[OT] If you are still thinking about voting Labour next month...

[JoeJoe]

She makes Corbin sound like a world statesman (perhaps that's why they were such a lovely match all those years ago - the thought...).

Watch video here:

[Dave Plowman (News)]

So very true. The one thing you can be sure of is a Tory being absolutely certain of how much their cuts are going to save. But oddly, those cuts never seem to get passed on to the average person.

[Tim Streater]

You have heard of deficit reduction, I take it?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Oh, I have. The Tories, apparently not. Other than blaming it on a government out of office for some 7 years now. And just wait for it to increase when we finally exit the EU.

[TimW]

She certainly makes a dog's dinner of the interview. A welcome distraction for tories from the ongoing tragedy of austerity and brexit. TW

[The Natural Philosopher]

AS opposed to a corbyn led ongoing tragedy of austerity and brexit?

[John Rumm]

There, fixed it for you ;-)

[Tim Streater]

The size of the deficit when the Coalition took office can certainly be laid at the door of a certain outgoing administration (you know, the one that said there was no money left).

Since then the deficit has been considerably reduced. Still, as a Socialist you would have trouble with that concept.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And you, as a Tory, will have difficulty in deciding which deficit you wish to talk about. Would that be a balance of payments deficit? Current account one? Or borrowing?

Of course if you restrict it to exports versus imports deficit - ie the amount the country spends more than it earns - you ain't seem anything yet.

[Tim Streater]

Dear oh dear. The deficit is the difference between gumment income and gumment spending on a year by year basis, as any skoolboy kno.

Borrowing is the totality of that going back to the year dot. As long as you have a deficit, debt continues to increase. Only if you run a surplus instead of a deficit does the debt go down - only for as long as you run a surplus, of course.

That the debt has been increasing since 2010 is therefore unsurprising. That is has increased a lot can be put down to the size of the deficit that this lot inherited.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Dear oh dear. You've obviously not done simple maths at school.

And that borrowing total has gone up year on year despite the austerity some of the country has had forced on them.

And that they have made things worse rather than even a small improvement says a great deal for their policies.

[Tim Streater]

Yes, and your point is what, precisely. Other than to agree with what I've just said.

[Huge]

Much as I hate to defend her, I imagine she had a "blank" moment. We've all done it, but live radio/TV is likely the worst possible place. It was very funny, tho'.

There hasn't been any austerity.

[John Rumm]

Cocking up the numbers etc on live radio can be forgiven. Claiming it will all be paid for out of tax rises that they have also allocated several times over for various other schemes is not forgiveable though.

[Huge]

But SOP for politicians of all flavours.

[critcher]

two weeks after the election you will wonder why the hell you voted for the cons, the shit will hit the fan from all directions.

Dubs Refugee Scheme ?Error? Digital Tax Return U-Turn Distraction From Tory Expenses Investigation Southern Rail Report Delayed Green Investment Bank Sale ?Buried? Investigation Of Murdoch?s Takeover Of Sky State Pension Age Rise Delay No FGM Convictions Revealed Air Pollution Plan Delay NHS Statistics Pushed Back European Patent Court ?Up In The Air?

all revealed in "The Huffington Post"

[JoeJoe]

It was her pompous arrogance, ridiculous upper-class accent, and her inability to admit her mistake that made her look stupid. A simple "sorry, I think I got my figures wrong here" would have been much more respectable.

Probably her son's fault anyway I suppose (did she not send him to the media to say that he "forced" her to send him to a private school?)

[Tim Streater]

Careful, your snobbery is showing.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And a rather strange ear. She has a fairly standard N London grammar school accent to me.

[Brian Gaff]

I have always said that politicians should not be in any way involved with complex policy. What possible training do they have for managing any department and when in power they get shuffled about so they probably have no idea about anything. I'm not sure what the answer is, but in this case she has forgotten the first rule of politics. Never answer the question you are asked answer the one you know something about or make the answer so vague that it could be taken any way you like. This is where it helps to be a bombastic blokey bloke. The problem with Labour is that the leader thinks he is a socialist, but his mps and party are really conservatives with a small c.

Brian