private sector jobs being shed?

Why don't the Logica job losses count Inbrew.

"Debt reduction, what debt reduction has this government achieved"? So Matthew where do you think we should cut more? Look here 1% most are just happy Labour's no longer fucking-up their lives.

What relief, they where nailed to win the by-election, he is five for five.

Luddite talked about " Working Folks " not turning out for Miliband, looks like he needs to get out of the prediction game.

A churlish Tory MP, really, another example of losing badly, bad winners sore losers.

If the country was doing well, the Tories would have taken this seat, it is a simple as that.

@matt

Foxy, have you been at the windfall again, afterall it is Christmas? But watch those fermenting ones as they stew your perception.

Err, which beating am I taking? All European countries siginging up to the treaty which Cameron veto'd are shredding Plan B. We are the only major EU economy where Brussels will not legally control fiscal policy - left wing borrow and spend. And we will have access to the decision making of the the treaty members. A canny win from Britian.

Yet Miliband tried to create a bandwagon by making an inept play on national television that he would have signed the treaty without the British opt outs. Firstly, its irrational because Labour is nothing without borrow and spend. Secondly, the opinion polls show it damaged his reputation as people perceive him as a weak sign anything/ given anything away ineffectual leader. He has shown he would give way to pressure from the French when he thinks his personal popularity might be hurt rather than putting the national interest first. The opposite of Cameron. Milibandwagons short term opportunism rather than sticking to a clear strategy and values mean people think he is anchorless.

So the only beatings there are, are the one Milibandwagon has been getting in popularity polls and from the party for his leadership performance.

BTW why did Milibandwagon not make his play on the veto BEFORE the treaty summit - he could have set out his clear criteria of what he would have done faced with the same circumstances as Cameron. Instead, he waited until after the event before criticising just like a back seat driver.

Now now Luddite, don't go over to the darkside you simpleton.

Have you got around to reading mark twain#s quotes, that way you wont look as stupid when you try to use the words he has written.

Farewell Tom Luddite.

Which subject, the balance of payments fiasco, the Cameron IMF/ECB?

Take your pick you silly sausage?

Well done to Ed. Great result but more work to be done...

Don't you understand the terms " Record " Inastew?

I see the facts don't go along with your narrative, is that why your floundering.

The makers aren't marching, they are too busy shedding sweet sweet private sector jobs.

Better luck next time Inastew.

Ed Miliband's dad ... drove a bus.

No doubt one which is open at the back to jump on. Its where EM learned to jump on bandwagons.

Steve - more likely he will lose the Falklands... and he has a snowballs chance in hell of getting them back. I seriously doubt that the French will lend us any aircraft carriers.

Straw, the ones you use to drink Inbrew, why am I have a party?

Logica, are you telling me private companies are taking money from the State Fairy?

The fact the deficit is coming down due to higher VAT revenues says it all Inbrew, Conservatives love raising taxes.

Brown actually introduced Working Tax credits Inbrew, helping the working poor.

I remember John Redwood feeling Income Support as taxpayer vehicle to support badly paid workers, he preferred to let businesses to pay people poorly.

That is correct Inbrew, the Right Wing want government to pay money to people who work because they feel the private don't too.

I suppose people who have their tax credits frozen feel so support by Cameron and Clegg, I mean being £200 worse off in an incentive.

Brown supported the low paid by introducing the National Minimum wage, a policy voted against on mass by the Conservative party.

With 4 million people suffering fuel poverty, 20% VAT on energy bills is about the most stupid idea you have come up with, and that is saying something.

So you criticising Brown for subjecting the least well off to lower bills, yes you just wrote then Inbrew.

@Lady J

Given Seema was recommended by Hattie I assume she has good ventrilo skills (can speak out of both sides of mouth at same time).

We should not forget the very low turn out in a Labour seat and no evidence of a backlash against the government. It proves there is strong contentment for the coalition which is what I am hearing from insiders.

