Council cutbacks,what would we all cut,

i wonder how to motivate those who don't work to work. There are jobs, always have been always will be. Some are obvious some less so. Look at the state of the roads, full of holes that need to be filled, look at the litter in the hedges, etc. Tidying this would make the place a nicer place to be. But to do the job would need alot of manpower.

To pay these workers would be expensive, i wonder if there would be a way of encouraging people to care about their environment?

I have no issue with paying people to be on the dole while they look for work or can't work, but the current system where benefits, rent, council tax benefit and childcare costs mean that working doesn't pay doesn't make sense.

Another saving i can think of is scrapping tax credits, why take peoples money and then give it back, if they can be bothered to fill out forms? why not just raise the thresholds, if it means bringing in negative tax rates to get money to those at the bottom fine, but tax credits just don't make sense.

markd – I have worked for the last 27 years abroad mainly in HMG Forces and for the last 5 years in the oil and gas industry. I have seen the best and worse in individuals, most of the worst come from the UK.

Britain is seen as an easy touch, somewhare to get sorted, somewhere to go as a student and "get a job and they will let you stay" if you as a British Citizen attempt to gain assistance from a country while abroad the first thing they say is your British you have everything go home.

Think about the 70 year old plus people in this country who started work at the same time the National Insurance payments began, they were promised it was there for their later years, we have let them down and we should be ashamed of that fact. It will soon be our turn as well.

fire anyone who has a retarded job title that makes you think really hard to work out WTF they actually do each day

Art centres could bve sold to the private sector as could all those so called enterprise or starter units,why should council tax payers support other people,we could save a load.

The 'Mash has the measure of it[/url]

A department in my local council decided that they needed someone from the private sector to sort out a projects that had gone tits-up. I was one of five interviewed.

Found out that none of us got the role, as the managers decided that we'd take too long to come up to 'speed', and so re-advertised for those with local government experience…

To put it in perspective the project was sub-£1m, and at least two of us had experience of multi-million projects and managing 50+ staff…

Anokdale

So dangerousbeans you expect people who have paid into the system all their lives to dip into their pockets to pay for their care while others who could not be arsed to lift a finger go straight to the front of the line or even worse someone who gets off a plane at Heathrow with an illness wanders straight into the nearest hospital and receives care in front of a local tax payer or council tax payer. FFS no wonder there is no Great in Britain now, lets all sit on our backsides and wait for the State to feed, cloth and look after us.

No, I didn't say that.

uplink – Member
The 'Mash has the measure of it

+1

I'm all right Jack 🙂

mrmo – I always think what you could have the people do, i mean if you are fit to work and not incapable then there should be a minimum amount of service you complete in return for your handout, i appreciate effort, i hate to hear of folk just turning up to get their handout.

Cost implications, PPE, Lecture on H AND S and job safety analysis with description of task. No more than a private employee would have to carry out legally. I think road surface repairs are a priority after this winters ravages.

If we want an equitable pay in pay out system which many seem to advocate on here then we need a system more like America but more so.

Stop taxation used for health and social care – develop a 'you get what you can afford' system.

This would allow us to do away with Social Services and allied agencies and allow private companies to tender for the best provision/best cost option.

I reckon I could do fine under that system except for major illnesses or incapacity for me and my family.

For higher earners they could likely cope whatever was thrown at them.

It would also stop massive waste in health and social care where money is, at the moment, thrown at patients with ridiculously poor prognosis for treatment via the health system, and with follow up paid for currently by social/health combined.

Older people with serious illness are a waste of money as they are not going to live much longer anyway.

Serious cancers with poor prognosis, we spend £1000's to keep them alive a little longer and even more to support them and their families during recovery phases.

Trauma victims from serious car crashes, for example, cost a fortune to bring to a level of recovery nowhere near previous functioning, then waste health and social services budgets being cared for for the rest of their lives.

Babies kept alive in special care that end up disabled, yet, due to improved health provision, live an almost normal lifespan, costing health and social care an absolute fortune yet they never contribute to society.

Plenty of places to make cuts if society deems it acceptable.

So dangerousbeans you expect people who have paid into the system all their lives to dip into their pockets to pay for their care while others who could not be arsed to lift a finger go straight to the front of the line or even worse someone who gets off a plane at Heathrow with an illness wanders straight into the nearest hospital and receives care in front of a local tax payer or council tax payer

I'm quite proud of that – and I'm damn sure it's far cheaper to just fix everyone than try to work out how much to charge those not strictly entitled…

Plenty of places to make cuts if society deems it acceptable

luckily most people have more than only their own narrow interests at heart.

clubber – Member

Plenty of places to make cuts if society deems it acceptable

luckily most people have more than only their own narrow interests at heart.

Not many on here though

Wasn't advocating it, just pointing out where we need to go if people think that you should only get what you put in.

😆
Cuts Cuts and more cuts i say.

Dangerousbeans, the level of care, treatment you receive now is linked to postcode, if it was all same across the board now i would not be so disgusted in the system, Herefordshire does not have regional SCBU facility now, all long term cases are transferred to Warwickshire.

Streetlights – just make it easier to burgle cars
Roadsweepers – make criminals do it
Fire men- bring in private companies, just like the old days. Might have to get the fire badge from my great-great grandfathers house in Warwick up and on display
Traffic wardens – after all estate agents need to park where ever the feel like it
Subsidised public transport – if they can't afford a car, who cares?

