North East = Soviet Union?

North East = Soviet Union?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1582905,00.html

Very interesting this - turns out that the North East relies as much on government money as some Eastern Bloc countries did before the fall of communism in those regions.

..... I know this is the second 'anti labour' thing ive posted, but when Labour have to start raising taxes or making cuts - is the north going to suffer the most especially when half the regional economy is made up from government created jobs in the first place.

Worrying.

REAL WORLD TO SPENCE!!!!!!!!!!!

Im making a comment on browns obsession with draining the middle classes to fund state run enterprises chock a block with beauracracy and wastefulness, as opposed to CREATING REAL WEALTH IN THIS COUNTRY BY ENCOURAGING ENTERPRISE!!!!

He should be spending more time giving incentives for companies to set up shop (and i dont mean sweat shops) north of the Thames, than just shipping his paperwork jobs up there.

And before anyone gets angry, im not saying theres anything wrong with those kind of jobs - its just a shame that all you see being created in the north are what politicians would call 'low skill' jobs.

We need companies like Microsoft and Intel up there, not paperwork jobs filing benefit claims for sharon and her 10 kids.

West end of newcastle

Bingo... i spent 18 odd years in education. primary school, middle school, high school, newcastle uni

.... and at the end of it .... NO JOBS in the North East. So theres only one place to go - darn sarf.

I would have stayed in my home town if i could have gotten a decent career out of it.

I dont fail to understand anything. Those companies you mentioned at the end have shipped their assembly line jobs up here .... And Siemens is on its last legs in the region. Hardly high tech jobs.

And going back to my point once again, its not about what what already there - its about how things have progressed in 8 years in government and in the INCREASE in reliability on government money to keep the region running smoothly.

People harp on about how the tories are bad and how labour have created a strong economy - all they have done is borrowed massive amounts of money into creating government jobs which they will eventually have to axe anyways.

New labour come along in 1997 as the saviors of our country right? (or at least thats what all new labour supporters seem to believe) .....


..... Has the north east benefitted since then. Have they done something about decades upon decades of north south divide where companies use the north as the workshops of the country to mine their coal and answer their phones.

Nope. They just increase its reliance on government money.

I just dont see where these supposed improvements are in our country, and specifically - our region.

With a recession/slowdown fast gaining pace, it seems like its only a matter of time before northumberland street and the quayside look like downtown Warsaw again - 8 years ago there were about 3 bars open down the quayside and the rest of the place was totally boarded up.

THis 'economic miracle' that nu-labourites seem to believe in so much is gonna come crashing down eventually.

Tony Blair would be proud of that one Spence, 'vote for us because the tories were a little bit worse than us'

Thats why all the parties, and indeed this election is a joke - its just more of the same but with a different front man and a different coloured rosette. I think its worth commenting when people either make comments about the tories as if they were picked by satan, or the supposed new beginning that labour were gonna bring to us 2 terms ago amounted to Gordon Brown answering every problem by raising taxes and borrowing money, and Bliar doing what Bush wanted him to do.

Naive - classic

The IMF has warned gordon brown multiple times now that he needs to cut spending or raise taxes. What has he done about it - NOTHING! .... oh yeah - kept spending!

This past 6 months have been mightily worrying for the economy. Theres not a week goes by without some doom and gloom. IBM axing 13k jobs today, marconi screwed, wedgewood laying off thousands, rover, .... high street slowdowns, trillion pound consumer debt.

There aint anything prosperous about borrowing massive amounts of money, overspending, encouraging everyone to get into massive debts.

We, the 'playstation generation' - are screwed.