This is a 'shoo-in'. Ed just needs to keep sucker punching the PM and draw him out into the limelight of public opinion.
The Cain and Able syndrome will be used as a universal nostrum by the Tories and the Media ad infinitum.
Talking about relationships - how about matricide?
Kenny(Killer Whale) Clarke and Frankie 'The Finger' Maude showed Mrs Thatcher the door and made her cry. These same boors are now in Cameron's government.
What hard-necks. And Cameron fits the bill - hypocrite!

Politically Correct

@matt

Foxy, was readig Aesop and wondered if your skulk had ever spun a story to someone, saying whatever was necessary to flatter them, in order to steal their meal?

Before 2008 and the banking crisis, people ahd not forgotten Labour borrowed and spent £350Bn but did not invest it. They created the enormous structural deficit. Labour held on to power through spin which is one reason people do not trust the party.

Luddite writes, 'Freeman; your great leader didn't have a fantastic start in life.'

Don't run away with the idea that anyone who disagrees with the tripe you write is automatically a Miliband or Labour supporter. Some of us are still socialists, a concept banned by Labour many years ago.

Inbrew, you forget, Ed Miliband was ahead of the story when it came to Phone Hacking/Eurozone ECB.

The expression " A dollar and a day late " springs to mind with Cameron.

Robert "stupid boy" Taggart needs to remember that, since this is a seat the Conservatives need to win to get an overall majority, an increased Labour majority is a real blow to Cameron, especially after a populist onslaught in the media over the EU.

Come on Inbrew, credit were credit due, your a great storyteller.

UK Manufacturing shedding jobs, Unemployment at a 17 year high.

Mrs T and Major taxed borrowed and spent, like there was no tomorrow.

Please tell me where the £350 Billion North Sea Oil revenue and the £50 Billion of state sales went Inbrew, that will make for a gripping yarn, you nutcase.

@matt

Foxy, did you get a cook book for Christmas? So you can ogle the pictures and dream of chicken stew.

A record is a 2 dimensional disc with the same old tune that wears thin. In your case its a 1970's record which is scratched and stuck. You need to get your friends to give you a new one.

So why is Milibandwagon polling so badly?

@Peter
Yes you are correct. On what you say about wages and on Foxy talking drible.

The minimum wage means hundreds of thousands of British people are excluded from the job market because cheap Poles, paid cash in hand no tax, back fill the jobs. It increases the surplus of British people on the labor market which brings down rates of jobs above the minimum wage.

But the fundamental problem is not the minimum wage but the high level of tax burden on low paid people. The solution is
- keep national insurance low (Labour want to put it up which makes legitimate workers more expensive to employ)
- keep PAYE low so that they can have the same net pay at lower cost to the employer (Gordon scrapped the 10p tax taking jobs away from British people. He gave the tax to the bankers. Its because he calculated that was best to propel him to power)
- raise the personal allowance to take people out of the tax system altogether (Labour have fought against the coalition's plans for this)

The state needs to redistribute wealth from rich to poor. It can follow Denmarks example of higher VAT to penalise imports/ bias in favor of exporters with compensating state support for the poorest. The money raised can be used for business taxes like lower corporation tax to encourage inward investment.

Freeman; don’t give me that crap; it’s always the same old tired argument when Socialism fails. It wasn't a Socialist government, or it wasn't Socialist enough. Your now totally economically discredited Socialist government squandered billions on building your Socialist utopia. Destroying the life opportunities of millions of our young people, with your left-wing believe in open borders your trendy left-wing ideas on education that drove-down standards across all subjects, and come-on” Ed Milliband isn't a Marxist”? Freeman; your now totally economically discredited previous Socialist government couldn't of being more Socialist. In practice, socialism didn't work. Socialism could never have worked because it is based on false premises about human psychology and economies, and a dangerous ignorance of human society. Just take a look at North Korea. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.