Nice of her to lay into the new budget without any reference to the reason for it and the previous governments profligacy and complete lack of fiscal credibility. Interesting to see Alistair Darling sitting there with barely an emotion or response. Clearly he knew how badly the economy was shagged and that it would take a robust budget plan to address it.
cant understand why they havent hammered fags and booze tbh
Anyone else hear him mention the lack of investment in the early 90's right near the start as a contributary factor? I had to pinch myself, and by the time I had checked that I was actually not dreaming the moment had gone.
Us civil servants paying for the mistakes of the bankers and the last government - f'kin great...
and why isnt international aid being cut . surely look after yourself then others
i think the cut in benefits and rise in vat will be hitting a lot of lower income families very hard, booze and fags would just be hitting them harder
and i didnt realise that 1.7 million public sector workers already earnt less than 21k a year
cant understand why they havent hammered fags and booze tbh
WHAT! have you been to a pub recently most pints even cooking lager like fosters is £3 odd, and cigarettes/tobacco are very expensive you can't keep targeting tobacco users whether you are one or not.
Us civil servants paying for the mistakes of the bankers and the last government - f'kin great...
The MP's wont be suffering will they. Even those three under criminal investigation are receiving Legal Aid FFS.
I don't care what you hear about heads of councils earning shiploads, yes, there are those but they are very much the exception. I work for the Met Office, have been at my job for 8-years, have a PhD and earn less than £30K - i.e. most civil servants earn relatively crap wages
Booze and fags - yes, this will hit the lower end hardest, but then again, how much does it cost the economy in health-related ilnesses.
Also, anything which involves ££ hits the poorest hardest as they've got the least disposable income
i get the feeling the defecit is a convenient excuse for the Tories to bring in lots of cuts to the civil service that they'd have wanted to do anyway.
jonjones13 - did you vote for the last government?
If you did, then you can't sit down, enjoy the meal and complain when the bill gets presented to you.
tails yes i was in on friday got wrecked and smoked too 😉 still cant understand it not going up tho. you dont have to drink and smoke its a choice
and why isnt international aid being cut . surely look after yourself then others
thats what I always think but it must be more to do with business or you'd surly cut that.
Out of interest is the War, generating or costing money?
...the war in Iraq was costing about £1BN/year
Yeah, I did vote, Lib dem - stolen vote.... etc etc
jonjones
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285
read thye last sentence in the first part please
i think the cut in benefits and rise in vat will be hitting a lot of lower income families very hard, booze and fags would just be hitting them harder
Maybe families on very low incomes shouldn't be spending money on booze and fags?
gusamac - that is not comparing like with like tho.
Public sector workers are less likely to be blue coller and more white coller
compare like with like and public sector get paid less.
Diploma and degree here ( paid for myself). 30 yrs experience. under £25 000 pa
you are right jon of course but why take away one of the few pleasures they have?
Up until 2 years ago, I was a Civil Servant (5 years with DWP). I was at the top of my grade - Admin. Officer. My salary when I left was £16,000 per annum and absolutley no chance of promotion as all the jobs were locked in. I could go to the next level up as Team Leader -Executive Officer but I wouldn't have been paid more and it would only have been a temporary position anyway.
The constant crap about Civil Servants having it easy does my head in. I'm much better off with the council :-}
All looks fair enough to my given the circumstances. Having said that I don't live in the UK, but I do pay 25% VAT...
Presumably once the deficit is reduced and growth assured public sector workers (like me) will receive nice big pay increases to compensate for these pay cuts? Oh wait, the Tories are in power...
you are right jon of course but why take away one of the few pleasures they have?
Smoking isn't really a pleasure is it? it's something you do becuase you (think) you're addicted - so no, I don't buy that at all.
Booze, maybe you have a point but again it's about priorities surely? and it's something you can do without. If you can't afford it, find some pleasures which don't cost you anything - there are plenty about.
My response to Mr Osborne is:
I'll give a freeze in effort and interest at work over the next 2yrs.
I'll give a freeze in effort and interest at work over the next 2yrs.
and if you work in the public sector they won't fire you 🙂
Better a pay freeze than a job loss. I suspect any moaners will be noted down and slung out at the earliest opportunity.
I'll give a freeze in effort and interest at work over the next 2yrs.
