Ex Lion Tamer

Well the coalition has made a good start in cracking down on payday loan companies, next we need to bring down house prices in London and the south East

It does feel though like a bit of a generalisation to suggest that everyone in debt considers themselves a victim, and I do personally feel that the government has a responsibility to protect people from themselves (including myself). It's also better for the economy as a whole if we keep people out of debt

Yet for some reason the public is behind public spending cuts, that's why the tories have a lead on the economy and Labour had to include a 'fiscal responsibility' statement in its manifesto?

OK I see what you mean. I agree that private debt is bad and should be discouraged, although I have some sympathy for people who don't have wealth like Mr Portillo and who make bad decisions in moments of weakness. Plus with house prices nowadays we don't really have much option but to get in loads of debt. So what is your solution to the private debt problem? How can we change the culture?

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/01/14/why-public-debt-is-not-like-credit-card-debt/

But national debt and personal debt are completely different things. That is your blind spot.

I remember when McGoldrick was banging them in for the reserves and was the answer to all our problems

I'm ready for the election now, bored of this campaign

Recessions apparently come in 7-10 year cycles which is pretty worrying, means we'll be due one in 2017/18 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/hamish-mcrae/a-study-of-past-economic-cycles-suggests-that-we-arent-far-away-from-the-next-downturn-9653011.html

Fair enough to make that argument, but pretending that he wasn't invited when he actually engineered the whole situation by refusing from the outset to take part is just blatantly misleading the public

Seriously mate, don't fall for their spin. We can disagree on policy but there's no doubt that the Tories are being utterly devious on this one, as CB says

So Cameron is claiming that he wasn't invited to the debates. Just another example of the way he brazenly lies to the country

I also can't see the left wing of the lib dems accepting another five years with the tories

I'm just saying it's all very well being critical but it's actually a hard job. And you do have the option to prove you're better

If you think you can do better you should stand

A national economy doesn't work in the same way as a household budget, so your comparison is nonsense

Self made billionaires tend to think that because they did it, anyone can. It's not true

His teams always do well for a couple of seasons and then go down the pan

Your grandparents should have worked harder [emoji3]

I can see how bits of responsibility like that are good for morale, but do they really lead to substantial increases in wages?

Is that to me? I just said it helped persuade me. The article is actually critical of the Guardian's reporting on immigration, something I don't think the Mail would allow about itself

But you were lucky you had parents who instilled a work ethic in you. Some of the current problems in the UK black community stem from the fact that the Windrush immigrants were predominantly young men who left home young, didn't have adequate guidance about how to live their lives and therefore didn't pass it on to their kids

Why abolish slavery, they like it, out there singing songs in the fields!

Seriously dude, the people I'm talking about are neither intelligent enough or socially skilled enough for a management role. You just don't want to believe otherwise because it doesn't fit your worldview. We've talked about the minimum wage before and I showed you stats that demonstrate how it has increased wages at the bottom, but you ignored them. The way forward is to increase it further, not get rid of it and hope that wages will miraculously rise. I will throw you a bone though and say that I've changed my view on immigration, having read some things I do think freedom of movement is suppressing wages: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/24/open-borders-fair-wages-left-mass-immigration-britain-economy Tax credits are tricky because they did have an important effect on child poverty under labour, but in the long run they probably do disincentivise employers to pay decent wages

Plus it's much easier to work hard and be motivated if you're being paid well, have a nice warm home to go to, eat well, do the odd leisure activity each week and refresh with a holiday or two each year