The pre-election handouts continue apace today with news that after David Cameron had promised "to do all he could" to prevent the closure of Kellingley Colliery (who would have thought it, a Tory PM supporting the miners) and today he bungs then £10million to keep the pit open for another year.

Maybe just a coincidence that one of the union reps was on local radio today speaking of a new seam that they about to open which has upwards of £150 million worth of coal in it - could be completely coincidental of course.

between 2008 and 2013 coal miners hourly pay rate has apparently (per this morning's Metro) fallen by 29%. So, I guess he's happy about low production costs.

Compare that with a 68% rise in legal professionals hourly rates.

Don't you like good news?

They can't bear to see a recovery under a Conservative chancellor.

Everything Tory is bad remember.

Let me know when we get back to the position we were in when this shambles got their hands on it.



1,800 posts and finally you get it. Congratulations.

I am neither a Tory or Labour, most on here are too entrenched in their belief of who is right and who is wrong, I think Blair(on the home front) had us going in the right direction, Brown was an absolute disaster and considering the mess the Tories inherited I think they're doing okay.
I'd love to see a few political neutrals, with all the facts telling me where we actually are in terms of growth and the direction we are heading. The trouble is everyone is pulling out the facts which suit their argument and ignoring the facts which harm their point.

Another right wing apologist who may be able to answer the question because a previous apologist hadn't a clue or the question confused him/her.
Which economy?

'tis always the case for politics is a world of lies and manipulation - it has to be so in order to keep your job.

From the frontline that I see on a day-to-day basis, and ignoring all of the flim-flam of media reporting and political crowing I see businesses more confident this year than last and more so than the previous five however those businesses are very different organisations to the ones that they were five years ago mainly because the recession of these past five or six years - I make no apology for using the word recession outside of its defined political meaning for businesses have seen markets and turnover recede over that time - the recession years have given them the upper hand in wage control.

Very few employees have had regular wage rises, many are still in a worse place income-wise than they were in 2007, so although anyone will repeat the phrase "confident" back to you when asked about employment prospects, few will tell you that they are more wealthy now than they were, many will tell you that they are still worried about employment contracts, many will now be working alongside colleagues who have little job security or who are employed not by the business but by employment agencies - THIS has been the biggest change since 2007 and is simply the result of the boot being firmly on the foot of the employer, it will be interesting to see what happens in future years as employment increases and employees can start to negotiate better terms again.

As for next years election, throw away the policy manifestos, anyone who believes a manifesto booklet after the 2010 election farce is a fool who should be locked away in an asylum, the next election will be won on TV and in the newspapers and in that respect the Tory party hold every single card bar one, their only fear will be to keep them all onside and to gain enough seats for a working majority.

Yes I do, but since when is a prediction good news?

Your post seems to imply the economy was in a good state in 2010. Poor trolling this.

It was growing in 2010, albeit slowly but Gideon has seen fit to halt that growth in the name of austerity. GDP is still 1.4% below the 2007 peak, whereas US GDP is now 5% higher over the same period.