I'm quite proud of that – and I'm damn sure it's far cheaper to just fix everyone than try to work out how much to charge those not strictly entitled…

Anokdale didn't say that everyone shouldn't get fixed, what he said was that people on a reasonable income shouldn't be expected to pay again for treatment just because they can afford it, when they've already contributed though taxes.

Free bus passes for oap's

Costing councils a bloody fortune, take up all the seats when they insist on travelling during the rush hour and because they are all mutt and jeff make a terrible racket

But should we run Scoobys at all Anokdale, churning out a high proportion of disabled kids (compared to normal full term deliveries) which cost health/social care a fortune for the rest of their lives?

what he said was that people on a reasonable income shouldn't be expected to pay again for treatment

here's a tip – get money from people who have lots 🙂 I struggle to spend everything I earn – is that a lack of patriotism ?

Of course we should, thats my point at Herefordshire not having a regional unit, it was closed, why was it closed ? if it was at the cost of funding some Third World African hospital, say the one in Nigeria in Eket which the terminal there sucks up 750 mill barrels a day plus the LPG to go with it i get miffed, Nigeria is the 5th largest exporter of Hydrocarbons but we still insist on funding health projects and prisons there when the Nigerian government for example will not support its own people. Many more examples than Nigeria.

Look up how much is spent on DFID, absolutely disgusting.

SFB – You should try harder the Chancellor will be proud of you. Suggest you keep some of it to pay for your later years, the state pension will be worth the square root of 0 and you will need medical care like the rest of it so without our own cash you can join the line.

I would immediately cut any aid to India or China. Not a council cutbakc, I agree, but why the blinking flip are we giving aid to a country which can afford a space program, or is spunking billions on military hardware? WTF is happening there? They have enough money in their own countries to look after their own a lot better, without us needing to spend anything on them.

Hows about we just ban them from using dodgy foreign banks?

Suggest you keep some of it to pay for your later years, the state pension will be worth the square root of 0 and you will need medical care like the rest of it so without our own cash you can join the line

Oh, I know all pensions & savings will become worthless – but I'm extraordinarily healthy and if that fails I'm sure euthaniasia will soon become an option 🙂

SFB — You deserve yourself and dont let me keep you from your sleazyjet one way to Geneva.

You deserve yourself and dont let me keep you from your sleazyjet one way to Geneva.

I don't use aeroplanes 🙂 And I meant euthanasia here – as the proportion of wrinklies explodes it'll be the only viable solution!

But why are so mony posters on this topic so grumpy and pessimistic? I like this country, and I like the British borderline truculence – after all, if capitalism exists to exploit the masses, their best retaliation is to do just enough to prevent their sacking, and I love the egalitarian ideal of the welfare state 🙂

I don't use aeroplanes And I meant euthanasia here – as the proportion of wrinklies explodes it'll be the only viable solution!

there is another solution, the world has a food production problem. Think of the protein being wasted by burning and burying.

Guys, let's not be quite so blinkered. Old people are a valuable, renewable resource. We just need a focus group to come up with some blue sky thinking to see how best they can be exploited.

Think of the protein being wasted by burning and burying.

think prions 🙁

Coyote, will this be an off site, 48hr, all expenses paid, helicopter approach overview of the situation? If so, count me in! As long as there are biscuits.

Ooooh! Easy one

1. Cross check all the well paid 'managers' with how many consultants they have hired in the past 12 months to make the decisions for them – get rid of said 'managers'! (one twit I currently deal with is on £50k per annum and has hired two rubber necks from Deloitte at £3000k each per day to do his job for him – and guess what? Still no decision…..)

2. Close the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament (IT COSTS TOO MUCH!)

3. Leave N.Ireland Assembly alone – but only pay for 'comedy' value

4. Shut anything that calls itself a Local Authority and go back to local councils with local accountability – STOP DOING BOTH!

5. Cull all Civil Servants over the age of 21

6. Remove all computers from Council offices – make them go back to a system that is less likely to fail and had less paperwork with it – its called P.A.P.E.R.

7. Use council guillotines for what they are really for

8. Stop subsidising car schemes and pay the idiots .40p per mile like the rest of us

CaptainFlasheart – aid usually has a lot of strings attached. Kind of like we'll scratch your back if you scratch ours.

Close the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament (IT COSTS TOO MUCH!)

to be equal surely the same applies to Westminster only more so ?

Simon, I like your thinking

Close them all, and let natural selection be our democratic tool of choice!

Close them all, and let natural selection be our democratic tool of choice!

Nature, brute in tooth and claw ? No thanks, I favour compassion!

Guys, let's not be quite so blinkered. Old people are a valuable, renewable resource. We just need a focus group to come up with some blue sky thinking to see how best they can be exploited.

I think it was set out in the post just above yours.

Its quite clear that cutting back the mental health budget and subsequent "care in the community" has worked marvels.

Where else would some of you have got to learn how to use a computer?

following two pages of bickering and a total failure to make a decision, its now obvious what the councils will actually do, follow the STW model…

they will do naff all,

stop recruiting, allow natural wastage to cut staff numbers, try to fix the pensions hole, cut back full time hours further, stop training (any part of the workforce that can then transfer its skills into the private sector will). By this point anybody remaining in the public sector will be as much use as a choccy fireguard and we can really moan about poor public services.
however i suspect the level of tax i pay will not drop at the same rate.