At a lunch with a Daily Telegraph journalist, Lord Young said that for,
"the vast majority of people in the country today, they have never had it so good ever since this recession - this so-called recession - started."
Lord Young told the newspaper that the government's spending cuts, totalling more than £80bn over four years, would just take state spending levels back to what they were in 2007 - a time, he said, when people were "not short of money".
"Now, I don't remember in '07 being short of money or the government being short of money,"he said. "So, you know, I have a feeling and a hope that when this goes through, people will wonder what all the fuss was about. Of course, there will be people who complain, but these are people who think they have a right for the state to support them."
The 78-year old peer, who served in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet in the 1980s, was named peer of the year at the Spectator magazine's annual awards this week, before his comments had been reported, and his recent report for Mr Cameron on health and safety was highly praised by the prime minister.
No 10 said Mr Cameron had accepted the peer's resignation from the unpaid enterprise advisory role he took on last month.
Your thoughts welcomed, as frankly amazed by what Lord Young said.
The premise that 'most' people have variable mortgages whose interest payments have dropeed to a pittance is rubbish. I doubt more than a few percent have that kind of mortgage. Most of us surely have fixed rate ones in fear of seeing the 15% interest rates back again.
He is a stupid old Tory fool - not a surprising pearl of wisdom from such a pillock. What suprises me is just how stupid Cameron was to employ such a patently unsuitable person for any role where he might be required to speak in public.
I am actually one of the people he is probably referring too. We have a tracker mortgage we now pay around £50 a month compared to the £250 at around the time period he was referring too. Also I now work less and receive tax credits, the system brought in by labour. Pretty much all in all I have never had it so good. Combination of things brought in by Labour and the fall in interest rates.
Well, in my view, Lord Young has it basically right. Even the Political pundits say so.
He did a good job for Cameron on Health and Safety and it is such a shame that so distinguished a political career should end for him on such a low note.
Our last mortgage (now long since paid off before this recession hit - thankfully) was also a tracker and I shudder to think just how much we would have been paying had we continued to owe the money if the interest rate had risen significantly. The builder who bought our property still hasn't sold it 3 years on and I guess he too thinks that Lord Young is right too. He would have gone bust holding such a property on his books for so long with high interest rates.
Lord Young was not a member of the Government. He was not paid in his role as an advisor. I don't think he was out of touch with the reality and probably spoke more truth than it fits the Government purpose to do so at this time. I really do hope it is not the last we hear from him.
I have a tracker morgage...so yes I am one of the few that gain finacially in that way.
However what good is that......when on Tuesday I was made redundant !!
I worked for a major inernational European based company. The actuall letter they sent out states, that they had a european wide economic forecast done. It can back and it said due to the new British governments economic stratagey would almost enivitabley lead to a double dip recession. Therefore they decided to cut here workforse across the board by 25% in the UK.
So yea....great I have lower morgage repayments.....but how the hell am I going to pay them without a job !!
I am unsure of the numbers or the facts as to whether this comment is offensive or not.
Sure, there are people who are suffering, but not everyone is. Are the numbers of people who have gained to the numbers of those lost, more or less? If they are then his statement is correct. If it is not then it is not correct.
As far as I am concerned, this chap works off figures. If those figures are correct then whats the problem. Even if it is a 10% swing difference i.e. 60%-40%. I would agree and say that is a vast majority where others would say say 90%-10% is a vast majority. It all goes to personal opinion.
Throughout this whole story I have seen no figures by the papers, politicians or site members that prove or disprove his opinion.
Dave_Notts
So sorry to hear that you have been made redundant dean; it must be a very trying time for you working out where you go from here.
But, don't lose the faith. Of all those people in the last "recession" that I personally knew who suffered in this way, I motivated into doing something about it. For example, a qualified in-house Accountant who had always been a company man who now runs his own very successful practice - he just needed the kick up the backside and the confidence to go out there on his own, find his own clients and make a name for himself - unashamedly!
There are other stories I could tell, but you'd probably get bored with them.
It's a tough world out there but let it motivate you into doing something for yourself rather than for others. It can be done and only you can make it happen.
Go get!!! A whole new world is out there just waiting.
in a short period of time, we will look a back and know we never had it so good. an economic tsunami is about to hit. perhaps the old duffer knows something most others dont.
but it sure makes cameron, clegg, osborne and all the other bankers puppets look better. frigin rubbish. there never was or is a "double dip" "coming out of recession" "green shoots"
ireland was forced to accept a bail out loan from the e.c.b. and i.m.f. on the peoples back to pass it on to the insolvent anglo irish and allied irish banks that owe barlays, h.s.b.c., r.b.s. and deutche banks ten times more than irelands g.d.p.
the fraudulently created debt cannot be repaid and all the politicians are doing is socialising private bank debt of a ponzi scheme that makes "madoff" appear a saint by comparison, onto the burden laden backs of the people and the osbournes, camerons, cleggs and millibands WILL do the same here.
batten down the hatches, we are in for a storm.
Blue...with respect,
what it shows is a total disrespect for the people already put out of work ( one of them being me, this week, and as already stated as a direct result of this new governments economic policy) and for the hundreds of thousands of people that are going to be put out of work, come this April when the full extent to the cuts are known.
Don't try telling them they never had it so good !!!
well.....must be just me then........because no-one I talk to thinks they are better off now and never had it so good !!!!
Thousands being put out of work ;hundreds of thousands living with the very real threat of redundancy ;houses now going back into negative equity situation; thousands running up massive debts ; Electricity and gas prices going throu the roof......I really do not see this " never had it so good " situation.
blue.....please read the date for your link.......think you will find they are actually talking about March of this year.....most def not now !!! we were seeing a tentative growth then.....but with the news of the severity that the government intends to cut in the UK, has sent forecasts the total opposite way !!!
here is the same website from this friday...specially talking about my region West Midlands. This is the story of today !!!
so it seems..strange on the front page of the bbc news business page when I looked !!!
still stand by my comment......that I have yet to find anyone that I have talked to, that thinks he has never had it so good !!!!
when bank rates first went very low we got a letter from our mortgage company saying that our payments where staying the same (even though it was a tracker)so when i heard this statement i thought its not us thats better off its the mortgage lenders. mind you when "television" charities raise tens of millions of pounds every year who can blame him for thinking we're well off and never had it so good. "food for thought".
