I dont think people want this, its just that Gideon has very cleverly targeted Austerity on groups of voters and regions that would never vote Tory anyway. If they are serious about tackling the deficit and debt they are going to have to target other voters and regions in the second term, like pensioners or those on tax credits. They have been very lucky with the economic cycle as well

I think this reflects the deeply fragmented state of the country.

The former industrial heartlands are struggling economically - and are having further de facto contractions of their economies imposed on them by suffering the worst impacts of 'austerity'.

People outside of the NW/Yorks/NE are oblivious to the plight of people in these regions. It's not as bad as the 80's - but it's heading that way.

In this election, many people in these regions looked to Labour (who saw their share increase in a lot of heartland seats). But, despite pretending to care, Labour couldn't really give a sh*t either.

ROFL!!  Beast talks more bobbins on this forum than anyone. It's brilliant, and you can feel the anger at Labour's total decimation in his posts 

If you care to research the data, you'll notice that most metropolitan councils in 'the north' have suffered cuts to local authority central grants widely in the 25-50% bracket, whilst councils in the far more prosperous south & south east have had minimal (1-4%) cuts to their grants.

The majority of the half-million+ public sector jobs lost since 2010 have been away from the S & SE.

It very much is 'targeted austerity' - but not just geographically.

The poorest in society (hardly a Tory-supporting demographic) have faced the biggest cuts, proportionally.

Beast, he only got 30.5% of the vote. 

Are you seriously saying that Miliband could have got loads of seats based on this if only the votes were in the swing seats? 

You got to be joking.

And if you care to research the data you will see that the vast majority of northern metropolitan councils had shed loads of money chucked at them during the previous 13 years to that.

Whereas down here we had to deal with 1-4% increases, due to the wonderful system of the more efficient you were, the less grant you got

Warren, I've studied in depth this exact topic, so I could go on & on - but I'd bore you & everyone else to death, so I'll just say that, in a nutshell, the central grant system, when overhauled by Major, deliberately didn't factor in the actual need of councils (eg, how many residents need social care paying for or subsidised, because they're on benefits), instead using a very blunt tool of calculation based on simple populations & number of houses in each CT band. It was a NuLabour manifesto pledge in 97 to revise the system to take into account the actual needs of councils. Bliar didn't actually go as far as planned, because it would have impacted too hard on 'middle England' & southern councils. Soon after the 2010 election, the Tories scrapped the 'based on need' calculation.

I don't want to argue because I respect your views, but just to quote from the budget report from my councils 2008 budget report

This Council is to receive the
lowest ever increase in general Government Grant of 1% in
2008/09, 0.5% in 2009/10 and 0.6% in 2010/11. The 1% increase
falls to 0.4% when taking into account funding previously paid
separately to the Council now included within the Grant
settlement and is set against a
background where CPI (consumer price index) and RPI (retail
price index) are currently 2.2% and 4.1%

So as you rightly point out and very fairly I must say, the Labour system was disproportionately harsh against southern councils. In real terms my council had already had 3 years of cuts before austerity.

And this is from this years budget.

The Council has seen its general government grant, the Local Government Settlement Funding Assessment, fall by more than £3.3m or 50% over the five-year period 2011/12 to 2015/16 with further cuts expected in future years.

of the twelve district councils in Kent, Tonbridge and Malling continues to receive the lowest Local Government Finance Settlement both in total and per head.

Dave may well be cracking open the champagne tonight, but I think the coming parliament could be a far bigger test of his leadership than the one just gone. I cast my mind back to 1992 when Major got a sizeable majority, contrary to many opinion polls before that election which went for either a hung parliament or a narrow Labour victory. To be honest, I wouldn't mind betting that there were times during the following five years when, deep down, he wished he hadn't been re-elected in the '92 election, given that the Tories' ratings were starting to drop noticeably in the polls and the Tory party effectively split itself right down the middle over Europe.

As far as the here and now is concerned, I remain to be convinced that the Tories are not as divided over Europe now as they were during the Major years. Also, he could have an even bigger headache if, in the event of an EU membership referendum being held, Scotland as a whole voted to remain in the EU and England votes to leave. Whether that referendum actually takes place or not is another issue.

Ahem! The West Midlands is an industrial heartland and it has been doing quite nicely under the coalition. Lot's of new factories and investment and real jobs of course. That is one reason why Labour failed to make any inroads in the West Midlands and Tory representation actually increased.

Typical crud.  I will explain again for the hard of intelligence

Its the poor, the weak, the low paid, the vulnerable that will have lost.  I merely voted to support those less well placed to articulate and defend themselves.

Never mind your arse, Laugh your head off!

If I've understood correctly, that suggests you've lost out twice - which is patently unfair (and thanks for taking the time & effort to make such a detailed post)

But that is not representative of local authorities in the S/SE - especially 'shire' counties. Some councils in the Home Counties have had cuts to the CGS in single figures over the 5 years of the last Parliament (lowest 6.3%)

In contrast, the biggest reductions in 'spending power' (lower than actual CGS, as CT & other income has risen during the period), according to an IFS study, have been in (average per region):

London -31.4%

North East -26.5%

North West -25.7%

The two with the best settlement changes are Surrey (+0.3%) & East Sussex (+2.1%)

Put another way, the following table shows the impact of cuts broken down into 'deprivation quintiles':

The referendum will definitely happen - it will be in the Queen's Speech. Dave should be OK for 18 months at least, whilst he goes through the motions of negotiating a better settlement with our masters in Brussels - the danger will come when he has to report back. If he wins insufficient concessions to satisfy the eurosceptics amongst Conservative MPs, then they will rebel if he plans to run a strong campaign to remain in the EU - that is when things could get difficult for him.

To be honest, I doubt he will win any meaningful concessions. since our EU masters won't want to do anything which involves treaty changes.

But all that lies in the future - allow Dave a couple of weeks until the Queen's Speech to bask in the warm glow of victory.

Yes, David's glory hunting in Libya was conveniently forgotten by the Tory press as he and Sarkozy toppled Gadaffi and as much of a lunatic despot he was he kept some semblance of order.

Another victory for Dave there.  Now watch him screw up on Devolution and Europe.

Oh dear, lol. I'm pretty sure I occupy a far higher level of intelligence and what my work entails than most could ever understand, although a few that matter on here do know.

But all that aside, your bitterness fills me with a warm glow, and I will remind you of that constantly for at least the next 5 years 

In other news - another catastrophe for Labour in the locals and more good news for the Tories 

I couldn't agree more.

The pro-Labour reaction on social media has been truly vile.

Post of the election - anywhere.

The Tories won so it must be undemocratic.

Beast's irrational core stripped naked and exposed for all to see.

Just spotted this result overnight - Liverpool Walton. Labour polled over 81% of the vote and the Conservatives lost their deposit. That must be one of the most one-sided constituency results ever?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000794

All very North Korea don't you think?

It defies logic!

Are we living in North Korea? Have the votes actually been counted properly!?