As it's the public sector not sure anyone will really notice or care. 😉
Edinburgh City Council have a scheme where they rent houses and flats etc off private landlords and pay them approximately double the market value, so that they can house homeless people.
TJ, at what point during the 30 years doing what you do did you realise you were not meeting your salary expectations 😉
I'll give a freeze in effort and interest at work over the next 2yrs.
So you'll double your capacity?
nice line Hora
Link Obi _troll?
Junkyard - no link - no troll either.
Obi_Twa - Member
Edinburgh City Council have a scheme where they rent houses and flats etc off private landlords and pay them approximately double the market value, so that they can house homeless people.
Sounds like a good policy. Many landlords won't touch people on benefits, let alone the homeless.
Just heard from a mate at work that our local council employees were so worried about the spending cuts in the public sector that a load of them have gone off sick with worry!
Oh, how we laughed.
It'll be interesting to see what tomorrow's papers say about the budget... I look forward to reading the Mail's "average family" comparison chart.
Edited to add that I was very surprised (not) to see Gordon absent from the Labour benches. My already low opinion of the man has sunk even lowerier.
well personally it could have been much worse. as it is my work is on a 5 year pay freeze and a 5 year recruitment freeze to and our pensions are getting ruined anyway
bruneep - Member
"My response to Mr Osborne is:
I'll give a freeze in effort and interest at work over the next 2yrs."
You could try getting a job in the private sector, though perhaps your are in the right place with that attitude.
Any chance we could swap pension provision?
Sorry sire!
<dof's hat and walks out backwards grateful that the laird of the land has still allowed him to breathe>
Dump the subsidies to arms makers. Extra 2% income tax for graduates making over 35k to cover education. Extra tax on beer/cider/wine and especially superstrength. Better management of sick leave in the public sector and better management of the underlying causes. Tax on aviation fuel. Phase out MS Office products in the public sector in favour of open source equivalents. Terminate the monarchy and nationalise their assets. Cancel any government involvement with or contribution to the Olympics, FIFA or any more bloody bids for spurious sports competitions that cost a ton and are nothing but tax-funded PR opportunities for politician ****s. Introduce luxury car tax. Introduce stamp duty on transfer of used cars. Close UK military bases on Germany and Cyprus, and relocate them to Sth Wales near the M4, rail and sea links.
and why isnt international aid being cut . surely look after yourself then others
Spend aid - reduce political instability - increase returns on UK investment overseas - reduce refugee movement - reduce conflict which is bad for business and expensive on defence spending - stimulate economic growth - have them buy British stuff or stuff owned by British companies. Managing investment overseas is a huge British industry, much more than for most other EU economies.
rent houses and flats etc off private landlords and pay them approximately double the market value,
Double the market value for what?
I don't agree with everything you say Mr Bunny, but quality rantage!
[i]have them buy British stuff or stuff owned by British companies.[/i]
When the government do that it's 'international aid', when BAE do it, it's bribery 🙂
Extra 2% income tax for graduates making over 35k to cover education
Don't agree on that one. People coming out of Uni with more and more debt then being faced with extra 'costs' if they do manage to work hard and make it.
Smoking isn't really a pleasure is it? it's something you do becuase you (think) you're addicted - so no, I don't buy that at all.
Really? You want to try it. There's only a few things better than a good nicotine buzz from that first cigarette of the day.
Well - a budget of two halves I guess. We don't know the full extent of the damage to the public sector yet but I personally will be significantly worse off. Thats on well less that the average wage and Its going to cost me
When the government do that it's 'international aid', when BAE do it, it's bribery
Lots of aid is tied, unfortunately. But BAe's bribery is absolutely against British interests: it increases political instability, makes those economies less fruitful markets for British investors, reduces economic growth in those markets, and increases marginalisation and political instability, which undermines the UK's security interests abroad.
I missed out a point: the UK is completely failing to deliver on its 20 year old OECD commitment to prosecute British companies and residents for bribery of foreign officials. The US and Germany have successfully extracted hundreds of millions of dollars of fines. There's a 2 birds with 1 stone opportunity here (3 if it leads to the end of the dolescum arms industry).
People coming out of Uni with more and more debt then being faced with extra 'costs' if they do manage to work hard and make it.
Meh - I have mixed feelings about that one too.
